Starter Tips and Tricks for Ironmen in Old School Runescape

Published: 10 Nov 2022 7:22 PM +00:00 Updated: 10 Nov 2022 7:53 PM +00:00

If you’re playing an ironman in OSRS, you’ve probably already seen the articles and wiki pages out there recommending you just hit a quick 99 in a few skills if you really want to start your ironman off right. While this may be true, suggesting you get much further in terms of your progression than you actually are right now isn’t particularly useful. So, in this article, we’ll give you some of the top tips and tricks for ironmen in Old School Runescape that you can start taking advantage of as soon as you leave Tutorial Island.

Do Some Basic Agility Training

Of course, the full graceful set is going to be a huge win for any ironman character, and really, the higher your agility the better off you’ll be. Nonetheless, starting off at level 1 agility will be extraordinarily painful for ironman when it comes to run energy.

Heading over to the Gnome Strong Agility Course at level 1 and the Draynor Village Rooftop Course at level 10 is a great way to just spend a little time churning through those lower agility levels. Even leveling up just 20 or 30 times or so is going to be a solid investment into your character, and it’s worth doing at least a little when you start off a character.

OSRS Wiki and Questing

Questing might seem tedious to veteran Runescape players, but especially for ironmen, questing is essential. It’s a fantastic way to level up your skills, unlock areas, and get important pieces of equipment you won’t have any other way to acquire. However, it’s important you go about your questing efficiently to maximize your gains.

Accordingly, make sure you follow along with the OSRS Wiki’s ironmen questing guides, and if you’re playing with RuneLite, install the WikiSync plugin so you can easily keep track of what quests you’ve finished and be able to tell at a glance what quests you can accept.

Complete the Stronghold of Security

Make sure to head on over to the Barbarian Village and complete the Stronghold of Security as soon as possible. Early game, a cash injection of 10,000 gold is a huge win, but beyond the gold, you’ll also get your choice between Fancy Boots and Fighting Boots, which will be an important piece of gear at the lower levels for ironmen.

Once you’ve got your gold, make sure you invest it wisely! Runes are always a good choice, and if you’re following along with the OSRS Wiki’s questing guide, don’t invest your gold into skills that’ll quickly be leveled by quests, either. What’s more is to make sure to not blow all your GP at once! Making money as a low-level ironman is tough, so you’ll have to make the most of what you have for quite some time.

Find Good Skills to AFK

Runescape is more of a lifestyle than it is a mere game. Oftentimes, maxing an account or truly reaching endgame is something that can take years, not weeks or months, even if you’re efficient about the whole process. So, it’s going to save you a lot of time and let you progress a lot faster if you identify good ways for your ironman to AFK.

Skills you can train while watching some Netflix, or something you can put on in the background while you’re working from home, or even something you tab out and keep track of while you’re playing something else is what you’re after. It’s easy to burn out on Runescape, so you’ll want to find skills that are easy to train in the background without taking up too much of your focus.

Attack, defense, strength, and hitpoints are great skills to start off training, and there are many different mobs you can fight AFK.

Use Ardougne as an Early Transportation Hub

Transporting yourself around the world of Runescape is going to be one of the most difficult things about an ironman account. Early on, though, you’ll get access to an Ardougne cloak, which is going to be an immensely useful tool for early ironmen.

This cloak allows you to teleport to the Ardougne Monastery, which is a great place to recharge your prayer points, and it provides easy access to a Spirit Tree, a charter ship to Rimmington and Brimhaven as well as easy access to a bank and tons of different quest locations. It’s a great place to make your ‘home base’ early on because of how much is quickly within reach, so you’ll want to be sure to rely on this city when necessary.

Stock Up on Anything You’ll Need Later

Another big part of the ironman experience is trading with NPCs. Most of the stuff you’ll need for quests and materials for training are going to come from trading with NPCs, so as you’re traveling about the world, make sure to stop in nearby shops and check out the wares on offer. Even if you don’t have an itemized list of what you’ll need later, picking up anything that seems useful and banking it is a great habit.

For quests in specific, the OSRS Wiki’s ironmen questing guides will take care to point out when you should, most of the time, stock up on something while you’re in the area, so that’s another good resource worth paying attention to so you can have a good idea of what you’ll want to be looking out for from a particular trader.

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