There’s a truth every seasoned adventurer in Gielinor learns eventually: you can’t always be at the helm of a fiery boss fight or navigating the precise platforms of the Hallowed Sepulchre. Life, both in and out of the game, has a way of demanding your attention. But what if I told you that your journey to greatness didn’t have to pause when you did? What if you could continue to gather XP, gold, and experience even while you’re answering emails, studying, or simply enjoying a quiet meal?
This is the AFK—”Away From Keyboard”—training, this OSRS (Old School RuneScape) guide will explore the best methods to ensure you’re always moving forward, even when you’re not really there.
Long-Duration AFK Training Methods
These activities are the holy grail for the truly busy, offering several minutes of uninterrupted training per click. They are your best friends when you need to focus elsewhere.
Redwood Trees
Deep within the Woodcutting Guild, the ancient redwoods stand as silent, patient giants. Their sheer size means you can spend a long, peaceful session at their base, hearing only the rhythmic thunk of your axe.
- The Method: With a high Woodcutting level (90+), you can chop these massive trees. Each tree has a long depletion timer, allowing for exceptional AFK time.
- AFK Time & XP: You can expect over 4 minutes of near-total AFK time per tree, yielding around 53,000 to 68,000 Woodcutting XP per hour. It’s not the fastest XP, but it is arguably the most passive.
Shooting Stars
Mining has always been a click-intensive skill, but the discovery of shooting stars changed everything. Scattered across Gielinor by the Dragonkin, these celestial rocks offer a mining experience like no other.
- The Method: Use the “Star Miners” friends chat or the dedicated Discord server to find crashed star locations. Once you find one, you simply mine it until it depletes.
- AFK Time & XP: The AFK time is legendary. A high-tier star can grant up to 25 minutes of continuous mining before it depletes. The trade-off is slower XP rates (around 25,000 XP/hour at tier 5), but the sheer AFK ability is unmatched.
- Tip: The lower your mining level, the sooner the star will deplete for you. The “prospector” perk that shows the star’s tier is invaluable for knowing how long you have.
Nightmare Zone
For combat training, nothing beats the surreal dreamscape of the Nightmare Zone. Here, you face the manifested nightmares of your past quest foes in a controlled, safe environment.
- The Method: Using absorption potions or a Guthan’s set, you can stand in the center of a hard rumble and let your character fight indefinitely. Your character will auto-retaliate, and your gear or potions will keep you alive.
- AFK Time & XP: With a proper setup, you can achieve up to 20 minutes of completely AFK combat training before needing to sip a potion or check your points. Experience rates can be excellent, easily surpassing 70,000+ XP/hour in melee stats.
- Tip: This method requires completion of certain quests to unlock powerful bosses like the Dream Mentor and Desert Treasure.
Karambwan Fishing
South of the Tai Bwo Wannai village, in the murky waters of the karambwan fishing spot, you’ll find one of the most peaceful fishing methods. The spot never moves, making it incredibly AFK-friendly.
- The Method: Use a fishing barrel from Tempoross to drastically increase your inventory space. With a barrel, you can fill your inventory with karambwan without banking.
- AFK Time & XP: This method offers around 3 to 5 minutes of AFK time, with experience rates of up to 44,000 Fishing XP per hour.
- Tip: For even more AFK time, use the fairy ring network (code D-K-S) to teleport directly to the spot, minimizing setup time.
- Ammonite & Sand Crabs: For lower-level players, these crabs on Fossil Island and along the Kourend coast are fantastic. They are always aggressive, allowing for 10-minute AFK sessions with auto-retaliate before you need to reset their aggression.
- Infernal Eels: For a fishing method that requires no banking, infernal eels are fantastic. You fish them and use a hammer to crack them open on the spot for loot, allowing for very long, uninterrupted sessions.
Medium-Duration AFK
When you can afford to check in every minute or so, these methods offer a fantastic balance of solid experience rates and respectable AFK time.
Crafting The Glassblower
Crafting is often seen as a costly and active skill, but it doesn’t have to be. The process of blowing molten glass into useful items is a slow, methodical one.
- The Method: Use a giant seaweed and buckets of sand to create molten glass at the giant’s foundry. Then, simply use the glass on a furnace to make items like orbs or lantern lenses.
- AFK Time & XP: You get a generous 49 seconds of AFK time per inventory. Experience rates can be very high, reaching up to 120,000 Crafting XP per hour with the best glass items.
Firemaking
Gone are the days of clicking between every log. The Forester’s Campfires, added to the Forestry update, have made Firemaking a genuinely relaxed skill.
- The Method: Find a active campfire or start your own. You can add logs to the fire from your inventory, building a shared bonfire with other players.
- AFK Time & XP: This method provides about 81 seconds of AFK time per inventory of logs. With redwood logs, you can achieve over 160,000 Firemaking XP per hour in a social, low-stress setting.
Smithing & Fletching
These production skills are naturally suited for AFK training in bursts.
- Smithing (Cannonballs): The classic AFK gold faming. Smelting a full inventory of steel bars into cannonballs at a furnace takes about 2.5 minutes, making it one of the longest AFK timers for a production skill, albeit with slow XP.
- Fletching (Bows or Darts): Stringing maple or magic longbows, or fletching darts, gives you 49 seconds of AFK time per inventory and can yield over 165,000 Fletching XP per hour.
The table below provides a quick-reference overview of the most reliable AFK methods across Gielinor.
Niche and Specialized AFK Methods
For those looking to train less AFK-friendly skills, there are still options, though they often come with significant trade-offs.
AFK Agility
Yes, you read that correctly. Agility, the most click-intensive skill, has an AFK method, though it requires a significant investment.
- The Method: With a high Construction level (80+), you can build a specialized dungeon in your Player-Owned House (POH) with teleport traps and TzTok-Jad NPCs. By using a crossbow to attack the Jads, you are pulled across the traps, gaining Agility XP passively.
- AFK Time & XP: This can be set up for sessions of 10-15 minutes, yielding around 10,000-12,000 Agility XP per hour. It’s extremely low XP, but it is genuinely AFK.
- Cost: The setup cost is high, at approximately 24 million GP for all the components.
AFK Magic
A controversial yet undeniably passive method for training Magic.
- The Method: Wear armour that gives negative Magic attack bonus (like full platebody) and cast a combat spell on a low-level monster like a rat or spider in a safe location. You will “splash,” dealing no damage but still gaining XP.
- AFK Time & XP: This offers the full 20-minute logout timer of AFK time. Rates can be up to 75,000 XP/hour, but it costs money in runes and provides no loot.
- A Better Alternative: If you get a Kraken task, you can attack the tentacles while they are underwater for similar AFK time and much better overall rewards.
Essential AFK Training Tips
To truly master AFK training, you need the right tools and knowledge.
- the Logout Timer: The game’s AFK timer is typically 5 minutes of inactivity on most worlds, but you can stretch this to 20 minutes by interacting with the game just before the 5-minute mark (e.g., a single click). However, the 20-minute logout is not universal; some activities have shorter inherent cycles.
- RuneLite Plugins: The plugin hub is your best friend. Use “Idle Notifier” to alert you when you stop performing an action. “Woodcutting Timers,” “Fishing Timers,” and “Stars” (for finding shooting stars) are all invaluable.
- Optimize Your Gear: For combat, use gear that reduces damage taken (like high Defence armour) or provides passive healing (Guthan’s set, Saradomin Godsword) to extend your sessions. For resource gathering, always use the best-in-slot tool (e.g., Dragon axe for Woodcutting).
- Embrace Mobile: The OSRS mobile app is a game-changer for AFK training. It’s perfect for doing these methods while moving around your home or watching TV.
The path to mastery in Gielinor is a marathon, not a sprint. By weaving these AFK methods into your daily routine, you’ll find your skills climbing steadily, your bank growing, and your ability to enjoy all aspects of your life—both real and virtual—greatly enhanced.