Earning credits
Credits are the only currency in TCG Online, and the only thing they buy is packs — 5 cards for 1,000. There is nothing to purchase and nothing to grind that is not already Old School RuneScape: every credit comes from playing the game, and the server pays them out on its own. Here is every source, and what each one actually pays.
Every way to earn
| Source | Pays | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| Welcome grant | 3,000 credits, once | Paid when your first character binds to your account — three packs, so you start with cards rather than an empty collection. |
| Skill levels | 550 credits a level | Every skill, combat included, up to 99. Levels you already had are not paid for: your first report records where you are and pays from there. |
| Quests | 1,000 credits a quest | Backpaid — quests you finished before you ever linked still pay, once each. |
| Achievement diaries | Easy 1,000 · Medium 2,000 · Hard 3,000 · Elite 5,000 | Per diary, per tier, across all of them. Backpaid like quests, so a completionist banks a lot on the first report. |
| Boss kills | 100–5,000 credits per 10 kills | 67 bosses pay, at their own rates. Read from Jagex's hiscores on an hourly sweep rather than from your client. Kills from before you linked are not backpaid, and a part-finished block carries forward instead of rounding away. |
| Opening packs | 5 → 637 · 10 → 1,275 · 15 → 1,700 | A bonus as you cross the 5th, 10th and 15th pack inside a rolling 24 hours. Each threshold pays its own amount, so all three is 3,612 back. |
| Selling spares | 25% of face value | Any duplicate, from the card's detail window. Your last copy of a card can never be sold — in CardMan that would confiscate an item you had already unlocked. |
The one that surprises people
Levels you already had do not pay. The first report a character sends records where its skills are and pays nothing for them; you earn from that point on. So linking a maxed account earns the 3,000 welcome grant and then very little from levelling, while a fresh account earns 550 credits a level all the way up.
That is deliberate, and it is why the other sources exist. A finished account still has a quest log, a diary tab and a boss log — quests and diaries are backpaid in full, once each, on the first report. A completionist banks a great deal the moment they link. Boss kills are the middle case: your count when the server first sees it becomes the baseline, and you are paid for kills from there.
Levels are paid on XP, not on your word. The plugin reports the XP; the server re-derives the level from it and pays on that, and a per-skill ratchet remembers the highest level already paid. A replayed report pays nothing, and XP going backwards and up again pays nothing on the way back. Gains faster than anyone can actually play are held for review rather than paid.
Skills, quests and diaries
- 550 credits per skill level, in every skill including the combat ones, up to level 99. Virtual levels pay nothing — the plugin reads the level the game shows you, which stops at 99.
- 1,000 credits per quest, once each, backpaid for everything already finished.
- Achievement diaries pay per tier, per diary: Easy 1,000, Medium 2,000, Hard 3,000, Elite 5,000. Also backpaid.
Credits land while you are doing something else, so the plugin pulls its report forward within seconds of a level, a quest or a diary tier rather than waiting for its next scheduled beat — the balance at the top of the screen moves while the fireworks are still going.
Boss kills
67 bosses pay, each at its own rate, and they are paid in whole blocks of 10 — nine kills carry forward to next time rather than rounding away.
These come from Jagex's own hiscores, swept hourly, not from your client. That makes them the one reward with no forgery surface at all: there is nothing for a modified plugin to claim. It also means a kill count that is not on the boards yet pays nothing, and that kills from before you linked are not backpaid — your count when the server first sees it is the starting line.
| Boss | Per 10 kills | Packs |
|---|---|---|
| Sol Heredit | 5,000 | 5 |
| Theatre of Blood: Hard Mode | 3,000 | 3 |
| Tombs of Amascut: Expert Mode | 3,000 | 3 |
| TzKal-Zuk | 3,000 | 3 |
| Corporeal Beast | 2,500 | 2.50 |
| Tombs of Amascut | 2,000 | 2 |
| Chambers of Xeric: Challenge Mode | 1,500 | 1.50 |
| Theatre of Blood | 1,500 | 1.50 |
| TzTok-Jad | 1,500 | 1.50 |
| General Graardor | 1,400 | 1.40 |
| Abyssal Sire | 1,200 | 1.20 |
| Chambers of Xeric | 1,200 | 1.20 |
| Commander Zilyana | 1,200 | 1.20 |
| Duke Sucellus | 1,200 | 1.20 |
| Amoxliatl | 1,000 | 1 |
| Artio | 1,000 | 1 |
| Barrows Chests | 1,000 | 1 |
| Callisto | 1,000 | 1 |
| Calvar'ion | 1,000 | 1 |
| Doom of Mokhaiotl | 1,000 | 1 |
| Kree'Arra | 1,000 | 1 |
| Vardorvis | 1,000 | 1 |
| K'ril Tsutsaroth | 750 | 0.75 |
| Phosani's Nightmare | 750 | 0.75 |
| Yama | 600 | 0.60 |
| Alchemical Hydra | 500 | 0.50 |
| Bryophyta | 500 | 0.50 |
| King Black Dragon | 500 | 0.50 |
| The Leviathan | 500 | 0.50 |
| The Whisperer | 500 | 0.50 |
| Vorkath | 500 | 0.50 |
| Grotesque Guardians | 450 | 0.45 |
| Maggot King | 450 | 0.45 |
| Nex | 450 | 0.45 |
| Crazy Archaeologist | 400 | 0.40 |
| Kalphite Queen | 400 | 0.40 |
| Thermonuclear Smoke Devil | 400 | 0.40 |
| Venenatis | 400 | 0.40 |
| Vet'ion | 400 | 0.40 |
| Zulrah | 400 | 0.40 |
| Araxxor | 300 | 0.30 |
| Cerberus | 300 | 0.30 |
| Chaos Elemental | 300 | 0.30 |
| Dagannoth Prime | 300 | 0.30 |
| Dagannoth Rex | 300 | 0.30 |
| Dagannoth Supreme | 300 | 0.30 |
| Deranged Archaeologist | 300 | 0.30 |
| Giant Mole | 300 | 0.30 |
| Phantom Muspah | 300 | 0.30 |
| The Royal Titans | 300 | 0.30 |
| Zalcano | 300 | 0.30 |
| Brutus | 250 | 0.25 |
| Hespori | 250 | 0.25 |
| Kraken | 250 | 0.25 |
| The Corrupted Gauntlet | 250 | 0.25 |
| Chaos Fanatic | 200 | 0.20 |
| Mad Angel | 200 | 0.20 |
| Mimic | 200 | 0.20 |
| Sarachnis | 200 | 0.20 |
| Scorpia | 200 | 0.20 |
| Obor | 150 | 0.15 |
| Tempoross | 150 | 0.15 |
| The Gauntlet | 150 | 0.15 |
| The Hueycoatl | 150 | 0.15 |
| Scurrius | 100 | 0.10 |
| Shellbane Gryphon | 100 | 0.10 |
| Wintertodt | 100 | 0.10 |
A boss not listed here pays nothing — being on the list is what makes kills worth credits. Names are spelled as Jagex's hiscores spell them, because that is the key they are matched on.
Credits from the card game itself
The daily pack bonus
Opening packs pays you back a little as you go — 637 at 5 packs, 1,275 at 10 packs, 1,700 at 15 packs, inside a rolling 24 hours rather than a calendar day. Each threshold pays its own amount as it is crossed, so opening fifteen packs in a day returns 3,612 of the 15,000 you spent, not 1,700.
Selling duplicates
Any spare copy sells back from the card's detail window at 25% of face value. Your last copy can never be sold — the item lock is derived from the cards you hold, so selling out of a card would take away something you had already unlocked.
| Gem tier | A spare sells for |
|---|---|
| Opal | 37 |
| Sapphire | 75 |
| Emerald | 150 |
| Ruby | 187 |
| Diamond | 225 |
| Onyx | 300 |
| Zenyte | 1,000 |
The rate is a quarter rather than face value on purpose. Weighted by the pull chances, a 5-card pack holds about 2,150 of face value against its 1,000 price — so paying face for spares would be an infinite credit loop that a script could run all night. At a quarter a pack returns about 537, and the economy stays a sink.
Spending them
A pack is 1,000 credits for 5 cards, and it is the only thing credits buy. The pack orb lights up green the moment you can afford one, so you never have to go looking at the number.
Every card rolls one of the seven gem tiers, and the server does the rolling — Opal 40%, Sapphire 25%, Emerald 15%, Ruby 10%, Diamond 6%, Onyx 3%, Zenyte 1%.