Fletching
Cuts logs into shafts and bows, assembles arrows and bolts from heads and feathers, and builds crossbows and wooden shields from 75 configured recipes.
Fletching is where logs, metal and feathers become ranged gear. Bows and crossbows for every Ranged level, arrows and bolts that decide how hard those shots land, and the whole wooden shield line from plain oak up to black dragonhide. Nothing else in the game makes them, so a ranged account either fletches or buys. Almost every recipe is one item used on another, which makes it easy to train alongside something else.
Level 1 to 120
Shields are the cheapest XP for most of the game: two logs of the same wood, one action, and more XP than the bow of that tier. Arrows overtake them at 70 and never give the lead back. Whatever you make, start it once and it repeats until the materials run out, so the real work is stockpiling logs, feathers, string and bars before you sit down.
- Oak shields and oak bows 1 to 15
An oak shield is two oak logs for 18 XP, an oak bow is a log and a string for 15. Leather over an oak shield gives 22 at level 5. A knife costs a single coin at any general store.
- Willow shields 15 to 30
Forty five XP for two willow logs, against 37 for the willow bow. Snakeskin over a willow shield pays 51 from level 22 if you have the hides.
- Teak shields and steel arrows 30 to 40
A teak shield is 63 XP for two logs. Steel arrows are 60 XP a set of 15, made from 15 headless arrows and 15 steel heads. Green dragonhide over a teak shield is 75 at level 35.
- Pine shields 40 to 50
One hundred and eight XP for two pine logs is the best rate of the mid game, well ahead of the pine bow at 90. Pine logs are the bottleneck, so cut or buy in bulk first.
- Sequoia shields and mithril arrows 50 to 70
Sequoia shields open at 60 for 144 XP a pair of logs, the best two-log option before baobab. Blue dragonhide over a pine shield gives 120 at 50, and mithril arrows pay 105 a set of 15 with mithril bolts at 100.
- Adamant arrows 70 to 90
Two hundred and twenty five XP a set of 15, the point where arrows become the fastest thing in the skill. Adamant bolts give 213, red dragonhide over a sequoia shield 157, and baobab shields open at 80 for 180.
- Rune arrows 90 to 120
Three hundred XP a set of 15, with rune bolts at 285 and black dragonhide shields at 195. Dragon bolts at level 98 are the single best action at 367, but the unfinished bolts only come from dragons.
Crossbows
Two steps, and both pay XP: limbs on a log gives the unfinished stock, then string on that gives the crossbow.
Each metal is tied to one wood. Bronze takes oak, iron willow, steel teak, mithril pine, adamant sequoia, rune baobab and dragon elder.
Where the materials come from
String is spun from flax at a crafting station, heads and limbs and unfinished bolts are smithed, feathers come from chickens and nests, and hides come through Crafting.
Dragon limbs and unfinished dragon bolts are drops only, from black dragons, rune and adamant dragons and the King Black Dragon.
The odd recipes
A few things live under Fletching that are not training: mixing dyes, dyeing a wig and goblin mail for quests, grinding kebbit teeth, chiselling kebbit spikes into bolts at level 30, and mixing swamp tar with a herb. They pay little or nothing, so make them when you need them and not before.
Worth knowing
- Cutting a log into shafts is worth 4 XP whatever the wood, so treat it as supply work rather than training. A sakura log yields 75 shafts and an oak just 15.
- Arrows are two steps: shafts and feathers make headless arrows, then heads go on those. One bar makes fifteen heads or fifteen unfinished bolts, but crossbow limbs come one to a bar.
- Feathers are the real bottleneck for arrows. Chickens always drop a handful, and a bird's nest from woodcutting can hold an enormous stack.
- The Fletching cape adds one extra arrow to every set of 15 you make.
The full table
XP is shown wherever it is fixed.
