Spirit Trees and Fruit Trees planting routes

Ever since I was able to plant my own Spirit Trees I’ve been wondering how to put this ability to a proper use. Neither of the three available locations looked particularly appealing and for a long time I was simply growing Spirit Trees for Farming experience in Port Sarim and didn’t use it for transportation at all.

My thoughts at the time were something like:
Ecteria – nah, the fairy ring is far better for the Kingdom Management
Brimhaven – I can always take a boat from Ardougne or Catherby
Port Sarim – nice job, Jagex, in finding one of the few spots in the Port Sarim area, where the tree would be completely useless

Well, months passed by and I started to suspect that maybe, yes, maybe a Spirit Tree can be added to my Fruit Trees farming route. Again, unable to decide I posted the question on several major Runescape forums. I wasn’t very much surprised to see the same kind of confusion and diversity. Yes, players were using Spirit Trees in their Fruit Trees farming routes, but they were using all three locations! Nevertheless, three main routes/usages stood out.

And before I go into details I want to thank players who contributed to the topics and helped to determine these routes:
Toomuk and Lizarick from Zybez Runescape Community forum
Meol, Mpg321 and Hephaistos50 from Tip.it forum

All right. Here are the three options.

Option 1 (Ecteria)

Teleport to Al-Kharid using a dueling ring
Pick cactus spines
Visit the bank and take a gnome glider to Gnome Stronghold
Go south and plant the first fruit tree
Use the spirit tree to teleport to Ecteria and plant a bush
Use the spirit tree to teleport to the Gnome Tree Village and plant the second fruit tree
Teleport to Ardougne and take a boat to Brimhaven
Plant the third fruit tree
Take a boat to Catherby, bank and plant the forth fruit tree.

Option 2 (Port Sarim)

Teleport to Draynor using a Glory Amulet, bank there
Run to the spirit tree in Port Sarim and teleport to the Gnome Tree Village
Run out and plant the first fruit tree, run back.
Use the spirit tree to teleport to the Gnome Stronghold and plant the second fruit tree
Use the spirit tree to teleport to the Khazard Battle Field.
Run to Ardougne Castle, go to the 2nd floor, pick up a black scimitar, pick the locked chest (you get 1000gp, a raw shark, adamant ore and an uncut sapphire)
That basically puts you at the dock for Brimhaven, take a boat to Brimhaven and plant the third fruit tree.
Take a boat to Catherby.
Bank, then plant the forth fruit tree.

Option 3 (Brimhaven)

Teleport to Al-Kharid using a dueling ring
Pick cactus spines
Visit the bank and take a gnome glider to the Gnome Stronghold
Go south and plant the first fruit tree
Use the spirit tree to teleport to the Gnome Tree Village and plant the second fruit tree
Use the spirit tree to teleport to Brimhaven
Plant the third fruit tree
Take a boat to Catherby, bank and plant the forth fruit tree.

I decided to investigate these three options further and spent a few weeks growing Spirit Trees in all three locations and doing measurements. The results are in the table below. Note that the time is ‘walking time’. In order to remove ‘Agility’ factor I walked during the tests. Note also that I was wearing an activated Ring of Charos which lowered cost of the Charter Boat rides. Finally, planting time is NOT included – only walking is included.

As you can see the walking time is very close, so it cannot be considered to be a deciding factor and each option has its own advantages and disadvantages. For instance, option #2 brings more bonus money, but requires 72 Thieving and provides less Farming exp. Option #3 is the fastest and cheapest, but again not the best Farming exp. Option #1 is similar to #3 but adds an additional bush to the route. Plus it might be useful for Kingdom Management (to restore popularity without visiting the counselor).

At the end, I’ve chosen Option #1 with a Spirit Tree on Ecteria island – simply because I can get a bit more farming exp by doing it. But decide for yourself!

I hope you found this research intersting and if you have another route, you’d like to be added to the table, please, let me know!

Posted by vrunewise (owner of Runewise and Runescape Reader’s Digest)

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