OSRS Crafting Guide 1–99
Crafting is a buyable skill: you pick a GP/XP you can stomach and click through it. Nearly every fast method loses money, so the real decision is how much. Rates and GP/XP below are the wiki's figures at the time of writing — margins move, so re-check the GE before you buy 10,000 of anything.
Skip if: You only need 75 for slayer rings. That is 350k XP — cut gems, do the quest XP, and stop.
Level 84 is only 2.95M of it
Black d’hide bodies with a costume needle
At GE prices, before high alching
Air battlestaves instead — ~35M if you alch
The only decision that matters: fast or cheap84–99 is 10.1M XP, and the method you pick for it decides almost your entire bill:
- Black d’hide bodies: 440k XP/hr, −21.15 GP/XP ≈ 210M. Down to ~150M if you buy raw hides, tan them yourself with Tan Leather, and High Level Alchemy the finished bodies.
- Air battlestaves: 337k XP/hr, −7.08 GP/XP ≈ 70M, or roughly 35M with high alching. You give up about a quarter of the XP rate to cut the cost by two thirds.
- Unpowered orbs: 92k XP/hr at −0.74 GP/XP. Around 7M total, but it is 110 hours.
Black dragonhide is currently the outlier — bodies cost ~12.5k each against ~8k for red. When black is expensive, red d’hide or air battlestaves past 84 is the better trade even though the XP is slower. Run the numbers with the skill calculator and alch calculator.
Fastest route to 99| Levels | Method | XP each | XP/hr | GP/XP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1–20 | Leather items | Up to 27 | ~50k/hr | Trivial |
| 20–43 | Cut sapphires → emeralds → rubies | 50 / 67.5 / 85 | 139–236k/hr | −0.46 to −3.52 |
| 43–62 | Cut diamonds | 107.5 | 299k/hr | −8.57 |
| 62–77 | Fire battlestaves | 125 | 306k/hr | −5.79 |
| 77–84 | Red d’hide bodies | 234 | 399k/hr | −9.67 |
| 84–99 | Black d’hide bodies | 258 | 440k/hr | −21.15 |
Total time is roughly 35 hours of clicking. The 20–62 gem stretch is cheap enough that most people just eat it; the decisions start at 62.
Gem cutting (20–62)Fastest XP up to the mid-70s and needs nothing but a chisel. Rates assume 2,780 gems per hour. Cutting is a small loss on every precious gem right now, not a profit method.
| Level | Gem | XP | XP/hr | GP/XP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | Sapphire | 50 | 139k | −0.46 |
| 27 | Emerald | 67.5 | 188k | −1.11 |
| 34 | Ruby | 85 | 236k | −3.52 |
| 43 | Diamond | 107.5 | 299k | −8.57 |
| 55 | Dragonstone | 137.5 | 382k | −34.74 |
Stop at diamonds. Dragonstones are faster but −34.74 GP/XP, and onyx is worse still with almost no GE supply. Semi-precious gems (opal, jade, red topaz) can smash when cut; everything sapphire and above always succeeds.
Battlestaves (54–99): how the orbs actually workThree separate steps, and people constantly mix up which level does what:
- Blow the unpowered orb — 46 Crafting, 52.5 Crafting XP, from molten glass with a glassblowing pipe.
- Charge it at an obelisk — this is Magic, not Crafting. Water 56, Earth 60, Fire 63, Air 66 Magic, plus 30 elemental and 3 cosmic runes per orb.
- Attach the orb to a battlestaff — this is the Crafting XP.
| Level | Staff | XP | XP/hr | GP/XP | With high alch |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 54 | Water | 100 | 245k | −3.59 | +2.34 |
| 58 | Earth | 112.5 | 276k | −3.93 | +1.31 |
| 62 | Fire | 125 | 306k | −5.79 | −1.66 |
| 66 | Air | 137.5 | 337k | −7.08 | −3.23 |
Water and earth battlestaves are the rare case of a fast method that turns a profit — but only if you High Level Alchemy the staves afterwards, which cuts throughput to about 800 per hour.
D’hide bodies (63/77–99)Three leathers per body. Rates assume attentive banking with a costume needle; the self-tan column is buying raw hides and casting Tan Leather (78 Magic) yourself.
| Level | Body | XP | XP/hr | GP/XP | Self-tan |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 63 | Green | 186 | 317k | −8.89 | −5.51 |
| 71 | Blue | 210 | 358k | −8.46 | −5.06 |
| 77 | Red | 234 | 399k | −9.67 | −6.43 |
| 84 | Black | 258 | 440k | −21.15 | −18.60 |
- Get the costume needle from the Costumer in Aldarin after Death on the Isle. It never runs out of thread, so you fit 9 bodies per inventory instead of 8.
- Turn on deposit lock so “Deposit inventory” leaves the needle alone.
- Gnome Stronghold south bank or any bank-adjacent furnace-free spot works; you never leave the bank.
- Tick manipulation pushes black to ~460k XP/hr, but it needs a second account to hold a gnome aggro.
Cheap and profitable alternatives- Drift nets (26–46): 2 jute fibre each, ~1,000/hr at the Fossil Island Museum Camp loom. 60k XP/hr and about +288k GP/hr — profitable Crafting XP. Check GE volume first, it is a thin market.
- Superglass Make (61+): needs 77 Magic and Lunar Diplomacy (which itself requires 61 Crafting). 18 buckets of sand + 3 giant seaweed per cast gives 108–153k Crafting XP/hr plus Magic XP, and the molten glass is worth more than the inputs.
- Dorgesh-Kaan goblin lamps (52+): 52 Crafting and 52 Firemaking after The Lost Tribe. ~130k Crafting and ~100k Firemaking XP/hr if you make your own light orbs (87 Crafting), ~90k while you learn the route.
- Amethyst (83+): 60 XP per cut, 165k XP/hr. Javelin tips are roughly break-even, arrowtips −0.20 GP/XP — the cheapest fast-ish XP at high level.
- Silver and gold jewellery: slow XP but real profit. Opal rings are 14k XP/hr at ~690k GP/hr; topaz amulets (45) are 112k XP/hr at ~806k GP/hr. Good while you bank the cash for d’hide.
- Spinning and weaving (12+): Sailing added yarn and fabric. Flax spun and woven is 28k XP/hr at ~+443k GP/hr; hemp at 39 is 105k XP/hr and still profitable.
Zaff’s daily battlestaves — what they’re really worthZaff sells noted battlestaves at 7,000 each from the barrel in his Varrock shop, once per day, after partial completion of What Lies Below. Claim your diary reward from Toby first.
- Easy diary: 15 staves — about 4.7k profit if you just resell them
- Medium: 30 staves — about 9.3k
- Hard: 60 staves — about 18.7k
- Elite: 120 staves — about 37.3k
So flipping them is pocket change, not the 100–300k a day people claim. The margin only appears if you attach orbs you made yourself: an orb is ~100 gp of molten glass plus 30 elemental and 3 cosmic runes, against ~2.3k to buy one on the GE. Buy the orb and you lose money on every staff.
Quest XP is worth 135kEvery Crafting quest reward together is 135,143 XP — enough to carry a fresh account past level 50 for free. The big ones:
- The Fremennik Exiles — 50,000 XP (needs 65 Crafting)
- The Hand in the Sand — 9,000 XP (49)
- Elemental Workshop II — 7,500 XP (20)
- Cabin Fever — 7,000 XP (45) and Enakhra’s Lament — 7,000 XP (50)
- Death on the Isle — 5,000 XP, no Crafting requirement, and it unlocks the costume needle
Elemental Workshop I gives 5,000 XP but requires 20 Crafting (plus 20 Mining and 20 Smithing), so it cannot be used to reach 20 — it takes you from 20 to about 30.
Levels worth stopping at| Level | Unlock | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 46 | Unpowered orb | Cheapest XP in the skill at −0.74 GP/XP |
| 61 | Lunar Diplomacy requirement | Gates Superglass Make and Tan Leather (both 77–78 Magic) |
| 75 | Slayer ring | Free teleports to Slayer dungeons — most players rush this |
| 80 | Dragonstone amulet (u) | Becomes an amulet of glory once enchanted |
| 83 | Amethyst bolt tips | Arrowtips 85, javelin tips 87, dart tips 89 |
| 87 | Light orb | Needed to self-supply the Dorgesh-Kaan lamp method |
| 89 | Zenyte ring (ring of suffering) | Cutting the zenyte itself is 89 for only 50 XP |
| 92 | Zenyte necklace (anguish) | Not 98 — that is the amulet |
| 95 | Zenyte bracelet (tormented) | 180 XP each |
| 98 | Zenyte amulet (torture) | 200 XP each, the highest single Crafting action |
Common mistakes- Buying finished dragon leather instead of tanning raw hides — that is 3+ GP/XP thrown away per body.
- Not high alching the bodies or staves afterwards. It is the single biggest cost reduction available.
- Jumping to black d’hide at 84 without comparing it to red or air battlestaves that week.
- Cutting dragonstones for the XP rate. It is the most expensive gem per XP in the game outside onyx.
- Expecting gem cutting or plain staff flipping to fund the grind. Neither does.