Old School RuneScape Free-to-Play Money Making Methods

We‘ve already covered some very easy and basically no requirement RuneScape money making methods. But those were only a few and they all require the player to already be a member to have access to them. Here we will introduce a variety of money making methods for free-to-play players – whether you‘re a scrooge who doesn‘t want to spend his coin on for a membership or just someone challenging themselves in such a way, we hope what you will find what you seek and try out these money making methods and get filthy rich in no time!

Cowhides

This one is probably one of the most popular among newbies and seasoned adventurers alike. Most likely got some attention from animal rights activist druids as well. It’s very simple and also available with basically no XP (although, you will find it easier and faster to make profit at around 20 combat level, which you can easily achieve butchering innocent cows, two cows with one slash, am I right?). Actually, since some people don’t even pick up cowhides, you can easily take some lying on the ground, no need to be shy. There are basically two ways to do this:

Kill cows, fill your inventory with cowhides, bank, repeat until you feel like selling everything at the GE

Kill cows, fill your inventory with cowhides, bank, repeat, but before selling raw cowhides at the GE, take them to Ellis in north-western Al Kharid. Tan all the hides you want, then sell them at the GE.

There’s a bank near her tannery, so you can first bank at Lumbridge, then take out cowhides from the bank in Al Kharid and bring them to the tanner Ellis. Tanning each cowhide costs 3 coins and preferably, you should check prices for soft leather and hard leather in the GE before tanning. Since tanning cowhides requires some coin, you can sell a few inventories of raw cowhides at the GE so you would have that capital needed for tanning.

TIP: completing Prince Ali Rescue would benefit you quite a bit, since after completing the quest you don’t need to pay the toll at the toll gate. Also, the farm at Lumbridge is often busy and you have to compete for the precious cowhides with fellow adventurers. Luckily, there’s another cow farm south of Falador. Upside is, it’s often less crowded. Downside is, it’s farther from tannery and the GE.

Scavenging

Circle around as a vulture in the field of death and glory and collect anything that unfortunate adventurers left after their shameful deaths. In human tongue – go to the Wilderness and collect anything that lies on the ground. Most people come F2P pking just for the fun of it and are not interested in loot or, usually, are high enough level and have access to more lucrative money making methods. Though you can collect anything, usually the most profitable thing is to collect adamant arrows. This method can bring you some nice and shiny RuneScape gold while at the same moment you’re not risking anything at all, even if some meanie decides to put you in the ground (good thing is not many players bother with that).

Gold necklace making

This one has some requirements, however they’re not much: level 6 Crafting and a necklace mould in your inventory. Level 6 Crafing is easy to get and you can purchase necklace mould from Dommik’s Crafting Store in Al Kharid for a mere 5 coins. What you need to do:

Buy some gold bars at the GE. You can invest the coin you’ve already earned from killing cows or scavenging in the Wilderness. Bank them then turn them into gold necklaces in furnace (remember to have necklace mould in your inventory!). Profit.

TIP: just south from the toll gate on Al Kharid side you will find both Ellis’s tannery and Dommik’s Crafting Store. Also, it’s the only place with bank so near to furnace accessible to low level f2p player which makes it the best place for this method.

Wooden shields

This money making method only requires you to have access to the GE and some starting coin. That starting coin can be as few as 20, just to buy one wooden shield from Cassie at Cassie’s Shield Shop. This shop is located in Falador, meaning that it would take some exercise to get there. How does it work:

You run to the aforementioned Cassie’s Shield Shop and buy a full inventory of wooden shields at 20 coins each. Then bank the whole inventory and when you see the time has come, sell it at the GE. You’ll also have to hop worlds constantly to get a fresh batch of wooden shields from Cassie.

TIP: this money making method has virtually no requirements. However, you will not receive any XP as well, which for some might be important. Easy method for getting some coin for a bond without bothering with leveling up anything.

Mining gold ore

Mining is one of the three pillars of RuneScape’s economy alongside woodcutting and fishing. Also known as the big three, these skills are required for basically any consistent gold making method while at the same moment benefiting you with XP for one of these important skill. This particular money making method focuses on mining gold ore. No, we’re not directing you at some mining site infested with those pesky bots which are notoriously plenty in F2P worlds. But for this method you’ll need to meet some requirements:

40 Crafting level

40 Mining level

Brown Apron (equipped)

You’ll have to go to the Crafting Guild South-West of Falador, where there’s even 7 gold rocks which should me more than enough for you. There’s a bank in the Crafting Guild as well, so you won’t have to run miles to bank all the gold ore you mine – here, you will spend more time efficiently mining than running from point A to B to A. And this place usually doesn’t have bots competing with you, so that’s a big plus as well.

Mining clay

Mentioning this money making method after mining gold ore might seem like a significant step back, however in some cases it might be a better one, depending on the circumstances. Those circumstances are: competition for mining gold ore and item price at the GE. In certain cases, mining clay might be more profitable than mining gold ore. Requirements are basically non-existent, all you need is a pickaxe and willpower to make OSRS cash. Having higher mining level will help you to earn more in the same amount of time, keep this in mind.

Fishing lobsters

Another method of the big three, this one will need you to get to a Cage/Harpoon fishing spot in Karamja. Might be more profitable than mining gold ore, but keep in mind that you’ll have to travel to Port Sarim to bank all the lobster you catch. What you need to do:

Travel to Port Sarim

Get a lobster pot from fishing shop

Take a voyage to Karamja

Get to the f2p fishing spot in the northern part of the island

Fill your inventory with raw lobsters

Journey back to Port Sarim

Bank them at bank deposit box on the north-eastern pier

Repeat

TIP: always keep track of prices in the GE as well as the number of bots you might encounter. Also, this money making method should be first tried, keeping in mind how much profit per hour you make, since you spend a lot of time running instead of fishing. You can be more efficient by using one account for fishing and another one to act as a mule and transport caught lobsters instead of wasting time and using an account with 40 fishing to bank items instead of doing the job.

Bank deposit box (left) and lobster fishing spot (right)

Yew log woodcutting

No f2p money making guide can be made without mentioning the big three and now it’s time to talk about woodcutting. Woodcutting in general is a consistent and guaranteed money making method both for f2p and p2p. Since it’s a OSRS free-to-play money making guide, we’ll limit ourselves only to the f2p method, obviously. You will have to:

Have level 60 Woodcutting

Go to the forest south-east of Falador

Swing that axe like a crazy person until no Yew logs fit into your pockets

Bank

Repeat until complete deforestation or profit margin is satisfactory

Sell everything (you guessed it) at the GE

TIP: although this method has somewhat higher requirements than others, it’s also partially AFK, meaning that you can easily be doing something else with another account while the forester is busy with fighting nature.

Varrock clothes shop

Those of you who don’t like shopping, please, don’t stop reading now. You will see that this is quite good money making method and also, at least in this clothes shop, you won’t have to wait around for your indecisive girlfriend to finally pick something she likes. Instead, you know what you want to buy and you know that this method will make you a hefty sum of RuneScape gold. Just get to Thessalia’s Fine Clothes and:

Buy all white aprons

Buy all pink skirts (no need to try them on)

Buy all black skirts

Buy all blue skirts

Buy all red capes

Buy all priest gowns, both top and bottom

You will need some starting coins, a hundred will be enough for starters

Sell everything at the GE

This money making method is one of the more attractive ones, since it has no requirements besides a bit of RuneScape gold and the GE or bank is very close to Thessalia’s Fine Clothes shop, so you will not be wasting time running around.

TIP: you will need to hop worlds constantly and buy out everything mentioned on the list, but before using this money making method make sure to check the GE price for items on the list. Also, if you see that there’s no stock in Thessalia’s Fine Clothes that might mean that someone else is using this method, thus you will find better luck trying out other money making methods.

Wine of Zamorak telegrab

This is one of the most profitable money making methods, but it’s also heavily infested with bots, so you will also need to keep in mind that sometimes it might be best to take on another money making method instead of just frustratingly watching as some low ability AI grabs your profits straight from under your nose. This is also one of those money making methods with more requirements, so you’ll want to take that into consideration as well. You will need:

Level 33 Magic (for telegrabbing)

Air runes

Law runes

Get to the Chaos Temple north of Falador or the one in level 38 Wilderness south west of the Lava Maze (no need to tell there’s a lot more risk involved)

Stay alert so as to not accidentally try to grab Wine of Zamorak by hand. This will cause those men in red, zamorak followers, to attack you.

Bank the whole inventory and later sell for that big fat purse of coin.

This method is very simple, just keep your distance and you’ll be fine.

TIP: take a Staff of Air with you so you won’t need to take air runes with you. Also, you can get those extra 4 Magic levels to be at 37 Magic and be able to cast Falador Teleport, for which you would have to take additional water runes, but this would save a lot of time since you will need to run a lot less. P.S. if you decide to go to the Chaos Temple in Wilderness, make sure you don’t take too many runes with you, just enough to get the job done. You’ll have less to regret for in the event you are killed.

As you can see, there are plenty of ways to make OSRS gold, even for a f2p player, however, same profits as in members worlds’ should not be expected. You can choose whichever you like most or feel bringing you most profit, since abusing same money making method over and over again can be tedious and not worth anymore after a period of time or someone else might be using it, so the broader the variety of money making methods the better.

Although, these OSRS money making methods might not get you a bank big enough to sell your RuneScape gold and make some real money, they may, however, help you get a sufficient amount of coin to gear up and beat up some monsters or taking on some of the toughest bosses in RuneScape. Or purchase a bond. If you are anxious to get a bond and fast, you can always buy cheap RuneScape gold at our humble shop. That’s why we’re here, after all, to help you out!