Free-to-play Smithing training

Smithing was often regarded to be a tedious and expensive Skill to train in Free to play worlds before the release of Artisan's Workshop. Forging items out of single bars, financial inability, or the monotony of smelting led people to neglect it. Players also tend to give up at higher levels, as profitable training methods give too little Experience to get quick level-ups. For those who are financially more able there are distinctive power-levelling methods, which this guide will elaborate on here.

The most efficient way to train smithing while making a profit is by mining the ore themselves and using the Superheat Item spell on them instantly. Mining sites that support this form of training include the Varrock east- and west mines, as they are situated relatively close to banks in Varrock. The mine in the Edgeville Dungeon can also be found suitable for doing this as it is host to a variety of rocks required to smelt Bronze, Iron, Steel, Silver, Mithril and Adamant bars, alongside the mining site in the south-west of the Lumbridge Swamp, which hosts rocks required to produce Mithril and Adamantite bars. Selling these bars would result in a profit, while gaining some smithing and magic experience from the Superheat spell. The actual forging items on an anvil grants far more experience. Doing this with bars one has made for their own would reduce the profit significantly, but at the same time yield a decent amount of XP. As this could consume a lot of time, some people prefer to buy the required ores and smelt them into bars which they would forge into items. This would result in a little less loss than simply buying bars, while yielding some more Smithing XP. A last alternative would be to make a combination of the above, for example to buy the Mithril ore and mine the Coal to produce Mithril bars.


 * This guide focuses on how to train smithing in both cheap and quick ways, prior to the smithing aspects of Dungeoneering.

Inexpensive or Profitable
Below is a list of things for players to do before they can power level themselves effectively or even make some modest profit.

Knight's Sword
The Knight's Sword is a free-to-play quest that gives 12,725 smithing experience upon completion. This reward would elevate a level 1 smith to level 29 immediately. It is strongly recommended that people interested in smithing do this quest as soon as possible. Even a level 3 can do it with the help of another player as a guard, since they need to be capable of defending from Ice Warriors whilst mining the blurite ore.

Level 1-14
Beginning smiths not willing to complete the Knight's Sword can only smelt and smith bronze. They can either mine copper and tin ore, smelt them into bars and eventually forge into items, or buy the ores from the Grand Exchange, smelt them into bars and sell them again.

Mining, Smelting and Smithing.

There are three mines which are best suited to mining copper and tin ore: Once you are at the mine you will want to mine an equal number of Copper Ore and Tin Ore.
 * Lumbridge mine
 * East Varrock Mine
 * West Varrock Mine

If you are able to wield your pickaxe you should be able to mine 14 of each ore. If not, you will be able to collect 13 of each ore.

Buying, Smelting, Smithing and Selling.

To use this method you have to have a reasonable amount of money (ideally 50k or more) to begin with.
 * First of all, you need to go to the Grand Exchange and buy equal amounts of Copper ore and Tin ore. Withdraw a hammer while buying it. If you have the golden hammer from the 2010 Golden Joystick Awards victory, it is recommended that you wield it and use it for smithing for it will save one space for one extra bar. One can be obtained from a Golden Cracker that Diango in Draynar returns to players even if the account was made after they were originally given out.
 * You then need to travel to Al-Kharid for the smelting stage. You will then walk to the nearby Furnace and smelt 14 Bronze bars out of 14 copper ore and 14 tin ore.
 * Store these bars in your bank for now. After all of the ores you bought have been processed, forge them into items on the anvils next to the Varrock west bank
 * Lastly, travel back to the Grand Exchange and sell the equipment.

'''Buying, Smelting and Selling. (Recommended for profit and experience)'''

To use this method you have to have a reasonable amount of money (ideally 50k or more) to begin with.
 * First of all, you need to go to the Grand Exchange and buy equal amounts of Copper ore and Tin ore.
 * You then need to travel to Al-Kharid or Lumbridge for the smelting stage. You will then walk to the nearby Furnace and smelt 14 Bronze bars out of 14 copper ore and 14 tin ore.
 * Lastly, travel back to the Grand Exchange and sell the bars for profit (as well as faster experience at this level).

Due to the high demand for Bronze bars from people power-levelling smithing, one can make a large profit from buying the ore. The only downside to this method is the slow experience rate. However, at this stage it actually works out quicker than if you were to mine the ore, smelt and smith it. Therefore this last option, Buying, Smelting and Selling, may be preferred over the second one, Buying, Smelting, Smithing and Selling.

Making Bronze Tracks (Slow, but free)

Players can go to the Artisan's Workshop and make bronze rail tracks. Information on how to make tracks can be found in-game and on the Artisan's Workshop article. At level one, players can only make bronze rails. As their smithing levels up, players can make more parts of a track. By level 12, they can make and lay a whole bronze track.

Level 15-29
Profitable Method:

One method for raising smithing at this point is to smelt Iron bars from Iron ore. This earns experience faster than bronze as well as more money. However, there is not a 100% success rate for smelting Iron. The success rate for iron is 50% when you are level 15, but it increases by 1% every time you level past 15, maxing out at level 45 with 80%. One can also use superheat for 100% but it uses nature runes which eats into the profits, however it also gains moderate Magic experience.

Making Iron Tracks (Slow but Free)

Players can go to the Artisan's Workshop and make iron rail tracks. Information on how to make tracks can be found in-game and on the Artisan's Workshop article. At level 15, players can only make iron rails. As their smithing levels up, players can make more parts of a track. By level 35, they can make and lay a whole iron track.

Level 30+
Players can go to the Artisan's Workshop and make burial armour from Grade I iron ingots. Information on how to make burial armour can be found in-game and on the Artisan's Workshop article. Making burial armour from Grade I iron does lose you a good bit of money, but it's still much cheaper than other powerlevelling methods. Grade I iron does give 40k/hr exp rate. It's also much cheaper than using higher grade iron or steel ingots, but using those yields faster exp rates.

Level 30-50
At level 30 you unlock the ability to smelt Steel bars which is a very common method for raising smithing in free-to-play. The reason behind this is that you can make money faster than most other free-to-play money making methods whilst training smithing.

Profitable Method

If you want to make a profit from smithing at this stage you should smelt Steel bars. Although it is very slow, and takes hours to level it up, it still grants small amounts of gp. (around 1,000 - 5,000 per 50) To do this you need the following:
 * 1 Iron Ore
 * 2 Coal

It is recommended that you buy these ores rather than mining them as you will make a profit anyhow.

If you still want to mine the ore, the recommended spots would be:
 * For Iron ore: East Varrock Mine
 * For Coal: The Mining Guild (Level 60 mining required to enter). Since the dungeoneering update, one of the best places is the Dwarven Mine resource dungeon which contains 13 coal spawns and has bank deposit box.

If you were to buy the ore, smelt it into Steel Bars and sell it back on the Grand Exchange you would make a profit of GP per bar.

Furthermore, to yield more XP and create more profit, it is advised to smith your own-made steel bars into steel nails. If sold, the steel nails give GP per bar.

Level 50+
Mithril bars can be smelted at this level, giving 30 experience each. They sell for coins in the Grand Exchange, with the Mithril ore and coal costing 0 coins. You can make roughly 250 bars per hour, at a profit of coins per bar and 0 coins per hour. That's also 7,500 experience per hour. (250 × 30exp = 7,500 exp). Using superheat item, you make a profit provided you use a Fire staff and purchase the nature runes. This also allows for the most efficient use of Smelting urn. Note: For those players who have acquired a coal bag from the dungeoneering skill, it is recommended to smelt steel bars instead since each inventory can produce 315 experience compared to 300 experience from mithril bars but with almost double the amount of profit (~4K per inventory instead of 2K), or mix the two by making 3 steel and 9 mithril (322.5 xp/inventory).

Most of the time, depending on the price of nature runes, casting Superheat Item to smelt mithril bars is a very reliable method. It makes for a profit of coins per bar and yields high amounts of experience, around 80k per hour, distributed across Magic and Smithing. It does require some starting capital and a Magic level of 43.

Level 55+
Gaining 55 dungeoneering and 20000 dungeoneering tokens will allow a player to obtain the scroll of efficiency. This scroll will give a chance to save one bar while smithing bars outside Daemonheim floors. It is especially useful in power levelling which can possibly save 10% of cash needed to train a skill. Since you have a chance of saving one bar per item, it is better to smith a 3-bar item such as platelegs instead of 5-bar items like platebodies if the object is to reduce cost. This is because for a 3-bar item you will stand a chance of saving 1 bar out of 3, a saving of 33%, whereas for 5-bar items you will still only save one bar, but this time out of 5, reducing the possible savings to 20%. Of course, the tradeoff between the speed of 5-bar items and the savings of 3-bar items must be considered. For precise power levelling costs please proceed below.

Power levelling (Expensive)
Power levelling mainly uses metal bars for smithing, raising a quick experience incurring a maximum loss of cash. Basically, players can select between speed or less cost, even in between these power levelling methods. All the power levelling loss is calculated by buying the bars at market price, smithing them and then selling the products at market price. If the products cannot be sold at GE the loss would be even more, up to 20% up.

Important: Using scroll of efficiency requires 55 smithing. That means a player cannot have the reduced cost until they obtain the scroll, and a player with lower smithing still have to suffer from the higher power level cost.

Level 15
Iron equipment can be smithed. Iron equipment is currently the best way to power level smithing for players (except for very experienced smiths), for low cost of Iron bars and large experience outcome. A list of loss per XP for individual equipment is obsolete since smithed equipment can rarely be sold properly.

Level 16
The Bronze plateskirt can be smithed. The loss using bronze plateskirts to power level is coins per XP. Having scroll of efficiency used will reduce the cost to coins per XP.

Note It is advised that you stick to making iron platebodies over bronze platebodies if you are power levelling because of the small price difference in bronze and iron bars. (Iron also gives 2x the experience of bronze per bar)

Level 33
The Iron platebody can be smithed. The loss using iron platebodies to power level is coins per XP. Having scroll of efficiency used will reduce the cost to coins per XP.

Since the update of occult floors for dungeoneering, the bar cost has been slightly changed for the experienced players. Currently the most expensive iron item smithed with 3 bars is iron chainbody. The loss using iron chainbodies to power level is coins per XP. Having scroll of efficiency used will reduce the cost to coins per XP.

In conclusion, iron chainbodies may sometimes be more cost-effective than the platebodies, but with the price of iron items subject to fluctuation, please update the data if the market has changed.

Iron items are the most efficient way for lower level smiths to power level in F2P worlds. Using the Western Varrock Bank and the anvil across the road south of it, it takes roughly 35 seconds to convert 25 bars into 5 platebodies for a total of 625 XP. One can gain plenty of experience in minutes by running to the bank and back for iron bars.

If Smithing at The Varrock west bank the xp/hr from Iron platebodies can be around 65k if enough attention is paid. (Note: 40k xp/hr doing iron (I) burial armour at artisan workshop.)

Level 48
The Steel platebody can be smithed. The loss using steel platebodies to power level is coins per XP. Having scroll of efficiency used will reduce the cost to coins per XP.

If smithing at the Varrock west bank with reasonable attention paid around 97k xp/hr can be attained.

Level 68
The Mithril platebody can be smithed. The loss using mithril platebodies to power level is coins per XP. Having scroll of efficiency used will reduce the cost to coins per XP.

If smithing at the Varrock west bank with reasonable attention paid around 130k xp/hr can be attained.

Level 88
The Adamant platebody can be smithed. The loss using adamant platebodies to power level is coins per XP. Adamant platebodies are the currently the most efficient way to power level smithing in free worlds. The smithed platebodies may be high alched or sold to the Grand Exchange. Having scroll of efficiency used will reduce the cost to coins per XP.

If smithing at the Varrock west bank with reasonable attention paid around 162k xp/hr can be attained.

Profit making through smithing

 * See this page for reference of profit gained using these methods to train smithing.

Smithing with profit usually results in very slow experience, mainly due to the low experience outcome smelting the bars alone, which is essential for profit making. The best place to smelt bars is Al Kharid as the bank and the furnance are really close together. If you want to do this fast, try using this trick: Rest until run mode is 100. Smelt the bars (run). Run to the furnance and the bank instead of walking, when your run mode is 20 or below rest either when you reach the furnace or the bank. Rest until your run mode is 100 again. Another good place to smelt bars is Falador. You can smelt the bars at the Falador furnace and use the West Falador Bank. If your magic is 43 or above, and you're willing to lose some money in the process, you can superheat ores to make bars. You can use this spell at the Grand Exchange and as soon as you're done, you can sell the bars. If you run out of runes, you can buy more.

Smelting steel bars
At level 30, Steel bars can be smithed using one Iron ore and two pieces of Coal. Various ways of obtaining the ores are available: mining, buying from GE or a combination of both. Coal is mined much slower than iron, causing many players to buy coal and mine iron ores. Smelting 100 steel bars yields 1750 XP.

Smelting other bars
Currently, smelting other bars is less efficient and doesn't yield a much higher experience compared to steel bars, but if you cannot use that method, iron or mithril aren't bad to make a profit. Most of the time smelting Steel bars is the best way to make money applying the smithing skill. From time to time, due to shifting Grand Exchange prices, other bars become a better alternative, for example Iron and Mithril bars.

Superheating bars
This is a combination method explained here. The lowest requirement is 30 smithing and produces steel bars. More experienced smiths can at levels 50, 70 and 85 produce mithril, adamant and Rune bar respectively. A magic level of 43 is always required for this method in order to utilise the Superheat Item spell. Coal is mined in locations abundant of it and bars are superheated using the mined coal. If superheating your own ores, it can increase how many ores and coal you can mine before coming back. It can also be a decent way to make money if superheating buying ore from the ge, mithril bars, you can get around 35k smithing exp, 88k magic exp,, and 70-90k gp an hour with practice.

Efficient Inventory Smelting
This table is to guide you how to fill the 28 spots in your inventory in the most effective way when smelting bars. It can also be used as a guide whilst mining, but then it assumes the pickaxe is equipped. The column at the left tells you which bars are produced and the column next to it tells you which ores one’s inventory should contain in order to make these bars. Please notice this method is before the coal bag was released.

If using the coal bag, you can carry 27 coal in the space of one spot. nearly doubling the amount of bars you can make a trip(except for bronze and iron)

Here is a list of smelting bars with coal bag.

Profit versus Experience
For a player to train smithing repeatedly, switching between power levelling and profit is essential. While smelting steel bars can yield profit of possibly 80k in a few hours, money losing through power levelling is even faster, making this skill nearly impossible to train if not treated properly. It is not advised to directly make equipment using your own mined ores, since mining costs time and bars are difficult to be transported due to their weight. The process should be split up to several parts, picking the most efficient ones, most probably would not match in the training process. For example, training by using iron bars and earning through smelting steel bars are not related at all, if you buy the iron bars, iron ores and coal separately (not using bought iron ores to smelt iron bars).

Determining Profit & Calculations
Ideally, gaining experience while making a profit is what players strive to achieve. If this is not possible, then players strive to minimise the loss involved. Therefore, some calculation is necessary to determine exactly how much money is gained or lost per experience gained, and to minimise the loss or maximize the profit.

Profit/loss for smelting bars
For a given bar, the price of smelting the bar can be calculated easily by adding the prices of the individual ores (optionally added to that is the price of the nature rune if Superheat Item is used.) The profit then is simply the price of the bar minus the cost of the materials. If the profit is positive, money is gained; if it’s negative, money is lost. If this value is p, then the profit or loss per experience is p/x where x is the experience gained by smelting a single bar.

Profit/loss for smithing bars
For any given item, let n be the number of bars required to make that item. If k is the cost of one bar and x is the price of the item made, then the profit is simply x – nk. If the profit is positive, money is gained; if it is negative, money is lost. If this value is p, then the profit or loss per experience is p/e where e is the experience gained by smithing a single bar.

Profit/loss for smelting and smithing bars
For a given item, let a be the number of bars required to make that item. If b is the cost of the ores required to make one bar, and c is the price of the item made, then the profit is simply c-ab. If the profit is positive, money is gained; if it is negative, money is lost. If this value is p, then the profit or loss per experience is p/(e+f) where e is the experience gained by smithing a single item and f is the experience gained by smelting a single bar.

Dungeoneering Training
With the introduction of Dungeoneering, a new and most importantly free way to train Smithing has opened up. Though the process is more time consuming then most other methods of training Smithing, the gold piece free nature of this training is ideal for players who are low on money or simply wish not to spend money on ores or mining.

The way to train Smithing in Daemonheim is to use ores that are collected from rocks that may spawn inside the dungeon or from buying off the Smuggler and using them on a furnace. Collecting from rocks doesn't cost any gold pieces in the dungeon except for the initial pickaxe cost, unless it was made, but the rocks that are found in the dungeon have limited resources. After the ores have been used on the furnace you will receive bars which can be used on anvils with a hammer, just like outside Daemonheim, in all manner of items depending on the complexity level.

The most cost-effective way to train smithing in Daemonheim is to stick with Novite (Tier 1). Though this method is more time consuming, the cost to experience ratio is much better than later tier ores and bars. If using this method it is best to make your bars into two-handed swords or mauls. (Note: More experience per bar is received when smithing platebodies, but the method outlined here involves recouping part of the cost of the ore and using it to buy more, and repeating the process. Because platebodies sell or alch for the same amount as mauls or 2h swords, and making one of these weapons consumes four bars in lieu of the five consumed by a platebody, more experience will be received from the same starting capital by smithing one of these weapons.).

If you want to train in Daemoheim you should use the hardest complexity so you can to make use of the smugglers shop. The best way to maximise your training in Daemonheim is to sell everything you have after you have completed everything else in the dungeon including the final boss. With the money you make from this you should buy 1 hammer to smith on anvils with and as much novite ore you can fit in your inventory. After use the furnace found in the start room to smelt the ore into bars and then use the anvils attached to the furnace to make as many mauls or 2h swords as you can. After simply sell the weapons and buy new ore to repeat.

With this method you would make 84 experience (exp from a novite maul or 2h sword and 4 ores smelted) for 2100 gold pieces (cost of 4 novite ores from the smuggler) in Daemonheim. The weapons can be sold to smuggler for 420 coins each, or 560 with low alchemy and 840 with high alchemy. This reduces the production cost to 1680 coins for 84 experience. Platebodies are less effective than the aforementioned items because they sell back for the same price while consuming one more bar.

Note: Smelting in Daemonheim is updated so that it is slightly faster than outside it. Considering speed, it is faster than smelting steel but slower than power-levelling. However, as long as any other players in the team have shared experience on, the smithing experience gained will be divided equally among all the sharing player and the smelter. It is recommended to solo a dungeon to use this method.