Here’s a list with the absolute best methods:
Splashing (most afk, works in F2P and P2P) Crabs (two clicks required every 10 minutes) Bursting/Barraging (usually Maniacal Monkeys) High-alching (can be profitable, available to F2P) Nightmare Zone
Unlike its cousins Melee and Ranged, Magic can be quite expensive to train due to the runes required to cast spells. The methods listed above will all vary in cost and experience per hour (and requirements), so pick and choose the best one that suits your needs. Tip: You can always mix and match methods to get the best of all worlds!
Method 1: Splashing
This is perhaps as “dumbed down” a training method can possibly get. Splashing is the act of purposely wearing armour with negative magic attack bonus, to the point of literally being unable to successfully hit an enemy with a spell. This is done to avoid killing the creature you’re splashing on, which is usually a low level monster, such as a rat or a chicken (things that won’t kill you if you don’t pay attention for long amounts of time). Splashing works with basically every targeted spell, but is usually done with offensive spells of the normal spellbook, with “Fire strike” being the most efficient in terms of XP earned per gp spent.
Method 2: Crabs
RuneScape players seem to have a long standing feud with the crabs of Gielinor – or at least that’s what you’d think after seeing thousands of them being massacred every day. The truth is, crabs (of any kind) are some of the best monsters to afk-train on, thanks to their high number of hitpoints and minimal combat stats (quite literally 1 in everything else). This is what I’d consider the next step up from splashing, as the experience rates are on average at least 50% better while requiring only a couple of clicks every 10 minutes to recapture aggro. Old School RuneScape’s crabs come in four different varieties, but the main ones to focus on are:
Sand Crabs located in Zeah. Can be very easy to access and to find a spot due to fewer players. Ammonite Crabs on Fossil Island. These have the most health but the spots are often contested by multiple players.
Note: Completion of the intermediate quest “Bone Voyage” is required to reach Fossil Island.
Method 3: Bursting/Barraging
Bursting, or its higher level cousin Barraging, is the method of grouping up loads of enemies and casting any ancient magick spell on them with “Burst” or “Barrage” in its name, for example “Smoke Barrage”. These ancient magicks have the ability of hitting up to 9 different targets in a 3×3 radius, giving experience for the total amount of damage dealt. This is by far one of the fastest and most expensive methods of training Magic, but it’s totally worth it if you want to save yourself hundreds of hours looking at crabs. A couple of good spots to burst are the Skeletons found inside the Ape Atoll tunnel, or the Maniacal Monkeys from the Monkey Madness 2 cave system.
Method 4: High-Alching
I won’t lie, this is edging dangerously close to “putting in effort”. But I still consider it as very brain dead and semi-afk to do. High-Alching is pretty self-explanatory: You take a stack of noted items, you position them in your inventory right where the “High Level Alchemy” spell would be located in your spellbook, and click click click until you can’t click anymore! High-alching can be quite profitable (even as a F2P), you just have to spend some time doing a little research on the right items, and waiting in the case of G.E. buy limits. Tip: Use a Tome of Fire and Bryophyta’s Staff to cut down on rune costs!
Method 5: Nightmare Zone
The Nightmare Zone (or NMZ) is a minigame where players can battle bosses from quests that they’ve already completed (care for a rematch, Elvarg?) Defeating these bosses earns the player reward points, which can be spent on the chest right besides Dom Onion to buy various goodies such as:
Imbues for many different items, like combat rings and Slayer Helmets. Herb Boxes containing random herbs (best thing to buy for profit, has a daily buy limit) Scrolls of Redirection (can be used to change the destination of a Teleport to House tablet) Special Potions to help you inside the Nightmare Zone
There are 3 available game modes, but the most popular & most useful one is Rumble, because you can customize which bosses you want to face. The most popular strategy by far is only selecting bosses that utilize melee attacks, and negating all their damage either through the use of protection prayers, or Absorption potions. Ignoring all damage… looking once every 10 minutes… Wait a minute, this is just crabs all over again!
Last-Minute Magical AFK’ing Tips
Before setting off to become the sorcerer supreme, here’s a few tips that will help you on your way:
Make sure to always use a staff (or a combination of one with a tome) that provides you with unlimited elemental runes Due to its faster casting speed, the Harmonized Nightmare Staff can be used to splash (or train normally) and achieve higher exp rates than normal. The Chaos Gauntlets from the quest “Family Crest” boost the damage of all bolt spells by 3! On a similar note, make sure to wear the best gear available to you that increases “Magic Damage”, like a Tormented Bracelet. The “Idle Notifier” plugin on Runelite can be extremely handy when afking (not just for magic). The Magic Skillcape can be operated to change your spellbook 5 times per day!
