Little fletching guide/tips

[Hid]

Reading some fletching guides on well known fansites and in forums, always makes me wonder why my favourite fletching method, the one that got me the cape, is missing so often. I thought I'd just share it with you, so that if anyone is going for the cape, it might help him or her.

Making diamond bolts

You can do this in two steps, the first step, feathering the adamant bolts, gives you more xp, but makes your profit less. The second part, putting diamond bolt tips on the bolts, is not as fast xp, but gives good profit.

Step 1: Feathering adamant bolts

You need level 61 fletching for this, which shouldn't be a big problem to reach. Every bolt gives 7 xp each. Best thing is the speed of this. When you're good at fast clicking, you can almost get 400k xp per hour with this method. My personal best lies at 56k bolts per hour, which is 392k xp. The method is very simple, just use feathers on the unfinished bolts or vice versa.

Now to the costs of this method, using all medium GE prices:
Unfinished addy bolt: 199 gp each
Feather: 4 gp each
Finished addy bolt: 189 gp each

You lose 14 gp each for every bolt you make, if you would buy and sell everything against mid GE prices. Personally I had no problem selling against higher prices and buying at lower prices, you just need a little more patience. Of course I don't know if this still works, but worth a try I think.

For getting from level 61 to 99, you need 12.73 million xp. In bolts this means about 1.82 million you have to feather, which should take about 32 hours, and then the cape is yours. Disadvantage is that you lose about 25m gp in the process at mid ge prices, which ain't worth it.

IMPORTANT: You can only buy 10k of these items in GE every 4 hours, due to GE trade limits. Of course this restriction doesn't keep you from trading on forums, or having your friends buy 10k for you too and then trading them.

Step 2: Put bolt tips on bolts

If you want to use the bolts you made further, and make some profit, you can put diamond bolt tips on them. You need level 65 fletching for this and it gives 7 xp each per bolt made. It ain't as fast as just feathering them, but you can get a nice 160 – 180k xp (about 24k bolts per hour on average) per hour with this method too. And you can definitely earn money with this.

Prices:
Finished addy bolt: 189 gp each (GE) or 203 gp each (using self made bolts.
Diamond bolt tips: 241 gp each
Diamond bolts: 449 gp each

Self made bolts:
Making a diamond bolt costs 444 gp each, selling it at medium price brings you 449 gp each. In total that means about 120k gp profit per hour, without taking the feathering part into account.

Finished bolts bought at GE:
Bolts cost 430 gp each, and sell for 449 gp each, making 19 gp profit every bolt. At 24k bolts per hour this means a nice profit of 456k gp per hour, which is definitely worth it.

Getting the cape from level 65, means you need about 12.6 m xp. Using only step 2 and buy the finished bolts at ge, will take about 75 hours, and will make you 34.2 m gp profit.

The trade limits also apply for this method, that's the hard part of getting the fletching cape with this method.


Little comparison to the common used way of fletching yew longbows:

Yew logs cost 419 gp each, a bow string 176 each, total costs are 595 gp each. When alching these you get 768 gp, selling at GE gives 589 gp. In case of alching them (nature rune costs 233 each), it will cost you 60 gp each. In case of selling them at GE, it will cost you 6 gp each. As far as I can remember, you can make about 80k xp per hour this way.

Important with all of this: GE Prices can change. The prices I gave here are from the 28th of August 2008.


I hope this little guide helps in case you want to have a shot at the fletching cape.

[Deep_Pain]

I did this for a while and if I ever have the patience may use this method to get to 99, I found them faster than longs and as you say, at least you make, or dont lose money.

I tried enchanting them for a while, personally I don't have the patience, prices may have changed a bit, but the exp is the same as alching, takes about the same time per spell as alching but unlike alching it actually makes money, raises the value of the bolts by more than the cost of the spell.. or used to anywhoo.

[Lady in Ice]

A very nice guide indeed! Thank you!

I have never thought actually about making bolts when training fletching. Though I have never "trained" it really. Anyway, i´ll be using bolts then definitely

[9_red_monkey]

Never tried this. I got my 92 fletching from yew longs. Wonder how long it would take me to get to 99 that way.

[Hid]

That's about 6.5m xp left.

With diamond bolts it would be about 39 hours, with yew longs about 81 hours.

[jdo87]

ahhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!

why couldnt u have posted this a week ago lol...i have 93 fletch atm, and now i leave in a day and a half , o well ill have to remember this for when i get back, because the sooner i get this cape the sooner i can go for theiving lol

[beefeater555]

Awww... poor jdo, now you have something else to look forward to when you come back.

Nice guide hid!

[mysticmoggy]

many thanks for the great guide hid - im sure i will use this method soon - im on 83 i think atm wont take that long i suppose, i got 83 through yew longs before GE

[beefeater555]

Can some one move this into the "Guides" section of the forum? It took a little while to locate it in "Chit Chat". It definitely is a guide, and dang good one at that!