Swordfish


 * For the item used in the quest Hunt for Red Raktuber, see Swordfish (Hunt for Red Raktuber).

A Swordfish is a type of fish that players can catch, cook, and use as food. They are considered the best healing food in free-to-play because they can heal 14 hitpoints in one bite. Other foods in free-to-play may heal more, but they must be consumed in two or more bites.

Players should note that they can only buy 20,000 swordfish per day from the Grand Exchange. This should not present a problem to most players since few people have the need to buy in this amount.

Lucky members may also receive a Big swordfish while fishing. These are hung up in a Skill Hall in player-owned houses for those with level 56 Construction or above.

Fishing


Players can catch swordfish with a minimum of level 50 in Fishing, granting 100 Fishing experience per catch. Fishing for swordfish takes a longer amount of time than lobsters because tuna is caught along with it. Free players fishing on Karamja generally drop their tuna (often cooking it first for the experience) but the members-only fishing spots in Catherby and the Fishing Guild are close enough to banks that it is actually faster for players to bank the raw tuna than to drop it. Some members keep - and actively scavenge - dropped tuna to make tuna potatoes, which heal 22 Hitpoints in one bite.

Raw swordfish can be fished from the sea with a harpoon. When harpoon fishing, it is very likely that more tuna will be caught than swordfish. With a Jan. 2010 update, a high agility may allow two swordfish to be caught at once, although experience is only gained for a single one.

Barbarian fishing is another possible option when fishing for swordfish. Hand fishing gives an extra 10 Strength experience for each swordfish, and requires level 70 Fishing and level 50 Strength. Note that barbarian fishing is a members-only ability.

Cooking
Swordfish can also be cooked with a minimum level 45 in Cooking, granting 140 Cooking experience. Players can accidentally burn swordfish while cooking until they reach level 86 in Cooking, or until level 81 when using Cooking gauntlets.

It is also good to remember that an Apple pie gives players a healing of 14 hitpoints in two bites, or 7 hitpoints per bite, and are much cheaper than swordfish. However, they are not recommended in player-vs-player combat, since the players' opposition may be able to hit faster than the player can regain hitpoints from eating two bites.

At level 45 Cooking, cooking swordfish yields an 80% burn rate. Therefore, it is not recommended that players cook swordfish until their level is 60 or above, as burning swordfish wastes time and money. however, if you do not mind wasting a little time and burning a few swordfish, 55 or 56 cooking is a good time to start(50% cook rate) and if you are lucky, and quite often(1/5 inventories. unconfirmed) 90% cook rate. If you do not mind burning a moderate number of swordfish, 50 Cooking is a good time to start, which gives a cook rate of approximately 30%.

Sacred clay harpoon and swordfish gloves
Using a sacred clay harpoon, it will grant 200 experience. Experience gained by catching swordfish is 200 when wearing swordfish gloves, which are available to all players at level 65 and higher Fishing. Swordfish gloves are obtainable through the Fist of Guthix minigame, and the sacred clay harpoon is obtained through the Stealing Creation minigame. Combining the use of a sacred clay harpoon and swordfish gloves will grant a player 300 experience per swordfish caught, but this does not mean faster experience.

When using the swordfish gloves alone a player can make 3 fishing attempts in the time that they could make only 2 with the sacred clay harpoon. When the 200 experience gained is multiplied with just swordfish gloves 600 experience is gained, which is the same as the 300 experience gained with both multipied by the 2 attempts. Therefore, by using both players would not gain experience any faster and it would be a waste. Swordfish gloves will last 7-8 times longer than a sacred clay harpoon, but extra experience is gained for swordfish, and not for tuna, they also can take about 2-4 hours to obtain depending on how well the players perform at Fist of Guthix.

A sacred clay harpoon will last about 4-5 loads and will also grant additional experience for each tuna caught. They are also very easy to acquire after just one Stealing Creation game. Although games usually last 20 minutes, players can easily find clans in the RuneScape Forums who play very fast "no combat" games which often last 10 minutes or less.