Runescape Cooking Guide

Cooking Guide

Author: Peterlor3

Cooking is a great skill in Runescape and can be a good money-maker if you get a decent cooking level in order to make high-healing foods. With so many things to cook, its hard to decide on how to train your level. This guide will teach you the fastest way to raise your cooking level.

On Tutorial Island:
Stay at the Shrimp pond and keep fishing and cooking shrimps until you get to level 3 cooking.

Levels 1-10:

Once you're on the mainland, you want to get going with your cooking, but of course you need money first. My Personal favorite way to get money fast is to kill cows at the Gliders (described in detail here) http://www.thersmg.com/2007/09/1gp-100k.html

Once you've got about 500 cowhides/bones/meat in the bank, go to the Grand Exchange and sell it all. DO NOT cook any of the meat, it sells for a lot more than the xp you get from cooking it.

Take the money you get and buy about 200 raw shrimps on the GE. Get 10gp and go to Al Karhid and cook them on the range near the bank.

Levels 10-30:
Buy about 200 raw herrings, and cook them all. If you run of money, revert back the rsriches moneymaking guide. Once you get to level 30 cooking you're in for some fun.

Levels 30-50:
Trout. Thats about all there is to it. Get raw trout however you wish, you can fish it, you can buy it. If you are a member and have done the Shilo Village Quest, I recommend you head to the village. There are fishing spots about a quarter of a click from the bank... that's so convenient.

Some people suggest using salmon, starting at like level 40-45 or so, but trout is cheaper and burns a lot less often. Keep using the Al Karhid range if you're a free player.

Levels 50-80:
Become a Member. This is very important and it saves you a lot of rs cash (even though you use real life cash). I encourage you to start the "Temple of Ikov" Quest and get the boots of lightness to reduce your weight by about 3kg; you only need to start the quest, not finish it. First: Do the "Family Crest" Quest. Go talk to the cook in Catherby after the quest and have him make you some "Cooking Gauntlets". Put these on and never take them off again, they greatly reduce burned fish and can save you hundreds of thousands of gp.

Buy a couple of thousand raw lobsters on the GE. Go to "Rogues Den" (best route is via the Games necklace teleport to the Buthorpe Games Room and then run to the Bar and down the stairs) and begin cooking the lobsters. Emerald Benedict is a sort of walking banker, so just use him. When you are finished with all the lobsters, go to the GE, sell your cooked lobsters for the middle price, and once they've sold, go buy more lobsters. Repeat this process until you get to level 80.

If you are F2P, you can always buy lobsters and cook them at Edgeville where there is a range very close to the bank (inside the house just west of the bank).

Levels 80-95:

You can do lobsters all the way to 99, or you can do swordfish; but as a member, it is probably the best idea to start cooking raw monkfish, starting at level 80. MAKE SURE you're wearing your handy "Cooking Gauntlets". Around this time, you will run into serious money problems. Either sell your armour, weapons, or use the money making guide on this website to make some money for this step. Just buy a few thousand raw monkfish (called monks) and cook them at Rogues Den. Sell your cooked monkfish on the GE and repeat this process until you get level 95 cooking.

Levels 95-99:

By now you're probably beginning to hate cooking, but just imagine the warm furry folds of the purple cape around your shoulders! That thought kept me going!

You can continue to 99 using monkfish or swordfish, but I personally used sharks. You will probably want to get over this cooking expedition as fast as possible, so sharks are your best bet.

Buy about a thousand raw sharks on the GE and cook them at Rogues Den. Sell on the GE, and repeat the process.

Once you get 99 cooking, you will want to teleport to Varrock. Get 100,000 gp and a chefs hat (you can buy one on the GE, or you can kill the little red imps that run around everywhere until they drop one). Go to the chef's Guild which is a little west of Varrock. Go inside, wearing your chefs hat. Buy a Cooking cape/cooking coif from the head chef.

How much does 99 cooking cost?

It really depends on what kind of fish you use. If you use cheap fish, you'll get a cheap 99 cooking.... but you'll probably end up quitting because it takes too long. Using my method, you will balance efficiency and pricing and you'll probably end up spending around 5-7 million gp.

How long does 99 cooking take?
Again it depends. Technically, I've heard of people that do it in 12 days. Now just think though... that's more than 1m xp per day... are you really up to that?!?! Of course not! I did 99 cooking in about two months time, doing a generous amount a day, and once in a while doing a quest to break up the boredom. As a side note, if you hate cooking, you will never get 99 unless you are totally dedicated.

Why is it worth it to get 99 cooking?

Number one: you get to wear a cool purple cape and you can make a "Fish Pie" with the cool emote. Number two: you can cook anything you want to! Tuna potatoes (healing 18 hp), anything! I wish you all good luck, maybe you'll even beat my cooking xp some day (14m+).

All credits for this guide are given to the author:
Peterlor3