OSRS Prayer Training Guide: Best Methods To Level 99

Prayer is a protective combat skill, which makes it incredibly useful for all fighting situations. Players must have a sufficient Prayer level to boss because they need to use advanced protective Prayers to reduce incoming damage. Without the skill’s bonuses, you’ll die more easily in PVP and PVM situations. This guide will go over the best methods to train Prayer. Also, we’ll showcase the fastest and cheapest options so that no players are left out.

Note: Due to Prayer being a combat skill, every 8 levels you’ll increase your combat level.

What Is Prayer?

The combat skill will give you access to offensive and defensive buffs for short periods. Prayers are unlocked as you progress in the skill, which is used for increasing Attack, Defence, Strength, Magic, Ranged, and Constitution. Some Prayers will provide utility bonuses like damaging surrounding enemies upon dying or deflecting damage back to monsters.

Prayers

• Level 1 Prayer – Thick Skin: +5% Defence.
• Level 4 Prayer – Burst of Strength: +5% Strength.
• Level 7 Prayer – Clarity of Thought: +5% Attack.
• Level 8 Prayer – Sharp Eye: +5% Ranged.
• Level 9 Prayer – Mystic Will: +5% Magic Attack and Defence.
• Level 10 Prayer – Rock Skin: +10% Defence.
• Level 13 Prayer – Superhuman Strength: +10% Strength.
• Level 16 Prayer – Improved Reflexes: +10% Attack.
• Level 19 Prayer – 2x Restore rate for all skills except Prayer and Hitpoints.
• Level 22 Prayer – Rapid Heal: 2x Restore rate for Constitution.
• Level 25 Prayer – Protect Item: Lets players keep 1 extra item upon death.
• Level 26 Prayer – Hawk Eye: +10% Ranged.
• Level 27 Prayer – Mystic Lore: +10% Magic Attack and Defence.
• Level 28 Prayer – Steel Skin: +15% Defence.
• Level 31 Prayer – Ultimate Strength: +15% Strength.
• Level 34 Prayer – Incredible Reflexes: +15% Attack.
• Level 37 Prayer – Protect from Magic: Protects 50% against Magic attacks.
• Level 40 Prayer – Protect from Missiles: Protects 50% against Ranged attacks.
• Level 43 Prayer – Protect from Melee: Protects 50% against Melee attacks.
• Level 44 Prayer – Eagle Eye: +15% Ranged.
• Level 45 Prayer – Mystic Might: +15% Magic Attack and Defence.
• Level 46 Prayer – Retribution: Upon death, deal up to 25% damage of your Prayer level to surrounding targets.
• Level 49 Prayer – Redemption: Heals players when they are below 10% HP.
• Level 52 Prayer – Smite: Drains 1 Prayer point from enemies for every 4 damage inflicted.
• Level 55 Prayer – Preserve: Boosts stats 50% longer. Excellent to synchronize with potions.
• Level 60 Prayer – Chivarly: +20% Defence, +18% Strength, +15% Attack.
• Level 70 Prayer – Piety: +25% Defence, +23% Strength, +20% Attack.
• Level 74 Prayer – Rigour: +25% Defence, +23% Range strength, +20% Range attack
• Level 77 Prayer – Augury: +25% Defence, +25% Magic, +25% Magic Defence.

You’ll notice that most Prayers provide bonus stats in combat, which can become handy when fighting difficult creatures. Some Prayers can only be used in certain situations. For example, Smite is brilliant for PVP because you can drain the opponent’s Prayer and prevent them from using offensive bonuses.

The skill is similar to Summoning in terms that you will drain points when using the skill. Players can use Prayer potions to replenish their Prayer points, which requires level 38 Herblore to make.

How Much Does Level 99 Prayer Cost?

Much like Crafting and Herblore, Prayer is a buyable skill. It’s the most expensive to train in OSRS if you use the fastest methods. On estimate, you’ll be spending 100-200m GP to reach level 99 Prayer. However, there are much cheaper options available, but it will take 2-4 times longer to reach mastery.

What Is Prayer Drain?

While a Prayer is active, it will slowly deplete your Prayer points. Different Prayers have unique burn rates.

Drain Rates:

• 1 Point Per 36 Seconds:
  • Rapid Restore
• 1 Point Per 18 Seconds:
  • Rapid Heal
  • Protect Item
  • Preserve
• 1 Point Per 12 Seconds:
  • Thick Skin
  • Burst of Strength
  • Clarity of Thought
  • Sharp Eye
  • Mystic Will
  • Retribution
• 1 Point Per 6 Seconds:
  • Rock Skin
  • Superhuman Strength
  • Improved Reflexes
  • Hawk Eye
  • Mystic Lore
  • Redemption
• 1 Point Per 3 Seconds:
  • Steel Skin
  • Ultimate Strength
  • Incredible Reflexes
  • Protect from Magic
  • Protect from Missiles
  • Protect from Melee
  • Eagle Eye
  • Mystic Might
• 1 Point Per 2 Seconds:
  • Smite
• 1 Point Per 1.5 Seconds:
  • Chivalry
  • Piety
  • Rigour
  • Augury

Armors and weapons can provide a Prayer bonus, which will slow down the burn rate. To check out your characters Prayer bonus, head over to the equipment stats window. Each Prayer bonus will increase the duration by 3.33%.

Equipment Effects With Prayer

Some weapon special attacks can bypass opponent’s protection Prayers, which is excellent for PVP combat. However, the weapons won’t be able to ignore Prayers versus monsters, with the exception of attacking the Kalphite Queen with a Verac’s Set.

These weapons will require at least a +60 Attack to wield. You can refer to our Attack Guide for the fastest training methods.

• Ancient Mace: The weapon ignores protect for melee in PVP fights. Also, it will drain the enemies Prayer by the amount of damage they deal and restore it to themselves.
• Dragon Scimitar: The special attack is extremely accurate and will disable overhead protection Prayers. Also, if it’s a successful hit, it will prevent the opponent from using overhead Prayers for 5 seconds.
• Dragon Sword: The sword has an amazing special attack that will hit targets with 25% increased damage and accuracy. Also, it will ignore protect from melee and deal full damage.
• Abyssal Bludgeon: This weapon works well with smite because it deals 0.5% extra damage for every Prayer point the opponent is missing.
• Bandos Godsword: The godsword’s special attack increases damage by 21% and doubles accuracy. Each hit will drain the opponent’s combat stats equal to the amount of damage you’ve dealt.
• Saradomin Godsword: The special attack increases damage by 10% and doubles accuracy. Each successful hit will return 50% HP and 25% Prayer of damage dealt.
• Eldritch Nightmare Staff: The staff’s special attack increases the damage and restores Prayer points by 50% of the damage dealt.

Useful Prayer Items

There are multiple items that can help you receive bonuses in Prayer. While these won’t increase your Prayer experience, they can significantly help when fighting monsters.

• God book: The god book will take the place of a shield and provide +5 Prayer. Also, it will give defense and attack bonuses depending on which book you wield.
• Mitre: This item is part of the vestment set, which can be found from level 2 treasure trails. All mitres provide +5 Prayer bonus, the highest of any head slot equipment.
• Ardougne Cloak 4: This is an extremely useful item for multiple skills, including Prayer. The cape will provide unlimited teleports to the Ardougne farm patch, +10% pickpocketing success rate, and +6 Prayer.
• Bonecrusher: The Bonecrusher is a reward from the hard Morytania Diary. The item will automatically bury bones when you kill enemies. This will save you a lot of time and money when PVMing.
• Dragonbone Necklace: The necklace will replenish your Prayer points when you bury a bone. This is an excellent item when doing Slayer tasks because you won’t need to bring Prayer potions. The rate of restore is different for each type of bone:
  • Bones: Restores 1 Prayer Point
  • Big Bones: Restores 2 Prayer Points
  • Baby Dragon Bones: Restores 3 Prayer Points
  • Wyvern, Dagannoth, and Dragon Bones: Restores 4 Prayer Points
  • Superior Dragon Bones: Restores 5 Prayer Points

The Bonecrusher and dragon bone necklace synchronize ultra-well together and are perfect for PVM players. Once you kill an enemy that drops bones, the bonecrusher will bury them. Then you’ll restore your Prayer points with the dragonbone necklace.

Creatures That Use Prayer

Players are not the only characters that can use Prayer. In fact, there are many creatures and NPCs in OSRS that will use defensive Prayers. Usually, high-tier bosses or monsters will use them, which means you’ll need to adapt and use counterplay. This is done by using different combat styles so that the Prayer does not affect your damage.

• Kalphite Queen: She will first use protection from magic and missiles simultaneously. The next phase will be protection from melee. However, the Prayers are visual only and indicate a significant bonus defense against a particular combat style.
• Mother: The creature will protect against the last attack style that was used versus him until a player extinguishes the fire of domination. Afterward, Mother will only protect against magic.
• Demonic Gorilla: The Demonic Gorilla will use a random protection Prayer. After receiving 50 damage, the gorilla will switch Prayers to the combat style you’re using. Therefore, you must bring at least 2 combat styles to defeat them.
• Sigmund: During the Another Slice of H.A.M quest, he will first protect against whatever style you attack him.
• Crystalline and Corrupted Hunllef: The hunllef will spawn with a random Prayer. Every 6 attacks the monster will switch its Prayer.
• Jundge of Yama: Uses protect from missiles and magic during the A Kingdom Divided quest.
• Xamphur: Uses protect from magic during the A Kingdom Divided quest.

Quests For Prayer Experience

Due to Prayer being an ultra-expensive skill, receiving bonus experience from anywhere will save you a significant amount of GP. The best option to gain bonus XP is by completing quests since they are needed to progress your character. Some high-tier quests will require having a certain amount of quest points before starting.

Therefore, finishing these quests will help you out later on. Luckily Prayer quests don’t have high-level requirements to complete.

• Rag and Bone Man I: 500 Prayer Experience
• Making History: 1,000 Prayer Experience
• Recruitment Drive: 1,000 Prayer Experience
• The Restless Ghost: 1,125 Prayer Experience
• Priest in Peril: 1,406 Prayer Experience
• Mountain Daughter: 2,000 Prayer Experience
• Ghosts Ahoy: 2,400 Prayer Experience
• Another Slice of H.A.M: 3,000 Prayer Experience
• Rag and Bone Man II: 5,000 Prayer Experience
• The Great Brain Robbery: 6,000 Prayer Experience
• Rum Deal: 7,000 Prayer Experience
• Spirits of the Elid: 8,000 Prayer Experience
• Swan Song: 10,000 Prayer Experience
• Holy Grail: 11,000 Prayer Experience

The next quests do not provide Prayer experience upon completion. However, they will provide XP lamps, which you can allocate for Prayer XP.

• X Marks the Spot: 300 Prayer Experience
• Client of Kourend: 1,000 Prayer Experience
• Fairytale II: 2,500 Prayer Experience
• A Tail of Two Cats: 5,000 Prayer Experience
• King’s Ransom: 5,000 Prayer Experience
• Darkness of Hallowvale: 6,000 Prayer Experience
• A taste of Hope: 7,500 Prayer Experience
• A Kingdom Divided: 10,000 Prayer Experience
• Architectural Alliance: 10,000 Prayer Experience
• In Search of Knowledge: 10,000 Prayer Experience
• Curse of the Empty Lord: 10,000 Prayer Experience
• One Small Favour: 20,000 Prayer Experience
• Recipe for Disaster: 20,000 Prayer Experience
• Legends’ Quest: 30,600 Prayer Experience
• Sins of the Father: 45,000 Prayer Experience

Completing these quests will grant you 187,900 XP, which will save you a few million on bones. These quests vary in length, and some have many requirements. They’re great for taking a break from the skill while still receiving Prayer experience.

How To Use Prayer

Using Prayer is just as simple as casting Magic spells. First, select the Prayer page left of the magic book and right of the equipment page. You’ll notice all types of Prayers that we’ve covered. If you’re starting out then, you’ll only have thick skin unlocked. Select the Prayer, and a circle will appear around it, which indicates the bonuses are active. Also, you’ll notice your Prayer points are draining.

After you’ve gained some Prayer levels, more bonuses will become available. In addition, some Prayers you can use in combination with others. For example, you may use protect from magic, missiles, or melee with thick skin.

If you’re a skilled PVP or PVM player, you should learn how to use quick Prayers. This lets you simply click the Prayer icon next to your minimap to switch on or off Prayer bonuses.

What Is Prayer Flicking?

Flicking lets your character use Prayer in combat for longer because the points don’t drain continuously. Skilled players will quickly switch of Prayers when an enemy finishes an attack. Afterward, players will use quick Prayers to gain their bonuses back once the opponent is in an attack animation. This will reduce the use of Prayer points and lets your character receive the benefits for longer.

Although flicking requires timing and skill, it’s necessary to learn when bossing or in PVP combat. In some cases, this method can prevent you from taking any damage against monsters. For example, flicking can render Dessous unable to damage you if done perfectly.

How To Train Prayer

Gaining Prayer experience is an easy process. There are a few methods that you can use to gain Prayer experience, which differentiates in speed and costs.

• Burying Bones: This is perhaps the worst way to train the skill because it’s slow and expensive. The method requires you to fill your inventory with your preferred bones and then click bury for experience.
• Gilded Altar: The most popular method is offering bones at a gilded altar. Make sure that you are using an altar that has 2 lit candles. This is because you’ll receive 350% more experience for each bone offered. You can visit other player’s POH, which can have lit gilded altars. On the other hand, there are multiple altars around Gielinor that you can use.
• Reanimating Ensouled Heads: An inexpensive option is to reanimate ensouled heads and killing them. They can be found near the Dark Altar. This method will grant around 350k Prayer experience.
• Offering Spell: With an upgraded Arceuus Spellbook, you can offer bones and demonic ashes from your inventory. This is a great training option for those who don’t want to run to gilded altars and need Magic experience.
• Offering Fish: Players can offer fish at the altar in the Ruins of Camdozaal. It’s far less click-intensive than the other methods. However, you must have at least level 7 Fishing and Cooking with the completion of Below Ice Mountain quest. Here’s the steps to gain Prayer XP:
  • Use a small fishing net to catch fish near the altar.
  • Then prepare the fish at the preparation table with a knife.
  • Afterward, offer the fish at the altar for Prayer experience.

Note: Unlike other skills, Prayer has access to all the training methods from level 1. Therefore, you can use high-tier big bones straight away for the best experience rates.

F2P Level 1-99 OSRS Prayer Guide

Levels 1-9: The Restless Ghost

Players can skip to level 9 Prayer by completing the Restless Ghost quest. The quest is very short and will provide 1,125 Prayer XP. There are no requirements to begin the quest so new RuneScapers can finish it.

Levels 1-99 Prayer: Camdozaal

An excellent non-intensive method of gaining Prayer experience is by offering fish at the altar in the Ruins of Camdozaal. Having level 33 Cooking is recommended so that you can fish Tetra. This will provide the best XP rates in this location. However, you’ll need to complete Below Ice Mountain quest and have level 7 Cooking and Fishing to do this method.

To offer fish at the altar, you’ll first need to catch them with a small fishing net. You’ll see the fishing locations on the minimap, which are nearby the altar. Next, prepare them with a knife at the preparation table. Then offer them at the altar for Prayer experience.

Each type of fish will provide:

• Guppy:
  • Fishing: 8 Experience
  • Cooking: 12 Experience
  • Prayer: 4 Experience
• Cavefish:
  • Fishing: 16 Experience
  • Cooking: 23 Experience
  • Prayer: 7 Experience
• Tetra:
  • Fishing: 24 Experience
  • Cooking: 31 Experience
  • Prayer: 10 Experience

This method will take an extremely long time, but is a great option for F2P players. Also, a benefit of offering fish is that you’ll gain Fishing, Cooking, and Prayer experience simultaneously.

Levels 1-99 Prayer: Bone Yard

The Bone Yard features multiple bones and big bones scattered around the landscape. Due to the quick respawn rate, players can come here to train Prayer. The method focuses on picking up all the bones until your inventory is full and then burying them.

The downside of this training method is that it is located at level 32 Wilderness, which means teleport spells won’t work if PKers come. Usually, this location is empty since you’ll be training without any expensive gear. Also, the bone yard has level 25 skeletons roaming around that will attack you, so bringing food is recommended.

Levels 1-99 Prayer: Chaos Temple

The Chaos Temple is much like the bone yard in terms of the training method. You’ll be doing the same strategy of picking up bones scattered around the chaos temple and burying them. Luckily the chaos temple is located level 11-12 Wilderness, which means you can teleport out if PKers come.

The ideal method would be to pick up as many bones as possible and ignore the lone bones. Then hop to another world, which will have bones on the floor. Therefore, you won’t need to wait for the bones to respawn.

Levels 1-99 Prayer: Grand Exchange

Wealthy players can purchase big bones from the Grand Exchange, which will save time picking them up from creatures or the Wilderness. This method is extremely expensive and will cost +100m GP for level 99 Prayer. Here’s how many bones you’ll need to bury:

• Bones – 2,896,541
• Monkey Bones – 2,606,887
• Fiendish Ashes – 1,303,444
• Big Bones – 868,962
• Vile Ashes – 521,378

Members Level 1-99 OSRS Prayer Guide

Levels 1-99 Prayer: Gilded Altar

The fastest way to train Prayer is to offer bones at a gilded altar, which will provide 350% extra experience. Unfortunately, while gilded altars are the fastest sources of experience, it’s the most expensive.

• Big Bones:
  • Experience: 52.5
  • Cost: ≈250 GP
• Dragon Bones:
  • Experience: 252
  • Cost: ≈1,600 GP
• Wyvern Bones:
  • Experience: 252
  • Cost: ≈1,600 GP
• Lava Dragon Bones:
  • Experience: 297.5
  • Cost: ≈3,000 GP
• Dagannoth Bones:
  • Experience: 437.5
  • Cost: ≈6,500 GP
• Superior Dragon Bones:
  • Experience: 525
  • Cost: ≈8,000 GP

POH Gilded Altar

Players can build a gilded altar in the POH if they have level 75 Construction. Both incense burners must be lit to provide the full 350% bonus experience. Therefore, level 30 Firemaking is also required to light them.

If you decide to train at your POH, the best location is Camelot Castle. This is because it’s located near a bank and a portal to your home. Therefore, you can quickly fill your inventory with bones and run to the altar.

On the other hand, players will advertise gilded altar services on certain worlds. You’ll have to pay a fee to enter their house and train on the altar. It’s beneficial because they will ensure that the altar is always lit, which saves you the hassle.

Chaos Altar

Offering bones at the chaos altar is far better than POH because it provides quicker XP rates. The altar is always lit and gives a 50% chance of not consuming a bone. This effect can be boosted with Zealot’s robes. Therefore, you’ll be saving a lot of money with this option. Also, players can bring noted bones and use them on the Elder Chaos Druid to un-note them.

However, this method is dangerous because it is located at level 11-12 Wilderness. PKers will hope worlds in the search for players training Prayer, so don’t bring huge amounts of noted bones.

Levels 1-99 Prayer: Reanimating Ensouled Heads

This method is recommended for players on a budget because you won’t need to purchase bones. The requirement to do this option is 60% favor in Arceuus. Also, having access to fairy rings will provide much faster transport to the dark altar.

To begin, you’ll need to reanimate the ensouled heads and kill them near the dark altar for Prayer experience. The XP per hour varies on the type of ensouled head and combat stats. Typically, you’ll get 220 kills per hour with good stats, which translates to 350k Prayer experience.

Levels 1-99 Prayer: Combat

Players can complete the hard Morytania diary to receive a bonecrusher, which will automatically bury bones upon killing an enemy. This is an excellent item for those who train Slayer because most monsters drop bones. However, if you rather not train Slayer, here are the best monsters to kill for Prayer experience:

• Hill Giants: Drops big bones
• Moss Giants: Drops big bones
• Green Dragons: Drops dragon bones
• Blue Dragons: Drops dragon bones
• Wyvern: Drops wyvern bones
• Lava Dragons: Drops lava dragon bones
• Dagannoth: Drops dagannoth bones

These are the best creatures to fight for Prayer experience. Also, they can drop rare loot that is highly valued.

Levels 1-99 Prayer: Offering Spells

Completing A Kingdom Divided quest will give you access to the Arceuus spellbook, which contains a spell that lets you offer bones. This method is extremely fast because you’ll be standing at a bank and refilling your inventory after offering all your bones. Also, you’ll be gaining Magic experience with this method.

• Big Bones:
  • Prayer Experience: 45
  • Prayer Experience Per hour: 81k
  • GP Per XP: -8.67
• Dragon Bones:
  • Prayer Experience: 216
  • Prayer Experience Per hour: 388k
  • GP Per XP: -8.99
• Wyvern Bones:
  • Prayer Experience: 216
  • Prayer Experience Per hour: 388k
  • GP Per XP: -8.8
• Lava Dragon Bones:
  • Prayer Experience: 255
  • Prayer Experience Per hour: 460k
  • GP Per XP: -12.8
• Dagannoth Bones:
  • Prayer Experience: 375
  • Prayer Experience Per hour: 675k
  • GP Per XP: -8.67
• Superior Dragon Bones:
  • Prayer Experience: 450
  • Prayer Experience Per hour: 800k
  • GP Per XP: -19

FAQ

Final Thoughts

Prayer is a versatile skill that has a variety of training methods. No matter if you are wealthy or on a budget, you can train Prayer efficiently till level 99. The skill is vital for PVP and PVM players because the bonuses are very effective. We hope you enjoyed this guide, and please let us know what you think in the comments below.

• About
• Latest Posts

Martynas Pupkevicius

Martnyas wants ot help other Runescape members express their creativity to its full potential. She’s willing to help other people in the Runescape community achieve their goals while playing, which is why she’s dedicated to breaking down the most common challenges and questions Runescape members run into. She’s got the passion and experience to deliver high-quality content to all of our readers, no matter how new they are to playing Runescape.

Latest posts by Martynas Pupkevicius (see all)

• Contact OSRS Guide - September 13, 2022
• Violet is Blue RS3 Guide - August 3, 2022
• Falador Diary OSRS Guide - July 12, 2022