Ghosts Ahoy OSRS Guide

Grab yourself your snail pet, a couple of Krabby Patties, and your starfish best friend because we are setting sail for the ghostly realm of the seas in this latest RuneScape quest. This Ghosts Ahoy OSRS guide will focus on one of the most time-consuming but enjoyable quests you’ll ever find in Old School RuneScape. Though it can be frustrating trying to acquire all of the items, we hope to simplify this matter for you in a straightforward way.

This Ghosts Ahoy OSRS guide comes from the years since I completed this quest myself. Back then, in those olden days, there weren’t many helpful guides online for RuneScape. Thankfully, you don’t have to go through as much of the frustrations I did with figuring out how to get specific items and all that. Let’s jump right into this lengthy ghostly pirate adventure without further ado.

Bottom Line Up Front

Ghosts Ahoy is one of the members-only quests that you can find in Old School RuneScape. This is a true classic, embodying what players love about the idea of having a true adventure when they do a quest. It is all about dealing with some ghostly pirates, and I think it is one of the few quests in the MMO that is a little bit heartfelt and emotional in some aspects. Unfortunately, it also happens to have a ton of items that you need for it, including some really annoying ones, which end up making this one of the most infamous quests at the same time.

Quest Details Up Front

Here are all of the upfront details that you need to know about the insane number of items that you need for this quest and other information:

  • Members Only: Yes
  • Official Length: Medium (But, honestly, this doesn’t take into account the prep work you need getting items. More like one of the longest quests around in some aspects)
  • Official Difficulty: Intermediate (Actually pretty easy to do once you have the items)
  • Required Quests: Priest in Peril (total completion), The Restless Ghost (at least up until you get the ghostspeak amulet)
  • Required Items: Roughly 31 ecto-tokens, ghostspeak amulet, 400 coins, a bucket of milk, silk, three different colors of dye, oak longbow, spade, knife, needle, thread, a bucket of slime, and nettle tea
  • Required Skills: Level 20 Cooking and Level 25 Agility
  • Recommended Levels: At least level 30 combat level (you can be lower for the one boss fight, but this makes it easier), level 58 Agility for making the ecto-tokens nonsense easier
  • Quest Rewards: 2 quest points, 2400 Prayer skill experience, Ectophial for traveling instantly to the Ectofuntus, and free travel to Port Phasmatys

Ghosts Ahoy OSRS Overview

ghost ahoy osrs guide
Image from Old School Rune Scape Wiki

Buckle in, sit back, relax (maybe), and put on your favorite Ghostbusters or another spooky film in the background because we are doing the Ghosts Ahoy quest in OSRS. In my time playing Old School RuneScape, this is one of the longest quests, mainly because of collecting the various items.

In all honesty, it isn’t that hard of an experience to accomplish, but it can be time-consuming gathering up all of the various ecto-tokens and other things you need for this quest. It is worth it, though, because the Ghosts Ahoy quest gives you some solid rewards and the ability to complete one of the most popular quests in all of RuneScape.

For the members out there who want to slay some dragons later on in their adventure and complete one of the flashiest quests around, you’ll need to take special care to complete the Ghosts Ahoy mission as soon as possible. Thankfully, I’ve got your back with everything that you need to do to accomplish just that.

Synopsis

Port Phasmatys is the legendary ghost town port that is found just east of the town of Canifis. This infamous port is full of ghosts all over the port, but many of them are tired of their long journey stuck in the in-between of the afterlife. As such, you are tasked with sending them over to the other side and ending their perilous time in this world for good.

Required Items and Quests: How to Get Them

Before we get into the quest itself, it is time to prep for this quest. This is by far the most frustrating and lengthiest part of the quest. The sheer number of items that you need for this mission is insane. Plus, it would be best if you made sure to complete a couple of other quests first, too.

So long as you prepare well beforehand, it can cut down the time of the Ghosts Ahoy quest considerably and make it a much more manageable mission. I’ve got your back with the part that annoyed my friends and me back in the day the most, so let’s take a look.

How to Get the Ecto-Tokens

Ecto-token
Image from Old School Rune Scape Wiki

First, let’s get the most annoying part of the entire Ghosts Ahoy quest out of the way. It is no secret that the ecto-tokens at the heart of this quest are the most frustrating part of the experience. It takes forever to get this done, and it doesn’t help that there are multiple methods.

How you get ecto-tokens is by visiting the Ectofuntus that is north of the port. Here, you will essentially offer up some offerings to the Ectofuntus and acquire some tokens in exchange. There are some optional methods of doing this but let’s stick to the most basic one: getting a whopping 35 ecto-tokens.

To do this, you are going to need your bank, which, thankfully, there is one in the port city as well as Canafis nearby. To get ecto-tokens, first, gather up seven empty pots and seven empty buckets. These are to store the ecto-tokens that you gather up from the Ectofuntus.

The sacrifice is the seven bones you give to it in exchange for each of the tokens. The best way to get the bones quite easily is to kill the ghostly chickens that are on the farm just west of the Ectofuntus itself.

So, it becomes this back-and-forth of killing the chickens, gathering the bones, heading to the Ectofuntus, getting ecto-tokens, taking them to the bank to store them and repeat this. You must keep doing this entire charade over and over until you have 35 ecto-tokens.

The ring of Charos can help with this entire situation by letting you cheaply sail into the port without using any of your ecto-tokens, but that is up to you. In case you don’t have that ring, you’ll need the full 35 ecto-tokens.

How to Get 400 Coins and a Bucket of Milk

With the most challenging part of this quest out of the way, we now come to the next couple of items you need: 400 coins and a bucket of milk. Presumably, you have some coins on you already as a member who is hopefully around level 30 or so.

But if not, try to sell some items, collect from dead enemies, or put up some items on the Grand Exchange. For the bucket of milk, you can buy it from a couple of NPCs, but they are relatively far from this quest. I recommend getting it off the Grand Exchange or getting an empty bucket and using it on a cow to make it into a bucket of milk.

How to Get Silk and Dye

Silk OSRS
Image from Old School Rune Scape Wiki

There are a few different ways that you can acquire silk, and it comes down to your preference. For me, I am pretty lazy, so I’ll throw a handful of unnecessary coins (roughly 25 or so) to the Grand Exchange. There are NPCs who sell silk, but they are few and far between. You can also steal it from them if you have a high enough Thieving skill.

Dye is the interesting one for this quest as it is kind of random which colors you’ll need for the mission. In total, though, there are three dyes that you will need, and they can be red, blue, or yellow. It can be any mix of those three (including multiples of one), so the best thing to do is to get three of each just in case.

You could make them in Draynor Village if you have the materials or, once again, be super lazy like me and purchase them from the Grand Exchange for a couple of thousand coins. Once you have three of all three colors, put them in the bank and save them for later when we will need them in the quest.

Spade, Knife, Needle, and Thread Explained

The spade is a relatively common item that you can find at various general stores and farming shops throughout the world. For the purpose of this quest, though, the most accessible shop to find would be Alice’s Farming Shop west of the port city. Or, you could get it from the Grand Exchange, as always.

The knife is an item that you can, thankfully, get either on the Grand Exchange or from the general store in Canifis. For the needle and thread, this is a similar situation where you only have to head to the general store to buy them there or grab them from the Grand Exchange, whichever you prefer.

Oak Longbow and Bucket of Slime

Bucket_of_slime OSRS
Image from Old School Rune Scape Wiki

The oak longbow is one item that you could make yourself, especially if you are leveling up your Fletching skill right now, but I prefer to grab it on the old GE for a handful of coins. After that, you’ll need to get the bucket of slime, which is a somewhat unique item for this particular quest.

Thankfully, since this is important to the quest, you don’t have to go far at all to get the bucket of slime. You can find this item from one of the crew members on the charter ship at the port and grab it there for just a few coins.

How to Acquire the Ghostspeak Amulet

This is where the items get a little bit trickier. The ghostspeak amulet is one of the most famous quest items in RuneScape since it is used in so many different quests like this one. It allows you to speak with ghosts and understand what they are saying.

The only way to get the ghostspeak amulet is to complete part of The Restless Ghost quest until you at least reach the point where you acquire the amulet. You don’t even have to complete the quest (though you still should) since you just need this particular item for Ghosts Ahoy.

How to Get the Nettle Tea

Nettle_tea OSRS
Image from Old School Rune Scape Wiki

Last but certainly not least, the final item that we need for this quest is nettle tea. I like to gather my items beforehand, so I recommend not waiting until you’re in the quest to get this done. Here are the items that you will need to make the nettle tea since you won’t be able to buy this one and get a nice shortcut:

  • Tinderbox and logs for cooking the tea
  • Nettles (more on this in a bit)
  • Bowl of water
  • Gloves

For starters, you can get logs from trees, so just gather those up whenever you like. The tinderbox is something you can get from the nearby general store, so don’t worry about having to try to cook the nettle tea over and over.

The bowl of water is made by gathering water in an empty bowl, which you can also get in the middle of the quest, if necessary. Just buy some cheap leather gloves for gloves, and you’re good to go. The nettles, however, are the interesting part of this quest.

You need gloves equipped to pick them up, and you can find nettles near Port Phasmatys, just south of it. You could get them elsewhere, but this is the easiest, most accessible location for them.

Priest in Peril Quest Completion

While those are all of the items that you need for this quest, you also have a quest that you must totally complete. Unlike The Restless Ghost, you must entirely finish the Priest in Peril quest. Of course, you won’t even be able to reach the region of Morytania in the first place without this quest, so make sure to get it done by visiting the king in Varrock to start it.

How to Reach Level 20 Cooking

For the purpose of making the nettle tea, you’ll need at least level 20 Cooking skill. That is the required level in order to make the tea in the first place. Now, maybe some players do things a little bit differently, but I love Cooking and other relaxing skills like that, so I was far above 20 at this point in my game.

However, if you aren’t quite there just yet, thankfully, 20 is relatively easy to reach. Just grind the highest level recipe you have at your current level and one that is relatively easy to acquire the ingredients for or buy off of the Grand Exchange.

How to Reach Level 25 Agility

For level 25 Agility, this one is not too hard, either. Leveling up Agility is one of my least favorite skills in the game, but it is so necessary for many of the member’s quests. Just head to the Agility course for your current level and grind it over and over to reach level 25, ensuring that you have plenty of food, too, with you.

Walkthrough

ghost ahoy osrs map
Image from Old School Rune Scape Wiki

For those of you in a hurry to get this quest done and get to the dragon slaying in RuneScape, here are the quick and easy steps that you must take in order to complete the Ghosts Ahoy quest in OSRS:

  1. First, gather as many of the items as you can prior to beginning the quest, such as the ecto-tokens, coins, milk, and others.
  2. Head to Port Phasmatys in Morytania and speak with Velorina, who is found on the northeastern side of the city. There, you will begin the quest and have the ability to enter the city itself using ecto-tokens each time.
  3. Leave Velorina and her house and the ghostly port, and head to the Ectofuntus once more, where you can speak with Necrovarus for the next part of the quest. Then return to Velorina using the ecto-tokens at the entrance to the port.
  4. West of the port near Canifis is the Mausoleum and the Slayer Tower; the Old Crone’s house is found just between these two significant locations. Speak with her and have the nettle tea ready.
  5. Take the nettle tea and put it into the porcelain cup. Then speak with her and mix it with the bucket of milk you should have already gotten. Speak with her once more to learn about the next step.
  6. Take the model ship that she gave you and use the silk, needle, knife, and thread to fix it, then east back towards the port city.
  7. Before you get to the city and just before the undead animals, there is a wrecked ship to the north in the water. Head up the ship and wait until the game says the wind is low to find the ship’s flag.
  8. Check the flag three times and see what randomly chosen colors it says. Then mix your dyes and apply them to the model ship to match the actual ship.
  9. Give the model ship to the old man on the ship, and then use the chest key he gives you on the chest in the captain’s quarters.
  10. On the northwestern side of the ship deck, there is another chest, but it will require run energy and jumping across the rocks to reach it.
  11. Return to the deck and go down the ladder to find the third chest. Opening it will eventually bring out a giant lobster that is level 32. Defeat it and get the third and final piece of the map. Mix the three pieces together to make the map.
  12. Return to the port and grab your 27 remaining ecto-tokens and speak with the ghost captain to head to Dragontooth Island for 25 tokens.
  13. Use the map, and it will tell you where to go, but it is basically a small patch of non-grass in an otherwise grassy area west of the Saradomin statue. Dig up the Haricanto book with the spade here.
  14. Go back to the captain and head back to the port. Grab the 400 coins and oak longbow from the bank and go to the pub to speak with Ak-Haranu.
  15. Then go back to Robin and play his Rune-Draw game using the coins until he signs the bow. Take it to Ak-Haranu and receive the manual.
  16. Speak with the innkeeper and get the bedsheet. Use the bucket of slime on the bedsheet. Speak with Gravingas in the town square and put the bedsheet on, and get 10 signatures from the nearby villagers.
  17. Show the petition form to Necrovarus and grab the bone key he drops. Use it on the door upstairs to get the robes from the coffin.
  18. Go back to the Old Crone and give her the items you acquired. Then go back to Necrovarus while using the ghostspeak amulet and then return to Velorina to finally finish this quest once and for all.

Combat Tips

I do have a main tip that I want to give for this quest regarding the giant lobster fight. Everything else is rather self-explanatory in this quest and straightforward, but there is that single fight. The lobster is level 32, which is why I recommend that you are at least level 30 for this quest.

You can certainly do it much lower than that, but you run the risk of dying or taking too long, which causes the giant lobster to respawn with full health once again. Ranged and magic helps out a lot for this fight, but so long as you have appropriate gear for your level, you should be totally good to go here.

Ghosts Ahoy Quest Rewards

For finally completing this arduous quest and freeing the ghosts of Port Phasmatys from the spell of Necrovarus, you will receive some rewards. Arguably these rewards aren’t the greatest given how long this quest takes, but I digress.

First off, you will receive not one but two quest points for doing this task, which is welcome since it takes forever. You will also get 2400 Prayer experience, which is nice but might not be the most helpful for some of the higher-level members out there.

Third, you will get the Ectophial, which is a highly valuable item that lets you transport to the Ectofuntus instantly without having to go through the entire journey to get there.

And, last but not least, you will receive the ability to head into Port Phasmatys without having to spend ecto-tokens every single time you do so. These are some solid rewards for improving quality of life, but, at the same time, you don’t need to come back to these places that often, so your mileage may vary in the end.

ghost ahoy reward
Image from Old School Runescape Wiki

Follow-Up Quests

There are a couple of areas of OSRS where you need to complete the Ghosts Ahoy quest in order to access them. The least interesting of the two is the Morytania Medium Diary. These diaries are fun for adding some extra reason to keep coming back to the MMO and completing everything in an area.

Morytania is a fan favorite locale for many members, so I imagine that there are a lot of players who want to do everything here. In this case, completing the Ghosts Ahoy quest will get you well on your way to completing the Medium Diary for the region.

However, the more important prerequisite that Ghosts Ahoy is (at least in my opinion) is for the beloved Dragon Slayer II quest. The original Dragon Slayer quest is one of the most iconic parts of OSRS and has been since the very beginning of the game.

You weren’t seen as a true endgame player for many players until you completed the Dragon Slayer quest. It was especially so beloved since it was essentially the hardest and highest-level quest that even free players could complete alongside the members out there.

Dragon Slayer II took way too long to come out, to the point where it hadn’t even been released until just 2018. I wouldn’t be surprised if some players haven’t touched this quest before because it is only a few years old at this point in time.

But if you want to finally complete Dragon Slayer II: The Legacy of Elvarg, you are going to need an insane completion of so many different quests throughout OSRS, including Ghosts Ahoy, among them. This is the endgame goal for many Old School players, so be sure to grab Ghosts Ahoy when you can for it.

FAQs

Question: How do I start Ghosts Ahoy OSRS?

Answer: You can start the Ghosts Ahoy OSRS quest by speaking with Velorina near the entrance to Port Phasmatys in Morytania. Before you can do that, though, you must first unlock this region by completing the Priest in Peril quest that gives you access to this location.

Question: How do you get to Port Phasmatys OSRS? 

Answer: You can get to Port Phasmatys in OSRS by first unlocking the Morytania region through the Priest in Peril quest. Once you do that, you can find this location east of Canafis in the region. You need a couple of ecto-tokens from the Ectofuntus in order to enter the actual port itself.

Question: Where can I get the Ectophial?

Answer: The Ectophial is one of the rewards that you get for completing the Ghosts Ahoy OSRS quest. Once you have it, the Ectophial can be used to take you instantly to the Ectofuntus anytime, so long as you have it charged up.

What Quest to Complete Next

dragon slayer II osrs
Image from Old School Rune Scape Wiki

Let’s be honest: the true draw of Ghosts Ahoy, in my opinion, is found in the fact that it is necessary for completing Dragon Slayer II. One of the newest and best quests in all of Old School RuneScape, Ghosts Ahoy is one of the very many prerequisites for Dragon Slayer II. If for nothing else, completing Ghosts Ahoy so you can do that quest is imperative for any endgame player.

But the reality is that Ghosts Ahoy is but one of the so many quests that you need to do in OSRS to access Dragon Slayer II. One of the other quests that you must do is Gertrudes Cat, another OSRS quest that we covered how to do in great detail recently. Be sure to check that out, so you are ready to complete that much more relaxing quest than Ghosts Ahoy and further ready yourself for Dragon Slayer II.

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