Smithing on an ironman comes down to ore before anything else. A main buys bars by the thousand. You mine every ore yourself, take it off a monster, or buy it from one of a handful of shops with coins you earned. That shapes the whole guide: gold ore at the Blast Furnace turns coins straight into XP, while every iron, mithril, adamant and rune bar you own is a supply you will want later for cannonballs, darts and your boat.
This guide follows the OSRS Wiki's Ironman Guide for Smithing and its Smithing training page, checked as of October 2026, including the runite golem changes from 14 October. On top of that it shows where each input comes from.
The three rules of ironman Smithing
- Quest to 40. Eight quests carry you from 1 to 40 Smithing, and the best training method in the skill starts at 40.
- Buy your XP with coins, not bars. Gold ore from Ordan at the Blast Furnace is the fastest XP in the skill, and gold bars have few other uses. Every coal-based bar is a supply.
- When you do spend bars on XP, spend them at the Giants' Foundry. The Ironman Guide puts it at roughly ten times the XP per bar of anvil smithing. It pays coins, and it sells the double ammo mould and the Smiths' Uniform.
Levels 1-40: Quests
Done in this order, every Smithing requirement is already met when you reach it. The Knight's Sword alone takes a level 1 character to 29.
| Quest | Smithing XP | Smithing requirement | Other requirements |
|---|
| The Knight's Sword | 12,725 | None | 10 Mining, 2 iron bars |
| Sleeping Giants | 6,000 | 15 (not boostable) | None |
| Elemental Workshop I | 5,000 | 20 | 20 Mining, 20 Crafting |
| Elemental Workshop II | 7,500 | 30 | 20 Magic, Elemental Workshop I |
| Prying Times | 1,000 | 30 (not boostable) | 12 Sailing, The Knight's Sword |
| The Giant Dwarf | 2,500 | None | 12 Crafting, 16 Firemaking, 33 Magic, 14 Thieving |
| Recipe for Disaster: Freeing Pirate Pete | 1,000 | None | 31 Cooking |
| Heroes' Quest | 2,275 | None | 55 quest points, 53 Cooking, 53 Fishing, 25 Herblore, 50 Mining |
| Total | 38,000 | | |
Level 40 is 37,224 XP, so all eight finish the job. Without Heroes' Quest you stop at 35,725, level 39, about 1,500 XP short. The Forsaken Tower adds another 500.
The two iron bars for The Knight's Sword are the first ironman puzzle. You can smelt them at 15 Mining and 15 Smithing. You can also pick up the spawn in level 18 Wilderness north-west of the Ferox Enclave, or the safer one in Thurid's Brain Buckets on the Sunset Coast in Varlamore after Children of the Sun. Dwarves under Falador drop one at 1/42.67, and sorting small salvage at 15 Sailing gives one at 1/34.42.
The Tourist Trap needs 20 Smithing and rewards two 4,650 XP choices from Agility, Fletching, Smithing and Thieving, so up to 9,300 Smithing if you want it. Most ironmen spend that XP elsewhere. The real reward is the ability to smith dart tips.
Later quests that reward Smithing XP, per the wiki: Scrambled! (5,000, 35 Smithing), The Red Reef (5,000, 48 Smithing and 52 Sailing), Between a Rock... (5,000, 50), Cabin Fever (7,000, 50), Devious Minds (6,500, 65), Defender of Varrock (15,000, 55), Song of the Elves (40,000, 70) and Dragon Slayer II (80,000, 70). All the set quest rewards together come to 202,000 XP. Song of the Elves and Dragon Slayer II alone are 120,000, and both need a real, unboostable 70. Our quest order shows where they fall.
Levels 40-99: Blast Furnace Gold
The wiki's verdict for ironmen is the same as for mains: from 40 onwards the fastest Smithing is smelting gold ore bought from Ordan at the Blast Furnace while wearing goldsmith gauntlets.
What you need:
- Keldagrim access. Start The Giant Dwarf by talking to the Dwarven Boatman east of Rellekka. After that, the Minigame Teleport drops you outside the Blast Furnace.
- Goldsmith gauntlets from Family Crest (40 Mining, 40 Smithing, 40 Crafting and 59 Magic, all boostable). They raise a gold bar from 22.5 to 56.2 XP. Avan in the Al Kharid mine enchants the steel gauntlets you get from the quest. If you also want the chaos or cooking gauntlets, the Family Pest miniquest (500,000 coins) lets you claim all three from Avan at any time.
- Ice gloves from the Ice Queen under White Wolf Mountain, so you can take bars straight from the dispenser. Reaching her needs 50 Mining (boostable) to clear a rock obstacle, but the wiki notes the gloves are obtainable at combat level 3. Smiths gloves (i) do the same job.
- Coins. On the official Blast Furnace worlds the dwarves cost 72,000 coins an hour, paid into the coffer at 12 coins a tick and drained only while you are in the furnace room. Below 60 Smithing, which cannot be boosted, the foreman also wants 2,500 coins every 10 minutes, or 1,250 with a Ring of Charos(a).
Blast Furnace gold
Graceful hood
Spottier cape
Neck
Ammo
Weapon
Graceful top
Shield
Graceful legs
Goldsmith gauntlets
Boots of lightness
Ring of endurance
Ice gloves in the inventory. Swap to them only after the smelting XP drop, then back to the gauntlets.
The rates. The training page lists about 380,000 XP per hour with the gauntlets, 164,000 without them and 410,000 with the Smithing cape, rising to 390,000 and 420,000 with consistent 0-tick banking. Those figures assume the ore is already in your bank. Buying from Ordan as you go means hopping worlds for stock, and the Ironman Guide puts that at more than 230,000 XP an hour. If you buy the ore in a separate session first, it puts the realistic buying pace at 8,000 to 9,000 gold ore an hour, three inventories per world.
The cost. The Ironman Guide prices Ordan's gold ore at 225 coins, or about 4 coins per XP before the furnace fee. The training page counts 231,267 gold ore from 40 to 99, which at 225 coins each is roughly 52 million coins in ore alone. For ways to fund it, see the money making guide.
What to do with the gold bars. The Ironman Guide notes they have limited uses, which is exactly why gold is the metal to spend on levels. Make gold jewellery for Crafting, or alch it: the Ironman Guide's own cost table treats gold bracelets plus High Level Alchemy as the way to claw some coins back.
Run energy at the furnace
The wiki's rates assume stamina potions, which need 77 Herblore to make, so expect slower rates before that. A ring of endurance from the Hallowed Sepulchre (70 Agility) cuts run energy drain by 15% once it holds 500 or more charges, and doubles the effect of each stamina dose you drink while wearing it.
Other bars at the Blast Furnace
The Blast Furnace needs half the coal of a normal furnace and always succeeds with iron ore, which fails 50% of the time at a normal furnace without a ring of forging. The coal bag holds 27 coal (36 with the Smithing cape equipped). Rates from the Blast Furnace page, wearing ice gloves:
| Bar | Level | XP per bar | XP/hour | XP/hour with coal bag |
|---|
| Iron | 15 | 12.5 | 72,500-85,600 | No change |
| Steel | 30 | 17.5 | 50,800-59,500 | 81,400-95,400 |
| Gold (goldsmith gauntlets) | 40 | 56.2 | 314,700-370,900 | No change |
| Mithril | 50 | 30 | 57,000-67,500 | 94,500-111,000 |
| Adamantite | 70 | 37.5 | 54,400-63,800 | 90,000-105,000 |
| Runite | 85 | 50 | 57,500-67,500 | 95,000-112,500 |
The hybrid patterns, which mix gold ore in with a coal bag, are worth knowing if you are smelting ore you mined anyway: mithril and gold for 191,800-226,300 XP an hour, adamantite and gold for 221,100-262,300, and runite and gold for 240,500-284,200.
Ordan does not sell adamantite or runite ore, only copper, tin, iron, mithril, silver, gold and coal. The Ironman Guide prices iron ore at 25 coins, coal at 67 and mithril ore at 243. Its own example: 200,000 coins buys around 4,000 iron ore or 1,400 coal, which it argues beats mining them yourself if you earn coins faster than you would mine.
Levels 15-99: The Giants' Foundry
The Giants' Foundry needs Sleeping Giants. Kovac commissions a giant sword. You set three mould parts, fill the crucible with 28 bars' worth of metal, pour, and then work the preform through the trip hammer, grindstone and polishing wheel at the right temperatures. A finished sword pays Smithing XP, coins straight into your bank and Foundry reputation. Use a two-metal alloy, because mixed metals score far higher than one metal.
For an ironman it solves two problems. It gets the most XP out of every bar you have to spend, and it does not have to use your bars at all. Smithed equipment counts as the number of bars it took to make minus one, so a warhammer counts as 2 bars and a platebody as 4.
The Ironman Guide's per-bar figures, default moulds against the best moulds, without the Smiths' Uniform:
| Alloy (14:14) | Level | XP per bar | XP/hour |
|---|
| Bronze/iron | 15 | 143.6-218.6 | 56,290-85,690 |
| Iron/steel | 30 | 215.4-303.2 | 84,430-118,850 |
| Steel/mithril | 50 | 321.4-425.4 | 116,980-154,840 |
| Mithril/adamantite | 70 | 473.6-595.7 | 145,860-183,470 |
| Adamantite/runite | 85 | 684.6-828.2 | 172,520-208,700 |
Compare that with 12.5 to 75 XP per bar at an anvil. The training page's optimal figures (all optimal moulds, which need up to 81 Smithing) also list the coins: 329,280 coins an hour from Kovac for steel/mithril and 1,722 reputation an hour, up to 506,220 coins and 2,068 reputation for adamantite/runite.
Feeding the crucible without your own bars. The Ironman Guide and its Ultimate Ironman counterpart name the shops:
- Warhammers, 2 bars each and among the cheapest shop sources at every tier: the Cam Torum Blacksmith (Perilous Moons started, highest stock, near a bank), Vigr's Warhammers, and Skulgrimen's Battle Gear.
- Platebodies, platelegs and plateskirts: the Fortis Blacksmith in Civitas illa Fortis stocks them up to adamant after Children of the Sun. Salius' Armour Shop in Salvager Overlook has the most platebodies but needs the Landing Site built for fast travel. Ranael's and Louie's in Al Kharid sell skirts and legs. The UIM guide estimates levels 30 to 70 this way at under 500,000 coins.
- Mithril claws from Jatizso's weapon shop are cheap filler for a steel/mithril alloy.
- Aneirin's Armour in Prifddinas, after Song of the Elves, sells mithril and adamant armour. The Ironman Guide calls it the best Foundry XP from 70, though not a profitable one.
One warning from the wiki: do not smith your own bars into items and then melt them, because you get less XP per bar than pouring the bars in directly. Buying premade items is different. The Ironman Guide notes that steel warhammers and mithril claws from shops make a steel/mithril sword that always pays back more than the items cost.
Foundry rewards worth buying
| Reward | Reputation | Why an ironman wants it |
|---|
| Improved moulds | 300-450 each (5,400 for all) | Buy a few of the best ones you can use first; after 5 or 6, each extra mould adds little |
| Smiths' Uniform | 15,000 for all four pieces | Faster anvil smithing and roughly 15% more Foundry XP |
| Double ammo mould | 2,000 (needs Dwarf Cannon) | Doubles cannonball output; about 75 minutes of steel/mithril swords with optimal moulds |
| Smithing catalyst | 15 each | Halves coal per bar at a furnace or with Superheat Item and doubles that bar's XP; at the Blast Furnace it doubles the XP only |
| Kovac's grog | 300 | A +4 Smithing boost |
| Ore pack | 200 | Random noted ore |
The wiki's strategy page advises a handful of optimal moulds first, then the uniform, then the remaining moulds. At 1,722 reputation an hour, the uniform alone is close to nine hours of steel/mithril swords.
Four pieces from the Giants' Foundry Reward Shop: the tunic and trousers for 4,000 reputation each, and the gloves and boots for 3,500 each, so 15,000 in total. Kovac buys them back at 80%. The bonus is the same on every piece, so the wiki suggests buying the cheaper ones first.
- At an anvil, each piece gives a 20% chance to make an action take 4 ticks instead of 5, and the full set makes it every action. The training page puts the gain at 15% to 25% depending on what you smith, and its dart tip rates rise from 1,060 bars an hour to 1,300.
- At the Foundry, each piece gives a 20% chance of extra progress on the preform, and the full set guarantees it. The strategy page puts the effective gain at about 15%. The wiki's pages disagree on this number, quoting anywhere from 5% to 20%.
- Smiths gloves plus ice gloves combine into smiths gloves (i), which does both jobs, and you can split them again.
Giants' Foundry
Head
Cape
Neck
Ammo
Weapon
Smiths tunic
Shield
Smiths trousers
.png)
Smiths gloves (i)
Smiths boots
Ring
Kovac restores 50% run energy per sword, so graceful is not needed here.
Superheat Item
At 43 Magic, Superheat Item smelts one ore in your inventory for 1 nature rune and 4 fire runes, castable every 3 ticks. It gives 53 Magic XP and the normal Smithing XP for the bar. It always succeeds on iron ore, makes steel if you carry two coal, draws from your coal bag, and the goldsmith gauntlets, Smithing cape and smithing catalyst all work with it.
The Ironman Guide's early use for it is iron dart tips. Mine iron ore in the south-east Ardougne mine, superheat it while you walk to the East Ardougne bank, then teleport back with the Ardougne cloak. Bank enough bars to carry Fletching to about 50-55, and the darts double as early Ranged ammo and Slayer luring. The cost is a nature rune per bar, so use it on ore you mined anyway. The Magic guide covers where the nature runes come from.
Ore and Coal Sources
Ordan at the Blast Furnace
Ordan's prices are fixed for every account type and do not rise as stock falls. Each ore has a normal stock of 100, and a dwarf restocks one random ore type every 27 seconds. Stock is shared, so expect to hop worlds. This is the core of ironman Smithing: copper, tin, iron, mithril, silver and gold ore and coal for coins.
Motherlode Mine and the coal bag
The Motherlode Mine needs 30 Mining (unboostable). Pay-dirt gives coal, gold, mithril, adamantite and runite ore as your Mining level allows, and each pay-dirt has a 3.13% chance of a golden nugget, about one per 32 pay-dirt. For Smithing, the reward that matters is the coal bag, 100 nuggets from Prospector Percy. The wiki says it greatly affects Blast Furnace rates for any bar that needs coal, and you can only own one. The upper level needs 57 Mining and a one-time 100 nuggets.
Blast Mine
The Blast Mine in Lovakengj needs 43 Mining, a chisel, a tinderbox and dynamite, and treats your Mining level as 10 higher, so runite ore drops from 75. You collect the ore noted from the operator. At 99 Mining with the elite Kourend & Kebos Diary and a celestial ring, the wiki's distribution is 38.6% adamantite, 31.4% mithril, 14.3% gold, 11.2% runite and 4.5% coal. Thirus sells dynamite, and gives 20, 40 or 80 free each day with the medium, hard or elite Kourend & Kebos Diary.
Volcanic Mine
On Fossil Island (Bone Voyage), with 50 Mining and 30 numulite per entry or 3,000 for permanent access. Points buy ore from Petrified Pete: 60 points per coal, 150 per gold or mithril ore, 300 per adamantite ore and 855 per runite ore. The solo vent-capping method the wiki describes earns about 13,600 points an hour. The wiki flags the activity as dangerous: the volcano erupts after ten minutes and kills anyone still inside.
Miscellania coal
Managing Miscellania (after Throne of Miscellania) can put up to 10 workers on coal. With Royal Trouble done, 10 workers and at least 750,000 coins in the coffers, the wiki's daily maximum is 546 coal plus some uncut gems, for up to 75,000 coins a day in wages. On 14 October 2026 Jagex adjusted the bonus-resource rounding in Kingdom Management so it hands out more bonus resources. Resources go straight to your bank, so ultimate ironmen cannot use it (see the UIM guide).
Runite golems (changed 14 October 2026)
Two runite golems live in the Wilderness Resource Area east of the Deserted Keep. Kill one and its head becomes a runite rock you can mine with 85 Mining for one minute. The golem respawns five minutes later. Entry costs 7,500 coins, 6,000 with the medium Wilderness Diary, 3,750 with the hard and nothing with the elite. Inside are a furnace, an anvil and Piles, who notes items for 50 coins each.
The More Gathering Efficiencies update on 14 October 2026 changed three things:
- A higher chance to get at least one runite ore from the rock before the golem respawns.
- A chance of extra ore on each successful mine: up to 2 total with the medium Wilderness Diary, 3 with hard and 4 with elite.
- Expert mining gloves now work on the rock. They can stop it depleting once, but they do not stop the golem respawning.
Varrock armour 4 still gives a 10% chance to double the ore, so the wiki notes up to 8 runite ore from a single action with the elite diary.
The golem has 120 Hitpoints, a 60% weakness to earth spells since June 2025, a Magic level of 1 and no magic defence bonus. Your Mining level scales your melee accuracy and max hit against it, while Ranged and Magic use your normal stats. A second hit landing after it dies, such as a dark bow's second arrow, despawns the rock.
Hardcore ironmen: this is the Wilderness
The Resource Area is deep Wilderness and the wiki warns that players can attack you there. Logging out puts you outside the gate, and you pay the fee again to re-enter. The other Wilderness ore stop on an ironman's list is the level 18 iron bar spawn for The Knight's Sword, and the Ironman Guide points hardcores to the Sunset Coast spawn instead. See the HCIM guide.
The same update announced an in-game Mining & Smithing survey for a future "Mining & Smithing: Reforged". Nothing in it is decided, and nothing in this guide changes because of it.
Zalcano
Zalcano under Prifddinas needs Song of the Elves, which means at least 70 Mining and Smithing, and pays about 3,000 Smithing XP an hour while you fight. Her loot is the reason to go. Each of these noted drops has the rate shown: coal 169-1,052 (1/36), gold ore 86-756 (3/36), mithril ore 56-469 (2/36), adamantite ore 51-343 (2/36), runite ore 3-31 (2/36), steel bars 16-699 (3/36), mithril bars 53-501 (3/36), adamantite bars 13-111 (2/36) and runite bars 3-27 (2/36). The Ironman Guide suggests putting the bars into the Foundry, platebodies for alching, or dart tips for the toxic blowpipe.
Slayer and boss drops
Several Slayer monsters drop metal in bulk. A few you will meet on normal tasks, from each drop table:
| Monster | Drop | Rate |
|---|
| Gargoyle | 15 steel bars (noted) / 15 mithril bars (noted) / 1 runite ore | 6/128 / 2/128 / 2/128 |
| Dust devil | 10 mithril bars (noted) / 4 adamantite bars (noted) | 3/128 / 1/128 |
| Skeletal Wyvern | 10 adamantite bars (noted) | 6/128 |
| Spitting, taloned and long-tailed wyverns | 2-4 adamantite bars (noted) / 1-2 runite ore (noted) | 6/123 / 3/123 |
| Lizardman shaman | 20-25 coal (noted) / 3-5 runite ore (noted) | 20/500 / 8/500 |
| Smoke devil | 15 coal (noted) | 3/128 |
| Sulphur nagua | 5-10 coal (noted) | 13/128 |
| Lava strykewyrm | 4-6 coal (noted) / 1-2 runite ore (noted) | 4/128 / 3/128 |
| Rune dragon | 1 runite bar | Always |
| Abyssal Sire | 380-420 coal (noted) | 4/139 |
| Zulrah | 200 coal (noted) / 20 adamantite bars (noted) | 8/249 each, two rolls a kill |
Slayer quietly stocks your bank with metal, so bank it rather than alching it. See the Slayer guide, the Zulrah guide and the drop calculator.
Sailing, Wyrmscraig and Varlamore
Sailing added two new metals, lead and nickel, and a lot of new rocks. As of October 2026 the wiki lists:
| Location | Requirement | What is there |
|---|
| Cam Torum mine (Varlamore) | Perilous Moons partly done | 5 iron, 4 coal, 2 mithril and 1 adamantite rocks |
| Charred Dungeon | 60 Sailing | 10 coal, 3 adamantite and 2 runite rocks, past red and black dragons |
| Wyrmscraig (surface) | 62 Sailing | 1 runite, 2 mithril, 13 coal and 5 iron rocks; the wiki calls its furnace the closest to a bank, once you build the bank chest |
| Wyrmscraig Cavern | 62 Sailing, via the cathedral stairs after Fallen From Grace or by skiff or raft | 1 runite, 2 coal, 7 lead, 6 nickel and 10 silver rocks |
| Deepfin Mine | 67 Sailing | Lead, nickel, coal, adamantite and runite rocks |
| Ynysdail Cavern | 73 Sailing and an adamant keel | 7 mithril, 8 adamantite and 2 runite rocks |
| Grimstone | 87 Sailing | Coal, nickel, adamantite and runite rocks, and the Ancient Furnace |
| Port Roberts ore stall | 50 Sailing to dock, 82 Thieving | Iron ore 25/75, coal 15/75, silver, gold and mithril ore 10/75 each, adamantite 4/75, runite 1/75 |
| Port reward bags | Sailing port tasks | Noted coal, steel, adamantite and runite bars, by bag size |
Lead is 25 Mining and a lead bar takes 2 lead ore at 25 Smithing. Nickel is 74 Mining, and a cupronickel bar takes 1 nickel ore and 2 copper ore at 74 Smithing. Nickel rocks hold 2 to 16 ores each before depleting. The Sailing guide, the salvaging guide and the Wyrmscraig guide cover getting there.
Cannonballs
Steel cannonballs need Dwarf Cannon and 35 Smithing. A normal ammo mould makes 4 per steel bar for 25.6 XP a bar. The Ironman Guide's rates at the Edgeville furnace are 2,160 cannonballs and 13,824 XP an hour with a normal mould, or 4,320 and 27,648 with the double ammo mould. That makes the mould the first Giants' Foundry purchase for anyone who cannons.
With 87 Sailing, the Ancient Furnace in the Grimstone Dungeon makes cannonballs in half the time. The fairy ring there (DLP) works once you have moored at Grimstone. With a double mould the wiki expects about 1,500 bars an hour, or 6,000 cannonballs, banking by teleport. If you bring Isles from Port Roberts to unnote bars beside the furnace for 100 coins a bar, it rises to about 2,150 bars and 8,600 cannonballs.
- Granite cannonballs (50 Smithing, no XP) are a steel cannonball plus granite dust, and raise the dwarf multicannon's max hit from 30 to 35. The dust comes from the Grotesque Guardians at 75 Slayer, or from the Mad Angel on Wyrmscraig, who drops 25-35 every kill and steel cannonballs (90-100) at 16/150.
- On land the dwarf multicannon fires only steel and granite cannonballs. The other metals are for boat cannons: bronze (5 Smithing), iron (20), steel (35), mithril (55), adamant (75) and rune (90), with dragon cannonballs drop-only. Iron Bill's stall in Port Roberts keeps bronze, iron and mithril cannonballs in stock, but its steel, adamant and rune stock starts at zero. A ballistic attractor recovers 60% of the cannonballs your boat fires.
Dart Tips and Nails
Dart tips need The Tourist Trap and come 10 to a bar. Nails come 15 to a bar for the same XP. A full inventory takes 81 seconds with Make-X, and the training page assumes 1,300 bars an hour in the Smiths' Uniform or 1,060 without.
| Dart tips | Level | XP/hour (uniform) | XP/hour (no uniform) |
|---|
| Bronze | 4 | 16,250 | 13,250 |
| Iron | 19 | 32,500 | 26,500 |
| Steel | 34 | 48,750 | 39,750 |
| Mithril | 54 | 65,000 | 53,000 |
| Adamant | 74 | 81,250 | 66,250 |
| Rune | 89 | 97,500 | 79,500 |
Slow XP, but nothing is wasted: the tips become Fletching XP and toxic blowpipe ammo, and the nails go into Construction.
The Ironman Bar Budget
Gold is XP. Everything else is a supply with a queue of uses. Before you put coal-based bars into platebodies or a Foundry sword, check what they are already promised to:
- Cannonballs. The Ironman Guide estimates about 35,000 steel cannonballs to take Ranged from 40 to 70 with a cannon, which is 8,750 steel bars, and Slayer burns more on top.
- Dart tips for Fletching and the toxic blowpipe, from mithril upwards.
- Sailing. Hulls, helms, keels, salvaging hooks and boat cannonballs all eat bars. The adamant keel alone is 50 adamantite bars at 74 Smithing. The steel-and-up hooks add lead bars, and the rune and dragon tiers need cupronickel bars. The Wyrmscraig bank chest takes 2 lead bars and 32 mithril nails, and each Deepfin Mine bank chest takes 2 cupronickel and 2 adamantite bars.
- Utility. A mith grapple tip (59 Smithing) for the grapple shortcuts and The Curse of Arrav. The wiki lists 59 Smithing and 59 Fletching as an ironman requirement there, unless you get the grapple as a drop in the Ancient Cavern. Construction nails, and the steel bars Mahogany Homes contracts use.
- Quests. The Knight's Sword needs its 2 iron bars, and several quests ask for bars along the way.
Mithril and adamantite bars from Slayer drops and Zalcano are the ones most worth spending on XP, and the place to spend them is the Foundry.
Smithing Milestones and Gated Quests
- 15 SmithingIron bars; Sleeping Giants opens the Foundry
- 20 SmithingThe Tourist Trap, which unlocks dart tips
- 35 SmithingSteel cannonballs after Dwarf Cannon
- 40 SmithingBlast Furnace gold with goldsmith gauntlets
- 50 SmithingMithril bars, granite cannonballs
- 59 SmithingMith grapple tip
- 60 SmithingNo Blast Furnace foreman fee
- 70 SmithingSong of the Elves and Dragon Slayer II, unboostable
- 74 SmithingCupronickel bars, adamant keel
- 85 SmithingRunite bars, infernal pickaxe
- 90 SmithingDragonfire shield, rune cannonballs
Connect your account in the header to auto-check these requirements.
Other high-level uses, per the wiki: the dragon sq shield (60), the ancient wyvern shield (66 Smithing and Magic), the dragon kiteshield (75), godsword blades (80), the infernal pickaxe (85), the elysian spirit shield (85, with 90 Prayer) and the dragon platebody (90). The dragonfire shield's 90 is boostable.
| Quest | Smithing | Boostable |
|---|
| The Tourist Trap | 20 | Yes |
| Elemental Workshop I | 20 | Yes |
| Elemental Workshop II | 30 | Yes |
| One Small Favour | 30 | Yes |
| Prying Times | 30 | No |
| Scrambled! | 35 | No |
| Family Crest | 40 | Yes |
| Swan Song | 45 | Yes |
| The Red Reef | 48 | No |
| Between a Rock... | 50 | Yes |
| Cabin Fever | 50 | No |
| Legends' Quest | 50 | Yes |
| Defender of Varrock | 55 | No |
| The Fremennik Exiles | 60 | No |
| Devious Minds | 65 | Yes |
| Song of the Elves | 70 | No |
| Dragon Slayer II | 70 | No |
| The Blood Moon Rises | 72 | No |
The unboostable ones are the walls. Defender of Varrock at 55 sits on the While Guthix Sleeps chain, and Song of the Elves and Dragon Slayer II at 70 hand back 120,000 XP the moment you finish them.
Boosts
| Boost | Smithing | Notes |
|---|
| Kovac's grog | +4 | 300 Foundry reputation; lowers Attack, Ranged and Magic by 2 |
| Dwarven stout | +1 | Also +1 Mining; lowers melee stats |
| Dwarven stout(m) | +2 | Also +2 Mining |
| Spicy stew (orange spice) | Random, -5 to +5 | Unreliable |
| Smithing cape | +1 | Also gives the goldsmith gauntlet effect and a 36-coal coal bag |
Boosts work on boostable quest requirements and on the crucible: the Foundry lets you add higher-tier bars while boosted, and one boost can fill the metal for two swords. The training page's late-game trick is to drink grog from 95 to smith 3-bar rune items at 99.
Suggested Path
| Levels | Method | Where the inputs come from |
|---|
| 1-40 | The eight quests above | 2 iron bars, quest items |
| 15-45 | Mine and superheat iron into dart tips (needs 43 Magic) | Your own iron ore; nature runes |
| 15-50 | Giants' Foundry for the double ammo mould if you cannon | Shop warhammers and armour, plus spare bars |
| 40-99 | Blast Furnace gold with goldsmith gauntlets | Coins for Ordan's gold ore and the 72,000-an-hour fee |
| 50-70 | Foundry steel/mithril for the Smiths' Uniform between gold sessions | Slayer-drop bars, Varlamore and Al Kharid shop armour |
| 70 | Song of the Elves and Dragon Slayer II | 120,000 XP |
| 70-99 | Blast Furnace gold, or Foundry with Aneirin's mithril and adamant armour | Coins |
| Always | Smelt mined coal and ore into cannonballs, dart tips and Sailing bars, not XP | Motherlode, Zalcano, Slayer, Sailing islands, Miscellania |
The whole route rests on one idea: coins buy Smithing XP, and bars are ammunition. Spend gold freely and guard everything else.
- Crafting guide for the gold jewellery your bars turn into.
- Gear progression for what your Smithing levels eventually make.
- Quest order for where the Smithing quests fall.
- Sailing guide for the boat parts that eat your bars.
- The full ironman walkthrough for how Smithing fits into the account as a whole.
