Old School RuneScape ironman
Every money-making method on this site, assessed for an account that cannot trade — and what each one actually gives you instead of gold.
Why the numbers elsewhere do not apply
Every GP-per-hour figure on this site — and on most others — is a sale price. It is what the output fetches on the Grand Exchange. An ironman never makes that sale, so the number is not merely optimistic, it is measuring something that does not happen. Yew log cutting is not 160k an hour to an ironman. It is logs.
This page therefore shows no rates at all. Each method carries what you end up holding instead, and the grouping answers the question that comes before any ranking: does this method exist for you?
Written for standard ironman accounts. Ultimate ironmen cannot bank, and group ironmen can trade within their group, so some calls here change for both.
Requirements and difficulty are unchanged from each method’s own page. What changes is only the value of the output.
Works
39 methods transfer directly
Gathering and combat, where the output is the point rather than the proceeds. Ordered by difficulty, because that is what decides whether you can do it yet.
| Method | What you end up with | Requires |
|---|---|---|
| Air rune craftingbeginner | Air runes for your own casting. | Runecraft 1Rune Mysteries |
| Amethyst miningbeginner | Amethyst for bolt tips, arrowtips and darts. | Mining 92 |
| Anglerfishbeginner | Anglerfish, the strongest healing food you can stock.Sandworms are caught rather than bought, which adds a step the quoted rate does not include. | Fishing 82 |
| Ardougne knight pickpocketingbeginner | Coins, directly.One of the few methods that pays an ironman in actual gp rather than in goods. | Thieving 55 |
| Birdhouse runsbeginner | Bird nests: seeds, and rarely rings.REVIEW — birdhouses are built from your own logs and clockwork, so the small starting capital may not apply. | Hunter 5Bone Voyage |
| Giant Molebeginner | Mole skins and claws. | Attack 60 |
| Gold ore miningbeginner | Gold ore for Smithing and Crafting. | Mining 40 |
| Green dragonsbeginner | Dragonhide and bones. | Attack 60 |
| Hill giantsbeginner | Big bones for Prayer. | Attack 30 |
| Iron ore miningbeginner | Iron ore for your own Smithing. | Mining 15 |
| Lobster fishingbeginner | Food. | Fishing 40 |
| Motherlode Minebeginner | A spread of ores, plus nuggets for prospector kit. | Mining 30 |
| Ogress warriorsbeginner | Coins, gems and runes. | Attack 40The Corsair Curse |
| Redwood logsbeginner | Redwood logs for Firemaking. | Woodcutting 90 |
| Wintertodtbeginner | Supply crates: herbs, ores, seeds, logs and gems.Unusually good on an ironman, because the reward is a spread of the exact materials a self-supplied account is short of. | Firemaking 50 |
| Yew log cuttingbeginner | Yew logs for Firemaking or Fletching. | Woodcutting 60 |
| Abyssal demonsintermediate | Abyssal whip, and rune drops. | Slayer 85Priest in Peril |
| Barrowsintermediate | Barrows gear and runes. | Attack 70Defence 70Priest in Peril |
| Brutal black dragonsintermediate | Dragonhide, bones and rune drops to alch. | Slayer 77Ranged 80 |
| Gargoyle Slayer tasksintermediate | Granite maul, and Slayer progress. | Slayer 75 |
| Herbiboarintermediate | Herbs, without needing Farming at all.A staple ironman herb source for exactly that reason. | Hunter 80Herblore 31Bone Voyage |
| Karambwan fishingintermediate | Karambwan — the food that lets you combo-eat. | Fishing 65Tai Bwo Wannai Trio |
| Krakenintermediate | Trident and tentacle. | Slayer 87Magic 75 |
| Red chinchompasintermediate | Chinchompas for your own Ranged training. | Hunter 63Eagles' Peak |
| Sarachnisintermediate | Herbs, seeds and the cudgel. | Attack 75 |
| Teak treesintermediate | Teak logs for Construction. | Woodcutting 35 |
| Alchemical Hydraadvanced | Hydra leather and uniques. | Slayer 95Ranged 85Dragon Slayer II |
| Black chinchompa huntingadvanced | Chinchompas for your own Ranged training. | Hunter 73 |
| Cerberusadvanced | Primordial, pegasian and eternal crystals. | Slayer 91Attack 80 |
| Dagannoth Kingsadvanced | Rings, and the Berserker ring. | Attack 75Ranged 75The Fremennik TrialsHorror from the Deep |
| Demonic gorillasadvanced | Zenyte shards and ballistae. | Ranged 80Defence 70Monkey Madness II |
| Elf pickpocketingadvanced | Coins, crystal shards and gems. | Thieving 85Mourning's End Part II |
| General Graardoradvanced | Bandos armour and shards. | Attack 80Strength 80Defence 70 |
| Grotesque Guardiansadvanced | Uniques and Slayer XP. | Slayer 75 |
| Hallowed Sepulchreadvanced | Coins, marks of grace and hallowed rewards.Pays in actual gp, which makes it one of the more useful ironman income sources. | Agility 52Sins of the Father |
| Revenantsadvanced | Ancient artefacts and revenant weapons.REVIEW — much of the revenant drop table is tradeable-only value; worth checking what an ironman keeps. | Ranged 75 |
| Vorkathadvanced | Dragonbones, dragonhide and the head. | Ranged 80Defence 70Dragon Slayer II |
| Vyrewatch Sentinelsadvanced | Blood shards and coins.REVIEW — worth confirming what the realistic ironman yield is here beyond the shard. | Thieving 82Sins of the Father |
| Zulrahadvanced | Scales, uniques and herb drops. | Ranged 75Magic 75Regicide |
With your own materials
16 need inputs you gathered
The processing itself is ordinary ironman play. What does not transfer is the rate, which is the margin between two Grand Exchange prices.
| Method | What you end up with | Requires |
|---|---|---|
| Bow stringingbeginner | Strung bows from your own logs and flax. | Fletching 5 |
| Cannonball smithingbeginner | Cannonballs from your own steel bars. | Smithing 35Dwarf Cannon |
| Cleaning grimy herbsbeginner | Clean herbs from your own grimy stock. | Herblore 3Druidic Ritual |
| Cooking raw fishbeginner | Cooked food from fish you caught. | Cooking 40 |
| Gold amulet craftingbeginner | Amulets from your own gold. | Crafting 8 |
| Herb runsbeginner | Grimy herbs for your own potions.The starting capital is bought seeds. An ironman farms from seeds found as drops, so runs start smaller and grow. | Farming 32 |
| Steel bar smeltingbeginner | Steel bars from your own iron and coal. | Smithing 30 |
| Tanning dragonhidebeginner | Leather from hides you collected. | Nothing |
| Tree runsbeginner | Woodcutting experience and saplings you grew.REVIEW — as an ironman activity this is closer to experience than income; the quoted rate is selling the produce. | Farming 15 |
| Unfinished potionsbeginner | Unfinished potions toward your own Herblore. | Herblore 3Druidic Ritual |
| Battlestaff craftingintermediate | Battlestaves from Zaff's shop and your own orbs.REVIEW — Zaff's daily stock is buyable on an ironman, so this may be closer to 'works' than the rest of this group, at a much smaller scale. | Crafting 66 |
| Blast Furnace gold barsintermediate | Gold bars from ore you mined. | Smithing 60The Giant Dwarf |
| Blood rune craftingintermediate | Blood runes for your own casting.The capital is pure essence. An ironman mines it, which roughly halves the effective rate. | Runecraft 77Sins of the Father |
| Enchanted boltsintermediate | Enchanted bolts for your own Ranged. | Magic 68Fletching 76 |
| Plank makingintermediate | Planks for your own Construction. | Magic 86Dream Mentor |
| Super combat potionsintermediate | Super combats for your own PvM. | Herblore 90Druidic Ritual |
Not available
5 do not exist for an ironman
Listed rather than hidden, because knowing why a method is missing is more useful than not seeing it.
- High Level Alchemy
Nothing as written — the method is buying items to alch. Alching your own drops is normal ironman play and still worth doing. What does not transfer is buying stock to alch at a margin.
- Potion decanting
Nothing. The method is a Grand Exchange dose arbitrage. Decanting your own potions is still worth doing for bank space; there is simply no income in it.
- Grand Exchange flipping
Nothing. The Grand Exchange is not available.
- Overnight Grand Exchange offers
Nothing. The Grand Exchange is not available.
- Bulk item investing
Nothing. The Grand Exchange is not available.
This site
What is still useful here
The calculators that measure the game rather than the market work unchanged. The XP calculator and drop rate calculator never referred to prices at all, and the combat level calculator is pure arithmetic on your stats.
High alchemy values are still worth reading, because alching your own drops is one of the few ways an ironman turns goods into coins. The high alchemy calculator costs the nature rune at the live price, which is the part that decides whether an alch is worth the inventory slot.
Everything price-driven — the market screens, the flipping cluster, the capital tiers — describes an economy you are not part of. It is worth reading as context for what items are scarce, and worth ignoring as advice.
Related on OSRS Helper
All money-making methods
The full list, with the rates this page omits
High alchemy calculator
What your own drops are worth alched
Drop rate calculator
Odds over a number of kills
Skill guides
Training routes for every skill
Quest list
Requirements and rewards for every quest
Free-to-play
The other account type the GE framing misses
Questions
Common questions
- Can ironmen use the Grand Exchange in OSRS?
- No. Standard, Hardcore and Ultimate ironman accounts cannot buy or sell on the Grand Exchange, and cannot trade with other players. They can still buy from NPC shops, which is how some methods remain partly available.
- Does GP per hour mean anything on an ironman?
- Rarely. Almost every published GP-per-hour figure, including the ones elsewhere on this site, is the sale value of what the method produces. An ironman never realises that sale, so the meaningful measure is what you end up holding — logs, herbs, food, or a drop you can equip.
- What money-making methods work on an ironman?
- Gathering and combat transfer almost entirely, because their output is the point rather than the proceeds. Processing methods work once you have gathered the inputs yourself. Anything whose method is trading — flipping, investing, buying stock to alch, decanting — does not exist for an ironman at all.
- How do ironmen make GP in OSRS?
- Actual coins come from a narrow set of sources: coin drops from monsters, pickpocketing, the Hallowed Sepulchre, and alching your own drops. Most of what an ironman accumulates is not coins at all, which is why coins are rarely the constraint — supplies usually are.