OSRS TCG Combat Starter Guide: Flinching, Brutus and AFK Crabs
Combat pays credits per kill based on a monster's combat level — not XP. This guide covers starting combat in OSRS TCG, the flinching technique, why Brutus is the community darling, and the best AFK monsters.
By OSRS Card Exchange Team · · 3 min read
Combat works differently from skilling in OSRS TCG, and it trips up new players. You don't earn credits for combat XP. Instead each kill pays credits equal to the monster's combat level, and every combat level-up pays a bonus (like any skill — up to 25,000 credits at 99).
So the game isn't "hit things fast." It's "kill the highest-combat-level thing you can safely and AFK-ably farm." Here's how the community does it. Background: How Credits Work.
Starting combat from scratch
- 1Free Attack levels on the Varrock training dummies — up to level 8, doable even at combat level 3. "Start with level 8 attack in Varrock."
- 2Punch/flinch low-level mobs — rats, spiders, rabbits, chickens, rams at Fred's farm — to build Strength toward 30.
- 3Avoid the traps: the community warns "don't kill chinchompas for sure," and "bronze sword and gardeners is not the way." Bad early weapons (iron longsword, bronze crossbow/arrows) can be worse than nothing.
Learn to flinch — the core early-combat tech
Flinching lets you kill things well above your level without taking damage:
- 1Attack the monster once.
- 2Step back out of range and wait for its health bar to disappear (~10 game ticks — a metronome plugin helps).
- 3Step in, hit again, and retreat on the same tick.
Done right you take zero damage, so you can safely farm monsters with a much higher combat level than you — and remember, combat level is exactly what determines your credits per kill. Flinching is how low-level accounts punch way above their weight.
Brutus — the community's favourite early kill
If one monster defined launch weekend, it was Brutus, the cyclops in the Warriors' Guild basement. He's killable at low combat by flinching, and he's a one-stop shop of early unlocks:
- Drops food, bull bones (Prayer), armour, oak logs, air runes and death runes.
- Only needs the Brutus card + Piety/Courage to start the fight.
Monster • Misthalin
Doesn't skip leg day.
Resource
Logs cut from an oak tree.
Resource
One of the 4 basic elemental Runes.
Resource
Bigger than cow bones.
Players genuinely debated whether Brutus or Wintertodt had the higher kill count across the whole community. (Brutus won.)
The AFK meta: crabs
For hands-off credits, crabs are king — because their combat level is high and you barely have to click:
- Gemstone crab (combat level ~160) — the crown jewel. "It's broken even without a weapon." One player reported "6 hours gemcrab with iron battle axe, 81k points." Route: Varrock → Varlamore → mountain guide to Auburn → walk.
- King sand crab — "mega AFK."
- Sand crabs / rock crabs / ammonite crabs — "so freeee."
Monster • Varlamore
The shiniest crustacean this side of the shoreline.
Monster
No one likes crabs...
Monster • Varlamore • Kourend • Misthalin
No one likes crabs...
Monsters worth killing (with a real weapon)
- Fire giants — farmed for the rune scimitar drop. "6 hours into fire giants with iron scim, this is peak."
- Al-Kharid / Zamorak warriors (flinch) — another rune scimitar source. "118 Zammy warriors for rune scim!"
- Moss giants — safe-spot at the Karamja rope swing or Bryophyta's lair and flinch 2–3 at once.
- Ice giants / ice warriors (flinch) — ice warriors are "goated for cosmic runes."
- Monks at the Monastery — they heal you, making them a great AFK unlock.
- Shayzien sergeants — reported to drop a rune scimitar with no card needed.
Prayer & bones
Killing things drops bones, and the Wilderness Altar / Chaos Altar are heavily used to burn them for big Prayer XP — but they're risky. Several players lost hardcore status there. Weigh the reward against the PK risk (more in Trading, Collecting & Rules).
Weapon & tool ground spawns worth knowing
- Iron mace — Edgeville wilderness.
- Black scimitar — Ardougne (needs 61 Thieving).
- Iron axe — Varrock sewers by the moss giants (bring a slash weapon for the web).
- Iron pickaxe — Rellekka / Varlamore.
- Iron knives — Hunters' Guild. Bronze arrows — Lumbridge castle basement.
Bottom line
Free Attack on Varrock dummies → punch to 30 Strength → learn to flinch → farm Brutus and high-combat-level crabs. Credits scale with the combat level of what you kill, so the winning move is always "highest combat level I can safely, AFK-ably farm." Then let the level-up bonuses roll in as your stats climb.
Pair it with skilling
Agility, the Thieving ladder, Wintertodt and workarounds.
Frequently asked
- How does combat earn credits in OSRS TCG?
- Combat XP itself pays nothing. Each kill pays credits roughly equal to the monster's combat level, and each combat level-up pays a one-time bonus. So the goal is farming the highest combat level you can safely and AFK-ably kill.
- What is flinching in OSRS TCG?
- Flinching is attacking a monster, stepping out of range until its health bar disappears, then stepping in to hit and retreating on the same tick. Done right you take zero damage, letting a low-level account farm high-combat-level monsters for their bigger per-kill credit reward.
- What are the best AFK monsters in OSRS TCG?
- Crabs, because their combat level is high and they need almost no clicking. The Gemstone crab (~160 combat) is the crown jewel, with king sand crabs and sand/rock/ammonite crabs close behind. Brutus is the best early flinch target for varied drops.
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