This article is about training the Cartography skill. For the skill itself, see Cartography.
This page is up to date (v1.2.2).
Cartography

Before Starting Cartography

There are a few bonuses that come from other skills that can boost Cartography. Due to Cartography's 5s Base Interval, it's advised to grab as many of the Interval and Survey reductions as possible to minimize the amount of time you spend surveying. The Superior Cartography Skillcape gives -30% Survey Interval which makes Skill XP boosts very valuable as well if you wish to go for full map mastery as well.

  • Nysa, unlocked at Astrology Level 45, provides upwards of +8% Skill XP and -5% Survey Interval at Mastery Level 60.
  • River Crossing, unlocked at Agility Level 10 and requiring Cartography Level 15, provides -5% Survey Interval and +5% Skill XP.
  • Ocean Drifting, unlocked at Agility Level 80 and requiring Cartography Level 70 and Archaeology Level 70, provides -5% Cartography Interval.

Cartography has 8 Temporary -2% Survey Interval Points of Interest that last for 10 moves. It's important that you know where these are located since they can only be discovered once. The locations can be seen in (SECOND GOAL).

You may want to gather the materials required to purchase all (SHIP TABLE) Ship Upgrades from the Shop before starting. It is not necessary to do so however it may reduce the amount of times you need to swap obstacles.

(Actively) Training Cartography

Since Skill XP boosts will change the pathing of this guide. This guide will be using the following to setup. Note this is not the most optimal setup. Check the (XP TABLE) and (INTERVAL TABLE) below for other boosts.

This gives a total of 26% Skill XP out of the maximum 54% in the Base Game and 57% with .

Getting the Old Spyglass, Cartographer's Enhancement and Captains Logbook

Visual Representation for Steps 1-4

An image has been supplied as a visual aid on where to go.

Follow the Red Diamond Path to the Port at (12, 19) and Survey this hex until you are level 10. You will not fully survey the Port yet. Make sure to Discover Old Village at (13, 17). If you Survey The Southern Lighthouse at (12, 18), make sure you do not Discover this POI. The temporary -2% Survey Interval Discovery Reward will be used later.

Follow the Blue Pentagon Path until you Discover Monuments at (6, 11). Doing Archaeology until level 24 and digging for Tiny Artefacts will allow you to get 8 Golden Leaf which upgrade into Golden Wreath for +3% Skill XP. Old Village drops which is a good. At Cartography Level 15 you will be able to build River Crossing. At levels 20, 35, and 50 you will be able to purchase Ship Hull Upgrade, Ship Mast Upgrade, and Ship Sails Upgrade respectively. If you are not already Cartography Level 50, continue North up the Purple Square Path before continuing. Spending the extra time to get the Aranite Brush Shop Upgrade will increase your chances of getting the Old Spyglass.

Follow the Green Star Path and Discover Coral Wreckage at (7, 22). This will unlock the ability to get Old Spyglass and thus Archaeology will need to be done. You are mainly looking for 2-3 key items.

  1. The Old Spyglass from Coral Wreckage for -10% Survey Interval
  2. 500 Coral from Coral Wreckage for Ocean Drifting, which will be built later
  3. If travel costs are an issue, you may also get Sailor's Compass from Coral Wreckage for -6% Travel Costs

It is recommended to upgrade the starting Coral Wreckage map to Perfect and, if you have the GP to do so, refine it to reduce the Medium Artefact Value to maximize the chance of getting the Old Spyglass. Getting the Aranite Tool Set will be worth the time investment since Captains Logbook will require Archaeology Level 105 and finding Artefacts rewards more XP than finding nothing.

Follow the Purple Square Path which will Discover The Jagged Labyrinth at (5, 7) and unlock the ability to purchase Cartographer's Enhancement for 3,000,000GP. Upon reaching Cartography Level 60, you will be able to purchase Ship Anchor Upgrade.

Follow the (path) towards The Pirate's Treasure Trails at (10, 6) and Discover this hex. It is important this POI gets discovered before Surveying the entire map.

Discovering The Monolith at (5, 10) can help reduce the map making interval which will be useful soon. The Treacherous North is located at (4, 9) and rewards 5,000 Redwood Logs and The Ancient Wreckage is located at (7, 7) and rewards 1,000 Cursed Logs. These can be useful if you do not have 28,000 Redwood Logs for Ship Rudder Upgrade and Ship Crow's Nest Upgrade or the 12,000 Cursed Logs for Ship Keel Upgrade.

There is a group of level 50-65 hexes just South of The Pirate's Treasure Trails which can be used to get to Cartography Level 80. There are a group of Cartography Level 80 hexes just to the East of this location. You will want to make your way towards Old Mine at (23, 14). You will need this POI as well as The Abandoned Vein Mine at (22, 15) before Surveying the entire map. This also leads to Secret Mines which has the Shipment Chart which is needed to locate Ancient Forge at (20, 12). The Ancient Forge is where you can get the Ancient Tool Set and will be useful for gaining the experience needed for Archaeology Level 105 for Cathedral

Fully Surveying all of the Temporary POI Hexes

Visual Representation for Steps 5-10

While there is a Port at (4, 10), you will not need to travel back up to this location throughout this guide so this Port can be skipped. Following the Blue Pentagon Path, Survey The Pink Kraken at (4, 16) and The Western Lighthouse at (1, 18). Ensure you do not Discover these POIs. There is a Port at (2, 19) which can help reduce the travel costs later.

Next, Next, use the Green Star Path to travel West towards the starting point and Survey The Southern Lighthouse at (12, 18), The Watchful Ship at (14, 20) and A Sadge Kraken at (12, 21). Ensure you do not Discover these POIs. There is a Port at (12, 19) which can help reduce the travel costs later.

The next POIs will be towards the East side of the map. Along the Purple Square Path to Fisherman's Enclave at (22, 22), there is a Port at (21, 20). You will need to Discover this POI before Surveying the entire map. Fully Survey but don't Discover The Sea Noodle at (23, 25).

Next up is the Orange Circle Path. You will want to Discover both Old Mine at (23, 14) and The Abandoned Vein Mine at (22, 15). These POIs need to be discovered before surveying the entire map. At Cartography Level 70, you will unlock the Shop Purchase Ship Rudder Upgrade as well as the Agility Obstacle, Ocean Drifting. It is recommended you grab both of these if possible.

The final step is to Survey the 2 POIs are along the Gray Triangle Path which are Capital City Lighthouse at (27, 13), and The Pushy Sailor at (29, 9). Ensure you do not Discover these POIs. There is a Port at (27, 14). You may grab this before heading to The Pushy Sailor. Note: This path goes through Stoneworkers which is fine due to this POI only requiring 2 levels to fully survey. This is likely a bug and when it is fixed, you will want to go around unless you wish to discover this Dig Site now.

Fully Surveying the Map

With all of the Temporary -2% Survey Interval POIs fully Surveyed, it's time to Discover all of them without traveling to any unnecessary hexes in between. These boosts will only last for 10 turns and there are 8 POIs. Even though you have 2 spare moves, it is important you do not waste these. You will need to move once at Cartography Level 100 and again after fully Surveying the North East corner. The order for the first 7 are not important however you want to make sure you end on The Pushy Sailor at (29, 9).

You want to start Auto Surveying at (26, 8). This will require you to Survey (27, 9) and (27, 8) first. At Cartography Level 85, you will be able to Purchase Ship Keel Upgrade. At Cartography Level 90 you will want to restart the Auto Survey at (28, 12) so the Level 90 Hexes around (30, 16) get Surveyed. At Cartography Level 99 the second last Ship Upgrade, Ship Crow's Nest Upgrade, can be purchased.

If you have Cartography Level 110

Upon reaching Cartography Level 100, you want to manually Survey (30, 9) and (31, 8). From here, Auto Survey (31, 7) until the corner hex is Fully Survyed. Ideally you will want to be active when this happens otherwise you will need to move which will result in losing one of the -2% Survey Interval POIs 1 turn sooner. After you fully Survey The Edge of Darkness at (31, 0), you will want to move there. This will unlock the Shop Purchase, Cartographer's Knowledge for 50,000,000GP. Traveling to this hex will also cost somewhere around 47.5m-52m GP.

After purchasing Cartographer's Knowledge, continue to Auto Survey all until the entire map has been Surveyed and the corner hexes have been mastered. Moving to Cathedral at (6, 3) and finding Ancient Wall Chart will allow you to Discover Shipwreck Cove which allows you to get Captains Logbook for +8% Skill XP. To reach level 120 you will have to move 2-3 more times to areas with higher exp. Hex experience is based on the level of the hex, therefore the best exp is in the high level areas.


This map can help visualize where the high exp zones are. The first location you will want to move to is the snowy area in the bottom middle, around (17, 25) since this is a dense, compact area. Upon reaching Cartography Level 110, the final Ship Upgrade, Ship Combat Overhaul, can be purchased. The top middle is going to be the second location, around (12, 2) so you can grab the level 80 and 90 hexes to the East and West. Upon reaching Cartography Level 120, you will want to purchase and equip the Superior Cartography Skillcape. If you still have not reached Cartography Level 120 after the first 2 locations, move to the center of the map, around (16, 11) and start surveying the hexes to the East since they are higher level than the ones on the left.

(15, 26) - Bottom spot (15, 11) - Middle spot / (15, 12) / Early Logbook: (17, 10)

Level 10 = 80xp Level 35 = 282xp Level 50 = 404xp Level 65 = 525xp Level 80 = 646xp Level 90 = 727xp Level 100 = 780xp Level 100 = 808xp


TODO:

  1. Finish final section
  2. Mention Captain's Logbook at an optimal time to branch off for it. (Is this even worth grabbing? It requires 2 moves after grabbing Interval POIs however these are high XP areas. Need to test this)
  3. Fix These: (SHIP TABLE) (XP TABLE) (INTERVAL TABLE) (SECOND GOAL)
  4. Re-route second stage -> Green path first then blue path; This route is faster (Done, needs updated Image)
  5. Is it better to get Spyglass first or the shop purchase? (Spyglass->POI->361,208xp) vs (POI->Spyglass->363,599xp)

Cartography Level 50, File:(item).png [[]], File:(poi).png Cartography, Agility, File:(upgrade).svg [[]], File:(constellation).svg [[]], Mastery,


Boosters

Ship Upgrades

Other Shop Purchases

Upgrade Name Level Cost Purchase Requirement X Y Modifiers
Cartographer's Enhancement Cartography Level 0 3,000,000GP Discover The Jagged Labyrinth 5 7 +2% Cartography Skill XP
-5% Cartography survey interval
-5% Cartography travel costs
Cartographer's Knowledge Cartography Level 100 50,000,000GP Discover The Edge of Darkness 31 0 +2% Cartography Skill XP
-5% Cartography survey interval
-5% Cartography travel costs
Travel Token Archaeology Level 80 100,000 Donate 150 Artefacts to the Museum -10% Cartography travel costs

XP

The following things can be used to increase the amount of Cartography XP received.

Action Time

This table lists most sources of boosts to Survey, Map Upgrade, and Paper Making intervals.


Melvor Idle Skill Guides
Combat
Woodcutting
Fishing
Firemaking
Cooking
Mining
Smithing
Thieving
Farming
Fletching
Crafting
Runecrafting
Herblore
Agility
Summoning
Astrology
Township
Alternative Magic
Cartography
Archaeology












For beginners, the method with the least amount of required skills for its maximum rate is the Fishing method. The Skill requirements listed in each method are the minimum required, and you will often struggle to reach the maximum rates without higher levels in the respective skills for things like Skillcapes, or the ability to make boosts from other Skills.


FIX THESE

  • Links linking to this page
  • Expansion Boosts at the end

Thieving

  This strategy was calculated for v1.2.1 and may have changed in newer updates.

Thieving Fisherman with Leprechaun + Monkey Synergy (Min 4.7m/h ~ Max 10.4m/hr)

Minimum Requirements

These are the minimum requirements achieve the Min GP/h on the Fisherman and the following Thieving money makers. To reach the Max GP/h, you will need all of the additional GP boosts in the Improving GP Rates section. Unless Success Chance is less than 100%, no Stealth boosts are required to reach Max GP/h. Rates can be improved beyond the Max with Expansion Boosts
Name Effect
10% Thieving Mastery Pool Checkpoint +30 Stealth
25% Thieving Mastery Pool Checkpoint -0.2s Thieving Interval
  Gloves of Silence -0.1s Thieving Interval
+150 Flat GP from Thieving
+50 Stealth
  Golbin Mask +20 Flat GP from Thieving
+20 Stealth
  Sneak-Ers +5% Global GP
+40 Stealth
  Cargo Net 3% Global GP
  Rooftop Run -0.2s Thieving Interval
+20% GP from Thieving
+35 Stealth

Minimum Level Requirements

Method

This method relies on the increased sell values of common drops from the   Leprechaun+  Monkey synergy: "Upon receiving a Common Drop from Thieving, automatically sell it for 1500% of its base sale price".

  1.   Craft   Leprechaun and   Monkey Tablets and equip them
  2.   Steal from the   Fisherman
  3. Sell all   Shipwheel.

These rates were calculated with this spreadsheet. A huge thanks to Nomeru for creating the spreadsheet and Geedunk for updating the spreadsheet!

  This strategy was calculated for v1.2.1 and may have changed in newer updates.

Thieving Knight with Leprechaun + Monkey Synergy (x/h min ~ y/hr max)

Required Boosts

To reach the Min GP/h you will need BOTH these requirements AND the Minimum Requirements from the Fisherman. To reach the Max GP/h, you will need all of the additional boosts in the Improving GP Rates section.

If you are unable to obtain these items, the Fisherman will provide better rates.

Name Effect
  Thieving Skillcape -0.5s Thieving Interval
+100% GP from Thieving
+150 Stealth
95% Thieving Mastery Pool Checkpoint +100 Stealth
3x chance to gain unique area items
    Level 99 +100% GP from Knight
+174 Stealth vs Knight

Skill Level Requirements


Method

This method relies on the increased sell values of common drops from the   Leprechaun+  Monkey synergy: "Upon receiving a Common Drop from Thieving, automatically sell it for 1500% of its base sale price".

  1.   Craft   Leprechaun and   Monkey Tablets and equip them
  2.   Steal from the   Knight
  3. Sell all unsold drops. Use   Item Alchemy III along with any available GP boosts on drops worth more than 10,000 

Without most of the buffs, earnings can be lower than 5,000,000  per hour. If you are lacking in stealth for a high success rate on   Knight, the   Leprechaun+  Monkey synergy may be more effective on the   Fisherman.

These rates were calculated with this spreadsheet. A huge thanks to Nomeru for creating the spreadsheet and Geedunk for updating the spreadsheet!

Thieving Princess and Fletching Jadebolts (x/h min ~ y/hr max)

Skill Level Requirements

  •   Level 15
  •   Level 10
  •   Level 99
  •   Level 99

Required Requirements

These boosts are in addition to the ones above and are specifically for this method.

Name Effect
    Level 99 +100% GP from Princess
+174 Stealth vs Princess
  Fletching Skillcape (  Level 99) Doubles items received from Fletching
  Leprechaun+  Devil (  Level 90) +50 Flat GP from Thieving
50% Chance for 2x GP
35% Chance for 4x Items
15% Chance for nothing
  Crown of Rhaelyx and its   Charge Stones +25% Resource Preservation
  Pipe Balance 3% Chance to Preserve Resources in Skills
  Coal Stones 3% Chance to Preserve Resources in Skills

Method

  1.   Steal   Jadestones from the   Princess
  2.   Mine   Iron Ore
  3.   Smith   Iron Bars
  4.   Forge   Headless Bolts
  5.   Fletch   Jadestone Bolts
  6. Sell common drops. Use   Item Alchemy III along with any available GP boosts on drops worth more than 15,000 

Thieving is not better than the   Dragon Javelin method by default. Both methods heavily depend on the buffs from items, passives, and skills. The most important boosts for this method are all buffs to Stealth and   Thieving Interval Reductions. Although princess is unlocked at level 92, it likely will take until level 99 for the   Thieving Skillcape and the 95% mastery pool bonus to have sufficient stealth bonuses for a high thieving success rate. Once   Princess is survivable, the next most important boost is the   Leprechaun+  Devil synergy to increase the number of   Jadestones gathered.

High resource preservation and item doubling during   Fletching is very beneficial. Using   Crown of Rhaelyx and its   Charge Stones is strongly recommended here. Without most of the buffs, earnings can be as low as 4,000,000  per hour.

With the   Throne of the Herald expansion, the items   Grappling Hook and   Thieving Shorts are available at level 100 from the   Explorer which provide substantial buffs for this method.

With the   Atlas of Discovery expansion,   Bandit Hideout point of interest in   Cartography provides several useful buffs to this method.

These rates were calculated with this spreadsheet. A huge thanks to Nomeru for creating the spreadsheet and Geedunk for updating the spreadsheet!

Improving GP Rates

Name Effect
  Thieving Skillcape -0.5s Thieving Interval
+100% GP from Thieving
+150 Stealth
50% Thieving Mastery Pool Checkpoint +100% GP from Thieving
95% Thieving Mastery Pool Checkpoint +100 Stealth
3x chance to gain unique area items
  Thieving Gloves +75 Stealth
  Thiefs Moneysack II +30% of Maximum GP added to Minimum GP
  Jeweled Necklace +5% Global GP
  Fine Coinpurse +10% Global GP
  Gentle Hands Potion IV +75 Stealth
  Aorpheat's Signet Ring +100% Global GP
+5% Global Doubling
  Snek +50% GP from Thieving
  Ice Jump +5% Global Doubling
  Pillar of Skilling +3% Global Doubling
  Slayer Platebody (Master)
  Slayer Leather Body (Master)
  Slayer Wizard Robes (Master)
+3% Thieving Doubling
  Aquarias +1% Global Doubling
  Ko +8% Thieving Doubling
-5% Thieving Interval
+50 Stealth

Expansion Boosts

Name Effect
    Grappling Hook idk fix this
    Thieving Shorts idk fix this
    Rooftop Climb idk fix this
    Masquerade Mask idk fix this
    Bandit Hideout idk fix this