OSRS Fletching: Magic Longbows vs Dragon Darts to 99

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.

Fletching is one of the most predictable buyable skills in Old School RuneScape. Once you have the capital, the only real questions are how fast you want to go and how much attention you are willing to pay. Two methods dominate the final stretch to 99: stringing magic longbows and making dragon darts. Magic longbows are the profit play, a semi-AFK loop of buying unfinished bows and bow strings, then turning them into a finished weapon that sells for more than the parts. Dragon darts are the speed play, a high-intensity but zero-time method where every action crushes a fat chunk of XP while your gp stack disappears.

This guide lays out the requirements, mechanics, profit and XP trade-offs, common mistakes, and a realistic time-to-goal for both paths. If you are on the fence, we also cover when buying OSRS gold or a training service is simply the honest conversation about what your time is worth.

Requirements & Who This Method Is For

Both methods sit at the top of the fletching grind, but they ask for very different bankrolls and playstyles. Stringing magic longbows only requires the unfinished bow and a bow string, meaning you can run it from level 85 onward even if you have never cut a magic log yourself. Dragon darts demand level 95 Fletching and dragon dart tips, which cannot be smithed and must come from dragon implings, high-level PvM, or other players.

This guide is for players who have already reached at least 85 Fletching and want the most efficient final push. If you are still below 85, the early sections of the Fletching training page have cheaper starter methods, but the real decision begins once magic longbows unlock.

How Stringing Magic Longbows Works

Stringing magic longbows is a classic profit method. Buy magic longbow (u) and bow strings, then use one on the other. Each string action grants 91.5 Fletching XP. At a pace of around 2,700 stringing actions per hour, that is roughly 247,000 XP/hr. The wiki money-making guide lists a profit of 412,800 gp/hr for stringing magic longbows, with a per-bow margin near 195 gp.

Mechanically, stringing bows takes 2 ticks per bow, so an inventory of 14 takes about 16.8 seconds. Banking is the main interruption. If you use a bow string spool, you can hold 27 strings and string 27 bows per inventory instead of 14, cutting banking and giving about a 3% XP/hr boost. That may not sound like much, but over a 40-hour grind it saves over an hour.

Unlike making unstrung bows, stringing requires relatively little running around; you can do it at a bank with the unfinished bows and strings in your inventory. The attention level is medium — you need to click every couple of seconds, but you can watch a video on the side.

How Making Dragon Darts Works

Dragon darts are created by attaching feathers to dragon dart tips. Unlike most darts, the tips cannot be smithed; they come from dragon implings, high-level PvM, or other players. Each creation action grants 250 Fletching XP — far more than any bow stringing action.

Because the action is quick and requires only two clicks, many players treat darts as zero-time fletching while doing Agility, farm runs, or Slayer. The catch: dragon dart tips are expensive, so the method is normally a large gp loss per hour. Exact margins change constantly, but players should expect to pay for the speed and check the live GE before committing.

At a conservative 2,000 actions per hour, dragon darts would already hand over 500,000 XP/hr. Faster players can push that much higher; exact tick timing should be verified on the wiki's Fletching training page. The point is that dragon darts obliterate magic longbows on raw XP, but only if you can absorb the gp loss.

Magic Longbows vs Dragon Darts: XP, Profit, and Attention

The table below summarises the trade-offs. Use it to decide which method fits your bank and your tolerance for clicking.

Dragon darts crush bows on raw XP/hr, but magic longbows are one of the only high-level fletching methods that still turns a profit. That makes the choice less about fletching and more about whether you would rather save hours or save gp.

Strategy: Mixing Methods and Zero-Time Play

Most players do not choose just one method for the entire 85–99 grind. A common strategy is to use dragon darts during passive activities — Agility laps, farm runs, Slayer tasks where you are not constantly banking — and then switch to magic longbow stringing when you are at a bank and can tolerate medium attention. That way you convert idle time into free XP while keeping the profitable method for focused sessions.

The zero-time concept means fletching while doing something else that has natural downtime. Dragon darts are the best candidate because each set takes only two clicks, leaving plenty of time to click the next obstacle or monster. You can even fletch darts between boss mechanics if you are comfortable with inventory juggling.

If you plan to string magic longbows for profit, do it during focused time, not while trying to multitask heavily. The method requires more frequent interaction, so pair it with video or audio, not another OSRS account.

Other Fletching Methods Worth Knowing

Before you settle on either method, know how the rest of the skill plays out. If you are still early, the following can save you hours of low-level tedium.

• Levels 1–5: Headless arrows or arrow shafts. Arrow shafts give 5 XP per log; headless arrows give 1 XP per headless arrow but can be profitable.
• Levels 5–85: Bows from short up to yew and magic. Making unstrung bows is more AFK, stringing is faster. A fletching knife improves unstrung XP/hr from ~1,800 to ~2,700 bows per hour.
• Levels 40–80: Battlestaves using celastrus bark give 80 XP per bark, a good alternative to bows but often costly.
• Levels 92–99: Redwood shields give 216 XP per shield but usually lose gp.

Questing early can skip the first levels: Animal Magnetism, Big Chompy Bird Hunting, and Zogre Flesh Eaters give 3,262 total XP to reach level 18; adding Temple of Ikov and The Fremennik Trials pushes you to level 30. That may not matter if you are already 85, but it is good to know for alts or if you start over.

Equipment Upgrades and Inventory Optimisation

The two primary tools for efficient fletching are the fletching knife and the bow string spool. The fletching knife reduces the time to fletch unstrung bows from 3 ticks to 2 ticks, raising hourly bow production from about 1,800 to 2,700. This is huge for lower-level bow making and even helps at high levels if you ever choose to make unstrung bows rather than string them.

The bow string spool allows you to hold 27 bow strings per inventory instead of 14, so you string 27 bows per bank trip. The XP/hr gain is only about 3%, but over a grind of dozens of hours it adds up. Both items are one-time purchases that pay for themselves quickly.

You do not need any expensive gear or boosts. Fletching has no skilling outfit that increases XP, so your money is better spent on supplies or the tools above.

Drops & Supply Sourcing: Where Your Materials Come From

Both methods depend on materials that have specific sources. Magic logs and bow strings are straightforward: magic logs come from cutting magic trees, and bow strings are spun from flax. Many players buy unfinished magic longbows directly to skip the cutting step, but if you have access to magic trees or want to save money, you can cut the logs yourself and fletch the unstrung bow for a larger profit (the wiki lists a 242 gp profit per bow when making from scratch vs 195 gp when stringing bought unstrung bows).

Dragon dart tips are a different story — they cannot be smithed. The only sources are dragon implings (hunting), high-level PvM drops, and other players via the Grand Exchange. That makes their price highly volatile. Prices can spike after updates that increase demand for dragon darts, such as new bosses weak to blowpipe, or when impling hunting activity falls.

Feathers for dragon darts are cheap and can be bought in bulk. Dragon darts are also used to create poisonous variants, which are consumed in some PvM strategies, keeping demand steady. If you ever get dragon dart tips as a drop from implings or bosses, consider whether fletching them yourself or selling the tips is more profitable — often selling is better unless you are doing zero-time fletching.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Forgetting a bow string spool — banking every 14 bows cuts into XP/hr.
• Assuming dragon darts are profitable because XP is high; they usually lose gp.
• Buying dragon dart tips without checking current supply; tips come from dragon implings and PvM, so prices can spike.
• Not using a fletching knife when making unstrung bows earlier in the grind; it nearly doubles bow fletching speed.
• Ignoring early quest XP and spending time on low-level methods unnecessarily.

Walkthrough: 85 to 99 Step by Step

Use this step-by-step plan to take a character from 85 to 99 Fletching with minimal wasted time.

1. Decide your primary method: profit (magic longbows) or speed (dragon darts). You can switch between them.
2. If choosing magic longbows, buy 10,000 magic longbow (u) and 10,000 bow strings, plus a bow string spool. Store them in the bank; keep a cash stack for buying more.
3. If choosing dragon darts, buy at least 10,000 dragon dart tips and feathers. Check the live GE price before buying because tips can swing by hundreds of gp each.
4. Set up your inventory: for longbows, 27 unfinished bows and 27 strings (with spool); for darts, fill inventory with tips and feathers.
5. If you are doing zero-time fletching, start an activity that has frequent pauses, like Agility or farm runs. Fletch darts during downtime.
6. For longbows, stand at a bank (preferably the Grand Exchange or any bank near a teleport) and string an inventory, bank, repeat. Watch a video or listen to something.
7. Track your XP/hr with a client or manually after 30 minutes. Adjust if you are slower than expected.
8. At around 98 Fletching (12 million XP), buy the remaining supplies for the final push, and make sure you have enough gp to cover any dart tip losses.
9. Hit 99. Bank or sell leftover supplies. If you profited from longbows, consider reinvesting into another buyable.

This entire walkthrough assumes you already have 85 Fletching. If you are lower, use the quest and low-level methods in the section above to get there.

Time-to-99: Hours and Cost Tradeoffs

From 85 to 99 is roughly 9.78 million Fletching XP. With magic longbow stringing at ~247k XP/hr, that is about 39.6 hours of stringing. Using a bow string spool shaves a bit off, and you will pocket a profit of roughly 16M gp if the wiki's listed 412.8k gp/hr holds.

Dragon darts, at a conservative 500k XP/hr, cut that to about 19.6 hours. At higher action rates, the grind could be under 10 hours. The price is a loss that can easily run tens of millions of gp depending on tip prices. That is the honest trade: time versus gp.

When Buying Gold or a Service Is the Honest Shortcut

Fletching is a buyable skill. If dragon darts are the fastest path and your bank cannot stomach a 20M+ loss, buying OSRS gold to fund dart tips is a legitimate way to convert real-world money into saved hours. Likewise, a boosting service can handle the repetitive stringing or dart-making while you do something else — as long as you trust the provider and stay within Jagex's rules.

This is not about cheating; it is about acknowledging that time is a resource. If your goal is 99 Fletching and you value your time above the gp, funding the grind is a rational decision. View live gold rates to see what that time actually costs.

Practical Next Steps

Decide your budget and your patience. Then pick a lane.

• If you want profit and do not mind medium attention, buy magic longbow (u) and bow strings, get a bow string spool, and start stringing.
• If you want fastest XP and have cash, obtain dragon dart tips and feathers, and make darts while doing other activities.
• Check current prices on the wiki's Fletching training page and the Magic longbow / Dragon dart pages before buying.
• If the loss is too steep, consider buying OSRS gold to cover supplies, or a training service if you would rather skip the grind entirely.

Also read our other buyable-skill comparisons, like cutting sapphires vs emeralds for 99 Crafting or unfinished potions vs cleaning herbs for Herblore.

Sources

• Fletching training on the OSRS Wiki
• Magic longbow on the OSRS Wiki
• Dragon dart on the OSRS Wiki