Strategies for Ironman Mode

This article is a strategy guide for Ironman Mode. Information on mechanics, setups, and tactics is on this page.

Herblore is a relatively difficult skills to train on ironman mode while also having many useful rewards. Putting reward experience and repeatable experience on herblore is a common way to get experience in the skill, although obtaining herbs is still important for making the actual potions. At high level, the Anachronia Dinosaur Farm also offers produce that can aid training a lot.

Equipment

See also Herblore training#Equipment.

Image	Item	Explanation	Obtaining
	Herb bag	Stores unnoted herbs, primarily useful early on.	200 spirit points from Herby Werby.
	Botanist's outfit	Each piece of the Botanist's outfit increases Herblore experience by 1%. Wearing a full set will give an extra 1% bonus experience, for 6% bonus experience in total.	Flash Powder Factory, requiring 75 , 75 and 50 (all unboostable). Ideally, when it is on Thaler.
	Modified botanist's mask	In addition to granting a 1% Herblore experience bonus, gives a 5% chance to duplicate potions the player is making.	Flash Powder Factory. Ideally, when it is on Thaler.
	Factory outfit	Wearing 3/5 parts of the outfit gives a 10% chance of creating 4-dose potions instead of 3-dose. Stacks with bonuses from Morytania legs 4 and Desert amulet 4. Wearing all 5 parts will give bonus experience making unfinished potions equivalent to cleaning the relevant herb.	The full set costs 12,000 Brian points from Flash Powder Factory or 1,200 thaler.
	Scroll of cleansing	Gives the player the Wasteless Herblore ability: which grants the following effects: A 1 in 8 (12.5%) chance that the player will make a potion twice as fast as usual. A 1 in 10 (10%) chance that when adding a herb to a vial of water or coconut milk, or secondary ingredient to an unfinished potion, it will not be used up, leaving the player with an extra ingredient. This effect also works with juju potions, combination potions, and extreme potions.	Requires a Herblore level of 49 and a Dungeoneering level of 49. Purchased for 20,000 Dungeoneering reward tokens from the Rewards Trader.
	Morytania legs 4	20% chance of creating a 4-dose prayer renewal instead of 3-dose while mixing them in Morytania.	Complete all Morytania achievements.
	Desert amulet 4	20% chance to create a 4-dose super antifire instead of 3-dose, while in the desert.	Complete all Desert achievements.
- or -
	Botanist's amulet	5% chance to create 4-dose potions instead of 3-dose. 5 charges.	Enchanted jade amulet, made with 27 and 34 . The jades can be obtained from opening geodes.
	Envenomed perk	10% chance to create 4-dose potions when mixing Weapon Poison or Antipoison potion variants instead of 3-dose.	97 (unboostable) and 80 required. The eggs can be obtained from rolling a random egg using hunter marks at a 3/13 chance or as a drop from feral, venomous or ripper dinosaurs (90, 105 and 114 respectively) at a 1/750 chance.
	Deployable herb burner	Can be used to burn certain herbs for training.	Rare drop from ghosts. If planning on training herblore, aberrant spectres make an excellent target.
	Wise	The wise perk on a weapon or tool in the main or off-hand slot can give up to 4% more experience.	For wise 4, 95 (unboostable) is required as well as 85 . At level 85, 9 pious components will give about a 1 in 7 chance for wise 4. For herblore training, a mainhand weapon or tool with the perk is ideal.
	Inspire Genius	Players with level 118 Archaeology can activate the Inspire Genius relic power at the mysterious monolith for a 2% experience increase to Herblore.	118 required. Costs 5,000 chronotes and 250 relic power to swap in.

For optimizing the number of potions while doing a minimal amount of Flash Powder Factory, get the modified mask (2,000 Brian points) and the factory top, factory gloves and factory boots (6,000 Brian points or 700 Thaler). If prayer renewals are not considered important, the factory trousers instead of the top saves 500 Brian points or 75 Thaler.

Ideal setup

For optimizing the number of potions obtained, use the following setups:

• When making unfinished potions, wear the modified mask for 5% extra potions (since each action only gives 1 xp, bonus xp can only be obtained with a modifier of 10% or more).
• When making any (3) dose potion including extreme potions and overloads, wear the modified mask, botanist's amulet, factory top, botanist's legs, factory boots and factory gloves for about 10% extra potions and 2% extra xp.
  • When making prayer renewals, wear Morytania legs 4 instead of the legs and work in the Canifis bank or another bank in Morytania for about 17% extra potions and 1% extra xp.
  • When making super antifires, wear Desert amulet 4 instead of the amulet and work in the Nardah bank or another bank in the desert for about 15% extra potions and 1% extra xp.
  • When making overloads (or supreme overloads or elder overloads), wear the Herblore master cape and no factory outfit for about 26% extra potions and 6% extra xp.
• When making Meilyr combination potions, wear the full botanist's outfit and wait for Meilyr hour while using a Perfect juju herblore potion or Perfect plus for 5% extra potions and 33% extra xp.

Obtaining ingredients

Herbs and related training methods

For seeds, see the farming section of the ironman strategy guide.

Managing Miscellania can also give low level herbs in high quantities.

Herb	Sources	Recommended training use	level for use
Grimy guam	Adolescent White wolves, aberrant spectres	Attack potion (3)	01
Grimy marrentill	Gelatinous abominations or aberrant spectres	Deployable herb burner or guthix rest (3)	09 or 18
Grimy tarromin	Adolescent White wolves, aberrant spectres	Serum 207 (3) or Deployable herb burner	15
Grimy harralander	Chaos druids, aberrant spectres	Cooking potion (3) or guthix rest (3)	55 or 18
Grimy ranarr	Sunspear Vyrelords/ladies, aberrant spectres, chaos giants, Commander Zilyana	Prayer potion (3)	38
Grimy toadflax	Telos, Sunspear Vyrelords/ladies, Crystal Shapeshifters, dark beasts	Saradomin brew (3)	81
Grimy spirit weed	Devil's snare, farming recommended	Summoning potion (3)	40
Grimy irit	Solak, aberrant spectres, Crystal Shapeshifters, chaos giants	Super attack (3)	45
Grimy wergali	Giant wasp	Not used for training	N/A
Grimy avantoe	Araxxi, Nex, aberrant spectres, Sunspear Vyrelords/ladies	Super energy (3) or Extreme attack (3)	52 or 88
Grimy kwuarm	Solak, Kalphite King, aberrant spectres, Crystal Shapeshifters	Super strength (3)	55
Grimy bloodweed	Farming only	Aggression potion (3)	82
Grimy snapdragon	Nex: Angel of Death, Sunspear Vyrelords/ladies, Kalphite King	Super restore (3)	63
Grimy cadantine	Nex: Angel of Death, Solak, moss golems, smoke nihils	Super defence (3) or Sticky bomb	66 or 105
Grimy lantadyme	Telos, Helwyr, Araxxi, Beastmaster Durzag, Sunspear Vyrelords/ladies	Super magic potion (3) or Antifire (3) or Extreme defence (3)	76 or 69 or 90
Grimy arbuck	Farming only	Extended super antifire (3) or Aggroverload (6) or Adrenaline renewal potion (4)	90 or 96 or 119
Grimy dwarf weed	Telos, Araxxi, Nex, Liberation of Mazcab, Heart of Gielinor generals, Sunspear Vyrelords/ladies	Super ranging potion (3) or Extreme strength (3) or Vulnerability bomb	72 or 89 or 107
Grimy torstol	Telos, Nex, Vorago, Queen Black Dragon, Sunspear Vyrelords/ladies	Overload (3)	96
Grimy fellstalk	Farming or Divine herb patch III	Prayer renewal (3) or Elder overload potion (6)	94 or 106

Secondaries

Secondary	Sources
Vial of water	Vial of water pack from various stores
Overload ingredients
Super potion set	Buying from Mazcab Emergency Merchants (restocks a (4) dose every 2 minutes) or steal from Iorwerth worker and Cadarn worker in (1) doses
Eye of newt	Eye of newt pack from various stores
Limpwurt root	Sunspear Vyrelords/ladies, Corporeal Beast, General Graardor, Iorwerth scouts/guards, buying up to 10 per day
White berries	Picking them up north of the Tirannwn lodestone or the wilderness, Corporeal Beast, Iorwerth scouts/guards, bush runs, buying up to 10 per day
Potato cactus	Daily collection at the Weird Old Man (easily reachable with fairy ring code BIQ) after completion of at least the easy Desert achievements, picking them up in the Kalphite Hive, fungal mage
Wine of Zamorak	K'ril Tsutsaroth, Twin Furies
Ground mud runes	Craft with magic imbue and a binding necklace at the earth altar near the balloon (travel to Entrana with weapons to open up the bank).
Grenwall spikes	Hunting them after the medium Tirannwn achievements, Big Game Hunter
Other potions
Super restore (4) and Summoning potion (4)	Mazcab Emergency Merchants restocking every 2 minutes
(Powerburst) Vial	Decanting a large stack to 4 doses, dropping the empty vials, then to 1 doses, picking up the empty vials, decant to 4 doses again at any decanting NPC. In order for this to work properly, players need to ensure that the Destroy empty vials when decanting potions setting is disabled (Settings -> General -> Inventory -> Destroy empty vials when decanting potions).
Bomb vial	Buying up to 200 per day from Jatix's Herblore Shop and Meilyr Clan Store
Snape grass	Aberrant spectres, waterfiends
Cockatrice egg	Cockatrice (Mask of stone helps) or Spirit cockatrice special
Unicorn horn	Commander Zilyana minions, celestial dragons, buying up to 10 dust per day.
Red spiders' eggs	Sunspear Vyrelords/ladies, Spidines (get raw sardines from Gerrant's Fishy Business)
Crushed nest	Solak, Telos, smoke nihils, Kree'arra, Managing Miscellania on maples
Searing ashes	Lava strykewyrm
Mort myre fungus	After completing Deadliest Catch, get a silver sickle (b), Morytania legs 1 and some prayer renewals (do not take too many at once). Go to the deposit box west of BKR. Drink the prayer renewal, cast bloom near the logs until the inventory is full, deposit into the box, repeat. See also Money making guide/Collecting mort myre fungi.
Dragon scale dust	Meilyr worker pickpocketing, picking them up in the Taverley blue dragon resource dungeon
Papaya fruit	Salawa akh, fruit bat special (do this at the Kanatah bank in Mazcab for easy access to summoning potions which can replenish special move points) or fruit tree runs.
Morchella mushroom	Farming
Weapon poison++ ingredients
Cave nightshade	Picking them up in the Skavid Caves (optionally use porters). Also check Money_making_guide/Making_weapon_poison++
Poison ivy berries	Bush runs.
Coconut	Fruit tree runs, Menaphite gift offerings, corrupted lizard, camel warriors.

High level training methods

Up to level 90 herblore training relies on using a lot of herbs or using experience rewards, but at level 90 consistent daily fast experience methods start to get unlocked.

Primal pulp

See also Herblore training#Making Primal Extracts or Money making guide/Picking primal fruit.

Primal extract are potions made by combining primal fruit pulp with empty vials at 90 . These can be farmed by the player without needing new seeds every run. 4 lychee fruits can be picked from each of the 5 bushes, 6 Carambola fruits can be picked from each of the 7 fruit trees, 3 golden dragonfruit fruits can be picked from each of the 3 cacti. This amounts to 140, 252, and 72 primal fruit pulps, respectively. This is a total of 464 primal fruit pulps, amounting to 67,280 Herblore xp when creating primal extracts. The harvested fruits can be increased using wolpertinger pouches for double bush fruits and giant ent pouches and the legendary greenfinger aura for increased fruit yield resulting in 107,880 experience when creating primal extracts using 744 pulp which is an average run with both familiars, master farmer outfit and a legendary greenfingers aura. In addition to the herblore experience, a run also provides up to 86,227.4 experience. A full run can be done every 6 hours, but the cactus and fruit trees grow back their produce every 2 hours.

Between 1600 and 2200 primal fruit can be turned into extract per hour depending on level, including the time to make the pulp from fruit, for 237,378.9-312,109.3 herblore experience per hour. See Primal fruit pulp for various sources of pulp. The following experience per hour can be expected, assuming 12 ticks of banking between inventories:

Range	expected extract/hour	xp/hour
90-101	2,130	312,109.3
102-111	3,640	266,684.9
112-120	4,860	237,378.9

Weapon poison+++

Weapon poison+++, requiring 100 provides an alternative that gives less experience per day (limited by 45 poison ivy per run), but is considered less tedious than making primal pulp, especially past level 102. Similar to the pulp run, bush and fruit tree patches need to be visited for the supplies, and in addition Cave nightshade needs to be gathered in the Skavid Caves (use a portable light source such as the Seers headband 1). Optimally, the following can be gathered on average: 45 Poison ivy berries, 52.5 Coconut, 16.5 Carambola and 10.35 Golden dragonfruit for a total of 81,798.5 experience and 38,291.4 experience. For the poison slime, raising frogs at the Anachronia Dinosaur Farm is required, which costs 150 beans per set of 270 poison slime.

Anachronia Dinosaur Farm produce

The Anachronia Dinosaur Farm can provide a lot of produce with relatively low time investment. The following table details how much produce can be expected based on what animal is growing (assuming 7 large animals constantly growing, or 5 varanusaur constantly growing):

Level	Animal	Produce per day	experience per day	Beans per day
97	Ripper dinosaur (player-owned farm)	196.36 Dinosaur claws	60,000	962.18
98	Arcane apoterrasaur (player-owned farm)	115.13 Beak snot	100,742.4	1,299.1
100	Brutish dinosaur (player-owned farm)	112 Spark chitin	102,666.7	1,352.4
104	Scimitops (player-owned farm)	132.63 Spark chitin	106,105.3	1,309.52
106	Bagrada rex (player-owned farm)	129.16 Bottled dinosaur roar	107,637.1	1,334.7
108	Spicati apoterrasaur (player-owned farm)	126 Beak snot	109,200	1,349.88
110	Asciatops (player-owned farm)	152.3 Spark chitin	109,344.5	1,377.74
112	Corbicula rex (player-owned farm)	150.55 Bottled dinosaur roar	115,808.8	1,478.49
115	Oculi apoterrasaur (player-owned farm)	136.5 Beak snot	115,500	1,477
117	Malletops (player-owned farm)	171.36 Spark chitin	117,600	1,540.9
118	Pavosaurus rex (player-owned farm)	161.6 Bottled dinosaur roar	120,407.4	1,596.98

Raw meat needs to be bought from Fresh Meat in Oo'glog to keep the animals breeding. For the optimal strategy, see Money making guide/Raising rex dinosaurs.

This produce can be used for various high level potions that give high herblore experience. The following table details the potions that can be used for training. Potions not listed, such as the powerburst of sorcery have secondaries that are available in very low supply (in this case, yak milk).

Dinosaur produce	Potion	level (+2)	xp	xp from related potions	Notable secondaries
Spark chitin	Adrenaline crystal	93	10	200 for making super adrenaline potion	inert adrenaline crystal
Poison slime	Weapon poison+++ (3)	100	700	190 for weapon poison++	Weapon poison++
Beak snot and Dinosaur claws	Sticky bomb	101 (105)	1,000	0	Clean cadantine
Spark chitin	Charming potion (3)	102	1,000	0	4 of each primary charm
Bottled dinosaur roar	Vulnerability bomb	103 (107)	1,100	0	Soul rune, clean dwarf weed
Dinosaur claws	Powerburst of opportunity (4)	103 (107)	1,050	0	Phasmatite, Third age iron
Poison slime	Powerburst of vitality (4)	105 (109)	1,150	180 for Saradomin brew	Saradomin brew, rocktail
Bottled dinosaur roar	Powerburst of masterstroke (4)	108 (112)	1,350	0	Necrite and rune stone spirits
Bottled dinosaur roar	Adrenaline renewal potion (4)	115 (119)	1,700	517.5 for super adrenaline potion from scratch	Super adrenaline potion (adrenaline crystal or Spark chitin plus inert adrenaline crystal, papaya fruit, mort myre fungus, clean avantoe), clean arbuck
Spark chitin	Extreme prayer (3)	117	1,200	357.5 for super prayer from scratch	Wyvern bones

Sticky bombs, vulnerability bombs and charming potions have particularly easy to obtain secondaries.

Repeatable events

Herblore experience

• Herby Werby provides experience in or every week.
• Other daily and weekly events provide experience in any skill of your choosing, for which herblore can be an efficient choice. Check the repeatable events page for more details.

Herblore items

• Managing Miscellania provides low to mid level herbs daily.
• Herblore shops, Jatix's Herblore Shop and Meilyr Clan Store, can be a source of unicorn horn dust, limpwurt roots and white berries daily (5 each per store) and are the only source of bomb vials (100 each per store).
• Other useful shops are the Mazcab Emergency Merchants for various potions every 2 minutes as well as Ali's Discount Wares, Baba Yaga's Magic Shop and Magic Guild Store - Runes and Staves for 3 times 100 soul runes (for vulnerability bombs) daily.
• 10/20/30/40 potato cacti can be collected from the Weird Old Man after completion of the easy/medium/hard/elite Desert achievements daily.
• The divine herb patches in the Gorajo resource dungeon can provide a limited number of various herbs daily, as an alternative to the divine fishing bubbles that also spawn there. The Desert pantheon aura doubles the cap daily.

Milestone rewards

Not all useful rewards are listed here.

Level	Reward
38	Prayer potion (3)
69	Antifire (3)
75	Plague's end quest requirement
80	River of Blood quest requirement
81	Saradomin brew (3)
82	Aggression potion (3)
85	Super antifire (3)
90	The Biologist
95	Extreme invention (3)
96	Overload (3)
98	Holy aggroverload (6)
99	Perfect plus potion (6)
100	Weapon poison+++ (3)
103	Vulnerability bomb
106	Elder overload potion (6)
107	Elder overload salve (6)
110	Spiritual prayer potion (6)
115	Adrenaline renewal potion (4)