Inside Story: OSRS Crafting Guide Explained

Crafting in Old School RuneScape (OSRS) is a fundamental skill, allowing players to create a vast array of items, from essential armor and weapons to decorative furniture and helpful tools. Mastering crafting is crucial for self-sufficiency, profitability, and completing numerous quests. This guide delves deep into the intricacies of OSRS crafting, exploring its various aspects, from leveling strategies to valuable crafting methods, providing players with a comprehensive understanding of this core skill.

Table of Contents

  • [The Core of Crafting: Leveling Efficiently](#core)

  • [Unveiling the Gem Crafting Secrets](#gem)

  • [Leatherworking: From Cowhide to Dragonhide](#leather)

  • [Battlestaves and Beyond: Making Money Through Crafting](#battlestaves)

  • [Crafting Guild: The Heart of the Skill](#guild)

    • The Core of Crafting: Leveling Efficiently

    Crafting, unlike combat skills, relies heavily on resource gathering and processing. The most effective way to train crafting involves understanding the experience rates of different methods and selecting those that balance cost, time, and experience. "The key to efficient crafting is to minimize downtime and maximize experience per hour," explains veteran OSRS player 'CraftMaster123' on a popular online forum.

    Early levels (1-20) are best tackled using readily available materials. Making leather gloves and boots from cowhides is a straightforward and cost-effective start. Cowhides are cheap and abundant, making this a reliable method. Once you reach level 5, you can begin crafting amulets, which offer a slight experience boost. The process involves smelting gold bars and then using them on a furnace with an amulet mould.

    From levels 20 to 40, crafting gold bracelets or silver items becomes viable. Gold bracelets offer decent experience and can be profitable if the market prices are right. Silver crafting, particularly silver bolts, provides a good balance of experience and profit, especially if you have access to the Family Crest quest, which grants a bonus to silver smelting.

    Mid-level training (40-70) opens up a wider range of options. Crafting battlestaves, requiring level 40 Crafting and access to elemental staves, is a popular choice. This method often yields a profit and provides steady experience. Another option is crafting green dragonhide bodies, which requires level 63 Crafting and offers excellent experience, albeit at a higher material cost.

    For high-level training (70-99), crafting black dragonhide bodies becomes the most efficient experience-giving method, provided you can afford the black dragonhide. Alternatively, crafting onyx jewelry after completing the Lunar Diplomacy quest offers a substantial experience boost but comes at a significant cost. Many players also utilize methods involving crafting divine locations, which can be found through the use of scrolls and offer temporary boosts to experience rates.

    Unveiling the Gem Crafting Secrets

    Gem crafting is a crucial aspect of the Crafting skill, allowing players to cut and enchant gems for use in jewelry, weapons, and other items. The process involves mining ore, smelting it into bars, and then using the bars to create molds for jewelry. Gems are then cut using a chisel, requiring different Crafting levels depending on the gem's rarity.

    The most common gems and their corresponding Crafting levels are:

  • Opal: Level 1 Crafting

  • Jade: Level 13 Crafting

  • Red Topaz: Level 16 Crafting

  • Sapphire: Level 20 Crafting

  • Emerald: Level 27 Crafting

  • Ruby: Level 34 Crafting

  • Diamond: Level 43 Crafting

  • Dragonstone: Level 55 Crafting

  • Onyx: Level 67 Crafting

  • Zenyte: Level 83 Crafting

    • Cutting gems is a relatively click-intensive but straightforward process. Players simply use a chisel on the uncut gem, and with each successful cut, they gain Crafting experience. The experience gained varies depending on the gem, with rarer gems providing more experience.

    Gem crafting is often combined with other skills, such as Mining and Smithing, to create a self-sufficient resource loop. Players can mine ore, smelt it into bars, cut gems, and then use the bars and gems to create valuable jewelry. This integrated approach can be highly profitable and efficient for training multiple skills simultaneously.

    The profitability of gem crafting depends on the market prices of uncut and cut gems. Generally, rarer gems like diamonds and rubies are more profitable to cut, while lower-level gems like opals and jades may not be worth the effort due to their low market value. Players should always check the Grand Exchange prices before cutting gems to ensure they are making a profit.

    Leatherworking: From Cowhide to Dragonhide

    Leatherworking is a significant branch of Crafting, focusing on transforming raw animal hides into armor, boots, gloves, and other useful items. The process typically involves tanning the hides and then crafting them into the desired items using a needle and thread. Different types of hides require different Crafting levels and produce different types of leather armor.

    The most common types of leather and their corresponding Crafting levels are:

  • Leather (Cowhide): Level 1 Crafting

  • Hard Leather: Level 28 Crafting

  • Green Dragonhide: Level 63 Crafting

  • Blue Dragonhide: Level 66 Crafting

  • Red Dragonhide: Level 69 Crafting

  • Black Dragonhide: Level 77 Crafting

    • Crafting leather armor is a relatively simple process. Players use a needle and thread on the tanned hide, which opens a crafting interface where they can select the item they want to create. The experience gained varies depending on the item and the type of leather used.

    Early levels of leatherworking are best trained using cowhides. Cowhides are readily available from killing cows or purchasing them on the Grand Exchange. Crafting leather gloves, boots, and bodies from cowhides provides a steady stream of experience and is a good way to reach higher Crafting levels.

    As players progress, they can move on to crafting hard leather armor, which requires level 28 Crafting and provides better protection than regular leather armor. Hard leather is created by tanning cowhides using oak trees in a tanner shop.

    Dragonhide armor is the most sought-after type of leather armor in OSRS, offering excellent protection against both melee and ranged attacks. Crafting dragonhide armor requires different Crafting levels depending on the color of the dragonhide. Green dragonhide is the easiest to craft, while black dragonhide is the most difficult. Dragonhide is obtained by killing dragons or purchasing it on the Grand Exchange.

    "Leatherworking is a great way to make money and train Crafting simultaneously," says 'LeatherKing' on Reddit. "Crafting dragonhide bodies can be highly profitable, especially if you can obtain the hides yourself."

    Battlestaves and Beyond: Making Money Through Crafting

    Crafting offers several lucrative opportunities for players looking to make money in OSRS. One of the most popular methods is crafting battlestaves. Battlestaves are created by attaching an elemental orb to a staff, requiring level 40 Crafting. The process involves purchasing unpowered staves and elemental orbs from various shops or the Grand Exchange and then using the orbs on the staves at specific locations.

    The most common types of battlestaves and their corresponding elemental orbs are:

  • Water Battlestaff: Water Orb

  • Earth Battlestaff: Earth Orb

  • Fire Battlestaff: Fire Orb

  • Air Battlestaff: Air Orb

Crafting battlestaves is a relatively simple process. Players simply use the elemental orb on the unpowered staff, which creates a battlestaff. The experience gained is moderate, but the profit potential is significant.

The profitability of crafting battlestaves depends on the market prices of unpowered staves, elemental orbs, and battlestaves. Players should always check the Grand Exchange prices before crafting battlestaves to ensure they are making a profit. Generally, fire battlestaves are the most profitable to craft due to their high demand and relatively low material costs.

Beyond battlestaves, other crafting methods can also be profitable. Crafting jewelry, such as gold bracelets and diamond rings, can be a good source of income, especially if players can obtain the materials themselves through mining and smelting. Crafting divine locations, although requiring a higher upfront investment, can also yield substantial profits by selling the resources gathered by other players at the location.

Another profitable crafting method is creating unfinished potions and selling them to other players. This method requires a high Herblore level to create the potions and a Crafting level to make the vials. However, the profit margins can be quite high, especially for high-level potions.

Crafting Guild: The Heart of the Skill

The Crafting Guild is a members-only location dedicated to the Crafting skill. Located south of Falador, it offers several benefits to players who have reached level 40 Crafting. The guild provides access to crafting equipment, resources, and training areas that are not available elsewhere.

One of the main benefits of the Crafting Guild is access to the spinning wheels. Spinning wheels are used to spin flax into bowstrings, which are used in Fletching. The Crafting Guild has several spinning wheels, making it a convenient place to train both Crafting and Fletching.

The guild also has a pottery oven, which is used to fire clay into pottery items. Pottery is a low-level Crafting method that can be used to train Crafting early on. The Crafting Guild's pottery oven is conveniently located near a clay deposit, making it easy to gather clay and fire it into pottery items.

The Crafting Guild also offers a special crafting training area where players can craft leather armor and jewelry. This area provides a safe and convenient place to train Crafting without having to worry about being attacked by monsters.

To gain access to the Crafting Guild, players must have a Crafting level of 40 or higher or wear a brown apron. The brown apron can be obtained from the guild's master craftsman, located inside the guild.

The Crafting Guild is a valuable resource for players training Crafting. It provides access to crafting equipment, resources, and training areas that are not available elsewhere. Players who are serious about training Crafting should definitely consider joining the Crafting Guild.

In conclusion, crafting in OSRS is a multifaceted skill that offers players a wide range of opportunities for self-sufficiency, profit, and skill progression. By understanding the various crafting methods, leveling strategies, and resources available, players can master this essential skill and unlock its full potential. From crafting essential armor and weapons to creating valuable jewelry and potions, crafting plays a crucial role in the OSRS economy and gameplay experience.