Fletching involves the making of bows and arrows. The products of this skill are primarily used in the combat skill, ranging. It also provides the primary material for High Alchemy, which is one of the main methods for training the Magic skill. At a higher fletching level, the skill can be trained without losing any coins, although a decent amount of working capital is very useful. Some little money can be generated at higher fletching levels.
Materials Used
Fletchers use the following materials:
General
Picture | Item | Notes |
---|---|---|
File:Knife.PNG | Knife | Knives are used to whittle wood into unstrung bows or arrow shafts. You can find one in the Lumbridge castle basement. |
chisel | Used to cut gems the second time into bolt tips. | |
File:Normal Logs.PNG | Logs | Logs may be obtained from trees via the woodcutting skill. |
Making Weapons
Bows
Picture | Item | Notes |
---|---|---|
File:Bow string.png | Bow strings | Bowstrings are one of the materials used to make bows. They can be spun from flax. |
Flax | Flax can be picked in Seer's Village and in the taverly court yard right next to the fountain. It can be spun into a bowstring on a spinning wheel. There is a spinning wheel on the 2nd floor of the house north of the churchyard. Spinning flax gains 15 Crafting experience. |
Crossbows
Picture | Item | Notes |
---|---|---|
Crossbow strings | Crossbow strings are one of materials used to make crossbows. They can be spun from sinew and tree roots below magic trees. | |
File:Rune Limbs.gif | Metal Limbs | Smithed from metal bars, metal limbs are used in the production of crossbows. |
Sinew | Sinew can be made by using a piece of raw beef with a range and choosing to make sinew. |
Making Projectiles
Arrows
Picture | Item | Notes |
---|---|---|
File:Rune Arrowheads.gif | Arrow heads | Arrow heads can be bought in a ranging shop or smithed. |
File:Arrowshafts.png | Arrow shafts | Arrow shafts can be made by using a knife on a some logs. 15 shafts can be made from each pile of logs. |
File:Feather.PNG | Feathers | Feathers can be acquired by killing chickens. Chickens drop an average of about five feathers each. Feathers can also be bought in Shantay Pass. Shantay holds up to 500 feathers at a time, and feathers can be bought for as low as one gold each. |
Nails | Smithed from metal bars, nails are used in the production of Brutal arrows. | |
File:Wolf Tips.gif | Wolfbone Tips | These can be made by using wolf bones with a chisel. |
Bolts
Picture | Item | Notes |
---|---|---|
File:Barbed Tips.gif | Barbed bolt tips | Barbed tips are rewards from the Ranging Guild minigame. |
File:Feather.PNG | Feathers | Feathers can be acquired by killing chickens. Chickens drop an average of about five feathers each. Feathers can also be bought in Shantay Pass. Shantay holds up to 500 feathers at a time, and feathers can be bought for as low as one gold each. |
File:Dragon Tips.gif | Gem bolt tips | Gem bolt tips are attached to unfinished bolts (with feathers already attached) to make gem tiped bolts. They can be made by using the gem with a chisel. Every gem in RuneScape, including the Shilo Gems, can be made into gem tips. |
File:Pearl Tips.gif | Pearl bolt tips | Pearl bolt tips can be made by using a oyster pearl with a chisel. |
File:Rune Unfinished Bolts.gif | Unfinished Bolts | Unfinished bolts can be smithed from metal bars. Each bar can smith 10 of these. |
Darts
Picture | Item | Notes |
---|---|---|
File:Rune Dart Tips.gif | Dart tips | Dart tips can be smithed from metal bars. |
File:Feather.PNG | Feathers | Feathers can be acquired by killing chickens. Chickens drop an average of about five feathers each. Feathers can also be bought in Shantay Pass. Shantay holds up to 500 feathers at a time, and feathers can be bought for as low as one gold each. |
Making the items
Weapons
Bows
To fletch bows, a player must use a knife on a log to whittle a short bow or long bow of that wood. Then, bow string must be attached to the unstrung bow. Bows, especially Yew longbows and Magic longbows, are frequently high alched as a means of income.
Bow | Level | Half Exp Cut/String |
Total Experience |
---|---|---|---|
Shortbow | 5 | 5 | 10 |
Longbow | 10 | 10 | 20 |
Oak shortbow | 20 | 16.5 | 33 |
Oak longbow | 25 | 25 | 50 |
Willow shortbow | 35 | 33.3 | 66.6 |
Willow longbow | 40 | 41.5 | 83 |
Maple shortbow | 50 | 50 | 100 |
Maple longbow | 55 | 58.3 | 116.6 |
Yew shortbow | 65 | 66 | 136 |
Yew longbow | 70 | 75 | 150 |
Magic shortbow | 80 | 83.3 | 166.6 |
Magic longbow | 85 | 91.5 | 183 |
Projectiles
Arrows
To fletch arrows, use a knife on logs to create arrow shafts. Each log yields 15 arrow shafts. Add feathers and arrow heads.
Achey logs can be whittled into Ogre arrow shafts. Each achey log yields between 2 and 6 arrow shafts. Four feathers are needed for each shaft. The shafts may be tipped with wolf bone arrow heads or with nails. Ogre shafts tipped with nails are called "brutals" and are especially useful for killing Zogres. Any type of metal may be used for the nails.
The following table shows experience per item made, although 15 items are made at a time.
Arrow | Level Needed | Experience | Experience for 15 |
---|---|---|---|
Arrow shafts | 1 | 1/3 | 5 |
Headless arrows | 1 | 1 | 15 |
Bronze arrows | 1 | 1⅓ | 20 |
Iron arrows | 15 | 2.5 | 37.5 |
Steel arrows | 30 | 5 | 75 |
Mithril arrows | 45 | 7.5 | 112.5 |
Adamant arrows | 60 | 10 | 150 |
Rune arrows | 75 | 12.5 | 187.5 |
Darts
You can fletch darts by adding feathers to a smithed dart.
Dart | Level Needed | Experience Given |
---|---|---|
Bronze dart | 1 | 1.8 |
Iron dart | 22 | 3.8 |
Steel dart | 37 | 7.5 |
Mithril dart | 52 | 11.2 |
Adamant dart | 67 | 15 |
Rune dart | 81 | 18.8 |
Training
Level Advancement
Levels | Items to make | Notes |
---|---|---|
1 - 35 | Arrowshafts | The best way to pick up fletching is to grab a knife and an axe and enter any woods. Since a large portion of the map is normal trees, the training area is wide. Arrow shafts stack, so proximity to a bank is no issue. It is best to continue with arrow shafts instead of switching to oak bows. Since the introduction of Construction, oak logs have been too expensive for simple training. Additionally, fletching several thousand arrow shafts at this point means that they will not have to be fletched later. |
35 - 40 | Half willow shortbows | Willow logs can be acquired easily for a reasonable price. Money loss can be minimised by selling the unstrung bows to shops. |
40 - 70 | Half willow longbows | The medium level fletcher will make thousands of willow longbows. As with shortbows, they should not be strung, as cutting and stringing give the same exp but stringing can cost 6 times as much. Instead unfinished bows should be sold to shops. |
70 - 85 | Yew longbows | Fletching yew longbows is the most popular method to gain fletching experience at this stage. Finally, it becomes cost effective to string the bows. Completed bows can be high alched for 768 coins or sold for less. Above level 70, you can train Fletching for free, as alchemizers who either do not have the levels or do not have the time trade raw materials for finished bows. Occasionally an alchemizer will also offer money as well, making it profitable. |
85 - 99 | Yew or magic longbows | Magic logs are more difficult to obtain, but provide greater experience. As completed magic longbows high alch for 1536 coins, the margin between items required to both fletch and high alch is better in comparison to yew long bows. Since both yew and magic longbows turn a profit when alched or sold, fletchers may choose to do either or both depending on availability of logs. |
Tips
Stringing bows
Many fletchers do not like stringing bows: while cutting is done automatically, stringing must be done bow-by-bow, and the experience granted is the same. However, the bows must be strung if a player wishes to alch them. A good technique to use is to place an unstrung bow in the sixth row, third column, as indicated by the image. If a player simply combines the penultimate bowstring with the specially placed unstrung, he or she simply has to click rapidly a few times and all bows will become strung. This also leaves the unstrung in place so it will not have to be moved each time an inventory is complete. Once all the bows are strung, the fastest method to bank is to withdraw all strings, store all fletched bows, then withdraw all unstrung bows. This cuts clicking down to six times, and requires no typing as required by Withdraw X.
The Fletching Cycle
If you do not like the hassle of buying materials and sell the finished bows everytime, you may want to try trading your finished bows for the materials (logs and bowstrings) in community forums, especially the offical Fletching marketplace forum. This means that you only need to purchase materials only for the first batch of bows you make.
Sometimes, you might even receive some money for every bow you trade. Do note that this method works only for higher level bows, especially yew longbows.
This trading method usually gives less profit than if you were to buy and sell separately. Therefore, if you're looking to earn a little cash and do not mind the trouble, sell your bows off at the market price first, then buy fresh materials.
The stringing of the bows is very intensive work and allows little room for other interaction. Any merchanting for materials would need to overlap with the cutting phase of fletching bows. An option is to keep both coins and a noted log in your inventory while fletching unstrung bows, to be able to engage in trades easily. Another good time to merchant for materials is during the high alching of the fletched bows.
Fletch in the correct environment
Fletching is a tedious and monotonous skill. However, players can take advantage of the fact that fletching must be done in a bank, preferably a crowded one. The fletcher can make some money on the side by merchanting. Seers' Village bank is good for buying more fletching supplies, while the bank of Castle Wars is good for trading armour and weapons.
Some banks not so crowded, but are designed with one-click opening. Castle Wars chest and the Rogue's Den bank chest under Burthorpe work this way.
At Yanille's bank in world 132, there is a player made fletching guild where people can fletch and talk.
Quests
The following quests provide fletching experience:
Quest | Experience Given | Additional Information |
---|---|---|
Animal Magnetism | 2500 | Provides free arrows via Ava's attractor and accumulator. |
Big Chompy Bird Hunting | 262 | Upon completion, players are able to fletch Ogre arrows. |
Devious Minds | 5,000 | |
The Fremennik Trials | 2,812.4 | |
Temple of Ikov | 8,000 | |
Zogre Flesh Eaters | 2,000 | Upon completion, players are able to fletch brutals and composite Ogre bows |
Random Events
Players will encounter many random events while fletching; however, there are no random events that pertain to fletching.
Temporary boosts
Currently, the only known method to give a boost to the fletching level is by drinking spicy stews. However, the amount of boost is random.
As with all skills, your Fletching level will temporarily rise by one when a Fletching skillcape is worn. Though it requires level 99 Fletching to buy/wear.
Trivia
- Fletching tied with Cooking were the first non-combat skills to get 10,000 users with a level of 99.
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