Construction training

This article gives tips on training the members-only Construction skill.



Introduction
Construction is generally an expensive skill to train. There are very few methods to train without losing money. At low Construction levels, players typically make their own planks, use clay or limestone, and explore different rooms and furniture. To advance, most players use oak, teak, or mahogany planks to build and remove doors, wardrobes, or tables. These methods award only experience in return for used materials. Even if the planks are made by the player, money is still lost by paying for use of the sawmill or Plank make spell.

Typical costs for Construction experience vary from 5.5 (using player-made oak planks) to 17 coins per experience point (using mahogany planks bought from the Grand Exchange). Sacred clay hammers cut costs in half.

Understanding Experience Earned
Most built items require multiple construction materials to make. The experience gained is calculated from the experience per construction material used. For instance, the experience gained from making two of an item that requires 2 Oak planks gives exactly the same experience as a single item that requires 4 Oak planks, making the single item (in this example) faster for the same experience and cost.

Cost of Earning Construction Experience
Most materials used in Construction cannot be made with skills and must be bought from suppliers or the Grand Exchange. Wooden planks are made by handing over logs and money to the Sawmill operator. Construction materials that can be made by the player are soft clay, molten glass, limestone bricks, and steel bars. Even these items are normally used in combination with other bought Construction materials, except for a very few, low experience items such as clay fireplaces (3 soft clay for 30 experience). Specialty items such as limestone bricks, gold leaves, marble blocks, and magic stones can be bought from a specialty shop in Keldagrim.

To reach high levels of Construction, millions of coins are required. A source of income, such as farming or merchanting, is required to pay for materials.

Balancing Time Spent "Spending" vs. Time Spent Earning
To gain construction experience you need to spend money, and therefore any training regime must include time not earning experience but earning money. There are many options available (outlined in the rest of this article) to balance speed of earning experience vs cost of earning experience. The optimum balance for any player depends on the players ability to earn money in a given time. This ability changes with time and general advancement through Runescape.

Therefore to maintain the optimum balance, a player must constantly re-evaluate any marginal time-consuming processes, weighing any tiny amount of lost time against the probable money they could have earned in the lost few seconds.

The fastest possible practical plan is probably making Mahogany tables, using Mahogany planks bought from the Grand Exchange, not traveling but using a Demon Butler to bring the planks, constructed with "make all" on a workbench and dropped to the ground after making while having the Demon Butler bring more planks, without using a Sacred clay hammer. A player can not drop items while seated at a workbench, and the Demon Butler will not deliver planks to a player's inventory while the player is seated at a workbench. However even small tweaks to this plan would save millions, and significantly cheaper plans would save as much as a hundred million coins before the player earned his or her skillcape. Alternatively, if the player has several billions to spare, there are even faster plans possible!

Building mahogany tables gives one of the fastest experience rates in Runescape and uniquely this method is available from a relatively low construction level.

Costs for Different Materials (levels 80 to 99)
The cost to get from level 80 (1,986,068 experience) to level 99 (13,034,431 experience), using GE Plank price and not including the cost of travel or servants, is:


 * 184,140 Oak planks (60 xp) * 0 coins = 0 coins


 * 122,760 Teak planks (90 xp) * 0 coins = 0 coins


 * 78,917 Mahogany planks (140 xp) * 0 coins = 0 coins


 * 22,096 Marble blocks (500 xp) * 0 coins = 0 coins

Using servants to make the planks cheapens teak and oak considerably relative to mahogany planks and marble blocks.

Special logs
Special logs are another method of lowering the cost of training. They are obtained randomly when chopping down teak or mahogany trees. If a player has two special mahogany or teak logs in their inventory and 26 "normal" teak or mahogany logs, then the Sawmill Operator will exchange 2 special logs for 26 free planks. This may be a great method of obtaining teak and mahogany planks if a player wants to train woodcutting as well. Special logs cannot be traded.

Non-Planks
This chart shows the experience given per object when each object is used. The cost per experience point is based on Grand Exchange prices. The cost of "free" components (i.e., the components that can be made with effort only) shows the price one could sell those items for, if you had not used them on Construction.


 * {|class="wikitable"

!colspan=2|Item !Experience given !NPC Cost !Cost/XP !GE Cost !Cost/xp
 * [[File:Molten glass.PNG]]
 * Molten glass
 * 1
 * n/a
 * n/a
 * [[File:Clay.PNG]]
 * Clay
 * 10
 * n/a
 * n/a
 * [[File:Soft clay.png]]
 * Soft clay
 * 10
 * n/a
 * n/a
 * [[File:Bolt of cloth.png]]
 * Bolt of Cloth
 * 15
 * 650
 * n/a
 * n/a
 * [[File:Steel bar.png]]
 * Steel bar
 * 20
 * n/a
 * n/a
 * [[File:Limestone.PNG]]
 * Limestone
 * 20
 * 10 or 17
 * or
 * [[File:Limestone brick.png]]
 * Limestone brick
 * 20
 * 21
 * [[File:Gold leaf.PNG]]
 * Gold leaf
 * 300
 * 130000
 * [[File:Marble block.PNG]]
 * Marble block
 * 500
 * 325000
 * [[File:Magicstone.PNG]]
 * Magic stone
 * 1000
 * 975000
 * }
 * [[File:Limestone brick.png]]
 * Limestone brick
 * 20
 * 21
 * [[File:Gold leaf.PNG]]
 * Gold leaf
 * 300
 * 130000
 * [[File:Marble block.PNG]]
 * Marble block
 * 500
 * 325000
 * [[File:Magicstone.PNG]]
 * Magic stone
 * 1000
 * 975000
 * }
 * [[File:Marble block.PNG]]
 * Marble block
 * 500
 * 325000
 * [[File:Magicstone.PNG]]
 * Magic stone
 * 1000
 * 975000
 * }
 * Magic stone
 * 1000
 * 975000
 * }
 * }
 * }
 * }

Notes
 * You can turn Clay into Soft clay by adding water to it. This can be done in a player-owned house using a garden or kitchen water source.
 * You can turn Limestone into Limestone bricks using a chisel on it. This gives 6 Crafting experience.

Planks

 * {|class="wikitable"

!colspan=2|Item !XP Given !GE Log Cost !Sawmill Fee !Total Cost !Cost/XP !GE Plank Cost !Cost/XP
 * [[File:Plank-inv.png]][[File:Bronze nails.png]]
 * Plank & Bronze nails
 * 29
 * + nail
 * 100
 * [[File:Oak plank.png]]
 * Oak plank
 * 60
 * 250
 * [[File:Teak plank.png]]
 * Teak plank
 * 90
 * 500
 * [[File:Mahogany plank.png]]
 * Mahogany plank
 * 140
 * 1500
 * }
 * [[File:Teak plank.png]]
 * Teak plank
 * 90
 * 500
 * [[File:Mahogany plank.png]]
 * Mahogany plank
 * 140
 * 1500
 * }
 * [[File:Mahogany plank.png]]
 * Mahogany plank
 * 140
 * 1500
 * }
 * Mahogany plank
 * 140
 * 1500
 * }
 * }
 * }
 * }
 * }
 * }

Notes:
 * Slightly different experience, cost, and cost/experience point is given for different metal nails.
 * The cost of any extra transportation methods to get to the Sawmill are not included.

Run to Bank
Running is free, but Construction requires large quantities of materials, and generally player-owned house portals are not in particularly convenient locations for running to and from banks, save Yanille with a bank just a rather short walk away. See POH portal for information on choosing a house location.

Teleport to House
Generally, after advancing beyond lower levels, players teleport to and from their house to a bank, which consists of teleporting to the house via runes (1 Law rune, Earth rune, and Air rune.) To save an inventory slot, use a staff. To save two slots use a Teleport to House Tablet spell at greater cost.

Teleport to House costs coins for each cast with all the runes above;  coins when using dust runes,  coins when using a staff of air, or  coins when using an earth, lava, or mud staff. A teleport tablet costs coins.

Teleport to Bank
All teleports built into the house are free once built. The closest teleport to a bank is Edgeville, from an Amulet of glory mounted in your Quest Hall. Portals to Varrock, Falador or Kharyrll can also teleport you close to a bank. Alternatively, use a Ring of duelling to teleport to Castle Wars bank - this then allows you take a balloon to the Sawmill. A free way for users to teleport close to a bank with no level or quest requirements is with the Ring of Kinship which teleports you a few clicks south of a Fremennik banker.

Teleport to Sawmill

 * A Digsite pendant cannot be bought, but can be made by enchanting a Ruby necklace with Ruby enchant which costs 1 Cosmic rune and 5 fire runes for a total cost of for 5 teleports if you buy and enchant a Ruby necklace. This works out to be  coins each teleport. You could bring a Beast of burden such as the Spirit terrorbird to carry additional resources.


 * If players transport to Castle Wars bank (using a Ring of duelling to teleport from the house - tradeable at a cost of /8= coins per teleport), then Balloon transport system can be used to the Sawmill for the cost of one willow log - another coins. Because of weight limitations you cannot carry a complete inventory of logs without at least 3 weight reducing items, but a beast of burden can be taken on the balloon trip.


 * The cheapest, but easily most time-consuming way to the Sawmill is to run from the Grand Exchange (north and then east along the outside of the wall) or Varrock east bank.

Two-Way Teleport
A two-way teleport is going to the bank (withdraw necessary items), then to the house and then to the bank, repeating the process indefinitely. The most efficient route is:


 * Teleport to Castle Wars (due to the one click bank option), bank in there, withdraw necessary items
 * House teleport.

Using a combination of either elemental staves and runes can save inventory spaces, and reduce costs.

Ancient Magicks allows you to bank and return for one of the fastest, and most free methods. Start at bank, stock up on supplies, house tab to house, build stuff on workbench, Edgeville home teleport back to bank.

Three-Way Teleport
A three-way teleport is going to the bank, then to the sawmill, then to the house, and then back to the bank, etc. The most efficient route is:


 * bank in Edgeville via a mounted Amulet of glory
 * teleport to Sawmill via worn Digsite pendant
 * House teleport via wielded earth staff, air and law runes, or using a Teleport to house tab.

Servant Use
Instead of teleporting, many players use a personal servant to fetch items from the bank, or get logs converted at the Sawmill. The servant will charge a fee for every 8 trips (higher level servants charge more), but this is generally faster than teleporting yourself. The fee is reduced by 25% after completion of the Love Story quest.

Trip Time
Note: This section does not apply if the player is using Servants.

With the correct choice of teleport techniques, very little running is required to make a round trip (either two-way or three-way). This means that the total trip time is very largely dependant on how fast the player can click and select various options. To maximise the XP earned per hour depends on balancing the fastest possible round trip (i.e. least clicks) vs. a slightly slower round trip maximising the XP earned per trip. Players therefore vary in their precise technique - fast clickers tend to prefer the fastest possible trip. Players on slow PCs or laggy connections tend to prefer maximising the XP per trip. Note that because of the relatively low cost of teleport compared to the cost of an inventory, the teleport trip cost tends not the be a factor in an optimised trip plan.

Plan Round Trip to Optimise Inventory

 * To maximise experience per trip, you need to maximise the number of planks/logs you transport per trip.
 * If you carry the needed tools to construct items (i.e. saw and hammer) you lose two plank spaces. Alternatively carry the two extra planks and take the tools from your tool shelves every trip, but this is slower per trip. A player could also wield a Golden hammer in order to free up an inventory space in which a normal hammer would typically be.
 * You need to carry money to the sawmill. If you carry the exact money you need for a trip, after using a house teleport tablet you will have two spare slots to take tool from the tool shelves. Alternatively, if you carry a large amount of money, you do not need to get money from the bank every round trip.
 * If you are making flatpacks, you do not need two spare slots to take tools at all, because you do not need to be in building mode and can therefore can drop 2 planks, and pick them up again later.
 * If you are using a beast of burden, you need at least one spare slot to swap logs/planks between the two inventories at the Sawmill. A technique is to drop one or two planks to make this space and pick the planks when done. Alternatively you may decide that it is quicker to have a spare slot or two.
 * Bring materials in amounts equal to the highest multiple of the required materials to construct your items that is possible per trip (e.g., carry a multiple of 8 for larders, or 10s for Oak doors) as this reduces weight by not bringing extra material that won't be used. Alternatively, build something else to use the remaining planks (e.g. if you are carrying 26 planks, build two oak doors and then build two oak armchairs to use up the last 6 planks). With careful planning this does not need to slow down a round trip very much.
 * Making Flatpacks can be a very fast way of using up almost any "left-over" planks. For instance "Make All" Oak drawers will use up any even number of oak planks.
 * If you are three-way teleporting, always maximise your inventory of planks. Bank your unused planks and when you have enough planks, skip the sawmill teleport for a cycle.

You cannot bring a summoning familiar in your house when you're in building mode.

Experience per Trip
For number of planks carried. Higher numbers require a Beast of Burden.

Servants
An alternative to travelling between your house and a bank is to use Servants to bring things from the bank to your house. This is faster than travelling yourself because you can build while the servant is making the trip. Better servants make the round trip faster.

To give instructions, speak to the servant. However it is quicker if you "use" noted items on your servant - you will be asked whether you want it to be banked or to be unnoted. If you use an unnoted log on the Cook or the Butlers, they can take a specified amount to the sawmill.

Servant Cost
Note. To make planks via a servant costs two trips per load - one trip to the bank to get logs, and a second to the Sawmill to make them into planks.

Flatpacks
Flatpacks used to be very rarely used for training because they were slow experience. It was much faster to build and remove furniture instead. However, after an update they have a "build all" option that means they can be faster than using hotspots.


 * Flatpacks can be sold on the Grand Exchange, however the return is very poor. The volume traded is also very slow. Not every flatpack is worth selling. Flatpacks can also be sold to shops for even poorer prices.
 * Flatpacks can be alched, but the return is less than the cost of the runes.
 * Flatpacks may be sold to Advisor Ghrim in exchange for coins in the treasury of your kingdom, after completing the hard Fremennik Tasks. In principle he gives 10% of the material costs. How this is calculated is not clear, but the value of a flatpack is less than 10% of the GE price of a log plus the Sawmill fee. Since the Sawmill fee is fixed, this suggests that he values the logs at less than GE price but greater than the max store price.
 * Advisor Ghrim will not take noted items.
 * At one time, players needed to be wearing the Fremennik sea boots 3 reward from the hard tasks, but that is no longer true.
 * Flatpacks can be traded in at the Mobilising Armies activity for Investment credits. These credits are used to get reward credits which can be used to get money or other rewards. If you choose money, you can get a refund of the cost of the flatpacks.
 * Because flatpacks can be made while not in building mode, items can be dropped. This may be the most convenient way to get rid of flatpacks.
 * Flatpacks are rarely stored if using a Servant, because the return is marginal or worse given the additional cost of using a servant trip to bank them. However, if you value the flatpacks at Advisor Ghrim rates, higher value flatpacks can be worth banking. Use a BoB to accumulate enough flatpacks to make the servant journey efficient.

You need a Workbench to make Flatpacks, requiring a Workshop (Level 15 Construction)

Flatpack Return Value
The following table shows the return on an example flatback item used for training (note all items with the same plank requirements will have different GE Sell prices but the same Advisor Ghrim return). The poor return should be compared with the total loss if an item is removed or dropped.

Note: Advisor Ghrim will value slightly less than the nominal 10% value. As a snapshot, on a particular day he offered a return on some teak items that valued the teak log at 63 coins, assuming he gives full credit for the Sawmill fee. On the same day, the GE teak log price was 148 (plus 500 sawmill) and a teak plank 766, giving a real return of 9.7% or 8.2% respectively.

Sacred Clay Hammers
One way to decrease the cost of Construction is to use Sacred clay hammers. A Sacred clay hammer is a reward from the Stealing Creation mini-game. It is used to double the XP earned from each item constructed. However, it takes time to get the hammers, and if you count the time it takes to get the hammers, the overall construction experience rate decreases. Because training Construction costs money, any training regime must include doing something else, earning money to spend on construction. In this context, spending time playing Stealing Creation can be considered a valid part of construction training. See later section for a time/cost breakeven analysis of Sacred Clay hammers.

Returnable Item Construction
There are a few decorative items that can be built that require a special construction item (e.g. a Mounted sword requires a sword as well as two teak planks to build). Building these gives more XP than the planks alone, but if the item is then destroyed, the construction item is returned. This can be repeated continuously, effectively increasing the XP given per plank.

Notes:
 * Armour stands are rarely used for training because of the disadvantage of needing 3 spare inventory slots for the armour each time you remove the stand. However, using servants to hold the planks, this technique is viable.
 * Mounted stuffed fish trophies do not return the stuffed fish.
 * Profound Armour Stands have the distinction of being the cheapest reasonably made construction training (limestone fireplaces are the cheapest at 1.05 gp/xp without a sacred clay hammer if you buy the bricks from the store at 21gp a brick).

Summary
It seems that the most popular way to get 99 construction is to use oak planks. The second most popular way is to use mahogany planks. Teak planks probably would be third most popular. If you are rich enough to contemplate using mahogany, you probably would not consider it worthwhile to use servants to make the planks.

Time/Cost Breakeven Analysis of Sacred Clay Hammers
This section is intended to help you choose exactly how you want to train construction at medium and high levels. Generally, you choose either oak dungeon doors or mahogany tables, and both of those methods can be done with or without Sacred clay hammers (SC hammers). SC hammers disintegrate after a certain value of XP gained.

For the purposes of these calculations, the following values will be assumed:

This is counting oak planks as coins each, mahogany planks as  coins each, and includes the use of the Demon butler for mahogany tables, and the Butler for oak doors.


 * Number of SC hammers obtained per hour: 5 (This is possible in a skilling-only Stealing Creation game.)


 * SC hammers last for 50750 construction experience each with oak planks, which is 25375 bonus experience, and 51415 with mahogany planks, which is 25690 bonus experience. (The experience maxes out mid way through the last mahogany table) Therefore, you will need 20.2 of them for an hour of construction with mahogany, or 7.1 of them for an hour of construction with oak.

Based on these values, experience and cost per hour for each of the four methods can be determined. These rates necessarily include the time needed to get the SC hammers for the efficiency analysis to be correct. The rates are as follows:

Again, these rates are not necessarily correct for every person. They are only approximate values assigned for the purpose of doing calculations. Some people are very slow at training, and some people are very fast. Also, prices change every day.

But based on the stated rates of the above four methods, an efficiency analysis can be performed. This is a mathematical way to find out what method is best for you, based on how valuable you consider your time to be (per hour). This is sometimes interpreted as the most cash you can make per hour- for example, by runecrafting double nature runes. However, it is ultimately your choice how valuable you feel your time should be. See the efficiency article for more details about this concept.

The results of the efficiency analysis are as follows:


 * Players who value their time at under k per hour should build oak dungeon doors with Sacred Clay hammers.
 * Players who value their time at over k per hour should build mahogany tables without Sacred Clay hammers.
 * Making Oak doors without Sacred clay hammers or Mahogany tables with Sacred clay hammers are never the most efficient method to train construction.

The Unbelievably Expensive Method
It is often claimed that the fastest construction experience can be reached by using magic stones (for example, building Demonic Thrones) or by using marble blocks (for example, by building Marble walls). Marble does give 500 experience per block and magic stones do give 1000 experience per stone, which is much more than oak planks at 60 experience per item or mahogany planks at 140 experience per item. However, it costs over 650 coins per experience to train with marble blocks and over 975 coins per experience to train with magic stones. It would cost 8.45 billion coins to get 13 million construction experience using marble blocks, and 12.68 billion with magic stones. Additionally, it is difficult to buy marble blocks and magic stones on the Grand Exchange, making buying them from the Stonemason in Keldagrim virtually a necessity; however, this takes time and could, potentially, cancel out much of the higher experience rate these items would give. It has not been demonstrated that anyone has gotten a significant amount of construction experience by using these supplies, which is not surprising given the extreme costs involved. Another extremely expensive - although far more practical - method to train is by "building" hobgoblin guards in a dungeon. The fact that you only need money to build means that you never need to use a servant at all. In this case, the hobgoblin gives the best xp/coin ratio out of all the guards, although higher level ones give better experience/hour.

Trivia

 * When Construction was first released, it was rumoured that some of the first players achieved 99 Construction by building Skeleton Guards. This method cost nearly 3 billion coins to get 99 Construction, but only required cash.
 * Oak planks were worth 1,000-1,500 coins each on the first few days the Construction skill was released (prior to the Grand Exchange, trade limits, and market price).