Herblore

Herblore (Herblaw in RuneScape Classic) is a members-only skill that allows players to make their own potions that serve various uses.

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 Herblore can be trained relatively quickly, 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 or farming and some spawn in various locations), it is much less expensive but quite time consuming.

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. Only cleaned herbs can be used to make potions. Herbs are almost always obtained in their grimy state (from farming, monster remains etc.). Although grimy herbs give experience from cleaning, they usually cost less than their cleaned counterparts since players training Herblore usually do not want to spend time cleaning the herbs.

Chaos druids (as well as Aberrant spectres, Flesh crawlers, and Al-Kharid Guard) drop grimy herbs often, and on occasion may drop two. Aberrant Spectres may also drop three.

Potions
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 grants a 1 Herblore experience per unfinished potion. If you are trying to save money while doing herblore it is recommended to receive free vials of water from a portable well.

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.

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.
 * A god banner can boost Herblore by 2 levels for thirty minutes, if you've done the relevant tasks. Because this is an extended boost, it is ideal for making a large quantity of potions above your level (such as for training); however, the boost does tick down from +2 to +1, and then refresh when it would tick down to +0. Thus it is best if you only need to boost one level, instead of two, or you will be periodically interrupted. These also do not stack with Greenman's ale.
 * Brown Spicy stews can be made after Freeing Evil Dave in Recipe for Disaster. These may randomly boost or lower Herblore by up to 5 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.
 * A mint fondant boosts herblore by +3 but can no longer be obtained.

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 (though Bob will also decant into 1, 2 and 3 dose potions, charging for any extra vials). 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; noted and unnoted potions in your inventory will be treated independently. This is a quick and easy way to free up vials for reuse, by consolidating into 4 dose potions.

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. Even then it usually makes more sense to sell the grimy herb, as clean herbs are rarely much more than the grimy version, and often less.

Zahur will also decant 4-dose potions into 3-dose potions, for a fee of 11 coins per vial supplied. 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. Zahur will now also decant noted potions with noted vials as well.

Teplin Macagan in Oo'glog can also decant 1 to 6 dose Potion Flasks into either 6-dose Potion flasks, or 4-dose Potion Vials; or he can decant 1 to 4 dose Potion Vials into 6-dose Potion Flasks. You must bring extra flasks as Teplin will not provide them, though he does provide vials. The tasks can be performed on noted or un-noted flasks and vials. Note: You must have completed the quest As a First Resort to be able to decant potion flasks.

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. However, one of the rewards available is the Factory outfit which provides bonuses to Herblore training.

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. 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

 * In the game's fictional history, the skill owes its name to a temporal paradox. In 'Meeting History, Again' (one of the Medium Difficulty Ardougne Tasks) the player travels back in time again and talks to the creator of the art where they mention Herblore and she replies by saying that that is the perfect name for the art. 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.
 * Originally, herbs were identified rather than cleaned. All unidentified herbs or "unids" looked the same. The Grand Exchange was also released shortly after this change, so that may also have been a contributing factor.
 * Druidic Ritual was formerly needed to be completed to start training the skill, but after an update on 31 January 2012 the quest is no longer necessary.