Getting 99 Smithing While Profiting

Smithing is one now one of the buyable skills without much reward until hitting level 99, but most do the bare minimum to reach quest or diary requirements. It can be a relatively fast skill to train by doing gold ore at blast furnace or smithing plate bodies all the way through.

The real challenge is going all the way without having to get into the red by investing in expensive bars. Luckily, some niche methods allow you to train to smith while making a marginal profit on the way.

Mining Your Own Ore?

Let’s face it, a lot of quick smithing methods involve throwing most of your gold down the toilet. Which such high bar prices, you may consider doing everything from scratch. While rocks are not always situated next to furnaces, there are a few locations where it can be worth it.

One example for F2P players is to mine iron in the South Wilderness Mine, just above Edgeville. On the way back to the back from a full load, the furnace is conveniently placed in the path, wasting little time smelting your bars before depositing. You may then hoard these bars to make into platebodys or something similar at the nearby Varrock anvils.

For high-level players with Song of the Elves completed, the new Trahaearn mine is a short distance from the furnace, anvil, and bank. This mine contains iron to runite, making it suitable for practically any method you can fathom.

This way of going about smithing training isn’t the most efficient (except for Ultimate Ironmen), but it does serve as a motivator to train multiple skills. If anything, it allows you to explore mechanics intended for mining and smithing rather than instant gratification form buying bars from the Grand Exchange.

1-15+ – Tai Bwo Wannai Anvil

If you don’t feel like doing quests or investing in a bunch of bronze bars to kick of smithing, you may smith them for next-to-nothing while making a decent amount of money in the end. The key to this method is the Jiminua's Jungle Store in Tai Bwo Wannai and a nearby anvil.

The shop stocks 10 bronze bars at a time for a mere 12 coins, which is much cheaper than the market price. Hop worlds until you have a full inventory and head over to the anvil to make whatever is available at your level.

After the preliminary levels, start making stackable items like arrow tips, dart tips, bolts or knives. These should sell for a decent amount of money, at least funding the ores for upcoming training methods.

15-30+ – Smelting Iron Bars

Iron bars are often overlooked because you randomly get impurities a waste the ore. However, with the use of a Ring of Forging, you can turn a method that goes from a huge loss to a slight profit. It is also rather fast and AFK to get some early levels.

Each ring has 140 charges, with 1 charge working with each one. You may need approximately 6 or 7 rings per hour, depending on how fast you are smelting. A typical hour may yield approximately 11,500 experience per hour with over 40,000 gold per hour in profit.

As for location, you can’t beat either the Edgeville furnace or the Port Phasmatys furnace due to the proximity to each bank. Be sure to have Ghosts Ahoy completed, along with a Ghostspeak amulet equipped if you choose the latter. If you have access to Varrock Armour 1, training in Edgeville would be slightly better due to the 10% of making two bars at once.

20-30+ – Smelting Silver Bars (F2P Viable)

Assuming you buy them from the Grand Exchange, smelting silver bars works just the same as iron but without the need to use a Ring of Forging. Since each ore gives a tiny bit of experience more than iron, it is a faster and more efficient method of AFK smelting.

It is also the only profitable method of smithing before the availability of rune items in F2P. There is usually a 30 gold margin between ores and bars, so you will get more than smithing iron.

30-99 – Blast Furnace Steel/Mithirl/Addy Bars

You can start doing Blast Furnace at Level 30, which is arguably one of the most consistent money makers in Runescape. The drawback is that you need to pay 72,000 gold per hour if under level 60, have Ice Gauntlets, Graceful pieces, and a coal bag does it efficiently. Advertised experience rates are usually estimated for well-established accounts.

You must do this minigame on one of the busy designated worlds so that the different side functions are covered. This way, you only have to worry about your ore and bars.

You start by placing your ore and coal on the conveyor belt and watch it go down. If you don’t have ice gloves, you have to cool it with a bucket of water. Otherwise, you may then go straight to the dispenser to collect the finished product. You will get an XP drop and then move on to deposit your bars in the bank chest.

Once you have the system down, you should be able to get a consistent 80,000 experience per hour plus over 500,000 gold in profit. This makes it on par with making Rune items at level 99, but with considerable effort required.

Smithing Mithril or Adamantite bars are also viable here, but it only gives around 5,000 extra experience per hour with the extra effort required. You need to make sure that you calculate the coal to ore ratio correctly as it’s much higher than with steel bars.

35+ – Cannonballs

Cannonballs are the most famous way to make a profit from smithing, which is why gold farmers and bots are always making them. The only real requirement is 35 smithing and the completion of Dwarf Cannon, which is easily done on a fresh account.

The only real plus side is that it’s a very relaxed method that allows players to look away from the screen for over a minute. Generally speaking, you get around 13,000 experience per hour with well over 100,000 experience per hour.

If you are focusing your attention on another account, this is a good way for the passive experience. Otherwise, you should consider pretty much any other method mentioned in this guide.

74-99 – Adamantite Unfinished Bolts or Dart Tips

Likely due to the high cost and low demand of bars (plus much faster experience rates), smithing stackable items with Adamantite has extremely tight profit margins. This is why you should be quite careful with current rates as one item may no longer be break-even or profitable within the same week.

Dart tips are not exactly in high demand when rune or mithril are cheaply available, so it is usually just break-even or a few thousand golds per hour. Unfinished bolts are a more stable option due to them being used for enchanted Ruby or Diamond bolts that are always in demand. In any case, you can expect nearly 50,000 experience per hour, which is quite good for being AFK.

98-99 – Rune 2-handed Swords (F2P Viable)

Once you hit 98 smithing, you no longer have to slave away with tedious tasks and you can start making big bucks with certain runite items. Rune 2-handed swords are always in demand for those wanting to train High-Level Alchemy and F2P player killers.

There are many players training magic that will hang out by the anvils, offering to buy rune items in bulk from smiths. Skilling worlds and World 301 are places to train if you want to run into buyers.

The sword itself requires 99 smithing, but you may drink a cheap Dwarven Stout every anvil run to boost from 98. A mature Dwarven Stout may also be used, but it is very expensive and would eat away the slim profit margin. Hourly profits usually exceed 500,000 gold per hour, but may have slight variance due to changing market prices.

Wrapping Up

The market in OSRS is always evolving, so some smithing methods may be phased out with other taking its place. Generally speaking, things that are less rewarding experience-wise and/or require more effort are likely to remain profitable. Hopefully, this guide has served you well in planning out your smithing training for a cheap and quick level 99 skill.