OSRS Ironman Progression Guide: Early Game Roadmap
Focus on Wintertodt to 85 FM, then quest for XP and unlocks. Prioritise fairy rings, spirit trees, and graceful before grinding skills. Hit base 50s through questing, not training.
Your first 50-100 hours as an ironman set the foundation for everything that follows. Get this right and you’ll have a smooth ride into mid-game. Get it wrong and you’ll be backtracking constantly.
The Opening Moves
Wintertodt First
Start Wintertodt early in your account. Here’s why:
- Supply crates are valuable. Seeds, logs, ores, gems, and herbs that fund your early Farming, Construction, and Crafting
- Firemaking has no other use. Get it out of the way while you’re still excited about the account
- It’s social and low-intensity. Good content for learning the ironman mindset
Stop at 85 Firemaking unless you’re chasing the pet. The supply crates scale with your other skills, so there’s actually value in coming back later with higher stats if you want more crates.
The Quest Sprint
After Wintertodt, shift to questing. Quests give the best XP/hour at low levels and unlock content you’ll need constantly.
First priorities:
- Fairy rings (Fairytale I + start of II) — teleports everywhere
- Spirit trees (Tree Gnome Village) — more teleports
- Graceful (Rooftops to ~60 Agility) — run energy for everything
High-value early quests:
- Waterfall Quest (Attack/Strength)
- Witch’s House (Hitpoints)
- Fight Arena + Tree Gnome Village + Grand Tree (Attack)
- The Dig Site → Bone Voyage (Fossil Island access)
Skills to Train vs Quest
A rough guideline: if you can get a skill to 30+ through quests, do that instead of training.
| Skill | Quest XP Route | Training After |
|---|---|---|
| Attack | Waterfall, Fight Arena, Tree Gnome Village | Slayer |
| Strength | Waterfall | Slayer |
| Magic | Witch’s Potion, Imp Catcher, then burst/barrage | Alching, bursting |
| Prayer | Restless Ghost, Priest in Peril | Ensouled heads |
| Crafting | Sheep Herder, Observatory | Charter ships |
Common Mistakes
- Training combat manually. Just quest to base 40s, then do Slayer
- Skipping Bone Voyage. Fossil Island access is worth the grind
- Not getting graceful first. Every hour without graceful costs you run energy
- Over-staying Wintertodt. 85 is enough; come back later with better stats
What’s Next
Once you’ve got:
- 85 Firemaking
- Fairy rings + spirit trees
- Graceful
- Base 40s combat from quests
You’re ready for Mid-Game Goals — where the real account building begins.