Fletching is the art of creating ranged weaponry including bows, arrows, darts, among other things. Many players choose to level this skill to make some money, and many others want to get it out of the way quickly. Many players would consider this one of the easiest skills to reach the legendary level of 99 in, and it can certainly be the fastest. However, as you may not know, there are several ways of training the skill that have drastically different time and gold requirements, so if you find yourself needing gold Ezrsgold has got you covered – you can buy gold from us. Some methods can even allow you to profit with minimal input. In this Fletching guide, we will show you the best profit method, the fastest method (zero time method), and some other methods in between.
Quests that give Fletching xp
Before we get right into the Fletching guide, we should talk about quests that give us an experience reward in the Fletching skill. Of the quests that grant fletching experience, we recommend at least completing Animal Magnetism. Any account that will be using the ranged skill will want to do this anyways, so it’s best that you skip the first few levels by doing the quest. Animal Magnetism also requires The Restless Ghost, Ernest the Chicken, and Priest in Peril. Many players also complete The Fremennik Trials to subsequently do Fremennik Isles for the Helm of Neitiznot, but as it has more combat requirements, it is far from necessary when starting out on fletching. If you don’t feel like questing you can always use Ezrsgolds’ Questing service.
Useful Fletching Items
There are only a couple of notable items outside of resources and products when it comes to this skill.
Knife
The Knife is simply the basic tool required to carve logs into arrow shafts or bows. You do not need it to string bows or make darts, however.
Dragonfruit Pie
The Dragonfruit Pie released in January 2019 is a fairly new addition to the Fletching skill. It allows you to boost your Fletching level by 4 temporarily. This will allow you to use any of the methods mentioned in this guide at a level 4 below the requirement. Luckily, they only cost about 700 coins on the Grand Exchange at the time of writing this guide.
Fletching training guide with profit
If you want to profit from the fletching skill, and especially if you are a fan of afk methods, this may be the method for you. Cutting and stringing bows to 99 fletching is considered the traditional method of training, and while it may not be as fast as other methods mentioned in this Fletching guide, you can net a cool 20 Million Coins or so! The prices listed here are at the time of writing, and we will post a link to a site where you can look at the current cost or profit down below! Click here to read a guide that’s focused on fletching money making methods.
Levels 1-5: Carve Arrow Shafts
If you chose not to do any of the quests that give fletching experience except perhaps Big Chompy Bird Hunting, you may have to carve arrow shafts until level 5. Don’t worry, it will only take a few minutes. If starting from zero experience, you will have to carve 78 logs.
78 logs will cost you: 9,672 coins
1170 arrow shafts are worth: 1,170 coins
You will net: -8,502 coins
Levels 5-10: Carve Shortbows
At level 5 you will be able to carve Shortbows.
Levels 5-10 will require you to carve 153 Shortbows
This method grants about 8,500 experience per hour
153 logs will cost you: 16,983 coins
153 shortbows (u) are worth: 1,224 coins
You will net: -15,759 coins
Levels 10-20: Carve Longbows
At level 10 you will be able to carve Longbows.
Levels 10-20 will require you to carve 332 Longbows
This method grants about 17,000 experience per hour
332 logs will cost you: 36,852 coins
332 longbows (u) are worth: 6,308 coins
You will net: -30,544 coins
Levels 20-25: Carve Oak Shortbows
At level 20 you will be able to carve Oak Shortbows.
Levels 20-25 will require you to carve 205 Oak Shortbows
This method grants about 28,050 experience per hour
205 Oak Logs will cost you: 21,525 coins
205 Oak Shortbows (u) are worth: 3,075 coins
You will net: -18,450 coins
Levels: 25-35: Carve Oak Longbows
At level 25 you will be able to carve Oak Longbows.
Levels 25-35 will require you to carve 582 Oak Longbows
This method grants about 42,500 experience per hour
582 Oak Logs will cost you: 61,110 coins
582 Oak Longbows (u) are worth: 17,460 coins
You will net: -43,650 coins
Levels 35-40: Carve Willow Shortbows
At level 35 you will be able to carve Willow Shortbows.
Levels 35-40 will require you to carve 445 Willow Shortbows
This method grants about 56,525 experience per hour
445 Willow Logs will cost you: 8,455 coins
445 Willow Shortbows (u) are worth: 17,800 coins
You will net: 9,345 coins
Levels 40-50: Carve Willow Longbows
At level 40 you will be able to carve Willow Shortbows.
Levels 40-50 will require you to carve 1,545 Willow Longbows
This method grants about 70,550 experience per hour
1,545 Willow Logs will cost you: 29,355 coins
1,545 Willow Longbows (u) are worth: 83,430 coins
You will net: 54,075 coins
Levels 50-55: Carve Maple Shortbows
At level 50 you will be able to carve Maple Shortbows
Levels 50-55 will require you to carve 1,306 Maple Shortbows
This method grants about 85,000 experience per hour
1,306 Maple Logs will cost you: 9,142 coins
1,306 Maple Shortbows (u) are worth: 97,950 coins
You will net: 88,808 coins
Levels 55-65: Carve and/or String Maple Longbows
At level 55 you will be able to carve and string Maple Longbows
This may be the first time you make a significant amount of money from fletching
Levels 55-65 will require you to carve or string 4,851 Maple Longbows
Carving grants about 99,025 experience per hour
4,851 Maple Logs will cost you: 33,957 coins
4,851 Maple Longbows (u) are worth: 266,805 coins
You will net: 232,848 coins
Stringing grants about 142,712.5 experience per hour
4,851 Maple Longbows (u) will cost you: 266,805 coins
4,851 Bow Strings will cost you: 586,971 coins
4,851 Maple Longbows are worth: 1,110,879 coins
You will net: 257,103 coins
Levels 65-70: String Yew Shortbows
At level 65 you will be able to string Yew Shortbows
Levels 65-70 will require you to string 4,269 Yew Shortbows
This method grants about 165,375 experience per hour
4,269 Yew Shortbows (u) will cost you: 1,020,291 coins
4,269 Bow Strings will cost you: 516,549 coins
4,269 Yew Shortbows are worth: 1,699,062 coins
You will net: 162,222 coins
Levels 70-85: Carve and/or String Yew Longbows
At level 70 you will be able to carve and string Yew Longbows
Levels 70-85 will require you to carve or string 16,646 Yew Longbows
Carving grants about 127,500 experience per hour
16,646 Yew Logs will cost you: 4,860,632 coins
16,646 Yew Longbows (u) are worth: 5,559,764 coins
You will net: 699,132 coins
Stringing grants about 183,750 experience per hour
16,646 Yew Longbows (u) will cost you: 5,559,764 coins
16,646 Bow Strings will cost you: 2,014,166 coins
16,646 Yew Longbows are worth: 9,238,530 coins
You will net: 1,664,600 coins
Levels 85-99: Carve and/or String Magic Longbows
At level 85 you will be able to carve and string Magic Longbows
Levels 85-99 will require you to carve or string 106,840 Magic Longbows
Carving grants about 155,550 experience per hour
106,840 Magic Logs will cost you: 119,340,280 coins
106,840 Magic Longbows (u) are worth: 118,912,920 coins
You will net: -427,360 coins
Stringing grants about 224,175 experience per hour
106,840 Magic Longbows (u) will cost you: 118,912,920 coins
106,840 Bow Strings will cost you: 12,927,640 coins
106,840 Magic Longbows are worth: 141,456,160 coins
You will net: 9,615,600 coins
As you can see, at the time of writing this, carving magic longbows is net negative. This can drastically change since the quantity of bows is so high. (over 100 thousand) We recommend that you check the current prices at the time you will be fletching.
That’s it! If you followed this method, you may have netted as much as 20,000,000 coins depending on current prices! At the time of writing, the cost to start making gp is: -92,644 and you will net a total of: 11,759,109. It is important to note that many players will choose to use High Alchemy on their bows after carving or stringing them. Doing that is completely optional, and we only recommend it if you profit by using high alchemy spell on them. The easiest way to figure this out is by taking the High Alchemy value of the bow you have and subtracting the sum of the cost of a nature rune and the worth of the bow itself. That should give you the net cost or profit. If you end up making more gold than you need you can always turn your RS gold into real money – sell us your gold!
Fastest Fletching Training Method (Zero Time Darts)
The fastest way of achieving level 99 in the Fletching skill is actually referred to as Zero Time training. Certain actions such as making darts and bolts can be done while performing other activities such as training Hunter, Slayer, Agility, or doing farm runs. If you have the expendable cash, the highest experience rates come from the highest level darts you can make. Here is a table that gives information on each level of darts. Remember, the GP per XP will not be accurate after this guide has been up for a while. For the most accurate price analysis, use the Fletching Calculator linked at the bottom of this guide.
Keep in mind that if you wish to train your fletching exclusively using darts, you will have to reach level 10 Fletching from a combination of questing and other Fletching techniques such as carving Arrow Shafts. Many players opt to carve Arrow Shafts until level 10 when using this method if they do not have level 10 Fletching already.
Training your Fletching skill to level 99 using darts can take as little as 4 hours or less assuming you can afford to buy all the resources required. It will, however, cost well over 100M to do so. If you would like to use this method for the fastest experience, but you don’t have the gold required, consider buying gold from us! Unfortunately, you can only buy up to 14,000 dart tips of each tier per 4 hours on the Grand Exchange. If that is not a burden you are willing to take on, the profitable method mentioned above, or the somewhat faster methods below may be of interest to you.
Other Zero Time Method (Bolts)
Darts aren’t the only way you can earn Fletching experience while training one of your other skills. Making bolts is a fairly cheap way of levelling your Fletching up without consuming any of your actual in-game time. As you can see, all of the types of bolts currently cost less than 4 GP per XP to make aside from bronze bolts. It would be very quick to use another method to get your Fletching to level 39 and start with making iron bolts while training agility at a rooftop course for example. In fact, if you have 55 Fletching, and you have purchased the broader fletching perk (300 slayer points) from a slayer master, you can make broad bolts. This can actually turn a profit of 1.33 GP per XP. Training your Fletching from 55 to 99 this way will net you over 15,000,000 coins. Remember, if you make too much gold, don’t hesitate to sell it to us! We buy gold with real money! Also, the GP per XP will not be completely accurate after this guide has been up for a while. For the most accurate price analysis, use the Fletching Calculator linked below.
Semi Zero Time Methods
There are other (Semi) Zero Time Methods that have lower experience rates than making darts. These can take absolutely none of your actual time if done while training another skill as mentioned above, you just have to have at least 1.2 seconds (two game ticks) between your other actions to utilize them. They also cost substantially less than making darts. These methods are shown below.
Arrows and Javelins
Making Arrows or Javelins can be done without taking up any of your time, and they have experience rates much higher than the profitable methods shown above. They also cost less to make than darts per each experience point, with the exception of Rune Arrows, Iron Javelins, and Amethyst Javelins. These may be ideal if you want to level the skill up quickly or while training Agility for example, but don’t have the massive amounts of coins to use darts. Remember, the GP per XP will not be accurate after this guide has been up for a while. For the most accurate price analysis, use the Fletching Calculator linked below.
Tipping Bolts
Another method you may want to consider is adding tips to bolts. This can be done within two in-game ticks just like making arrows or javelins. It doesn’t bring in quite as much experience, but it can make you gold! In fact, at level 84 Fletching, you can add tips to dragon bolts. Making diamond dragon bolts at the time of writing this guide earns you a blistering 210,000 experience points per hour, and over 9 GP per XP. Doing this from level 84 to level 99, you could profit well over 100,000,000 coins! Remember, if you make more gold than you need, you can always turn your RS gold in to real money – sell us your gold! Also, the GP per XP will not be accurate after this guide has been up for a while. For the most accurate price analysis, use the Fletching Calculator linked below.
Alternate Methods
Battlestaves
At level 40 Fletching, you could choose to carve battlestaves from celastrus bark. This method grants about 136,000 experience per hour, which is better than any of the profitable methods until at least level 55 Fletching when you can string maple longbows. Some players choose to carve battlestaves all the way until level 80 when you can carve or string magic shortbows, which grant much more experience per hour than making battlestaves. At the time of writing this guide, making battlestaves costs about 2.8 GP per XP (Check this at the time of reading for accuracy), which would cost over 5,000,000 coins. If you need help paying for this, we sell gold!
Redwood Shields
At level 92 Fletching, you can stop carving or stringing magic longbows to instead carve redwood shields! It offers about 168,000 experience points per hour, which is a notch better than carving magic longbows. If you were stringing magic longbows from level 85 until level 92, we suggest continuing that since it is faster experience, and it has the capability to make you gold! Overall, this method currently costs about 1 GP per XP (Check this at the time of reading for accuracy) gained, and would cost over 6,000,000 coins from level 92 to level 99. Again, if you need gold we have it here!
If you enjoyed reading this guide or learned anything from it, don’t forget that we have several other guides up in the blog section including money making guides, a 1-99 farming guide, a 1-99 runecrafting guide and more!
You can use this Fletching calculator:
