OSRS F2P Melee: Moss Giants vs Hill Giants Training Guide

Game screenshots and facts are cited from the Old School RuneScape Wiki (strategy, equipment, drops, and related pages). Writing is original editorial, not a copy of the wiki article.

Free-to-play melee training often feels like a loop: click monster, eat, repeat. But the moment you step past cows and guards, the choice between Moss giants and Hill giants defines whether you're training combat efficiently or just burning time. Both drop big bones and live in zones with predictable spawns, but they are not interchangeable. One is a forgiving low-attention grind; the other is a faster but riskier step up.

This guide compares Moss giants and Hill giants strictly for F2P Attack, Strength, Defence, and Hitpoints training. We’ll cover luring and damage control, gear, inventory, attention levels, realistic time-to-goal, and the prayer/profit hybrid that makes the grind feel less like a donation. We’ll also be blunt about when buying gold is the honest shortcut instead of pretending you enjoy picking up bones for the hundredth time.

Requirements and Who This Guide Is For

This guide is aimed at free-to-play accounts that have at least 40 Attack and 40 Defence, because those unlocks make the comparison meaningful. With rune weapons and rune armour, you can survive Moss giants and kill Hill giants without constant banking. If you are below those levels, the same logic applies, but you will need more food and should expect slower kills. Ironmen can use this guide identically, but they will value big bones more heavily because they cannot buy prayer XP. Non-ironmen should run the numbers on whether selling bones is better than burying them, which we cover later.

If you are below 40 Attack, you can still train on these giants with slower weapons, but your DPS will be low enough that the AFK advantage of Hill giants disappears. Train on barbarians, giant frogs, or monks until you unlock rune weapons.

Moss Giants vs Hill Giants: Core Comparison

Hill giants are the lower-level option. They are camped by players in Edgeville Dungeon and on Giants' Plateau, and they are forgiving enough to fight with mid-tier gear. Moss giants are a step up in combat level, hitpoints, and damage. They appear in Varrock Sewers and on Crandor, and they demand either better gear, more food, or smarter pulling. Both always drop big bones, which makes them the most popular F2P melee training targets for players who also want Prayer XP or bones to sell.

Neither giant is objectively better. Hill giants win when you want to watch a video and click occasionally. Moss giants win when you can pay attention and want more XP per hour from the same play session. For many players, the decision comes down to how much food you can afford and how many inventory spaces you are willing to dedicate to bones versus supplies.

Safespotting, Luring, and Damage Control

A common misconception is that you can safespot these giants with melee. In free-to-play, melee weapons have a 1-tile range, so you will always be adjacent to your target. That means you cannot attack from behind an obstacle while staying safe. What players call “safespots” on giants are really lure spots: you pull a giant to a corner or against a wall so that only one can attack you at a time, and you have room to step away to eat. Ranged or magic users can true safespot, but this guide is about melee; if you want to train melee skills, you have to accept some damage.

Hill giants in Edgeville Dungeon are famous for their rock clusters. Stand south of the northern rocks and let one giant approach while the others path around. In Varrock Sewers, the moss giants near the entrance can be fought one at a time if you hug the eastern wall. On Crandor, the rock formations on the beach serve the same purpose. Always test a new spot with a cheap weapon and food to see how many giants can reach you. A good lure spot can reduce food usage by 50% or more, simply because you never fight multiple giants at once.

Efficient Setup: Gear, Food, and Inventory

Your weapon choice matters more than anything else. Use the best scimitar you can equip: rune scimitar at 40 Attack, adamant before that, mithril below 30. The Barronite mace from Camdozaal is a decent alternative if you have it, but it is generally slower than a scimitar. For necklace, use an amulet of strength if it increases your max hit; otherwise use an amulet of power for accuracy and defence. The exact breakpoints are tedious, but the wiki's Free-to-play Melee training page has tables showing when the strength amulet gives a higher max hit. As a rule of thumb, if adding +10 melee strength does not increase your max hit, stick with the amulet of power's +6 strength and accuracy.

Armour for giants should be full melee, because giants use melee. Note that a chainbody provides more crush defence than a platebody, and many giants use crush-based attacks. If you are unsure, check the wiki’s equipment page for the exact attack style. Boots from the Stronghold of Security are excellent free options; decorative boots from Castle Wars have better defence but take far too long to obtain for the benefit. Gloves should be leather vambraces until 40 Ranged, at which point green d'hide vambraces are best-in-slot for F2P melee. If you can afford gilded d'hide vambraces, they are slightly better but very expensive; only buy them if you have gold to spare.

• Weapon: Rune scimitar (40 Attack)
• Amulet: Strength (if max hit increases) or Power
• Body: Rune chainbody or platebody (check crush defence)
• Legs: Rune platelegs/skirt
• Boots: Fancy or fighting boots from Stronghold of Security
• Gloves: Leather vambraces, or green d'hide vambraces at 40 Ranged
• Cape: Any coloured cape or team cape for defence

Inventory should include food, a teleport method if you can, and maybe a strength potion for extra damage. F2P has no super combat potions, so strength potions are the best offensive boost. Bank at Edgeville for Hill giants, and at Varrock west bank for Moss giants in the sewers. For Crandor moss giants, banking is less convenient; consider bringing more food and fewer bones per trip.

AFK vs Active: Training Styles Compared

AFK in free-to-play melee usually means clicking once every 30-60 seconds to re-target or eat. Hill giants are the better AFK option because they hit lower and die faster, so you can look away for longer with 40+ Defence and full rune. Moss giants are not truly AFK unless you have very high Defence or are willing to risk death. They hit more accurately and can stack damage if multiple spawn. If you want to semi-AFK, Hill giants are the clear winner.

For active players, Moss giants pull ahead in XP per hour simply because each kill gives more Hitpoints XP and melee XP, and you are not waiting as long for spawns if you know the right spots. However, active Hill giant killing can be just as fast in terms of kills per hour, which means more big bones per hour. If your goal is prayer XP from bones, Hill giants may actually be better because you kill more per hour. Use the comparison table above: hill giants for low-attention grind, moss giants for focused push.

Prayer and Profit: What to Do with Big Bones

Both giants always drop big bones. Burying them gives a meaningful amount of Prayer XP, but the wiki’s free-to-play Prayer training guide is blunt: for non-ironman players, selling big bones and buying vile ashes from lesser or greater demons is usually better Prayer XP per coin. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t bury bones while training melee; it means you should compare the opportunity cost. If big bones sell for enough, sell them and buy ashes later.

For ironmen, big bones are one of the few reliable prayer resources, and giants are a decent source while also training combat. The prayer guide notes that giant frogs are the fastest big-bone droppers due to low HP, but they give little melee XP compared to giants. Lesser demons can be more profitable but have lower prayer XP from ashes. So giants sit in a sweet spot for hybrid training: you train melee, collect big bones, and decide whether to bury or sell based on your account type and market.

Common Mistakes That Drain Your XP and GP

Most wasted time at giants comes from a handful of avoidable errors.

• Fighting multiple giants at once — always lure one to a wall or corner.
• Using a platebody when chainbody is better against crush attacks — small difference, but it adds up over hours.
• Not picking up big bones — even if you don’t bury them, they sell.
• Under-gearing for Moss giants — mithril armour will result in more banking than killing.
• Over-relying on AFK at Moss giants — one disconnect or missed eat can cost you your rune gear.
• Using anything but a scimitar — slow weapons like battleaxes reduce DPS.
• Ignoring offensive prayers — Burst of Strength and Clarity of Thought are free DPS if you have prayer points.

Time-to-Goal: Realistic XP Expectations

Exact XP rates depend on your combat levels, gear, food supply, and how crowded the spot is. The wiki’s Free-to-play Melee training page provides method-by-method suggestions, but it does not publish one universal rate for giants. Community reports vary widely: Hill giants can produce solid XP for low effort, while Moss giants require more attention but return more XP per kill. The key variable is your kill speed, not the monster itself.

For a realistic goal like 40 to 60 Attack, expect several hours at either giant. If you are banking frequently for food, your effective XP per hour drops sharply. That is why some players buy gold to stock up on lobsters and strength potions: fewer banking trips means more time hitting giants. A service that power-levels your melee from 40 to 60 could save you an evening, but the journey itself teaches you mechanics like luring and food management.

When Buying Gold or a Service Is the Honest Shortcut

There is no shame in acknowledging that your real-life time has value. Buying a modest amount of OSRS gold to fund rune armour, hundreds of lobsters, and strength potions is often the single biggest quality-of-life upgrade for free-to-play melee training. It removes the need to grind for coins and lets you spend your entire session at giants instead of mining or fishing.

A full account or melee power-leveling service is a different decision. If you only care about the destination and not the journey, a reputable marketplace can get you from 40 to 60 Attack while you sleep. But if you are new to OSRS, skipping the grind also skips the opportunity to learn how to fight safely, manage food, and understand the economy. We recommend using gold to improve your setup first, and only considering a service if you still find the grind unbearable after an evening.

Ready to stock up? View live gold rates.

Sources

• Free-to-play Melee training — OSRS Wiki
• Free-to-play Prayer training — OSRS Wiki
• Safespot — OSRS Wiki