How to Reduce the Cost of Training Herblore in RuneScape Using Creature Creation, Livid Farm and Managing Miscellania

Training Herblore in RuneScape can be expensive. By using the Creature Creation, Livid Farm and Managing Miscellania activities you can help reduce the cost of training Herblore.

Creature Creation

Creature Creation is an activity which can be done in the basement of the Tower of Life after completion of the Tower of Life quest. By placing two ingredients on the altars around the edge of the basement, you can create unique creatures which can be killed for their drops, which are one of the ingredients used. Wearing an Ardougne Cloak causes some of the drops to be noted, allowing more to be held in the inventory. The higher level of the cloak worn, the greater the number of drops that are noted.

Noted items cannot be used on the altars to create creatures, so if you are wearing a cloak and are putting your last unnoted drop on the altar, it is advisable to remove your cloak to receive un-noted items. The majority of your inventory should be filled with the ingredient that isn't received as a drop.

Check the altars to see which is the one you want, and activate it by placing both ingredients on it. Kill the monster that appears.

As well as the ingredients, all the monsters drop Bones, and may drop a Tea flask or various Satchels.

The Tower of Life is east of the Kandarin Monastery. Quickest access is through either the Monastery Teleport of the Ardougne Cloak, or the Fairy Ring network, using code DJP.

Newtroost

Altar: North-East

Level: 19

Requires: 1 Eye of newt, 1 Chicken feather

Drops: 4-12 Eyes of newt

Not really worth killing. Eyes of newt are pretty cheap, especially if bought in packs.

Unicow

Altar: North-West

Level: 25

Requires: 1 Cowhide, 1 Unicorn horn

Drops: 2-4 Unicorn horns

Probably the best to kill. Unicorn horns are expensive, and this is a much faster way than killing Unicorns, as they are low in number in their locations and slow to spawn.

Cowhides can be got either from killing Cows, or bought from the Grand Exchange.

Spidine

Altar: South-east

Level: 42

Requires: 1 Red spiders' eggs, 1 Raw sardine

Drops: 3-6 Red spiders' eggs

Red spiders' eggs aren't as valuable as Unicorn horns, and are more readily available, as they spawn in several places and can be also got from a Spirit Spider familiar. The Spidine is harder to kill also. Raw sardines can be fished, bought on the Grand Exchange, or bought from the Witchaven fishing store.

Livid Farm

The Livid Farm is found on Lunar Isle north of the actual town. The activity cannot be done until Lunar Diplomacy is completed, as it requires the use of Lunar Magic. The Lunar Spellbook must be activated in order to cast the required spells.

At the Farm, you will help Pauline Polaris grow and harvest livids, a plant related to the jade vine. The required minimum levels are level 70 Magic, 60 Agility, 61 Crafting, 60 Farming and 50 Construction. None of these can be boosted.

Whilst on the Farm, you will be able to cast Lunar spells of a higher level than you can normally in order to complete the required activities, but you will receive no Magic experience and half the normal Produce Points in those cases, which can make it more expensive. Level 91 Magic is required to complete all the activities with full produce points and magic experience.

This is a high level activity, and is pretty heavy on runes, but as a byproduct of playing it, you can earn Produce Points to learn new Lunar spells which are useful in Farming, and therefore in growing herbs.

The spells are:

South Falador Teleport - Teleports you to the south gate of Falador, which is close to the Farming patch.
North Ardougne Teleport - Teleports you to the north of East Ardougne, again close to the Farming patch.
Remote Farm - Allows you to view the status of Farming patches around RuneScape, and also to cure them remotely if diseased.
Teleport to Trollheim - Similar to the normal spellbook's Trollheim Teleport, this is used for accessing My Arm's disease free herb patch which can be used after My Arm's Big Adventure.

Learning the above spells will require you to earn 744,400 Produce Points in total.

Managing Miscellania

After completion of the quest Throne of Miscellania, players get access to the Managing Miscellania activity. By investing coins and maintaining a decent approval rating, you will gain subjects who you can assign to certain resource gathering tasks. You initially have 10 workers to assign, but this increases to 15 after the completion of Royal Trouble.

Assigning workers to gather herbs results in grimy herbs being gathered, from Tarromin to Dwarf weed, plus herb seeds, from Guam to Torstol. You can also gain herb seeds from assigning workers to farming, but you will also get a lot of low value to worthless seeds by doing that, so it isn't recommended.

You can manage the kingdom by speaking to Advisor Ghrim in the throne room on the first floor of Miscellania Castle, and get a book from him called Managing Thine Kingdom for Noobes which explains how to run the kingdom.

This gives you a large number of primary potion ingredients if you assign the maximum possible number of workers to gathering herbs, which will still give you workers free to assign to other resources. Depending on Grand Exchange market prices, you can often break even or even make a profit after selling any other resources gathered - Coal and Maple logs are always in demand, and assigning workers to trees will also produce Bird's nests which can be crushed to create a Crushed nest, used in making a Saradomin brew - and the finished potions even if you have to buy the secondary ingredients to make potions from the Grand Exchange. At lower Herblore levels, there are going to be quite a few herbs you cannot do anything with, which you can save for later or sell for money. You can also, at level 55 Fletching, fletch the Maple logs into Maple longbows (u) which typically sell for more than the logs. This can also help you break even or make a profit, but check the price and demand first.

Miscellania can be reached by boat from Rellekka, but a fairy ring to the north of Miscellania castle (code CIP) or the Ring of wealth Miscellania Teleport option (to the Miscellania throne room) are usually faster options. With a sufficient level in Farming and completion of several of the gnome quests, you can grow a Spirit Tree on Etcetera and teleport through the spirit tree network, but this isn't as close to the castle as the others.

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