OSRS Motherlode Mine Guide for 1-99

By Ollie Green | December 27th, 2018 | Categories: RuneScape

In our OSRS Motherlode Mine guide, we’ll explain what this new feature in Old School RuneScape is, what requirements are needed, and how you can take advantage of it to increase your mining level.

Hopefully, by the time you have finished this guide, you will have learned everything there is to know about the Motherlode Mine.

Table of Contents

What’s included in this OSRS Motherlode Mine guide?

An introduction to the OSRS Motherlode Mine
An explanation on what is required and where the mine is located
Our strategy and tips on how to use the mine most effectively

In our guide, we will first explain to you what it is and give some backstory on why it was added to the game. We’ll then explain to you where you can find the mine and what requirements are needed for you to enter it.

After that, we’ll give some tips on how you can use the mine most efficiently to help train your mining level.

What’s the Motherlode Mine and what requirements are necessary?

The OSRS Motherlode Mine is a new training area, added in 2014
You must have level 30 mining to enter the mine
The mine is used to gain experience primarily
You can earn profit, but not a significant amount alongside the XP gain

The Motherlode Mine was initially added to Old School RuneScape in 2014 and then expanded upon in 2015. For many people, the Motherlode Mine proves to be a more convenient way to mine, because you can stay there all the way up to level 99 mining and the experience gain is relatively similar to mining in more typical areas.

The Motherlode Mine is mostly used for gaining experience, but you can still profit from it. At higher levels, you can make about 150,000 gold per hour. This is undoubtedly not a great way to make profit in RuneScape, but it’s refreshing to know that it exists as a mining method that you can still profit from slightly whilst leveling.

The only requirement to enter the Motherlode Mine is a mining level of 30. You do not need any other requirements.

At level 72 mining, you can enter an upper level by paying an NPC in the mine called Prospector Percy with 100 golden nuggets. After paying once, you will have permanent access to the upper floor, which has more veins for mining.

You can find the Motherlode Mine in the Dwarven Mine, which is located via a cave entrance. The cave entrance is to the North East of the Falador Mining Guild, or West of the Barbarian Village.

For more OSRS, check this out: OSRS Nightmare Zone Guide

What is the best strategy for Mining?

Bring the best pickaxe possible
Learn how to clean the pay-dirt
Find the best strategy to reduce time by minimizing runs to the bank

Once you are inside the mine, the initial process is very straightforward. You can mine ore veins from within the mine. Unlike normal veins, you can sometimes mine up to 26 times from just one vein. Sometimes, it can be as little as 1 time before the vein disappears. This makes mining here far less of a hassle than mining in other places.

You gain 60 experience per vein, but your experience per hour can increase as you start to use better pickaxes. And you’ll also get more experience later. For this reason, it is highly recommended that you always use the best possible pickaxe for your mining level.

Instead of getting standard ore from a vein, you will instead get something called pay-dirt. Players must then go to a hopper to clean the pay-dirt. The pay-dirt will travel down the hopper and fall into a sack. You can search the sack to get standard ore.

The maximum amount a sack can contain is 81 pay-dirt. But there is a method to ‘overfill it’. This way, you reduce the number of times you must search the sack, speeding up XP gain.

Because you must carry a hammer, (more on that in a minute) the best strategy is to do two inventories full of pay-dirt (27 per run), then two more with just 26 pay-dirt. At this point, your sack will have 80 pay-dirt. However, you can then go back, drop your hammer, and fill your inventory with another 28.

Because the sack will only have 80 in, you can trick the game into placing an extra 28, getting a total of 108.

Next, you can open the sack to get your ore. The ore you get will depend on the level at which you mined the pay-dirt. You’ll also get more experience, on top of the XP you got for mining it in the first place.

Overview

All level – Golden nugget & 0 XP
Level 30 – Coal & 0 XP
Level 40 – Gold Ore & 15 XP
Level 55 – Mithril Ore & 30 XP
Level 70 – Adamantite Ore & 45 XP
Level 85 – Runite Ore & 75 XP

At times, different random events will happen in the Motherlode. These events must be tended to before you can return to mining. The first event is a rockfall. At times, rocks may fall down and may deal damage and block your way. You can mine these to get an additional 10 experience.

The water wheels on the hopper will sometimes break, and you’ll need to use a hammer to fix them. You can find hammers by searching the crates near the hopper machine. You can get additional smithing XP for fixing the water wheel. (1.5x your current Smithing level.) Because hammers can be found in the crates, it’s best to mine without it in your inventory and then search the crates for a hammer when you need to fix the water wheel.

As mentioned earlier, to get to the upper levels where you’ll find more veins for mining, you need to pay Prospector Percy 100 golden nuggets. You can see from the table above that golden nuggets will be a potential outcome from the pay-dirt at all levels. The exact chance for a nugget is 2.74%

Besides the upper floor access, you can purchase a number of other items from Percy for golden nuggets. The first of which includes a set of Prospector clothes. These will give you between 0.2% and 0.8% bonus mining experience each. The full set gives you 2% bonus experience when wearing.

Another item includes a soft clay pack, which gives you 100 soft clay. If you want to make profit, this is the most profitable use for the golden nuggets. A coal bag can be purchased, as well as a gem bag, and a bag full of gems. Finally, you can upgrade your pay-dirt sack size from 81 to 162. The price of all items is listed below.

Items and Cost in Golden Nuggets

Soft clay pack – 10
Prospector boots – 30
Prospector helmet – 40
Prospector legs – 50
Prospector jacket – 60
Bag full of gems – 40
Coal bag – 100
Gem bag – 100
Upper floor access – 100
Pay-dirt sack upgrade – 200

Earning Experience XP Per Hour

Level 30-40 – 22,000
level 41-60 – 26,000
Level 61-74 – 29,000
Level 75-84 – 38,000
Level 85-98 – 43,000
Level 99 – 52,000

Other mining methods are roughly 1.2-1.4 times faster at gaining experience, but the Motherlode Mine is far more convenient, especially at later levels where resources must sometimes be fought over.