Old School RuneScape Optimal Ironman Guide: Progression From Tutorial Island to Endgame

Playing Ironman in Old School RuneScape means no trades and no Grand Exchange. You earn every item yourself, so the order of your goals matters. 

This guide takes you from Tutorial Island to the endgame, one stage at a time.

OSRS Ironman guide: a quick look

• Modes: Pick one of six Ironman types on Tutorial Island. You can remove the rules later, but you can’t add them back.
• Early game: Start with quests, then fix run energy with Agility and the graceful outfit. Teleports and cheap food come next.
• Skills: Train Wintertodt, Tempoross, and Barbarian Fishing. They pay you back in supplies.
• Mid game: Slayer, Barrows, and Moons of Peril give you your combat gear.
• Late game: Go for the quest cape, the Corrupted Gauntlet, and the raids.

Ironman modes and rules

With the Ironman mode, you become self-sufficient. You can’t trade with others or use the Grand Exchange, the player market, to buy or sell goods. If another player attacks a monster, you get no drops – you’ll have to earn every item yourself. 

You choose Ironman mode on Tutorial Island, the starter area. Before the Magic Instructor sends you to the mainland, talk to the Ironman tutor.

The game will offer you six Ironman modes – each type changes the rules in a different way:

1. Ironman: the standard rules above (no trading, no drops, no Grand Exchange)
2. Hardcore Ironman: you get one life. A dangerous death (any death outside the safe minigames) turns you into a regular Ironman. The game also freezes your rank on the Hardcore hiscores, the ranking boards.
3. Ultimate Ironman: you can’t use the bank.
4. Group Ironman: 2 to 5 players play as one team. Teammates can share items.
5. Hardcore Group Ironman: a group with Hardcore stakes.
6. Unranked Group Ironman: a group that stays off the hiscores.

You can change the modes later, but only in one direction – you’re able to remove the rules later but not add them back.

Early game: quests first

Start with quests – they’ll improve your skills faster than any early grind. Let’s take combat as an example: you could kill chickens with a bronze dagger for hours. Or, you could finish Waterfall Quest and The Feud, then train with an adamant scimitar before you touch a monster.

Many quest bosses are easy to safespot. A safespot is a tile where the boss can’t hit you, so that’ll give you some quick progress in the early game. Before you proceed, keep in mind that most quests need OSRS membership.

Once you have figured out the membership, your first quest waits in Lumbridge. Which one will it be? 

Your first four quests

Learning the Ropes comes first – start your quest order with it in Lumbridge. The quest rewards Hitpoints XP, which is the experience points for your health skill.

Afterward, the Cook’s Assistant, Sheep Shearer, and The Restless Ghost quests follow. They train Cooking, Crafting, and Prayer. In addition, each one sets you up for a later quest. 

Quests that unlock places and tools 

Later quests open new places and tools. Bone Voyage and Lost City are the two most important ones.

Bone Voyage opens Fossil Island. You can set up birdhouses there, a method for training Hunter – the skill of catching creatures. You also get ultracompost for your farm runs, and Ammonite Crabs, a low-level combat training spot.

Lost City opens Zanaris, a new area. Besides that, it also gives you:

• The dragon dagger
• The Cosmic Altar 
• Chaeldar, a Slayer master, gives you monsters to hunt

Zanaris: the moon of Gielinor

Zanaris also leads to fairy rings – a teleport network. However, to be able to use them, you’ll need one more quest: Fairytale I – Growing Pains.

Since you start with almost no teleports, the next section explains how to travel fast before you unlock the fairy rings. In addition, we’ll go over food and training skills early in the game. 

Early game: getting around

1. Run energy and Agility

You start with almost no teleports, so you walk and run across the map. Keep in mind that running drains run energy, and it refills quite slowly at first. Luckily, there’s Agility to fix that – your refill speed rises every 10 levels, plus the drain slows. Higher levels also unlock shortcuts that cut your walking. 

Something else drains your run energy: your total weight, plus what you’ve got in your inventory. 

What can you do about it?

2. Graceful outfit and weight

You can wear the Graceful outfit, which cuts 25 kg of weight and speeds up your refill by 30%. You earn it by training Agility, which you’ll need either way. 

The outfit costs 260 marks of grace. You collect them on rooftop Agility courses, which takes you to around 60 Agility. Until then, wear Boots of lightness (-4.535 kg) from the Temple of Ikov cellar and Hunter gear (-5 kg).

3. Early teleports

Light feet help, but teleports save even more time. Here are three you can get early:

4. Early food

While teleports can get you to a fight, you’ll need food to stay alive in it. On top of that, you can’t buy food from other players, so you need cheap sources:

5. Training skills

Coins buy supplies, but skills give you both. Keep in mind that three activities train a skill and pay you back at the same time:

With these skills up, you’re ready for combat gear and Slayer.

Mid game: Slayer, Barrows and bosses

Now that your skills are up and your supplies are steady, you need combat gear. Note that you can’t buy any of it – each piece will come from a task, a minigame, or a boss.

Slayer

Slayer is the core of your mid-game. A Slayer master gives you monsters to kill; each task will pay in combat experience, coins, skilling supplies, and weapon upgrades.

• Turael: He has no requirements, but his tasks give little experience.
• Mazchna: You need 20 Combat and the Priest in Peril quest.
• Vannaka: You need 40 Combat. Many players like his tasks.

Tasks will lead to the abyssal whip, the trident of the seas, and the tormented synapse. At 95 Slayer, you can also fight the Alchemical Hydra, which drops parts for the dragon hunter lance and ferocious gloves.

Barrows

Barrows is a minigame in Morytania. You fight six brothers in burial mounds, then loot a chest for armour sets. Finish Priest in Peril first, then start the His Faithful Servants miniquest.

• Dharok’s and Guthan’s: These sets help with melee training and some bossing.
• Karil’s and Ahrim’s: These sets have high offence and defence. Karil’s crossbow also bridges you to the toxic blowpipe.

NOTE: A full set can take hundreds of runs. To speed that up, use the Barrows Teleport. It needs 78 Magic with a red spicy stew boost and a portal chamber in your player-owned house. In addition, the hard Morytania Diary will give you 50% more runes from the chest.

Moons of Peril

Moons of Peril is a boss encounter that you unlock with the Perilous Moons quest. It rewards you with strong gear:

• Blood moon armour: an alternative to Bandos armour for strength.
• Eclipse moon armour and atlatl: a powerful ranged setup.

Bring Barrows armour, a good shield, a zombie axe, and the Piety prayer. The fight supplies its own potions. On top of that, the Lunar Chest gives herbs, seeds, and crafting supplies.

Mid-level bosses

Practice on easier bosses before you try harder ones:

• Scurrius: He teaches boss mechanics and gives good combat experience.
• Sarachnis: Use a crush weapon, e.g., a zombie axe.
• Giant Mole: He dies slowly until you finish the hard Falador Diary.
• Dagannoth Kings: Safespot Rex with some preparation to win a berserker ring.

Gear worth chasing

• Amulet of fury: You enchant it at 87 Magic. Crafting it needs 90 Crafting (85 boosted).
• Dragon boots: Spiritual mages drop them.
• Dragon warhammer: Lizardman shamans drop it.
• Elite void knight set: You earn it at Pest Control.

Once you wear this gear, you’re ready for the endgame. What does it take to get there?

Late game: quest cape, Gauntlet, and raids

Your gear is ready, so the endgame starts here. Keep in mind that these goals take months, and each one builds on the last.

Quest cape

If you finish every quest, you’ll be able to buy the quest cape. The Wise Old Man in Draynor Village sells it for 99,000 coins.

• Quest points: You need 343.
• Levels: You need 85 Combat and a total level of 1631.
• Perk: Unlimited teleports to the Legends’ Guild.

NOTE: For some quests, Ironmen needs extra levels. Desert Treasure I asks for magic logs, so you need Woodcutting. Tai Bwo Wannai Trio burns a raw karambwan, so you need 65 Fishing to catch another.

Corrupted Gauntlet

The Gauntlet is a solo minigame in Prifddinas. You gather supplies in a maze, then fight the Crystalline Hunllef. If you beat the normal version once, the Corrupted one will unlock.

• Levels: Aim for 80+ Attack and Magic, 85+ Strength and Ranged, and 77+ Prayer.
• Rewards: Crystal armour seeds and the enhanced crystal weapon seed. The seed makes the Bow of Faerdhinen.
• Risk: Hardcore Ironmen lose their status if they die.

Raids

Raids are team bosses with the best rewards in the game. Ironmen get the normal raid rewards.

• Chambers of Xeric: No requirements. Up to 100 players can join.
• Theatre of Blood: You need Priest in Peril. Up to five players can join.
• Tombs of Amascut: You need Beneath Cursed Sands. Up to eight players can join. Start on low invocations, which set the difficulty.

Buy OSRS accounts, Bonds and boosting on Eldorado.gg

Much of this guide needs an OSRS membership – each Bond covers 14 days of it. To learn more about the costs, check out this OSRS membership guide.

Quest cape, Gauntlet, and raids take months. If you would rather skip the grind, you can buy Ironman accounts or boosting on Eldorado.gg

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