31 articlesThe Barracuda Trials in Old School RuneScape (OSRS) are still one of the toughest Sailing activities to master, especially if you’re aiming for the coveted Marlin rank on every course.
These trials give fairly little room for error. If you wish to ace the highest rank and clear it below the time limit, you’re going to have to be on point with both planning and navigating!
Even after several updates and balance fixes, it remains extremely demanding. You’ll need efficient boost management, sharp navigation, and almost perfect routing to be able to clear the highest rank consistently.
In this guide, we’ll tell you everything we can to help you achieve the Marlin rank on all of the Barracuda Trials.
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Before anything else, let’s first have a brief overview of the Barracuda Trials.
Basically, they are high-speed Sailing challenges where you race through obstacle courses as you collect Lost Supplies and complete trial-specific mechanics before the timer expires.
That said, there are currently three trials available, namely:
- The Tempor Tantrum – Unlocks at Sailing level 30
- The Jubbly Jive – Unlocks at Sailing level 55
- The Gwenith Glide – Unlocks at Sailing level 72
Each trial contains three rank tiers which are Swordfish, Shark, and Marlin.
The Marlin rank has the strictest time limit and leaves very little room for mistakes. However, these trials are still considered the best Sailing XP method in the game right now.
With that out of the way, let’s look at how you can do the trials consistently.
Basics and General Tips
As mentioned earlier, the Barracuda Trials consist of three different trials, each one unlocking at a different Sailing level.
As a note, only Skiffs can be used for these trials! However, your upgrades and Facilities are still usable, so make sure to build and customize your ship to prepare for the trials.
Each one of these trials has 3 different ranks. Beating the time in a rank will clear it, unlocking the next rank. In order, the ranks are Swordfish, Shark, and Marlin.
As you might imagine, the lower ranks are easier with simpler routes and more lax time requirements. However, higher ranks provide better rewards, including Sailing XP!
Aside from the time requirements, all trials will also require you to collect lost supply crates. You’ll need a specific amount each time, depending on trial.
As a general tip for Marlin Ranks, we recommend using the RuneLite client with the Object Markers plugin. This will allow you to highlight the lost supplies crates by shift-clicking on them.
With that, you want to do an unranked practice run of each Marlin trial by just planning your route and marking all the crates along the way.
You can use different colors to help you define at which point or lap of the route to collect them. We’ll help you with the actual routes themselves later, don’t worry!
While this step is admittedly a bit of a slog, it will greatly help you do a perfect run to beat the time limit.
As another tip, I highly recommend installing a Windcatcher on your Skiff as soon as possible. It unlocks at Level 53 Sailing and allows you to use Wind Motes (shown above) to get a speed boost.
This becomes extremely important for the latter trials, especially on the Marlin rank! So, make sure to get it ASAP.
Also, as a last tip, we recommend bringing Repair Kits with you. You can use them to quickly fix your boat if you hit any obstacles.
Now, let’s go over the recommended routes to beat the Marlin rank time for each trial.
General Tips for Achieving Marlin Rank
The biggest difference between average players and those who can consistently achieve Marlin rank is movement efficiency.
As much as possible, avoid oversteering. Small adjustments are much faster than wide turns, especially in tighter sections of Gwenith Glide.
Current high-level strategies also focus heavily on boost chaining. Instead of using boosts immediately, experienced players tend to save them for long straightaways or hazardous terrain sections where momentum matters most.
Camera control is another major factor. Many experienced players now rotate their camera immediately after portals because their ship often exits facing a different direction. If you lose orientation for even a second, Marlin timings can quickly fall apart.
Recommended Marlin Rank Routes
The Tempor Tantrum
Green line is lap 1
Orange line is lap 2
Purple line is lap 3
Blue dots are rum boats
White dots are crates
The first of the Barracuda Trials is the simplest of them. For this one, you will need to sail around the area in a loop, collecting crates.
At the same time, you have to collect the rum from the southern rum boat and bring it to the northern one. With how they are placed, they act as checkpoints as you loop around the center of the area.
For the Marlin rank, you need 36 Crates and 3 Rum within 4m 30s.
The main things to look out for here are the rapids, which appear as whirlpools on the water’s surface. Touching them will give you a boost of speed, which is crucial for meeting the time limit.
At the same time, make sure to avoid the black storm clouds and the rocks along the route. Hitting them will damage your boat and also cost you speed.
Overall, this trial should be fairly simple to complete as long as you keep the above in mind and practice a bit.
With that in mind, the Tempor Tantrum is the easiest Barracuda Trial mechanically, but newer players still struggle with maintaining momentum through whirlpools and rapid turns.
Fortunately, recent Sailing fixes have improved several obstacle interactions here, making the course more reliable than it was back then.
The Jubbly Jive
Note:clearing the Shark rank of this trial gives you a Captured Wind Mote as a reward. That allows you to make a Windcatcher, which we recommend doing before the Marlin rank.
This trial ramps things up compared to the previous one by adding a few new gimmicks.
The first gimmick is the fetid waters, which show up as green bubbling waters. Sailing over these waters will greatly slow down your boat, forcing you to be much more careful so you can avoid them.
You can mitigate the effects of these fetid waters by trimming your sails and using Wind Motes for a speed boost. So, as we mentioned before, make sure you get that first.
The second gimmick is that you need to pass by a boat to collect frogs, which is the Supply Boat marked on the route at the top of this section.
Then, you’ll need to throw the frogs at flags along the route to lure the Jubbly to a specific spot. You can see the order of flags in the top left corner of the screen.
We highly recommend learning the route shown on the map above for this one. In particular, make sure to memorize when and where to trim sails and use Wind Motes.
Of course, all of that is on top of also having to collect enough crates! For the Marlin rank, you’ll need to collect 56 creates and lure the Jubbly bird to the white flag 3 times within 5m 21s.
Other than that, you’ll need to practice this one thoroughly. It’s a very tricky trial, thanks to the tight corners required to avoid the fetid waters, but we’re sure you can do it!
This course is where Windcatcher optimization becomes much more noticeable, particularly during sticky terrain sections where maintaining speed is critical.
The Gwenith Glide
Blue dots are Wind Motes
Yellow dots are crates
The final Marlin trial is, in a way, the most straightforward of them all. Despite that, it’s still considered the hardest Barracuda Trial by most players. The only gimmick here is the colored portals, which will teleport you from one place to another and are a key part of your routing.
Most players fail their Marlin attempts because they panic after exiting portals and lose momentum correcting their direction. The more recent strategy is to immediately check the minimap after every portal transition so you can instantly reposition your camera and continue moving smoothly.
At the same time, there are many ice crystals along the route that you’ll need to avoid. They deal damage to you while also slowing down your boat. Similar to the fetid waters, you’ll need to maneuver carefully to avoid them.
Besides that, though, there isn’t anything you need to be aware of besides collecting all of the crates. No rum or birds or anything like that! Just pure sailing.
So, with that in mind, the best way to beat this one is to memorize the route shown above and just practice. Your ability to handle the ship will be fully put to the test here. You’ll need to get 96 crates within 6m 09s.
Are Barracuda Trials Worth Grinding?
Absolutely.
Despite several Sailing updates and XP balancing patches, Barracuda Trials are still considered the fastest Sailing XP method in OSRS.
They also reward useful unlocks and remain one of the best ways to improve your Sailing mechanics overall. That said, many players now treat Marlin clears as a skill challenge rather than a mandatory progression.
After all, Swordfish and Shark ranks are far more forgiving if you only want efficient XP without the frustration.
That’s the end of our guide, so now you know everything you need to do to complete all of the Barracuda Trials and achieve their Marlin rank in OSRS! We wish you the best of luck with them.
