Clueless about Herblore? Afraid that Herblore will be extremely difficult and expensive to train?
[Dramatic pose]Have no fear, Stingy Banz is here! [/Dramatic pose]
Ok, showmanship aside, here's some simple directions to get you started on herblore without breaking your bank (or wrist).
1. Starting Out
First of all, the simplest potion requires Lvl 3 Herblore to mix. The only (practical) way to get from Lvl 1 to Lvl 3 Herblore is to do the Druidic Ritual quest. So grab a bunch of raw meats and hunker over to Taverly and do the quest.
2. Gathering the Stuff
Herblore is simply putting 2 ingredients in sequence into a Vial of Water (or Coconut Milk for some high level potions). While the ingredients may vary, Vials of Water are your core requirement.
2.1 Methods of getting Vials of Water (in order of convenience)
1. Buy Vials of Water from Grand Exchange (Costs about 90 gp each)
2. Buy (and bank) Vials of Water from East Ardounge or Shilo Village General Store.
3. Buy (Empty) Vials from Grand Exchange or from Shilo Village General Store or Taverly Herblore Store. (Nearest bank to a water source is North of Falador West Bank.)
4. Use a Glassblowing pipe with Molten glass (You need 33 Crafting and you will gain 35 Crafting xp.)
5. Camp 2x Empty Vial spawns at Mort'ton (House with Broken Table) or Magic Guild 3rd Storey (Lv 66 Magic required)
If you're stingy, and haven't done Shilo Village, use the Taverly route and you'll save a bunch of money. Rich kids can just buy from GE. Once you have a few hundred/thousand Vials of Water, you're ready to move on.
3. Level 3 to 15: Attack Potions
For this stage, you need to make 77 Attack Potions.
3.1 Items Needed:
87x Vial of Water
87x Clean Guam
87x Eye of Newt
3.2 XP Calculations
XP at Start: 250
XP for Lv15: 2,411
87 Attack Potions = 87 X 25 xp = 2,175 --> Final XP = 2425 XP
3.3 Getting the Ingredients
3.3.1 Guam is easily gotten from killing stuff (Men or Chaos Druids are fastest), or bought from GE (~430gp each).
3.3.2 Eyes of Newt are best bought from Taverly Herblore Shop at 3 gp each. Otherwise GE sells them for about 75 gp each. (If you're running Taverly for them, bring exactly 84 gp each time to buy the max of 28 each run.)
3.4 Expenditure
3.4.1 If you buy everything from GE, it will cost you 87 x [430 (Guam) + 75 (Eyes) + 90 (Vials)] = 51,765 gp
3.4.2 If you buy Vials+Eyes from Taverly, it will cost you 87x [430 (Guam) + 3 (Eyes) + 5 (Vials)] = 38,106 gp.
3.4.3 That translates to about 14k saving for running Taverly-->Falador 7 times = 2k saved per trip.
3.4.4 You can recoup (over time) up to 350 gp per Attack Potion(4) by selling to a General Store. See FAQ #2.
4. Level 15 to 38: Serum 207
For this stage, you need to start the Shades of Mort'ton Quest (till you learn how to make Serum 207) and then make 560 vials of Serum 207. Why Serum 207? Cos it's very easy to get the ingredients, and it's the cheapest to train with.
4.1 Items Needed:
560x Vial of Water (14 is sufficient if you are willing to run)
560x Clean Tarromin
560x Ashes
4.2 XP Calculations
XP at Start: 2,424
XP for Lvl 38: 30,408
560 Serum 207 = 560 X 50 xp = 28,000 xp --> Final XP = 30,437 XP
4.3 Getting the Ingredients
4.3.1 To get Ashes, do it while training your woodcut/firemaking. Cut logs appropriate to your level and burn them near a bank. Collect the Ashes and swap them for more logs from the bank.
Otherwise, you can buy Ashes from GE at about 7gp each.
4.3.2 Tarromin is a common drop from low level monsters (Chaos Druids and Men), but if you're impatient, you might want to splurge some money to get them quickly.
4.4 Mix and Dump the Serum 207
4.4.1 While Serum 207 is very cheap to produce, it is not tradeable and you cannot recoup your investment. If you're willing to labour, empty them all after each production batch to save your vials.
4.4.2 Because you're emptying the vials, you can mix them at Falador West Bank, empty them, then refill at the nearby water pump. (That's why 14 is enough.) This also saves future effort for filling them.
4.4.3 Otherwise, just bank them, note them and dump them. (Not sure if the General Store will buy them)
