osrs prayer guide

Being a protective combat skill, prayer is incredibly useful. It makes questing, bossing and PKing a lot easier. Since this is a combat skill, for every 8 prayer levels you will gain a combat level. This OSRS Prayer Guide will contain every single method to train prayer in the game. The cheapest method, the fastest method, how to do it on an iron man, etc. While Prayer is mainly a useful skill to P2P players, I will include a small F2P prayer guide at the end of this page. 

Let’s get started with the P2P Prayer Guide. 

OSRS 1-99 Prayer Guide

For P2P players, there are many ways to train prayer. The most common being the Gilded Altar method (expensive but very fast). Other methods include Ectofuntus, chaos altar and ensouled heads. 

Method 1: Gilded Altar

Gilded altar osrs prayer guide

I’m starting this osrs prayer guide off with the Gilded altar because it’s in my opinion the best way to train the prayer skill. No requirements (unless you’re an ironman), no risk and super-fast experience.

Gilded altars are found in POH (Player-owned-houses). These altars are available from level 75 construction and cost about 1.2M GP to make. Luckily for us, you can use the altar in other players’ houses as well. People are always hosting these in world 330 in Yanille and Remmington. Simply head over to the portal in either location and at the advertising board next to the portal for any open house parties.

Once you found the right house, you can start with your bone runs. Keep in mind, for you to get the best EXP per bone (3,5X) both burners next to the altar must be on at all times. However, this is rarely a problem at house parties, someone is always taking care of it. 

Rimmington Method

rimmington gilded altar osrs prayer guide

The Rimmington location is faster than the Yanille location because you have the opportunity to have all your bones noted in your inventory. Doing this method you will hold 26 bones un-noted, your entire stack noted and coins in your inventory.

After each run, you simply run into the general store south of the portal and get the NPC Phials to un-note your bones for you. This will cost you 5 coins per un-note or 130 coins per inventory. Making it a little bit more expensive but you’ll save SO much time.

Yanille Method

yanille gilded altar osrs prayer guide

In Yanille you need to run to and from the bank every time. While still fast, the Rimmington method is a lot faster and 130 coins per inventory isn’t the worst price to pay for fast experience. 

Glory Method

Some player-owned-houses have a glory mounted to the wall in the “quest hall” which can teleport you to Edgeville. This way you can do quick runs by using house teleport tabs.

For this method to work you need to have your house set to either Rimmington or Yanille. Simply teleport to your house with your bones, enter the players name and do your altar run. Once the run is completed, use their glory to teleport to Edgeville, bank and use a house tab to teleport back and repeat. It’s also advised you switch your house teleport settings to teleport you outside instead of inside.

Which bones to use

Prayer is kind of a different skill from the rest because you have access to a wide variety of bones starting from level 1. The only exception is the superior dragon bone, which requires a prayer level of 70 to use. It’s completely up to you how much money and time you want to spend on achieving 99.

OSRS Gilded Altar Experience Per Hour

BonesExp/hrHours to reach 99Price to 99
Big Bones52K/hr25058.5M
Babydragon Bones105K/hr123120M
Dragon Bones252K/hr51155M
Lava Dragon Bones300K/hr43233M
Superior Dragon Bones525K/hr(from level 70) 23(from level 70) 292M
Check out the prayer calculator for more accurate pricing.

Realistically, a player can do 1000 bones/hr in OSRS so this is the measure we used for our calculations. Other guides may provide a slightly higher experience/hour but these are not as realistic.

Method 2: Chaos Altar

chaos altar osrs prayer guide

The Chaos Temple is found at level 38 wilderness in a multi-combat zone. This altar gives you the same experience as a lit gilded altar with an additional 1/2 chance that the bone used is not consumed.

This means that you’re using fewer bones in total, resulting in less money wasted on the prayer skill. This is great for ironman accounts who do not have access to a gilded altar and the ability to buy bones from the grand exchange.

Being the fastest prayer method in the game, the chaos altar comes with quite a few downsides. You can get PKed and since it’s multi-combat you can get PKed fast. This makes this method extremely high-risk as you have to risk noted bones to do it efficiently.

On average, you will get around 7x experience per bone. This can give you insane experience/hour if you’re using the recommended setup.

Chaos Altar location and transportation

osrs chaos altar teleportation

The fastest way to get to the chaos altar is using the Burning amulet which lets you teleport to the lava maze, right next to the chaos temple as shown on the picture.

Other methods such as Ghorrock (ancient magicks, level 96 magic) and ancient obelisk (80 construction) are possible but they have high skill requirements and don’t even provide a faster way of getting there.

Chaos Altar Gear Setup

You should wear armor that is high in Magic defense like dragonhide and a level 30 teleportation item such as a combat bracelet, a ring of wealth, etc. You should also make space in your inventory for food, super restores and saradomin brews. A stamina potion is also recommended so you can outrun your pkers.

You should pray mage at all times, just in case a pker logs in. Since you’ll be next to the altar, you can use it to recharge your prayer once its gets low.

Chaos Altar Runs

High risk, high reward. With this method, you will be risking both cash and noted bones but you will see the best prayer experience in the game.

Teleport to the wilderness with an inventory full of bones, a cash stack (enough to un-note your bones at 50gp each) and noted bones (whatever you’re comfortable losing).

Use your bones on the altar, once you’re out, go see the Elder Chaos Druid outside and ask him to un-note your bones for you. Repeat.

Once you run out of bones simply run to level 30 wilderness and teleport out using your ring of wealth, bank at the grand exchange and repeat.

Escaping pkers

Doing this method, you have to accept that you will run into pkers, a lot. So it’s important you know exactly how to deal with them.

Like I mentioned previously, you need to have protect from mage on at all times. This, alongside with your magic defense bonus, will increase the chance of your opponents splashing on you so you can run towards level 30 wilderness and use your ring of wealth to teleport out.

OSRS Chaos Altar experience per hour

Please note: experience rates can differ drastically depending on your setup.

BonesExp/hrHours to reach 99Price to 99
Big Bones105K/hr12429M
Babydragon Bones210K/hr6259M
Dragon Bones504K/hr2677.5M
Lava Dragon Bones595K/hr22116M
Superior Dragon Bones1M/hr(from level 70) 12(from level 70) 147M
Check out the prayer calculator for more accurate pricing.

Method 3: Ensouled Heads (include EXP/HR + money?) 

ensouled heads osrs

Ensouled Heads is different from the other ways to train the prayer skills, it’s also the method with the highest requirements. Since you’ll be killing reanimated monsters for this method, on top of prayer you will also gain magic experience (from the spell) and combat experience from killing the monster. 

Requirements:

  • 72 Magic
  • Runes for reanimated spell
  • Reanimated heads
  • Fairy ring access (start fairy tales part 2)
  • Armour and a weapon
  • Arceuus Spellbook (this requires 60% Arceuus favour and can be switched by speaking with Tyss, located at the dark altar) 
  • Higher level combat stats recommended
  • Dwarf cannon (optional)

Using a cannon you can reach over 300K Prayer Experience per hour. Though of course the cost of cannonballs would eat a chunk of your money. 

Location

You can only use the necromancy spellbook to reanimate creatures in the dark altar area. 

MonsterMagic level requiredPrayer Experience
Reanimated Goblin3130
Reanimated Monkey7182
Reanimated Minotaur12286
Reanimated Scorpion19454
Reanimated Bear21480
Reanimated Unicorn22494
Reanimated Dog26520
Reanimated Chaos Druid30584
Reanimated Giant37650
Reanimated Ogre40716
Reanimated Elf43754
Reanimated Troll46780
Reanimated Horror52832
Reanimated Kalphite57884
Reanimated Dagannoth62936
Reanimated Bloodveld651040
Reanimated Tzhaar691104
Reanimated Demon721170
Reanimated Aviansie781234
Reanimated Abyssal851300
Reanimated Dragon931560

OSRS 1-99 F2P Prayer Guide

As a free-to-play player, you are stuck to the old school method of burying bones to get your prayer level up. However, a high prayer level doesn’t really make sense for a free-to-play player as the highest protection prayer you can use is Mystic Might which you can unlock at level 45. 

Levels 1 – 9 The Restless Ghost

The restless Ghost is a short quest that can be completed in under 5 minutes. There are also no requirements so it’s 100% the best way to train your first levels without having to bury bones. 

Levels 9 – 45 Burying Big Bones

Burying big bones is the fastest way to gain experience in prayer as a F2P-player. There are two ways to go about this. The first thing you can do is buy the necessary big bones from the Grand Exchange. From 9 – 45 you’ll need 4026 big bones which will cost you about 890,000 GP. 

The second method is the free way where you get the big bones yourself. The best location for this are the hill giants who are living in the Edgeville dungeon. The hill giants are level 28 and are also a good way to level up your other combat skills. Each hill giant drops 1 big bone upon dying so you will need to kill 4026 Hill Giants and bury the bones right away to reach level 45. 

How to access Edgeville dungeon

There are two ways to access the Edgeville dungeon. The first and recommended way is to head to the cabin west of the grand exchange. You’ll need a brass key to enter (which you can buy from the grand exchange). Once you head down the ladder the hill giants will be on your right.

The second way does not require a brass key but for this way, you’ll need to start from Edgeville. 

Levels 45 – 99 

Leveling beyond 45 is not recommended as a free-to-play player as you won’t be able to use the protection prayers beyond this level. You should save up for a bond if you wish to continue leveling your prayer. 

For those interested, from level 45 it would take 864,862 big bones to reach level 99. This would cost you 190M GP. Again, not worth it. 

Quests That Grant Prayer Experience

QuestExp RewardPrayer ReqOther Skill Req
The restless Ghost1,125//
Priest in Peril1,406//
Making History1,000//
Rag and Bone Man500//
Recruitment Drive1,000/12QP
Mountain Daughter2,000/20 Agility
Ghosts Ahoy2,400/25 Agility, 20 Cooking
Another Slice of H.A.M.3,00025 Prayer15 Attack
Rag and Bone man 25,000/40 Slayer
The Great Brain Robbery6,00050 Prayer16 Crafting, 30 Construction
Rum Deal7,00047 Prayer32 Crafting, 50 Fishing, 40 Farming, 42 Slayer
Spirits of the Elid8,000/37 Thieving, 33 Magic, 37 Mining, 37 Ranged
Swan Song10,000/100QP, 40 Crafting, 42 Firemaking, 45 Smithing, 62 Fishing, 62 Cooking, 66 Magic

Hopefully, this OSRS Prayer Guide was helpful. If anything’s missing feel free to let us know.

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