OSRS Ironman Money Making Guide
Playing on an Ironman account in OSRS can be challenging but making money through it offers the biggest obstacle for any player. Without gold, the game becomes considerably harder. With this guide, you’ll be well on your way to making money in the game quickly.
Many players will argue that an Ironman run is the ultimate way to play OSRS. If you’re up to the challenge, you can begin your Ironman run the moment you finish Tutorial Island. Due to the restrictions of Ironman, making money is fairly limited. Just to give you an idea, here’s how your money earning is limited in this type of game mode.
- Trading with other players is not allowed. The only exceptions are during some quests like Shield of Arrave and the Heroes’ Quest. On the other hand, you’re allowed to receive bonds as well. You also can’t get OSRS gold from other players so buying them with real money is not viable. On the other hand, you can buy OSRS gold to get rich quick on a regular account.
- Using the Grand Exchange for any transaction (other than bonds) is not allowed. For bonds, you can only purchase them but you cannot sell them. That being said, you cannot use flipping to make a profit in an Ironman run.
- Picking up loot from PVE and PVP dropped by other players’ kills is not allowed. You can only pick up loot if you’re the one who killed the monster or the player. If your target was damaged by another monster or player, then you won’t get the loot still. This means you cannot go along with stronger players to farm monsters.
As you can see, these restrictions for Ironmen make it quite hard to start getting rich. You also have to consider the fact that you cannot die in an Ironman run so doing various high-risk, high-reward money-earning methods is off the table. While your options are limited, we’ve found some of the best ways to get rich. Here are some of them.
PvM Drops
To be honest, one of the best ways to earn money on an Ironman account is to do PvM events and take advantage of the drops. While this does put you at risk of dying, you can mitigate the risks greatly by being prepared. Have the right equipment, improve your Combat Level, and NEVER bite off more than you can chew.
It takes a lot of patience and practice but this is a good way to start growing your gold while increasing most of your combat skills at the same time. Once you’ve found a specific PvM farming route, you’ll see that it’s actually very easy to do combat farming in OSRS Ironman with minimal risk. Here are some items you can sell:
- Adamant, dragon, and rune items.
- High-level runes which you can sell to Ali Morrisane. Due to the risks of this method and the fact that you need these runes for magic, this is mostly a late-game method. However, it’s one of the best in the long run.
- Battlestaves, dragonhide bodies, and raw materials that you can get from boss instances. You can also get runes and dragon javelin heads.
- Smelt the ores and bars you get from PvM. Process them into the Blast Furnace and then smith them into platebodies before selling them.
- You can make rubies, diamonds, and dragonstones into valuable jewellery as well.
- If you’re lucky, make sure to attach onyx bolt tips to runite bolts. Once you do, high-alch it for a profit.
There are lots of PvM methods that you can farm but what’s important is to make sure that you’re not going somewhere where the enemies are significantly stronger than you. What you can do is have a friend accompany you in PvM instances but don’t let them attack monsters. Only have them engage as a last resort to prevent your character from dying.
Get Free Gold At Stronghold Of Security
Before anything else, make sure to drop by the Stronghold of Security for a free 10,000 in gold. While small, this gives you a huge headstart in money earning. You only need a verified email to have this done. Unfortunately, you can only do this once on your account but it’s still worth doing of course.
The Stronghold of Security is located in the Barbarian Outpost. For a quick and free teleport there, talk to Count Check in Lumbridge Graveyard.
Thieving
Due to the risks of PvM and the lack of trading without the Grand Exchange, you’re mostly going to earn money using your Thieving skill. There are lots of ways to earn Gold quick with this skill and there are methods for early, mid, and the late game stages of an Ironman run. Here, we’ll highlight some of the Thieving methods you can use to earn money.
- Blackjacking – To start, make sure to finish the blackjacking section of The Feud. Once you do it, you can buy blackjacks from the trader near the kebab shop located in Pollnivneach. Progress through The Feud quest so that you’ll learn how it works.
Basically, you’ll need to lure an NPC and them whack them in the head with a blackjack. You can then safely pickpocket them. Sell anything you pickpocket for a profit. Due to the intensity of the task, this method isn’t recommended for long-term money-making. - Stealing – This is the easiest way you can make money using your Thieving. However, it can be risky in the early levels as your success rate is pretty low. As you start Thieving more and more, the chances of failing significantly drops as well.
After you’ve done at least half of Death to the Dorgershuun, you’ll then have access to the H.A.M Store rooms. You can pickpocket one of the guards who have keys to chests that contain valuable jewelry. You can then either bank or high alch the loot and then sell it. If you have it, make sure to have the full H.A.M. suit equipped so that you don’t get kicked out.
Alternatively, you can steal slik from the stalls in the Ardougne market. If you do it successfully, wait for 20 minutes before you can sell the stolen silk to the silk merchant. This nets you 60 coins for each silk. - Pickpocketing Knights Of Ardougne – In the latter stages of your Ironman run, you can begin pickpocketing Knights of Ardougne. This method is more profitable than blackjacking but you’ll have to have a high level in Thieving. If you’re doing this at 95 Thieving, you can earn around 270,000-280,000 coins per hour.
For money making purposes, one of the skills that you should focus on training first should be Thieving. As this gets higher, you’re opening up more opportunities for earning gold in OSRS.
Blast Mining
If you’re on your way to train Mining, then you should try Blast mining as well. This doesn’t just give you decent Mining XP, it will also help you make a decent profit. Once you reach level 75 in Mining, you’ll eventually get runite from blasted ores and this is where you’ll start to earn a ton of money.
To do this method, you’ll need a lot of dynamite. The best way to get them is from the Chambers of Xeric. If you’ve completed the elite tasks from the Kourend and Kebos Diary, then you can claim 80 dynamites from Thirus every day. Avoid buying dynamites as this hampers your Mining training and it also cuts the profit by a huge margin.
Once you’ve gotten your runite ores, make sure to take them to a Blast Furnace. You can get the coal you need for this at the Blast Furnace itself or from Miscellania. Smelt all of the runite bars into rune items. Instead of selling them as is, make sure to alch them for a profit as well.
Crafting Amethyst Javelin Heads
At the latter stages of the game, you’ll open up a lot of opportunities for high-reward, low-intensity money-making techniques. One of them is crafting amethyst javelin heads. It’s also an AFK method that can be a great constant source of gold in your Ironman run.
Ideally, you’d want to do this at high Mining levels and with the right gear. You can get around 80 to 100 amethysts per hour with high mining. You can make around 400-500 amethyst javelin heads using that which you can sell for around 364,800-456,000 coins.
To increase the efficiency of this method, you might want to complete the Varrock Elite Diary first as it gives you access to Varrock Armor 4. This gives you more chances to mine amethyst, thus reducing the amount of work you need to do on your end. If you have money to spare, get the expert mining gloves from the Mining Guild. This gives you a 25% chance to prevent the node from being depleted so that you can mine more from it.
Killing Vorkath
If you’re confident in your gear and Combat Level, you can try fighting Vorkath as well. The boss drops rune and dragon equipment alongside dragonhide, and a lot of skilling supplies. Of course, the Vorkath fight itself is challenging. We highly suggest carrying a Dragon hunter lance or a dragon hunter crossbow to increase your chances of success.
Again, this is a risky method. Make sure to have a means of escape when necessary. If you have an alternate account, you can use that to practice fighting Vorkath first. Understand its movements and make sure that you know its pattern of attacks.
High Alching Arrows
To be more specific, we’re talking about high-alching arrows from the Last Man Standing PvP minigame. There’s no risk of death in doing this so don’t worry about going all out. You can get a stack of 300 rune arrows from Justine’s shop for 3 points. You can then high alch each of the arrows for 240 coins.
To do this, first teleport to the Ferox Enclave with a ring of dueling. Join the competitive lobby and kill at least once player inside the game. Once done, make sure to hide from others joining in the map. The best way to do this is to stay in a corner or to go up inside a building. Wait it out up until there are only three players remaining – including you.
While the two other players are fighting, remain hidden and wait for one of them to die. With one player left, either fight for first place or settle or second place. This nets you enough points to buy the rune arrows from Justine’s shop.
Sell Cats For Death Runes
To do this, you should first finish Gertrude’s cat quest. While not necessary, make finish the easy tasks of the Ardougne Diary so that you get more 200 death runes instead of 100.
Raising a kitten in OSRS will take around 3 hours and 9 fish. Once you have a kitten, interact with it every 20 minutes, stroke it twice, and give it fish. Feed if a karambwanji as this only takes up one space in your inventory. Once it’s fully grown, trade it to a civilian in West Ardougne. Other than talking to a civilian and selling the cat, this method is pretty AFK as you only need to interact with the cat every once in a while. You can do other training methods as you do this one.
These are not all of the moneymaking methods you can do in OSRS on an Ironman run. There are lots of other methods to consider out there. Make sure to do ones that fit your current capacity to avoid dying and losing your progress. We also suggest sticking to certain methods and practicing them for a long time so that you’ll be more successful.