General Method Description

NOTE: I am in the process of revising my Barrows techniques based on recent updates. This takes some time to do; in the meanwhile, the methods here should still work well.

Barrows is one of the most popular minigames in RuneScape, because it is fun, has good rewards (including a chance for Barrows gear, some of the best in the game) and gives you combat and Magic XP as well.

The Barrows is a dangerous place, and even though some players are able to complete the minigame with middling combat levels, they are taking grave risks -- and even if they are successful, they use so many supplies that it doesn't end up being a very good moneymaker anyway. By high levels (level 70 or so) you are able to do enough damage to complete the minigame reasonably quickly, although it isn't until very high levels that you can do the Barrows efficiently.

A complete guide to the Barrows is beyond the scope of this moneymaking guide. However, I have outlined for each of the three variations here my suggestions for how to do the Barrows in a way that maximizes the number of runs per hour (and hence rewards), while minimizing the cost of supplies.

My method relies on the use of melee weapons to fight Ahrim and Karil, and a red salamander on the magic setting for the melee brothers. The salamander does high damage at a fraction of the cost of magic spells, and I use red rather than a black because it is 90% as good for 50% as much cost per attack.

The main trade-off in doing the Barrows is deciding whether to do one chest per trip or more than that. If you do one run per trip then each run is easier, and your cost of supplies is much lower because you can recharge prayer between trips (saving on prayer pots) and you also don't need food of as high caliber. The advantage of doing multiple runs per trip is that you save the travel time getting to the Barrows, so you can get more rewards. In my testing I found that at high levels (level 70 skills or thereabouts) the single trip method is preferable, while at very high levels you can do an extra half a chest per hour by doing five chests per trip. This does require you to use more supplies, especially prayer potions (since you can no longer recharge prayer between each visit). But the value of the extra rewards is greater than the cost of the supplies, and running to the Barrows over and over is boring, so my very high method is based on five runs per trip.

The final, extremely high level variation is one that involves nine runs per trip, relying on the special properties of the Saradomin godsword. While I generally avoid putting techniques in this guide that rely on expensive equipment, the Saradomin godsword is ideal for the Barrows because it allows you to heal on the fly, and also get back small amounts of prayer for fighting Barrows brothers without having to waste prayer potion doses. The technique I describe here shows you how that sword lets you do nine chest runs per trip while using very little in the way of supplies.

You can expect a Barrows item about 1 in every 18 chests, which is what my figures are based upon. This means you get around one armor piece every 3-4 hours on average. Of course, it's all luck, and you can get 2 or even 3 items in one chest, or dry spells that last for dozens of trips.

One final tip: When you are fighting with prayer, you may notice that you have enough prayer points that you won't run out soon, but that some will be wasted when the Barrows drains them. In these cases, when meleeing, you can help your cause by enabling Piety or other combat-enhancing prayers.