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Trouble Brewing

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

Trouble Brewing

Trouble Brewing
Type Minigame
Requirements Decent quest requirements: many stats in the 40s and 50s, and Prayer1
Group size 2 (a friend or an alt)2
Former XP rate about 200k Cooking, 100k split between Fletching and Hunter per hour31
Status XP nerfed to a little under one-third of former rates (January 2025)4
Videos 2 (first 2024-11-15, latest 2025-01-27)
Main source INSANE LEVELING - Trouble Brewing Guide (NERFED)

Trouble Brewing is a two-player minigame that gave a flat, free source of Cooking, Fletching and Hunter XP. Gnomonkey considers it relevant even for mains because it has no input cost, and especially good for early ironmen5. It is the subject of two videos: a guide in November 2024 after Jagex heavily buffed it, and a January 2025 video after the XP was nerfed again, which he says made the method completely dead34.

Contents

Requirements

  • One other person is needed: a friend or an alt, and both sides can play at the same time without competing, each skilling on their own side2.
  • Decent quest requirements, including many stats in the 40s and 50s and Prayer, which must be raised first1.
  • No items can be brought in the inventory and no helmet can be worn, but other equipment such as Graceful can be6.
  • Higher Agility (about 60 rather than 52) and Graceful help a lot because the player runs around constantly7. A better axe (a Dragon axe is ideal) and higher Woodcutting speed up the loop7.

XP rates

After the buff, a game gave about 200k Cooking XP per hour plus roughly 100k per hour split between Fletching and Hunter, around 50k each, adjustable depending on the levels needed3. A full game in the video took about 20 minutes and gave the expected 200k Cooking and about 100k split between Hunter and Fletching8. Skipping Cooking XP and fletching only with tick manipulation should give around 170k Fletching XP per hour8. At one point his XP counter showed about 460k per hour, which he says is not an accurate sustained rate9.

The XP does not scale with level, so it is best for skipping very low early levels and less good after roughly the 70s in these stats10. On a fresh hardcore ironman he arrived with 9 Hunter and reached 28 Hunter in a single game10. The method gives a flat 200k Cooking and 100k Fletching with no input cost, which suits an account that rushes there early1.

Method

Lobby: grab a knife, a tinderbox for passive Firemaking (about 20k Firemaking XP per hour at most) and about 10 meat, using custom swaps to make the left click Take-511. There is a three-minute timer between games. With an alt that hops worlds, the timer can be waited out by entering the lobby early and then starting instantly by joining6.

Before the game: mark the grub mound and the scrapie tree, plus a second set on the other end of the island that he does not typically use12.

Loop: 1. Put rat meat into the grub mound (one-tick spam) until a swarm spawns or the mound depletes13. 2. Run to the tree's blue tile (the swarm's aggro radius) so the swarm stops attacking, chop the tree, then return and repeat13. He tick-manipulates the tree, turning the usually four-tick chop into three ticks, roughly 25 percent faster14. 3. While waiting for the mound or tree to respawn, throw a regular log in the boiler for passive Firemaking. Before the update he said it gave 320 and was a decent way to get early Firemaking levels14. 4. With a full inventory, deposit logs in the fletching hopper (one-ticked), then the grubs and bark into the sweet grub and bark hoppers for Cooking. Repeat until the needed levels are done15.

Buff and nerf

The 2024 buff came about two months before the November video3, though the January 2025 video places it roughly six months before, when he made a guide16. Before the nerf, Trouble Brewing gave a little over 100k Fletching XP per hour along with about 200k Cooking XP per hour16. Jagex then nerfed the XP rates to a little under one-third of what they were. The same update patched the exploit that gave Firemaking XP in the one boiler, which no longer gives XP44.

Gnomonkey's opinion

In January 2025 he says Trouble Brewing was never meta and should not have been nerfed at all. No Ironman Discord communities were reporting records broken with it17. It was an early hybrid method, not as good as the best methods for either Fletching or Cooking even with combined XP18. Cooking karambwans and Fletching broad arrows with zero-time Fletching were so strong that some HCIM players laughed at him for using it19. He thinks it better to unlock broad arrows and buy cooked karambwans with gp from other methods, leaving Trouble Brewing as an option for players who do not want to put in input17.

Its downsides are the big quest requirements and the need for a second player, though the latter encouraged communication and group play18. Its only rewards are cosmetics, a teleport back and a small amount of brewing stuff that nobody uses20.

Revision history

Date Video Change
2025-01-27 Trouble Brewing Nerfs and the Minigames of OSRS Added the nerf to under one-third of former rates, the boiler Firemaking patch and his verdict that it was never meta.
2024-11-15 INSANE LEVELING - Trouble Brewing Guide (NERFED) Page created: post-buff XP rates, requirements, lobby setup and the grub mound and tree loop.
## See also

References

  1. Trouble Brewing Nerfs and the Minigames of OSRS, 2025-01-27. ▶ 2:10 ↩↩↩↩

  2. INSANE LEVELING - Trouble Brewing Guide (NERFED), 2024-11-15. ▶ 1:56 ↩↩

  3. INSANE LEVELING - Trouble Brewing Guide (NERFED), 2024-11-15. ▶ 0:00 ↩↩↩↩

  4. Trouble Brewing Nerfs and the Minigames of OSRS, 2025-01-27. ▶ 0:33 ↩↩↩↩

  5. INSANE LEVELING - Trouble Brewing Guide (NERFED), 2024-11-15. ▶ 9:27 ↩

  6. INSANE LEVELING - Trouble Brewing Guide (NERFED), 2024-11-15. ▶ 2:28 ↩↩

  7. INSANE LEVELING - Trouble Brewing Guide (NERFED), 2024-11-15. ▶ 2:56 ↩↩

  8. INSANE LEVELING - Trouble Brewing Guide (NERFED), 2024-11-15. ▶ 12:18 ↩↩

  9. INSANE LEVELING - Trouble Brewing Guide (NERFED), 2024-11-15. ▶ 8:25 ↩

  10. INSANE LEVELING - Trouble Brewing Guide (NERFED), 2024-11-15. ▶ 0:27 ↩↩

  11. INSANE LEVELING - Trouble Brewing Guide (NERFED), 2024-11-15. ▶ 4:59 ↩

  12. INSANE LEVELING - Trouble Brewing Guide (NERFED), 2024-11-15. ▶ 5:30 ↩

  13. INSANE LEVELING - Trouble Brewing Guide (NERFED), 2024-11-15. ▶ 5:58 ↩↩

  14. INSANE LEVELING - Trouble Brewing Guide (NERFED), 2024-11-15. ▶ 6:54 ↩↩

  15. INSANE LEVELING - Trouble Brewing Guide (NERFED), 2024-11-15. ▶ 7:51 ↩

  16. Trouble Brewing Nerfs and the Minigames of OSRS, 2025-01-27. ▶ 0:00 ↩↩

  17. Trouble Brewing Nerfs and the Minigames of OSRS, 2025-01-27. ▶ 8:40 ↩↩

  18. Trouble Brewing Nerfs and the Minigames of OSRS, 2025-01-27. ▶ 6:26 ↩↩

  19. Trouble Brewing Nerfs and the Minigames of OSRS, 2025-01-27. ▶ 1:40 ↩

  20. Trouble Brewing Nerfs and the Minigames of OSRS, 2025-01-27. ▶ 7:27 ↩

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