OSRS Firemaking Guide 1–99: Wintertodt and Fastest XP

Firemaking 1–99 at a Glance

Wintertodt from level 50 is the standard route to 99 Firemaking: about 40 hours, no logs to buy, and reward cart loot from every round where you score 500 points. Redwoods are faster at about 520,000 XP an hour from 90, but burning logs all the way costs about 27M gp.

XP rates and costs below come from the OSRS Wiki’s Firemaking training page, checked on 14 October 2026. Wintertodt rates do not depend on prices, but the cost of burning logs follows the Grand Exchange, so check the OSRS Wiki before you buy 20,000 redwoods.

Below 50, burning logs gets you there in about 45 minutes on the wiki’s rates, so the early levels are not worth much thought. The real decision is Wintertodt against line firemaking from 50, and that comes down to whether 27M gp is worth about 12 hours to you.

Pick Your Firemaking Method

Rates are the OSRS Wiki’s Firemaking training figures for efficient play: 1,485 logs an hour when line burning and 4-minute Wintertodt rounds. GP per XP uses the wiki’s Grand Exchange prices on 14 October 2026 and will drift with the market.

Quest XP and the Unlocks That Matter

Firemaking has one unlock that matters more than the rest: Wintertodt itself, which needs 50 Firemaking to enter. Everything below that level is a means of reaching it, and it goes quickly.

The first three add 7,075 XP between them, which saves a few levels of log burning but will not carry you to 50. My Arm’s 40,000 XP is the big one, and it lands after Wintertodt is already open.

Levels 1–50 Faster

1 to 50 is 101,333 XP. The wiki’s line-burning route covers it in about 45 minutes, so any shortcut here saves minutes rather than hours. Two are still worth knowing, and one of them pays.

Pyre logs, 1–30

Using sacred oil on logs to make pyre logs gives Firemaking XP from level 1, whatever the log, and 1-ticking it is the fastest XP to 30: 4,600 pyre logs an hour, or 92,000 XP with redwood or rosewood logs (20 XP each, from 4 doses of oil). Without tick manipulation it falls to 1,470 logs and 29,400 XP an hour.

It needs Shades of Mort'ton (Priest in Peril, 20 Crafting, 15 Herblore and 5 Firemaking, all boostable). At the wiki’s prices on the day we checked, redwood and rosewood pyre logs sold for more than the logs and oil cost. 1 to 30 takes about 9 minutes this way against 11 with coloured logs, so do it for the profit, not the time.

Line burning, 1–50

A firelighter makes a log light at the first attempt and adds 10 XP, which is why coloured logs beat normal and oak logs to 30. Arctic pine is the one expensive step at about 6.7 gp per XP; staying on teaks for those three levels costs a couple of minutes and saves most of that.

Campfire, if you are cutting the logs anyway

A Forester's campfire gives the same XP per log as burning it normally, only slower: tended by hand it is 58,500 an hour with oaks and 131,625 with maples. The wiki’s free-to-play Woodcutting page suggests lighting one next to the tree you are cutting, which turns Woodcutting time into Firemaking XP with no banking. Campfires need 5 tiles between them, and pyre logs and coloured logs cannot be added.

Firemaking 1–99 XP Rates: Wintertodt vs Burning Logs

Burning logs is the fastest Firemaking XP. Wintertodt is slower, but the reward cart loot makes it a profit rather than a cost, while the full log-burning route to 99 costs about 27M gp.

Log rates assume about 1,485 logs an hour on a bank-side fire. Wintertodt rates assume 4-minute rounds with a 60-second break, and the wiki puts 50 to 99 at about 500 rounds and 40 hours if you skip fletching, or 600 rounds and 50 hours if you fletch every root. Our Wintertodt guide covers the round itself.

Wintertodt vs Line Firemaking

Line firemaking means standing by a bank and lighting logs in a row, stepping a tile after each one. The wiki’s fastest spot is the east side of the Grand Exchange, where the bank is one tile from open ground and a log can go down every 4 ticks; the easier version is a row from the Varrock fountain, banking at Varrock west.

The gap is smaller than the XP table suggests. Line burning saves about 12 hours from 50 and costs about 27M, and most of that is redwoods (about 16.9M for 90–99) and magic logs (about 9.7M for 75–90). The wiki’s cheaper log route, yews to 80 and ironwood to 90 before redwoods, comes to about 19M, and switching from redwoods to rosewoods at 92 saves about 5.4M more for four extra hours.

Hours to 99 Firemaking

Wintertodt’s hours are the wiki’s own round counts: 500 rounds without fletching, 600 with. The rest is the XP for each log bracket divided by the wiki’s rate for that log, using the Experience table, with no breaks.

Who Should Do What

1. 1

   New main at 50 with little cash:

   Wintertodt to 99. About 40 hours, and it pays you.

2. 2

   Main with cash who wants 99 fast:

   line-burn mahogany, yews, magic logs and redwoods. About 28 hours from 50 and about 27M.

3. 3

   Main who wants low effort:

   a Forester's campfire at the Grand Exchange with magic logs, about 296,000 XP an hour if you tend it.

4. 4

   Ironman:

   Wintertodt from 50, as early as you can, for the supplies. The route is in the Ironman section below.

5. 5

   Hardcore ironman:

   Wintertodt still, with a ring of life or phoenix necklace and food, because a death there costs your status.

6. 6

   Pure:

   Wintertodt only gives Firemaking, Woodcutting, Fletching, Construction and Herblore XP, so it fits any build. Our pure builds guide covers the rest of a pure's plan.

7. 7

   F2P:

   no Wintertodt. Burn yews from 60 (about 42 hours and 63,016 logs to 99), or maples from 45 for the cheapest route at about 64 hours. The F2P training guide covers the combat side of a free account.

Firemaking 1–99 Level Path

Firemaking breaks into five stages between level 1 and 99. Below 50 there is no Wintertodt, so the early stages are plain log burning.

1. 1

   1–15: normal logs, then oaks from 15.

2. 2

   15–50: willows from 30, teaks from 35 and maples from 45, plus quest XP where you meet the requirements.

3. 3

   50–99: Wintertodt for most Ironman and casual main 99s.

4. 4

   75–99 alternative:

   magic logs, then redwoods from 90, for the fastest XP at a GP cost.

5. 5

   Rewards along the way:

   warm gloves, bruma torch, Tome of Fire and the phoenix pet from the reward cart.

What to Wear and Bring, Especially at Wintertodt

Outside Wintertodt, Firemaking asks for a tinderbox and nothing else. Inside it, your kit decides how long you survive, because warmth replaces your health bar and hitting 0% is an instant death.

The passive cold damage scales with your own Firemaking level and with how many braziers are lit, so a higher level does not simply make the minigame safer.

Fastest XP Methods

Redwood logs from 90 are the fastest standard Firemaking XP at about 520,000 an hour, with magic logs at about 451,000 from 75.

Wintertodt tops out around 320,000 an hour at 99, but you are paid in reward cart loot instead of paying for logs.

At 0% warmth you die instantly, and leaving the prison before the round ends loses all your points for that round.

Cheapest / Budget Approach

Wintertodt is the cheap path. Score at least 500 points in a round and you can search the reward cart for logs, ores, herbs, seeds, gems and coins.

Buying logs is the expensive shortcut. The wiki puts the full log-burning route to 99 at about 27M gp.

Fletching roots into kindling earns 25 points per piece against 10 for a raw root, so more reward rolls, but the wiki estimates it adds about 10 hours from 50 to 99.

AFK & Lower-Intensity Options

Wintertodt is semi-AFK between short bursts of work, not fully AFK.

Log burning is rhythmic bankstanding. The Forester’s campfire is the low-effort version: about 296,000 XP an hour with magic logs if you tend it by hand, less if you let it feed itself. Left alone it burns about 665 logs an hour, against up to 975 when you hold the key down.

The wiki lists worlds 307, 309, 311, 389 and 402 as the official Wintertodt worlds, where rounds usually last about 4 minutes.

Practical Tips That Actually Matter

• Warm gloves and the bruma torch both count as warm clothing, and each is a 1/150 roll on the reward cart.
• The Tome of Fire is a 1/1,000 roll and matters for fire spell users.
• Any food that heals 4 or more hitpoints restores 35% warmth, so cheap food does the job.

Ironman Notes

Firemaking is one of the few skills where the Ironman route is also the popular route, because Wintertodt hands out supplies an early iron needs alongside the XP. It is worth doing before you need it rather than after.

The one thing to keep in mind is that log-burning methods compete with Construction and Fletching for the same trees. If you are burning yews you cannot also be fletching them, so decide which skill wants them first.

1. 1

   1–50: burn what you cut, or keep a Forester's campfire going next to your tree.

   Enlightened Journey and The Giant Dwarf add 5,500 XP if you meet their requirements.

2. 2

   50: get to Wintertodt early.

   The Arceuus Home Teleport gets you there with no requirements once Tyss has switched your spellbook.

3. 3

   Bank rolls when it pays:

   the reward cart holds up to 8,000, and the herbs, ores, fish, gems, seeds and logs follow your Herblore, Mining, Fishing, Crafting, Farming and Woodcutting at the moment you search.

4. 4

   Keep three warm gloves and three bruma torches.

   After that, a successful roll for either gives a magic seed or torstol seeds instead.

5. 5

   Later, blisterwood logs cut with an infernal axe (85 Firemaking) give passive Firemaking while you train Woodcutting.

UIM: the axe, knife, hammer and tinderbox all come from the crates inside, and the potion ingredients are in the prison, so warm clothing is the only thing you have to carry in. Our UIM guide covers the rest.

HCIM: 0% warmth is an unsafe death and ends Hardcore status. A ring of life triggers below 10% warmth and a phoenix necklace at 20% or less, so wear one of them every round. Our HCIM guide covers the other risky early stops.

Common Firemaking Mistakes

1. 1

   Leaving mid-round.

   Logging out or walking out before the round ends wipes every point you earned in it.

2. 2

   Fletching every root on a busy world.

   The wiki only recommends kindling when you would miss 500 points otherwise; fletching everything adds about 10 hours from 50 to 99.

3. 3

   Going in with fewer than four warm items.

   Each piece cuts the cold damage and adds 1% warmth regeneration a minute, and the game warns you on entry when you are short.

4. 4

   Bringing expensive food.

   A bite of cake restores the same 35% warmth as anything else that heals 4 or more hitpoints.

5. 5

   Overspending on 1–50.

   The whole stretch is about 45 minutes of line burning, and arctic pine at about 6.7 gp per XP is the worst value on the wiki's log table.

When Paid Training Makes Sense

Wintertodt costs nothing but takes about 40 hours from 50, or 50 hours if every root gets fletched. Burning logs is faster but costs about 27M gp over the full route. Below 50 there is no Wintertodt, so those levels are log burning either way.

Tell us which one you want and your current level. Our Firemaking page lists what we need from you, and the account is played by hand.

FAQ

Still stuck on a mechanic? Ask the team on our Discord, it is free.

Final Takeaway

Burn logs to 50 in under an hour, then do Wintertodt to 99 unless 27M gp is worth less to you than about 12 hours, in which case line-burn magic logs and redwoods. Ironmen should get to Wintertodt early for the supplies.

More: Firemaking training, the other skill guides and the full blog.