Tinderbox

The tinderbox is used primarily for lighting fires. It is also used regularly in many quests. It is also used to light and relight candles and lanterns, so any player venturing into a dark area such as the Lumbridge Caves should bring one in case their light goes out. Various quests require the player to use a tinderbox to set things on fire. A tinderbox can be stored in the Toolbelt.

While this may be arguable, many players believe it essential to have a fair amount of tinderboxes in their bank at almost all times. Tinderboxes are useful for all players, not only new or free players.

Levels 1 to 24

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Levels 25 to 49

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Levels 50 to 99

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Levels 100 and above

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Purchase
A tinderbox can be bought at a general store for 1 coin. It is not recommended to buy one at the Grand Exchange because the cost is coins.

The average spawn rate at a general store for the full stock 10 tinderboxes is 9 minutes and 10 seconds. This means the first spawn is 10 seconds after all the tinderboxes have been bought, and one minute per every other tinderbox.

Tinderboxes can also be bought from Ignatius Vulcan, who stocks 60,000, making it one of the best ways to stock tinderboxes. It is one of the largest stock of any item in any shop in RuneScape, beaten only by Pickupstixx's stock of 65,000 shard packs and 65,000 shards.

Tinderbox spawns

 * Top floor of Draynor Manor near Professor Oddenstein's machine.
 * On the wrecked ship on the north of Harmony Island.
 * Next to furnace in the eastern wilderness ruins.
 * Searching certain shelves of the Wise Old Man's home gives a tinderbox, possibly book(s) and a message questioning why he keeps so many tinderboxes. This is likely due to Dinoysus's eventual assault upon the Wizards' Tower. Though it is possible to quickly obtain multiple tinderboxes from it, your character will only take one at a time, and only if your inventory has none; this can be easily bypassed through the drop trick.

Other sources
Player can obtain an unlimited number of tinderboxes from a Tool store 2 in the Workshop of a Player-owned house. Only one tinderbox can be taken at time from the tool store, so this is a time consuming way to get a lot of tinderboxes.

Various monsters occasionally drop tinderboxes, including the Cave bug, Cave goblin, Werewolf, and H.A.M. guard.

Tinderboxes are occasionally obtained when pickpocketing H.A.M. members

Tinderboxes can also be obtained through the Buyers and Cellars quest.

Use with skills
As mentioned above, a tinderbox is often used to train the firemaking skill. Summoning familiars, however, can be used in place of a tinderbox, giving an extra ten Firemaking experience for each log:
 * Pyrelord - Summoning level 46
 * Forge regent - Summoning level 76

Tinderboxes are sometimes used in Construction. For example, 20 tinderboxes are needed to build a Flame pit in an Oubliette.

The tinderbox is also the tertiary ingredient of Pyrelord summoning pouches.

Haunted Mine
A tinderbox carried in the inventory becomes a Damp tinderbox when a player falls into the water at the 5th level of the Haunted Mine. If examined afterward it will say: Not so useful for lighting a fire. It cannot be used on a fire or range to dry it out.

Trivia
Tinderbox Tinderbox Tinderbox
 * A golden tinderbox is in one of the monuments below the temple in Priest in Peril; if the player uses an ordinary tinderbox with the pillar, the tinderboxes will be switched and the player will get the golden tinderbox instead of the regular one. This is reminiscent of Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark where Indiana Jones switches a bag of sand with a golden idol to get it.
 * There is a glitch that causes the tinderbox to disappear when the player tries to 'Use' it. This glitch has yet to be fixed as of June 14, 2011.
 * Recently, there was a glitch in which a tinderbox would fly around an Evil Tree. It only happened during the event, it is unknown what caused this glitch, and it has been fixed by Jagex.
 * The sprite of the Damp Tinderbox looks like the original sprite of a regular tinderbox.
 * The tinderbox had a graphics update on the 14th of July 2008.
 * This helped lead to the Personalized Shops update, so that players would not keep buying and storing the infinite item selection, to sell on the Grand Exchange. Before the update, a level 3 player could make over 100,000 coins an hour repeatedly purchasing tinderboxes and banking them from general stores.
 * After the graphics update on 14 July 2008, the tinderbox's look has changed. Its old form can still be seen on a table in Varrock general store.
 * Low level players can use the G.E tinderbox scheme by buying tinderboxes from the Varrock general store and selling them to the Grand Exchange.

Tinderbox