Grimy herbs serve no purpose in the game other than a click-intensive timesink - they're essentially just busywork. This is because they are a relic of the old Herblore framework, which was abolished thanks to widespread scamming.
Grimy herbs were originally Unidentified Herbs, called Unids for short. Without the proper herblore level, a player could not identify the herb and selling them was much more difficult. Because of the huge price difference between herbs like Guam and Kwuarm, a common scam was to dump cheap herbs on people who were buying Unids. As a result, anyone buying Unids had to fill their inventory with every Unid except cheap herbs and then a bunch of junk. Anyone attempting to sell unwanted Unids would have their trade rejected as a result.
Jagex made the switch from Unids to Grimy herbs to eliminate that scam, but as a result all that was left from the mechanic was useless busywork. As a result, Runescape wastes the 99 Herblore cape perk and a Master Farming Outfit perk on reducing the impact of an aspect of the game that serves no real purpose.
12-Jan-2023 19:53:49