Whats going on guys my names Theoatrix and welcome to my updated level 1-99 Fletching guide for OSRS.
Fletching is the fastest 99 in OSRS where the fastest recorded time is by Sherlockness. He reached 99 only 2 and a half hours after making his account.
Guide QuickLinks
If you would prefer to watch the video version of this guide, you can watch that below. Otherwise, continue scrolling to read the 1-99 Fletching guide.
Fletching Methods Overview
There are 7 categories of fletching methods.
Bows
You can fletch bows for mediocre xp rates but at a small profit in most cases.
If you just string the best profitable bows you can all the way to 99 you would profit 13.6 mil but it would take 60 Hours.
Darts
There's fletching darts which give the highest xp rates in the game but at a fairly big cost.
The fastest xp is achieved with windows mouse keys and this is how Sherlockness set the fastest 99 record.
Bolts
There's Bolts, which are trained in a similar way to darts and bolts also give very high xp rates.
They can also be cheaper than darts in some cases.
Arrows
Fletching arrows can give over 650k xp per hour with dragon.
Arrows can be a low cost training option while still providing some afk time.
Javelins
Making javelins is another fast and semi afk fletching method...
Although they have low trade volumes on the grand exchangeand they are not cheap either.
Tipping Bolts
You can add gem tips to bolts for decent experience and in some cases for profitable fletching experience.
Tipping bolts can also be considered to be semi afk.
Weaponry
Fletching also allows you to create weapons like the blowpipe, crossbows, the webweaver bow and more.
In some cases these can be profitable methods and I'll talk more about weaponry in the profitable section of this guide.
Passive Fletching
Fletching is a skill that can be trained somewhat passively.
You can fletch while you do other activities across runescape, like during a quest, or while you level another skill. Doing this is the most efficient way to train fletching since you're progressing your account at the same time.
Here are 5 examples of when you could train passively.
While training agility, you can fletch bolts or darts in between obstacles.
With low level hunter, there's some waiting time between trap placement.
While doing farm runs you can fletch darts or bolts while you run to the next patch.
You can fletch inbetween games at the wintertodt.
You can fletch while youre running doing a quest or achievement diaries.
Cost Of Fletching
The cost of fletching fluctuates a lot so I would recommend checking a fletching calculator before doing any fletching training methods.
Low Level Training
At level 1 fletching, you have 4 training methods at your disposal.
There's bronze arrows, headless arrows, arrow shafts and questing.
Bronze arrows are the fastest way to level your fletching at a low level. You can get around 55k fletching xp per hour from level 1, which is very fast for such a low level. To do this, you need to purchase headless arrows and bronze arrowtips.
To train, you use the two items on eachother, then select to create 10 Sets of 15 arrows. You'll automatically process the 10 sets, then when you're done, you use them on eachother again and repeat.
Headless arrows are a profitable alternative to bronze arrows, providing fast experience, reaching around 45k xp per hour. Being profitable, I would suggest training with headless arrows instead of bronze arrows if money is an issue.
To make headless arrows, you need feathers and arrows shafts, then you use the feathers on the arrow shafts and select to process 10 Sets of headless arrows. Then you repeat that once you've created 10 sets.
Another low level fletching method is just cutting logs into arrow shafts. This is quite slow and expensive if you buy the logs off the grand exchange. So I would only recommend cutting logs into arrow shafts if you're woodcutting the logs yourself.
So maybe if you don’t have any money at all, this would be an inviting option. To make arrow shafts, you use a knife on some logs, then select to create arrow shafts. This is pretty afk compared to the other methods, but much slower.
The final low level fletching method im showing is questing. Completing animal magnetism, then zogre flesh eaters, then temple of ikov, will get you from level 1 to 28 fletching.
Although, questing is not a popular pathway at a low level. For example, if you fletched bronze arrows for 10 to 15 minutes you'd end up with the same amount of experience as completing all of those quests.
Fastest Methods
Im going to start by showing the fastest possible pathway to level 99.
Below is the fastest pathway to 99, with the xp rates, costs and amounts.
It costs 287 mil at the current prices (September 2024), and will realistically take 6 to 8 hours if you use windows mousekeys or a touch screen.
Your first 6 levels are done by fletching bronze arrows, which are the fastest until you unlock bronze darts. Then you can use a dragonfruit pie to boost by 4 levels to create bronze darts with level 10. Along the entire pathway, you should take advantage of these pies to access the next method 4 levels early.
There are no quest requirements to fletch darts, you only need the tourist trap quest to SMITH dart tips, so you can train with this entire pathway from tutorial island.
Darts are made with feathers and dart tips, and to process them quickly, you need to go into your in-game settings and turn off the make X for darts and bolts option.
Every time you make a set of darts, you only make one set. But you can fletch as many darts as you can and the game will process all of them.
So you basically have to spam click really fast to get the best xp rates. But you can use windows mousekeys which can be faster and easier.
This is how windows mousekeys works.
Jagex allows 1 to 1 input actions which means 1 keyboard input can be mapped to 1 single movement or click.
Windows mousekeys lets you set 1 to 1 actions on the keypad of your keyboard, Pressing 4, 8, 2 and 6 move the mouse, and 5 is left click.
This is how you set up mousekeys.
1. You firstly search for mousekeys in your computer search and open your mousekeys settings.
2. Turn on mousekeys
3. Then in the settings, turn on the control setting, then you can lower the speed and acceleration.
4. Then you hold control while pressing 4 5 6 5 4 on your keypad for horizontal, or 2 5 8 5 2 for vertical training.
5. You can also set up sticky keys to keep control held down.
A popular alternative is to train fletching on a tablet with OSRS mobile.
This is easier on your hand and you can walk around while you do it.
Instead of fletching high level darts like dragon darts on this pathway, you can stick to fletching one type of dart all the way to 99. This is slower but still faster than the other methods.
Mithril darts are a great option, where going to level 99 will cost 110 mil. Alternatively, an even cheaper but slower method is making steel darts. At level 90, amethyst darts are a cheaper alternative to rune and dragon darts, and provide very fast xp rates.
Next im going to cover Bolts, which are similar to darts where you make a set of bolts every time you click. So these can be done for very fast experience with windows mousekeys, and can be used while you train another skill. Bolts are generally cheaper than fletching darts, but are slower.
You can see that bolts give less xp compared to their dart counterpart, but keep in mind that some of these have low trade volumes. Broad bolts are a popular option, as well as dragon bolts which can sometimes be breakeven.
To make bolts, you need unfinished bolts, so for bronze for example, it would be bronze bolt then unf in brackets. You then attach feathers by using them on eachother.
Fletching arrows is another fast training method which can be semi afk. The xp rates are nowhere near as high as darts and bolts, but youll be getting at least 100k xp per hour from level 15.
Above is a cheap and fast arrow training pathway to 99. It takes around 28 Hours with this pathway and costs 58 Mil. Steel and amethyst arrows are particularly cheap compared to the other arrows, however, you should avoid making adamant and rune arrows since you lose a lot of money.
Making arrows is the same as I showed in the low level section, where you buy arrowtips and headless arrows and use them on eachother. The AFK processing time with arrows is 12 Seconds, which isnt long but it’s a lot less click intensive than the other methods.
Fletching javelins provides similar xp rates to fletching arrows, except javelins can be a lot more expensive in most cases. They have very low trade volumes on the grand exchange, and the only javelin really worth making is dragon javelins. Recently though, the cost has increased, where going from level 92 to 99 will cost 82 Mil and should take 9 to 10 Hours.
To make javelins, you need javelin heads and javelin shafts. Then you use one on the other, and click the confirmation box to make 10 sets of javelins.
AFK Methods
Now im going to cover the AFK and semi AFK fletching methods, and they are fletching bows, battlestaves, celastrus and antler bolts.
Fletching logs into bows is a common pathway to 99 fletching since it can be profitable and afk, although if you have the money, I would suggest training with cheap darts, bolts or arrows.
There's 2 steps to make a bow. You firstly cut logs into an unstrung bow. Then you add bowstring to the bow, and both actions give fletching experience.
Stringing bows is faster experience than cutting logs into unstrung bows, but is less afk since you can only process 14 at a time.
Above is the pathway to 99 fletching the profitable bows. Stringing is more profitable than cutting logs at this point in time, and stringing magic longbows will be your main method to 99 once you unlock them. From 85 to 99 fletching, cutting magic longbows will get about 4 mil in profit.
At level 40 fletching, you can cut celastrus bark into battlestaves.
These give the same afk time as cutting logs, but the xp is quite high for a level 40 method. The downside though, is you lose money, where right now youd lose 340 coins per bark. To do this method, you just buy celastrus bark off the grand exchange and with a knife in your inventory you can click the bark to convert it into a battlestaff.
Making antler bolts is another afk fletching method, where the afk interval lasts 18 Seconds, which isnt overly afk, but these are currently profitable to make, although I don’t think that will last.
The xp rates for these is not the greatest either.
To make antler bolts, you use a chisel on the respective antler, and you get 12 bolts per antler. The xp rates are very low for this method, so this is more for profit, but I chose to put it in the afk section because the profit probably wont last after uploading this.
Making arrows and javelins could also be considered a semi afk method.
With both of these, your afk interval lasts around 12 Seconds, which isnt a very long time but it still allows you to multitask while watching shows, lectures or while you do something else on your PC.
Overall, these fletching methods are mostly semi AFK rather than being actually AFK, but fletching logs into bows is the best you'll get.
Profitable Methods
Fletching bows is a profitable way to train where currently, maple, yew and magic longbows are all profitable bows to string.
From level 1 to 99 fletching, if you string the best bow you can, you'll profit 13.6 Mil.
Tipping bolts is another profitable fletching method, and this is where you add gem bolt tips to bolts. A lot of the lower level bolts have low trade volumes, so youll most likely lose money if you do those. But bolts like ruby, diamond, dragonstone and onyx are all profitable ways to train.
The xp rates are quite high at the same time, reaching 280k with onyx bolts. To do this, you just use the gem tips on the bolts, then you click the creation interface to make 10 sets. You can also tip dragon bolts, which can be more profitable than regular bolts, but do keep in mind that some of them have low trade volumes so they wont end up making any profit. The popular dragon bolts are still decent options though, like ruby and diamond.
You can also turn cut gems into bolt tips for fletching experience. This is NOT good fletching xp per hour, but it is highly profitable in some cases. For example, cutting ruby bolt tips from rubies from when you unlock them, all the way to 99, you would profit over 480 mil.. BUT it would take 1500 hours, so the hourly profit is only about 300K per hour.
To make gem bolt tips, you just use a chisel on a cut gem. And I would strongly suggest NOT doing dragonstone or onyxes since you lose a lot of money on those. Check a fletching calculator to see what's really profitable at the current time.
Next up is fletching weaponry, and this is the most profitable fletching method in the game but it does require a lot of patience with the grand exchange, as well as a lot of starting capital.
At 47 fletching you can make light ballistas. this is currently quite profitable and gives 330 experience per ballista.
At 72 fletching you can make heavy ballistas with an unstrung heavy ballista and a monkey tail, but these are usually less profitable although give double the amount of experience.
Making crossbows is another fletching moneymaker, where they mostly become profitable from rune crossbows. If you solely string rune crossbows at 69 fletching, youll profit 120 mil going to 99 at this point in time.
Dragon crossbows are also profitable, but require more starting capital and patience with the grand exchange.
A new item, the sunlight hunters crossbow, is currently profitable as well. And to make these you use a chisel with a sunlight antelope antler and a regular hunters crossbow.
This gives zero experience, so its only useful for money making.
At 78 fletching, you can turn a tanzanite fang into a blowpipe. This can be profitable if you're patient with the grand exchange.
Once again, this does require a lot of starting capital since each fang is over 4 mil. And you only get 120 xp per blowpipe, so its not as fast as ballistas.
Another profitable weapon that can be made with fletching is the webweaver bow, which is made by combining a fang of venenatis with a craws bow. This requires 85 fletching and once again can be very profitable if youre patient.
The last profitable method that im showing is training at the Wintertodt. You get xp based on your current fletching level, so at higher levels youll get more xp per hour. But this method is only recommended if you need to train your firemaking.
Going from level 50 to 99 firemaking at the wintertodt will get you from 1 to around 50 fletching if you fletch every log that you chop. Although, I recommend training some fletching normally before doing the wintertodt so you get more xp per log and skip the early levels. If you start with 20 fletching, and get 99 firemaking, youll reach around level 70 fletching.
Ironman Methods
As an ironman, fletching is still a fairly fast skill if you have the money.
For low levels with no money, cutting trees and fletching the logs is a common way to train.
The wintertodt can also provide some early fletching training for ironmen.
But the fastest way to level fletching at a low level is buying arrow shafts and feathers from shops, and creating headless arrows.
Feathers can be bought from fishing shops, and arrow shafts can be bought from the ranged shop in the ranging guild. That requires 40 ranged, so without it, you can cut and fletch willow logs for a lot of arrow shafts.
The main goal for ironmen is to unlock broad arrows, which are a fast and fairly cost effective way to train fletching. You need the broader fletching slayer unlock which costs 300 slayer points to be able to do this.
Broad arrows give 450k xp per hour at a cost of 2.8 mil gp per hour. So its almost 6 gp per xp but it’s the fastest fletching method on an ironman by a mile. This is because you can buy broad arrowhead packs from any slayer master.
Another common fletching pathway for ironmen is to gather maple logs at miscellania, then cut them into maple longbows, and optionally string them too.
You can then alch the longbows to get your money back, as well as magic experience.
There is also the recently updated trouble brewing, where you can get 200k fletching xp per hour from a low level, just requiring the cabin fever quest.
You essentially just cut the scrapey trees for their logs, then you can spam fletch the logs with a knife. They give 160 xp each, and it doesn’t scale with your level.
As a higher level ironman, some of your fletching experience will come from creating the ammunition used for raiding and bossing.
For example, fletching the darts needed for your blowpipe might get you a significant chunk of fletching xp over time.