Beginners Guide
Melvor Idle is an idle game inspired by Runescape and as such, much of the time spent playing can be done without making any inputs. Although a lot of the systems in Melvor Idle can be understood intuitively, beginning the game can be overwhelming for some new players. This guide will help explain the basics and give you some useful information to get started. The information covered here is often explained in much greater depth on the relative pages for each subject being discussed. The FAQ covers some more specific and meta topics.
| This page was last updated for (v0.16.3). |
Before we get started it is recommended that you set up an account with Melvor Cloud. You can register for an account by selecting Login/Register from the drop-down box in the top right of your Melvor Idle game. Logging in will automatically backup your save file to the cloud every 5 minutes.
Some users may have their game experience slowed when running Melvor Idle in an inactive browser tab. To avoid this, either run the game in an active browser tab or open Melvor Idle in its own window.
Video Guides
In addition to the information on this page, there are also some video guides for new players:
| Video Title | Author | Version |
|---|---|---|
| Melvor Idle Tutorial Part 1 | Procyon Lotor | v0.19.2 |
The Interface
The interface is split into three sections.
The Left Menu
The bar on the left side of the screen is a menu filled with a list of buttons. There are buttons for every skill, a couple of information pages, your Bank, and a Settings page. Clicking the eye icon next to Combat or Skills will hide/show the list. Please take note of the fact that you can scroll in this window.
The Top Bar
In the top bar, you can see what page you are currently on. The potion and helmet icon on the right side can be selected to view your currently selected potions or equipment. You can also see if you are currently logged into Melvor Cloud on the top right. If you see a letter C in a green oblong you are logged in. If the oblong is red, you are not logged in. You can find a login button in the Settings window or by clicking on your user name in the top right.
The Main Section
The main section of the screen can be filled with a plethora of content. It can be filled with the Bank, Settings, a Skill, or one of the information pages.
The Bank
The Bank is where your items are stored. You can upgrade, sell, or equip your items by selecting them from the Bank screen. Weapons and armour have stats that can be viewed by first selecting them in the Bank, then selecting View Item Stats in the menu that appears. The item stats screen will show information about the item and a comparison of its stats to whatever item is currently equipped in the same slot. For example, if you had a pair of 
Bronze Gloves equipped and you Viewed Item Stats for 
Iron Gloves in your Bank, there would be a green (+1) next to the Iron Gloves attack stats, showing that the Iron Gloves offer a higher attack when compared to the Bronze Gloves. Bank slots can be bought in the shop. You can sell your items with the menu opened by clicking on the item in your inventory.
The Shop
The shop is where you can spend your hard-earned GP. Here you can buy things like better pickaxes and axes, more bank slots, some ingredients for various skills, and more.
Settings
The settings page is where players can change various options for the game, including notifications, auto restart dungeons, dark mode, and save management. These options can be accessed from the left menu, towards the bottom. Within the settings area, there are four categories of settings. You can hover over the settings for a more detailed description of their effects.
Basic Skill Usage
One of the main aspects of the game is gathering resources with the various gathering skills and then processing those resources into more refined products with various other skills.
One of the most simple production lines is with
and
. To begin select Fishing from the left menu to open the fishing skill page. To start fishing, select the fish you want to catch, then select 'Start Fishing'. At fishing
you only have access to 
Raw Shrimp, so start with catching them.
Now that you have started fishing, the fishing window has changed slightly. Near the top of the window you will notice that the experience bar is slowly making its way across the window indicating that you are gaining
experience. The selected fish will have information about it displayed within the Shallow Shores tile. The tile displays the name of the fish selected, the experience you earn for successfully catching the fish, the Mastery level of the fish, and the progress towards the next Mastery level. Successfully completing a skill action will award you experience towards the skill used in addition to Mastery experience awarded towards the specific skill action used. When fishing for Raw Shrimp you will earn +5 XP towards your Fishing skill level and +1 XP towards your Raw Shrimp Mastery level. In the left menu, you will also notice that Fishing is now shown in green indicating that this skill is active.
Now that you have caught some fish it's time to cook them with the
skill. When you have opened the cooking window you will notice the cooking page is in three parts. The left tile has a drop-down menu for selecting the food you want to cook, only uncooked food in your bank will be displayed here. The right tile displays your available Cooking Fire. Once a fish has been selected and the Cooking Fire has been lit, you can select 'Cook' from the middle tile to begin cooking. Please note that you need logs gathered with the
skill to light a cooking fire.
Offline Progression
Offline progression allows your game to progress while closed for up to 12 hours. If the game is closed while performing an action, eg. mining 
Copper Ore, upon returning the game will calculate how long you were gone for and provide you with the XP, Items, Mastery XP, and other various things that you would have received if the game was left running. When you open the game again a popup menu will provide a summary of what you earned while away. The skill that was being used will then continue progressing as normal.
Basic Combat
To fight monsters navigate to the combat page by selecting any combat skill from the left menu. The combat page contains three tabs containing the locations where monsters can be fought, above a section for equipment and combat stats. Select browse combat areas, slayer areas, or dungeons to reveal a menu containing all the relevant locations. Selecting a location will display the enemies which can be found there, along with their Hitpoints, Combat Level, and Attack Type. The "Drops" option will display the possible loot drops a monster can give and selecting "Fight" will begin combat. Combat will continue until you run, die, or defeat the dungeon. Enemies are fought automatically, however, any items enemies drop upon death must be looted manually by selecting "Loot All" or the item itself.
Combat skills are levelled by damaging enemies with weapons, and magic. To train a specific combat skill match your Attack Style icon with the relevant combat skill. The available Attack Styles will change depending on the type of weapon you have equipped. Most combat skills have a passive effect even when the relevant style is not selected. Weapons, armour, and food can be equipped for use by selecting them in the Bank. Weapons and armour provide various bonuses and penalties to your combat stats, while food can be used for healing in combat. Upon death a random piece of Equipment worn will be lost forever, however Skillcapes lost this way can be repurchased from the Shop.
Combat Skills
Attack
increases your accuracy rating with melee weapons which affects your chance to hit. Higher tiers of melee require higher Attack to be equipped.
Strength
increases your Max Hit with melee weapons. Max Hit determines your maximum potential damage on a successful hit.
Defence
increases your Melee, Ranged, and Magic Evasion Rating, which decreases the likelihood you will be hit by melee, ranged, and magic attacks. Higher tiers of some armours require higher Defence to be equipped.
Hitpoints
affect your maximum life total and your passive regeneration rate. After receiving damage you will heal slowly over time, the speed at which you heal is based on your Hitpoints level. In addition to passive regeneration, your hitpoints can be replenished by consuming any food you have equipped. Hitpoints experience is earned by damaging enemies with weapons or spells.
Ranged
increases your Accuracy Rating and Max Hit with ranged weapons, which affects your chance to hit and damage respectively. Higher tiers of ranged weapons, arrows, and some armours require higher Ranged to be equipped.
Magic
allows you to cast Spells from your Spellbook provided you have the required Runes in your Bank and a magic weapon equipped. Magic increases your Accuracy Rating with Spells, which increases your chance to hit while using them. Your Magic skill level increases your damage with Spells. Magic also increases your Magic Evasion Rating, which decreases the likelihood you will be hit by magic-wielding enemies. Higher tiers of magic weapons, and some armours require higher Magic to be equipped.
Prayer
are passive bonuses that expend Prayer Points to remain in effect. You gain Prayer Points by burying Bones, which are dropped by Monsters upon death. Prayer experience is earned by damaging enemies and is further increased by having prayers active at the time damage is dealt.
Slayer
experience is earned by killing enemies in slayer areas or by completing Slayer Tasks. Slayer Tasks also earn you 
Slayer Coins which are used to purchase Slayer Equipment from the Shop. Slayer areas are unlocked by raising your Slayer level.
Skills
For a more in-depth look at these skills and the mechanics associated with them, please visit their respective pages.
Woodcutting
is the best way to obtain Wood for
and
. You can cut two trees simultaneously by purchasing the
upgrade from the Shop for 1,000,000
.
Cutting Logs from 
Yew and 
Magic Trees to sell for GP is a decent early game Money Making strategy. This will earn you between 150,000 and 220,000 per hour with a
depending on your Tree Mastery Levels. At
Woodcutting you can purchase a 
Woodcutting Skillcape from the Shop to increase your Woodcutting speed, further increasing your profits.
Fishing
is a strong choice as a first skill to level first and allows you to catch raw fish which can be
for food. Treasure Chests are special items found randomly through Fishing,
, or killing 
Giant Crabs. The 
Treasure Chest will contain an
1% of the time, which increases your base fishing speed by +20%. Fishing is also the only way to obtain the 
Ancient Ring of Skills, which provides a +8% XP bonus to non-combat skills. Fishing for 
Raw Whales (
Fishing requirement) is one of the most profitable Money Making strategies.
Firemaking
is leveled to unlock higher tier Cooking Fires and create 
Coal Ore. Cooking Fires are Skill Upgrades purchased from the Shop and are used in
to obtain a Cooking Experience Bonus. You will only receive Coal Ore 40% of the time from burning Logs and other methods - such as
- are more efficient for gathering coal. The 
Firemaking Skillcape provides a +5% global XP bonus, which is unlocked for purchase at
Firemaking.
Lighting Bonfires will only give an Experience Bonus to Firemaking while active.
Cooking
is used to turn your raw fish into edible food. Cooking Fires can be purchased from the Shop and are unlocked by raising your Firemaking skill. Cooking Fires let you cook without manually lighting a fire and grant an Experience Bonus to Cooking.
Food burns 30% of the time until 50 Mastery Level when food will burn 1% of the time. Burnt food is inedible and can be sold from the Bank. 
Cooking Gloves can be purchased from the Shop will prevent food from burning when worn.
Mining
is another strong option to level first. Mining is used for mining ore, rune essence, and gems. The Mastery Level of each ore affects how many times you can mine it before it's depleted and needs to respawn. The more valuable the ore is the longer the respawn time will be, with durations ranging from 1 to 120 seconds. Every time you mine there's a 1% chance you will find a random Gem in addition to your ore.
Mining with 
Gem Gloves is one of the most effective Money Making strategies available in the early game. Gem Gloves will not work when mining 
Rune Essence. At
Mining with Gem Gloves and a 
Mining Skillcape you can earn up to 500,000 an hour while idle mining. Purchasing multiple Gem Gloves will stack the charges.
Smithing
is used to turn ore into weapons, armour, headless bolts, arrowtips, and throwing weapons.
Armour made with Smithing is powerful although the best armour in the game can only be obtained using Slayer Coins at the Shop or by killing enemies.
Thieving
lets you Pickpocket for GP and items. 
Thieving Gloves sold at the Shop give you +10% to your Thieving success rate when equipped. Thieving is the only way to find the 
Chapeau Noir hat and is arguably the best way to obtain Seeds. At
Thieving the File:Farmer (thieving).png Farmer will be unlocked and is a prime target for acquiring seeds early on. You will only earn experience from successful Pickpocket attempts.
.png){kind=link}
Farming
You can
and complete other tasks simultaneously, Fertilizing, Planting, and Harvesting do not interrupt other skills. Farming is one of the most time-efficient ways to obtain food, which is used for healing in
. Farming is also the only way to obtain the Herbs used in potion brewing with
.
Seeds planted without fertilizer have a 50% chance to yield crops after growing. To increase the chance above 50% you must fertilize the Seeds using 
Compost. Each Compost used on a Seed will increase its survival chance by 10%, raising your Compost Level to 5 will guarantee your crops survive. Compost must be used every time a Seed is planted to have an effect. Any crop that reaches Mastery Level 50 will always survive without Compost, and any crop that reaches Mastery Level 70, or herb that reaches 50 Mastery Level will yield enough Seeds on average to be replanted perpetually.
To start Farming you will need Seeds, 3 of which are needed for a single crop allotment, 2 for herbs, and 1 for trees. The most efficient way to gather Seeds early on is to get to
Thieving and Pickpocket the File:Farmer (thieving).png Farmer. Seeds can also be found by killing enemies like the 
Junior, 
Adult, and 
Master Farmer, in the Farmlands, from 
Bird Nests found during
, and from Chests acquired in Dungeons. It is recommended that you start leveling Farming early on as the leveling process is fairly active and lengthy.
Fletching
is used to make bows, bolts and arrows.
Fletching 
Magic Longbows using Magic Logs and 
Bowstring is one of the most profitable Money Making Strategies, although this method requires
Woodcutting and Fletching to be the most efficient.
Crafting
is used to make Leather/Hide Armour, Rings, and Necklaces. Leather and Hide Armour is used to boost the power of
attacks. Using
to turn Bars and Gems into Rings and Amulets is less profitable than just selling the raw materials.
Runecrafting
uses Rune Essence to create Runes which are used to cast Magic Spells with
or make Elemental Potions with
. It is also used to make Staves and Magic Armour.
Herblore
is used to Brew Potions. A single Potion has many Charges and can be equipped to the Potion slot available for each Skill, which is accessed from the top right of your screen. Once the Charges from a single Potion have been consumed, a new one can be used automatically if "Auto re-use potion" has been enabled in the Settings Menu. Bird Nest Potions are a good example of how useful potions can be in the early game when leveling
for extra Seeds or GP.
Agility
allows players to build an agility course from a choice of obstacles, each providing their own bonuses and penalties to improve various aspects of other skills. While the initial cost of creating obstacles is high, there is no ongoing cost, and each completion of an obstacle grants GP. As a result, Agility is also a reasonable, low maintenance Money Making method.
Summoning
involves the creation of Summoning tablets for various familiars, with each familiar providing bonuses to various tasks while equipped. Two tablets may be equipped at a time, some combinations of which provide synergies which are an added bonus on top of those already provided by each equipped tablet.
Alt. Magic
is an alternative method to train
using non-combat spells. It is still the same skill as Magic - all XP is shared. Each Alt Magic action takes 2 seconds and can be trained offline.
All Spells cost 
Nature Runes but with the addition of the new 
Nature's Call Staff, you can reduce the cost of the spells by 1 Rune, therefore negating the 1 Nature Rune cost of the lower-tier spells.
The spells have a variety of utility uses, and some of them can net you a good profit.
Astrology
is a skill that provides passive buffs to various other skills in the game similar to the Agility skill. Modifiers will be unlocked as you level up your mastery in each constellation and can be re-rolled by spending 
Stardust or 
Golden Stardust.
The passive buffs you can unlock can give bonuses to every skill with the exception of
and
Mastery
When you perform a Skill Action, you earn two types of experience; 'Skill Experience' which increases your Skill Level, and 'Mastery Experience' which increases the
level of the specific Skill Action being used. Mastery Levels will only give bonuses to the specific action they were earned on and can be viewed by selecting Mastery from the left menu. Each successful Skill Action typically earns 1 experience point towards that action's Mastery Level. For example, making an 
Iron Dagger with
would earn 1 experience point towards Iron Dagger Mastery Level.
Early Game Items and Equipment
Mastery Tokens
Mastery Tokens randomly drop while earning experience for non-combat skills other than
and can be used by claiming them in the Bank. When a Mastery Token the Mastery Pool for that skill will be filled by 0.1% of the max pool xp.
Skill Upgrades
Shop Skill Upgrades increase the speed at which you can Cut Wood, Fish, and Mine Ore. Higher tier Skill Upgrades are unlocked by raising the associated skill and purchasing any lower tier upgrades already available.
Skillcapes
When any skill reaches the maximum level of 99 a Skillcape will become available for purchase from the Shop for 1,000,000 . Skillcapes often have very powerful effects, like giving you bonus Coal Ore for every mining action or 
doubling your potion production.
Chapeau Noir
Chapeau Noir has a 1 in 10000 chance to be found when performing a successful Pickpocket with
. Chapeau Noir gives you a 10% chance to receive double loot from Thieving or
.
Gold Topaz Ring
The 
Gold Topaz Ring gives +15% gold when defeating monsters. However, this ring has another special effect: every monster you defeat and every skilling action you do has a very small chance of giving you one half of File:Aorpheats Signet Ring (item).png Aorpheats Signet Ring.
.png){kind=link}
Gold Emerald Ring
Gold Emerald Ring gives you +4%
Experience. You can craft one with
Crafting or find one by killing 
Mummys - Combat Level 29 - in the
.
Amulet of Looting
Amulet of Looting has a 4.55% drop rate from 
Spider Chests, which are earned from completing the
dungeon. This amulet allows you to Autoloot, although you likely won't be able to grind the 
boss that drops it until the mid-game when you are fairly strong.
Gem Gloves
Gem Gloves are a Money Making staple, costing 500,000 from the Shop and coming with 2000 charges. Once all the charges have been used by Mining Ore and the Gems found are sold you are expected to receive around 762,000 , which is a 262,000 profit on your 500,000 purchase.
Upgrading Armour
Certain types of armour can be upgraded using 
Silver Bars, 
Gold Bars, and GP. An armour piece must first be upgraded to (S) using Silver Bars and GP, before it can be upgraded to (G) using Gold Bars and GP. Once armour has the (G) prefix it has been fully upgraded and cannot be upgraded again. Low tier armour pieces are relatively cheap to upgrade, so there is little downside to doing so.
Early Game Goal
Skills in Melvor Idle often follow a natural progression order, you need
to get ore for
, which allows you to make armour and weapons for
. Deciding which skill to level first becomes a more intuitive choice once you understand which items are needed for your chosen goal. Typically players will choose to level
,
, or
first, because they are a great starting point for several progression routes and also have efficient Money Making strategies associated with them. If your goal is to prepare yourself for
you'll probably want some Equipment and food. You can find equipment while fighting monsters, however it's slow going to begin Combat without any weapons or armour. First, you'll need to do some Mining to collect ore, once you have some ore you can move onto Smithing, using the ore you just collected to make weapons and armour. Now that you have some basic armour and weapons, you can equip them from the Bank and start fighting Monsters. Without food you'll only be able to fight for short periods, before having to wait for your health to regenerate naturally. Food allows you to heal during Combat, so you can keep fighting without the need to take breaks. You can get food through
, which requires
and some
, or through
, which requires Seeds found through
in the early game. To use Cooking for food, you'll need to do some Fishing to catch raw fish, then cut a few logs with Woodcutting to light a fire with Cooking to turn the raw fish into edible food. Now you have some food which you can equip from the Bank and along with your other equipment, you're properly prepared for Combat.
| Melvor Idle version v1.3.1 (Released: 30th October 2024) |
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| Reference Tables: Items, Equipment, Experience Table, Upgrading Items, Combat Areas, Slayer Areas, Dungeons, Strongholds, The Abyss, Monsters |