Old School RuneScape: How to Complete the Merchant Boat Paint

In Old School RuneScape, many players encounter the Merchant Boat Paint task while RuneScape gold progressing through early-game activities involving the sea traders along Gielinor's coasts. Although it is not a full quest, this task appears during certain miniquests, diary steps, or ship-related interactions where the player is asked to acquire or apply paint to a merchant's boat. While simple on the surface, it serves as a good introduction to OSRS's item-acquisition logic, NPC dialogue trees, and problem-solving patterns. Completing it is quick and rewarding, provided you know the proper steps.

Understanding the Task

The Merchant Boat Paint objective usually involves helping a merchant restore or decorate his trading vessel. The merchant NPC-often found near port areas such as Port Sarim, Rimmington's coastline, or another small dock-asks the player to fetch a specific type of paint or the materials needed to create it. This is framed as a small favor in exchange for experience, coins, or progression in the surrounding activity. The task varies slightly depending on when and where you encounter it, but the structure always follows three key steps:

Talk to the merchant to learn what color paint is needed.

Acquire the paint through crafting, trading, or NPC purchases.

Return and apply the paint to complete the task.

Understanding how the paint itself is made is the essential part.

Gathering the Paint Ingredients

In Old School RuneScape, paint is not sold as a universal item in shops. Instead, paint is usually crafted using basic ingredients:

Redberries for red pigment

Woad leaves for blue pigment

Yellow dye through onion-based crafting

Combining dyes for secondary colors (orange, green, purple)

To create paint suitable for the boat, you will need dye, which is created through the NPC Aggie the Witch in Draynor Village. Aggie is the game's primary source of early-game dyes, and she is essential for this task.

For example, to obtain blue paint, you must buy two woad leaves from Wyson the Gardener in Falador Park. Asking nicely dramatically reduces their price, often making them cost only 20 coins. Once you have the leaves, bring them to Aggie, who will mix them into blue dye for a small fee.

For a red dye, you will need three redberries, commonly found south of Varrock. For yellow dye, collect two onions, scattered around small farms across Gielinor.

After collecting the ingredients, take them to Aggie to receive the appropriate dye. The merchant usually accepts dye as "paint," meaning players do not need any special brush or crafting skill.

Returning to the Merchant

Once you've obtained the dye, return to the merchant. He will either take the dye directly or instruct you to apply it to the boat. If you must paint the boat yourself, simply interact with the ship from the dock. The game will consume the dye and visually update the boat.

This typically completes the task instantly. Players may receive:

Coins

A minor experience reward

Favor or respect points in ship-related tasks

Progression in a miniquest or journal step

Tips to Make the Task Faster

Bring coins-Aggie charges a fee for each dye.

Collect extra berries or woad leaves for future dye-related tasks.

Use teleportation (Falador, Varrock, Draynor) to shorten travel time.

Speak politely to Wyson to reduce the cost of woad leaves.

If you have access to fairy rings, you can cut travel time further.

Conclusion

Completing the Merchant Boat Paint task is a small but buy OSRS gold charming example of OSRS's worldbuilding. It teaches players how to gather natural ingredients, work with NPC artisans, and explore port towns-skills that recur throughout the game's larger quests. While simple, it fits perfectly into the hand-crafted style of Old School RuneScape: a world where even painting a boat feels like an adventure.