Complete Prayer Training Guide for OSRS
Prayer is one of the most important skills in Old School RuneScape, providing protection prayers for PvM and powerful offensive boosts like Piety, Rigour, and Augury. While expensive to train, it's fast and essential for end-game content. This guide covers the most efficient methods to reach 99 Prayer.
Best Method: Gilded Altar with Dragon Bones
The standard method is using dragon bones on a gilded altar with lit burners. This gives 252 XP per bone (3.5x multiplier) and costs approximately 180M for 1-99. Join the "07 Altar" clan chat to access free gilded altars 24/7. Bring noted dragon bones, coins for the butler (10k per 26 bones un-noted), and house teleport tablets. This method takes 8-12 hours and is very AFK.
Budget Method: Wilderness Altar
The Wilderness altar (level 11-13 Wilderness) gives 350% XP boost - the highest in the game. This makes it 30% cheaper than gilded altar, saving 40-50M on the way to 99. However, you WILL be attacked by PKers. The "suicide method" involves bringing only noted bones and a house tab, offering bones until you die, then repeating. Use world 330 for fewer PKers. Not recommended unless you're very budget conscious.
Ironman Method: Ensouled Heads
Ironmen should use ensouled heads from the Arceuus spellbook. Kill monsters on-task (bloodvelds, demons, dragons), collect their ensouled heads, then reanimate them at the Dark Altar in Arceuus. This costs 50-80M for 1-99 (cheapest method) and trains Magic alongside Prayer. Dragon heads give 1,560 Prayer XP and cost ~3,500 GP each. Rates: 150k-200k Prayer XP/hr.
Important Prayer Levels
Level 43-45: Protection prayers (Protect from Melee/Missiles/Magic). Essential for all PvM content. These prayers block 100% of damage from their respective combat styles.
Level 52: Smite prayer for PvP. Makes opponents lose their +1 protected item.
Level 70: Piety (requires Knight Waves Training Ground quest). Best melee prayer, gives +25% to Attack, Strength, and Defence.
Level 74: Rigour (requires Dexterous prayer scroll from CoX). Best ranged prayer, +25% to Ranged and Defence.
Level 77: Augury (requires Arcane prayer scroll from CoX). Best magic prayer, +25% to Magic and Defence.
Cost Breakdown
Dragon bones @ gilded altar: ~180M for 1-99 (72k bones needed)
Dragon bones @ Wilderness altar: ~130M for 1-99 (saves 50M but high risk)
Superior dragon bones @ gilded: ~280M for 1-99 (faster but very expensive)
Ensouled dragon heads: ~80M for 1-99 (cheapest, trains magic too)
Big bones @ gilded: ~110M for 1-99 (takes 40+ hours, not worth the time)
Related Tools
Calculate exact costs and bones needed with our Prayer Calculator. Check current bone prices at GE Tracker. Track your prayer level with Player Lookup.