OSRS Alching Guide: Stun-Alching, Alch-gility and Best Items

OSRS Alching: The Short Answer

High Level Alchemy is a free-to-play spell from 55 Magic. Each cast costs 1 nature rune and 5 fire runes, gives 65 Magic XP and turns one item into coins worth 60% of its store value, not its Grand Exchange price. It recasts every 5 ticks (3 seconds), so standing still you top out at about 1,200 casts and 78,000 XP an hour.

That is slow next to bursting, but alching can pay you to train, and you can do it while doing something else: buy an item for less than its alch value minus a nature rune and every cast is profit. The variations trade money or attention for speed. Alch-gility adds Magic XP to Agility laps, tele-alching and the Alchemists' Playground lift it to roughly 120,000–145,000, and stun-alching from 80 Magic reaches 184,000 XP an hour, or 256,000 with Ardougne Teleport woven in.

Requirements and Setup

You need 55 Magic and the standard spellbook, nothing else, and the spell works on free worlds. Before that, Low Level Alchemy at 21 Magic is the warm-up: 31 XP a cast for 3 fire runes and a nature rune, and only 40% of the item's value back.

1. 1

   Fire runes:

   wield a staff of fire, which works in F2P and is sold in Zaff's shop in Varrock. On members worlds a charged tome of fire (50 Magic, from Wintertodt) does the same from the shield slot and uses no charges on non-combat spells.

2. 2

   Nature runes:

   one per cast, about 140 gp each in the wiki's Grand Exchange prices on 14 October 2026. A Bryophyta's staff holds up to 1,000 of them and has a 1 in 15 chance to save one each cast. It takes the weapon slot, so pair it with a tome of fire on members worlds or carry fire runes in F2P.

3. 3

   Noted items:

   alchemy works on noted items and converts one per cast, so withdraw your alchables as notes. One stack in one slot lasts a whole session.

4. 4

   Click spot:

   put the stack where the High Level Alchemy icon sits when the spellbook is open. The wiki suggests the 4th inventory row, far left, so the mouse never moves between spell and item.

5. 5

   Warning threshold:

   the game warns before alching untradeables or anything with a Grand Exchange value of 1,000 coins or more. Raise the threshold in the Warnings settings to just above the price of your alchables, not to infinity.

What to Alch: Profit vs Loss

Every alch runs on one sum: alch value minus the item's price minus one nature rune. Alch values are set by the game and rarely move. Prices move daily, and players buy alchables in bulk, so most margins sit at a few hundred coins or less. The table uses the wiki's alch values and its Grand Exchange guide prices from 14 October 2026, with a staff covering the fire runes.

Two things decide how far that table gets you. The first is the buy limit: rune pieces cap at 70 per item every 4 hours, so a single hour of standing alchs (1,200 casts) needs about 17 different rune items, while battlestaves and longbows allow 18,000. The second is that guide prices are averages. Real buy offers often fill a little higher, and a 70-coin margin like the yew longbow's disappears fast.

If you would rather not trade at all, alch what you already have: rune drops from Slayer, d'hide bodies you crafted for XP, or the noted loot from the Wilderness Agility Course. On free worlds the wiki lists world 308 in Varrock west bank as the unofficial high alchemy trading world, where players sell alchables in bulk.

Pick Your Alching Method

Every method below runs on the same 65-XP alch. What changes is what you pair it with, and that sets the XP rate, the extra rune bill and how much you have to watch the screen. Rates are from the wiki's Magic training page and the spell pages.

1. 1

   Pick standing alchs

   if you want the cheapest 99 and can watch something else. With profitable items the run pays for itself.

2. 2

   Pick alch-gility

   if you are doing rooftop laps anyway. It is the only option here that costs no extra time.

3. 3

   Pick tele-alching or the Alchemists' Playground

   between 55 and 80 if you want 120,000–145,000 XP an hour for a modest rune bill.

4. 4

   Pick stun-alching

   from 80 if you can fund the soul runes and cast two spells every 3 seconds for hours.

Alching Myths That Cost You XP

1. 1

   Myth: High Alchemy is members-only.

   The wiki lists it as a free-to-play spell at 55 Magic. What F2P lacks is the tome of fire, the Explorer's ring's free casts and the members items in the margin table.

2. 2

   Myth: noted items cannot be alched.

   They can. A noted stack loses one item per cast and stays in the same slot, which is why alch-gility needs one inventory space, not 27.

3. 3

   Myth: stun-alching is AFK.

   Each cycle is two spells inside 5 ticks, and the Ardougne version adds a third. It is the most click-heavy method on this page.

4. 4

   Myth: a mud staff only saves earth runes.

   A mud battlestaff gives unlimited water and earth runes, which covers both of Stun's 12-rune costs.

5. 5

   Myth: Explorer's ring alchs give XP.

   They give coins only, and they do not work on free worlds.

6. 6

   Myth: you can alch at Nightmare Zone.

   Alchemy is disabled there, and also in Pest Control, Wintertodt, Tempoross, Guardians of the Rift, Soul Wars, Barbarian Assault, Castle Wars and on the Ape Atoll Agility Course, where you are turned into a monkey.

Stun-Alching From 80 Magic

Stun is a level 80 members curse: 90 Magic XP, 5 ticks, and 1 soul rune, 12 earth runes and 12 water runes per cast. Alternate it with High Level Alchemy and both spells fit in each 5-tick cycle, for 155 XP every 3 seconds. The wiki puts that at up to 184,000 XP an hour, against 78,000 for alching alone and 108,000 for Stun alone.

The catch is Stun's own rule: it only works on a target whose stats have not already been lowered. Land one and the NPC's Attack drops by 10%, and you wait for it to restore before casting again. The fix is to make every Stun splash. A splashed spell still gives its 90 XP but lowers nothing, so you can recast on the same target indefinitely.

1. 1

   Weapon:

   a mud battlestaff for unlimited earth and water runes. It needs 30 Attack and 30 Magic and only drops from Dagannoth Prime, so most mains buy one (about 30,000 gp on 14 October 2026).

2. 2

   Fire runes:

   a charged tome of fire in the shield slot. Alchs cost it no charges.

3. 3

   Splash gear:

   armour that drags your Magic attack bonus to -65 or lower. The wiki's base set is an iron full helm, platebody, platelegs and kiteshield with d'hide vambraces. With the tome in the shield slot you lose the kiteshield's penalty, so swap in a granite helm, granite legs and a fighter torso until you are back under -65.

4. 4

   Target:

   the 8 caged level 24 zombies in the basement of the Wizards' Guild in Yanille, which needs 66 Magic to enter. The caged Monk of Zamorak in Varrock Palace also works.

5. 5

   Loop:

   alch the noted stack, Stun the zombie, repeat every 5 ticks. A missed tick costs you a whole cycle, so keep both icons in easy reach.

The faster version adds Ardougne Teleport to every cycle: 61 more XP for 2 law runes, since the mud staff covers its 2 water runes. It needs 51 Magic and Plague City, lands you in the East Ardougne market with a guard always in Stun range, and pushes the wiki rate to 256,000 XP an hour. The wiki also calls it immensely click-intensive, so treat it as a sprint rather than a session.

Put another way, the soul rune adds about 2.6 gp per XP to normal alching, and the teleport version about 3 gp. For that you cut 80–99 from about 142 hours of standing alchs to about 60, or about 43 with the teleport. Nature runes come on top in both cases, paid back by whatever you alch.

Alch-gility: High Alchemy on Rooftop Courses

Rooftop courses are the classic place to stack alchs on another skill, because the wiki rates them as low-attention and alchemy can be cast while you run. Expect 20,000 to 50,000 Magic XP an hour from alching during other activities, which works out to roughly 300 to 770 casts. The usual pattern is to click the next obstacle, then alch while your character runs to it.

The setup is small: one noted stack, nature runes, a staff of fire, and food only if you are near the course's minimum level. You do not need stamina potions. Each rooftop obstacle restores 1–2% run energy, so the wiki notes you can usually run nonstop, and a stamina potion dose only lasts 2 minutes anyway. Ape Atoll is the exception the other way: you are a monkey there and cannot alch at all.

The ceiling is lap time divided by the 5-tick cast delay. Nobody reaches it, because you still click every obstacle, but it shows where alchs fit best: long courses like Pollnivneach and Falador leave more room per lap than Seers' with the teleport. The Rooftop Agility Courses page has the full lap data, and our Agility guide picks the course for each level.

Explorer's Ring Alchs

The Explorer's ring from the Lumbridge & Draynor Diary casts alchemy with no runes and no XP. Rings 1 to 3 (easy, medium and hard tiers) give 30 Low Level Alchemy casts a day. Explorer's ring 4, from the elite tier, gives 30 High Level Alchemy casts a day and still needs 55 Magic.

1. 1

   No XP, ever.

   The casts are for coins. The saving is 30 nature runes a day, about 4,200 gp at 14 October 2026 prices.

2. 2

   Any spellbook.

   The ring's Alchemy option works on Ancient, Lunar or Arceuus, so you can alch drops mid-task without changing books. Since March 2025 you can also use an item on the ring.

3. 3

   Runes go first.

   Since February 2025, casting from the spellbook while wearing the ring spends your runes before its charges. Use the ring's own option to spend charges.

4. 4

   Members worlds only.

   The free casts stopped working on F2P worlds in December 2015.

5. 5

   Daily charges.

   They refill after the daily reset once you log out and back in. Ring 4 also restores 100% run energy three times a day.

Ring 4 is an end-game perk: the elite tier needs every quest done plus levels such as 88 Smithing and 78 Thieving. Ring 1 is easy to get and already gives 30 free low alchs a day. The other free-alch spot is the Fountain of Rune in level 47–48 Wilderness: no runes, no XP, and a known PK hotspot. Our achievement diaries guide lists the rest of each tier's rewards.

Superheat Item as a Side Method

Superheat Item is alching's F2P cousin: 43 Magic, 53 XP, 1 nature rune and 4 fire runes, and it smelts one ore into a bar with the normal Smithing XP. It casts every 3 ticks rather than 5, so the wiki gives up to 97,000 Magic XP an hour with focus, or 90,000–100,000 once banking is counted. From 43 to 55 that is 2,195 casts, a little over an hour.

1. 1

   Iron ore never fails.

   Superheat turns iron ore into an iron bar every time, where a furnace fails half the time without a ring of forging. Each bar gives 12.5 Smithing XP.

2. 2

   No notes.

   Unlike alchemy, Superheat cannot be cast on noted ore, so expect a bank trip every inventory.

3. 3

   Catalysts only help coal bars.

   A smithing catalyst from Giants' Foundry halves the coal and doubles the Smithing XP on bars that use coal, and it works with Superheat. Iron bars use no coal, so it does nothing there.

4. 4

   Margins on 14 October 2026:

   iron ore (about 74 gp) plus a nature rune came to about 214 gp against an iron bar at about 196, a loss of about 18 gp a cast. Steel, at 30 Smithing with 2 coal at about 139 each, came out about 78 gp ahead for 17.5 Smithing XP a bar.

Treat it as a bridge from 43 to 55, or as a way to turn ore into lighter bars on a mining trip, then move to alching at 55. Our Smithing guide covers what to do with the bars.

Hours to 99 Magic by Alching

Hours below are the XP gap divided by the wiki's hourly rate, rounded. Per the Experience table, level 55 is 166,636 XP, 80 is 1,986,068 and 99 is 13,034,431.

Standing alchs from 55 to 99 take 197,967 casts and the same number of nature runes, about 27.7M gp of natures at 140 each, which profitable items pay back. For the faster combat routes past 70, see the Magic 1–99 guide; for the arena rewards and points, the Mage Training Arena guide.

F2P and Ironman Alching

Free-to-play

The core spells all work on free worlds: Low and High Level Alchemy, Superheat Item, the staff of fire and Bryophyta's staff. You lose the tome of fire, the Explorer's ring casts and the members items in the margin table, which still leaves rune armour and weapons, adamant, mithril and steel platebodies and green d'hide bodies. The wiki's F2P Magic training page also pairs alchs with Fire Blast on safespotted ice giants in the Asgarnian Ice Dungeon for up to 148,000 combined Magic XP an hour. More F2P routes are in our F2P training guide.

Ironman

Ironmen cannot buy alchables, so alching turns into a money method rather than a training plan. Alch Slayer drops, noted loot from the Wilderness Agility Course, and things you made for XP such as d'hide bodies, battlestaves and longbows. Nature runes come from magic shops or the Nature Altar at 44 Runecraft. Stun-alching rarely fits an iron: the mud battlestaff only drops from Dagannoth Prime and soul runes need 90 Runecraft to craft. The ironman money making guide shows where alching sits among the other GP sources.

Common Mistakes

1. 1

   Buying by habit, not by margin.

   On 14 October 2026 maple longbows lost about 40 gp a cast after the nature rune and gold necklaces about 20. Recheck alch value minus price minus a nature rune before every bulk buy.

2. 2

   Switching the alch warning off.

   The warning uses Grand Exchange value, not alch value, which is what protects items like Ranger boots that alch for 120 coins. Keep the threshold just above your alchables.

3. 3

   Stun-alching with too much Magic attack.

   A Stun that lands lowers the target's Attack, and you cannot Stun it again until it restores. Get to -65 or lower before the first cast.

4. 4

   Planning alchs where alchemy is disabled.

   Nightmare Zone, Pest Control, Wintertodt, Tempoross and the Ape Atoll course all block it, so an NMZ session is not a place to double up on Magic.

5. 5

   Expecting the Explorer's ring to save runes automatically.

   A normal spellbook cast uses your runes first. Use the ring's Alchemy option to spend its 30 charges, and remember they give no XP.

Where Paid Help Fits

Alching is cheap per hour but long: about 165 hours from 55 to 99 standing still, or about 60 hours of stun-alching from 80 that never lets you look away. If you want the level without those hours, our Magic training service does it by hand on the route you choose: profitable alching, stun-alching or bursting. Name the level range and the method when you order, because each one comes with a different supply bill.

FAQ

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