For those accustomed to RuneScape 3 (RS3), the prospect of earning a bond through free-to-play (F2P) skilling might seem straightforward. However, in Old School RuneScape (OSRS), this is a significantly more challenging endeavor. While technically possible to grind for membership without paying, the time investment required, especially with AFK methods, is substantial, making it arguably unreasonable for most players.
One common misconception is that F2P fishing in OSRS is a viable money-making method for bonds. Unfortunately, this is far from the truth. The prices of fish in OSRS are currently very low, largely due to the prevalence of bots that operate undetected and unbanned. As highlighted by SirPlugger’s observation of fishing bots leveling from 1 to 82 without intervention, this issue is persistent and severely impacts the profitability of fishing for legitimate F2P players.
Woodcutting yew trees in F2P OSRS presents a slightly better, yet still demanding, alternative. According to OSRS Wiki data, optimal F2P yew locations, such as behind Varrock Castle, yield only around 130 to 220 yew logs per hour. Using calculations from community figures like mastercast3r, acquiring enough gold pieces (gp) for an OSRS bond necessitates cutting approximately 40,000 yew logs.
Let’s break down the time commitment: with an average of 175 logs cut per hour, you would need to dedicate roughly 229 hours of pure woodcutting to afford a single OSRS bond. Even if you were to treat OSRS woodcutting as a full-time “job,” dedicating 8 hours daily, it would still take you 19 days of relentless grinding to secure just 14 days of membership. This stark reality underscores the immense time investment needed to obtain an OSRS bond through F2P skilling, highlighting that it’s far from a quick or easily achievable goal.
