Farming is an aspect of Old School RuneScape that even some of the longest-running members don’t even use too much. Though it isn’t the most popular members-only skill, there is a lot of value and fun in farming in OSRS, which is why I’ve loved farming for the past decade.
One of the main mechanics of raising your own crops has to do with the scarecrow item. It is time to break down everything you need to know about it in this scarecrow OSRS guide.
Part of the problem with farming in RuneScape is that you’ll deal with weeds that will appear on your farm. These can hinder the growth and production of your crops, which is why the scarecrow is such a valuable part of your farm.
For how to make a scarecrow, its purpose on your farm, and everything else, be sure to take a look at our scarecrow OSRS guide below.
Bottom Line Up Front
The scarecrow works in RuneScape much like how it does in real life. The idea is to plant this on your farm plot to prevent any diseases from spreading to the sweetcorn seeds you are growing.
On the other hand, weeds will appear near the scarecrow that players will want to remove, even though they don’t actually stop the preventive powers that the scarecrow has.
Players can craft their own scarecrow by having Farming level 23, a bronze spear, a hay sack, and watermelon. They give you a measly 25 experience in Farming with each one you make. The scarecrow is also helpful for two diaries in OSRS.
Scarecrow Overview
When it comes to farming and also some of the best horror movies out there, one of the first things that come to mind is a scarecrow. The always present, helpful, and immensely terrifying item is necessary for ensuring that no harm comes to your crops while they are in the midst of growing.
Since the scarecrow is such a significant part of farming in the real world, it should come as no surprise that this is the same case in the digital world as well. Scarecrows are one of the essential items that you should absolutely be using on your farmland if you are farming in RuneScape.
What I find odd about the scarecrow in OSRS is that it doesn’t really look like a scarecrow at all. Perhaps this is because of the graphical constraints at the time when it was first released or whatever. Still, it looks like this dull stake in the ground with a watermelon on top of it.
Ignoring the sad visual state of the scarecrow, any aspiring farmers will want to include this in their plans when they first start out. Here’s everything you need to know about how to make the best of this item.
Farming Purpose
The general purpose that most players will know the scarecrow for is to ward off any bad omens for your crops. This is precisely what the scarecrow does, protecting, specifically, the sweetcorn crops that are a vital part of any farmer’s plans.
Sweetcorn is immensely valuable and one of the best crops that you can make in OSRS for a variety of reasons. Unfortunately, they are prone to be infected with diseases that will see them wither up and die. That is where the scarecrow comes into play, as it will prevent these situations from happening.
So long as someone takes the scarecrow and places it in your farmland and it will start to protect those sweetcorn crops around it. On a side note, what players should know about the scarecrow is that there are weeds that will appear on the item over time.
What is odd about the weeds is that they don’t diminish the ability of the scarecrow to protect your crops. That is a little weird since it kind of just makes this problem more of a cosmetic one than anything else. That said, you should still remove any weeds that you find on your scarecrow.
You can remove weeds around your scarecrow by using a spade that you have in your inventory. This is also how you take out the scarecrow and put it back into your inventory to be moved to another group of crops or the like.
Diary Use
Beyond farming on its own, scarecrows have another distinct purpose in Old School RuneScape. The diaries are classic achievement collections that you can unlock as you do various tasks in OSRS.
There are two diaries, the Falador Medium Diary and the Morytania Easy Diary, that include some tasks regarding farming. Creating a scarecrow and then placing it on your farm will fulfill both of these diaries in the process, which may be even more critical to completionist players out there than even the protection of your sweetcorn crops.
How to Make the Scarecrow
But before you can ever use a scarecrow on your fields, you need to actually acquire it. Thankfully, you don’t have to go too deep in the Farming OSRS skill to find the scarecrow. The base requirement is that you need to be at least level 23 in the members-only skill to unlock the ability to craft this item.
That isn’t too high of a level, so even basic grinding of raising crops can get you there relatively soon. Once you are level 23, you can craft a scarecrow using only three items. Those items are as follows:
- One hay sack
- One bronze spear
- One watermelon
With those three together, you can create a scarecrow and start deploying this helpful little fellow on your crops. Of course, there is a caveat here that you should know about. Sorry to the Ironman players out there, but you picked the most challenging version of OSRS possible, so there is an extra hurdle for you to leap over.
Sure, you can make the scarecrow at level 23, usually. Still, watermelon isn’t an item you can naturally get on your own. Because of that, Ironman players will need to reach at least level 47 in Farming if they want to acquire some of these and make a scarecrow of their own.
How to Get a Bronze Spear
Before you can make a scarecrow, you’ll need the three items that are required to craft it. The first of these is a single bronze spear. Now, there are a couple of ways to get a bronze spear, and it honestly comes down to how quick or simple you want this task to be.
Suppose you’re like me and just want to get the item you’re looking for without any extra problems or tasks to complete. In that case, your best bet is to head to the Grand Exchange and pick you up one of these there for a couple of hundred measly coins.
Now, my pals, who are Ironmen, don’t have that option available to them since the Grand Exchange is restricted for those accounts. In that case, or for players who just like to make everything themselves, you’ll want to simply raise your Smithing to level five.
At this point, you can make a bronze spear with just one bronze bar and one set of regular logs.
Where to Get Hay Sacks
Next up is the hay sack. You need one of these, too, and this can be done by grabbing yourself an empty sack first. If you are an Ironman or a nifty little crafter, level 21 Crafting will give you the recipe you need to make yourself an empty sack. It takes four jute fibers to make it this way.
Now, if you are on the lazier side like I am when it comes to gathering items like this, you’ll probably want to head to the Grand Exchange. There was a time when the empty sack meant something and actually garnered a decent price here, but that isn’t the case anymore. You can get yourself an empty sack for almost nothing these days.
But just getting an empty sack is only half of the job since you need to turn it into a hay sack. To do this, find any haystack or hay bale that is on the map and use the empty sack on it to fill it up with the hay and turn it into a hay sack.
There are plenty of places with haystacks and the like all over the world, but here are some of the more useful ones that you will find near significant cities that you likely frequent:
- On the northwestern side of Lumbridge
- South of the Farming Guild
- North of Port Sarim
- Just north of Ardougne
How to Make a Watermelon
Honestly, the bronze spear and hay sack are the two most straightforward items you have to deal with. Sure, the hay sack requires a little legwork on your part, but even then, it’s nothing too crazy. However, you do have to worry about the watermelon, which can be a bit problematic for some players.
Most players in OSRS don’t have to worry too much, as you can quickly get a watermelon from a number of different sources. One such is by going straight to an NPC and buying it from one of them.
Several NPCs sell watermelon. Still, the two I recommend are either Richard’s Farming Shop near East Ardougne or Sarah’s Farming Shop, just south of Falador.
Those are two of the more convenient locations that you would likely be near. Other than that, you could just head straight to the Grand Exchange and buy some watermelons there. They go for much cheaper than even the NPCs sell them for most of the time, but you might have to wait a little bit for the sale to go through.
Now, you might be someone who prefers to acquire everything yourself naturally, or you are playing on an Ironman account. Either way, this is where a problem occurs. Though you can make the scarecrow at level 23 Farming, you can’t naturally gain watermelon at this time.
For those two situations, you’ll have to grind your Farming even further to a whopping level 47 when you can grow watermelons. Then at this point, you’ll finally be able to make a scarecrow using your hard-earned melons. Sadly, if you’ve already reached level 47, the scarecrow is almost rather pointless by then, but there is still some use for players.
FAQs
Question: How Do You Use a Scarecrow OSRS?
Answer: Once you acquire a scarecrow by crafting together a bronze spear, hay sack, and watermelon, you simply need to use the item while it’s in your inventory on the plot of land where you want to put it. It will automatically protect your crops from that point forward.
Question: How Do You Make a Scarecrow Ironman OSRS?
Answer: Ironman players have a lot of extra steps since they can’t use the Grand Exchange. You can get the bronze spear with level five Smithing by making it using a bronze bar and some logs.
You can get the hay sack by making an empty sack with level 21 Crafting and then filling it up at a hay bale. And you can get a watermelon by reaching level 47 Farming and growing one manually.
Question: How Do You Fill a Hay Sack OSRS?
Answer: Players first need to acquire an empty sack by buying it or crafting it. Once they do, head to any hay bale or haystack on the map and interact with it using the empty sack to fill it up. I like to use the one northwest of Lumbridge just for convenience.
What to Acquire Next for Farming
The scarecrow is a quintessential item for aspiring farmers out there in OSRS. It is so valuable in those early days of farming, especially since sweetcorn is one of the best crops you can make for its variety of uses.
But, at the end of the day, farming is a complicated business. There is so much more to it than just planting a scarecrow to protect your crops from diseases.
Suppose you’re looking to upgrade your farm and do much better with your crop yields. In that case, there is no item that I could recommend more than the somewhat recently released bottomless compost bucket.
We’ve all run into issues where we run out of compost when farming, and the bottomless compost bucket basically means even the most hardcore farmers will be good for nearly the next decade or so.
Looking for more interesting readings? Check out:
- Bottomless Compost Bucket OSRS [2022]: New Farming Items!
- Farming Guild OSRS Guide [2022]: Everything You Need To Know
- OSRS Farming Training Guide [2022]: Fastest Methods To Level 99
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- Darkness of Hallowvale OSRS Guide - October 21, 2022
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