Theoatrix's 1-99 Sailing Guide (OSRS)
- Theoatrix
- Dec 11
- 20 min read
Oldschool's new skill brings a whole new dimension to OSRS... with more ways to progress and vast oceans to explore.
Table Of Contents
If you would prefer to watch a video version of this guide, here it is down below. Otherwise continue scrolling to read the written guide.
Sailing Overview
Why Train Sailing
Levelling your Sailing unlocks a range of methods for your account, with new trees and rocks, profitable sea activities, and you can re-live the 2010 days at frost dragons…
While it does cost money to buy and upgrade your boat, sailing can be a profitable skill to train, with methods like port tasks and salvaging bringing in consistent money.
Ironmen can also benefit a lot from sailing, giving access to new potions like extended staminas, acquiring mid-game gear upgrades, or providing a new way to travel across the map.
The skill has multiple impacts, on metas and the economy, introducing new farming patches, resources, gear, and potions…
Sailing Mechanics
Sailing itself is trained through 5 key methods…
Port Tasks
Sea Charting
Shipwreck Salvaging
Barracuda Trials
Deep Sea Trawling
In the introductory quest, youre introduced to port tasks, which can either be a courier task, where you take crates from one port to another, or theres bounty tasks, where you’re assigned to get items from a certain monster.
Another key method is sea charting, which can give a big chunk of experience, involving spotting points of interest, and completing one off sailing activities.
At level 15, you can start shipwreck salvaging, which is perfect for AFKing, especially on mobile. This involves using a hook to harvest salvage, then sorting through it for more experience, with afk intervals up to 4 minutes.
Then at level 30, you unlock the barracuda trials, and there are 3 trails currently available. These are a focus intensive race training method, providing the highest sailing xp rates in the game.
And lastly, deep sea trawling, and this is a hybrid training method for both fishing and sailing, currently providing quite a bit of profit too.
Aside from those 5 main training methods, just about everything sailing related gives a small amount of sailing xp, except for building your boat which gives construction xp. Things like trimming the sails for more speed, random ocean events or fighting enemies on the water all give some sailing xp.
Time To 99
To go from level 1 to 99 sailing, in the fastest possible way, its going to take at least 70 to 80 hours of play time. Thats done through completing the barracuda trials for the fastest xp rates.
For the afkers out there, salvaging will take around 160 hours to reach 99.
The estimated time for 99 by doing port tasks, especially bounty tasks, will be around 100 hours.
And its important to note, that completing all of the one off sea charting tasks gives a total of 691 thousand xp.
Cost for 99
What about the cost for 99 sailing?
Well, currently to build the minimum required boat for the barracuda trials, it costs about 350k. And you only need to pay this once to upgrade one boat.
Salvaging costs a couple hundred k to get all the hooks up to rune, but on your journey to 99 youll actually profit at least 20 mil. Keep in mind that the dragon salvaging hook is expensive to build, so overall this isnt really worthwhile right now.
Your Boat
Types Of Boats
There are 3 types of boats with sailing, rafts, skiffs and sloops.
Rafts are unlocked straight away, and are largely not used at the later levels, although they are required for some charting locations.
Skiffs at level 15 are commonly used for barracuda trials but you can also salvage with a skiff.
And sloops at level 50 are the biggest ship available, allowing you to implement more facilities. Theyre great for salvaging and combat since they have the most boat hitpoints and the most available ship facilities.
To get your first raft, you need to complete the pandemonium quest, and it acts as an introduction to the sailing skill..
Boat Navigation
When traversing on your boat, its largely point and click, where you can click in the direction you want the boat to travel. The boat itself though has a speed that you can set, where there are 4 different speeds.
Theres fast, slow, stop and reverse, and those are controlled by the sailing interface in the combat tab.
Customizing Your Boat
To customize your boat, you talk to a shipwright then you get transported to a new area. The core boat upgrades are done on the noticeboard near the portal. And boat facilities are made on your boat in the white spots. Many of these upgrades require a certain construction level, and if you want a goal in mind, you need level 87 construction for the highest level upgrades.
Boat Modules
On your ship, theres a number of parts to be aware of.
Theres the hull, which affects your boats speed and some of the boats hitpoints.
Theres the sail and mast, and upgrading this increases your boats acceleration after using a wind boost, and increases the duration of the boost.
Theres the helm, which allows you to venture into rough waters, and also affects which rapids your boat is affected by..
The keel is the armour and contributes to the hitpoints and defence of your boat, useful for defending against sea enemies.
Alongside those boat parts, there are a number of boat facilities you can put on your boat.
Theres the cargo hold, which can only hold sailing related items on board, where the highest level cargo, the rosewood cargo hold, carries 240 items.
Theres the salvaging hooks, going up to dragon, and these are used for the salvaging training method.
Theres braziers, which are used for warmth, providing protection in cold oceans.
Theres the cannons, used for combat, and these also go from bronze to dragon.
Theres trawling net spots, used for deep sea fishing.
Theres a number of stations, like a range, keg, chum, teleport focuses, wind catchers and the crystal extractor.
Crew Members
Upon reaching certain level milestones, you can invite crewmates onto your ship. These are in-game npcs that can help with sailing activities, and they each have set stats. They have a helmsmanship stat, privateering and deckhandiness.
Helmsmanship determines how good they are at controlling your ship.
Privateering is for cannons and combat.
Deckhandiness is for salvaging, trawling and ship repairs.
You can get your first crewmate at level 40 sailing, then every 15 levels or so you can have more crewmates on your ship. The first crewmate is jobless jim, and it ranges all the way through to sailor jacob.
Theres a number of quests and achievements that unlock crew members, namely 4 quests, 100 tempoross killcount and the fremmy hard diaries.
Recovering Your Boat
When youre out at sea, and you get lost, you can still teleport out - you dont lose your boat and youre able to recover it at a port. You can do that at any dock you have the level to access, by speaking to the shipwright. It does cost money to recover your boat, costing less for the smaller boats and more for the larger ones.
But keep in mind, if your boat sinks or you teleport away from it, you abandon the cargo on your ship.
Traversing The Map
With boat recovery, theres a few cool tricks you can utilise. You can teleport to another dock and recover the boat there for faster travel.
With 55 sailing you can build a teleport focus which lets you teleport your boat directly to the dock youre at, as long as the boat isnt lost at sea. Thats done with the summon boat spell on the regular spellbook, and tablets do exist for this, so you dont need to be on the regular spellbook exclusively.. Using the teleport focus to move your boat also clears your boats cargo, so be weary using this.
With 75 sailing, you can install a greater teleport focus on your boat, and this allows you to teleport to your boat, although this does require bottled storm, currently over 30 mil.
By completing the second tier of the jubbly jive barracuda trial, you can get the wind catcher on your boat. This stores wind for extra speed, allowing for up to 2 at a time.
Then you can get the gale catcher which also stores wind but this time up to 3.
And theres also the crystal extractor, which generates wind every 1 minute, allowing for faster travel and also contributes to your overall xp rates.
As i mentioned, your hull of your boat is what contributes to the speed. Well at later levels, making the rosewood hull is very expensive. But all 3 boats have the same base speed, and the raft is a fraction of the cost to build, so considering using a raft purely for traversing the seas.
Requirements
Alright, now lets talk about requirements for sailing, and ill talk about items, skills and then other unlocks.
Items For Sailing
As a whole, you will need a range of logs, planks, metal bars and nails to build and upgrade your boat, including some new items. There’s no need to stock up on anything, you can easily just buy them as you go.
Regular accounts can buy almost every sailing item straight off the grand exchange, except for schematics, which are required to build certain facilities and ship upgrades. To obtain schematics, you usually dig on one island to get a key. Then bring that key to another island and open a lockbox containing the schematic, and the schematic locations are the same for everyone.
There’s also a range of new fabrics, including linen, canvas and cotton, and those can be bought off the grand exchange, although ironmen will have to grow and weave the materials.
If youre looking to upgrade your boat, you can open the sailing skill tab and click on what youre trying to upgrade, and it tells you the materials in the chatbox.
Stats For Sailing
Now technically, you dont actually need any stats to start sailing. But there are some stats that will help you along the way, and some of these stats are even required if youre an ironman.
Firstly, training your construction level is directly going to support your sailing training, where the highest level unlock is at level 87 construction.
Having a decent smithing level will also help a lot, especially for ironmen, where you need level 25 to make lead bars and 74 for cupronickel.
And woodcutting plays a part, where you need up to level 94 to chop rosewood trees.
There are also quest requirements to moor at certain docking points, including royal trouble, the fremmenik isles and lunar diplomacy.
Your Path To 99
On your journey to 99 sailing, as i mentioned, there are 5 main training methods… but doing all 5 methods isnt going to be the fastest way to level 99, so here is the fastest pathway through from level 1.
Fastest Way To 99
The pandemonium quest is a requirement for sailing, then your fastest xp will come from port tasks while charting, until you unlock the first barracuda trial.
Then, for the fastest xp to 99, you work your way through each barracuda trial, achieving around 200k xp per hour at the final stage.
The estimated time for 99 doing this pathway is 70 to 80 hours which really isnt that bad compared to skills like agility. In terms of money, its only going to cost less than 500k.
AFK Pathway To 99
But for those of you looking for something less click intensive, salvaging is your pathway to 99 while afking.
Doing the best salvaging spot you can, its going to take around 160 to 170 hours to reach 99 by salvaging. But, on the journey, youll profit over 20 mil going for 99.
Other Methods To 99
There are other ways to 99 aside from trials and salvaging, and in particular, port tasks sit in the middle of those 2 methods.
You can get near 200K xp per hour at higher sailing levels from bounty tasks, and around 150k xp per hour with courier tasks.
In terms of time, if youre getting efficient with port tasks, its going to take around 90 to 100 hours to reach 99.
One-Off XP Rewards
And its important to consider charting on your journey to 99, where charting the entire map will earn you 691 thousand sailing xp.
But charting shouldnt just be done for the experience. You also gain access to the beverages that give you sailing boosts, with the highest tier one giving a boost to your sailing xp rates.
While sailing, there are also some one off ocean encounters that youll find that give some one off sailing xp rewards, including the strong winds, the clue turtles, lost shipments or the giant clam.
Training Methods
Now lets get into the training methods, and ill start with low level training, then ill go into depth about each of the 5 methods.
Quick-Links
Low Level Training
When youre just starting out, your only option is to complete the pandemonium quest to gain access to the sailing skill.
For that, you wont need any items or stat requirements, and you can start the quest by talking to will or anne at the port sarim docks.
I recommend that you read through this quest and listen to what it has to say, since it gives some useful pointers for a range of sailing mechanics.
At a low sailing level, its a decent idea to aim for quests that give sailing xp and unlocks. Theres prying times at level 12, current affairs at 22 and troubled tortugans with 45 sailing.
Between doing those quests, youre going to need to train sailing to get the requirements.
After completing the pandemonium quest, you’ll straight away want to get a courier port task to complete, while doing charting locations as you go. Ideally, you want to get Land’s end port tasks from a low level, and work your way up the port levels.
While the higher level ports are further distances to travel, you get much more xp from completing the higher level port tasks.
As i mentioned, you want to be charting as you go, and you should definitely use the sailing runelite plugin or use the wiki sailing map to find those charting locations.
So youll work your way up to level 12, where you can then do the prying times quest. Then you can continue training all the way to 30 with courier port tasks, doing musa point, piscarilius, catherby and brimhaven ports.
At level 15 though, you unlock a method that can be faster than doing port tasks, and that is salvaging. This is an AFK training method, although at the low level salvage locations, the xp rates are very slow. You could, however, train by 2 tick salvaging, which gives xp rates of up to 10k per hour at level 15. I dont really recommend doing this unless youre going for the absolute fastest 99. More on salvaging shortly…
Once you reach level 30, whether its through courier port tasks or salvaging, you unlock the first barracuda trial, which all provide the best exp rates for their level. The level 30 trial is the tempor tantrum trial, and you need an oak mast and an iron helm on your ship to be able to navigate the waters. Its also recommended to upgrade your keel for more boat hitpoints since you will take damage during the tempor tantrum trial.
So the level 30 trial provides the fastest xp rates until level 55, where the subsequent trials are faster.
Sea Charting
Sea charting can get you one off sailing experience, exploring various landmarks around the seas.
There are 6 types of charting spots you can encounter, and they are all in set locations.
There’s the spyglass spots, where you observe notable areas.
Theres the generic charting locations, where you click a piece of scenery to -chart.
Theres the crates that you can pry open, and you get some interesting drinks.
Theres the currents with the current duck, which you follow to gain xp.
Theres diving with a mermaid to gather sea depth data.
And lastly the weather charting, where you help a troll meteorologist using a weather station.
While you can traverse the seas and find charting spots yourself, there are a few useful tools that greatly assist you with charting.
Firstly, theres a runelite plugin called “sailing” which highlights every charting spot, and the highlight disappears once youve charted that location. So thats perfect to use while doing things like port tasks, to see where there are chartable areas that you havent done yet.
There’s also the wiki sailing map, which shows every point of interest and charting location. And if you have the wikisync Plugin installed on runelite, youre able to type your name at the top and it hides the charting spots that youve already done.
Having both the runelite plugin and the wiki map handy makes charting a lot easier.
For completing every charting spot in an entire ocean, youre given an xp bonus, scaling from 2k for the low level oceans to 35k for the higher level ones.
On top of that, you get 100k xp when you reach full completion, which brings the total xp gained from charting to 691k.
Aside from gaining sailing experience, theres a few other benefits of charting. As a reward for charting a certain number of oceans, you gain access to drinks that give sailing boosts.
In the first place though, you do need a barrel stand to build a keg on your boat, and you get the barrel stand from the shark Tempor tantrum barracuda trial.
With 5 seas chartered in the ardent ocean and 5 in the uniquet ocean, you can obtain the kraken ink stout, which you can then put on your boat in the keg for passive use.
Then it goes all the way to charting all 70 seas in the entire game, and that rewards horizons lure, which provides a 2.5 percent sailing xp boost.
With charting, its useful to note that some spots are inaccessible with the largest boat, so youll need to use a raft and a skiff for some charting locations.
Generally, the skiff is the best boat for charting, although you are able to install a wind catcher on a raft to store wind.
You could additionally build a crystal extractor on your boat to gain extra xp while charting.
A raft isnt going to cut it for a few of the charting locations since you will need to tank some monsters at some point, but as i mentioned you do need the raft for some locations.
Port Tasks
Now lets talk about port tasks, and these can be done right from the get go, and youre introduced to them in the pandemonium quest.
There are 2 types of port tasks as i mentioned, courier and bounty port tasks…
Courier Tasks
Courier tasks are where you get a task from a noticeboard at a port, then youre assigned to deliver cargo from one port to another.
If done efficiently, its possible to get around 150k xp per hour doing courier tasks, particularly with the high level ports. For example, at level 76, doing lunar isle courier tasks, you can expect up to 150k xp per hour.
Some of the lower levelled ports are also decent at lower levels, like relekka at level 62 provides up to 75k xp per hour.
As a whole though, the earlier ports arent great xp, but generally in the mid game, courier tasks are worthwhile above level 40, except for in the very early game where you do delivery tasks and charting at the same time for your first few levels.
Courier tasks from Priffdinas and Lunar Isle provide the most XP, although you will need to travel through some dangerous waters.
For courier tasks, the best boat to use is the skiff since its easier to maneuver and can hold enough facilities to make you go as fast as possible, and you can have crewmates helping to unload the cargo..
Theres a runelite plugin called port tasks which overlays the pathway to the port youre tasked to go to.
Overall you should try to combine your courier tasks with a bit of charting as you go, and depending on your playstyle, courier tasks might be the right fit for you.
Bounty Tasks
Now bounty port tasks are where you can get better xp rates, and these involve getting a task from a port noticeboard, where youre assigned to get drops from a certain monster. Then, you traverse to the monsters location on your boat and defeat them with ship combat.
You unlock the first bounty tasks at level 30, and at higher levels, its possible to get up to around 200k xp per hour with bounty tasks using dragon cannonballs, and the xp rates really start to pick up once you reach level 67 sailing.
For bounty tasks, you almost always want to be using the sloop, the biggest boat, and you should aim to upgrade your cargo as much as possible, and in your keg, you should put Perildance bitter as the drink since it increases your cannons damage. And you can also put the horizons lure keg there as well for the bonus sailing xp. Overall, the Keel and hull are your 2 biggest upgrades since these directly determine how much defense your ship has and how much damage it can take.
Shipwreck Salvaging
At level 15 sailing, you unlock the AFK sailing training method, salvaging. This is where you salvage finds from shipwrecks throughout the seas, and you sort through the salvage to find items and experience…
Salvaging is the only source of the sailor’s amulet, dropped rarely at all salvage spots.. And this is an extremely useful amulet, providing teleports to the pandemonium, port roberts and deepfin, and also being a close teleport to a bank and a port. Even if salvaging isnt your main training method, i would really recommend at least going for this amulet. The droprate heavily increases with the higher level salvaging spots, from 1 in 2k for the low level and 1 in 300 for high level.
In terms of xp rates, they scale from 2k per hour at level 15, all the way to over 100k per hour at high levels.
Although, you can increase your xp rates further by installing the crystal extractor. This is rewarded from the gwenith glides barracuda trial and reuires 73 sailing to install, and it gives 250 sailing xp every 60 seconds, but you have to click on it. Thats an additional 10 to 15k sailing xp per hour, on top of your training, although is less afk.
The first salvaging location is Small shipwrecks found south east of the Pandemonium, and youll need to install a bronze salvaging hook to start..
To do that, you need these materials:
4 Regular Planks
16 Bronze Nails
6 Bronze Bar
1 Rope
You go to a shipwright and customize your boat. You can grab a saw and a hammer from the crates in the central area, then you can board your boat, and add a salvaging hook to the front white spot.
Then, at level 15 sailing, salvaging the small shipwrecks, you can take the salvage back to the pandemonium docks, and there, you can sort through the salvage for more xp. But, you are better off just dropping the salvage to save you from moving around, and this is faster xp per hour… but at level 42 you can install a salvage sorting station on your boat, but more on that soon…
When training at a salvaging spot, there are some locations that have double spots. This is where 2 shipwrecks are right next to eachother, which means you dont have to move between spots, and can just hop worlds whenever theres no spots available, but jagex recently updated it so that there are more active locations, so you wont have to hop very much at all.
Every tier of salvaging spot also now has a double spot.
Once you unlock the iron hook at level 21 sailing, you should definitely install it, and each hook upgrade gives a noticeable increase in your salvaging speed, except the dragon hook which is only a small jump from rune. Each salvaging spot lasts 1 to 4 minutes depending on the level of salvage, and you can see which one is active if it has a right click option there.
Then at level 26 you can do fishermans shipwrecks, and you can also get the steel salvaging hook at level 27. Fishermans shipwrecks can be found to the south of Catherby.
Then at level 35, you can do barracuda shipwrecks, and eventually upgrade to a mithril salvaging hook for faster xp rates. But you do need oak and linen sails and mast or better for your boat to be able to withstand the stormy waters around the spot near pandemonium.
Once you hit level 40, you can get a crewmate on your ship, and the first crewmate is jobless jim. Hes decent at salvaging, with 3 deckhandiness, and you can use him to afk longer or increase your xp rates when you get the larger boat.
At level 42, you can install a salvaging station on your boat, which allows you to sort your salvage by barely moving. This is done by finding the schematic, found in a lockbox on chinchompa island. Its almost mandatory to install one of these when you get the level, since its going to considerably boost your AFK times and xp rates.
Eventually, at level 53, you unlock the next spot, and at level 50, you can build a sloop boat, which has 2 salvaging spots. With that, you can have one crewmate salvaging, one crewmate on the helm, and you can salvage on one of the other hooks.
Then at 64, you can salvage pirate shipwrecks, and at level 60 you should get cabin boy jenkins as a crewmate, who has plus 4 deckhandiness, the highest possible.
Then at 73 sailing, mercenary shipwrecks are next, and also with 73 sailing you can get the crystal extractor, which as i mentioned can increase your overall xp rates for sailing.
Interestingly, the mercenary shipwrecks are the only salvaging spot that drops the salvors paint at a 1 in 24k droprate, and you can use that pain to customize your boat.
Then at level 80 you can do fremennik shipwrecks, where you should bring alchs to profit off the fremennik helmet drops.
Then at 87, merchant shipwrecks are the highest level ones, and for those, you should stack up on the snapdragon seeds, dragon cannonballs, dragon nails, coins and platinum tokens.
You can also get the dragon salvaging hook at level 86 sailing, and this currently costs over 50 mil to put on your boat. And largely, the boost that it gives is barely worthwhile at those prices, giving around a 5% increase in your xp rates.
Overall, going from 15 to 99 sailing, alching and stacking up the drops, you can expect to make close to 20 mil in profit. But, it is possible to make more than that, if you get lucky and get some dragon cannon barrel drops, then your profit will sit closer to 30 mil or more...
Barracuda Trials
Now for the fastest sailing xp in the game, youll want to try out the barracuda trials. These are click intensive obstacle courses for your boat, where you collect crates alongside other objectives within an allocated time…
There are 3 barracuda trials: there’s the tempor tantrum trial at level 30, then the jubbly jive at level 55 And then the gwenith glide trial at level 72.
There are 3 different times to beat at each trial, swordfish, shark and marlin, each with a once off big xp reward, plus an item reward for completing them within the time.
To be able to partake in each trial, there are some boat upgrades that you need.
For the first one, the tempor tantrum trial, you need an iron helm plus oak masts with linen sails.
For the jubbly jive, you need an inoculation station, as well as a mithril helm.
And for the gwenith glide trial, you need an adamant keel.
The xp rates at barracuda trials scale from around 20k for the first trial, then 80k for the second, and around 200k xp per hour for the level 72 barracuda trial.
To get the highest xp rates at barracuda trials, you need to full upgrade your hull which contributes to your boats speed, and you also need to take advantage of the crystal extractor.
Improving your hull can considerably improve your overall xp rates at the barracuda trials since they give you more speed. For example with the second best hull, the xp rates max out at 180k per hour, but with the rosewood hull, the highest level one, its possible to go above 200k.
Its recommended to use the skiff boat for barracuda trials, with a crystal extractor on board for the extra xp, as well as a wind catcher or a gale catcher next to the crystal extractor.
On runelite, you can install the tile packs plugin which now has all of the tiles for each run at each trial. And you can pair that with the sailing plugin to highlight the crates, and this makes it a lot easier to see.
Deep Sea Trawling
And, the final training method im covering, is deep sea trawling, and this is first unlocked at level 56.
This is a hybrid sailing and fishing training method, which involves installing a trawling net on your boat and navigating to certain trawling areas.
Currently, you can make quite a bit of money doing this, since you get the new fish and theyre worth quite a bit….
But trawling doesnt give a huge amount of sailing xp, its primarily used as a hybrid training method and a money maker for both sailing and fishing.
Using chum and fish offcuts can really increase your xp rates with deep sea trawling, and having an upgraded hull for faster speeds also helps.
With deep sea trawling, its best to use the sloop, the largest ship. This allows for 2 trawling nets at once, and in the keg youll want the Trawler’s trust drink, which gives a 5 percent chance to catch an extra fish.
Upgrading your hull is very important to speed up your boat, making it easier to follow the fishing spots. And sails are also important for longer speed boosts with the wind. You also might sail through some dangerous waters while deep sea trawling, so having an upgraded keel does help but is not required.
The wiki sailing map is a great resource which helps with trawling, showing the locations and trawling routes.
Something interesting, is you can trawl while the spot is moving, as long as you can keep up with it, and this slightly increases your output per hour.
Thanks for reading
-Theoatrix