Free-to-play Firemaking training

This article gives tips on training the Firemaking skill for Free players. Firemaking is often considered to be one of the easiest skills to train in F2P because of its fast experience rates and often low cost. Logs obtained free from training Woodcutting can also easily be burnt to train firemaking, and cutting and burning a log will always give considerably more firemaking experience than woodcutting experience. P2P firemaking actually only offers a few boosts and extras, and the main methods of burning willow, maple, or yew logs are available in F2P.

In F2P, the only reasonable ways to get faster total experience per hour (in any skill(s)) than burning maple logs are cooking swordfish, making wines, smithing adamant platebodies, smithing rune platelegs, or combining firemaking with alchemy, most of which are much higher level and much more expensive than burning maple logs. If yew logs are bought and burned, only making wines would be faster experience per hour.

Basics

 * Training firemaking typically involves training near a bank and repeatedly withdrawing banked logs and burning them.
 * A Tinderbox is needed to light any fire. It may be placed anywhere in the inventory, but players may prefer to place it in the centre of the inventory to decrease the average distance the cursor must be moved per log.
 * Fires can be lit at a rate of 1 per 4 game ticks, or 1 per 2.4 seconds. This fastest time per fire is achieved whenever there is no re-lighting animation, usually called Power Firemaking.
 * For Power Firemaking, use the tinderbox with the logs just as your player is starting to stand up from lighting the previous fire. This results in the next fire being lit without seeing an animation of the player lighting the fire.
 * After lighting a fire, the player always moves west unless there is an obstacle.
 * Because lighting consecutive fires usually involves creating a line going east-west, places usually considered good to train firemaking have an east-west stretch of open space. (See Locations.)

Keeping Yourself Motivated/Entertained
Firemaking is a very tedious skill to train, especially at high levels, and therefore you will most likely need some form of motivation or entertainment to keep yourself going. It is highly recommended to do something not entirely attention-span consuming, such as listening to music, when Firemaking, or if you have a particularly good attention span, watch a film. Doing so helps reduce the monotony of the skill significantly.

Level 1-15
Only normal logs, which give 40 experience each, can be burned. Trees, Evergreens, dead and dying trees can be cut nearly everywhere in RuneScape, ranging from Lumbridge to the Wilderness. Also, on the second floor of Lumbridge castle, there are four logs spawns that can be lit along with logs brought by the player. Purchasing the logs for 1 to 15 Firemaking is not necessary as getting level 15 is only several minute's work; only 61 logs have to be burnt to raise firemaking from level 1 to 15.

Level 15-30
After level 15, Oak logs, which give 60 experience each, should be burnt. Oak trees can be cut almost everywhere. Level 15 woodcutting to cut the oak logs may be useful; oak logs also can be easily bought from the Grand Exchange. About 225 oak logs have to be burnt to get from 15 firemaking to 30.

Level 30-45/99
After level 30, Willow logs, which give 90 experience each, should be burnt. Willow trees can be cut near the River Lum in Lumbridge, near Edgeville, near the sea south of Draynor bank, south of the cabbage patch north-west of Draynor Village, or in Rimmington. You could also go to a crowded world and go to a spot where many woodcutters are, and pick up the logs they often drop.

Willow logs are available at Grand Exchange for coins each, or they can be cut with 30 Woodcutting. The power levelling cost is coins per experience. Burning willow logs is essentially the cheapest way to train firemaking.

It would take 143,208 willow logs to get from Level 30 to 99, costing 0 gold. Although this is very cheap considering the amount of Experience needed, many players often choose to burn Maple logs instead.

With the current Grand Exchange prices, it is possible to make money by burning the willow logs and collecting the ashes, as ashes have a higher price than willow logs. This slows down the experience rate considerably, however, and it's not as good a money-making method as just collecting the ashes of another person's fires.

Level 45-60/99
After level 45, Maple logs, which give 135 experience each, should be burnt.

Maple logs can be cut in a resource dungeon (30 Dungeoneering required to enter the dungeon), or bought on the Grand Exchange for coins each. The power levelling cost is coins per experience.

It would take 96,096 Maple logs to get from Level 45 to 99, much less compared to burning Willow logs but would cost around 0 coins.

Maples are perhaps the logs most commonly used to train Firemaking. They are faster experience per hour than willows but are still fairly cheap. Maples actually used to be worth around 100 coins each, but decreased greatly in price because they can be obtained in bulk from the the kingdom of Miscellania. Many players burn maples all the way to level 99 Firemaking.

Due to the high amounts of woodcutting powerlevelling players in the resource dungeon of F2p servers, one can simply pick up all the dropped logs and burn them there. This way you can earn up to 130k exp per hour

Level 60-99
Free players who want to train firemaking faster than allowed by Maple logs may move up to Yew logs.

After level 60, Yew logs, which give 202.5 experience each, can be burnt.

The power levelling cost is coins per experience, which is far higher than willow and maple logs. Fairly rich players may choose to burn Yew logs due to its fast experience.

It would take 63016 Yew logs to get from Level 60 to 99, although it is extremely costly (26,214,656 gold pieces).

Maximising number of logs burnt per hour


Lighting a line of 27 fires and then running back to the bank usually results in rounds of around 80 seconds. This means that approximately 1200 logs can be burnt per hour.

This rate can be increased by eliminating the need to run back to the bank. By using this method, the round can start and end right next to the bank. Rounds can be completed in approximately 70 seconds instead of 80. Using this method can result in 1300 to 1400 logs burnt per hour. This method requires lots of mouse-clicking and hence many players still prefer lighting lines from east to west instead.

The most effective way to do this is to light a line of about 13 fires to the east after or before lighting a line of 13 fires to the west. This is sometimes called the "backward lighting" method. This can be done by clicking on the ground of the location of the next fire the instant the previous fire is lit, then quickly using the tinderbox on a log. If done correctly, the player will run to the new location and light the next fire without a re-lighting animation.

The backwards lighting method can actually be used to light fires in any direction or even run while firemaking. A fire can typically be lit up to 4 squares away from the player. Attempting to light a fire over 4 squares away from the player may result in the player lighting the fire without even stopping running. It is possible to run continuously at full speed while lighting fires. However, this is very difficult to do and not really useful. However, the fact that the backwards lighting method works in any direction does mean that you do not necessarily need an open east-west space to train firemaking. It is possible to light lines north-south, diagonally, or even make designs such as hearts or circles. Having someone "steal your spot" is not a problem whatsoever if you can just start lighting in another direction.

Backwards firemaking needs practice too, of course. Do not worry if you fail at first. It is very important to have that rhythm. Once you have lit a fire, let your character move, but then quickly click on the ground (that's one), then at the tinderbox (two) and on the log (three), on four you do nothing, just prepare your mouse. And this also happens pretty fast. During backwards firemaking you should have in mind all the time: one, two, three, ..., one, two, three, ..., one, two, three, ... (ground, tinderbox, logs, place your mouse, ground, tinderbox, logs, place your mouse). Once you are in the rhythm, it should be easy.

One great spot to do this is the Grand Exchange, at the west banker for example. Removing the roofs should help.

An alternative way to speed up firemaking training without using the backwards lighting method is teleporting to the centre of Varrock, lighting a line of fires west, banking at Varrock west, bank, and teleporting back to the centre of Varrock with new logs. However, the runes take up inventory space.

Combining Woodcutting and Firemaking
Woodcutting and Firemaking can be combined by cutting an inventory of logs, then burning them into a fire. The most effective Free-to-Play logs to perform this method on are Willows. A great location for this is the willows south of Port Sarim. This location is usually almost never crowded because there is no bank nearby, but there is plenty of space to burn logs. Another great spot to perform this tactic is Lumbridge. On the east side of the River Lum, slightly west of Farming Patch and slight South-east of the Champion's Guild you can find three Willow Trees. When you stand between the most Northern Willow Trees and go all the way East until the fence, you can burn exactly 27 logs.

Cutting and burning Yews would result in slower Woodcutting and Firemaking Experience per hour because of reduced Woodcutting speed.

Also, you can cut and burn Maples and Willows in the Daemonheim Peninsula. The only requirement is 30 Dungeoneering. It is another very effective way to train Firemaking. Cutting and burning willows at level 75 Woodcutting yields around 70k xp/hr (40k fm, 30k wc). It's recommended to swap to Maples at level 90 Woodcutting as this yields about 90k xp/hr.

"Droppers" and "Traders"
"Droppers" and "Traders" are unofficial terms used by an extremely low amount of players. If one sees a player dropping logs (a.k.a. a "dropper") (most commonly on the Daemonheim Peninsula), they should quickly run to the logs and take as many as possible before others can get to them. A "trader" could be any player skilling or having a bank full of logs willing to help the player get Firemaking Experience. These methods are very popular among low-levelled woodcutters who have a higher amount of Firemaking. Due to the Free Trade and Wilderness update, "traders" are no longer limited to just 10,000 gold or lower and is now very popular to those who can find them.

=="Burning and Selling Method"

One less popular method of gaining firemaking experience is by obtaining a relatively large amount of either willow or maple logs. You can continuously burn the logs in the Grand Exchange burning east first then backwards burning west between the two banks. Once your full inventory of logs has been burnt you then pick up the ashes that the fires left behind. These ashes can be sold at the Grand Exchange that you are already at for a higher price that the logs can be bought at. This method of selling the ashes to create an income high enough to buy back the logs you just burnt creates a neverending supply of logs for your player to burn. The market can vary the income created, and the time elappsed picking up the ashes can be costly to your xp per hour. This method is most useful for people who are mainly trying to only increase their firemaking level only a few levels. The main perk of this method is the fact that no money is wasted buying logs. In a sense it is "free wc experience".