hey all,

i've started playing again, casually, on free-to-play after a long absence. Decided that I'll work towards all stats above 80, that I can while on free-to-play. First off is mining and smithing.

I have the steel bars/coal ore to get up to 80 in smithing, but need to mine iron.

First 3 questions of my return...

1) where is the best place to mine iron in free to play?
2) is varrock the best place to smith?
3) is al kharid the best place to smelt?

Any tips on leveling either of these stats in free to play would be great.

I need two levels in smithing (which I have basically banked) and 4 levels in mining..

Thanks all

I'm not sure or not, but you could always try the Mining guild for Iron ore. But seeing as you are F2P, there may be a lot of people down there. There's also a mine down in Edgeville Dungeon and I think it may have some iron rocks you can mine. But I don't know how efficient that would be. Mining iron ore will probably be your biggest issue right now for finding the right place. I can't really help any more, sorry.

Varrock is probably by far the best place for you to smith. Just use the West Bank of course for depositing and withdrawing your bars and you'll be fine. It's the closest anvil-to-bank spot I know of.

I would also say Al Kharid is a good spot for smelting. I can't think of another place right off hand that has a closer bank near a furnace. The second best place would probably be Falador.

Thanks dude, are there iron ores just west of varrock? I can check that for myself later on, at work right now.

There's no iron ore in the Mining Guild, just coal and 5 mithril rocks. You could walk through the guild and go north through the gate for some iron rocks, that's the dwarf mine where the king scorpions are. I think the best place for iron in F2P is outside the southeast corner of Varrock. The Al Kharid mine is best for power mining, you could bank from there but it is a bit of a walk.

The best F2P place for smelting is Al Kharid, and the best smithing spot is at the Varrock west bank.

Perfect thanks, I'll give south east of varrock ago. I remember mining there before the days of members, was quite busy. Thanks guys!

I have to mine 4000 iron to reach 80 smithing without spending any cash. Chances are I'll get bored somewhere between 1000-2000 and buy the rest.. but we'll see! Mining is notoriously my hardest skill to stick to/level.

I'll likely have more questions later on, appreciate the help!!

playing again, aye?

Have fun mining, dood. I remember mining coal and superheating mith in the guild to get to the mid 80s..

I would say that the Al-Kharid mines would be the best place to mine iron ore because of the direct almost-a-straight-line-route to the bank, but I just realised that the Varrok east and west mines (though not completely straight routes) are actually shorter.

And with the new run-energy update, the rest function and the Explorer's Ring, the distance should be no problem.

Have fun skilling!

I would suggest selling coal and buying the right amount of iron, then mining coal in the Mining Guild. It'd be faster.

1) East Varrock
2) Yes
3) Yes

What I did for 75 Mining/70 Smithing recently was mine 10k Rune Essence for around 450K, and then mine coal the rest of the way. Then I used my Rune Essence money to buy iron, and smelted steel bars. Sold those, and bought more iron and coal.



Mining Guild has mithril and coal.


And really, if you plan on using the Al-Kharid mine, bank at Duel Arena. It's closer.

Hey Sid! Yep, playing probably 2 - 3 hours a week which is plenty for me right now. Playing house keeps a man nice and busy. I will have fun! Still playing lots?




I've been wondering.. what is the "Explorer's Ring"?



Thanks dude.. I've been thinking it's probably quicker for me to mine Mithril? (level 76 mining) and then smith Mithril gear from 79-80 (I'll run out of steel bars at around 79). Any thoughts on that?

Where would the best place to mine on F2P be? Mining guild? Somewhere in the wild? (Need to bank it)

Thanks all!!

Uhm I don't really know how quick mithril would be. Do you care about money? If you don't your method of smithing the mithril bars is fine, but if you do care about money then smelting steel bars is probably the way to go. You could smelt mithril bars but that'd be slower (I did it for a bit).

Coal and Mithril would be Mining Guild
Iron would be either Varrock mine or the Al-Kharid (I used Varrock on a pure recently, dunno about Al-Kharid)

Thanks again, not concerned about money. Going to be smelting, smithing, and alching. I'll give mith a go.

Heck no, I quit about a year ago. Only thing I ever do anymore is hop on to mine some rune on f2p while I drink my morning coffee and try to wake up in the wee hours.

For what it's worth: the mining guild is a short run from the falador east bank. Coal and mith down there, most people take a fire staff and some nats, and superheat any mith ore they get, because there's plenty of coal for the taking. Then you end up with a bunch of bars in your invo, you get some smithing exp with the superheat, and you don't waste all that time/energy smithing mith ore 5 at a time in a furnace for minimal exp. There are some iron rocks through the gate in the mining guild, but that's only if you want to power mine for exp and drop the ores, because it's too far from the bank to be worth the effort. But there are three addy rocks in there, just in case you want to pop in there from time to time while mining the mith.

to sum, for mith I would recommend: mining guild
iron: sw of varrock
smithing bars: varrock west bank and anvil
All that other stuff sounds like member jargon to me.

Thanks Sid, very handy info. Mining's a good one to do I've found so far when you just want a quick fix, but want to be able to jump up and deal with real life whenever it comes a knocking. I hope real life is treating you well, speaking of morning coffee.. it's about time for some more. Doesn't it matter that it's almost 5PM?

When it comes to caffeine, I think not.

Hmm... I disagree with most of them. I liked the Dwarven Mine the best. Just bank in Fally East, then take the entrance to the Dwarven Mine that's in NE Fally. Always was my favorite...

The Dwarven Mine can be a good alternative if the Varrock mines are full. There is a slight advantage in walking time to the Dwarven Mine, but it is virtually negated by the fact that you have to go through a door and a stairwell to get there. The Varrock mines are on the surface so you can click on the minimap to keep going, and you don't have to wait for the reload going into/out of the mine like in Falador.