Underwater Agility vs Rooftop Courses: Ironman 15-60 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.

For an ironman, every hour of training is an investment in account progression, not just a number. Agility from 15 to 60 sits at a crossroads: do you run the familiar rooftop circuits for marks of grace, or dive into Fossil Island's underwater caverns for a mix of Agility, Thieving, and resource rewards? This guide breaks down the real trade-offs, not just XP rates, so you can decide which path fits your account goals.

Both methods have strong cases. Rooftop courses are the backbone of early Agility and give marks of grace toward the graceful outfit and stamina potions. Underwater training, unlocked later in the account progression, layers Thieving XP and valuable seaweed spores on top of Agility gains. The best choice depends on whether you need graceful now, whether you want to skip early thieving grinds, and how much attention you can give each click.

1. Who This Is For / Requirements

This comparison is aimed at ironmen working through the early-to-mid game, roughly total level 500–1200, who already have access to Fossil Island or are close to it. If you haven't unlocked Fossil Island, rooftop courses are your only realistic option for the first stretch. If you have unlocked it, you get a real choice.

If you've done the early questing route, you may already be at 33 Agility from The Tourist Trap, Recruitment Drive, The Depths of Despair, and The Grand Tree, which together grant 19,700 XP. That skips the slowest rooftop laps and puts you right at the decision point for underwater versus continuing rooftops.

2. Underwater Agility Training Mechanics

Underwater agility training takes place in the sunken caverns beneath Fossil Island. After diving with your equipment, you swim between activity spots—clams, seaweed, and other nodes—and click to interact. Checking clams grants Agility experience, while searching seaweed grants Thieving experience and a chance at seaweed spores. The XP per action scales with your level, so the method starts extremely slow and becomes competitive only after you've built up some levels. Many players choose to start underwater around 35 Agility and Thieving, when the rates stop feeling like a waste of time.

The loop is semi-AFK: you click a spot, wait for the action to finish, then click the next spot. You're not racing across rooftops, so there's less tile-perfect movement. However, run energy drains while swimming, so you'll either need to bring stamina potions or manage your energy. The benefit is that every action trains two skills at once, and the resource drops can be banked for later use.

Because the XP per action increases with your Agility and Thieving levels, the method improves naturally as you train. At 35 Agility, the rates start to approach low-level rooftop courses, but you're also gaining Thieving XP and collecting spores. That dual-purpose value is what makes underwater appealing for ironmen who plan to train Thieving or Crafting anyway.

3. Rooftop Courses from 15 to 60

Rooftop agility is the standard path for most accounts, ironman included. From 15 Agility, you move through a sequence of courses that gradually increase in XP per lap:

• Draynor Village (10–20): Basic course, low marks per hour.
• Al Kharid (20–30): Slightly better marks, often skipped if you do quests early.
• Varrock (30–40): Good balance of XP and marks for mid-30s.
• Canifis (40–50/60): The mark of grace hotspot. Many ironmen stay here until 60 even though XP is lower than Falador, because Canifis gives the best marks per hour among low-level courses.
• Falador (50–60): Faster XP than Canifis but fewer marks. Use if you're not prioritizing graceful.

Rooftop courses give a steady stream of marks of grace, which are used to purchase the graceful outfit. Graceful reduces weight and is essential for run energy management during quests, skilling, and farming runs. Marks also convert to amylase crystals for stamina potions, a key ironman supply. The trade-off is that rooftop training is almost entirely single-skill: you only gain Agility, and the laps require constant clicking to maintain good XP rates.

If you're an ironman rushing a graceful set, rooftops from 10 to 60 is the proven route. The XP is predictable, the marks accumulate, and you don't need any unusual gear. Underwater simply can't match the mark output, but it offers other things rooftops don't.

One additional consideration: the Canifis course is so mark-heavy that even though its XP is lower than Falador, staying there from 40 to 60 will often give you enough marks for the full graceful outfit by level 60. If your goal is graceful first, skipping Canifis is a mistake. If you already have graceful, move on for faster XP.

4. Rewards: Thieving XP, Fossils, and Seaweed Spores

The underwater method's real appeal on an ironman is the off-skill rewards. Each search of a seaweed node gives Thieving XP, which can shave hours off your early thieving grind. Seaweed spores are a common drop and are vital for farming giant seaweed—an ingredient for superglass make and high-level Crafting. If you plan to do the glassblowing orbs route for Crafting, banking spores early is a huge time saver. See our Osrs Ironman Crafting guide for more on that synergy.

Fossils are another side benefit. While not unique to underwater training, the area contributes to your fossil collection, which can be cleaned and redeemed for XP lamps or museum displays later. Rooftop courses, by contrast, give no Thieving XP, no herbs, no spores, and no fossils—only marks of grace. If you need marks anyway, that's fine. If you don't, underwater's extra drops become more attractive.

Seaweed spores themselves have a long-term use: plant them in the underwater seaweed patches on Fossil Island to grow giant seaweed. Giant seaweed is combined with buckets of sand in the superglass make spell to produce molten glass, which is then blown into orbs, lantern lenses, and other Crafting items. For an ironman who wants to train Crafting efficiently, having a few hundred spores banked before you start the glassblowing grind is a quiet advantage that rooftop agility never gives you.

5. XP and Attention Comparison Table

The table below summarizes the methods at the critical level bands. XP rates are approximate and depend on your focus, boosts, and equipment. Always check the wiki for current rates.

Note: Underwater agility is not recommended below 35 Agility due to extremely low XP per action. From 35 onward, it becomes a viable alternative if you value the thieving XP and resources. Rooftops remain the best pure Agility XP until the Wilderness course or Hallowed Sepulchre, but those have their own risks and requirements.

Attention is another axis: rooftop laps demand near-constant clicks and precise pathing to hit top XP rates. Underwater lets you click a node, wait a few seconds, and click the next—making it easier to pair with watching a video or doing light work. If you need to study or work while training, underwater is the less stressful option, even if the Agility XP number is lower.

6. Common Mistakes for Ironmen

• Starting underwater too early: At 15 Agility, the XP per click is so low that you'll spend more time swimming than training. Wait until at least 35 Agility.
• Ignoring diving gear: Forgetting the fishbowl helmet or diving apparatus means you can't even enter the area. Bank them near the rowboat.
• Not banking seaweed spores: These stack and are easy to miss. Keep inventory space and bank them regularly—they're needed for giant seaweed farming later.
• Overstaying at Canifis without needing graceful: If you already have full graceful, move to Falador or underwater for better XP. Canifis marks are not worth it after you've got the outfit.
• Not using stamina potions during underwater: Run energy drains quickly; potions keep you moving between nodes efficiently.
• Forgetting the questing shortcut: If you haven't done the early quests, you're wasting hours at Draynor. The quest XP can jump you to 33 Agility in a fraction of the time.

Another subtle mistake is treating underwater agility as a full replacement for rooftops when you still need marks. Marks of grace are only obtainable from rooftop courses (and a few other sources, but rooftops are the consistent one). If you skip rooftops entirely, you'll find yourself without graceful and without stamina potion ingredients, which hurts later questing and skilling. A balanced approach—do rooftops until you have enough marks for graceful, then switch to underwater if you want the thieving/resources—is often the most efficient.

7. Time-to-Goal and Honest Shortcuts

From 15 to 60 Agility, a focused rooftop route takes roughly 10–15 hours depending on your level and marks priority. The underwater method will take longer for pure Agility—often 1.5–2x the hours—but you'll bank significant Thieving XP and seaweed spores. If your goal is quick graceful outfit and stamina supplies, rooftops win. If you're planning a heavy Crafting or Thieving grind later, the underwater hours pull double duty.

For regular accounts, buying gold can instantly cover stamina potions, food, and other training supplies. Graceful itself is untradeable, but you can buy energy potions, super energy mixes, and stamina potions to keep run energy topped up while you train. For ironmen, there is no legitimate way to buy progress—self-sufficiency is the core rule. Some players consider account services, but account sharing violates Jagex's terms and risks a ban. The honest shortcut for an ironman is simply choosing the method that saves the most time across your whole account plan.

View live gold rates

No matter which path you pick, the 15–60 bracket sets up your later Agility. Rooftops secure graceful and marks; underwater seeds your farm runs and thieving gains. Neither is objectively better—they serve different account goals. Think about what your ironman needs in the next two weeks: if it's graceful for questing, do rooftops. If it's crafting supplies and thieving XP, dive in.

8. Practical Next Step

Decide what you need most right now:

• If you still need graceful or stamina pots, continue rooftops through Canifis until at least full graceful or 60 Agility.
• If graceful is sorted and you want to train Thieving passively or stock seaweed spores, unlock Fossil Island and try underwater for an hour to see if the loop fits your attention span.
• If you hate both, consider the Wilderness Agility Course from 47–62 for faster XP, but bring minimal risk and expect PKers.

After 60, the meta shifts again: Seers' Village rooftop with the hard diary, Hallowed Sepulchre at 62+, and the Prifddinas course at 75. Consult the Agility training guide for the full picture.

Sources & Verify on the Wiki

This guide draws from the following OSRS Wiki pages:

• Agility training
• Agility course
• Underwater
• Seaweed spore

Rates, requirements, and drop chances change with game updates. Always verify current numbers on the wiki before committing to a long grind.