Herblore

For Herblore in Dungeoneering, see Dungeoneering/Herblore.

Herblore (Herblaw on RuneScape Classic) is a members-only skill that allows players to make their own potions. Druidic Ritual used to be needed to be completed to start training the skill but after an update on 31 January 2012, the quest is no longer necessary to start training the skill. Herblore is considered one of the most expensive skills to train.

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. Some players are known to have paid over 200 million coins to get 99. 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. Herblore is an interesting skill, cost-wise, as you could profit 200M, or lose 100+. It is generally accepted though, that 1-99 Herblore would cost 100-250M (as of August 2012).

Grimy herbs
Grimy herbs are herbs that have not yet been cleaned. They can be cleaned 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 remains etc.). Grimy herbs typically cost more than their clean counterparts because experience is gained from cleaning it. Although, players usually do not want to spend time cleaning the herbs. It is also suggested that players collect their own ingredients to reduce training costs.

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. If you are trying to save money while doing herblore it is recommended to purchase vials and fill them with water yourself, as a vial is cheaper than a vial of water.

The second step involves adding a secondary ingredient (see below) to make a complete potion that may be drunk or sold (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, one may "make all" or "make x".

The choice of herb and secondary ingredient dictate which potion is made. Each potion has a minimum Herblore level required before it can be made, unless the assist system is used.

List of potions

 * Serum 207, all types of Tar, 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 with 7 October 2009's "High-level Herblore Potions" update, do NOT work with the Lunar spells "Stat Restore Pot Share" and "Boost Potion Share", and CANNOT be made through the assist system as they are untradeable.

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, Otto Godblessed must be talked to, 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 also teaches the decanting of 4 dose potions into two 2-dose potions by using any 4-dose potion on an empty vial.

Enhanced potion requirements:
 * Herblore level required
 * 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 only require roe will heal 30 life points per dose. All mixes that require caviar heal 60 life points per dose. Using caviar on potions that can be made from roe will not make the potion heal 60 lifepoints per dose, the potion will still heal the usual 30 lifepoints. Apart from healing, all potions have the same effect as their corresponding normal potion seen in the table above. Although being able to restore life points, Barbarian potions are not recommended for PKing.

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, an activity achievable only after completing the Tower of Life quest. By defeating the appropriate creature, 2-10 of the item in question are dropped.

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. Aberrant Spectres may also 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 fallen since the release of the Grand Exchange because of the ability to quickly sell potions in bulk.

Potion 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. 26 Construction is required to 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 boost does not stack with a spicy stew.
 * Brown Spicy stews can be made after Freeing Evil Dave in Recipe for Disaster. These may randomly boost or lower Herblore by up to 6 levels, depending on the amount of brown spice used.
 * Using the 'Boost' option on the Herblore cape will temporarily increase your level by 1, up to 100/99.

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 potions into four 4-dose and one 2-dose potion. Noted potions may also be decanted; any noted / unnoted combinations of potions in your inventory will be treated independently of each other. This is a quick and easy way to free up Vials for reuse. 4-dose potions also tend to sell better on the grand exchange as the price is always the same per dose, so a 1-dose potion costs half of the price of a 2-dose potion. Prices may be rounded down.

Zahur in Nardah will clean grimy herbs for 200 coins per herb. This ability is typically only used by players who grew the herbs and cannot clean them, as the ability to make potions with the cleaned herb requires the herblore level to clean the herb.

Zahur will also decant 4-dose potions into 3-dose potions, for a small fee of 11 coins per vial supplied. Zahur's fee covers the price of empty vials required for the decanting, if you supply all vials required the service is free. Inventory space for the resulting potions is required, or Zahur will refuse to decant them. As with the Bob Barter update, Zahur will now also decant noted potions with noted vials as well.

Herblore Habitat
In the Herblore Habitat minigame, there are ten potions that can be made using herbs grown there, and secondary ingredients found by hunting Jadinkos. All of these potions must be made in special juju vials bought from Papa Mambo, and some of them can be stored with tool leprechauns. These potions have special effects.

Flash Powder Factory
In Flash Powder Factory, requiring 50 Herblore and other certain skills, players make Flash Powder from two reagents in 15 minute games. The game is not focused on Herblore, so the bulk of experience doesn't go to a player's Herblore skill.

Scroll of cleansing
The Scroll of Cleansing is a Dungeoneering reward, and can be purchased for 20,000 Dungeoneering reward tokens. It requires a Herblore level of 49 and a Dungeoneering level of 49. Once used, the scroll will disappear, giving the player the following permanent effects:
 * A 1 in 8 chance that the player will make a potion twice as fast as usual.
 * A 1 in 10 chance that when adding a herb to a vial of water or coconut milk, or a secondary ingredient to an unfinished potion, the herb or secondary, respectively, will not be used, leaving the player an extra ingredient.

Almost every potion in the game is affected by this scroll. However there are some exceptions. Guthix rest tea, Guam tar, Marrentill tar, Tarromin tar, Harralander tar, and Barbarian mix potions are not affected by the scroll.

Herbicide
The Herbicide is a Dungeoneering reward. It stays with the player at all times. When in the inventory, it will grind the herb and give the player bonus xp. It will not grind any herbs that the player cannot clean, and will not work on noted herbs.

Solomon's General Store
Upon the release of Solomon's General Store on 17 July 2012, players can purchase an alternative animation for herblore that plays whenever a player mixes a potion. This animation costs 176 runecoins.

Trivia

 * With good concentration and the use of mouse keys, it is possible to make upwards of 1800 potions per hour, or 30 potions per minute.
 * 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 is only after we alter events that lead to the present that Herblore is created.
 * Previously, the Druidic Ritual was required to drink mature greenman's ale for boosting Herblore levels to make potions, but an update has now eliminated this requirement.
 * Originally, herbs were identified rather than cleaned. All unidentified herbs or "unids" looked the same. It was changed due to the fact that scamming by use of 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. Also, it did not make sense for anybody to know what a herb was until it had been "identified" by a player.
 * When the above scam existed, there was one way to counter it: the buyer would ask to do the trade in notes, before which they would get a stack of the "unidentified" notes they wanted and fill the rest of their inventory. If the trade did not go through, it meant that the seller was trying to sell something else.
 * Also, when herbs were still known as "unids" (short for unidentified herbs), despite the fact that all herbs looked the same in the "unid" form and had the same name they would still stack according to what they were. Being as such it was extremely profitable for a player to buy all "unids" for 1k each, which was the common price, until said player had 8 or 9 different stacks in their bank. Then they would identify one from each stack to find out what each stack had in it. That being done they would put the stack of the low level herbs somewhere in their bank away from the rest. Then when they bought new herbs they would know what they were without having to identify them, and they would turn around and resell the low level ones for 1k each as unids.
 * Originally herbs grown from farming were identified, however the same update that changed unidentified herbs to grimy herbs gave 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.
 * Without the required Herblore level to clean a herb the message "You cannot clean this herb. You need a Herblore level of (Minimum Level Here) to attempt this." appears.
 * Previously, Herblore could not be trained to level 2, as it could not be trained at all before completing the quest, Druidic Ritual - which instantly levelled players to level 3.
 * When training Herblore to the maximum level of 99, if players choose to gather their herbs and secondary materials, it would take up a huge amount of time, as herbs and ingredients are not easy to obtain. Therefore, almost all of the players who decide to achieve 99 Herblore buy their herbs and materials instead of gathering the herbs and materials themselves.
 * If you try to clean a herb that you do not have the proper level to clean, it will say you Attempt to clean the herb, even though there is no chance of it failing when you do have the appropriate level.
 * Herblore is known as "Herblaw" in RuneScape Classic.
 * Even though you can make boosting potions for almost any skill, there is no such thing as a Herblore potion, possibly to prevent players from gaining a boost so they could make other potions ahead of their level. Spicy stew still works but is still risky due to the potential gain/decrease.
 * Bob Barter (herbs) will "decant" your potions, noted or not. The rate is exact. Four, (3)dose potions for Three (4) dose potions. Very handy for hundreds of potions.
 * When herblore was first released, some players would drink potions and switch to free world to PK. Because this gave an unfair advantage, Jagex changed it so that the boosted stats would reset when the player switches worlds.