Serum 207

Serum 207

Serum 207 (2) Serum 207 (1)
Release date	18 October 2004 (Update)
Members?	Yes
Quest item?	Yes
Tradeable?	No
Equipable?	No
Stacks?	No
High Alch	8 coins
Low Alch	5 coins
Value	14 coins
Destroy	Drop
Store price	Not sold
Examine	X doses serum 207 as described in Herbi Flax's diary.
Weight	0 kg

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Serum 207 is a temporary cure to the afflicted villagers of Mort'ton, who are otherwise incoherent. A player who has read the Diary of Herbi Flax during the quest Shades of Mort'ton, and has a Herblore level of at least 15, may produce it by adding Tarromin and Ashes to a vial of water, giving 50 herblore experience.

Originally, players may have found it economically easier to use an ash potion (unf), but with the update on 17 October 2012, this item was removed. Players must now use a tarromin potion (unf) with ashes.

The potion may be used on an afflicted villager, who will temporarily become coherent and reward the player. In addition to Shade keys and Level 1 clue scrolls, the possible rewards include all the items required to make the potion, allowing the process to be repeated for an inexpensive, if slow, method of training Herblore. It may also be used on the sacred flame in the Temple of Mort'ton to produce serum 208 (see the Shades of Mort'ton activity for more on that process). Serum 208 is required during the quest, and will give greater rewards when used on the afflicted.

Because ashes are cheaper than the other ingredients which may be combined with Tarromin, which is itself a cheaper herb, the potion is a herblore training option with an excellent price-to-experience ratio. However, players planning to produce large quantities of the potion should be aware that they are difficult to dispose of. They were made untradeable after the introduction of the Grand Exchange, and therefore cannot be withdrawn as a note nor sold to any store. A player unwilling to sacrifice a bank slot for them must either empty or drop them one-by-one; alternately they could die in the Wilderness with 28 vials of serum over and over again. They do not even count as junk in Mobilising Armies. This tedious activity can be reduced by having Bob Barter decant them into 4 dose potions.

If emptying the vials, the quickest method is to empty them per column of vials in inventory. Start at the top of a column, right click on a vial, select the empty option. Selecting the empty option moves the mouse pointer down about one row in the inventory, and a little practice can easily have it end up positioned over the next vial, whereupon the process is repeated. This greatly reduces the amount of time spent moving the mouse.

Another emptying method can be used by players training herblore and using Bob Barter to decant their potions. When at a banker in the Grand Exchange, withdraw 5 vials of Serum 207 along with the potions to be decanted. Run to Bob Barter while emptying two of the vials of serum. Then, while Bob Barter is decanting the potions, empty another vial. (A little practice is needed here to avoid starting too soon, which fails, and too late, which wastes time. When done correctly, Bob Barter's chat head does not even appear to announce the decanting is done; instead, the vial simply empties.) Finally, empty the last two vials when running back to the Grand Exchange banker. This allows 5 vials to be emptied in no more time that it takes to do a decanting run.

Cure Rewards

Curing the affliction of one of the mort'ton villagers will cause them to give you one of the following items:

	Item	Quantity	Rarity	GE Market Price
	Coins	30–40	2 Common	Not sold
	Swamp paste	10–34	2 Common	10–34
Olive oil (1)	Olive oil (1)	2–5	2 Common	254–635
Olive oil (2)	Olive oil (2)	2–5	2 Common	386–965
Olive oil (3)	Olive oil (3)	2–4	3 Uncommon	788–1,576
	Olive oil (4)	2–3	3 Uncommon	1,150–1,725
	Logs	1–5	2 Common	111–555
	Oak logs	1–5	3 Uncommon	93–465
	Willow logs	2–5	3 Uncommon	42–105
	Maple logs	3–5	4 Rare	138–230
	Limestone brick	2–9	2 Common	224–1,008
	Grimy tarromin	2–5	2 Common	112–280
	Thin snail	1–3	2 Common	1,075–3,225
Lean snail	Lean snail	2–3	3 Uncommon	1,576–2,364
	Shade key	1	4 Rare	Not sold
	Shade key	1	4 Rare	Not sold
	Shade key	1	4 Rare	Not sold
	Clue scroll(easy)	1	4 Rare	Not sold

Note that none of these items are noted.

Cost-benefit analysis of curing

Simply subtract the current production price (seen below) from the current sale price of the reward items to see that players can easily break even by curing, and, given a few favorable results from any received clue scrolls, could even profit greatly (see the God robes sets).

In one test run where over 700 (4) dose serum were used, the number of tarromin herbs rewarded was actually more the number used to make the potions, generating a 100%+ profit. On the downside, the endeavor took nearly a week and a half of heavy playing to complete. (note; ALL items were retained. considerable time could be saved by dropping empty vials and undesired items)

Unfortunately, as curing or "using" the potion requires a massive time and energy commitment, especially for players who have made thousands of these potions, and given that the money spent is generally not monumental to begin with, the loss of money is widely held as acceptable. If the player is so inclined, however, the method is viable.

Production costs

This table is based on the Grand Exchange prices of a vial of water, the tarromin, and ashes. It is accurate assuming all three items are bought from the Grand Exchange. Note that the Serum 207 cannot be sold afterwards.

Herb state	Material cost	Profit/loss	Profit/xp
Clean	347	−347	−6.94
Grimy	349	−349	−6.35

$\rightarrow$ + = Grimy tarromin is cleaned to become clean tarromin added with a vial of water to make tarromin potion (unf). + =

Then add ashes to make a 3-dose serum 207.

Trivia

Serum 207 used to be tradeable until an update in early 2008 where this ability was removed.