Training Herblore in RuneScape can be very expensive. There are a number of Minigames available that can be played to help reduce the cost of training Herblore. The ones that have the most use are the Flash Powder Factory, Sorceress's Garden and Vinesweeper, although benefit can be had from Impetuous Impulses, Soul Wars and Barbarian Assault.
Flash Powder Factory
The recently released Flash Powder Factory minigame is located in the Rogue's Den under the Pick and Lute in Taverley. The quickest ways to reach Taverley are the Taverley Home Teleport if the lodestone has been activated, the Burthorpe Home Teleport, the
Combat bracelet teleport to the Warrior's Guild, using the Balloon Transport System to Taverley or the
Games necklace teleport to the Burthorpe Games Room. Alternatively, you can run from Falador.
The main benefit for Herblore is the
Factory armour available for purchase from Brian O'Richard in exchange for Brianpoints awarded from playing the minigame.
You can also gain Herblore experience playing the minigame, got when you mix a batch of flash powder. This appears to be 100 experience points for every batch.
You need 12,000 Brianpoints to get the full set of five pieces of armour which gives the full Herblore bonus. The increase in your game score after you get a score of 500 points, which gives 100 Brianpoints, has a fairly minimal effect on your Brianpoints award. A game score increase of 100 points only gives another 5 points, and prior to an update it was a good idea to quit the game after achieving the 500 score, which, with practice, could be done in about six minutes, so acquiring the full five pieces of armour could possibly be done in about 12 hours. It is likely to take longer, as it will require practice, and the busier the factory is, the more other players slow you down by closing quicker routes and forcing you to either take a longer way around to reach a destination, or wait for the direct route to open. The number of players is not dependent on the number of players on your server, as the minigame takes place on a shard world, with players from many servers.
After the update, there was a penalty enacted for quitting the game early. This penalty lasts until two minutes before you run out of time, or four minutes if wearing the Factory body. There is still little point continuing to increase your game score after reaching 500 points, only now you can't quit and restart, so a number of players just do nothing until they can quit without a penalty. More than doubling your score from 500 points results in about a third increase in the number of Brianpoints earned, making a lot of effort with minimal reward.
Buy the Factory boots first, as they improve performance on the obstacles, helping you get 500+ points more quickly and with less annoyance caused by failing obstacles, then buy the next two lowest priced items so you get the three pieces required to get the first possible reward for wearing the armour.
Occasionally, bits of hard to see fallen rubble will be found, which can be searched. The
Factory helm improves the chances of finding an item in this. Items found are useless rock,
Catalytic powder and
Sets of apparatus (neither very useful if you're just trying to get 500 points as quickly as possible), a batch of
Flash powder or pieces of the old
Rogue armour. Only the
Flash powder is any use towards getting the score of 500, so unless you're after the
Rogue armour, rubble is probably not worth spending the time searching. The rubble has only been seen in rooms containing a Mixer Machine or Reagent Machine (A), both of which are on the outside ring of the factory.
Out of all the things that can be done to increase your score or prolong your stay, such as collecting more apparatus, charging apparatus, searching rubble or getting more catalytic powder, only finding
Flash powder in fallen rubble will decrease the number of batches you need to make to reach a score of 500. They are therefore mostly time wasters, and can be ignored if desired.
The game requires level 75 Agility, level 75 Thieving and level 50 Herblore to play.
Factory Armour
The
Factory armour gives two possible benefits when making potions. First, wearing three of the five pieces gives you a 10% chance of making a 4 dose potion, instead of the normal 3 dose, which are usually worth more and help to decrease the training cost by increasing income.
The second benefit is when you wear all five pieces, you gain experience for making unfinished potions. The experience is equal to the amount you would get for cleaning the herb added to make the unfinished potion. This helps reduce costs by granting more experience, even if a small amount, from making a potion.
Impetuous Impulses
As with the Hunting skill, you can also catch Nature Implings in Puro-Puro. Unlike catching them on Gielnor, you need a
Butterfly net and
Impling jars. You can get to Puro-Puro through either the stable crop circle in Zanaris (requires
Lost City) or the randomly moving portals in wheat fields across the world. Entering through one of the portals outside of Zanaris gives a thirty minute bonus that enables them to push through the wheat in Puro-Puro faster. Two crop circles appear on the surface world at any time. If you have access to Zanaris, you can right-click on the Wandering Impling in the wheat field in Zanaris near the permanent gate, and click, "Check-Gates." This will show you where the two current gates are located, although you will need to know the locations in order to recognise them.
Once in Puro-Puro, you can speak to Elnock Inquisitor for a run down of how to play the game, and get some initial supplies from him. He will also sell you new items, and store items for you, namely a
Butterfly net or
Magic net,
Impling jars and
Imp repellent, like a tool leprechaun.
Nature Implings, whilst more common than in the normal world, are still somewhat rare here, and you may take quite some time catching enough to make the drops worthwhile.
Sorceress's Garden
T
he game requires you to have completed
Prince Ali Rescue before you can start. The different seasonal gardens require level 1 Thieving for Winter, 25 for Spring, 45 for Autumn and 65 for Summer in order to enter. The only difference between the gardens for picking herbs is the harder gardens give more Farming experience.
With practice, it is possible to travel through the garden with one click. If all you're after is the herbs, then the Winter Garden is the best, because it is the easiest and least busy. Other players being caught by elementals can increase the chance of you being caught.
Equip the
Broomstick from
Swept Away, after it has been enchanted by the Sorceress' Apprentice to enable quick teleports to the garden, some means of quickly getting to a bank - the
Ring of kinship teleports close the the Daemonheim bank and has unlimited charges, and some weight reducing clothing if you have it. When your inventory is full, teleport to a bank, then use the
Broomstick to teleport back to the Garden.
Although it is possible to get herbs up to
Dwarf weed, lower level, nearly worthless, herbs are far more likely, so it may take some time to effectively gather any really useful herbs.
Vinesweeper
The Vinesweeper minigame can be accessed through the tool leprechauns, with the exception of the ones on Trollheim or Harmony Island, by teleporting to Winkin's Farm. You need a
Spade to play, which can be stored in the tool leprechaun or bought, and at least one flag. Ten flags are given for free and replacements can be bought from Mrs. Winkin in exchange for points or coins, with a maximum of ten allowed.
The game is similar to the classic computer game Minesweeper.
The field on which you play is a grid of holes. You can dig these holes with your spade, and after digging a number appears at the location dug. This number shows how many of the adjacent squares contain a seed. You want to avoid digging up a seed, as this will destroy it.
Once you think you have discovered a seed, place a flag on the hole. If correct, a farmer will retrieve the seed and reward you with points. If there is no seed present, you lose both your flag and some points.
After using all your flags, you can retrieve them from Farmer Blinkin or Mrs. Winkin, who will also offer to see you replacements for any lost.
Rabbits will try to get to the flag before the farmer. If they reach it before the farmer finishes digging, you will lose your flag. By using
Ogleroots, found randomly when digging or bought from Farmer Blinkin, on the rabbits, they will shrink and run away, gaining you some Hunting experience.
Points can be exchanged for various seeds, including many rare and expensive herb seeds.
Other Minigames
Both the Barbarian Assault and Soul Wars minigames have a Gamble option that allows you to risk the points you earned from the game in order to get item rewards. Some of these rewards have a use in Herblore, but you are more likely to gain ones that don't, although they may be more valuable.
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