Complete 1-99 Farming Guide for OSRS
- Theoatrix
- Nov 27, 2023
- 17 min read
Updated: Mar 2, 2024
What’s going on guys! My name is Theoatrix, and welcome to my level 1–99 Farming Guide for OSRS.
GUIDE CONTENTS
In this guide, I'll show the low level methods, tree farming, herb farming, and more. Towards the end I will show some Ironman farming tips as well.
If you'd prefer to watch a video version of this guide, you can watch that below. Otherwise you can continue down the page to read the written guide.
Why Train Farming?
Farming is a unique 99 that can be trained almost passively. You can spend a few minutes each day doing a Farm Run for a lot of farming experience. So, it is great for those that want to get a 99, but can't play for long each day.
Farming can be highly profitable.
For example, at level 90 farming, a complete herb run of Ranarrs will net an average of 300k in profit. Even at lower levels, herb runs still make good money.
As an Ironman, farming is an essential skill, where herb farming is a main source of herbs for Herblore.
A number of quests in Old School have a farming level requirement… some of the quests, like Song of the Elves, are vital in progressing your account.
You need level 70 Farming for the Quest cape, and you need 91 Farming for the Achievement Diary cape.
There's also the farming pet, the Tangleroot, which has a tiny chance of appearing every time you check the health of a patch.
The Tangleroot, has 5 transmogs which are activated by using certain seeds on the pet.
How Farming Works
In Old School, farming is generally trained by planting and harvesting crops.
Across the RuneScape map, there are over 60 farming patches where you can plant seeds.
Each crop has its own growth time, ranging from 20 minutes to 107 hours. Trees tend to have the longest growth times, while flowers are the fastest.
In Old School, crops have several growth phases.
In each growth phase, the crop has a chance of becoming diseased, and if it is not cured by the next growth phase, the crop dies.
Using compost reduces the chance of your crops becoming diseased. The chance of disease is halved each growth phase when using Regular Compost, one fifth for Super Compost and one tenth for Ultra Compost.
With some patches you can pay the gardener to protect your patch from disease, which guarantees that your patch grows.
Once your patch is fully grown, you can Harvest it for experience and produce. With tree patches, you gain thousands of experience when you harvest the patch.
For patches that yield produce, they start with a set number of Harvest Lives. For example, herb patches start with 3 harvest lives, then for every pick or harvest, there's a chance that the life goes down by 1. Once it hits zero, the patch becomes cleared.
The chance that the harvest life goes down is dependent on your Farming level, Magic Secateurs, the Attas plant, and Achievement Diaries.
Using Compost on a patch increases the number of harvest lives your patch has. With herb patches, Regular Compost gives you 4 harvest lives, Super gives 5, and Ultra gives 6. So, this means the minimum number of herbs you can get per herb patch while using Ultra Compost is 6.
Farming experience in oldschool is mostly gained by doing farm runs. These involve running to various farming patches, planting and harvesting crops periodically, every time your patches are complete.
There are other ways to train your farming which I will show in this guide, although crop farming is the most common, particularly farming trees and herbs.
Your Path to 99
On your journey to 99 Farming, this is what your pathway will look like:
From level 1, its slow to train Farming by just harvesting crops, so there are 3 low level farming methods that I'll show.
The early goal with farming is to start doing Tree runs, which you can start at level 15. Trees take multiple hours to grow, and give thousands of experience when you harvest, making them the most efficient method through to 99.
Along the way, Herb runs can be done for profit and experience, along with Seaweed and Allotment runs. Also, there's the Tithe Farm, which has a range of useful unlocks.
Low Level Farming
Now let's cover the low level training methods.
There's 3 methods that I'll show, Questing, Hosidius Favour and Bagged Plants.
Questing is a great way to skip the early farming levels.
Questing for XP
If you complete the Fairytale Part 1 quest, you get from level 1 to 17 farming, and it has low requirements. Level 17 farming is enough to start Tree Farming, but if you're into questing, You can complete these quests to reach level 38 farming from level 1. You should at least do The Garden of Death, an easy quest which gives 10 thousand farming XP.
Hosidius Favour
While getting Hosidius Favour, you can train your early farming levels very quickly
You firstly need to plough the field to reach 5% favour.
Then you combine saltpetre and compost to make fertiliser all the way to 100%, which gives farming experience. You need 950 fertiliser to reach 100% favour, and doing that will get you from level 1 to 13 farming.
To get to level 15 farming for Oak Trees, you can use a Garden Pie to boost while you're planting the patch. These are available on the Grand Exchange and are useful at all farming levels to plant things you normally couldn’t.
Bagged Plants
Low level farmers can also train with bagged plants.
To do this, you need a house, filled watering cans and bagged plant ones. Then in building mode, you repeatedly plant and remove the regular plant in your portal room.
You need 78 bagged plants to get from level 1 to 15 farming and these can be purchased from the Grand Exchange,
but I'd suggest buying them from the gardener in Falador or the Farming Guild for a lower cost.
For an in depth guide on this training method, I made a video a few years back which is linked here.
Tree Farming
I'm going to start off with the basics and important unlocks, then I'll show your pathways to 99, and lastly I'll show 3 full tree runs that you can follow.
I'll be showing a low level tree run for those first timers. Then I'll show a tree-only run, and lastly a complete tree run with regular, fruit and special trees.
Tree Farming Basics
Tree Running is the most efficient farming method in the game. If you spend 10 minutes doing a tree run and get 100 thousand experience, you're effectively getting 600k xp per hour. So tree farming is very quick for the amount of time you put in.
As you level up, you unlock different types of trees to plant. At 27 you can start planting fruit trees, then at 35 farming, you can start planting hardwood trees. At levels above 72, you unlock a range of other trees.
There are 24 tree patches across Runescape. 6 are Regular trees, 6 are Fruit, 5 are Spirit which you wont use with farming training… 3 are Hardwood, and theres 1 Calquat, Celastrus, Crystal, and Redwood patch.
Regular tree patches take up to 8 hours to grow meaning you could do at least 2 tree runs per day.
Oak trees take around 3 hours to grow, which means you could do a lot more runs per day.
All Fruit trees take 16 hours to grow, so you could do a fruit tree run once per day.
The other tree patches have varying growth times, some can be done daily, and Redwood trees take 4 and a half days to grow.
An example tree run plan would be to do a complete tree run every morning, with every type of tree available, then a regular tree run at night.
With some of the tree patches, there are requirements to use them.
Low levelled players should aim to complete Bone Voyage to let you plant hardwood trees.
The Farming Guild has a range of tree patches, and you should get 60% Hosidius House Favour to go there, but do keep in mind that there are farming level requirements for each Tier of the Farming Guild.
Useful Unlocks
Scrolls of redirection will speed up your tree runs, and these can be purchased from the Nightmare Zone. They let you teleport to house portals that your house is not located at, and some are close to tree patches.
Completing the Tai Bwo Wannai Trio quest allows you to use the Tai Bwo Wannai teleport scroll.
If you aren't paying the gardeners for protection, you should invest in a Bottomless Compost Bucket. You can store 10 thousand of any compost, and when you add compost to it, it automatically doubles the amount added.
Pathways to 99
Now I'm going to show you 2 pathways to 99 doing tree runs.
The first pathway is the fastest, taking around 70 days for 99.
And I'll show a low cost pathway, taking 200 days but only costing 10 mil.
Fastest Pathway
On the fastest pathway, you'll be farming the highest level trees you can, doing 2 runs per day. So you'll work your way up to Magic trees for regular trees, Dragon fruit trees for fruit trees, Mahoganies for hardwood trees, while doing Calquat, Crystal, Celastrus, and Redwood as they become available.
If you want the fastest 99, you'll need to pay the gardeners for protection, even if it's expensive. So, doing 2 runs per day of the highest level trees possible will get you to 99 farming in only 70 days but at a cost of around 120 mil.
Cheap Pathway
On the Cheap Pathway, you'll plant trees up until Willows, and fruit trees up to Papaya. You'll also plant Hardwoods, Calquat and Redwoods as you unlock them. To save money, you can compost your patches instead of paying for protection. Composting reduces the chance of disease, and you should always use Ultra Compost if you aren't paying for protection.
Doing 1 tree run per day gets you 99 in 200 days. You can also add a second or third tree run of Willows each day to speed up your training.
Tree Runs
Now lets get into the farm runs. I'll start with some key details, then I'll show 3 full tree runs that you can follow.
This will be your inventory setup - you'll need a spade, and a rake if its your first time. You'll need coins as well as teleports to all of the patches. You'll also need saplings which you can buy straight off the Grand Exchange. For longer tree runs, you might need to bank to grab more saplings.
You'll also need items to pay the gardener for protection, which can be noted.
To see what items are needed for protection, you can go to the farming skill menu and find the tree you're planting.
This is what you should do at every tree patch:
You firstly check your previous tree's health for the big xp drop, then if it’s a Fruit or Special tree, you can pick the produce off it for some extra xp.
Once you're done, you can go to the nearby gardener, and right click to select Pay, and the gardener will chop down your tree and clear the patch for you.
Then, you use your sapling on the patch.
And then pay the gardener the protection fee, or, if you aren't paying for protection, you should use Ultra Compost on the patch. I suggest paying for protection for every tree that you plant since it guarantees that you get experience. But if you want to save money, Ultra Compost is a good option.
Now I'm going to show you 3 complete tree runs.
I'll start with a low level tree run, then a regular tree run, then a complete tree run.
Your First Tree Run
So the first run is the low level tree run, and this is for first timers doing oak trees.
This is all of the tree patches for low level accounts and easy teleports to get to each of them.
Your inventory should include the items I mentioned earlier. But for this run you'll need 4 oak saplings plus 4 baskets of five tomatoes to pay for protection. Also for your run, you'll need a Lumbridge, Varrock and Falador teleport.
So now I'll take you with me on a full low level run..
Starting out, I teleport to Lumbridge using a Lumbridge teleport tablet and then I run west, out the back of the castle. Then the tree patch is slightly north.
So I start out raking the patch to clear the weeds. And then once clear, I use the oak sapling on the empty patch to plant it.
Then, right click the nearby gardener and select pay and confirm the payment for protection of the patch.
Then I use the Varrock teleport tablet, and run north, then north east to the tree patch. Here, you do the same routine as before.
Then I teleport to Falador, and run to the Falador Park tree patch. Here, I rake, plant the seed and pay the gardener.
And then I head towards Taverley. So run north west from Falador Park and follow the wall until you reach the gate. Once you enter Taverley, head south towards the tree patch. Then you rake, plant, pay the gardener.
That’s the full low level run, but on your next runs, instead of raking the patch, you'll check the trees health and pay the gardener to chop it down, like I mentioned a bit earlier.
Regular Tree Run
The next run I'm going to go through is the regular trees run. This run should be done once a day at the opposite time of day that you do the complete tree run, which I'll show next.
This is all of the regular tree patches and the order that I'm going to harvest them. Next to it are the best teleports to get to each patch. The teleports go from fastest on the left, to slower on the right.
Now I'll take you on the full regular tree run.
Starting out, I teleport to Lumbridge using a Lumbridge Teleport Tablet. Then I run west out of the castle, and then north to the tree patch. At the patch, I click the tree to check its health, I pay the nearby gardener to chop it down, then I plant a new sapling and pay the gardener for protection.
Next, I teleport to Falador and run east to the park tree patch. Here I check the health, pay the gardener, plant a new sapling, then pay for protection.
Then I teleport to Taverley using a Scroll of Redirection and run south east to the tree patch. I follow the same routine here.
Next I teleport to Varrock with a Varrock tablet. I run north east into the castle to the tree patch
and once I'm done with everything, I run west, then north to the Grand Exchange Spirit tree.
I take the Spirit tree to Gnome Stronghold and run south west to the tree patch. I check the health and follow the routine.
To get to the final tree patch I use a Skills Necklace teleport to the Farming Guild. I run into the western wing of the guild to the tree patch, where I follow the routine again.
And that’s the end of the tree run, but optionally you can kill Hespori while you're at the Farming Guild.
Complete Tree Run
The final run I'm going to show you is a complete tree run, with regular trees, fruit trees and special trees:
This is the run overview, with the patch locations and the best teleports to each patch. The teleports are in order from the fastest on the left to the slowest on the right.
Now I'll take you on the full run.
Starting off, I use a teleport to Lumbridge and run west out of the castle to the tree patch. Here I follow the patch routine I mentioned earlier..
I teleport to Falador Park with a Ring of Wealth, which takes me right next to the patch.
I follow the routine, then use a Taverley redirected house tablet and follow the path to the east.
Then I teleport to Catherby with a Catherby teleport and run east all the way to the first fruit tree patch of the run. I choose to pick the Dragonfruit off the tree since they're worth a decent amount.
When I've finished the routine I teleport to the Brimhaven House Portal with a redirected tablet and tend to the fruit tree there
Then I use a Varrock teleport and run north then north east to the regular tree patch and follow the routine.
Then I run to the Grand Exchange Spirit tree to the north west and travel with it to Gnome Stronghold.
I run south west to the tree patch and follow the routine
then run north east to the fruit tree patch north of the agility course
Then I run back to the Spirit tree and travel with it to Tree Gnome Village.
I run west and squeeze through the gate, then follow Elkoy out of the maze to the fruit tree patch.
Here I tend to the patch, then teleport to Fossil Island using a Digsite Pendant, and use the magic mushtree to Mushroom Meadow.
I then run south east to the Hardwood trees and tend to all 3 patches, paying each of the squirrels for protection.
Once I'm done, I teleport to Lletya using a teleport crystal and run south east to the fruit tree patch.
Once I'm done here, I run to the nearby bank to get more saplings and protection payments to continue my run.
Then I teleport to Tai Bwo Wannai with a teleport scroll and run north to the Calquat patch.
Next, I teleport to Prifdinnas with a teleport crystal and run north east to the Crystal tree patch.
And the final teleport for the run is with a Skills Necklace to the Farming Guild. In the Farming Guild, I firstly run west to the regular tree patch.
Then once I'm done, I run to the northern section and harvest the fruit tree patch,
then I go to the Celastrus patch,
then the Redwood patch nearby.
That’s all of the trees to harvest, but you can go to the bank and gear up, then head into Tier 2 of the Farming Guild to defeat Hespori.
So, that’s the complete tree run… If you'd like to learn more about tree runs, you should check out my Complete Tree Farming Guide for OSRS video.
Herb Farming
Herbs take 80 minutes to grow, and herb runs can be done in conjunction with allotments like Snape Grass for extra experience. There's a total of 9 herb patches across Runescape and 5 of those patches have requirements to use.
3 patches are locked behind a quest, low leveled players can easily do Priest in Peril or mid levels can do the Arm quests for the extra patches. One patch is in the Tier 2 section of the Farming Guild and the final unlock is with the Elite Morytania Diary.
Disease free patches greatly increase the overall profit of herb runs. If you can, the Kourend and Kandarin Diary increases the yield, increasing your profit and xp. The Explorer's Ring and the Ardy Cloak 2 are almost essential for herb runs, with teleports very close to patches.
The ectophial from Ghosts Ahoy is another useful unlock.
You should always be using Ultra Compost on herb runs. This guarantees that you get at least 6 herbs per patch. You can buy Ultra Compost off the Grand Exchange, or if you're an Ironman, you make Super Compost and add Volcanic Ash.
The best herb to plant varies depending on your level and unlocks.
Ranarrs provide the most profit since the herbs cost a lot. Although, Ranarr's are only the most profitable when using disease free patches or the Diary Boosts.
When you unlock Ranarrs at 32, they are your most profitable option.
At level 38, Toadflaxes are more profitable than Ranarrs.
At level 50, Avantoes become more profitable. Avantoes are the most profitable herb currently when using regular patches.
But if you use disease free patches and diary boosts, then Ranarrs surpass Avantoes at level 80.
At level 85, players can plant Torstols for the best xp and decent profit, but not as much profit as the other herbs mentioned.
Keep in mind, for herb runs, you can use a Garden Pie to boost to herbs you haven't unlocked yet. So you could start farming Ranarrs at level 29.
Complete Herb Run
This is what your inventory should look like. You'll need a seed dibber and a spade, as well as a rake if its your first run. You'll need the herb seeds that you want to plant. And you'll need teleports to all of the patches, which I'll show in a moment. You'll need Ultra Compost which you can buy off the Grand Exchange
You can then store the Ultra Compost at a Tool Leprechaun which makes it a lot easier to manage your patches. Bring a Bottomless Compost Bucket if you can for the compost saving effect. You should be wearing your magic secateurs from the Fairy Tale quest, as well as the full farming outfit if you have it.
Full Herb Run
This is all of the herb patches and the best teleports to get to each of them
Herb Patch Routine
At each patch, this should be your routine:
If its your first time at the patch, you'll need to rake it to clear the weeds.
If your patch is fully grown, you firstly click on the herb patch to start yielding herbs. If you spam click the herb patch for 3 seconds, it doubles the rate at which you pick herbs.
When your inventory is full, or once the patch is cleared, you can use the herbs on the Tool Leprechaun to automatically note them.
While you’re at the Tool Leprechaun, you can withdraw 1 Ultra Compost from storage. Then, with a clear patch, you can then plant the seed by using it on the patch. You should then use Ultra Compost on it, and teleport to the next location.
Full Herb Run
Starting off, I teleport to Catherby using the Catherby teleport tablet, and I run north east to the herb patch. At the herb patch I follow the routine: I yield the herbs, then note them, grab an Ultra Compost, plant a new seed, and Ultra Compost the patch.
Then I teleport to the Ardougne herb patch with the Ardougne cloak.
I do the same routine and then teleport to the cabbage patch with the Explorer's Ring. I run north out of the cabbage area to the herb patch.
Once I'm done here I teleport to Xeric's Glade with the Xeric's Talisman and then run south west
After I've finished at this patch I use the ectophial to teleport to the Ectofuntus and then run west to the Morytania herb patch.
I follow the same routine, then I use a Skills Necklace to teleport to the Farming Guild. Inside, I go to the western wing to the herb patch.
Once done I use stony basalt to Troll Stronghold and harvest the patch up there.
Next I use icy basalt to teleport to Weiss..
And lastly I use a Harmony Island teleport tablet and run south to the final patch. The Leprechaun is inside this fenced area here.
So that’s the complete herb run… if you want to learn more about herb farming, I have a complete herb farming guide here.
Tithe Farm Minigame
Its located in the south eastern corner of Zeah and requires 100% Hosidius house favour plus 34 farming.
There's 3 seeds that you can plant ranging from level 34 To 74 farming. The xp rates vary from 28k to 110k farming xp per hour depending on the seed.
Most players only go to the Tithe Farm for the rewards. For 250 points you can get the Herb Sack, useful for Slayer and hunting Herbiboars. You can also get the Seed Box for 250 points, or you can get the Full Farmer's Outfit which gives a farming xp boost when worn.
For the Tithe Farm, Its recommended to have the full Graceful outfit. And the Humidify spell is also recommended from the Lunar Spellbook.
In the farm, the idea is to grow plants without letting any die, which happens when the plants aren't watered fast enough.
The basic strategy is to plant seeds in the formation shown on the screen. You should aim to have 20 plants at once, although 16 is still viable for those that aren't focusing as much.
You initially plant and water the seed in each patch, following the zigzag pattern, then after you reach the end, you loop back and water the plants again, continuing until they're ready to harvest.
It is possible to do 25 patches at once, and I'll be showing that method in my upcoming Tithe Farming Guide.
Overall, the Tithe Farm can supplement tree and herb runs as an additional source of farming xp. If you want to get 99 as fast as possible, Tree Runs mixed with the Tithe Farm is the fastest option.
Ironman Tips
Overall, Ironmen can follow the same methods that I've shown in this article, except Ironmen need to gather their own seeds.
Pickpocketing Master Farmers is a decent source of all seeds except trees.
Bird's nests from woodcutting and birdhouse runs give tree seeds.
On some Slayer tasks, you'll receive a lot of seed drops, like on an Aberrant Spectre task.
The most consistent source of tree seeds for Ironmen come from Farming Contracts in the Farming Guild.
Also, the Wintertodt can give some seeds, but not too often.
As an Ironman, it is recommended to do the Tithe Farm minigame for its rewards. You can get the seed box and the herb sack, which are both very handy to have.
Ironmen should add allotments to their herb runs to make Prayer potions and Super Compost. Allotment patches are usually close by to herb patches.
Ironmen should also farm giant seaweed for crafting xp.
That’s my complete 1-99 Farming guide for Old School.
Thanks for reading my 1 – 99 Farming Guide. Anyways guys, I hope you learned something helpful and enjoyed. If you have any questions or just want to chat with me, you can join the Theoatrix friend chat in game. As always, thanks for reading this article, and have a nice day!