Magic on an ironman is not a GP problem. Every guide written for main accounts assumes you can buy 10,000 nature runes on the Grand Exchange and burst through the levels. You cannot. Every rune you cast is a rune you bought from a shop with a stock limit, crafted, or picked up off a Slayer monster, and that single constraint decides which methods are actually good for you.
This guide follows the OSRS Wiki's Ironman Guide for Magic and its Pay-to-play Magic training page, checked as of 17 September 2026, and adds the part those pages leave implicit: where the supplies come from and what they cost you in hours rather than coins.
The three rules of ironman Magic
- Quest first. Five quests take you from 1 to 34 with no runes cast at all.
- Runes are the bottleneck, so favour methods that make their own. Slayer bursting pays for itself. The Arceuus Library and the Mage Training Arena cost nothing or hand runes back.
- Get the utility spells early. High Level Alchemy at 55 becomes your main income during Slayer, and Lunar Diplomacy and Dream Mentor unlock the spells that turn your other skills into Magic XP.
Levels 1-34: Quests
The wiki lists five quests that, done in order, carry you to 34 Magic. All of the fights are safespottable and every skill requirement is boostable.
| Quest | Magic XP | Combat | Other requirements |
|---|
| Witch's Potion | 325 | Level 1 rat | None |
| Imp Catcher | 875 | Level 2 imps | None |
| The Grand Tree | 2,150 | Level 172 black demon | 25 Agility |
| Watchtower | 15,250 | Level 68 Gorad, level 27 giant bat | 14 Magic, 15 Thieving, 25 Agility, 14 Herblore, 40 Mining |
| The Giant Dwarf | 1,500 | None | 12 Crafting, 16 Firemaking, 33 Magic, 14 Thieving |
| Total | 20,100 | | 40 Mining, 25 Agility, 16 Firemaking, 14 Herblore, 12 Crafting, 15 Thieving |
Watchtower is three quarters of the total. Its 40 Mining is the only requirement that takes real time; everything else is a few minutes of skilling.
Later quests that also reward Magic XP, per the wiki: Spirits of the Elid, Freeing the Lumbridge Guide, Horror from the Deep, King's Ransom, The Path of Glouphrie, Enakhra's Lament, The Eyes of Glouphrie and Desert Treasure I. Our quest order slots these in where their other requirements line up.
Levels 1-43: Combat, Splashing and the Gemstone Crab
If you would rather cast than quest, or want Hitpoints and Defence alongside Magic, strike spells on the right monsters are the early option. The wiki strongly recommends spending these levels on Slayer if you can give the game your full attention, because ironmen need Slayer drops for Magic gear later anyway.
Use an elemental staff from Zaff's in Varrock. Wind spells scale in damage and, with an air staff, cost only catalytic runes. Early cash for those runes comes from the 10,000 coins in the Stronghold of Security, Wintertodt, Thieving, selling Eclipse Red, or the Agility Pyramid.
Monsters the wiki recommends
| Monster | Location | Requirement | Why |
|---|
| Zamorak warriors | Ourania Cave | None | Rune scimitar drop |
| Blue dragons | Taverley Dungeon | Anti-dragon shield | Dragon bones for Prayer, but slower XP |
| Lava dragons | Deep Wilderness | Willing to risk PKers | Lava dragon bones and rune items |
| Twisted banshees | Catacombs of Kourend | 15 Slayer | Alchables, herbs, herb seeds, pure essence |
| Ogress Warriors | Corsair Cove Dungeon | The Corsair Curse | Alchables and gems; also free-to-play |
The generic training page adds monsters with elemental weaknesses, which double the damage of the matching spell at 100% weakness: strike spells hit up to 16 and bolt spells up to 24, or 30 with chaos gauntlets. Ice giants (100% fire weakness, 70 Hitpoints, safespottable on White Wolf Mountain or in the Asgarnian Ice Dungeon), fire giants (100% water weakness, in the Catacombs and the Giants' Den, where they also drop ancient shards and dark totem pieces), frost crabs (100% fire weakness, after The Heart of Darkness) and Stronghold of Security ghosts (50% air weakness, so a staff of air covers every elemental rune) are the ones it names.
The Gemstone Crab
The Gemstone Crab in the Tlati Rainforest is the AFK option and, for a fresh account, the best one. You need Children of the Sun for Varlamore access and nothing else. With autocast on you can stand there for up to 10 minutes at a time; it occasionally attacks players in melee range, so stand off its side. Each point of damage is worth 3.5 XP instead of the usual 4, but the wiki says the effective rate is usually higher than other crabs because there is no downtime and no overkill.
Ammonite crabs (100 Hitpoints, Bone Voyage), sand crabs (60, no requirement) and rock crabs (50) still work; the wiki suggests 30 Defence before parking at any crab.
Splashing
Splashing is the lazy alternative: wear gear totalling at least -64 Magic attack bonus, autocast a strike spell with an elemental staff, turn on Auto Retaliate, and click once every 20 minutes. You deal no damage but still get the base XP per cast. The wiki puts the rate between 6,600 and 75,750 XP per hour depending on the spell.
| Splash target | Location | Notes |
|---|
| Sand crabs | Hosidius | No requirements |
| Ammonite crabs | Fossil Island | Bone Voyage; may drop fossils |
| Frost crabs | Ruins of Tapoyauik | The Heart of Darkness; 100% fire weakness if you switch to damage |
For an ironman the rune cost is the only question. Strike runes come from Betty, Aubury or the Void Knight shop, so a few thousand mind runes is a shop run, not a grind.
Rune pouch as early as possible
The rune pouch holds 16,000 each of three rune types and frees three inventory slots for the rest of your account. Ironmen can get one from any Slayer master for 750 points, from the Mage Training Arena for 150 telekinetic, 150 graveyard, 1,500 enchantment and 200 alchemist pizazz points, or as a rune pouch note from Justine in Last Man Standing for 75 points. You can only own one. At 75 Crafting a thread of Elidinis upgrades it to the divine rune pouch.
Levels 43-65: Utility Spells and the Mage Training Arena
This is the stretch where Magic stops being a combat skill and becomes the processing engine for everything else you gather.
Superheat Item (43-55)
Superheat Item turns ore into bars for 53 Magic XP per cast, castable every 3 ticks, plus Smithing XP that depends on the ore. The generic page rates it at up to 97,000 XP per hour with decent focus, and 2,195 casts take you from 43 to 55. The ironman guide is blunt about the catch: it needs a nature rune per cast and is "very expensive". On an iron, 2,195 nature runes is a lot of Ali Morrisane stock. Use it only on ore you were going to smith anyway, gold ore for gold bars or iron ore for iron bars.
High Level Alchemy (55+)
At 55 Magic, High Level Alchemy becomes the spell you cast more than any other for the rest of the account. It gives 65 XP per cast every 5 ticks: up to 78,000 XP per hour standing still, or 20,000 to 50,000 per hour when cast between other actions. The ironman guide names the things worth alching: unstrung maple longbows, gold bracelets, gold bars, battlestaves and monster drops. This is where an ironman's Slayer income comes from, so it belongs on your action bar during every task from here on. See the money making guide for what is worth alching and what is not.
The Mage Training Arena
The Mage Training Arena is the best rune-neutral Magic training an ironman has before 70, and it is also the only source of infinity robes, the mage's book, the wands and the Bones to Peaches spell. Level 7 gets you in the door, 33 Magic (Telekinetic Grab) opens all four rooms, and the wiki's recommendation for ironmen is to start at 33 and use the Alchemist's Playground for alchemy once you hit 55.
| Room | Points | XP | Casual rate |
|---|
| Telekinetic Theatre | 2 per maze; a bonus of 8 points, 10 law runes and 1,000 XP for five in a row | 250 XP per maze | Approximately 60,000 XP per hour, around 80 mazes and 288 points per hour |
| Creature Graveyard | 1 per 16 fruits deposited, plus a bonus of one or two water, earth, nature, death or blood runes | 5 XP per banana, 10 per peach (a peach counts as two fruits) | Approximately 100,000 XP per hour with Bones to Peaches |
| Enchanting Chamber | 1 per level of enchant spell cast (Lvl-6 gives 6), doubled on dragonstones; every 20 orbs deposited gives 3 blood, death or cosmic runes and some XP | | Approximately 130,000 XP per hour, up to 194,000 with Lvl-6 Enchant |
| Alchemist's Playground | 1 per 100 coins deposited, and 10 coins per 100 go to your bank | 2 XP per coin deposited | Approximately 120,000 XP per hour |
The ironman guide says the process of buying Bones to Peaches can earn up to 127,000 Magic XP on its own. The rewards that matter and what they cost, in telekinetic, graveyard, enchantment and alchemist points:
| Reward | Telekinetic | Graveyard | Enchantment | Alchemist | Wiki time estimate |
|---|
| Bones to Peaches | 200 | 200 | 2,000 | 300 | 2.6 hours |
| Rune pouch | 150 | 150 | 1,500 | 200 | |
| Mage's book | 500 | 500 | 6,000 | 550 | 5.3 hours |
| Master wand (all three upgrades, effective total) | 480 | 480 | 4,800 | 530 | 5.0 hours |
| Infinity boots | 120 | 120 | 1,200 | 120 | 1.2 hours |
| Infinity hat | 350 | 350 | 3,000 | 400 | 3.6 hours |
| Infinity top | 400 | 400 | 4,000 | 450 | 4.2 hours |
| Infinity bottoms | 450 | 450 | 5,000 | 500 | 4.7 hours |
| Infinity gloves | 175 | 175 | 1,500 | 225 | 2.0 hours |
Buy Bones to Peaches first; the wiki notes it nearly doubles the speed at which the Graveyard earns points. Everything in the shop once over is an estimated 28.6 hours and, by the wiki's estimate, about 4,682 law runes, 13,000 nature runes and 2,000 to 6,000 cosmic runes including the runes the rooms hand back. Those are ironman numbers to plan around: the laws and natures are Ali Morrisane trips or Lundail runs, and the cosmics are Amlodd in Prifddinas if you have Song of the Elves, or Tal Teklan in small amounts.
Free enchanting from 68
The ironman guide's best trick here: at least 57 Magic for Lvl-4 Enchant is the recommended entry to the Enchanting Chamber, 68 for Lvl-5 is better, and from 68 the room is effectively free. Lvl-5 Enchant earns a base of 5 enchantment points on any shape, those 5 points redeem for 1 cosmic rune, and a mud battlestaff covers the earth and water, so the net rune cost is zero. At 87 the same works with Lvl-6 Enchant and a lava battlestaff for better XP.
Levels 65-99: Bursting, Barraging, Alching and Plank Make
From 65 the wiki's ironman guide stops prescribing methods and says Magic is now gained passively: burst and barrage spells on Slayer, teleports, reanimation spells, High Level Alchemy on drops, and bosses like Kraken and Zulrah. That is the honest answer. An ironman rarely needs to sit down and "train Magic" past 70; the levels arrive as a by-product of Slayer and PvM if you alch and burst as you go.
Bursting and barraging on Slayer
Ancient Magicks unlock with Desert Treasure I. Smoke Burst is available at 62, but the generic page suggests waiting until 70 for Ice Burst and better gear, such as the occult necklace, while noting Smoke Burst stays a cheaper alternative even later. The rune costs per cast, from each spell page:
| Spell | Level | XP per cast | Runes per cast | Max hit (no boosts) |
|---|
| Smoke Burst | 62 | 36 | 2 air, 2 fire, 4 chaos, 2 death | 17 |
| Blood Burst | 68 | 39 | 4 chaos, 2 death, 2 blood | |
| Ice Burst | 70 | 40 | 4 chaos, 2 death, 4 water | 22 |
| Ice Barrage | 94 | 52 | 4 death, 2 blood, 6 water | 30 |
Multiply by the roughly 1,200 casts an hour the wiki assumes for its bandit cost figures and the supply problem is obvious: an hour of Ice Burst is 4,800 chaos runes and 2,400 death runes. That is why the wiki's advice for Slayer training is the right ironman advice: burst tasks whose drops replace the runes. The monsters it names are dust devils, greater nechryaels, warped jellies and smoke devils, with abyssal demons, the TzHaar and mutated bloodvelds viable if you can lure with an alternate account. Dust devils in the Catacombs of Kourend at 65 Slayer are the wiki's cheap alternative for accounts that have not started Monkey Madness II, and temple spiders in the eastern Forthos Dungeon are the low-Slayer option (43 Prayer to Protect from Melee, or blood spells), with herb, seed, alchable and rune drops that help pay for it.
For Ice Barrage the wiki's route is to reach 82 Magic passively and boost to 94 with a saturated heart, or simply keep bursting with weaker spells until 94 arrives on its own.
Maniacal monkeys and bandits are main-account methods
The fastest real-time Magic XP in the game is bursting maniacal monkeys in Kruk's Dungeon, which needs Monkey Madness II started up to that point: up to around 310,000 XP per hour with Ice Burst active or 250,000-plus AFK on Auto Retaliate, and up to around 400,000 with Ice Barrage, 320,000-plus AFK. Blood bursting bandits in the Big Heist Lodge from 68 Magic is 150,000 per hour bursting or 230,000 barraging, and the wiki notes you do not recoup any of it from drops. Both assume a Grand Exchange behind you; on an iron each hour is thousands of chaos and death runes spent on nothing but XP.
Plank Make (86+)
Plank Make needs Dream Mentor. Auto-casting it on mahogany logs is around 90,000 Magic XP per hour, roughly 1,000 casts, with each inventory taking about 90 seconds, and it produces a small profit on a main. Casting manually on each log is around 166,000 XP per hour, and slotting Magic Imbue between every seventh manual cast pushes it over 180,000. The wiki's own ironman note is the important one: Managing Miscellania after Royal Trouble accumulates mahogany logs at a discount. If your kingdom is on mahogany, this becomes the cheapest fast Magic XP you have, and the planks feed Construction.
Lunar spells worth knowing
- String Jewellery (80): 83 Magic and 4 Crafting XP per amulet, up to 150,000 Magic XP per hour with a mud battlestaff. Useful when you are stringing glory and fury amulets anyway.
- Cure Me (71): up to 414,000 XP per hour cast every tick on araxytes in the Morytania Spider Cave, at 2 astral, 2 cosmic and 1 law per cast, 6,000 casts an hour. With Baba Yaga as your only astral shop, that is a main-account method.
- Bake Pie (65) and Magic Imbue (82): up to 113,000 and 20,000 to 24,000 passive Magic XP per hour respectively, both limited on an iron by pies and astral runes.
The Arceuus Library
No runes, no requirements, and the XP scales with your level. Speak to Sam, Professor Gracklebone or Villia in the Arceuus Library, find the book they ask for, and hand it in for a book of arcane knowledge worth 15 times your current Magic level (or 5 times your Runecraft level if you read it for Runecraft). Biblia on the top floor narrows a book down to a floor and section, and the locations reshuffle every 80 to 100 minutes.
The wiki estimates around 120 books an hour without energy-restoring items and around 150 with them, and it says the Kourend Library RuneLite plugin, which highlights every book once you have found the first few, is what makes those numbers reachable. The generic training page adds that from 55 you can alch during the walking and reach around 200,000 XP per hour at 75 Magic.
| Magic level | XP per hour at 120 books | XP per hour at 150 books |
|---|
| 1 | 1,800 | 2,250 |
| 10 | 18,000 | 22,500 |
| 20 | 36,000 | 45,000 |
| 30 | 54,000 | 67,500 |
| 40 | 72,000 | 90,000 |
| 50 | 90,000 | 112,500 |
| 60 | 108,000 | 135,000 |
| 70 | 126,000 | 157,500 |
| 80 | 144,000 | 180,000 |
| 90 | 162,000 | 202,500 |
| 99 | 178,200 | 222,750 |
Bring graceful or stamina potions; the library is three floors of running. Fairy ring CIS lands you outside. If you get asked for Soul Journey, read it: that starts the Bear Your Soul miniquest.
For an ironman this is the single best answer to "I need Magic levels and have no runes". It is also the best way to get from 34 to the mid-50s without touching your nature rune stock.
Where Ironmen Get Runes
Every shop the wiki lists, with what it sells and what gates it. Stock and prices change and are not reproduced here; check the shop page before a big trip.
| Shop | Location | Sells | Unlock |
|---|
| Betty's Magic Emporium | Port Sarim | Elemental, chaos and death runes | None |
| Aubury's Rune Shop | Varrock | Elemental, chaos and death runes | None |
| Void Knight Magic Store | Void Knights' Outpost | Elemental, chaos and death runes | None |
| Tal Teklan Rune Shop | Tal Teklan, Varlamore | Nature and cosmic runes in small quantities | Access to Varlamore |
| Lundail's Arena-side Rune Shop | Mage Arena, Wilderness | Law, nature and cosmic runes among others | None, but the walk is through the Wilderness |
| Ali Morrisane | Al Kharid | Law, nature and cosmic runes; also buys runes at a set price | The Feud, plus the runes section of Rogue Trader |
| Wizards' Guild | Yanille | All runes except cosmic, astral, combination and wrath | 66 Magic and The Hand in the Sand |
| Baba Yaga's Magic Shop | Lunar Isle | The only shop selling astral runes | Lunar Diplomacy |
| Amlodd's Magical Supplies | Prifddinas | Cosmic runes in large quantities | Song of the Elves |
Read that table as a progression. Early on you live off Betty and Aubury. The Feud plus Rogue Trader is the first quest chain you do for Magic supply, because Ali Morrisane is the only safe shop that stocks all three of law, nature and cosmic. The Wizards' Guild at 66 removes most of the shopping problem, and Song of the Elves finishes it for cosmics.
Crafting them yourself is the other route. The Runecraft levels, from the wiki's altar table: cosmic 27, chaos 35, astral 40, nature 44, law 54, death 65 and blood 77.
The other half of the supply is drops and rooms. Twisted banshees drop pure essence. The Mage Training Arena hands out water, earth, nature, death and blood runes in the Graveyard, blood, death and cosmic runes in the Enchanting Chamber, and 10 law runes for every five mazes in a row. Slayer tasks that you burst return chaos and death runes and the alchables that fund the rest.
Magic Gear Progression
The full slot-by-slot table, mirrored from the wiki, lives on the gear page. The short version for an ironman:
- Weapons: an elemental staff from Zaff, then Iban's staff from Underground Pass (50 Attack and 50 Magic to cast Iban Blast, max hit 25; pay the Dark Mage 200,000 coins to raise it from 120 to 2,500 charges), the ancient staff from Eblis for 80,000 coins after Desert Treasure I (later an ancient sceptre with an ancient icon from the Phantom Muspah, plus 10% Magic damage), the warped sceptre from warped creatures at 56 Slayer after The Path of Glouphrie, Ahrim's staff or the blue moon spear for 5% damage, the Twinflame staff from Royal Titans for the standard spellbook, and the trident of the seas from cave kraken on a kraken task at 87 Slayer.
- Armour: mystic robes from Slayer drops or the Wizards' Guild after 66 Magic, the tome of fire or tome of water from Wintertodt and Tempoross as an infinite elemental off-hand, an imbued god cape from Mage Arena I at 60 and Mage Arena II at 75, void and later elite void after the hard Western Provinces Diary, then Ahrim's, blue moon, bloodbark, infinity or Dagon'hai robes, a mage's book from the Mage Training Arena, the occult necklace from smoke devils at 93 Slayer, and the tormented bracelet at 95 Crafting from a zenyte shard.
- 33 MagicTelekinetic Grab: all four MTA rooms
- 55 MagicHigh Level Alchemy
- 62 MagicSmoke Burst after Desert Treasure I
- 66 MagicWizards Guild shop with The Hand in the Sand
- 70 MagicIce Burst
- 86 MagicPlank Make after Dream Mentor
- 94 MagicIce Barrage, or 82 with a saturated heart
Connect your account in the header to auto-check these requirements.
Suggested Path
| Levels | Method | Supplies |
|---|
| 1-34 | The five quests above | None cast |
| 34-55 | Arceuus Library, with Gemstone Crab or a Slayer task when you want combat XP | No runes for the library; strike runes from Betty or Aubury for the crab |
| 33-55 | Mage Training Arena for Bones to Peaches and the rune pouch | Laws, natures and cosmics from Ali Morrisane after The Feud and Rogue Trader |
| 55-70 | High Level Alchemy on every Slayer task, MTA Alchemist's Playground, library to fill gaps | Nature runes; alch what you were going to sell anyway |
| 68+ | Free Lvl-5 Enchant in the Enchanting Chamber for infinity pieces and the mage's book | A mud battlestaff |
| 70-94 | Burst Slayer tasks the wiki names, alch the drops, teleport everywhere | Chaos and death runes from Betty, Aubury, the Void Knights and task drops |
| 86+ | Plank Make on kingdom mahogany if you need planks | Astral runes from Baba Yaga, mahogany from Miscellania |
| 94+ | Ice Barrage on task | Blood runes from drops and the MTA rooms |
The whole path is built around one idea: never spend a rune on XP alone when the same cast could also process a resource, finish a task or move you across the map.
- Gear progression: Magic for the wiki-mirrored slot table.
- Herblore guide for the potions that back up bursting trips.
- Quest order for where Watchtower, Desert Treasure I and Lunar Diplomacy fall.
- The full ironman walkthrough for how Magic fits into the account as a whole.
