Make Runescape Mining Fun

When it comes to mining, it seems like there are two consensuses: it’s either the coolest skill there is, or the most boring thing since World of Warcraft. For me, it was kind of both. When I first started playing RuneScape, I was one of those people who adored mining. Now that I’ve advanced many levels in the skill, I find it to be extremely time consuming and very boring. The levels don’t come quickly enough and all I’m doing is clicking rocks and getting frustrated with the amount of time it takes me to extract coal A from rock B. So after level 65 I rarely mined, and never enough to even gain half a level. I was desperate for a way to make mining fun again, and while I was thinking, I learned that there are three things that can come from mining.

Anger
Frustration
Fun

Obviously you’ll get angry if you see little or no progress and you’re struggling for ores in a battle against some guy 30 levels higher than you for the last coal in your inventory. Frustration can be a tough thing, but sometimes it’s generally different than anger. You’ll get frustrated when you and another friendly miner are sharing rocks. All of a sudden there are five rocks available and you want to get at least three of them. You have to be faster than the other guy to get your ores. But as it so happens, you get stuck on the first rock while he goes and extracts the ores from the other rocks. This has happened to all of us at least once, and I can’t tell you enough how discouraging it is. It’s episodes like this that make me want to quit mining, and I’m sure that the same has happened for others. So how do we make mining fun again?

One way to make mining fun is to have a bit of friendly competition amongst miners. It’s always exhilarating to beat the other miner to the ore, and it feels much better when you know that you’re a lower level and the other player should have gotten the ore you did. But the way to actually MAKE mining fun will be detailed in the rest of the guide.

Requirements and Recommendations

Rune Pickaxe
Staff of Fire
Nature Runes
43 Magic
55 Mining (60 Recommended)
50 Smithing
Patience
Recommended: Mithril ore, teleport runes (unless mining in guild)

I’m sure you know where I’m going with this. We’re going to be superheating mithril bars.

The main advantages of this technique is that you WILL profit unless you decide to smith the bars you make, in which case you may lose some money. The great thing about superheating is that it offers a different dynamic to mining, and makes it a little more fun.

One of the best ways of earning mining experience, mining iron, often becomes extremely tedious if you’re banking. This happens because it takes roughly one second to mine iron. Then it takes five seconds to respawn (on a world with 1000 players), resulting in about 90 seconds to get a load of iron ore mining southwest of Varrock. Then it takes another minute to run to the bank and back, and then you’re doing the same thing over and over again.

With coal, sometimes it’s difficult to get the ore you want, and you’ll typically have to fight with someone else (that can happen with iron too, but when it comes to iron, whoever clicks the ore first will almost always get the ore so it’s not much of a struggle). And if you’re superheating, you’ll spend less time going to and from the bank, and more time mining. You’ll earn a crapload more experience as well.

There are two ways to go about superheating your bars. You can buy ores or mine it all yourself. Depending on where you’re going to be mining, I have suggestions. The two places where superheating is a good idea are in the mining guild and near the Lumbridge Swamp. If you’re mining in the swamp, a good idea is to mine your own Mithril ores. There are 5 mith rocks, 7 coal rocks, and 2 addy ores, so you can mine all 5 mithril ores and then make rounds of coal while you wait for the mithril to respawn.

If you’re mining in the guild in Falador, it would be a better idea to buy all your mithril ores. Purchase as many mithril ores as nature runes from the Grand Exchange and bank the ores. Then withdraw as many mithril ores as you can hold. Deposit four back into your bank so you have room for the coals you’ll mine (if you’re anticipating mining a gem and would like to keep it, keep another space open). Since there are 37 coal rocks in the mining guild, you should be able to get your ores pretty easily. The problem with mining mithril in the guild is that there are so few mithril rocks and so many people all trying to get it. This is why you are advised to bring your own.

As for superheating itself, it’s a very simple process. Wield your staff of fire and keep your pickaxe and runes in your inventory. Once you have what you need to superheat (1 mithril ore and 4 coal ores), use the spell. The four coals will disappear from your inventory and the mithril ore will transform into a mithril bar. You’ll earn Magic experience as well as Smithing experience. You’ll also earn a lot of mining experience. I don’t know the exact comparisons to mining iron, but it’s a lot more fun than mining iron, so you’ll likely stay mining for longer. What have you got to lose?

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