This is a comprehensive Beginners Guide for Old School Runescape.
If one of your friends convinced you to install OSRS and you decided to give it a go, you came to the right place. In this Beginners Guide, we’ll introduce you to the magical world of Gielinor and help you get your first levels, money, quests, and so on!
As most new players start OSRS using the Free-to-Play version this starter guide is 100% F2P-friendly.
For the sake of this starter guide we went ahead and made a brand new F2P account: Begin Guide to go through this journey with you!
I highly advise you to use the navigation as this guide starts at a complete beginner level. If you have some experience with OSRS, you might still find the content helpful but you will have to skip around!
What is Old School Runescape?
Old School Runescape is an MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game) where players have access to an entire world to explore. OSRS (as the game is abbreviated) is chock-full of content: quests, skills, mini-games, monster-killing, player-killing, areas to explore, in-game economy, and much much more! This game offers a super fun medieval fantasy world where you can spend countless hours grinding, questing, killing monsters, and making friends.
OSRS is Free-to-play but also has a members version with tons of extra content once you run out of things to do in the main game. It can be played entirely for free though and there are no microtransactions so it isn’t pay-to-win!
Creation, Login, and account security
Already familiar? [click to skip]
How to make an OSRS account
You can make an account for Old School Runescape by going to https://oldschool.runescape.com/ and clicking the ‘new user, sign up now’ button on the main page. You’ll need an email address for this.
What client to use for OSRS
While the original Runescape back in the day was a browser game, Old School Runescape cannot be played in a browser and instead requires you to download a client to play. This client can be downloaded from the official website. If you plan to play on mobile, you can also download the game from your app store.
There is one more client I would like you to know about: Runelite.
Runelite is the preferred client among OSRS players. Runelite is a client brought to us by third-party developers that allows you to play OSRS with extra features such as HD graphics and a whole library of plugins that will make your game experience a lot easier.
Runelite can be downloaded from the official website https://runelite.net/.
Account Security
Old School Runescape has always had a bad rap with scammers and hackers. They are a dime a dozen and thus it is important that you keep your account secure.
Here’s a few golden rules to keep your OSRS account details secure.
- NEVER give out your account email or password
- ALWAYS use an authenticator
- NEVER log in on any website using your OSRS details
- ALWAYS use a bank PIN
- NEVER trust anyone in the game who is offering you money or gear for no reason
- NEVER click on links in your email
How to always log in safely
To keep your account secure you should create a difficult password that cannot be guessed. This password should be changed monthly and not be shared with anyone. Additionally, you’ll need an account athenticator. An authenticator is a security system that requires your phone to log into your account. This makes it infinitely harder for anyone to hack you as they need to have access to your smartphone first.
You can change your password and setup an authenticator on the official website.
To add an additional layer of security, you can use the Jagex Launcher to log into OSRS. The Jagex Launcher is a client (similar to steam or epic games launcher) that saves your account details and allows you to easily log into your OSRS account(s).
How to avoid getting scammed
While you will undoubtedly make some friends in the world of Gielinor, you will also run into some scammers. These people are always looking for ways to trick you into trading them large sums of money or gear, handing over account details, having you install something, or trying to lure you into the wilderness where they can kill you and pick up your loot.
Example of a scam in OSRS:
- Money doublers: these guys pretend they can double your money if you trade them. They will double small amounts but once you give them a nice stack they will run off with your money.
Free-to-play vs members
Old School Runescape is a free-to-play game that has a lot of content locked behind the membership-program. Membership for OSRS costs $12.49 per month or $9.99 (6 months) or $6.66 for an annual subscriptions.
Though a lot of the early game can be played on the free-to-play servers. And we recommend anyone to start with F2P first as this has more than enough content for the first weeks/months of gameplay depending on how often you play.
Once you have completed all the F2P quests and completed Dragon Slayer as well as progressed beyond 40+ combat skills is when you want to start thinking about getting membership. Membership will unlock a ton of new quests, tons of new cities and areas to explore, mini-games, bosses, new skills, gear, way better money-making methods, and much much more.
If you thought the F2P version was already extensive, you’ll be surprised by how much membership has to offer! But first, play the free-to-play version of the game to get a taste. This OSRS Beginners Guide is entirely aimed towards Free-To-Play as this is how the game should be started!
OSRS Basics: Skilling, Combat, and Quests
Being an open-world game, OSRS can be very overwhelming to new players. Here are some of the main things you need to know about the game.
Skills
The first thing you learn in the OSRS tutorial Island is skilling. Chopping down trees, fishing for food, and cooking them, are all skilling activities.
Your skills can be found in the skilling menu of your interface.
Every skill has a level that goes from Level 1 to 99. The way you level them is by gaining experience. For each action that you perform within a certain skill, you will gain experience for that action.
E.g. if you catch a shrimp at level 1 fishing, you will gain 10 experience points. It takes 90 experience points to get to level 2 fishing so you would need to catch 9 shrimp in total.
There are 23 total skills in OSRS or 17 if we exclude combat skills such as attack, strength, defence, hitpoints, ranged, and magic.
Skills are required to progress in the game. Plenty of quests come with skill requirements but skills can also help you make money. Additionally, skills can help you come by resources you would otherwise have to purchase. For example, you can catch and cook your own food to train your combat with.
Combat
Combat makes up a very big part of Old School Runescape’s identity. Combat allows players to fight monsters, fight bosses, and even fight other players. Combat exists out of 6 different skills: Attack, Strength, Defence, Hitpoints, Ranged, and Magic.
Attack and Strength are skills that help you fight with melee whereas Ranged and Magic are skills that allow you to fight from a distance. Here’s a quick table that explains all the combat skills in depth.
| Combat Skill | What it does |
|---|---|
| Attack | Training Attack increases your accuracy when fighting with a melee weapon. Meaning you will hit more frequently the higher your attack level is. Attack is also required to equip higher-level weapons. |
| Strength | Training Strength increases how much you can hit with a melee weapon. The higher your strength, the higher you will hit on targets. |
| Defence | Training Defence will make you capable of taking more hits. The higher your Defence level, the more likely your opponent is going to hit 0 (also called a splash) on you. Defence is also required to equip higher-level armour. |
| Hitpoints | Hitpoints is trained automatically while you are training any combat skill. This skill increases your max HP. E.g. if you have 40 hitpoints, you can take up to 40 in damage. |
| Ranged | Ranged is a skill that is trained with a bow or crossbow. With ranged, you can attack from a distance. |
| Magic | Magic is a combat skill that allows you to fight opponents from a distance using spells. Additionally, Magic can be used for utility as well. E.g. Magic can be used to teleport to different places in Gielinor. A high Magic level is also required to take hits from monsters or players who use Magic against you. |
Quests
While Old School Runescape is an open-world game, it of course does have a storyline as well. You can progress in the story by doing quests. Quests come with rewards such as access to new areas, gear, bosses, experience, and much more.
There are currently 155 quests in OSRS, 22 free-to-play quests, and 133 quests that are available to members only.
Quests can be found in the quest menu of your interface. In this Quest Interface, you can see all the quests that are available to you. If you click on an individual quest it will tell you where to start it and what the requirements are.
You can complete quests in any order that you prefer. Though of course some quests are locked behind other quests as well as skill and combat requirements.
Getting Started with OSRS
Tutorial Island
When you first log into OSRS, you will have to complete the tutorial island. This does not take a lot of your time but is absolutely necessary to familiarise yourself with the game and its mechanics before heading into the main world.
TIP: when you start tutorial island, make sure to select the menu item: I’m new here! when talking to the Gielinor Guide. This will give you access to a starters kit as well as adventure paths when you arrive in the main world.
Once finished with tutorial island, you will be able to select an account type and go over to the main world. If this is your first time playing, you should register a normal account.
Lumbridge: welcome to the main world
Once you exit tutorial island you will be teleported to Lumbridge.
From here on out, you can do whatever you want! You can start off with progressing the storyline (aka do some quests) or you can go out and train some skills to get your first bit of GP (Gold Pieces). It’s really up to you. Many players just go off and do their thing and they will find their way eventually.
If you prefer a little more guidance, this OSRS Beginners Guide is going to help you get started the right way.
Follow along with Chapter 0 of our guide. If you aren’t interested in a step-by-step walk-through, you can skip to our Beginner Tips below.
OSRS Beginners Guide Chapter 0: Start with the Adventure Paths
The first thing you should do after Tutorial Island is speak with Jon the Adventurer in Lumbridge. This NPC will give you access to adventurer paths to help you get started with OSRS.
Adventurer paths are super useful for new players who don’t know where to go to do what. They will not only tell you what to do but also show you where to go so you will never get lost.
There are two paths that you unlock at the start of the game: The Gatherers Path and the Combat Path. Which one you start with is entirely up to your preference. (Though it makes a little more sense to start with the gatherers path as you will get some food which will make the combat path a little faster).
TIP: If you are unsure where to go next within your adventurer path, open your adventure path and click on the globe icon (show hint) to reveal the next location.
The Gatherers Path
Fishing
The gatherers path first sends you off to get level 5 fishing by using your small fishing net to catch shrimp at the lumbridge fishing spot. Once your inventory is full, you can go over to the bank to deposit your items.
The bank is located on the second floor (top floor) of the lumbridge castle.
Go back to the fishing spot until you have level 5 fishing to complete your first adventure path goal. You can of course catch some more fish if you would like.
Once level 5 fishing is reached, you can go back to Adventurer Jon to claim your rewards.
Woodcutting
The next step is to get level 5 woodcutting. You can do this by chopping down the regular tree found around lumbridge. Each regular tree will hold one log.
 | Would you like more info on the Woodcutting skill? Check out our OSRS Woodcutting Guide. |
Instead of banking, you can burn your logs with your tinderbox to level your firemaking.
If you wish you can continue woodcutting until level 15 at which point you unlock oak trees. Oak trees are a good early-game money maker when the logs are banked and later sold at the grand exchange (we’ll go over this further in the guide).
 | Would you like more info on the Firemaking skill? Check out our OSRS Firemaking Guide. |
Mining
Mining is the final step of the adventure path. The lumbridge mine is located southwest from the fishing spot. If you turn on your hints in your adventure path, it will show you the exact location.
You should mine an even amount of copper and tin ore here so you can smelt them in the lumbridge furnace to turn them into iron bars and advance your smithing level as well.
 | Would you like more info on the Mining skill? Check out our OSRS Mining Guide. |
Once you have your bronze bars, you can use the anvil to turn them into bronze daggers like you did in tutorial island.
These can be banked to later sell on the grand exchange.
 | Would you like more info on the Smithing skill? Check out our OSRS Smithing Guide. |
Conclusion
The gatherers path is a great way to get a first glimpse of what skilling is like in OSRS. Each task should be done until level 5 but you can of course go beyond that level if you wish. Don’t forget to collect your rewards from Jon The Adventurer as he will give you better items (fishing rod, iron axe, iron pickaxe). Once you have completed the gatherers path you will receive a green experience lamp. Rubbing this lamp will gain you additional reward experience in Fishing, Woodcutting, or Mining.
Combat path
Next up is the combat path. During this path, you will be tasked with gaining experience in Attack, Strength, Defence, Ranged and Magic.
You can jumpstart this path by asking Jon the Adventurer for a Combat Path Starter Kit. This kit will include armour and weapons for you to use.
The package contains an iron chainbody, iron med helm, iron platelegs and iron longsword as well as some magic and ranged gear. Equip the iron items and bank everything else.
As you will take damage during this path, it would be wise to bring some of the cooked shrimp you have from fishing in the Gatherers Path to heal yourself during combat training.
To start combat training, you will have to fight monsters around Lumbridge. The best one to start off with is the chickens. These can be found in the chicken pen northeast from the Lumbridge Castle. Cross the bridge and follow the pathway below to get there.
Chickens drop feathers which you should pick up as you will need them for fishing later.
Additionally, they drop raw chicken which can be cooked in the house attached to the chicken pen.
Once you have some cooked food and a good amount of feathers, move on to cows or goblins. Be sure to check back with adventurer John every time you reach a milestone. (5, 10, 20 Attack/Strength/Defencee) as he will give you reward gear that will make combat easier.
E.g. At level 5 Attack he will reward you with a Steel Longsword which is better than the Iron Longsword you started with. Members get even more rewards.
You should train your combat in the following order:
We follow this order because Attack trains our accuracy (so we hit more often) and strength changes how high we hit. So we want to prioritize Strength and Attack. Both Attack and Strength will help us gain levels (and thus progress faster) while Defence will only make us take more hits.
Once you are done with the adventurer path, you will have base level 20 stats in all combat skills. A good foundation for your brand new OSRS account!
TIP: pick up the bones and bury them. This will train your prayer which you will need later for battling monsters.
We recommend that you take the combat path slow. Give yourself breaks and don’t just try to grind out 20 in every stat as it will take a while. While you are training combat, start Chapter 1 below and start doing some quests as well as progress your other skills.
OSRS Beginners Guide Chapter 1 – Getting Started
This portion of our Beginners Guide is what many of you came here for. It assumes you already have a basic understanding of the main game (finished tutorial island and started the Adventurer Path). If you haven’t completed either, please scroll back up.
Starter Quests in Lumbridge
As we mentioned earlier, OSRS is jam-packed with quests. There are 155 total quests, 22 of which are available to free players. In this guide, we’ll go over the quests you should be doing first while you are in Lumbridge.
All quests are started by talking to an NPC. To figure out which NPC to talk to to start your quest, open the quest menu and search the name of your desired quest. In the next menu, you can click ‘show on map’ to reveal the location you have to walk to.
| Quest Name | Start | Reward | Quest Guide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cook’s Assistant | Speak to the cook in Lumbridge Castle | 300 cooking experience | OSRS WIKI |
| Sheep Shearer | Talk to Fred the farmer near the sheep pen | 150 crafting experience | OSRS WIKI |
| X Marks the spot | Talk to Veos in the Lumbridge Pub | 200 coins, XP lamp, beginner clue scroll | OSRS WIKI |
| Imp Catcher | Speak with Wizard Mizgog in the Wizard’s tower | 875 Magic experience, Amulet of Accuracy | OSRS WIKI |
| The Restless Ghost | Speak with Father Aereck in the Lumbridge Chapel | 1,125 Prayer experience | OSRS WIKI |
| Rune Mysteries | Speak with Duke Horacio on the first floor fo the Lumbridge Castle. | 1 Quest Point, Air Talisman | OSRS WIKI |
P.S. You don’t have to finish these quests right away. Since most Quests in OSRS require you to gatherer resources, talk to NPC and sometimes fight monsters you don’t have to complete them in one go. You can work on them as you move around and even do multiple quests at the same time if you want. Feel free to do quests while you are training combat and skilling. OSRS is an MMORPG, follow your own path and mix things up!
 | If you want to be super efficient with your questing in the future, we have an Optimal Quest Guide which shows you the best quests to do in order! |
Early-game Skilling
We already caught a glimpse of skilling during the Gatherer’s version of the Adventurer’s Path. But we have barely scraped the surface of skilling in OSRS. Did you know each skill levels up all the way to 99? In this portion of the OSRS Starter Guide, we focus on going beyond level 5. Let’s set a goal of reaching Level 20 in each of the starter skills!
| Skill | Objective | Location | Need more info? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Woodcutting | Get level 15 woodcutting (burn the logs) | Lumbridge | |
| Fishing | Get level 20 fishing using your fishing rod | Lumbridge fishing spot | |
| Cooking | Level up by cooking your caught fish | Lumbridge | |
| Firemaking | Burn all your chopped logs to reach 20 firemaking | Lumbridge (behind the castle) | |
| Mining | Mine copper and tin ore until level 15 mining | Lumbridge mining spot | |
| Smithing | While mining, use the Lumbridge furnace to turn all your ores into bronze bars and smith them on the anvil. |
Woodcutting & Firemaking
Requirements:
Woodcutting is a great early-game money maker as Oak logs sell for 60 coins in the grand exchange. But before you can chop Oak Logs, you will need to get 15 woodcutting first. So just like you did in the Adventurer Path earlier, chop down regular trees behind the Lumbridge Castle and burn them with your tinderbox.
Continue chopping wood until you reach level 15 woodcutting and 20 firemaking.
Feel free to take a break any time and work on something else!
Fishing & Cooking
Requirements:
Fishing is a useful skill as it provides you with an easy food source for while you are training combat. Later on, it can also become a skilling money-maker.
You can fish in Lumbridge at the Lumbridge Fishing Spot using the fishing rod and fishing bait you received from Jon the Adventurer during the Gatherers Path.
In case you forgot the location of the fishing spot, it is located south of the Lumbridge castle. Walk towards the graveyard first and then make your way down following the river until you run into the Fishing Tutor. Or follow the map below.
If you didn’t do the Gatherers Path yet, use the fishing net you received from tutorial island instead.
Heads up as the fishing spots have different use cases. Right-click on the fishing spot to select either Net or Bait.
Once you have a full inventory, chop down a tree and burn the log with your tinderbox.
Then cook the fish. Drop any of the burnt fish and continue fishing/cooking until your inventory is full of cooked fish.
TIP: fish in world 301 (the busiest free-to-play world) as oftentimes people will make a fire for you which you can share and cook your fish together!
World 301 is also a great place to meet new people!
Once you have a full inventory of cooked fish, bank and repeat!
TIP#2: You can also make use of the Home Teleport option in your magic spellbook which will teleport you to Lumbridge Castle once every 30 minutes.
TIP#3: If you run out of bait, you can purchase some more from the Port Sarim fishing shop. P.S. while you are there you should buy a fly fishing rod as well.
Once you reach level 20 Fishing, you can start Fly Fishing with feathers and a fly fishing rod.
Mining and Smithing
Requirements:
Two more useful skills that are introduced in the Gatherers Path are mining and smithing. These will help you build weaponry and armour. Although you will most likely buy your armour in the future, these skills are still useful to get a good foundation for your account. Especially in the long run where plenty of quests will require mining and smithing experience.
If you don’t remember where the mining spot is, it is located just southwest from the fishing spot.
Here you can mine copper and tin. Make sure to mine an even amount of each as you will be turning them into bronze bars afterwards (13/13).
Once you have a full inventory of 13 tin ore and 13 copper ore, run to the furnace in Lumbridge.
Smelt your ores into bronze bars at the furnace.
Then smith your bronze bars into bronze weaponry. Bank them as you will be able to sell them later.
Bank in the Lumbridge castle and repeat!
Early Game Combat
A big part of the Adventurers Path is training combat. This makes sense, because Combat is a huge part of Old School Runescape!
Combat can be trained in Lumbridge on 3 different low-level monsters:
We recommend starting out by killing chickens. These are the lowest level meaning they are easiest to kill. Additionally, they drop feathers which you will use for Fly Fishing later on. The raw chicken that they drop can be cooked on the furnace inside the house of the chicken pen. Use this as your food source so you don’t die during combat.
Once you have a good amount of feathers and some better combat stats, you can start killing goblins instead.
P.S. before you train combat, make sure to start the Adventurers Path so you can receive a starters kit from Adventurer Jon. Also, keep claiming the rewards whenever you achieve a task as you will get better gear from him.
You will take damage while killing Goblins so you should bring some fish to eat as these will heal you when your HP gets lowered. Always collect the coins that they drop and bury their bones to train your prayer.
Be sure to change your combat style to match the skill you want to train. You can located this in the Combat Options Interface.
Chop is for training Attack.
Slash is for training Strength.
And Block is for training Defence.
As mentioned earlier, we recommend the following order when training combat:
- First get 10 Attack (collect the black longsword from Jon)
- Then get 10 Strength
- Then get 20 Attack
- Then 20 Strength
- And finally, get 20 Defence
From there on out, continue prioritizing Attack, then Strength and lastly Defence for the most efficient Levelling.
By completing the Combat Path, you should have 20 Attack, 20 Strength, 20 Defence, 20 Ranged, and 20 Magic by the end of this early-game combat chapter. This is a good foundation and a great start to your Old School Runescape story.
OSRS Beginners Guide Chapter 2 – Leaving Lumbridge
Completing the Stronghold of Security
It is time for your first challenge: tacking on the Stronghold of Security. This has been an early-game must for every new account since as long as I remember playing this game. The Stronghold of Security consists out of 4 levels, each with different agressive monsters inside and you must get to the other side by opening doors and answering questions correctly. Each level has a chest at the end which will give you an amount of money. Once you have finished all the levels, you will have 10,000GP (10K) starter cash.
The stronghold of security is full of monsters who can kill you so bringing your best armour and food is a must!
This means you should wear all the gear you received from Jon the Adventurer: Steel Med-helm, Mithril chainbody, iron platelegs.
AND you should bring your best food: cooked salmon or trout.
HEADS UP: you can claim any of the rewards from the Stronghold of Security, you need to enable the two-factor authenticator for OSRS. So head on over to the official website: https://oldschool.runescape.com/ and look for the Authenticator in the left sidebar.
Authenticator set up? Okay, let’s get started!
Once you have your inventory ready, make your way to the lumbridge graveyard and speak with Count Check.
Ask him ‘Where can I learn more’ and he will tell you about the Stronghold of Security located in the Barbarian Village. He will then ask if you want to be teleported there. If you are ready, accept.
You will then find yourself in the center of the Barbarian Village. From here, climb down the rocks next to you to enter the Stronghold of Security.
Level 1: War
Every level has a bit of maze (very easy) that you have to pass through where monsters reside. These monsters may attack you so be careful and make sure you have food on you. Every door you pass, you will have to answer a question correctly. These questions are easy and they are about account security.
Once you reach the end room you will be able to claim your gift in the middle. Afterwards, go down to the next level!
Level 2: Famine
Level 3: Pestilence
Level 4: Death (optional)
The last level is completely optional. It won’t give you any monetary rewards but you will get a new pair of boots.
Once you are done, climb up the vine and you’ll find yourself back in the Barbarian village.
The Grand Exchange
Once you are done with the Stronghold of Security, the next step is the Grand Exchange. The Grand Exchange is located northeast of Barbarian Village.
This is where the large majority of the trade in OSRS goes on. The Grand Exchange makes trading easy by linking you with a buyer or seller who is also playing the game. You can purchase any item from the grand exchange (except for untradeables) and sell your own items as well.
What to buy at the Grand Exchange
You might not know what to buy once you get to the Grand Exchange. After all, there’s so much you may need! Here’s a couple of purchases that might help you get started.
Making Money at the Grand Exchange
Earlier in the Beginner Guide we suggested you get 15 Woodcutting which unlocks Oak Trees. This is where that little bit of effort will pay off! Around the Grand Exchange, there are a bunch of Oak Trees which you can chop down.
You can sell these at the Grand Exchange for around 65-70gp per log. And chopping Oak Trees actually goes pretty fast!
A full inventory is worth 1,926 GP!
And I timed it, it took 4 minutes 28 seconds to get a full inventory of Oak Logs at level 15 Woodcutting.
After about 3 inventories you will have 21+ Woodcutting at which point you should buy a mithril axe from the Grand Exchange which will speed up your chopping even more!
In around 15 minutes total, I filled 4 inventories of Oak Logs and sold them at the Grand Exchange for 7,590 GP. That’s about 30K GP per hour! At higher Woodcutting levels, you can get up to 70K Gp per hour from chopping Oak Trees.
You can use this method to make some extra money to buy armour, weapons, skilling items, quest items, and more!
Do this whenever you are short of money.
Varrock
Just east of the Grand Exchange is a city named Varrock. Varrock is one of the first cities any new OSRS player will run into and it is always a magical experience. With this city, a bunch of new skilling opportunities open up. Additionally, it has new quests, a bunch of shops to buy new gear, and more! Being right next to the Grand Exchange, it is likely that Varrock will become your new main hub for a while. So what should you do while you are here?
Start some Quests while you are in Varrock
| Quest Name | Start | Reward | Quest Guide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Romeo and Juliet | Speak with Romeo in Varrock Swquare | 5 quest points | OSRS WIKI |
| Demon Slayer | Speak with Arys in the Varrock Square tent | 3 quest points, Silverlight | OSRS WIKI |
| Shield of Arrav | Speak with Reldo in the Varrock Castle Library | 1 quest point, 600 coins | OSRS WIKI |
Buy Magic Gear in Varrock
If you are in need of runes, you can buy them cheap from Aubury in Varrock. His magic shop is located southeast and is highlighted with a fire icon on the map.
Skilling
| Skill | Where | What |
|---|---|---|
| Mining | Varrock Mine | Mine Iron Ore (requires lvl 15 mining) |
| Fishing | Barbarian Village | Fly Fishing trout/salmon |
| Woodcutting | Under the Grand Exchange | Cutting Oak trees and selling them in the Grand Exchange |
You can continue Fly Fishing in Barbarian Village. This place has a permanent fire where you can cook your fish and is thus a better fishing spot than the one in Lumbridge. Afterward you can bank your cooked fish in the Varrock Bank.
The mining spots in Varrock have Iron Ore which you can mine starting from level 15. These can sold for profit or smelted into Iron Bars.
OSRS Beginners Guide Chapter 3 – Dragon Slayer
In this final chapter, we will prepare you for the first real goal of any OSRS player: facing Elvarg and becoming a Dragon Slayer.
The Dragon Slayer quest is the final quest in the F2P quest line and requires 32 Quest Points. So in order to start it, you need to have completed all the other F2P quests first.
While this quest has no specific requirements, you will need a high combat level and decent combat stats to beat the Level 83 Dragon as well as other monsters that you will run into during the quest.
Completing F2P Quests
Free-to-play quests, with the exception of Dragon Slayer, don’t have any skill or quest requirements. So in theory, you could complete them in any order that you prefer.
For your convenience, here is an F2P quest order. You can also use the osrs wiki to follow their optimal guide. (Though we don’t recommended playing for effiency this hard when you are just starting out).
P.S. If you get stuck on any of these quests (e.g. finding a partner for Shield of Arrav) feel free to skip them as this quest order will give you a total of 42 Quest Points.
| Quest | Quest Point Reward |
|---|---|
| Cook’s Assistant | 1 |
| Sheep Shearer | 1 |
| X Marks the Spot | 1 |
| Pirate’s Treasure | 2 |
| Rune Mysteries | 1 |
| Romeo & Juliet | 5 |
| The Restless Ghost | 1 |
| Prince Ali Rescue | 3 |
| Misthalin Mystery | 1 |
| Imp Catcher | 1 |
| Ernest the Chicken | 4 |
| Vampyre Slayer | 3 |
| Doric’s Quest | 1 |
| Black Knights’ Fortress | 3 |
| Shield of Arrav | 1 |
| Demon Slayer | 3 |
| Below Ice Mountain | 1 |
| The Knight’s Sword | 1 |
| Witch’s Potion | 1 |
| The Corsair Curse | 2 |
| Goblin Diplomacy | 5 |
Magic Training
During the quest, you need to have access to Telekinetic Grab which requires 33 Magic. You can circumvent this by packing 10,000 Gold Pieces but who wants to do what when you could just as well train your Magic which is a very fast skill and useful in the future!
From levels 1 – 20 you should kill Goblins with the runes you get from Jon The Adventurer.
Afterwards, you can move on to the Lesser Demon in the Wizards Tower. The Lesser Demon inside the Wizard’s Tower is locked behind a cage and thus cannot attack you. This is THE best place to train magic as a low level F2P player.
You will visit the Wizard’s Tower during the quest Rune Mysteries. You should train using the Fire Strike spell while having a fire staff equipped. Once you run out of mind or air runes, purchase some more from Aubury in Varrock.
Combat Training
Al Kharid Warriors
Training combat on Al Kharid Warriors is one of the best ways to quickly gain Attack, Strength, and Defence levels. This is because if you attack one of the Al Kharid Warriors, the others will try to attack you as well. So if you have Auto-Retaliate turned on, your character will kill them one-by-one.
This is a great way to AFK-train your combat without having to constantly click on a new opponent (like we did during the combat path on goblins).
Optional: Prayer Training
Prayer can be very helpful if Elvarg is too difficult for you. At level 37 Prayer, the Protect from Magic prayer will limit the amount of damage that Elvarg does on you.
However, Prayer is a bit of a pain to level in Free-to-play. If you happen to have bought membership by now, you should follow our OSRS Prayer Guide for the best way to level prayer as a member.
If you are still a F2P player (which is completely fine) then you will have to train player the slow way (or you can avoid it until you become a member but it will make the Elvarg fight a bit harder but definitely not impossible).
The best way to train prayer as a F2P player is to bury big bones. You will receive big bones from fighting Hill Giants (lvl 28) or Giant Frogs (lvl 13). Giant Frogs are of course preferred as they are lower level and go down faster.
While you are killing Giant Frogs (or Hill Giants), you will also train your combat so it is a bit of a WIN-WIN.
Killing Giant Frogs
Requirements:
- 20+ Attack
- 20+ Strength
- 20+ Defence
Giant Frogs are level 13 and they are located in the Lumbridge Swamp. To easily get here, teleport to Lumbridge first using your home teleport and then make your way to the swamp by going through the graveyard.
Kill the Giant Frogs, pick up their big bones and bury them right away. Rinse and Repeat! No need to bank unless you run out of food.
TIP: Take this combat training slow. It will take a while to get 37 Prayer. Do some quests and train some skills to change it up every now and then.
Completing Dragon Slayer
Once you have 32 Quest Points, 33 Magic, 37 Prayer (optional), and 40+ Attack/Strength/Defence, you are ready to take on Elvarg the dragon, and complete the Dragon Slayer quest!
Elvarg is not easy to beat so you are best off wearing good armour (rune or adamant) and bringing the best food (cooked swordfish). Since dragons are weak to stab weapons, the Rune Sword is the best weapon you can use.
This is the final goal of our OSRS Beginners Guide. Once you beat the dragon, you are officially no longer a beginner! At this point, you might also want to consider getting a membership to unlock all the extra content this game has to offer.
Tips for Beginners in OSRS
1. Follow the Adventurers Path
As a complete newbie to the game, the Adventurers Path is the best way to get started with OSRS. Not only will this give structure to your OSRS experience, but the Adventurers Path also comes with helpful rewards to progress even faster!
To start the Adventurers Path, speak with Jon The Adventurer in Lumbridge.
2. Complete the Stronghold of Security to get your first cash stack
Did you know you can receive a free 10,000 Gold Pieces for completing the Stronghold of Security? This is by far the best way to start off playing OSRS as it is very difficult to make this type of money right off the bat! With this starter cash, you can buy your first armour set, better weaponry, and upgrade some of your skilling gear.
We have a walk-through of the Stronghold of Security in our Beginners Guide above.
3. Use the Home Teleport whenever possible
Inside your Magic Spellbook is a free teleport called the ‘Home Teleport’. This teleport takes you to Lumbridge Castle and can be used every 30 minutes. It is extremely helpful to get back to Lumbridge quickly. It can also be used when doing skilling activities around Lumbridge (or quests) to cut some of the walking time. Make sure to use it efficiently as you will have to wait 30 minutes to use it again!
4. Purchase a Chronicle from Django in Draynor Village
Aside from the Lumbridge Teleport, another handy teleportation book is the Chronicle which you can purchase from Django in Draynor Village. This book will teleport you to Varrock. The Chronicle itself costs 350GP and each page costs 150GP.
It can act as a means of teleportation before you reach the required Magic level to teleport to Varrock.
5. Level up your Magic early in the game
Magic is a helpful skill as it can be used to teleport around Gielinor. Here are some of the useful levels that unlock new location-specific teleports:
- Lvl 25 Magic: Varrock Teleport
- Lvl 31 Magic: Lumbridge Teleport
- Lvl 37 Magic: Falador Teleport
6. Always pick up and bury your bones
Prayer is one of the slowest skills you will train as a beginner in OSRS. But you do need to train it as prayer is a big part of the combat system and necessary to fight higher level monsters and to complete higher-level quests.
For this reason you should start training prayer from the very beginning. Pick up every bone you come across and bury them, even those dropped by other players. Never leave them on the ground. Slowly you will train your prayer. And before you know it, you will be able to complete Dragon Slayer!
7. Use Shift-click dropping to power level skills
Skills such as Cooking, Woodcutting and Mining can be trained a lot faster if you drop the items instead of banking them. But dropping items is tedious as you have to left-click each individual item. OSRS has a setting that allows you to drop anything easily by clicking on it while holding shift.
To turn on Shift Clicking, go to the Setting Interface (Wrench Icon), select ‘All Settings’, and in the ‘Controls’ sections turn on ‘Shift-Click to drop items’.
8. Purchase quest items from the Grand Exchange
Because a lot of Quests require you to gather items during them, Quests can often be cut shorter by simply purchasing the items beforehand on the Grand Exchange. To find out what items you’ll need for Quests, you can check out each individual Quest on the OSRS Wiki.
OSRS Beginner F2P Money Making Methods
Here are some quick ways you can make money as a beginner in OSRS.
Chop down Oak Trees for Money
Oak Trees are a great money maker. They can be chopped near the Grand Exchange and sold for profit. These trees go down really quickly and players can expect to make between 30 – 70K GP per hour using this method depending on your Woodcutting level. Additionally, you will gain experience in Woodcutting skill.
Mine Iron for Money
Iron can be mined in the Varrock Mine. Each iron ore is worth around 160GP. This method is a bit more click-intensive than Oak Trees but does make more money. Profits can go up to 90K per hour using this method.
TIP: use a chronicle to teleport directly to the mining spot. You can equip the Chronicle to quickly make your way back after banking.
Killing Cows and Tanning the Cowhides
Cows are found in Lumbridge. These drop cowhides which can be sold for profit. Players can make even more profit if they tan the cowhides into leather. To do this, you will have to go from the Cow Pen to the Al Kharid tanning shop.
This is where you ask Ellis to tan your hides for you, he will do this for 1gp per hide so make sure to bring a cash stack! Once the hides are turned into leather, bank them in Al Kharid. Then go back to the cow pen and rinse and repeat!
This method can make up to 90K profit per hour.
P.S. If you haven’t completed Prince Ali Rescue you will have to pay 10GP each time you pass the gate to Al Kharid
Wrap Up
That was it for our OSRS Beginners Guide. Hopefully, it helped you get started with your new journey in OSRS! Once you have completed Dragon Slayer, it might be time to consider membership and unlock a huge chunk of extra content: new quests, areas, gear, bosses, skills, and much much more!
Aside from this starter guide, OSRS Guide will also continue to help you further in the game as we have many Guides available for skills, quests, game mode, mini-games and more!
Be sure to check out our Skilling Guides! Or use our navigation to continue exploring our site and find lots of useful information.
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