Complete 1-99 Mining Guide for OSRS (2024)

What's going on guys, my name's Theoatrix and welcome to my updated level 1-99 mining guide.

Guide Contents

If you'd prefer to watch a video version of this guide, you can watch that below. Otherwise you can continue down the page to read the written guide.

Why Train Mining?

So why should you train mining?

A number of essential quests have a mining requirement, and you'll need 72 mining to get your quest cape.

You'll also need 85 mining to complete every achievement diary.

Both the Chambers of Xeric and the Tombs of Amascut have mining components.

Having at least level 85 mining lets you deal full damage in the Tombs of Amascut,

and the higher your mining level is, the higher you're able to hit on guardians within the Chambers of Xeric.

Mining is also a profitable skill. You'll make a substantial amount of GP on your journey to 99, depending on the pathway that you choose.

Mining XP Boosts

In this next section, I'll show the useful items and unlocks that boost your mining XP rates.

With Shooting Stars in Old School, you gather Stardust, which you can spend at Dusuri's Reward Shop.

With 2000 Stardust, you can get the Celestial Ring, and this gives an invisible plus 4 mining level boost, which translates to faster mining.

The ring can be charged with Stardust, and gives a 10% chance of mining double the amount of ore up to Adamant, and it gives the full amount of experience.

This is very useful with power mining, equating to 10% more XP per hour.

Varrock Armor, rewarded from the Varrock Achievement Diary, also grants you a 10% chance to mine double, and gives the full amount of experience.

Each tier of Varrock Armor works up to a certain type of ore, and is almost essential for power mining Iron and Granite.

Paired with the Celestial Ring, you can effectively get 20% more XP per hour, and in the long run, you'll save a lot of hours getting to 99.

At 60 mining, you can access the Mining Guild, and in the Guild, the rocks have a faster regeneration rate, and on top of that, you're given an invisible plus 7 mining boost, to speed up your mining training.

Also in the Mining Guild, you can find unidentified minerals while mining.

These can be traded for 3 types of Mining Gloves, which when equipped, have a chance of not depleting the rock that you mine, which is useful for slow regenerating rocks, like Rune or Amethyst.

In the Motherlode Mine, you'll find Golden Nuggets, and with 180, you can purchase the Full Prospector's Outfit.

To earn 180 Nuggets, it takes up to 20 hours to get, with a low mining level, or 10 hours at higher mining levels.

The full set gives a 2.5% mining XP boost, and also the set is required for the Falador Hard Diary, so it is worthwhile to get.

With Golden Nuggets, you can also purchase a Gem Bag, which is useful for gem mining, which I'll show in the Alternative Methods section of this guide.

With level 50 Agility, and completion of the Medium Falador Diary, you can access a shortcut in the Motherlode Mine, which gives easy access to Pay Dirt and Easy Banking.

At level 72 Mining, and with 100 Golden Nuggets, you can access the upper level of the Motherlode Mine, which provides better XP rates and is more AFK.

Completion of Song of the Elves, and singing together a Crystal Pickaxe, is ideal for high level mining training.

The Crystal Pickaxe gives approximately a 3% mining speed boost when compared with the Dragon Pickaxe.

For those without the stats for Song of the Elves, you should always be using the best possible Pickaxe you can, even if you can't equip it.

While you're mining, you can use the Dragon or Crystal Pickaxe Special Attack to get a plus 3 mining level boost, which increases your mining success rate.

Even if you don't have the mining level for a Dragon Pickaxe, you can still benefit from the Special Attack, as long as you have level 60 Attack.

Pathways To 99

So there's a lot of different mining training methods in Old School, and a number of pathways to 99.

In this guide, I'll show the efficient pathway without Tick Manipulation, which takes around 200 hours to get to 99.

I'll then show the fastest Tick Manipulation pathway, which takes 120 hours for 99, and I'll also show some alternative training methods, as well as Iron Man specific methods.

Regular Pathway

The regular pathway involves questing or mining Copper and Tin until 15, then power mining Iron to 30, then training at the Motherlode and with Iron until 70,

then 70-99 can be done alternating between the Volcanic Mine for fast XP, and at the Motherlode Mine for more AFK training.

Completing quests is an efficient way to level up your mining. These quests give substantial mining XP rewards and have low requirements.

They also should be done on your account at some point anyway. Completing these will get you from 1 to 37 mining, skipping a lot of the early training methods and pickaxes.

If you choose not to start with questing, you should begin with power mining Copper or Tin. Copper or Tin can be mined in various places around RuneScape.

The Lumbridge Swamp Mine, and both the South East and South West Varrock Mines are easily accessible and available in free to play.

You should be using every new tier of pickaxe as you unlock it, so it's a good idea to have them all banked or in your inventory.

To go from level 1 to 15 mining, it's only going to take around 15 minutes, and you'll mine 138 ores.

At level 15 mining, power mining Iron is the next method, giving around 25k XP per hour at level 15.

You should mine in locations where there's 3 Iron Rocks accessible from 1 tile, and there's 10 places with this 3 rock formation.

2 easily accessible locations are in the Alkarid Mine or there's the mine to the South West of the Legends Guild.

When mining Iron, you should mine the 3 around you in quick succession, and then drop the 3 ores that you mined and repeat the process.

Getting from 15 to 30 mining should take around 40 minutes, provided you're using the best pickaxes you can.

At level 30 mining, you can access the Motherlode Mine, which is an AFK training method.

You should alternate the Motherlode Mine with power mining Iron, depending on the click intensity that you feel like doing.

If you just did the Motherlode from 30 to 70 mining, it takes up to 30 hours.

Adding Iron power mining to it will lower the time down to around 20 hours.

Despite Iron being faster, it's still recommended to train at least some of your mining at the Motherlode to unlock the Prospector's Outfit and the upper level, which comes in handy at the later levels.

The Motherlode Mine is found underneath Falador, and the fastest way there is with a skills necklace to the Mining Guild.

Or you can go to the easternmost house in Falador, and go down the stairs and enter the nearby cave.

In the Motherlode, you gather pay dirt from the outer areas, and then deposit them into the hopper in the center.

The pay dirt is cleansed in the water, and you retrieve your ores from the sack on the opposite end.

There's a bank and a deposit box nearby for you to unload your inventory.

Sometimes the water wheels that power the water flow break, and you'll need to use a hammer to repair the struts of the water wheels.

You can choose from a variety of places to mine pay dirt, all around the cave.

It's recommended to do the medium Falador diary, and have 50 agility to use the shortcut near the bank.

Once you reach level 60 mining, you can access the Mining Guild, where the rocks respawn faster, and you get the invisible plus 7 mining level boost.

This makes the guild the best place to power mine, and all of your iron mining should be done here from 60.

At level 70, the Volcanic Mine becomes an efficient way to train, and should be paired with the Motherlode Mine all the way until level 99.

From level 70, if you only did the Motherlode Mine, it would take roughly 260 hours to get to 99.

So at level 70, the Volcanic Mine becomes the fastest training method in the game without tick manipulation.

The mine is an enjoyable and rewarding way to train your mining.

To partake, you need the Bone Voyage quest and 150 kudos.

The actual requirement for the Volcanic Mine is 50 mining, but I suggest starting at 70 to make it worthwhile.

So the Volcanic Mine can be soloed or done in groups, although teams of 3-5 are the most effective.

To find a team, you can join the Volcanic Mine friend chat, which you can join by going into the mini-game grouping options.

After some time, the volcano starts to erupt. This means players have 10 minutes to go down and mine resources, then escape.

Throughout the game, your team manages 3 gas chambers.

While the mine is stable, players mine fragments out of a large boulder.

The boulder gets smaller as the resources are mined out of it, and it moves down the channel.

After the 10 minutes is up, the volcano erupts and players die if they're still inside.

For those that got out, they're rewarded with points that can be spent on ores and other useful unlocks.

The strategy for the Volcanic Mine varies depending on your team size, and soon I'll release a full Volcanic Mine walkthrough.

For now, I've linked some good Volcanic Mine guides in the description below.

At level 72 mining, Percy allows players to access the upstairs area of the Motherlode Mine for 100 golden nuggets.

Upstairs, the ore veins are on a timer, unlike the lower level where the veins deplete randomly after every dirt that you mine.

Since they're on a timer upstairs, it's far more AFK and provides better XP rates.

3-Tick Pathway

For the tick manipulation pathway to 99, you'll start with questing to 37, or mining copper, tin and iron to 45.

Then you'll mine granite all the way to level 99.

Questing is the most efficient way to level up your mining if you plan to go for the max cape or for the quest cape one day.

So for this 3 tick pathway, you do the same 6 quests that I mentioned in the regular pathway section to get from 1 to 37.

If you don't choose the questing pathway, you should once again power mine copper or tin.

This should be done at any mine with 2 copper or tin rocks close to each other.

The Lumbridge Swamp Mine and the 2 Varrock Mines are good options for all players.

You should always be using the best pickaxe you can, and it should take around 15 minutes to get to level 15.

Depending on if you quested, you'll begin 3 ticking iron from level 15 or level 37, and this can be done wherever there's 4 iron rocks in close proximity.

For example, it can be done at the Isle of Souls Mine, south of Sol Wars.

Being a 3 tick method, you need an action that takes 3 ticks.

This could be creating herb tars, fletching teak or mahogany stalks, or using kebbit claws on vambraces.

The process involves starting a 3 tick action whenever your character has to move to mine a rock.

You don't need to do the 3 tick action if your player doesn't move.

So, if rocks are accessible from 1 tile, you don't need to 3 tick them.

Getting this down, you'll get up to 60k XP per hour at lower levels, and reach up to 70k at higher levels.

You should be using your best pickaxe, varrock armour, a celestial ring and mining gloves are all very helpful.

Reaching 45 from 15 takes 1 and a half hours, and for 37 to 45, it takes 30 minutes.

At level 45, you unlock the fastest training method in the game, 3 ticking granite.

This is done in the quarry, deep in the Kharindian Desert.

A great way to get there is to travel to Tempoross, and then exit the camp and venture north.

For this method, you'll need protection from the desert heat, which could be any of the items on the screen.

Taking at least varrock armour 2 is highly recommended for this method, providing a 10% XP boost.

There are 4 rocks that you'll be mining, and they're located on the western side of the quarry.

With granite, you'll be doing a 3 tick action on every rock, since your character has to move every time.

Whether you mine the rock, or fail to mine the rock, you move onto the next cycle every 3 game ticks, repeating the 3 tick action and clicking on the rock.

Staying in rhythm is vital for this method, and it will take time to get used to, especially with dropping the granite.

At 45 mining, you'll get up to 70k XP per hour with this method, and at higher levels, you'll get over 110k XP per hour.

This method is overall the fastest way to 99 mining, although it's very click intensive.

Alternative Methods

So now I'd like to show some alternative training methods that you can use on your journey to 99.

These methods are still viable and worth doing if you want to change up your mining training.

Every few hours, a shooting star crashes somewhere in the RuneScape world.

Mining the star gives you stardust and experience.

To find a star, you can look through a telescope in a player-owned house.

This gives a broad destination an estimate of a crashing star.

I recommend joining the Shooting Stars group in the minigame grouping tab, and here, star locations are shared.

There's also a Discord for this minigame group, called Star Miners, and they post active stars 24x7 in the friends chat and in the Discord.

Adding star mining to your 99 pathway is a good idea, since the Celestial Ring is very useful.

If you choose to solely train your mining at Shooting Stars, you can expect low to mid XP rates, but it's extremely AFK.

If you're the only one mining the star, you can mine for up to half an hour at a time.

Shooting Stars is free-to-play as well, so anyone can take part, although it is slower and more difficult to navigate in free-to-play.

For members, if you plan to get 99 runecrafting, it's a good idea to do that before 99 mining.

While you're mining Dense Essence with Xeah runecrafting, you'll get 1.3 million mining XP going from 77 to 99 runecrafting.

At level 40 mining, Gem Rocks provide quick XP rates along with profit.

To mine Gem Rocks, you need to have completed the Shiloh Village quest, and completing the Karamja Diary gives access to the bottom section, which is vital for faster training.

You can also bring a Gem Bag from the Motherlode Mine, which is also very useful.

You should always be wearing a Charged Amulet of Glory, because this triples the mining success rate of Gem Rocks, which is a huge boost.

So Gem Rocks can be tick manipulated to get better XP, and you can get 90k mining XP per hour, which is about in between the Volcanic Mine and Three Ticking Granite.

The tick manipulation method is the same as the others that I've shown in this guide, but Gem Rocks work on 4 tick cycles, so the method is really called 4 Ticking Gem Rocks instead of 3.

Without tick manipulation, going from 40 to 99 mining at Gem Rocks will take around 230 hours.

With tick manipulation, 40 to 99 will take around 170.

Blast Mining is a viable training option, located in the northern region of the Lovakengj House on Xayah.

Partaking requires 100 Lovakengj House Faber, and it's highly recommended to have the Full Graceful Outfit and the Prospector's Outfit is handy for when you're looting.

Players can start using the Blast Mine at 43 mining, but I suggest starting at 75 mining for more efficient XP and profit.

The XP rates are decent at Blast Mining, and you'll also profit 120 to 130 mil on your journey to 99.

So at Blast Mining, you'll need a tinderbox, chisel and some dynamite, and the idea is to excavate and blow up sections in an efficient manner.

Overall, 75 to 99 mining at the Blast Mine will take approximately 185 hours.

At 85 mining, Runite Rocks become one of the best money makers in the game for free-to-play players.

At higher mining levels, you can expect to make over 1 mil GP per hour, although the XP rates are very low and there is a lot of competition.

At level 92 mining, members can mine Amethyst in the southern end of the Mining Guild.

Mining here gives 20 to 25k XP per hour, along with 450k GP per hour.

With Varrock Armor 4 and Expert Mining Gloves, you'll gain more XP per hour, leading to more profit per hour as well.

The XP rates aren't overly inviting, and it's going to take around 300 hours to go from 92 to 99 mining at Amethyst.

Ironman Methods

As an Ironman, the training methods are much the same as the ones I've just shown. However, there are some methods that are more viable.

Sandstone is a common method for Ironmen. It's trained in the Desert Quarry and can be turned into buckets of sand by depositing the sandstone in the grinder to the west.

It nets decent mining XP an hour, as well as potential crafting XP from the sand.

Zalcano provides a wide range of useful rewards for Ironmen. It's a decent source of crystal shards, gems, runes and smithing supplies.

Gemrocks provide tons of gems for Ironmen, allowing them to bank a lot of crafting XP.

If you mine from 40 to 99 here, you can expect to get 4 to 5 million crafting XP worth of gems.

Once again, a gem bag and the Hard Karamja diary makes this method considerably more efficient, and bringing along a Charged Glory makes mining a lot faster.

Shooting stars are also a good option for Ironmen, because stardust can be redeemed for soft clay which is vital for making teleport tablets.

Amethyst is another important resource for Ironmen, giving access to a consistent source of ammunition.

In terms of training efficiently to 99, any of the pathways I've shown in this guide can be used on an Ironman. There's no resource restrictions, except for maybe blast mining.

Thanks for reading my 1-99 mining guide :)