Training combat in F2P

I wrote this guide a while ago for a clan of runepures and tanks, but the methods in it work for pretty much all mid- to high-level F2P accounts.
This isn't a starting guide, it's for people who want to get good xp training combat at higher levels in F2P.

By Noobmage
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Know any other good F2P methods? Find a mistake in one of mine? Have any questions? Wish to submit an XP rate? Just want to say "hi?" Post a reply.

Table of Contents

SECTION 1: MAGIC

• 1.1 Superheating
• 1.2 Curse Alching
• 1.3 Finding Good Alchs

SECTION 2: RANGED

• 2.1 Lesser Demons
• 2.2 Alternatives

SECTION 3: MELEE

• 3.1 Flesh Crawlers
• 3.2 Hill Giants
• 3.3 Moss Giants
• 3.4 Giant Spiders
• 3.5 Cockroach Soldiers

SECTION 4: Submitted Tips/Other Methods

SECTION I: MAGIC

1.1: Superheating

Superheating is one of the best ways to train Magic in F2P. This section shows the best method for superheating mithril ore.
Experience: 50-80K Magic + 30-50K smithing per hour
Money: 4-8K per hour
Money needed to start: ~1.5M
Required for mithril superheating: 50 smithing or someone to assist Smithing

First off, you'll need to buy some supplies. Head over to the Grand Exchange and buy as much mithril ore and coal, and as many nature runes, as you can. For each 1K mithril ore, you'll need 1K nature runes and 4K coal.

Head over to a bank of your choice (I like Edgeville because there aren't a lot of people, but some people prefer the Duel Arena because you can one-click bank).

Set up a bank tab so that it looks like this:


Figure 1: Recommended bank tab and inventory for superheating mithril
Note: Superheating iron is the fastest magic xp/h superheating and requires no coal, while steel is slower than iron but faster than mithril; I just have pictures of superheating mithril shown as an example of one superheat method.

Withdraw 9 mithril ore (Note: Withdraw the first 8 by using the Withdraw X function so your fifth right-click option in your bank is Withdraw-8), 16 coal, all your nature runes, and two random items, then set your inventory up as it appears in Figure 1.

Go to your magic tab and match the types of spells that you see and the level order to the spellbook shown in Figure 2.


Figure 2: Recommended spellbook configuration for superheating mithril

You should have all types of spells except combat shown, and your spell order should be teleports first.

1. After you have your bank tab, inventory, and spellbook set up, click on Superheat Item in your spellbook, then click again (your cursor will be over the ninth mithril ore in your inventory).

2. Open your bank, fill the rest of your inventory with coal again (DO NOT bank the first four bars), and superheat four more bars.
You will never be superheating the ninth mithril ore in your inventory.

3.After you have superheated eight bars, deposit all the bars in your inventory, withdraw-8 mithril ore, and withdraw-all coal to fill your inventory up, then go back to Step 1.

When you get bored of superheating or you finish 1K, do some high alchs for a change of pace, or just continue superheating.

You can do about 1.5-1.8K superheats per hour if you turn all chats and IRC off, put some music on, and concentrate entirely on RS. If you're chatting with friends or interrupted IRL, you should be able to do 900-1.1K per hour.

1.2: Curse Alching

A very fast way to train magic in F2P, Curse Alching gets you a lot of XP but loses a lot of money.

Experience: 80-100K Magic per hour
Money: -120 to -150K per hour (negative numbers are loss)
Money needed to start: 2M+, more if you're going to be doing it for a long time

I recommend you watch greekmadness13's short video guide to Stun Alching to understand the basic concept if you've never stun-alched/curse-alched before.

Please see section 1.3 on how to find good alchs in F2P

You will want to wear full armor while you stun-alch because you will want as low a magic attack bonus as possible.
Wear decorative or fighter boots, rather than leather boots, because they have a negative magic attack bonus.
Use a staff of earth, rather than a staff of water, because three earth runes are slightly more expensive than two water runes, and either set of elemental runes required for casting Curse is much more expensive than the five fire runes you'll need for each cast of high alchemy.

1.3: Finding Good Alchs

I personally use HKGame.de's Cheap Alch page to find the best F2P alchs; however, I double-check the losses of all the best alchs before I buy any. At the time of the publishing of this guide, three good alchs were adamant platebodies, mithril kiteshields, and mithril battleaxes. Add 35 to the loss of each alch if you're curse-alching to figure in for the fire runes you'll be using.

Training Magic with alchemy is fun and inexpensive if you're chatting with friends and/or want to get good XP for the amount of work you'll be putting into training.

1.4: Alching while superheating

For the fastest magic XP in F2P you can cast alchemy spells while superheating. I'm not sure if low alch would be better xp because superheat and alch are different speeds so low alch might make you lose fewer ticks. Here's a video guide.

SECTION II: RANGED

2.1: Lesser Demons

Experience: 40-55K Ranged per hour
Money: 30-60K+ per hour
Money needed to start: About 100K for supplies
Quest Requirement: Dragon Slayer

Proven to be the best ranged experience in f2p, lesser demons are unpopulated, good money, and excellent experience.

Head over to Port Sarim with the gear in Figure 3:





Take the boat to Karamja, head west to the volcano, climb down the rocks, and head northwest until you reach a wall with some lesser demons beyond it. Push the wall, and run past the lesser demons, the place where you killed Elvarg, and some level-40+ skeletons until you reach a rope, then climb up it. You will be in an area with two lesser demons and some rocks. Find a good safespot (the best one is at the opposite end of the area from where you exit the cave) and attack lesser demons until you run out of arrows or get a full inventory of items. Cast home teleport, bank, and repeat, or just retrace your steps and bank in Falador (much slower).


Safespot where you can kill them without being hit

I pick up gold ore, fire runes, gems, death runes. I alch rune med helms, all mithril items, and all steel items except steel hatchets, which only alch for 120gp.

2.2: Alternatives

If you have not or can not complete Dragon Slayer (or you don't want to be bothered with the hassle of going to Crandor), here are some other places to train ranged.

• Moss Giants in Varrock sewers -- These can sometimes be crowded at peak times but if you hop around you should find a world without too much trouble. They're good xp and can drop up to 6 nature runes, and those add up.
  
• Hill Giants in 18 Wilderness OR Edgeville Dungeon -- Hill giants, a favorite of low-leveled players and pures, are easy to kill, good experience, and drop big bones if you'd like to make some money or train Prayer. The hill giants in the Wilderness are safespottable (but watch for pkers), as are the ones in Edgeville Dungeon. It is much quicker to access the ones in Edgeville Dungeon if you have a brass key; this lets you access a ladder west of Varrock which puts you right next to them. If you have 20 Dungeoneering you can also access the resource dungeon in Edgeville Dungeon. It has lots of hill giants but no safespots.
  
  
• Ankous in the Stronghold of Security -- The safespot here is not perfect, but there are lots of Ankous any barely any other players.
  

SECTION III: MELEE

This section is organized the same as the others, but each NPC you can train on has either a "Good for rune pures" label, a "Good for tanks" label, or both. "Good for tanks" labels mean that, in general, the spot is good for 50+ defence. Each NPC does not need as much detail as the Ranged guide because the tactic is the same for all. I recommend you use a power amulet for accuracy, rather than a strength amulet for strength, on all NPCs while training melee.

• 3.1: Flesh Crawlers -- Hitpoints: 25 | Experience: 100 | Combat Level: 35
  
  The best spot to train on flesh crawlers is the farthest room southeast in the second floor of the Stronghold of Security.
  
  Figure 8: Two paths to the best place to train on Flesh Crawlers
  
  Recommended potions to food: 14 potions, 14 anchovy pizzas for tanks; 7 potions, 21 anchovy pizzas for rune pures
  
  When you run out of food, simply exit the Stronghold, run to Varrock west bank, restock, and go back to training.
  
• 3.2: Hill Giants -- Hitpoints: 35 | Experience: 140 | Combat Level: 28
  
  Please see section 2.2 for information on how to kill Hill Giants.
  
• 3.3: Moss Giants -- Hitpoints: 60 | Experience: 240 | Combat Level: 42
  Please see section 2.2 for information on how to kill Moss Giants in Varrock Sewers.
  
  The best spot to kill Moss Giants is Crandor; there are four giants, and almost nobody ever trains in that spot. Bring 13 strength potions (4), 13 anchovy pizzas, a nature rune (as a placeholder), and a lobster cage if you want to restock on food when you run low. Although lower defence levels can still kill moss giants easily, these are far enough away from a bank that they're not worth going to unless you can last for a long time, so I suggest that you only train here if you are higher (~60+) defence. Inventory picture coming soon. If you don't know how to get to Crandor, please see section 2.1 and follow the instructions, except exit the area with two lesser demons and run north. You will see four moss giants; train away, then fish lobsters and cook them on Karamja, then repeat. Bank in Falador when your inventory is full of drops.
  
• 3.4: Giant Spiders -- Hitpoints: 50 | Experience: 200 | Combat Level: 50
  
  Giant spiders are the favorite of many high-leveled players because it is possible to AFK/train with minimal attention there. They're close enough to a bank that you can get okay xp/h here with 40+ defence. Bring swordfish or anchovy pizzas, a number of strength potions, and varrock teleport runes for faster banking.
  
  Figure 9: The two places one can train on giant spiders
  Recommended number of strength potions (depends on att/str too): Runepures: 3-4; 50-60 defence 4-5; 60-70 defence 6-8; 70-80 defence 8-10; 80+ defence 10-12
  
• 3.5: Cockroach soldiers -- Hitpoints: 96 | Experience: 384 | Combat Level: 83
  
  Located in the Stronghold of Security, cockroach soldiers are a good option only if your attack is quite high (70+). Otherwise, they're just too hard to hit. Avoid ranging these as they have a strong ranged attack that can hit 10s pretty consistently. The best place to kill cockroach soldiers is the room directly below the rift entrance from Edgeville because it's very close to a bank. Notable drops: rune scimitars, rune sq shields, death runes, law runes. These are worse xp than giant spiders and hit more so I only suggest training here if you're looking for a change of pace. Gravite rapier would be good here as they're weak to stab.

SECTION 4: Submitted Tips

• If you know of a good method I haven't posted here, post it in a reply and I'll add it here

Thanks for reading!

- Noobmage