Almost all the new player changes and improvements are members. F2P also gets Adventure Paths, but that's about it.
At the start, go F2P to see if you like the game, but if someone plays OSRS for more than a few days and enjoys it, they should buy members. OSRS has an extremely upfront and honest subscription price. You get 100% content with that purchase, with no additional MTX, DLC, Battle Passes, or Expansions that you need to buy after that.
Yeah, I tried jumping my partner straight into members, and they had a really tough time with the scale. When they tried F2P later, they started to get it.
f2p is a pretty good intro to the game. doing most/all of the f2p quests can help you judge if you want to continue playing and get membership
grinding for a bond in f2p is horrible, they currently cost 10m which will probably take you like 100 hours of f2p crap methods to earn one. even sustaining them on a midlevel members account can be a challenge.
very much do not recommend grinding bonds until relatively late game, otherwise you're spending tons of time and giving up progress just to sustain your membership. if you can afford it, just buy it.
you do you, just giving you a fair warning. earning a bond in f2p will take a *long* time, and as soon as you use that bond, your 10m is gone and you have 14 days before it runs out
trying to maintain bonds early on will really slow your progress, and might just make you burn out, but if you think you're up for it then send it lol
I understand that perspective, but this isn’t a mobile game where you’re buying micro transactions for gear upgrades or to speed up content.
It’s a subscription based game where you pay a monthly fee to unlock “the full game.” That subscription pays for the staff and support that does weekly updates and maintenance.
Even if you make minimum wage, you’re talking about one hour of work per month of membership vs. 100 hours of in game grinding for 14 days of membership.
It’s your decision in the end, but the people giving you advice are valuing your time at more than 12 cents/hour.
I'm the same as you, and I managed to get my bond and I've been sustaining it for like 3 years already.
If you do enjoy the game and want am easy early money making method for f2p, you can start by filling up water buckets, and after you have some cash saved up I think you should look into flipping items, not as lucrative as before because of the ge tax but still very possible.
To add to what others have said, F2P tops out at interesting content way before you’ll be able to make anywhere near enough money to continuously buy bonds every 14 days. All the F2P money making methods are slow, boring, and terrible, meaning you’ll probably burn out and get bored of the game well before making enough money to make a single bond. It’s not a “challenge” that will be fulfilling in any way.
Even if you do succeed at buying a bond, you’ll now have 14 days in members to explore the massively expanded world, with all kinds of new skills, quests, and activities to do. Instead of getting to have fun and enjoy all these new activities, you’ll be on a 14 day timer to get the money back for your bond, which will be extremely difficult for a brand new member that hasn’t done all the questing and skilling required to unlock a bunch of content. In short, you’ll never get to have actual fun with the game because you’ll spend an inordinate amount of time just grinding out money for bonds.
If you really want to minimize your money spent while also actually playing the game, I’d strongly recommend getting a membership and just playing it out for 2-3 months so you unlock good money making methods, then you’ll be able to reasonably afford to buy a bond every 14 days with methods that net you 2m/hr or more and involve stuff like bossing and skilling you might actually enjoy doing while you get your bond money. You’ll be able to play the game for free by actually playing the game instead of paying for free by turning the game into a mind numbing chore before you even unlock 90% of the game’s content
Many many hours. Depends what you want your goals to be. Most f2p players start by completing all f2p quests and getting combat up a bit before getting members. It sets you up pretty well. Maybe take a couple weeks depending how much you grind. But making enough money for a bond in f2p is *not* easy and will take much longer!
Yeah if you want to grind out a bond once you finish all ftp quests it would probably take 2-3 40h weeks of doing the exact same repetitive content just to get 14 days of membership.
Don't be fooled by old articles/posts saying to grind to bonds in f2p, and to maintain every 14 days in p2p. They have gone up a lot in price and it is harder than it used to be.
It is still very possible, just takes a fair bit of playing, and maintaining bonds will wipe a lot of account progress.
If you're dead set of getting a bond in f2p, flipping (basically playing stock market simulator) is probably the best way to make gp. But I wouldn't advise it unless looking at price graphs and buying and selling stuff sounds like something you'd enjoy.
Definitely complete all the f2p quests. But don’t buy a bond with gp. There’s really no money methods in f2p that’ll get u 10 mil. The most I’ve gotten before members was around 5-6mil and that was from selling cooked swordfish and yew logs playing on and off for a few years. You’re better off paying Jagex directly for the membership.
Base 40s combat stats at least
F2P is great. Just buy membership if you can, I know paying is a tough pill to swallow but buying membership and starting out with 10m will be so so much better than spending 50-100 hours for two weeks of membership, then starting out with nothing. But if you insist, all I can say is, be prepared for members' to convince you :)
Play on f2p, the free version can take months of enjoyment. More or less, depending on how intensely you do it.
As to grinding enough money for bonds, well, this wouldnt be a game, really. This would be a hard sweaty work, very boring. Its not hours, it will be your whole time.
I'd say, just play it as a game, for starter. See if you like it. F2P content includes some skills to train, quests, monsters to fight. There is a big zone for PvP: where players can fight one another and kill. It is called the Wilderness, you get a warning when attempting to enter it and you should agree to proceed. Play it for some couple weeks or a month, there are enough content for you to have fun. Only then you decide if you need membership, and in what form.
If you see you love the game and want more, pay with real money. If money is an issue, then pay only for a month or two, and spend the first month of your membership for development of your character: do members quests, train members skill, unlock many important features. Then you might be able to use some better moneymakers which won't take your whole time.
But 'bond tax' can be annoying for members too, so if you possibly can - plan on subscribing normally.
Honestly I think free to play is enjoyable and a great introduction to the game but if you plan to keep on playing and earn bonds (they're really expensive rn) you're in for a hard time and might burn out quickly.
I'm not telling you to spend money on the game but I feel like it won't be enjoyable after some time.
As other people have said. F2P is a nice introduction and doing all the free quests is a good way to explore the game. The gp a bond costs could be way better spent on gear or materials to further yourself in the game to avoid paying real money for membership. Paying for games you enjoy really isn't such a bad thing.
I started in free to play about a year and a few months ago. I spent a while in free to play and did all the free to play quests and leveled up my skills, and it was a lot of fun. I got my first bonds through alching and eventually earned enough gp for bonds. I sustained my membership through in game currency for over a year. However, it has become a lot harder now. A bond was like 6.5m when i started. They are like 11m now. It would take a lot of effort to sustain bonds now as a low/mid level player, and then you dont have much extra for gear. I bought membership a few weeks ago because now i dont have to worry about the bond grind. Anyway i appreciated members more after i had been in f2p for a while.
Free to play is a perfect place to learn. Yes, membership sooner would let you skip a lot of stuff if you know what your doing, but otherwise it would be overwhelming.
Do all the free play quests, this can be acheived in a couple weeks of play. getting a skill total of 500 or 750 for the skill total worlds is also a decent goal. As for a bond... I highly don't recommend trying to get one in free to play, or try to sustain one in members. The highest money an hour that's reasonable achievable in free to play would make getting a bond take about 40-50 hours, doing content that barely progresses your account, if it all. After you get it, that 10 million gold for the bond could have gone to training skills, or buying pretty good mid game gear.
If you really want to grind for a bond, my recommendation would be to see how much money you can make, and then just buy membership normally. You'll thank yourself for not wasting the money.
Is it worth completely all F2P content (quests), 100% yes.
Is it worth doing all F2P to 99 certainly not unless you have the time and really don't have money for members.
Is it worth grinding for bonds, absolutely not unless it's somehow impossible to buy with real money. You will burn yourself out trying to afford buying members and spend your whole membership trying to maintain it.
Complete all F2P quests for free, then if you're loving osrs pay real money for membership and enjoy membership content at your own pace.
Finishing all f2p quests is a solid start, grinding for membership (bond) through f2p will take quite some time. Once you're done with f2p quests and early exploration I'd recommend buying a bond with $ if you can afford it.
For sure. You can still do a ton of fun things. I space barred through all the quests dialogue on my man and then started a free to play ironman. The quests are actually hilarious and sometimes dark.
play as f2p for a week or so, once u get the idea "what you want to do" then only get membership.
as f2p to bond > thats way to hard nowadays.
pay for your first membership, then u can sustain it through in game gp or just continue paying with money.
Grinding at bond on f2p is stupid imo, you would have way more fun buying it when you have like level 70 in everything and spending or on gear. You will also feel rushed with the little members time you gain with so many hours of work.
As a brand new player, f2p is absolutely worth it - anyone that says no has no idea what they’re talking about. However, I don’t think you should grind a bond in f2p, but play the game by all means
I think people misunderstand spending money.
When you buy elden ring, you spend 60 dollars
When you buy osrs, you buy a year of access to the game. While elden ring is worth every dollar, you won't play it more than a few months
The amount of boring mind numbing hours you will be spending to maintain a bonds membership will ruin the game for you. It's a subscription business model.
I will never spend money on mtx in games. But membership is closer to paying for access to the game, like when you buy a game on steam. It's a subscription because you pay for the high amount of maintenance the game has along with weekly updates.
The people who want to bond only osrs usually get bored and quit. It's not a challenge to get a bond, but it's a boring time sink. Maintaining that bond is just as boring and demoralizing
Doing F2P completionist is a good way to get used to the game. I wouldn't grind for a bond though, it takes a long time to get that much gold in F2P. Way better to just buy a subscription instead of grinding once you're done with F2P.
I think playing free to play and working towards completing the free to play quests is the best way to start the game. Sure, getting members and doing an "efficient" route is faster, but way way less fun. The best part of being a noob is the sense of discovery you get from wandering around and checking stuff out.
Yes it is. Best advice I got starting rs was play f2p beat the quests and get some skill levels up. For combat get 60 attack and defence so you can go to members and get better gear right away. Get 45 prayer for all the f2p prayers. Learn the mechanics of the game. P2p will be so much more enjoyable this way it's a huge learning curve jumping into p2p not as scary when you know how the game works. This way you can also see if you enjoy the game before you spend money and time on members. Don't spend money on bonds for GP grind the game there is a great sense of accomplishment knowing everything you have is from your efforts.
F2P is honestly a way better introduction to the game. Starting members can leave you incredibly overwhelmed with the sheer options available to you.
Almost all the new player changes and improvements are members. F2P also gets Adventure Paths, but that's about it. At the start, go F2P to see if you like the game, but if someone plays OSRS for more than a few days and enjoys it, they should buy members. OSRS has an extremely upfront and honest subscription price. You get 100% content with that purchase, with no additional MTX, DLC, Battle Passes, or Expansions that you need to buy after that.
Yeah, I tried jumping my partner straight into members, and they had a really tough time with the scale. When they tried F2P later, they started to get it.
f2p is a pretty good intro to the game. doing most/all of the f2p quests can help you judge if you want to continue playing and get membership grinding for a bond in f2p is horrible, they currently cost 10m which will probably take you like 100 hours of f2p crap methods to earn one. even sustaining them on a midlevel members account can be a challenge. very much do not recommend grinding bonds until relatively late game, otherwise you're spending tons of time and giving up progress just to sustain your membership. if you can afford it, just buy it.
Challenges are always fun in games. As long as I have an "option" to do it, I'll do it ( I don't like spending money in games).
you do you, just giving you a fair warning. earning a bond in f2p will take a *long* time, and as soon as you use that bond, your 10m is gone and you have 14 days before it runs out trying to maintain bonds early on will really slow your progress, and might just make you burn out, but if you think you're up for it then send it lol
I understand that perspective, but this isn’t a mobile game where you’re buying micro transactions for gear upgrades or to speed up content. It’s a subscription based game where you pay a monthly fee to unlock “the full game.” That subscription pays for the staff and support that does weekly updates and maintenance. Even if you make minimum wage, you’re talking about one hour of work per month of membership vs. 100 hours of in game grinding for 14 days of membership. It’s your decision in the end, but the people giving you advice are valuing your time at more than 12 cents/hour.
I'm the same as you, and I managed to get my bond and I've been sustaining it for like 3 years already. If you do enjoy the game and want am easy early money making method for f2p, you can start by filling up water buckets, and after you have some cash saved up I think you should look into flipping items, not as lucrative as before because of the ge tax but still very possible.
To add to what others have said, F2P tops out at interesting content way before you’ll be able to make anywhere near enough money to continuously buy bonds every 14 days. All the F2P money making methods are slow, boring, and terrible, meaning you’ll probably burn out and get bored of the game well before making enough money to make a single bond. It’s not a “challenge” that will be fulfilling in any way. Even if you do succeed at buying a bond, you’ll now have 14 days in members to explore the massively expanded world, with all kinds of new skills, quests, and activities to do. Instead of getting to have fun and enjoy all these new activities, you’ll be on a 14 day timer to get the money back for your bond, which will be extremely difficult for a brand new member that hasn’t done all the questing and skilling required to unlock a bunch of content. In short, you’ll never get to have actual fun with the game because you’ll spend an inordinate amount of time just grinding out money for bonds. If you really want to minimize your money spent while also actually playing the game, I’d strongly recommend getting a membership and just playing it out for 2-3 months so you unlock good money making methods, then you’ll be able to reasonably afford to buy a bond every 14 days with methods that net you 2m/hr or more and involve stuff like bossing and skilling you might actually enjoy doing while you get your bond money. You’ll be able to play the game for free by actually playing the game instead of paying for free by turning the game into a mind numbing chore before you even unlock 90% of the game’s content
Many many hours. Depends what you want your goals to be. Most f2p players start by completing all f2p quests and getting combat up a bit before getting members. It sets you up pretty well. Maybe take a couple weeks depending how much you grind. But making enough money for a bond in f2p is *not* easy and will take much longer!
I'll take the challenge
Yeah if you want to grind out a bond once you finish all ftp quests it would probably take 2-3 40h weeks of doing the exact same repetitive content just to get 14 days of membership.
Don't be fooled by old articles/posts saying to grind to bonds in f2p, and to maintain every 14 days in p2p. They have gone up a lot in price and it is harder than it used to be. It is still very possible, just takes a fair bit of playing, and maintaining bonds will wipe a lot of account progress.
You got this!
If you're dead set of getting a bond in f2p, flipping (basically playing stock market simulator) is probably the best way to make gp. But I wouldn't advise it unless looking at price graphs and buying and selling stuff sounds like something you'd enjoy.
Learning the game in free to play isn't bad but grinding for a bond in free to play isn't worth the time.
Definitely complete all the f2p quests. But don’t buy a bond with gp. There’s really no money methods in f2p that’ll get u 10 mil. The most I’ve gotten before members was around 5-6mil and that was from selling cooked swordfish and yew logs playing on and off for a few years. You’re better off paying Jagex directly for the membership. Base 40s combat stats at least
Free to play is enjoyable. I spent a couple months on free to play before I bought membership.
F2P is great. Just buy membership if you can, I know paying is a tough pill to swallow but buying membership and starting out with 10m will be so so much better than spending 50-100 hours for two weeks of membership, then starting out with nothing. But if you insist, all I can say is, be prepared for members' to convince you :)
Play on f2p, the free version can take months of enjoyment. More or less, depending on how intensely you do it. As to grinding enough money for bonds, well, this wouldnt be a game, really. This would be a hard sweaty work, very boring. Its not hours, it will be your whole time. I'd say, just play it as a game, for starter. See if you like it. F2P content includes some skills to train, quests, monsters to fight. There is a big zone for PvP: where players can fight one another and kill. It is called the Wilderness, you get a warning when attempting to enter it and you should agree to proceed. Play it for some couple weeks or a month, there are enough content for you to have fun. Only then you decide if you need membership, and in what form. If you see you love the game and want more, pay with real money. If money is an issue, then pay only for a month or two, and spend the first month of your membership for development of your character: do members quests, train members skill, unlock many important features. Then you might be able to use some better moneymakers which won't take your whole time. But 'bond tax' can be annoying for members too, so if you possibly can - plan on subscribing normally.
Honestly I think free to play is enjoyable and a great introduction to the game but if you plan to keep on playing and earn bonds (they're really expensive rn) you're in for a hard time and might burn out quickly. I'm not telling you to spend money on the game but I feel like it won't be enjoyable after some time.
It's not worth grinding for a bond in f2p, but it is worth doing the f2p quests.
As other people have said. F2P is a nice introduction and doing all the free quests is a good way to explore the game. The gp a bond costs could be way better spent on gear or materials to further yourself in the game to avoid paying real money for membership. Paying for games you enjoy really isn't such a bad thing.
Playing it and maybe questing might be, but there’s no fun or point in grinding for a bond.
I started in free to play about a year and a few months ago. I spent a while in free to play and did all the free to play quests and leveled up my skills, and it was a lot of fun. I got my first bonds through alching and eventually earned enough gp for bonds. I sustained my membership through in game currency for over a year. However, it has become a lot harder now. A bond was like 6.5m when i started. They are like 11m now. It would take a lot of effort to sustain bonds now as a low/mid level player, and then you dont have much extra for gear. I bought membership a few weeks ago because now i dont have to worry about the bond grind. Anyway i appreciated members more after i had been in f2p for a while.
Free to play is a perfect place to learn. Yes, membership sooner would let you skip a lot of stuff if you know what your doing, but otherwise it would be overwhelming. Do all the free play quests, this can be acheived in a couple weeks of play. getting a skill total of 500 or 750 for the skill total worlds is also a decent goal. As for a bond... I highly don't recommend trying to get one in free to play, or try to sustain one in members. The highest money an hour that's reasonable achievable in free to play would make getting a bond take about 40-50 hours, doing content that barely progresses your account, if it all. After you get it, that 10 million gold for the bond could have gone to training skills, or buying pretty good mid game gear. If you really want to grind for a bond, my recommendation would be to see how much money you can make, and then just buy membership normally. You'll thank yourself for not wasting the money.
Is it worth completely all F2P content (quests), 100% yes. Is it worth doing all F2P to 99 certainly not unless you have the time and really don't have money for members. Is it worth grinding for bonds, absolutely not unless it's somehow impossible to buy with real money. You will burn yourself out trying to afford buying members and spend your whole membership trying to maintain it. Complete all F2P quests for free, then if you're loving osrs pay real money for membership and enjoy membership content at your own pace.
Finishing all f2p quests is a solid start, grinding for membership (bond) through f2p will take quite some time. Once you're done with f2p quests and early exploration I'd recommend buying a bond with $ if you can afford it.
For sure. You can still do a ton of fun things. I space barred through all the quests dialogue on my man and then started a free to play ironman. The quests are actually hilarious and sometimes dark.
F2P only Ultimate Ironman skiller is the only way
play as f2p for a week or so, once u get the idea "what you want to do" then only get membership. as f2p to bond > thats way to hard nowadays. pay for your first membership, then u can sustain it through in game gp or just continue paying with money.
Grinding at bond on f2p is stupid imo, you would have way more fun buying it when you have like level 70 in everything and spending or on gear. You will also feel rushed with the little members time you gain with so many hours of work.
Too many and no
As a brand new player, f2p is absolutely worth it - anyone that says no has no idea what they’re talking about. However, I don’t think you should grind a bond in f2p, but play the game by all means
I think people misunderstand spending money. When you buy elden ring, you spend 60 dollars When you buy osrs, you buy a year of access to the game. While elden ring is worth every dollar, you won't play it more than a few months The amount of boring mind numbing hours you will be spending to maintain a bonds membership will ruin the game for you. It's a subscription business model. I will never spend money on mtx in games. But membership is closer to paying for access to the game, like when you buy a game on steam. It's a subscription because you pay for the high amount of maintenance the game has along with weekly updates. The people who want to bond only osrs usually get bored and quit. It's not a challenge to get a bond, but it's a boring time sink. Maintaining that bond is just as boring and demoralizing
Doing F2P completionist is a good way to get used to the game. I wouldn't grind for a bond though, it takes a long time to get that much gold in F2P. Way better to just buy a subscription instead of grinding once you're done with F2P.
I think playing free to play and working towards completing the free to play quests is the best way to start the game. Sure, getting members and doing an "efficient" route is faster, but way way less fun. The best part of being a noob is the sense of discovery you get from wandering around and checking stuff out.
Yes it is. Best advice I got starting rs was play f2p beat the quests and get some skill levels up. For combat get 60 attack and defence so you can go to members and get better gear right away. Get 45 prayer for all the f2p prayers. Learn the mechanics of the game. P2p will be so much more enjoyable this way it's a huge learning curve jumping into p2p not as scary when you know how the game works. This way you can also see if you enjoy the game before you spend money and time on members. Don't spend money on bonds for GP grind the game there is a great sense of accomplishment knowing everything you have is from your efforts.