Current Events > Just crunched some numbers regarding the smithing skill in old-school Runescape

(+) Yeah! (+)

So I want to do a big smithing project in OSRS. I was planning to make 1000 Steel sets of armor, with the goal being for me to both level up my smithing skill and also to make enough money to buy another old-school bond. But today as I was walking home from something, I thought about whether it'd be more worth it to instead make 500 sets of mithril armor.

The reason why I would only make 500 sets of mithril armor is because of the amount of coal I would need to smelt the necessary amount of bars.

To make a full set of armor, you need 13 bars of metal. You need two bars to make a full helmet, three bars each for the kiteshield and plate legs, and five bars for the platebody. 1 set of armor = 13 bars of metal. So to make 1000 sets of armor, I need to get my hands on 13,000 bars of metal. And to make those bars of metal, I need one lot of ore for the metal I want to make, and then a steadily compounding amount of coal.

To make 1 bar of Steel, I need 1 lot of iron ore and 2 lots of coal. So for 13,000 bars of metal, I need 13,000 lots of iron and 26,000 lots of coal.

To make 1 bar of mithril, I need 1 lot of mithril ore and 4 lots of coal. So to make 13,000 bars of mithril, I would need 52,000 lots of coal. And frankly, fuck that - by making 6,500 bars of mithril to smith 500 sets of mithril armor, I keep the same amount of coal necessary to make 1000 sets of armor - 26,000.

That leads us to how much experience I would receive for either the 1000 Steel sets or 500 mithril sets. For the Steel sets, I would gain 487,500 XP - enough experience to raise my smithing level to 75. For the mithril sets, I would gain 325,000 XP - enough to get me halfway through level 74. So as far as XP goes, the Steel sets are the way to go.

But there's also the profit margin to consider - I'm also doing this to get enough in-game gold for an in-game membership. And you would think that 1000 steel sets would be worth more than 500 mithril sets, right?

Well, the price I would fetch for 1000 steel sets in the game is 1,974,000 gold. The price fluctuates daily, so this could be higher or lower by the time I finish my project.

500 mithril sets are worth 3,323,500 gold.

So the question here is - do I value the XP more, or do I value the profit margin more?
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I didnt read all that but SHIT that brings me back
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Why not just work a job for 1/2 an hour to fund your membership thing and then buy bonds and sell them for millions of gold to fund your material needs?
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YonicBoom posted...

Why not just work a job for 1/2 an hour to fund your membership thing and then buy bonds and sell them for millions of gold to fund your material needs?

I've always been the sort of person who loves to hoard wealth in games. A part of this is because I love seeing numbers go up.

I'm fresh off of a TAFE course, and I just finished an internship - so I'm like right back on the job market with a new set of skills rn. Hopefully I can find a job soon and take your advice.
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