In this guide, I'll show you the quickest and most profitable ways to get to 99 melee combat in F2P. Going from 1-99 melee via F2P methods is much slower than P2P since you have fewer options for monsters, gear, weapons, and equipment.
As with P2P, it is best to start with quests that reward combat experience as soon as you reach the recommended combat level because they provide quick combat experience, especially in the early stages, and unlock valuable items that will help you gain experience faster.
Stronghold of security
The stronghold of security is a dungeon found in the Barbarian village with four different levels each containing different monsters. If you want to train to 99 melee in F2P as quickly as possible, you will be doing 95% of your training in the stronghold of security. This section will give you a basic understanding of how it works and how you can progress through the levels.
To go through the levels, you must answer certain questions. The questions are repeated frequently and do not become more difficult as you progress through the Stronghold. The goal of this minigame is to educate you on how to improve your account security by the answers you provide to these questions, and in the process, you will unlock locations for certain monsters that will be good for combat training.
Some of the monsters in this guide can be found at level 3 of the stronghold of Security but you might as well complete all four levels of the stronghold to get 10,000 coins to buy food or potions which would be quite helpful for your journey to 99 melee combat.
The levels of stronghold of security include:
- Vault of War: It contains Goblin, Wolves, and Minotaur
- Catacomb of Famine: It contains Zombies(Levels 30, 44, and 53), Giant Rat (level 26), and Flesh Crawlers.
- Pit of Resilience: It contains Poison scorpions (level 59), Giant Spiders( level 59), Spiders (level 24), and the catablepon (Levels 49, 64, and 68).
- Selpuchre of Death: This is the final and most difficult room. It contains ghosts (level 76), skeletons (level 68), and ankou (level 86).
F2P quests that gain combat experience
There are only two quests that give combat experience; there are:
Vampire Slayer: This quest is fairly easy and fast to complete and only the Count Draynor is required to be defeated which is quite easy to defeat even for low-level players, completion of this quest gives 4,825 attack experience.
Dragon Slayer: This quest requires 40 defence and at least 37 magic, 45 combat is recommended to several monsters with combat levels ranging from level 3-83, this quest is quite useful to unlock rune plate body which is the strongest of all the free-to-play bodies,
Fastest combat experience in F2P
Killing Chickens: Level 1 - 10
When you first start out in F2P, you can equip the bronze scimitar and kill Chickens up to level 10; they have low defense and cannot hit even level 3 accounts, so there is no need to bring food. Raw chicken, bones, and feathers are dropped by chickens and can be stacked and used for other activities.
Location of chickens in F2P
- Lumbridge Fast Farm
- Lumbridge West Farm
- Falador South Farm
The locations listed above all have up to 10 chicken spawns in their respective locations; however, there are other F2P locations to kill chickens that have lower chicken spawns, such as the Champions Guild and the Wizard's Tower Basem*nt. The best place to kill chickens would be at the Lumbridge West farm, which has the most spawns and is easily accessible. Going from level 1 to level 10 in here takes only a few minutes because there are up to 33 spawns in the area.
Killing Giant Rats: Level 10 - 20
You can run down to the Lumbridge swamp with some food right after killing the chickens. At level 10, you can still take some hits from the Giant rats, but they have some drops like raw rat meat, a small fishing net, a tinderbox, and an axe that can cover for the food you would use to heal.
Location of Giant Rats
Here are some ofthe best locations to find Giant rats in good numbers;
- Lumbridge swamp
- Varrock sewers
- Edgeville dungeon
Please keep in mind that there are other locations, but the ones listed above have the most spawns and provide the best experience rates. The Lumbridge swamp is the best place to kill giant rats because it has a large number of spawns. It is located just south of the Lumbridge castle.
Killing Giant Frogs: Level 20 - 50
Killing giant frogs in the Lumbridge swamp provides the fastest F2P experience in Oldschool Runescape for level 20; they have low defense and hitpoints up to 23. At this level, it is a good idea to wear the bronze platebody to reduce your chances of being hit by them and other creatures in the swamp. Because the Lumbridge castle is not far from the Lumbridge swamps, picking the big bones drop and then banking at Lumbridge is a good way to make this section profitable. At this level, you should aim to kill level 13 frogs and avoid level 99 variants; there are approximately 8 spawns of level 13 Giant frogs in this region.
Location of Giant frog
Giant frogs can only be found in the Lumbridge swamp in F2P worlds. If you've been killing giant rats in this location as recommended above, you can easily switch to killing Giant frogs without changing locations.
Killing Zombies: Level 50 - 60
Level 44 Zombies have 40 hitpoints and level 53 Zombies have 50 hitpoints. They are both aggressive to players until you reach combat level 107, making them AFK, and also give great experience rates when training from levels 50 to 60. The only place to find and kill level 44 and 53 zombies in F2P in large numbers is in the Catacomb of Famine in the Stronghold of Security.
Zombies also drop useful items such as runes and arrows, which makes them slightly profitable. At this level, you can gain 8,000 to 12,000 experience per hour, and at higher levels, you can gain up to 25,000 experience per hour.
Killing Giant Spiders in Stronghold of Security: Level 60 - 99
Giant spiders are huge spiders that are aggressive to players for up to 10 minutes, after which they stop being aggressive, making this one of the most AFK ways to train combat in Oldschool Runescape. Killing them at the Pit of Resilience in the Stronghold of Security is by far the best location to do it, with up to 44 spawns. In this location, you can reset their aggression by running to the farthest corner away from the spiders in the location that you are at, then returning after about 5 seconds, or you can climb up the ladder and then back down, which would also reset their aggression.
Training at giant spiders is generally not profitable, but it is the quickest and best way to get good experience rates when training melee in F2P. Another advantage of this method is that they are aggressive to all players regardless of level, so you can be AFK at any combat level while killing giant spiders.
Giant spiders found in the stronghold of security have a combat level of 50, hitpoints of 50, and can hit up to 7, so you will need a significant amount of food and potions if you decide to follow this route While this method may appear to be very AFK, it is recommended to keep an eye on your character before the end of aggression to prevent death, especially for hardcore ironmen.
Starting at level 60 combat, you should expect only about 25,000 to 30,000 experience per hour, increasing to 60,000 to 70,000 experience per hour as you get closer to 99, but this greatly depends on your gear.
Profitable Methods to Train Combat in F2P
Killing Greater Demons (combat level 70+)
I strongly advise training your account to 70 attack, strength, and defense to gain goodprofit andexperience rates when killing Greater Demons. Greater demons are best known for dropping rune full helms, but they also drop runes, steel 2h swords, steel axes, Adamant platelegs, and steel battleaxes. You won't get all of these drops consistently, and some will drop more frequently than others.
If you wear inexpensive gear, like monk robes and rune mace, At level 70, you can get up to 40,000 to 50,000 gp per hour and around30,0000 XP per hour depending on your combat level.
Location of Greater Demons
The only place for F2P players to kill greater demons is in the Demonic ruins, which is a multi-combat wilderness area, so if you get any good drops, you should teleport and bank them right away. You should also get 43 prayer and protect from melee while in the ruins, as the ruins gradually increase your prayer points so you don't need to recharge them.
Ogress Shamans( Combat 80+)
In F2P, killing Ogress Warriors yields the best drops. They are level 82 monsters who can hit up to 8 with a single strike. To do this method profitably, you should have 80 strength, attack, and defense, and bring good food and potions.
Big Bones, Mithril kiteshield, iron arrows, steel arrows, uncut ruby, uncut sapphire, uncut emerald, uncut ruby rune med helm, rune full helm, rune battleaxe, and shaman mask are some of the good drops from Ogress Shamans, they also drop different types of runes. It is necessary to bring a fire staff and a nature rune to alch the majority of these drops to save space and reduce banking trips.
Killing Ogrress shamans can earn you up to 65,000 gp per hour at Level 80 combat, and this increases to 80,000 gp per hour as your combat level approaches 99, but the experience rates are low, with only 20,000 to 30,000 experience gained per hour.
Location of Ogress Shamans
The only location to find Ogress Shamans is in the Corsair Curse dungeon, which requires completing Corsair Curse, but the main disadvantage of this method is that these areas are usually crowded. the resource area can be unlocked after completing Dragon Slayer I if you want to get food from there
Best slot in melee gear for F2P
Best head-slot gear for F2P
Rune full helm
The rune god helm is the strongest in free-to-play, but if you don’t have it, you may go for the rune full helm, which is the second strongest helm in free-to-play, and both require just 40 defense to wear.
Rune med helm
This helm requires only 40 defence to wear. It provides a +22 defense bonus against stab, +23 against slash, and +21 against crush.
Best in slot amulet for F2P
Strength amulet
This amulet gives the highest strength bonus available in Old School Runescape and would significantly improve your max hit.
Best in slot weapon for F2P
Rune scimitar
This weapon is the strongest weapon available for F2P and requires 40 attack to wield.
Best in slot cape for F2P
Any cape: you can decide to use any cape available in F2P when training combat as they all offer low and similar combat bonuses.
Best body slot gear for F2P
Rune platebody
This is the strongest platebody in F2P. It requires 20 defense to wear and completion of Dragon Slayer I. If you still need to complete dragon slayer I, you can opt for the rune chainbody, although it is lower defense stats, it is still good.
Rune chainbody
This gear is pretty good for F2P, it requires 96 smithing to be made using 3 runite bars on an anvil with a hammer in your inventory; it requires only 40 defense to wear.
Best leg slot gear for F2P
Rune Platelegs
This requires 40 defense to wear and it is one of the best items for leg slot available for F2P players, it provides up to +51 defence against stab, +49 against slash, and +47 against crush.
Adamantplatelegs
This is the second best platelegs available for F2P. It can easily be made in F2P with 3 mithril bars in an anvil, it requires only 30 defence to wear,
Best shield for F2P
Rune kiteshield
This kiteshield is the second-best kiteshield and requires 40 defence to wear.
Best glove slot gear for F2P
Gilded d’hide vambraces
This is a rare reward from the elite treasure trails, which requires 40 ranged to equip. It is the best glove slot item available to F2P.
Leather vambraces
These have no requirements to equip, they give no melee attack bonuses but provide some melee defence bonuses.
Best boot slot gear for F2P
Decorative boot(gold)
These boots give the highest bonus of all F2P boots, they can be gotten from the Castle Wars ticket exchange shop and require 30 defence to wear.
Decorative boot(white)
These boots can gotten from the Castle Wars ticket exchange shop and require only 20 defence to wear, Alongside the mithril boots, it gives the second highest bonus of all boots in F2P
About Author
Petecleff13
Petecleff13 is a passionate writer who has authored hundreds of articles in many areas throughout the years. He has also played OSRS with several account builds for over 5 years. He uses his passion for playing OSRS and writing to provide informative guides for both novice and experienced OSRS players. He is originally from South Africa and joined LuckyCharmGold as an Author in 2020.
