OSRS Ammonite Crabs Guide

OSRS Ammonite Crabs Guide

Ammonite crabs, I have spent over a thousand combined hours here, holding one of the most relaxed training methods in the game. They boast 10-minute AFK and competitive experience rates for anyone looking to train range or melee.

Gamer note: From my experience, a lot of people mess up by trying to train their magic levels here. Although it is possible to do so, it is very inefficient, both cost-wise and for exp rates. There are plenty of better ways to train your magic!

Before we start breaking down all the great things about ammonite crabs, there are some things to consider: In my experience, if you have access to the gemstone crab, it is far easier to AFK and holds the same experience rates as ammonite crabs. It is especially good for 1-20 Defence accounts, as ammonite crabs hit surprisingly hard on lower defence levels. Gemstone crab does have slightly different requirements, so if you’d like to check that out first, you can see our guide on Gemstone Crab here.

Now, if you’re still confident you want to slay some ammonites, then let’s give you the rundown on everything you need to know!

1. What are the requirements to get to Fossil Island?

The only real requirement here is the completion of the ‘Bone Voyage’ quest. As always, if you need any help with finishing up those pesky quests, we’re here to help! Check out our OSRS questing page. 

I would recommend some basic combat stats before coming to ammonite crabs.

If you’re looking to train melee here, you can start by completing the following quests:

• Waterfall Quest

• Fight Arena

• Tree Gnome Village

• Grand Tree

• Vampyre Slayer

These will put you at 45 attack and 30 strength, which will skip a lot of the painful early levels with lower tier weapons. Just gear up in your best melee gear and get ready to gain.

If you are looking to train range, I would recommend completing the Dwarf cannon quest, and then using our guide to train range to 40+ using cannon training spots:

After that, grab your best range gear and some lower-tier darts, and get ready to train some range!

Note: The mistake a lot of people make is using lower-tier knives. For example, using steel/mithril knives at double the cost of mithril/adamant darts. They end up getting both slower exp rates and losing more money per hour.

2. How should I get to/return to Fossil Island?

Digsite Amulet

The most efficient way to get back to Fossil Island is with a digsite amulet. However, there will be a small number of requirements, including sorting museum finds, unlocking mush trees, unlocking the fossil island teleport option on the amulet.

Ring of the elements

A tip from the pros, this is something that most people don’t use: If you don’t have access to digsite amulets, nor the time to check off the whole list of extra requirements, this is an amazing alternative. You can simply grab yourself a ring of the elements, charge it up, then teleport to the earth altar. You run through the gate to the east, then south to the barge - then take that straight to fossil island! See the route on the image below:

If you cannot use either of the above methods, then a simple Varrock Teleport works too. But will take much longer to get back.

Mushtrees

After reaching the island by whichever means is easiest, it is going to be extremely beneficial to unlock the mushtree transport system around the island. This will help you get to and from the different spots (and doubling up with birdhouse runs) with much greater ease.

3. Which ammonite crabs locations do I use?

Most guides would roll off an entire list of all of the ammonite crab locations on Fossil Island. But in my experience, there is only one spot that is truly worth using. I’m not here to be a copy of the OSRS wiki, I’m here to give you the things that actually work.

Upon arriving at Fossil Island, take your closest mushtree to location #2 (Verdant Valley). From here, run east, then south onto the small beach as shown in the images below. Stand on this exact spot, directly northeast of the big shell, and you will pull all 3 ammonite crabs to auto-retaliate.

The reason this is the best spot is that there is no accidental interruption from other players. While afking in other ammonite spots near the mushroom forest beaches, players doing herbiboar, or players running for seaweed runs, will accidentally aggro your crabs and pull them away from your spot. You will then get much less exp per hour because you will have less crabs spawning and hitting you. It becomes much less efficient - or if you run to kill the crabs lured by other players, it becomes much less AFK. Don’t fall into the noob trap of using these other spots!

4. What kind of exp/h can I expect at ammonite crabs?

Melee

For melee, you can expect maximum experience rates of ~95k xp/h. It cannot cap much higher than this because of respawn times on the crabs. These rates are achieved with max gear and almost max stats, and resetting aggression efficiently.

Your starting melee rates with 45 attack and 30 strength will be roughly ~25k xp/h. My personal recommendation for the best way to train your melee is to take your attack and strength levels up by 10 at a time. So, for example, take your attack to 50, upgrade to your next weapon (in this case, a granite hammer), then match your strength to 50. Repeat with 60, upgrade to dragon scimitar, match your strength to 60. Repeat this until your desired levels. A lot of players make the mistake of rushing their attack straight to 70 for an Abyssal Whip, while keeping their strength at 30-40. This is much slower overall.

Below is a table of roughly the exp/h in melee you can expect at different levels (varies within these ranges based on gear and aggro reset efficiency):

Range

Your ranged exp rates also cap at around the same rate of ~95k xp/h because of the respawn timer. Once again this utilizes almost max gear and 90+ range to achieve consistently.

At 40 range, assuming you use mithril darts, you should be getting roughly ~30k xp/h. This will also scale with your range levels and gear upgrades. The most important thing to remember here, is to upgrade your range gear when you reach a new level milestone. Every new piece of range equipment adds a lot of accuracy, especially in the earlier levels!

Below is a table of roughly the exp/h in range you can expect at different levels (varies within these ranges based on gear and aggro reset efficiency):

5. I’m a low defence account and get hit a lot. What can I do?

In my opinion, you have two real options here:

A) You utilize one of the alternative methods listed in the section below (or the gem crab listed at the top of the guide)
B) You maximize your defensive gear and HP restoration for extended trips

I have taken the time to compile the absolute best defensive gear you can get hold of. You can downgrade the chaps to whichever version best suits you. The regen bracelet will also restore your hitpoints at 2x the regular speed, meaning you will be able to maintain trips much longer.

Melee setup:

Helmet: Bear Head
Cape: Fire Cape/Obby cape
Amulet: Fury
Weapon: Best melee weapon
Platebody: Varrock armour 1/Decorative range top
Shield: Iron kiteshield
Chaps: Hueycoatl chaps/Any god hide chaps/Best range chaps
Gloves: Regen bracelet (very important)
Boots: Aranea boots/Climbing boots
Ring: Steel ring

Range setup:

Helmet: Robin Hood Hat/Coif
Cape: Avas Accumulator
Amulet: Fury
Weapon: Best range training weapon
Platebody: Decorative range top (important)
Shield: Iron kiteshield
Chaps: Hueycoatl chaps/Any god hide chaps/Best range chaps
Gloves: Regen bracelet (very important)
Boots: Ranger boots (no real alternatives, if no ranger boots, use any boot)
Ring: Steel ring

Most players who have a lot of experience in building low-defence accounts will use one of the other alternative methods listed. It will be overall more AFK and will use much less resources. Work smart, not hard!

6. Alternative crabs to train at

I think there are 3 real alternatives that fall into the same AFK category as ammonite crabs. Luckily for you, we have guides on all of them!

Alternative A) Gemstone crab

Since its release, this has become the most popular as a training method and is the one that I would personally recommend the most. Check out our gemstone crab guide here!

Alternative B) Rock crabs

This is a good alternative for lower defence accounts, as they hit much lower. They also have no real requirements. You can see our full rock crabs guide here!

Alternative C) Sand crabs  

Very similar to rock crabs. Another great alternative for lower defence accounts, also with very few requirements. See our full guide here!

7. What kind of gear should I use for ammonite crabs?

Luckily for you, we have entire guides on gear progression!

You can see our melee gear progression guide here.

Our melee weapon progression guide here.

Our range gear progression guide here.

And our range weapon progression guide here.

8. FAQ’s

What is the most efficient way to get to Fossil Island?

The most efficient way to get to Fossil Island is with a Digsite Pendant. See section 2 in this guide for a full breakdown on digsite amulets and how to unlock/use them effectively.

How do I reset the aggro of crabs?

You simply run out of their aggression range, then run back to your spot. Here is a picture of roughly where to run to on the map to reset their aggression:

You can also utilize the below plugin on runelite:

This will give you a timer telling you exactly how long you have left until you need to reset, shown below:

Is it worth it to train magic at ammonite crabs?

As explained a little earlier in the guide, training magic at ammonite crabs is truly not worth the cost/time investment. The game is filled with so many ways to train magic that are faster, more afk and more cost-efficient. In my experience, training magic here is a true ‘noob trap’. But this is a very good option for both range & melee! If you would like an alternative training method for the fastest magic exp in the game, check out our full guide on bursting here!

That should be everything you could ever need to know about Ammonite crabs! Remember: if you ever have any questions or need anything at all, open up a live chat and we can get you the help you need!