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Salvaging

This article is compiled from the videos of GnomonkeyRS. It records what Gnomonkey said, with sources, not verified game fact. See About.

Salvaging

Salvaging
Type Activity
Skill Sailing
Intensity levels Full AFK, semi-attentive, 1.5-tick hooks, tick manipulation12
Realistic AFK XP 40k to 60k per hour at level 873
Major update Week 2 changes, partly reverted 4 December 202545
Videos 4 (first 2025-11-04, latest 2025-12-04)
Main source Sailing in Shambles (OSRS)

Salvaging is a Sailing training method in which players harvest shipwrecks from a boat. Gnomonkey considers it the best part of Sailing because it can be done AFK, and he asks Jagex not to nerf it; he says he needs it as an AFK method because he does not like the rest of Sailing.678 In November 2025 he put real AFK XP at around 100k an hour, against about 60k an hour for redwoods.6 After the December 2025 changes and a revert he revised the realistic AFK figure down to 40k to 60k XP per hour.3

He considers it fine for a skill to have a solid AFK method for once, since most skills have no AFK method above 20k XP per hour, and argues that the intensive methods (Barracuda Trials and Gwenith Glide) already gave over double Salvaging's XP per hour, so an AFK nerf was unnecessary.9106

Contents

Methods

Salvaging has several intensity levels.1

Intensity Description Cites
Full AFK Slowest; can run a full 25 minutes, with lower efficiency, and gives useful loot for an iron such as herbs and seeds at higher spots 111
Semi-attentive A crewmate on another hook for more XP 1
1.5-tick hooks Much faster XP 1
Tick manipulation The sweaty fast option, shown in the beta by the player Hebox 1213

To tick manipulate, bring a knife and a log (mahogany or teak), step away from the winch, then step back in with the knife and log. This gives two harvest actions in a four-tick process, effectively two-tick salvaging.2 In the Hebox footage each roll gave a 30 XP drop and a double roll gave 60.13 The boat can be parked between two active salvage spots to make salvaging extra AFK.11 The crystal extractor from the elf Barracuda trial gives a 600 XP drop every minute while salvaging.1

Week 2 update (3 December 2025)

Jagex's stated goals were to nerf AFK salvaging so that its top end sits slightly above AFK methods like redwood woodcutting (roughly 80k-90k XP per hour), keep moderately AFK crewmate-plus-sorting methods better than dropping salvage, and boost high-intensity salvaging to compete with Barracuda Trials.14 They said they love AFK gameplay but never intended 20-30 minute AFK patterns, and were not looking to significantly increase the two-crewmates-plus-player-sorting method.15 They estimated a 20-30% nerf for AFK Salvaging from level 35 shipwrecks onward and around a 20% buff for high-intensity approaches.16

Changes:

  • Player salvaging moved to a 5-tick cycle instead of 4-tick, with higher success rates at all shipwreck tiers to keep XP roughly the same while increasing AFK time; crewmates harvest a tick slower.4
  • Crewmates remember their assigned task over logout, which Gnomonkey calls much needed.4
  • Crewmate salvage range is calculated from the hook's position rather than the boat's, reducing cases where crewmates could salvage wrecks the player could not or vice versa.17
  • Crewmates salvage at the same rate as players instead of outperforming their captain.17
  • Every shipwreck hotspot gained more double salvage spots, and several locations went from three spots to four, with one boat spawn active at a time and resurfacing after roughly two and a half minutes. Gnomonkey says this made several locations less AFK and so worse, while others such as Fremennik were unchanged.1718
  • Deck handiness was raised to four, so two crewmates can use dragon salvaging hooks for the cook, which he calls a good change.18
  • Crewmate success chances rose by about 11%, 14% and 15% per rank tier but crewmates harvest about 20% slower, with the chance scaling with level (about 16% to 22%).19
  • Sorting salvage XP was cut: Barracuda salvage 13 XP (from 15.5), merchant salvage 34 XP (from 95). Gnomonkey disliked a roughly one-third nerf to sorting XP in exchange for a roughly 5% shipwreck XP buff.2016
Shipwreck New XP Old XP Cites
Pirate 76 63 21
Mercenary 138 127 21
Fremennik 162 150 21
Merchant 200 190 21

After this update he advised dropping all salvage and 1.5-ticking the two hooks rather than sorting, because sorting XP no longer made sorting worth it.22 Jagex said they would look at improving XP for the more active self-salvage and self-sort approach so players do not feel they must drop salvage and miss resources.23 A bug briefly made bronze salvaging hooks about 50% better than rune hooks, giving decent XP rates, and was fixed within a few hours.24

4 December 2025 revert

Player salvaging returned to a 4-tick cycle with the week 2 success-chance increase retained, which Jagex said should give a nice XP increase.5 The one nerf kept was a reduced crew XP modifier, as a way to move extreme AFK methods to a healthier spot without hurting players salvaging themselves.5 Deck handiness XP modifiers fell from 70% to 40% at level 4 and from 60% to 30% at level 3, and a crewmate can still have level 4 deck handiness so two can be at level 4.25 Gnomonkey considers this fair, saying Jagex found the roughly 25-minute AFK a bit higher than expected and pulled it back only a bit.25

Jagex's table of XP relative to before the adjustment:

Method Before revert After revert Cites
AFK, two crewmates on hooks, player sorting 60% 70% 26
Self-salvaging and sorting (player pulls salvage on a hook, then puts a crewmate back on it while sorting) 75% 95% 26

Gnomonkey thinks self-salvaging and sorting is basically back to what it was and might feel better than before, because the player no longer has to leave the hooks to use the crystal extractor.27 The only method hit hard is "giga AFK" salvaging, with two crewmates on the hooks and only the sort table in use.28

He says realistic 25-minute AFK Salvaging at level 87 gave roughly 40k to 60k XP per hour, not the over 100k per hour some claimed, because those figures counted more intensive methods such as hitting the extractor every minute and getting on the hooks personally. He considers that still much better than most skills offer and says Jagex only needed to nerf the extractor and then wait.329

Revision history

Date Video Change
2025-12-04 Sailing NERFS REVERTED! (OSRS) Added the 4 December revert and revised realistic AFK XP to 40k to 60k per hour (was 100k).
2025-12-03 Sailing in Shambles (OSRS) Added the week 2 update (5-tick cycle, crewmate changes, XP table, sorting nerf) and Jagex's stated goals.
2025-11-26 Sailing's Future in OSRS Added AFK duration, loot, boat parking, the crystal extractor, intensity levels and Gnomonkey's opinion, with AFK XP estimated at 100k per hour.
2025-11-04 SAILING PREP BLOG (OSRS) Page created: tick-manipulated salvaging, the knife-and-log method and Hebox beta XP drops.
## See also

References

  1. Sailing's Future in OSRS, 2025-11-26. ▶ 17:17 ↩↩↩↩↩↩

  2. SAILING PREP BLOG (OSRS), 2025-11-04. ▶ 10:51 ↩↩

  3. Sailing NERFS REVERTED! (OSRS), 2025-12-04. ▶ 3:04 ↩↩↩

  4. Sailing in Shambles (OSRS), 2025-12-03. ▶ 4:39 ↩↩↩

  5. Sailing NERFS REVERTED! (OSRS), 2025-12-04. ▶ 1:36 ↩↩↩

  6. Sailing's Future in OSRS, 2025-11-26. ▶ 18:13 ↩↩↩

  7. Sailing's Future in OSRS, 2025-11-26. ▶ 25:00 ↩

  8. Sailing in Shambles (OSRS), 2025-12-03. ▶ 4:05 ↩

  9. Sailing in Shambles (OSRS), 2025-12-03. ▶ 16:35 ↩

  10. Sailing in Shambles (OSRS), 2025-12-03. ▶ 17:05 ↩

  11. Sailing's Future in OSRS, 2025-11-26. ▶ 16:45 ↩↩

  12. SAILING PREP BLOG (OSRS), 2025-11-04. ▶ 10:24 ↩

  13. SAILING PREP BLOG (OSRS), 2025-11-04. ▶ 11:19 ↩↩

  14. Sailing in Shambles (OSRS), 2025-12-03. ▶ 4:06 ↩

  15. Sailing in Shambles (OSRS), 2025-12-03. ▶ 11:10 ↩

  16. Sailing in Shambles (OSRS), 2025-12-03. ▶ 7:42 ↩↩

  17. Sailing in Shambles (OSRS), 2025-12-03. ▶ 5:08 ↩↩↩

  18. Sailing in Shambles (OSRS), 2025-12-03. ▶ 5:42 ↩↩

  19. Sailing in Shambles (OSRS), 2025-12-03. ▶ 6:14 ↩

  20. Sailing in Shambles (OSRS), 2025-12-03. ▶ 7:10 ↩

  21. Sailing in Shambles (OSRS), 2025-12-03. ▶ 6:41 ↩↩↩↩

  22. Sailing in Shambles (OSRS), 2025-12-03. ▶ 11:42 ↩

  23. Sailing in Shambles (OSRS), 2025-12-03. ▶ 12:14 ↩

  24. Sailing in Shambles (OSRS), 2025-12-03. ▶ 19:40 ↩

  25. Sailing NERFS REVERTED! (OSRS), 2025-12-04. ▶ 2:08 ↩↩

  26. Sailing NERFS REVERTED! (OSRS), 2025-12-04. ▶ 5:38 ↩↩

  27. Sailing NERFS REVERTED! (OSRS), 2025-12-04. ▶ 6:06 ↩

  28. Sailing NERFS REVERTED! (OSRS), 2025-12-04. ▶ 7:08 ↩

  29. Sailing NERFS REVERTED! (OSRS), 2025-12-04. ▶ 3:31 ↩

Activities

Inferno • Corrupted Gauntlet • Fortis Colosseum • Hallowed Sepulchre • TzHaar Fight Cave • Nightmare Zone • Deadman Mode • Guardians of the Rift • Volcanic Mine • The Gauntlet • Salvaging • Elf pickpocketing • Soul Wars • Drift net fishing • Trouble Brewing • Ourania Altar • RuneScape 3 Leagues • Sorceress's Garden • Chompy bird hunting • Fortis Colosseum speedrun • Gridmaster • Birdhouse run • Wilderness • Vyrewatch Sentinel • Barrows • Barracuda Trials • Chaos altar • Slayer point boosting • Black chinchompa • Blisterwood tree • Graveyard Agility Course • Kalphite • Deep sea trawling • Rogues' Den • Rooftop Agility courses • Castle Wars • 3-tick 4-granite • Knights of Ardougne • Mixology • God Wars Dungeon

Category: Activities