Herblore
Picks custom-named herbs and brews 34 potions across speed, combat, prayer, stamina, hunter and elemental lines in normal, super and extreme grades.
Herblore is the potion skill, and every stat boost in the game is brewed by a player. Strength, ranged and magic potions push your damage, defence and prayer potions keep you standing, staminas refill run energy, heat potions stop the desert draining you, and the extreme and god potions at the top are what bossing runs on. Druidic Ritual unlocks the whole skill: before it you cannot pick a herb or use a stand.
Level 1 to 120
You brew at a brewing stand and nothing ever fails, so herbs are the only bottleneck. Speed potions carry the first thirty levels on three tulips a go, super potions take the middle, and from 77 the extreme line pays about four times as much for one extra herb. The rule is simple: brew the best potion your herb stock can actually sustain, and gather while you wait for it to rebuild.
- Speed potions 1 to 30
One white, one red and one orange talupia for 12 XP, brewed in a second. All three are level 1 herbs, and bees, cave crawlers, cave bugs and zamorakian monks drop them by the handful.
- Super speed potions 30 to 39
The same three tulips plus one necroti busi, the dead bush herb you can pick from 30, for 72 XP. Six times the XP for one extra herb, and the first real jump in the skill.
- Super combat potions 39 to 50
Super ranged at 39, super strength at 40 and super magic at 41 are around 90 XP each on one talupia, two orchicada blau and an alliuminati. Super defence at 45 is 100 XP for four herbs.
- Heat potions 50 to 55
Three tulips and a cactus for 121 XP. Cactus is a level 40 herb, and the potion is worth keeping a few of anyway, since it is what stops the desert draining your stamina and prayer.
- Super prayer potions 55 to 77
Orange talupia, orchicada blau, azurus aqua, necroti busi and noilednad for 196 XP. Noilednad is the dandelion herb that unlocks at 55, and this potion stays the best rate for its brewing time for twenty-two levels.
- The extreme line 77 to 83
Extreme ranged at 77, strength 78, magic 79, defence 80, from 385 to 405 XP a brew. Each wants a magmatius wrath, the nether wart herb from 70, plus a noilednad and a couple of common herbs. Greater demons and the Kalphite Queen are the reliable magmatius wrath sources.
- Extreme prayer, combat and god potions 83 to 120
Extreme prayer at 83 is 576 XP for five herbs and is what you brew most of the way to 120. Combat potion at 89 is 700 XP but eats an extreme defence potion, and the god potion at 95 is 900 XP on top of a combat and an unstable potion, so save those for when herbs are plentiful.
Where herbs come from
Herbs are flowers you pick, and each has its own herblore level: the three talupias at 1, orchicada blau at 5, rosarius poppus at 10, azurus aqua at 20, necroti busi at 30, alliuminati at 35, cactus at 40, noilednad at 55, magmatius wrath at 70, talupia magentia at 75, dragoneye rose at 80. Picking pays 2 to 60 XP, which is pocket change next to brewing, so treat it as gathering rather than training.
Bulk comes from elsewhere. Bird nests from woodcutting hold 5 to 25 noted herbs each, anything up to noilednad, and monsters drop herbs constantly: bees and cave crawlers for tulips, bee keepers for the mid tier, ogres, jogres and aberrant spectres for talupia magentia, greater demons and the Kalphite Queen for magmatius wrath, and the King Black Dragon for the dragoneye rose.
What the potions actually do
Strength, ranged, magic and defence potions boost by a tenth, supers by a fifth, extremes by three tenths. Prayer potions restore prayer points, staminas refill run energy, speed potions make you faster on foot.
The specialists matter more than they look. Heat potions carry you through the desert, fire potions blunt dragonfire, dark potions at 69 add armour penetration for three herbs, and the god potion at 95 stacks melee, ranged, magic and defence together with penetration.
Worth knowing
- Brewing never fails. If you have the herbs you get the potion, so plan your session around herb stock, not luck.
- The herblore cape halves brewing time when you set a stand running continuously, which makes the last stretch to 120 quicker than the one before it.
- The farming cape speeds up picking flowers, herbs included, so it is worth carrying on gathering trips.
- Druidic Ritual is mandatory and pays 250 XP on completion. After it, Fairytale II hands over 3,500 herblore XP, Jungle Potion 775, and Lumbridge Tree Anomaly and Palace Designer 500 each.
The full table
XP is shown wherever it is fixed.
