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So You Want to Farm?
Turbo here from the RS Economist Blog. With that last post I have fielded quite a few questions, so here is a basic down and dirty guide to profitable farming from level 1 for you. Not a typical RS Blog Post, but I threw it up here for your reference.
Buy 24 potato seeds (96gp), 4 marigolds (66gp), and 10 compost (970gp). Buy any utensils you will need form the farmer.
Remove weeds from any farming plot and place in the compost bin. That is 12 weeds for 156 xp. Use the compost on all 4 plots and plant your potatoes and marigold for another 42xp. You will have made it up to level 3 at this point. Pay the farmer to look over your potatoes. It costs less than 200gp (compost) and the xp is well worth it.
Now the challenge is to set a goal. Do you want money? XP? Herbs for herblore? A good starting goal is 35 farming. At that level you can plant ranarr with relatively little chance of them becoming diseased and reap some huge profits.
The easiest route to 35 farming?
Plant at least 2 areas at a time for faster farming xp. It is passive training, so the most time is spent in preparation, and preparation for 2 areas is nearly the same as for a single one. Explorers ring for the Fally area and cammy tele for the catherby plot is an easy route for 2 areas.
What to plant
After harvesting your first crop, add another 3 potatoes to the compost bin and make compost. You should be making this every round for later use as payments, for your crops, or just to sell. You will now be at level 5. Plant two more areas with potatoes, and 2 marigolds. These are in demand for summoning, so it is better to pick them and plant again than to use them to protect your allotments. (Marigolds sell for almost 3k, payments only cost 180gp).
After harvesting your potatoes and marigolds again, you will be at level 10. Now it gets interesting. Guy some guam seeds. They are cheap enough that you can let them die at a higher rate. All crops tend to get diseased and die a lot more until you are at least 3 levels above the min to farm them.
At this point if you have the ectophial, you can start farming all 4 areas. Ecto to the port P, Cabbage tele to Fally, Cammy to Catherby and then run to the Ardo plot.
One trip to the 4 areas planting cabbage, marigold, and guam will net about 2,400xp, do that twice and you will be up to level 22.
Now you can plant sweet corn, a very profitable farming product. Seeds cost 455 (1365 an allotment), and the produce sells well for a profit. Make yourself some scare crows and you are good to go. Plant whatever herb seeds you can. Real money doesn’t come from those until you are level 29 and can do Harras without a reasonable chance they will die.
One more trip planting that will get you to 25. Repeat again twice and you are to level 30, and can start doing fruit trees. Start those at 27 if you pay for the gardener to watch them though. 3 more farming rounds or 8 apple trees will be at 35, and ready for some serious cash making opportunity.
Thoughts on farming
Super compost costs 500gp, Ingredients can be had in bulk from the GE for 100gp eacy, and no requirements to make it. Make it every round, if you don’t, then make normal compost every round. Running out of buckets? The RFD chest stocks them and Catherby has them in unlimited supply. At a free 135 xp per area, that adds up fast, not to mention the higher yields it gives you for allotments and herbs.
Ask away if you have any questions, or pm me in game and I will give y ou the tour. – kamakiri88
Passive Training
Hey all Turbo the RS Economist here. I made a post to a forum a bit back and it garnered little interest there, but the idea was too good to let go. Here it is again updated and revised just for you:
I saw a sadly misinformed conversation today in my clan chat today. The subject was whether farming was a slow skill or not. Clearly only one person knew what they were talking about, and the others spouted off unfounded jibberish about racing to 99 fletching and betting on who would finish first.
Farming is very similar to merchanting on the Grand Exchange in that it is a passive skill. It is possible to stand at the GE and yell at the NPCs there to trade your items faster. Does anyone do it? I would hope not. You go in, make your buys, collect, and check prices. Basically your actions only take a short period of time (unless you spend all day analyzing, which you shouldn’t). Then you can log, wait, skill, take your dog for a walk, or do anything while the trades go through. You make money passively here.
Farming is the only skill that you can really effectively train passively. Just because you can’t actively train it to the tune of 800k xp in a day (like fletching) does not make it a slow skill. That is comparing apples and oranges. Farming is the only skill you can train that grants you 14k xp in 2 minutes. (Check health of mage tree, pay farmer to dig up, supercompost, plant another magic tree for example).
A 10 minute farming run planting watermelon, torstol, and a belladonna nets me, on average, just over 20,500xp. Selling super compost and the pots I produce pays for the farming run, plant the occasional snapdragon and you are making money. Fletching/cooking can approach that kind of xp return, but at dire costs. Aside from that, it also makes no sense talking about speed when you ignore the opportunity cost associated with the action, ie the time it takes to make the money/collect supplies you burn while achieving that xp/hour.
Finally, to get xp from fletching or cooking, you need to be actively there training the skill. You can’t leave 500 yew longs and bow strings with a fletcher and come back in 90 minutes to have them done and get your xp.
In Conclusion, minute for minute, farming is by far the fastest skill in the game and the only real passive skilling you can do. Comparing it to active skilling is like comparing income from interest on a Certificate of deposit, (buy, wait, sell) to working for $6 an hour at MacDonald’s. You have to be there actively working for an hour to make that $6, you also stop earning when you go home.
The Prayer Beast
I am doing a series on RS pures on my blog, and since more readers is better than fewer, you get to read it here too! I am going to edit these RS Blog articles to keep the posts at a more manageable word count, so if you want to see the whole article check out the RS Economist, but the important facts are all here.
The Prayer Beast
They are one of the most lethal killers out there, the G Maul Prayer Beast. Before the G Maul spec nerf, they were really lethal, but still they are pretty powerful, and are starting to make a come back.
Required Skills
- Str: 50
- Att: 50
- Def: 0
- Prayer: 31
Those are the minimums you will need to be a serious threat in PvP fighting. Minimums to wield the G Maul are 50 att and str, keep def at zero to minimize your combat lvl, and prayer at 31 for Ultimate Str.
Outfit:
- Iron Full
- Cape – 600gp
- Amulet of Strength
- Granite Maul – 130k
- Explorer’s Ring – Lumby Achievement Diaries
- Monk Robe Top – Prayer Guild (535gp from GE)
- Anti-Dragon shield – King of Lumby (289gp from the GE)
- Monk Robe Bottom – Prayer Guild (485 from the GE)
- Safety Gloves – Stronghold of Player Safety
- Fighting Boots – Stronghold of Security
Total outfit cost:
About 150k. If you want to spend the time, pick up the free stuff, but it is all pretty cheap.
Inventory:
PK food and Zammy Brews. At the cost of <250 per dose, they offer the str and att bonus of Super pots at 1/10 the price, and prayer bonus. They do have an HP and def penalty, but at 1 def, it doesn’t matter so gobble a fish to heal up after every shot.
Carry a rune scimmy. Twice as fast, and hits higher than a maul. Wound them, then pull out the maul and Quick Smash ‘em to death.
Turbo Tip:
It is easier to buy the materials for Zammy Brews and ask for an assist than it is to buy them.
The Top 10 Best Rings of Runescape
Turbo here from the RS Economist blog. Some of you have noticed my stories doubled up, and yes that is the case. Any guest posting I do, I do copy to my own blog as well. I don’t post all of my stories here, so if you did like what you read, then add the RS Economist blog to your RSS.
One style of blogging I have always enjoyed was the top 10 list. If this one is popular, I am actually thinking about a monthly top 10 list series, so after reading it leave a comment and let me know what you though.
While digging through information on rings for the previous post, I found a ton of info on the magical properties of some of the other rings around RS, and at the same time found no definitive list of the various rings that you could wear. In the old days it was pretty easy. You had the 4 basic rings, Saph – Diamond and Dragon Stone, and depending on what you were doing at the time you pretty much didn’t have much choice. Enough with the nostalgia, on with the list:
10. Beacon Ring 
- This ring is from the What Lies Below quest, and is freely replacable from Zaff in his Varrok Staff shop. With a decent bonus and a low replacement cost this one eeks in as #10.
Bonus: +2 Magic att, +1 Magic Def
9. Ring of Stone 
- Yes, I know. This ring is pretty useless, but hey! It turns you into a rock. How cool is that?
Bonus: You get to be a rock!
8. Pineapple Ring - Yes, you can’t wear this one, but it is a tasty treat that not only heals, but looks cool when dropped on the ground.
Bonus: Heals 2
7. Lunar Ring 
- This is the cheap man’s Seer ring. With a replacement cost of 2,000gp, it is also very expendable.
Bonus: +2 Magic Att and Def.
6. Ring of Fire 
- The coolest thing about this ring is the examine message, “It burns, burns, burns…”. To get one you need 62 FM, and complete All Fired Up.
Bonus: +2% FM xp.
5. Ring of Charos 
- Although this ring has no stat bonus, it is extremely useful. There is a long list of places you can use the ring to get something special, Just make sure it has been activated.
Bonus: Too many to list, google it
4. Archers Ring 
- This one makes the list, but only as the least of the great Fremennik Rings. It has pretty bad cost performance, but as the only ring that offers a range bonus it ranks as a 4. I am sure if rangers stopped killing mages, you might get more enchanted rings.
Bonus: +4 Range Att and Def
3. Warrior Ring 
- The weaker of the 2 combat rings, this one is far more cost effective, at about 1/10 the cost of its more desirable brother. Well worth the investment if you like to carry a scimitar.
Bonus: +4 Slash Att, +4 Slash Def
2. Berserker Ring 
- A ring reputed to bring out a berserk fury in its wearer. What to do the highest possible damage in the game? This ring is for you.
Bonus: +4 Strength, +4 Crush Def
1. Seers Ring 
- You regulars know my penchant for all things magic related, so this one shouldn’t come as a surprise. Down from it’s price in the millions, this ring is a must for the fighting mage.
Bonus: +4 Magic Att and Def
Honorable Mention
Ring of Wealth – The original expensive ring. This stayed at 100k for months, and I remember when I purchased my first one, thinking that it would be my ticket to riches. What a rude awakening that was.
Ring of Slaying – The teles are convenient, but it is the name that gets this one into the honorable mention. “Ring of Slaying”, yep, still like the sound of that.
Ring of Visibility – Pretty useless in and of itself, but you need one to get the ghostly robes, one of the best free items in the game.
And that rounds out my list. How was it?
Turbo from the RS Investor blog here posting again for the Runescape Blog with my second installment (Click here to read part one) in the series. Today I will focus on some of the lesser known aspects of potting for training. In the first section, I talked about the potions you should be using, and can probably make yourself. Here I will go over some of the ones that you might need help with.