Hunter

Hunter
Released		21 November 2006 (Update)
Members		Yes
Type		Gathering
Statistics
Players with 99		152,479 as of 1 August 2026 - update
Players with 200M XP		391 as of 4 August 2026 - update

Hunter is a members-only skill in which players catch different animals and creatures. Although Hunter is a non-combat skill, players can still be damaged while hunting. Using hunting equipment bought from Hunter stores, players can hunt specific creatures obtaining rewards such as spotted kebbit fur for spotted cape, chinchompas, black salamanders, and dragon implings.

Hunter can be trained in a variety of locations throughout the game, with most players beginning their training in the Feldip Hills. Bird house trapping are often utilised at later levels, and at level 46 players can access the Hunter Guild, located in the Avium Savannah, along with its associated rumours.

Aerial fishing is a Hunter activity requiring 35 Hunter and 43 Fishing. Aerial fishing is used to catch several fish species at Lake Molch. With the required Hunter and Fishing level, suitable bait, and a cormorant's glove equipped, clicking on a fishing spot will send the cormorant towards the spot to catch a fish. The cormorant will always return to the player with a fish.

Bird house trapping is used to catch birds on Fossil Island. The required Hunter level varies depending on the type of bird house trap used. After being set up on one of four dedicated spots, a bird house trap can be filled with seeds to attract birds. After approximately 50 minutes, the seed will be depleted, and the trap can be dismantled for Hunter experience and loot including feathers, raw bird meat, and bird nests containing seeds. Bird houses are lost in the process, but the clockwork used to make a trap is returned.

Bird snaring is used to catch several types of birds. Bird snares can be used starting at 1 Hunter, with higher level birds requiring higher levels. Bird snares can be set up anywhere in a hunting area where birds are present, and have a chance to attract and catch birds as they fly by.

Box trapping is used to catch ferrets, embertailed jerboas, chinchompas and letvek. The Eagles' Peak quest must be completed before box traps can be used. Box traps can be set up anywhere in a hunting area where the desired prey is present, and have a chance to attract and capture creatures as they pass by. If the player's Hunter level is too low, the trap will always fail.

A butterfly net is used to catch flying creatures such as butterflies, implings, and bats (in the Chambers of Xeric). With the appropriate Hunter level and a butterfly net (or magic butterfly net), the player may left-click on a flying creature to capture it. Butterflies and implings can be trapped in butterfly and impling jars respectively for later use. Bats do not require any container, but cannot be brought out of the Chambers of Xeric.

Butterflies and implings can also be caught barehanded, which requires 10 Hunter levels over their base requirement.

Implings spawn rarely on Gielinor's surface, but very commonly within Puro-Puro, which can be accessed through crop circles in many wheat fields or through travelling to Zanaris.

Crab trapping is used to catch red crabs, blue crabs and rainbow crabs. Permanent traps can be built at dedicated crab trapping spots. Unlike other types of Hunter traps, crab traps catch crabs at a consistent rate and cannot fail.

Deadfall trapping is used to catch kebbits, maniacal monkeys, and pyre foxes. Boulders for deadfall traps are located in specific Hunter areas. With the appropriate Hunter level for the desired prey, a knife, and logs in the inventory (or a banana when hunting maniacal monkeys), clicking on a boulder will set the trap. When the kebbit or monkey paths towards the trap, it may be caught.

The drift net fishing technique is used to catch fish shoals in the Underwater area of Fossil Island. It requires 44 Hunter and 47 Fishing, with higher Fishing levels rewarding better fish. A drift net is used on drift net anchors to set the trap. Fish shoals are caught when they swim into the net. This occurs passively, but the player can also chase shoals into the trap for faster collection. Several items such as a merfolk trident will increase the chance of successfully scaring shoals into the net. Drift nets are consumed when collected.

The falconry technique is used to catch spotted, dark, and dashing kebbits in the Piscatoris falconry area. After renting a gyr falcon from Matthias, clicking a kebbit will direct the falcon to attempt to catch the kebbit. If successful, the player can collect the falcon to retrieve the drops. Attempting to catch one of these kebbits without a falcon or without the required Hunter level will always fail.

Net trapping is used to catch salamanders. In dedicated net trapping areas, a rope and small fishing net can be used on a young tree to set a trap. When a salamander passes the trap, there is a chance for it to be caught.

Magic boxes can be used to trap imps. With 71 Hunter, in any area where imps spawn, the player can set up a magic box. When an imp passes the trap, it may be caught to produce an imp-in-a-box, which can be used to bank items.

Pitfall trapping is used to catch spined larupias, horned graahks, sabre-toothed kyatts, sunlight antelopes, and moonlight antelopes. In dedicated Hunter areas, pits are located that can be used to create pitfall traps. Each type of prey requires a different Hunter level, but all pitfall traps require a knife and logs to create the trap, as well as a teasing stick or hunter's spear to tease a creature, causing it to chase the player and retaliate with melee attacks. When a player jumps over the pitfall trap, the creature will follow and has a chance to be caught in the trap.

Rabbit snaring is used to catch white rabbits. Completion of the Eagles' Peak quest and 27 Hunter is required. To trap a rabbit, the player sets up a rabbit snare outside of a rabbit hole. They then use a ferret on the rabbit hole to flush out the rabbit into the snare.

Tracking is used to catch several kinds of kebbit, as well as herbiboars. With this technique, the player inspects scenery objects in the creature's habitat to uncover a creature's tracks. These tracks will eventually lead the player towards the hiding creature. For kebbits, a ring of pursuit can be used to reveal the entire track at once, and a noose wand is used on the kebbit's hiding location to receive loot and Hunter experience. For herbiboars, rings of pursuit do not function and noose wands are not required. Finding and harvesting a herbiboar rewards grimy herbs; magic secateurs can be used to increase the number received.

There are several designated Hunter areas that form a habitat housing multiple Hunter creatures, though these are not the only areas where Hunter creatures can be found.

After completion of the Eagles' Peak quest, a player can use the eagle transport system to fly an eagle from Eagles' Peak in the woodland area to three of these Hunter areas: snow, jungle, and desert.

There are three ways for player to increase the catch rate of creatures: a higher skill level, using bait, and smoking the trap. Many Hunter creatures have a preferred bait that players can use on a trap to increase the catch rate. To find out what the preferred bait of a creature is, visit the creature's page or the in-game Hunter guide. By smoking a trap, the player's scent will vanish, and thus make the creature less suspicious of the trap. A trap can be smoked by using a lit torch or bruma torch on the trap. Anti-odour salt present in the player's inventory will also smoke a trap.

Adding a creature's corresponding bait to a trap will increase the catch rate by +3%, while smoking a trap with a torch will increase the catch rate by +2%.^[1] Due to the low increase of the catch rate, manually smoking or adding bait to traps is often inefficient, but it may be useful at lower levels.

Box trapping, net trapping, bird snaring and rabbit snaring can be done with multiple traps at once, with the maximum amount of traps depending on the player's Hunter level.

An extra trap may be set while hunting black salamanders or black chinchompas in the Wilderness.

Temporary boosts make it possible to use more traps at lower levels.

There are three Hunter stores in which players can buy Hunter tools. These shops are Aleck's Hunter Emporium in Yanille, Imia's Supplies in the Hunter Guild, and Nardah Hunter Shop in Nardah. All three shops have the same items in stock.

At 46 Hunter, the Hunter Guild becomes available. The guild has a variety of hunter related amenities available, including Hunters' Rumours. The Rumours are an activity where a Guild Hunter assigns a specific animal to hunt for a rare drop. Completing rumours offers unique rewards like the quetzal whistle, the guild hunter outfit, and quetzal feed.

Casting the Hunter Kit spell on the Lunar spellbook, requiring level 71 Magic and Dream Mentor, players will obtain a Hunter kit which contains various useful Hunter tools: a bird snare, box trap, butterfly net, impling jar, noose wand, rabbit snare, teasing stick and unlit torch.

Leon, who is located inside the Hunter shop in Yanille, sells a Hunter's crossbow for 1,300 coins. This crossbow possesses a firing speed of 4, which is equivalent to that of a shortbow, requires 50 Ranged to wield and can only use kebbit bolts and long kebbit bolts as ammunition. At level 74 Fletching, this crossbow can be upgraded with a Sunlight antelope antler to create the Hunters' sunlight crossbow.

Players can make their own bolts using the Fletching skill by using a chisel on a kebbit spike, or they can pay Leon a small fee to makes the bolts for them.

• 6 Kebbit bolts costs a kebbit spike (Prickly kebbit) and 20 coins
• 6 long kebbit bolts cost a long kebbit spike (Razor-backed kebbit) and 40 coins

Additionally, players can make bolts for their upgraded Hunters' sunlight crossbow by fletching antelope antlers.

• 12 Sunlight bolts from one Sunlight antelope antler (requires level 62 Fletching)
• 12 Moonlight bolts from one Moonlight antelope antler (requires level 72 Fletching)

Some Hunter creatures will reward the player with the creature's fur when caught. These furs may be traded in at the Fancy Clothes Store in south-east Varrock for different types of hunter gear. In addition to the furs, the costume maker will also charge a small fee to create this gear.

• Polar camouflage gear - Polar kebbit fur
• Woodland camouflage gear - Common kebbit fur
• Jungle camouflage gear - Feldip weasel fur
• Desert camouflage gear - Desert devil fur
• Larupia hunter gear - Larupia fur and tatty larupia fur
• Graahk hunter gear - Graahk fur and tatty graahk fur
• Kyatt hunter gear - Kyatt fur and tatty kyatt fur

Wearing camouflage gear does not improve the chance of successfully capturing creatures ^[2], although the tops and legs reduce the player's weight when worn by 3 kg and 2 kg, respectively.

The Larupia, Graahk, and Kyatt Hunter gear sets reduce damage from Hunter creatures by 20%, 40%, and 60%, respectively.

The costume maker can also make a few other items. Spotted and spottier capes reduce the player's weight when worn, and the gloves of silence made from dark kebbit furs make pickpocketing easier.

When the player wears the full Guild Hunter set, this increases the catch rate of Hunter creatures by 2.5% as well as the chance of receiving rare creature parts from Hunters' Rumours by 5%.

The following items can be used to store or create Hunter equipment or animal products:

In addition, the following NPCs offer storage services for Hunter-related items:

There is no universal pet obtained from training Hunter. However, there are three different pets that can be obtained from different Hunter activities. In addition, the Heron (the Fishing skilling pet) can be obtained from the hybrid Hunter/Fishing method, aerial fishing.

The baby chinchompa is a skilling pet that can be obtained while catching any kind of chinchompa. The chances of getting it are dependent on the player's Hunter level and the type of chinchompa being hunted.

Herbi is a pet obtained from hunting herbiboars found in Fossil Island's Mushroom Forest. There is a 1/6,500 chance to receive the pet after the player harvests the herbs from the herbiboar.

Quetzin is a pet that can be obtained as a potential reward from completing Hunters' Rumours in the Hunter Guild. The pet can only be obtained from expert or master rumours.

Upon completing any of the following quests, players may choose to allocate experience to Hunter. These rewards usually come in the form of items, such as lamps or books, and are independent of any experience rewards directly received for completing the quest.

• Hunter was the most recent skill added in the backup Old School RuneScape is based upon and thus the second-most recent skill in the game after Sailing.

• The falconer mentions that some noblemen consider falconry a suitably refined sport for them. Hunting and falconry in particular was indeed an extremely popular sport among European nobility during the Middle Ages.
• The Hunter skill was developed by Ian Gower.

• On the day of the skill's release, the two rock pillars on each side of the RuneScape main page were replaced with totem poles, on which were drawings of imps, lizards, and razorbacked kebbits. A few pawprints were also scattered around the tiled background.

• The login screen was changed as well. A piece of graahk fur was hung on each side of the screen, and a pair of orange salamanders clung onto the pillars. A box trap appeared below the login box, while a butterfly was placed on the top-left corner of the login box. A patch of grass grew on the bottom of the screen, parting at the middle. The burning rune symbols were replaced with paw prints, lizards, kebbits, and butterflies.

• Hunter/Experience table, a list of all Hunter experience sources
• Hunter/Level up table, a list of all requirements and unlockables within the Hunter skill

v t e Skills
Combat	Attack Strength Defence Ranged Prayer Magic Hitpoints
Gathering	Farming Fishing Hunter Mining Woodcutting
Production	Cooking Crafting Fletching Herblore Runecraft Smithing
Utility	Agility Construction Firemaking Sailing Slayer Thieving
Proposed skills	Artisan Warding Taming Sailing (2015 proposal) Shamanism
Related	Experience Skill mastery 200 million experience Summoning