Complete 1-99 Magic Guide for OSRS
- Theoatrix
- Sep 25, 2023
- 11 min read
Updated: Jul 28, 2024
What’s going on guys! My name is Theoatrix, and welcome to my level 1 – 99 Magic Guide for OSRS.
This guide covers the basics of the magic skill, how to start off training and all of the information you’ll need to know to reach level 99.
OSRS MAGIC GUIDE OUTLINE
If you would 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 Magic?
So why should you train your magic?
Being one of the core combat skills, training your magic is crucial in progressing your account. Levelling up unlocks powerful combat spells, as well as a range of useful teleports and utility spells.
Certain bosses in Old School are weak to magic, like Kraken and Zulrah, and a lot of end-game PvM requires magic.
Magic also has high PvP potential with powerful spells like Fire Surge and Ice Barrage.
There are 18 quests in OSRS that have a magic level requirement. A number of these quests are essential, like the Legends Quest or Dragon Slayer 2.
You need level 75 magic to get the Quest Cape,
And you need level 96 magic for the Achievement Diary Cape.
Once you reach level 99, the Magic Skillcape provides a very useful perk. 5 times per day, you can swap your spellbook, just with the cape.
How Magic Works
Magic experience is gained by casting spells, which require runes. Magic is generally quite a fast 99 with the highest XP rates reaching over 500k XP per hour. Magic is a diverse skill, meaning there’s lots of different training methods which makes training magic more interesting.
Also, magic does not cost much. In the Fast and Cheap Pathway that I’m showing in this guide, you can get to 99 in 45 Hours for a cost of 35 mil.
There are several different types of magic spells in Old School.
There are combat spells, used to deal damage and weaken the enemy.
There are teleports, giving you easy access to certain locations.
There are utility spells, like enchanting jewellery or alchemy.
Levelling your magic increases your Magic Accuracy. It unlocks more powerful spells with higher max hits. It is also important for your players Magical Defence. 70% of your Magical Defence is from your magic level.
Important Unlocks
There are 4 spellbooks in Old School.
The Standard Spellbook is available to all accounts, and contains a range of combat, utility, and teleport spells.
The Ancient Spellbook is unlocked after completing Desert Treasure, and this has combat spells and teleports
After Lunar Diplomacy, you can use the Lunar Spellbook, which has mostly utility spells. After completing Dream Mentor, you can use 7 new spells. Additionally, completing the Hard Fremennik Diary gives you 2 more spells.
The fourth spellbook in Old School is the Arceuus Spellbook, which is accessible after reaching 60% Arceuus House Favour. This spellbook has a range of combat and utility spells. But to get full access to the spellbook, you must complete the quest a Kingdom Divided, which gives access to 24 new spells.
In addition to the spellbooks, there are more important unlocks you should aim for. By completing Monkey Madness 1 and Monkey Madness 2, you unlock Bursting locations.
Bursting is one of the fastest magic methods in the game, and if you want to follow the faster pathways in this guide, you'll need to complete either of these quests. Monkey Madness 2 unlocks a better Bursting location in comparison to Monkey Madness 1, so aim for number 2 if you can.
Questing for XP
On a fresh account, players can quickly and easily complete the Imp Catcher quest alongside the Witch's Potion quest. Doing both will get you from 1 to 10 magic in no time.
There are several other quests that give magic XP as a reward. In the picture below there are quests with low requirements that you can complete for a big chunk of magic XP. If you’re going for the Quest cape one day, you might as well get these out of the way early on to get through your early magic levels.
Pathways to 99
I'll be showing the Fastest route to 99 magic, which takes 27 Hours but costs 102 mil.
I'll be showing a Fast and Cheap pathway, which takes 45 Hours and costs 35 mil.
After that, I’ll show an AFK pathway, which takes around 100 (103) Hours for 99 and costs 19 Mil.
Then I’ll show a Profitable pathway, taking 92 Hours while profiting 86 Mil.
After showing these pathways, I’ll talk about free to play methods as well.
Fastest Pathway
You will start off questing until level 10, then from 10 to 99 magic, you will be enchanting bolts ranging from sapphire through to onyx, which give over 500k XP per hour.
So, at level 1, you'll want to start off by completing Imp Catcher and Witch’s Potion. These can be done very quickly and all you need is the items on the screen.
After reaching level 10, you can get started with Enchanting Bolts.
Enchanting Bolts requires Cosmic runes, unenchanted gem-tipped bolts, and some other runes depending on the bolts you’re enchanting.
So, at level 10, you will be enchanting sapphire bolts which give almost 100k XP per hour. To get high XP rates with enchanting bolts, you need to 1 tick. To do this, you hold down the spacebar, and click on the enchant bolt spell every game tick, or every 0.6 seconds.
To make this easier, you can use the Runelite metronome plugin, which makes a noise every game tick.
So, you'll move onto Emerald Bolts at level 27, which are twice as fast as sapphire, and you'll continue working your way up until Onyx, which gives over 500k XP per hour.
So overall, you can get 99 in only 27 Hours with this pathway. Although, this pathway is extremely expensive and click intensive. But this pathway is useful for getting through the slow early levels of magic.
Fast and Cheap
Next is the Fast and Cheap Pathway, and this pathway is still click intensive, but less click intensive than the fastest pathway. So, you start with questing, then you enchant jewellery, then you work towards 99 through Bursting.
So as mentioned in the last pathway, completing Imp Catcher and Witch’s Potion will get you to level 10 magic from level 1.
From level 10, you start with Enchanting Sapphire Jewellery.
I recommend enchanting Sapphire Rings, since they give the most profit overall.
There are 2 ways to go about Enchanting Jewellery. You can train AFK, and let the game automatically enchant one by one.
Or you can click the spell each time you enchant a piece of jewellery. Clicking the spell manually is more than twice as fast as letting it auto cast.
So, you enchant Sapphire Rings until level 27, where you can then enchant emerald jewellery. Once again, rings are the best option for profit, although the profit is very minimal.
Then at level 49, you can move onto enchanting ruby items, and for this, I recommend Ruby Amulets into Amulets of Strength.
You'll enchant Ruby Amulets until level 57, where you can start Enchanting Diamond, where I recommend Diamond Necklaces for the most profit. Enchanting Diamond Jewellery will be your method from level 57 until level 62, and you’ll average around 110k XP per hour.
If you want to train a bit faster, I recommend Tele-Alching. This involves casting High Alchemy and Teleporting repetitively to the same location, and I recommend going to Camelot. Overall, you can get 140k XP per hour doing this, and is another option on your path towards level 62. I'll talk more about alching soon.
At 62 magic, and with completion of Desert Treasure, you can cast Smoke Burst, which is the first multi target spell that you unlock. From there, you should work your way up to Ice Burst for better XP.
At higher levels, players can use the Barrage spells, which are more expensive but give even more XP per hour. Overall, I would recommend just using Ice Burst since it’s a good middle ground between speed and cost.
When it comes to Bursting and Barraging, there are 4 locations that I suggest.
First are the Monkey Madness 1 caves - here you can stack Skeletal Monkeys for decent XP rates.
Second is the Monkey Madness 2 caves, and here you’ll get around 30% more XP per hour compared to the Monkey Madness 1 caves because there are far more monsters to attack. Here you can also use the Bonecrusher and Dragonbone necklace for unlimited prayer points.
The third location is Dust Devils in the Catacombs of Kourend, which requires 65 Slayer. Here you can burst at a lower cost, since Dust Devils drop some valuables. Although, your XP rates will be slower here since there aren’t as many monsters.
The last location for Bursting is Nechryaels in the Catacombs of Kourend which require level 80 Slayer. Nechryaels have an even lower cost when compared to Dust Devils since their drops are more valuable.
For Bursting, this is the best armour to use. Ahrims and Mystic are not recommended for Bursting because the enemies have a Magic Defence of 1, meaning having a higher magic attack bonus barely does anything. So, you should prioritize magic damage bonus and prayer bonus. Virtus gives the highest damage bonus with Ancient Magics, followed by Ancestral.
You should always use an Occult Necklace, and if you have the money, a Tormented Bracelet is a big help.
In terms of weapons, these are the best options. An Ancient Staff is a decent low-cost option and if you’re a fan of Muspah, the Ancient Sceptre is a great option.
Overall, with Bursting, you can max out at 350k XP per hour on Maniacal Monkeys. Dust Devils and Nechryaels provide slower XP rates but at a lower cost.
An Alternative Method to Bursting is Stun-Alching, which can get you up to 180k XP per hour, although is very click intensive. Stun-alching involves wearing armour that gives you a negative 65 magic attack bonus so that your stuns always splash.
Then you continuously Stun, then Alch, to get XP. I like to Stun-Alch at the skeletons near the wilderness ditch, although you can also just attack a low-level monster.
So that’s the Fast and Cheap Pathway, and if you Burst Maniacal Monkeys, it takes 45 hours for 99 and costs 35m.
AFK Pathway
Next is the AFK pathway, and your main training method for AFKing will be casting String Jewellery or Plank-Make.
For your early magic levels, you can cast Strike spells up to Fire Strike on crabs, where you can AFK for 10 minutes at a time. If you have the money, you can progress through the Bolt spells too, but Strike spells are still decently fast. If you’re considering splashing, I would suggest going to crabs instead since your XP rates are almost doubled.
At level 65 magic, and with completion of Lunar Diplomacy, you can cast the Bake Pie spell, which lets you AFK for 50 seconds at a time. This nets up to 110k XP per hour, and is also a great way to train your cooking.
At 80 magic and with Lunar Diplomacy completed, you can cast String Jewellery. This also has an AFK time of 50 seconds, although is quite a bit faster, giving up to 150k XP per hour. Overall, this is the fastest AFK magic method there is.
At 86 magic, you can cast Plank-Make, which requires Lunar Diplomacy plus Dream Mentor. Plank-Make has a 90 second AFK time and is highly profitable - the most profit comes from making Mahogany Planks, where you can make up to 400k gp per hour, while gaining 90k magic XP per hour.
Overall, on the AFK pathway, if you did String Jewellery to 99, it would take 103 Hours.
If you did Plank-Make from level 86 to 99, then it would take 119 Hours.
Profit Pathway
Next is the Profitable Pathway, and this pathway mostly involves enchanting jewellery, although there's also the Tan Leather spell or High Alchemy.
So, from level 1 to 10, questing is my recommendation for the Profitable Pathway.
Once you reach level 10, you can Enchant Sapphire Rings for 28k XP per hour.
Then you move onto Emerald at 27, then Ruby at 49, Diamond and 57, then Dragonstone at 68, which you can do all the way to 99. Enchanting Dragonstone is decently profitable, although you do need a lot of money to buy the supplies in the first place. The most profitable Dragonstone item to enchant right now is the Dragonstone ring.
At level 78, and with Lunar Diplomacy and the Hard Fremennik Diaries, you can cast Tan Leather. The most profit comes from tanning Black Dragonhide which can net over 1 mil per hour in profit, while giving 130k magic XP per hour.
Lastly on the Profitable Pathway, you might consider High Alchemy. This spell can be highly profitable if you pick the right items.
There are 2 ways that I suggest for you to get items to alch.
Firstly, you can join the clan chat "W308 anvil" as a guest, and here you can purchase alchables for a lower price than the Grand Exchange.
Or, you can go to an alchemy calculator website, which automatically finds the best items to alch based on the current Grand Exchange prices.
High alchemy gives 75k XP per hour if you continuously click for the whole hour. Although, I only really suggest using High Alchemy if you do it while training another skill. You can alch while you train agility for example, training magic passively.
So overall, on the Profitable Pathway, you can get from 1 to 99 in 92 Hours and get a profit of 86 Mil.
F2P Pathways
Next I’d like to talk about free to play. In free to play, you can still complete the Imp Catcher and Witch’s Potion quests for your early magic levels.
With Mind runes being cheap, players can train on low level monsters, like goblins or cows, at a low level.
Safe spotting is also a common training method in free to play. You can safe spot moss giants, or ogress warriors, and killing these will cover the cost of runes used.
So, this is the Fastest Pathway in free to play.
You start off with questing until level 10, and from 10 you start Enchanting Sapphire Amulets. You can’t enchant rings in free to play, amulets are the only option.
Then at 27, you enchant Defence Amulets, then Strength Amulets until 55. From there, you unlock the fastest method in free to play, Tele-Alch Falador. At 57, you can alternatively enchant Diamond Amulets for slightly slower XP rates.
Tele-Alch Falador is highly click intensive, but not much more intensive compared to Enchanting Jewellery.
So if you’re going for the Fastest 99 magic in free to play, this is your best option.
Ironman Tips
Before I end this guide, I’d like to briefly cover Ironman Magic Training.
As an Ironman, your magic experience comes from a range of activities, like alching, bursting, and bossing.
Low level training can be done with Fire Strike, since Mind runes are cheap from rune stores.
There's a range of rune shops that you should take advantage of as an Ironman.
For regular runes, you can go to Varrock, Port Sarim, or to Pest Control.
The Mage Arena in the Wilderness has a store that sells Law, Nature, and Cosmic runes.
After The Feud quest, you can buy Law, Nature, and Cosmic runes from Al-Kharid.
The Wizard’s Guild in Yanille also has a range of runes, accessible with 66 magic.
And Baba Yaga on Lunar Isle sells Astral runes.
Overall, Ironmen can follow the regular pathways that I’ve shown in this video. Ironmen share most of the methods for magic, although you may find yourself using spells like Superheat, Superglass Make or Plank-Make.
Anyways, that’s my complete level 1 to 99 magic guide.
OSRS Magic Guide
Thanks for reading my 1 – 99 Magic Guide. Anyways guys, I hope you learned something pretty helpful today or enjoyed. If you have any questions or just want to chat to me, you can join the Theoatrix friend chat in game. As always, thanks for reading this article, and have a nice day!