Numulite OSRS Guide: The Ultimate Guide

If you haven’t played Old School Runescape, or you have been away for a while, new updates can be overwhelming. Some little items can have a huge impact on the meta of the game; one of these items is Numulite.

These are one of the alternative currencies used in Old School Runescape. Numulite has been around for about four years now and can only be found in one place, the fossil Island. It can be used to buy items and can, of course, be exchanged into regal coins. These are not unique. Another famous example of alternative currencies in OSRS is trading sticks.

This guide is intended for people who have been away from the game for quite a while or are completely new. I am going to tell you where you can find numulite, what the best methods are to get it and how to spend them wisely. You can also just buy the numulite if you aren’t an ironman. Depending on market prices, they are going to be 10 GP each.

As always, I am not going to discuss every single method. There are over 40 to get these alternative coins. However, only a few are worth doing to get this item.

Here is where you can get numulite

To get your numulite, you are going to have to go to Fossil Island. This is an island that can only be reached if you are a member and you have finished the quest Bone Voyage.

There are a lot of places on Fossil Island where you can get the numulites from. I am going to discuss the best places here. However, they are not in order of best to worst. It depends on your account type, and what you enjoy doing, and what your OSRS goals are to determine what is best for you. I am going to give you my opinion of what I enjoy the most, but just note, this is purely subjective.

This list is assuming you are playing as an ironman. A normal account can just buy the numulite for 10 GP each on the grand exchange.

Fighting monsters for numulite

Ammonite Crab

These are level 25 monsters with 100 hit points. They hit very low and are a superior form of the iconic rock crab. They are often used by pures to train on due to their low defense stats and low max hit. These crabs drop numulite about once in every six and a half kills on average. They drop them 5 to 14 at a time. The ammonite crab is a great source for Numulite and very far from the keyword way of getting the numulite in quite high numbers without much effort.

Deranged archeologist

If you would like to have more of a combat challenge than the ammonite crab, a good idea is to fight the deranged archaeologist. This is a demi-boss exclusive to a fossil island. He can be found in the tar swamp. He is known amongst ironmen for dropping quite a lot of long bones and crystal keys. Hardcore ironmen should not underestimate this NPC. He can hit up to 56 in a single hit. He has a 1 in 1.62 chance of dropping numulite. So you will have this almost every single kill. He drops 5 to 32 numulite.

Ancient Wyvern

If you are grinding for an ancient wyvern shield or enjoy slayer, you will have to fight these monsters at some point. They are combat 210 and should not be underestimated. You can also fight their weaker versions, the Long-tailed wyvern, the spitting wyvern, or the taloned wyvern. However, these give a bit less exp, and do not drop numulite as often. The ancient wyvern and the deranged archeologist share the top spot for highest odds to get numulite as a drop. They also drop it to 1 in 1.62 kills on average. However, they drop a bit less; they drop 5 to 24 at once.

Ancient Zygomite

These are pretty cool monsters and a nice throwback to the regular Zygomites you kill. They aren’t a monster that you usually grind, but you can get them as a slayer task. They are pretty easy to kill and give better drops and exp than the mutated zygomites. The loot from these is about 2k per kill on average, and they drop quite a lot of herbs. Of course, they also drop numulite. You have a one in 3 chance to get these as a drop. You will get 5 to 19 per drop.

Training skills for numulite

If you enjoy skilling, you can also get numulite that way. There are quite a lot of interesting and unique fossil island exclusive methods to train certain skills:

Herbiboar

This is one of my favorite training methods of all time. Unfortunately, the requirement to use this training method is quite high. You need to have at least level 80 in the hunter skill and level 31 in the herblore skill. You can catch it by tracking down its footsteps till you find the burrow. The herbiboar has a lot of cool herb drops and gives you a very generous 1 950 hunter exp for catching it. When you catch one, a very common drop – aside from the many herbs – is numulite. They drop about 5 to 25 at once of these.

Drift net fishing

This is another method where hunters play a role. Here it is combined with the fishing skill. It is one of the fastest ways to train your skills. By catching fish this way, it is possible to get 110k hunter experience an hour and 82k exp in the fishing skill. Your loot is dependent on your fishing levels. The higher they are, the better your loot is. It is a great way to get some food in your bank as an ironman and to get numulite. You always have a pretty high chance to get numulite in your net, and it adds up quite nicely after a while.

Sulliuscep

A great way to get some woodcutting levels is training on the sulliuscep mushrooms. It is one of the fastest ways to get woodcutting experience and a good way to get numulite in the process. However, you will need to spend a bit more time here to get the same amount as you would get at, e.g., the herbiboar or drift net fishing. You only get one at a time here. This is fair, as it is one of the best training methods in the entire game.

Worst ways to get numulite in OSRS

There are a couple of ways to get numulite that are just not worth doing. While nobody is stopping you from doing this, it is not effective. Some are pretty fun to do, but your account won’t progress much if you focus on these methods:

Soil

You can go to a fossil island to mine the soil. This will sometimes give you a small chance to get a numulite or a fossil. You are not going to get many doing this. You will also only get five mining experiences.

Hoop Snake

While the hoop snake drops the numulite quite often and has low combat, they are pretty rare and hard to reach. This is going to take quite a while to grind for a stack of numulites. You are thus going to be way better off doing something else.

Tar Monster

The same goes for the tar monster. While you have a one in 4 chance of getting the numulite drop, the monster has way too high combat and is way too spread out to make this a good option to grind on. It has a high combat level of over 132 and only drops a couple of them at a time. They also hit very accurately.

Using Numulite to its Fullest

So now you know where to get a steady supply of numulite, but how do you spend it and where is it spent best? There are many things you can use your numulite for. On Fossil Island, it is the only accepted currency for certain tasks. I am going to state some of the best uses here.

Mernia

You can pay an NPC named Mernia to look after the giant seaweed patches you can find underwater. These are very useful plants to help you train your crafting levels up to a better level. Every time you ask Mernia to watch your patches, you will need to pay 200 numulites per patch.

Ancient wyvern shield

A common way to use numulite is by charging the ancient wyvern shield. You have to put in at least 500 numulites for a charge, for a maximum of 50 charges or 25 000 numulites. This is a pretty good way to lose your stack of numulite pretty quickly.

Fish shoal area

If you want to use the fish shoal area for a full day, you will need to pay 200 numulites. If you want to have permanent access to the fish shoal area, you will have to pay 20 000 numulites. This way you will never have to pay numulites again there.

Stone chests

There are a couple of cool stone chests you can open in the House on the Hill. You can get an attempt at opening them for 100 numulites. If you fail, you can get damaged; if you succeed, you have a chance to get notes from a notebook.

Petrified Pete

This is the NPC that gives you access to the Volcanic Mine for only 30 numulite. This guy also makes sure you can recover your items when you die. This only costs 150 numulite. The fees can add up quite a lot, so you need to make sure you have a healthy stack.

Falo

There is also a treasure trails step where you need the item numulite. Falo will ask you to give him something fossilized from a land far away. You will only need one of these.

Frequently asked questions about Numulite

Question: What can I do with numulite and fossils in OSRS?

Answer: Numulite can be used as a kind of currency on Fossil Island. There are a lot of things that you can exchange the numulite for, but some are a lot more useful than some other things you can do. The most useful are the following three: You can use them to enter the fish shoal area and the giant seaweed patches underwater, and of course, to charge the ancient wyvern shield.
The fossils you get can be used to build displays in the Varrock museum. This will give you kudos. There are two other things you can do with the fossils. You can go to the mycelium pool and turn the fossils into enriched bones that give you prayer exp. A small fossil will give you 500 prayer exp, a medium fossil will give you 1000 prayer exp, a large fossil will give you 1500 prayer exp, and the rare fossil will give you an impressive 2500 exp.
You can also exchange them for numulite. The fossil collector will give you 100 numulites for small fossils, 200 for a medium and plant fossil. You will get 300 numulites for large fossils and 500 numulites for rare fossils.
You can also charge the wyvern shield with fossils.

Question: How can I make the bank and the camp on Fossil Island?

Answer: You will need to have quite a lot of materials to make the museum camp. If you want to build everything there is to be built; you will need:
♦ Ten oak planks
♦ Two iron bars
♦ Twenty-five nails
♦ One tinderbox
♦ Three soft clay
♦ One bucket
♦ Two logs
♦ Two ropes
♦ Five planks
You can find the list in your Mini-Task List, so you can easily check what you need. You will need to have 29 construction to do this. This is not a high requirement and should only take you a few minutes to get if you have the materials.

Question: What is the best way to spend my numulite as an ironman?

Answer: There are a couple of ways to make optimal use of your numulites. I think the best one for ironman accounts is to use them to guard your giant seaweed patches. These are very useful for crafting materials.
Another good thing to use your numulites for is to charge your ancient wyvern shield. You will need quite a lot of numulites. To fully charge your shield, you need to have 25 000 of them. This can be quite a grind.
Finally, it is also very useful for driftnet fishing. You only need 200 to make full use of the underwater training for a day, so you can get them pretty quick. You can also get more numulite there when training.
Did we miss a good way to get or spend numulite? Let us know in the comments, and we will add it to the guide!

Conclusion: Useful to get as an ironman account

You are going to need numulite to unlock some of the best training methods in OSRS. Getting them can be quite annoying at first, but once you have found a method you can use and grind, it is easy. Once you have 200 and unlock drift net fishing by getting the requirements, it is pretty easy to sustain your numulite stack while skilling a bit underwater.

Regular accounts will have no issues at all getting this item. It will take you a couple of seconds, as you can buy them on the GE at a very affordable price.

I do like the fact that a faraway island has its unique currency. However, the overall utility is limited. Once you have a large stack of, let’s say 50 000, you will never need to grind for them again, and there are no cool rewards you can get by using these.

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Tom Goemaere

Tom is a content writer with SEO experience and an avid DND fan. He has been playing DND for more than a decade now. He also manages a dnd/fantasy Instagram fan page (@thyriankingdom).