RS3 Mining Guide - Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, gain levels fast!

Runescape mining skill is one of the many profitable skills in the game. This gathering skill which typically involves and is associated with tons of gold if you have a high enough level; you could easily mine rare minerals to craft or sell. You can make a substantial in-game fortune. But leveling up to a point where you can make that dream a reality is going to take a while. 

Ever since the Mining rework a couple of years ago, Mining has become a whole new thing. There are tons of mechanics to figure out, and just a couple of months ago, there was a fix to reward active players. No more AFKing mining to gain free experience at cero stamina, more on that later. 

What’s unfortunate, is that, while this free to play skill lets you farm ores, rune essence, geodes, gems, and other rare goodies; there’s a significant gap in the experience progress free to play (F2P) players will gain compared to members players; members methods of training are simply better. But don’t worry, it’s not impossible to play mining training. You get experience for every single swing of your pickaxe. As long as you hit an ore rock, you’ll get experience, F2P players may not get as many rare goods, but they’ll get there. Another key element is the drop option, dropping ores is what you need to do fast to gain levels fast.

If everyone is ready to mine using the right their click on those rockertunities for a while, set up your favorite playlist, fill your inventory with ore boxes, and start reading this guide. Because we are going to be here for a while training mining; see contents just below with a simple scroll.

The mechanics on how to mine

A player mines ore to train the skill, filling ore boxes or urns, they are filled as the player mines. Players do not bank the content of the urns, as urns can be teleported for EXP. That’s some nice perks given the new mining mode.

By far, the most significant change is that rocks are not destroyed; they work on stamina and HP, which is depleted. They also have a hardness stat, think of it as armor. These things have made them a less contested resource, and now you can even see “mining parties” with rocks full of players. At least you don’t have to be alone when grinding those ores for hours. So here are most of the changes and mechanics explained in a short fashion for training the mining skill.

Durability - It’s a hp stat. Once you have done enough damage or have made enough progress, you’ll get an ore or a drop from the ore rock. Meaning ores will be obtained during traing if a player mines crushing the durability stat.

Stamina - This is a player stat, hitting the same ore rock over and over will deplete your stamina. A player must add its strength to every hit. You’ll have a bonus experience depending on your stamina stat unless you hit 0% stamina. A full stamina bar gives you additional mining experience gained. The stamina bar does not interrupt mining progress, but it prevents AFK farming since you need to click the ore rock again to replenish it. At higher mining levels, it’ll take more hits to deplete. The level required to unlock the stamina bar is at level 15, while the cap is at level 88. You’ll have in between and after all those levels, including level 20, 25, 32. 1 is another story. 

Hardness - Again, think of it like armor, you’ll need a high-level pickaxe in order to use it effectively and deal damage or make progress to an ore rock. You’ll get an experience penalty if you hit a hard rock with a weak pickaxe. But be reminded that you’ll still get experience for every hit made. 

Strength -This your Strength stat. 10% of it is added to progress/damage. It’s possible to go over the ore rock progress bar and that damage it’s carried over. 100% of the progress can be carried over, meaning a potential two hit in one go. Want to level fast? Get Strength, as soon as possible. Players are strongly recommended to use it and increase the stat to begin with, it takes a long time though. Players may get desperate, but will get rewarded.

Rockertunities - It's another incentive not to be AFK farming and they ease rock crushing and incorporate the use of rockertunities to your farming. From time to time, you’ll see them pop up as gold particles in other ore rocks of the same type. Progress is carried over from rock to rock so that you won’t miss it. You’ll get an extra x4 or x6 damage depending on your mining level. It means more goodies in less time, leading to more exp gained per hour. Pay attention to them, as every method takes them into account as required to fill experience. You’ll see more drop ores by adding or hitting more rockertunities.

Critical Swing - Occasionally and randomly, you’ll hit a critical swing, giving you bonus damage based on your mining level. The percentage of getting those critical hit chances is also affected by your mining level. Do a 1 2 punch and it will be over.This damage also gets multiplied by the rockertunity. Paying attention while farming can lead to some huge experience boosts; giving you the best experience rates possible. Players should go for the critical swings since they are used for the stated up ahead.

That was the basics of Mining. With these core mechanics in mind, you’ll soon fill your inventory with tons of ores, and rune essence of selling so you can watch the numbers on your bank account skyrocket! Heigh-ho heigh-ho! It’s time to mine. 

Free to play Mining vs. pay to play Mining

There is a difference, but you’ll start to notice it around level 50, F2P has less gear available to farm the mining skill. That’s fewer pickaxes, gear, and even fewer minerals to mine. Experience wise, the losses are significant, end game (90 to 120), we are talking about a 110,000 experience an hour loss. So you might want to either become a member or make that mining training playlist longer. Add rune GE price, and it's a small fortune.

We do advise you to try to go for the member’s route. If you use the marketplace correctly, you may even turn those in-game goodies into money to pay up for your membership. We have a guide on how to turn those Runescape hours into a profit. Feel free to check it out as well, and try that before jumping into an endless grind. It’s not impossible and highly advisable.

Nevertheless, we will point out the end of the route for F2P players up ahead as we talk about the useful items, abilities, and mining spots. Remind new player to properly use their inventory; using their right items for the right place and time will net them extra experience; use a mining urn and see the results.

How to use pickaxes

As we said, the pickaxes get past the rock hardness, netting you more progress, experience, and ores as opposed to other extra items. You can put them on your toolbelt, so they don’t take inventory slots. Pickaxes are locked by your Mining level, meaning you cannot use the most powerful ones right away. Your Attack stat determines if you can wield that pickaxe or not. They have a stat called “penetration,” it is checked against the hardness stat of a rock. If the damage dealt is less than the rock's hardness, it’ll reduce the damage done to it, and you’ll also gain an exp penalty. 

They have a damage range, meaning that they can deal between x and y amount based on your Strength stat, their penetration, and the rock hardness stat. Basically, you’ll roll for damage every time you use it. 

You'll start with only the bronze pickaxe available, but soon you'll unlock the iron pickaxe and many more once you get to the stated mining level. There are some unique pickaxes, but all of them are exclusive to pay to play players. They will give you more experience rate estimates and more bonuses, like more gems per hour.

What’s the best pickaxe to use? The highest quality pickaxe available to you. A small part of your mining quest will be dedicated to upgrading and finding better pickaxes to mine with. And while you may use whichever pickaxe you want, you won't get far if you don't upgrade them. That been said, there are a couple of them that are neat to have since they can be augmented, netting you an extra ore here and there. They give the same stat as a regular pickaxe+5 from the same level tier. They are not a necessity, and some of the quests will take you a long time. Still, it’s good to know.

Dragon Pickaxe - You can buy it on the Grand Exchange if money is not an issue. Otherwise, it’s a rare drop on Chaos Dwarf Battlefield and Chaos Giants. Or as a possible reward on Triskelion Treasures and the Motherlode Maw. It requires level 60 mining. 

Gilded Dragon Pickaxe - You’ll need the Dragon Pickaxe and the Golden Mining Outfit for the Liquid Gold Nymph to make your Dragon Pickaxe into a Gilded Dragon Pickaxe. The GE price of non gilded Dragon Pickaxe

Crystal Pickaxe - Obtained by trading a Dragon Pickaxe and 4,000 harmonic dust to Lady Ithell. 

Imcando Pickaxe - Obtained by combining a Gilded Dragon Pickaxe with the 4 Imcando Pickaxe fragments. You’ll get those from the geyser random event in the Lava Flow Mine after completing the quest “Birthright of the Dwarves.” To combine them, you’ll also need a 1,000,000 coins, and a redberry pie, give all of this to Thurgo. Hopefully, this won't leave your bank account empty.

Pickaxe of Earth and Song - If you manage to get past items, congratulations. It’s not over yet. You’ll need an Imcando Pickaxe, a Crystal Pickaxe, and a Blast Fusion Hammer for this monster. This last item is sold at 1,000,000 coins by the Blast Furnace Foreman, and it can only be bought after completing the Grandmaster quest While Guthix Sleeps. You can create this ultimate pickaxe at an anvil with a level 90 Smithing. With this monstrosity in hand, you'll laugh at players using iron pickaxes.

Once you have access to the Pickaxe of Earth and Song, the highest level pickaxe available, it will never stay in your inventory. Show it off to feed your ego (and exp)!

Again, these are not a necessity, but a good upgrade over the other pickaxes. As a F2P player, the rune pickaxe +3 will be the last great pickaxe you’ll have access to. No hard feelings but you won’t have the extra experience required to fill or get to other areas if you don’t have the best possible pickaxe. 

Other useful items for your inventory 

Mining Urns - Mining Urns they must be used if you want to get far. They give (non runed urn charges gained) give players a 20% bonus experience gained from teleporting. There is no level required to add rune to make it work. With a rune enhancer, that quickly goes up to 25% in their runed forms in order to get a fourth more mining experience just from using mining urns. It’ll matter a ton in the long run. Just remember: Urn untradable, image name doesn’t matter, whatever its called, you can’t trade them. Well, they are only tradable in their nr (non runed) forms. GE price of non runed urns is not as bad. Filling a mining urn the player will gain incredible ores via the action experience. 

Ore boxes - When Mining, you'll gain ores that will use inventory space. With ore boxes, more can be stored in the inventory, you'll make fewer trips to the bank, and while in early levels, you can afford one or two trips to bank the ores, you'll want to have some boxes for the latter levels. They can hold every type of ore, experience never looked as easy. No charges gained from type of different ores. Remember to use correctly the click drop option, dropping those ore is essential for time save. Don’t neglect the right drop option if you want to increase base experience gains; counts for everything! 

Ore boxes mean fewer trips to the bank. The Elder rune box, let’s you store up 100 ores from all minerals, remember to click the option, drop in ores via the ore boxes.

Varrock Armour - While wearing it, there’s a small chance you’ll get an extra ore and gain the additional experience from it; dropping items directly into your inventory. You can even double these effects by completing the New Varrock achievements. Remember that stone spirits don’t affect this bonus; and in every members guides for experience they also assume you are using one of these items. 

Golden mining suit - When equipped, it  gives an extra 1% exp boosting per piece and an extra 1% if the set is completed; from boots to head piece. That’s a total of 6% extra mining experience while training when held. But do remember that this bonus stacks. This is a member's rewards from the Liquid Gold Nymph from the Lava Flow Mine. You’ll need a higher mining level to get to the item; but the golden mining suit will gain additional mining experience to every player making using the mining suit a key factor on the grind.

Magic golem outfit - The Magic golem outfit gives you a 5% critical chance, +1 Rockertunity multiplier when fully worn. It also drops aggro from living rock creatures. Even while wearing the golem outfit, if you own a Varrok Armour and have used it once, you’ll get the double ore chance. And if you own the Gold mining outfit pieces, wearing the magic golem outfit will give you its passive effects even when not wearing it. It doesn't need to be in your inventory for the golem outfit to have its passive effect. You just need to own the golem outfits if you want experience gains counts towards filling that exp bar when using the mining skill.

Mining cape - You’ll gain access if your mining skill increases to 99 mining, tough requirement for equipment! In addition, it gives bonuses experience equal to the level requirements from the rock you are Mining. It also gives you a 5% chance of receiving double ores and core rocks. Equip it directly from the inventory and you’ll get far in a second.

Summoning familiars - Some familiars give mining bonuses, most of them give you a damage boost. You’ll need to have the required level on the summoning skill to call upon them. They are, Desert Wyrn, Void Ravager, Obsidian Golem, Gargoyle, and Lava Titan. The Waterfiend familiar grants you a 5% chance of getting an extra ore or core rocks. Remember that these familiars expire after a while. 

That’s it for useful items. There are a couple more, but the exp gained from them is not worth the investment. Use them if you have them, don’t worry about them if you don’t. Next, the methods of training mining. Each section or mode can drop ores from different types. We remind you that if player owns 10 full urns they are going to be teleported used to gain additional experience.

Mining level 1 - level 89 

Now, for this section, we’ll assume that the best pickaxe available to you is the one that you’ll be using. Enhance them and buy new ones when needed. Urns can be used and should be during this process. Otherwise, you’ll be here for a longer time. We’ll also assume that players will pay moderate attention, not a 100% micromanagement. If you do, you’ll get better rates per hour. It is possible to calculate how many ores you could get for the urms, and they will be teleported away to receive experience once one urn is filled. As opposed to dropping items, you’ll need an associated keybind to drop and teleport them. Take your urns, if a player doesn’t, taht’s a great loss.

Let’s say you are just starting your mining career and that you are currently level 1 mining. This is how you should approach it. Everything else is self-explanatory. Just don’t be 100% AFK farming away to receive additional EXP. A heads up, Varrock has all the rocks you’ll need to get from level 1 to 50. You’ll find few rare material in some mines. Ore only mines base on it only, as you’ll get on a higher level, you’ll get better ores.

This guide describes and contains  the most effective ways for leveling up the mining skill; the estimates in this guide were calculated by the community:

Levels 1-10. Start mining copper or tin for around 5,000 exp the hour, the best place available at level 1. The mining sites are the Lumbridge Swamp mining site, the Burthorpe mine, and we also include Sout-east Varrok mining site to that list. Achieving level 10 mining should take less than half an hour. Remember to use the appropriate items receive additional experience equivalent to the item. Not the only ores available at level 1-10, but the best ones to go for. Ignore clay.

Level 11-20. Do iron ore to gain around 15,000 experience per hour; do that including level 20. The above plus a couple of more can be done with less experince though. You can go to the location in South-west Varrock mining site, South-west Lumbridge swamp mining site. When you unlock energy mining or the stamina bar we’ve been talking about, players must start paying close attention to their iron mining adventures. Basically, don’t AFK, we can’t stress this enough; filling the urn, you’ll see results for level, 10, 20 and maybe above.

 Level 21-30. Mine coal rocks. The Falador mining site, South-west Lumbridge swamp, and the Barbarian village mining site will net you between 20 30 experience for an average of 25,000 mining experience per hour. Fill, urns they must teleport back to net you the experience; just know that runed urns makes the urn untradeable.

Level 31 to levels 40. Time to mine some cool sounding minerals. Mithril ore rocks are often found in groups on the South-east Varrok mining site, the Karmaja Volcano mine, and South-west Varrock mining site. You’ll get 40,000 experience per hour.  You’ll start making some progress towards filling the urn; if a player owns 10 full mining urns, trade that for experience.

Level 41 to levels 50. You can go for Adamantite ore or Luminite ore rocks, and they’ll net you 45,000 experience per hour. Adamantite can be found on the South-east Varrok mining site, the Anachronia western ruin mine, and the Rimmingtone mining site. Luminite can be found on the Battlefield mining site, the Mining Guild resource dungeon, Anachronia wester ruin mine, and the Dwarven mine. Experience gained while filling those urns will stack via the action bar.

Level 51-60. After 50 mining, F2P players, this is as far as you’ll go with non members methods to train. High strength is required when mining leveling. Runite ore rocks give 60,000 experience per hour. Find them on the Mining Guild, the South and north Crandor mining sites, and the Fight Arena mining sites. You’ll gain the best experience with your tool here, level up 50, 5 5, and above in no time.

Level 61-75. Mine either Orchalcite or Drakolith ore rocks. You’ll get 70,000 exp per hour. Find the Orchalchite rocks on Anachronia canyon mine, the Mining Guild, and the Southwestern wilderness mining site. While the Drakolith can be found at the Mining guild resource dungeon, Karamja mining site, Al Kharid mining site resource dungeon, and the Heroes’ guild mine. 

Level 75-81. Necrite or Phasmatite. The first you’ll find at the Al Kharid mining site resource dungeon, and the Uzer mining site. The latter ore rocks are located at the Abandon mine, Dwarven mine hidden mine, and south of Port Phasmatys.That’s around 85,000 experience the hour.

Level 82-89. Mine Banite for around 110,000 experience gains counts towards for that 120+. You can find Banite on the Glacor Cave, Abomination Cave, or the Jatizso Dungeon after completing the following quests, respectively, Ritual of Mahjarrat, Heroe’s Welcome, or the Fremennik Achievements. You can also find it on Hallvar. Mined them for growth, you could move at 87; 5 more level ups could also be achieved here, but it's better to keep moving. Avoid losing time as time is valuable.

Levels 90 and above - Testing your Iron will

To get past through the later levels, you'll need a bit more set up. By this point, and according to players level, they’ll have a couple more options available to them. At the very end, it all comes to personal preference. You may use what sounds convenient or efficient for you. Players have different opinions on how to approach these levels. After you start with this ore, experience required items will be days away with all the fill experience gained. We remind you that you’ll get better results if the best pickaxe is being used: do it for the maximum experience rate per hour.

Level 89-97. Corrupted ore. You’ll need to finish the Plague’s End quest. Do them for around 180,000 experience per hour. You can mine it from the Seren Stones in the Trahaearn’s Clan district. A Corrupted ore is not an ore rock. So bonuses doubling the ores gained, and other does not affect Corrupted ores, even if it initially appears that it works. Some people like to go back here and level 17,1 or who knows how many levels.

Level 91-97. You could alternatively go for light/dark Animica. Light Animica can be found on the Anachronia Sout-West mine, Lletya mining site, at the very entrance of Smoke Dungeon. Mine dark Animica rocks within the Empty Throne Room and the Anachronia Swamp mine. Honestly, you could finish your journey here, but there’s another method that requires a bit more set up. From level 1, 99 doesn’t appear as impressive anymore, right?

Level 97 - 120. Next, begin at Alaea Crablets. This is going to be a tricky switch. You’ll need to go to the Arc region and explore and search parts of Uncharted Isles, you’ll need to complete the Impressing the Locals quest first, and the Flag Fall mini-quest to this effectively. You’ll need to buy supplies to embark into Uncharted Isles. When you find an island with a colony of Alalea crablets, you can claim it with a “claim island flag.” That way, you’ll be able to return to it. Fill more urns to maximize the gains. These are the hardest 20 of the mining levels. 

Alalea crablets drop Alalea sea salt, which you can sell to buy more supplies to pay up for your expenses while Mining. It’s self-sustainable after a while. If you did the set up correctly, you should be gaining around 190,000 exp per hour if the on site calculator from the wiki is right.  

Other ways of farming mining exp

So, there are many ways to gain mining exp, but our points above were the most effective way to get to level 90 or 120. Ores that they obtain will net better EXP. There are 28 quests related to Mining, but the ones wielding the most exp gain for your “current level,” are locked behind many skill caps. Not all of them are hard and long, but in reality, just do quests for either the rewards or as a break from farming mining exp.  

These are the must-do quests to get rare items or have unlocked milestones when farming the mining skill - Ritual of the Mahjarrat, Plague’s End, and Birthright of the Dwarves. Again, it's better to just straight-up hit those rocks. You could also try the Warbands but if we had to rate that option is a 5, 10 being the highest possible grade.

There is also a Distraction and Diversion and a minigame (Cabbage Facepunch Bonanza, and Stealing Creation, Barbarian Assault) that give you Mining exp but are not worth it exp wise. You could also try skillchompas, but they aren’t a perfect method or certain at that.

What could be a nice alternative is mining sandstone rocks in the Worker District of Menaphos. Withthis version of grinding,  you could gain up to 1 50 000 exp per hour, but the desert heat will take a toll on your hp bar, making this method limited. There are a couple of ways of circumventing the negative effect taken though. And be reminded that you won’t get ore for doing it.

Mining for GP

Mining is a gathering skill, and is one of those skills that can net you tons of gold. Your pockets will be filled at a time where money is needed. Don’t drop the ore! They are all valuble. There are a couple of methods out there for making money, but Mining is quite simple and straightforward. Hit a rock, gain ore, sell them for money. The most profitable minerals are Granite, concentrated gold rocks, and Animica. Money making using the mining skill is easy. After you take a total of 10 full trips, you’ll be able to buy anything.

For Granite, you only need level 45 mining, and the divination skill is recommended to have it on 68. Granite deposits are located in the desert, meaning you’ll need those pesky crocodile tears to mine indefinitely or take some damage. When mining, use the highest level pickaxe that you are able to wield, but at the mining level of 45 with max Strength, you’ll be making around 1,700,000 GP the hour. You see, to calculate all these methods the community did an average.

This being the most profitable method of money-making while Mining. Mining gold rocks and Animica require a higher level of Mining and high-level pickaxe to be effective in the money-making department.  

So that's it, that's the basics and methods to use for Mining in RuneScape three. Now, it's time for you to go fill those ore boxes, clicking the rockertunities, and use your best pickaxe to gain experience while you mine and farm for levels. 

FAQ

How do you mine fast in Runescape?

There is no way to mine fast, but you can prepare and level fast. To mine, you’ll need to use your top (best) pickaxe on an ore rock several times to gain ores or rune essence. In this guide, you’ll find the basics for Mining in Runescape and the best way to go about your farming hours. It typically involves collecting ores that are held in the inventory in an urn the player must teleport at least once for XP. If you are gonna take an Urn, only one won’t cut it, you want 10 full urns adding the ore to the exp.

How long does it take to get 99 mining RS3?

A lot of time, day after day of grinding. Some estimate that around approximately 400 hours, and that’s assuming you find the best spots to farm ore time and time again and don’t waste any minutes. Method experience per hour are better than free to play. Remember to use items, and there are untradable image name crafting items, that means, the rarest items you are able to craft are untradeable.  It takes longer if you are free to play, and there are many free to play guides, including this one out there. Don’t forget about the urns as they give you an increase of experience, equivalent to 20 percent more. Urns are only tradable in their non runed form.

How do you mine fast in OSRS?

You wish you could! There is no way or technique that allows you to mine fast in the OSRS server. It is what it is. But there are ways to be efficient about it without it being an impossible task. Players have come together and have written many guides on the subject. If you may want to use an OSRS mining guide, we recommend you look them up. Just type in “mining guide OSRS,” and soon, you’ll be reading a mining OSRS guide with an image name, crafting level, and all those details on how to get better. An aura won’t do anything, thus avoid it, even from the menu sign.

What do you do with unidentified minerals, OSRS?

You'll mine them from the rocks on the OSRS mining guild, they are considered rare minerals, and you may trade them for mining gloves or superior mining gloves. The mining guild OSRS was created and is located in Falador. In summary, see to calculate their value. Inventory urns are filled automatically with ore, only base experience is increased for the skill, mining doesn’t have to be as hard in Old School Runescape. 

Does Strength affect mining RS3? 

Yes, yes, it does. 10% of your Strength translates into extra damage to rock with any pickaxe you bring; less strength decreases your mining capabilities leading to lower exp and longer grinding sessions. So you might want to get those combat skills high enough before Mining. You are able to use better pickaxes; name crafting level required for the best mining gear need strength. With high strength you’ll fill every urn, full urns net you precious exp. Urns are tradeable in their NR (Non-runed) form.

Can you get money from mining?

According to the Runescape wiki, it is profitable as well. Depending on the level 1 437 5 87 per hour can be obtained. It all depends on luck and on the camp you mine, you could anything between plus 1 000 200 or plus 1 625 325 may be added. And any money making guide will net you different amounts of gold, like 135 k, 140 k, 1 99 k, 300 k, 500 k, 600 k, 800 k, and anything in between or even more increases banking in your net worth. Maintain your gains by playing daily. It’s okay to pause from time to time, as taking a break or leaving progress paused will help you retrieved your love of the grind.

Where do I find more info on RS3?

The wiki, or Discord groups; share these sites with your friends. Please, don't be aggressive or they will cancel you. Currently, they are allowing everyone. But if you want to be there and join the community for skilling, be nice. The increased activity on the community means that not so nice people delay the creation of content . Approach with a nice introduction instead, who knows, you might find a new technique of money making or grinding for 1 00 500 experience. Try joining the community, and become the next star shooting videos and giving the community more views.

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