General Method Description

Tortoise are monsters that were almost completely ignored until Jagex finally made a use for tortoise shells as the secondary ingredient in war tortoise Summoning pouches. The usefulness and high cost of war tortoise pouches means that the shells used to make them are likewise valuable. In addition to occasionally dropping 1 to 3 of these shells, tortoises also occasionally give "perfect shells". These cannot be traded to players, but can be sold to Barlak in Dorgesh-Kaan for 500 gold pieces plus 500 Crafting XP! The tortoises also provide some other minor drops, as well as big bones for each kill. Since they are close to the bank, I recommend saving the big bones to increase your earnings.

Tortoises are also a good source of the new wergali seeds, a 2009 addition to the Farming and Herblore skills.

There are two level 79 tortoises in the Grand Tree fighting spot, as well as a level 92 that has three gnomes on it. The tortoises are the same in terms of drops, but the level 92 one has 20 more hitpoints, and you also must deal with the nuisance of the who will attack you after the beast is killed. So try to stick to the level 79s if you can, though if you are high level they take too long to respawn for you to stay busy. Making this worse is that the nice drops of these monsters has made them quite popular recently, and since you need a world to yourself to fight them efficiently, you may have to go onto a relatively empty server. This means you'll have to fight more of the level 92s, but it's still better than competing with others for the monsters.

Ironically, I don't recommend using a war tortoise familiar here because its high cost will cut into your profit margin. :)

Be sure to check the prices of the oddball drops you get from these monsters -- some are surprisingly valuable and worth banking.