Herblore





Herblore (Herblaw on RuneScape Classic) is a members-only skill that allows players to make their own potions. Before players are able to begin using it, they must first complete the Druidic Ritual quest. This gives enough Herblore experience to raise the skill to level 3, which is the first level at which players can make potions. Players that have not completed the quest may utilise the Assist system to borrow someone else's Herblore level and make potions, though they will not receive the experience for doing so.

Herblore appears to have been established by Sarah in Past A, as revealed after finishing the Meeting History quest and then talking to her.

Although it is easy to get Herblore to level 99, it is one of the most expensive skills in the game for players who buy all or most of the needed ingredients. For players who gather the ingredients (most are available from monster drops and some spawn in various locations), it is much less expensive but quite time consuming.

Grimy herbs
Grimy herbs are herbs that have not yet been cleaned. This can be done by clicking on the herb, which provides a small amount of herblore experience. Herbs are almost always obtained in their grimy state (from farming, monster drops etc). Grimy herbs typically cost less than their clean counterparts as players usually do not want to spend time cleaning the herbs. Although, buying them in their clean form will save you a bit of time.

Potions

 * See the Potion calculator for coins-per-experience-point analysis of potions using live data from the Grand Exchange Market Watch.


 * Note: The strength potion is the only potion available to non-members.



The potion-making process in Herblore takes two steps, each combining separate items. The first step involves adding a primary ingredient (usually a herb) to a vial of water (or a vial of coconut milk for some high-level potions), to produce an unfinished potion. This does not grant any Herblore experience.

The second step involves adding a secondary ingredient (see below) to make a complete potion that the player can drink or sell (with the exception of a few potions made as part of a quest). This is the main method of gaining Herblore experience. Both steps can be done in batches, which is when the player's inventory contains several of the required items, and the player can choose to "make all" or "make x", etc.

The choice of herb and secondary ingredient dictate which potion is made. Each potion has a minimum Herblore level that players need before they can make the potion, unless they are being assisted by another player.


 * Serum 207, all types of Tar, all types of Weapon poison, and Guthix balance potion (unlike its Saradomin and Zamorak brew counterparts) cannot be consumed, and are to be used for special purposes.
 * Potions from "Recover Special" to "Overload", which came out on 07 October 2009, with the "High-level Herblore Potions" update, does NOT seem to work with lunar spells "Stat Restore Pot Share" and "Boost Pot Share", and CANNOT be made through the assist system.

Barbarian potions
See the barbarian mix calculator for coins-per-experience-point analysis of barbarian mixes using live data from the Grand Exchange Market Watch.

In order to be able to make Barbarian mixes, players must talk to Otto Godblessed, located at Otto's Grotto (West of Baxtorian Falls). He will teach the basic Barbarian Skills needed to get the special ingredients for these mixes. He will also teach players how to turn 4 dose potions into two 2-dose potion by using any 4-dose potion on an empty vial.

To make the enhanced potions, players need:
 * 2-dose potion (or a 4-dose and an empty vial)
 * Roe (for Attack mix, Anti-poison mix, Relicym's balm mix, Strength mix and Restore mix)
 * Caviar (for all other mixes).

All mixes that can be made from roe heal 3 Hitpoints per dose. All mixes that require caviar heal 6 Hitpoints per dose. Players should note that using caviar on potions that require roe does not make the potion heal 6 hp per dose, the potion will still heal the usual 3 hp. Apart from healing, all potions have the same effect as their corresponding normal potion seen in the table above.

Obtaining secondary ingredients
When training Herblore it is useful to have ample supplies of secondary ingredients.


 * Prices are approximate for buying item on the Grand Exchange

Note: Another way to obtain Eye of Newt, Unicorn Horn, or Red spider's eggs would be Creature Creation, a minigame achievable only after completing the Tower of Life quest. By defeating the appropriate creature, you will receive 2-10 of the item in question.

Money
With the introduction of grimy herbs, these herbs now reveal their identity. Hence, the price of grimy herbs depends on what level herbs they are. Chaos druids (as well as Aberrant spectres and Flesh crawlers) drop grimy herbs often, and on occasion may drop two. Uncommonly, Aberrant Spectres may even drop three.

Many combat-related potions sell for high prices (prices are for 3 dose potions):

Some of these prices are under pressure as the number of herbalists that can make those potions increases. Prices of potions have recently fallen due to the grand exchange allowing players to sell them in bulk quickly!

Training
For the training guide; see herblore training.

Production costs
For a full overview of profits/losses training Herblore; see Herblore - Production costs.

Temporary boosts



 * A Greenman's ale will temporarily boost Herblore by 1 level. Greenman's ale can be bought in the Yanille pub or brewed using the Cooking skill. Players with level 26 Construction may also build a beverage barrel of Greenman's ale in the kitchen of a player-owned house. A Greenman's ale does not stack with a spicy stew.
 * A Mature Greenman's ale will temporarily boost Herblore by 2 levels. This can only be made by brewing using the Cooking skill. A Mature Greenman's ale does not stack with a spicy stew.
 * Spicy stews, which can be made by players who have freed Evil Dave in Recipe for Disaster, can randomly boost or lower Herblore by up to 6 levels, depending on the amount of brown spice used.

NPC Assistance
Bob Barter at the Grand Exchange will decant potions for free. Decanting results in potions of the same kind being consolidated into 4-dose potions as much as possible. For example, Bob Barter will decant six 3-dose strength points into four 4-dose and one 2-dose potion. This is a quick and easy way to free up Vials for reuse.

Zahur in Nardah will clean grimy herbs for 200 coins per herb. This ability is seldom used, because a player who can use a herb in a potion already has the ability to clean it, for free.

Zahur will also decant 4-dose potions into 3-dose potions, for a small fee of 50 coins per inventory converted (regardless of how many potions are in inventory). The player does not have to supply empty vials for the decanting, as Zahur's fee covers this service. The player should make sure to have room in inventory for the potions generated this way, or Zahur will refuse to decant them. (21 4-dose potions would become 28 3-does potions, filling inventory entirely, and seeing as one inventory space is required for coins, 20 is the maximum that can be decanted in one 'go' producing 26 3-dose potions and one 2-dose potion.)

Trivia

 * In the game's fictional history, the skill owes its name to a temporal paradox. In the meeting history quest when the player has travelled back in time and talks to the creator of the art, they mention Herblore and she replies by saying that that is the perfect name. This is a paradox as the player only mentioned this because they knew it from their own time but it appears they were the original inspiration. This paradox is known as a jin, where objects (or in this case information) has a circular time line, where a person receives an object or information from or due to a person and later goes back in time to give the object or information to them and have it age until it reaches the person that sends it back in time. In fact, the invention of the skill itself exists in a non-linear paradox - as, in the linear path of time, the creation of Herblore isn't mentioned. It's only after we alter events that lead to the present that Herblore is created.
 * Previously, players who had not done the Druidic Ritual quest could drink a mature greenman's ale to raise their Herblore level and make potions, but an update has now prevented this.
 * Originally, players had to identify herbs instead of cleaning them. All unidentified herbs or "unids" looked the same. It was changed due to the fact that people were scamming with unidentified herbs by telling other players that the herb was a higher level than it actually was. The Grand Exchange was also released shortly after this change, so that may also have been a contributing factor.
 * Originally herbs grown from farming were identified, however the same update that changed unidentified herbs to grimy herbs also made it so that players receive grimy herbs from farming, thus allowing them a small amount of extra Herblore experience when farming
 * The Summoning potion and Sanfew Serum are the only potions which cannot be divided/split into lesser doses. This is likely due to the fact that they were both introduced after the decanting update.
 * When a player does not have the correct herblore level to clean a herb, the game states, "You cannot clean this herb. You need a Herblore level of (Minimum Level Here) to attempt this." even though you can't fail at cleaning a herb.