Get Easy Money On Runescape

Jon has been playing MMORPG's since 2004; starting with "World of Warcraft" and then branching into other MMO games.

My character in Runescape, dressed in iron armor I made myself. A side bonus of making money in Runescape using this method.

In-game screenshot. Saarith LM

How to Make Gold in Runescape as a Beginner

When you start playing Runescape you will soon realize that you are essentially broke. Every decent piece of gear you can buy is way more expensive than the little gold you have in your bank. So, naturally, you start to wonder how you can earn more money.

In this guide, I will go through a simple method on how to make money in Runescape as a beginner, using a low-level character without an active membership. While there are many ways to earn gold in Runescape, I believe this method is just about the simplest of them all.

Step 1. Getting Bronze Bars

The first thing you need is to get your foot in the door. To make money you need to have money. The fastest way is to start by mining copper and tin ore, smelt the copper and tin into bronze bars and then craft them into an item that you can sell.

In my opinion, the best place to start is at a mine near Varrock. You can see its location on the map below. To begin with, you should mine 140 copper ore plus 140 tin ore and place them in the bank located in Varrock show on the same map.

Location of the mine and bank in Varrock. You can also use the mine located in the bottom right corner of Varrock.

In-game screenshot. Saarith LM

When you have finished mining the copper and tin ore you need to smelt them into ingots. To do that you should travel to Burthrope. You can get there by lodestone or if you don't have the lodestone activated yet you can run there.

When in Burthrope you need to go to the bank there and get exactly 14 tin and 14 copper ore. Next, you go to the smelter and use it to smelt the ore into bronze bars. The image below shows the location of the bank and the smelter. Repeat this until you have turned all your copper ore and tin ore into bronze bars, at which point you should have 140 bronze bars.

The reason for aiming at 140 bronze bars is to get yourself some necessary skill in smithing before you start making weapons and armor out of the bronze. I recommend making at least 140 bronze bars, but you can make more if you want to.

Location of bank and smelter in Burthrope in Runescape.

In-game screenshot. Saarith LM

Step 2. Crafting Bronze Weapons or Armor

When you have completed the first step you should be ready to start making bronze weapons. Go to the anvil where you smelted the ore and start smithing there. To do so you need to open up the crafting window by clicking the anvil where you can select which weapon or armor you want to make.

Before you start you should spend some time finding the one item you can make that gives you the highest amount of gold for each bronze bar used. In the image below the price being offered for the item on the Grand Exchange is listed where the red ring is (more on the Grand Exchange later).

For items that need two bronze bars, you should divide that amount by two and for items that need three bronze bars, you should divide that amount by three before you compare them. Alternatively, you can simply use the highest priced item that requires only one bronze bar (usually the sword).

The red ring is around the price that is being offered for this item. 501 gold for a single bronze sword.

In-game screenshot. Saarith LM

You now need to go back and forth from the anvil and the bank until you have used all the bronze bars you have in your bank and turned them into a piece of weapon or armor.

When you have finished crafting the items you need to return to Varrock and go to the Grand Exchange shown in the image below. Again you can go to Varrock with a lodestone or just run there.

The location of the Grand Exchange in Varrock

In-game screenshot. Saarith LM

Step 3. The Grand Exchange

The Grand Exchange is an auction house for every item in Runescape and is the place where you are going to get rich. To access the Grand Exchange you need to speak with the Grand Exchange Clerk, but first, you should retrieve your weapons or armor you just crafted from the bank. A banker is conveniently located next to the Grand Exchange clerk.

Since your inventory can only hold 28 items you need to switch to note withdrawal mode. You do that by clicking the note with a sword symbol just below where it says "Load Preset." After that, you can withdraw all your crafted items as notes.

Step 4. Buy Bronze Bars and Craft From Them

Having a decent amount of gold from the items you sold the next step involves buying bronze bars instead of wasting time mining ore and smelting. To do so you again use the Grand Exchange, but this time you press the little green arrow that is pointing down. In the window that now opens you want to write bronze bar in the search line and then select the bronze bar icon from the list below the search line.

You should now see the price for a single bronze bar. Make sure that the price of a single bronze bar is lower than the price of the item you are making and if so, buy another 140 bars (or any multiple of 28). To do so, you change the quantity to 140 and the price to something that is a little bit above the listed price.

Again you might need to wait a bit but when you have managed to buy all the bronze bars you need to move them to your bank directly from the Grand Exchange by pressing the "To Bank" button.

Next, you make bronze items from those bronze bars again. This time, however, you don't need to go to Burthrope. You can go to the bank in Varrock, withdraw 28 bronze bars there and move to the house just to the south of the bank and use the anvils there to craft from the bronze bars. Then return to the bank, deposit the bronze items and get more bronze bars.

Finally, when you have used all your bronze bars you can then again make the journey to the Grand Exchange to sell the items and buy more bars.

Step 5. Crafting From Iron Bars and Beyond

You should repeat steps 3 and 4 until your smithing skill has risen high enough for you to start making iron items. Continue making bronze items until you have enough smithing skill to make the iron item that only needs one iron bar and gives you the highest price. At that point, you should switch over to crafting iron items and repeat steps 3 and 4, now using iron bars instead of bronze bars. Doing this will give you more gold per crafting action and importantly, more experience than crafting from bronze items.

Continue this until at some point you gain access to crafting steel weapons and armor. Again, wait until you can craft the highest value steel item that only needs steel bars and then switch. Continue for mithril and adamantine and so forth.

Now you should have gotten a hang on how this method works. It is a grind, but it will give you a load of gold in a reasonable amount of time. And it works without needing high skills or you being a Runescape member. You also get a lot of smithing skills which are valuable when it comes to making the best weapons and armor the game has.

Just remember to check on the prices every time and be sure that you are always getting more gold from the items you sell than the gold you use to buy the raw materials.

Finally, here is a video that shows this in detail.

Now if you liked this guide, then be sure to share it with your friends and allies in Runescape.