For players diving into Old School RuneScape (OSRS) without paying a membership fee, the dream of earning enough gold to buy a bond for membership can be enticing. In RuneScape 3 (RS3), this might be a reasonable goal, even through relatively relaxed free-to-play (F2P) activities. However, in OSRS, especially if you’re aiming for a bond solely through free-to-play skilling methods, particularly AFK ones, you’re facing a significant grind. Don’t expect to easily fish your way to membership, as fish prices are notably low due to persistent botting issues that haven’t been effectively addressed.
Woodcutting yew trees in free-to-play areas might seem like a better alternative for making OSRS gold. To put it in perspective, consider the effort needed based on calculations from player experiences. Chopping yew trees, even at the best F2P locations near Varrock Castle, yields only around 130 to 220 yew logs per hour, according to the OSRS Wiki. To amass enough gold for a bond, which requires cutting approximately 40,000 yew logs, you would need to dedicate a staggering 229 hours to this task, assuming an average of 175 logs per hour. Even if you were to treat OSRS woodcutting like a full-time job, dedicating 8 hours a day, it would still take you nearly three weeks – 19 days – of continuous work just to afford a single OSRS bond that grants only 14 days of membership. This stark reality highlights the considerable time investment required to sustain membership purely through free-to-play money making in Old School RuneScape.
