Ironman Guide/Prayer

Ironman Guide

Prayer is a slower skill to train for ironmen due to having to obtain bones themselves. Ideally, it is best to use every bone on an experience boosting altar, such as the Chaos Altar, Ectofuntus, Libation bowl, or with high Construction, a gilded altar in the chapel of your player-owned house. A bone crusher or ash sanctifier can be used for passive experience while training when the bones dropped are not worth picking up.

Early Prayer goals include level 43 for Protect from Magic, Protect from Missiles and Protect from Melee, and level 45 for all stat-boosting Prayers up to Mystic Might.

Later goals include level 70 for Piety, and level 85 for the Elite Desert Diary.

Early levels can be skipped by completing quests that reward Prayer experience. Completing all of the following quests will reward enough experience for 42 Prayer:

• The Restless Ghost rewards 1,125 Prayer experience.
• Priest in Peril rewards 1,406 Prayer experience.
• Holy Grail requires 20 and Merlin's Crystal and rewards 11,000 Prayer experience for very low requirements.
• Recruitment Drive requires Druidic Ritual and Black Knights' Fortress, rewards 1,000.5 Prayer experience.
• Rag and Bone Man I rewards 500 Prayer experience.
• Ghosts Ahoy requires 25 , 20 , Priest in Peril, and The Restless Ghost, rewards 2,400 Prayer experience.
• Making History requires Priest in Peril and partial completion of The Restless Ghost, rewards 1,000 Prayer experience.
• Spirits of the Elid requires 33 , 37 , 37 , 37 , rewards 8,000 Prayer experience.
• Another Slice of H.A.M requires 15 , 25 , rewards 3,000 Prayer experience.
• His Faithful Servants rewards 20,000 Prayer experience. While it has no hard requirements other than Priest in Peril, protection prayers are highly recommended.

Method	Experience	Notes
Chaos altar	700%[i 1]	Available immediately, but risky, since the altar is in the Wilderness.
Gilded altar	250-350%	Requires 75 Construction. 3.5× is achievable with both incense burners lit.
Ectofuntus	400%	Available early, after Priest in Peril, but is quite slow.
Libation bowl	399-500%[i 2]	Available early, after Children of the Sun and 30 , but is slow and requires jugs of wine. 479-600% is achievable using sunfire splinters
Offering spells	300%	Requires access to a steady source of wrath runes. Provides a multiplier of only 3×, but can be used without requiring trips to and from the bank.

This is a dangerous activity. On death, Hardcore Ironmen will lose their status. Unprotected items will be lost to the player who kills you.

Offering bones at the chaos altar in the Chaos Temple, located in level 38 Wilderness, is the most efficient way to train Prayer, and should be used whenever possible.

The altar grants 350% experience per bone with an additional 50% chance that the bone offered at the altar will not be consumed. If you keep offering bones until they're consumed you should expect 700% experience per bone on average. This method is riskier but notably faster overall than offering bones at the gilded altar considering the time it takes to gather the bones.

The altar can be reached by a Ghorrock Teleport ideally, or alternatively a Cemetery Teleport or burning amulet.

It is recommended to 3 or 4-item with cheap gear that has high defensive stats. Bring some high-healing food in case player killers attack. A stack of noted bones can be brought and unnoted at the nearby elder chaos druid NPC, which is a riskier, but faster method. Resupply by running south below level 20 Wilderness, teleport to a bank, such as Edgeville. Lumbridge and Camelot teleports are near banks on PvP worlds.

Alternatively, bring one inventory of bones at a time and suicide on the nearby wine of Zamorak spawn or the Chaos Fanatic to the north. Expedite this by self-damage items, such as an enchanted symbol, locator orb, or a dwarven rock cake.

Around 500,000 Prayer experience per hour should be possible even during peak times, but the number of player killers encountered varies. Change respawn points for more efficient runs.

Offer bones at your player-owned house gilded altar, requiring 75 Construction, for 2.5× experience with no incense burners lit, 3× experience with one, or 3.5× experience with both lit. If not unnoting bones at Phials in Rimmington, a PvP world can be used with Camelot Teleport to use the bank chest near Camelot castle for fast banking.

Demonic Offering, a spell from the Arceuus spellbook, can be used to gain a 3× multiplier on ashes during a slayer trip without spending time banking the ashes - this is the only way to multiply experience from ashes. In addition, Sinister Offering has the same trip-saving benefits as Demonic offering, and can be used to gain a 3× multiplier on bones. However, these spells require wrath runes, which require 95 Runecrafting - as such, this is not a method to be used early game.

Without wrath runes, Demonic offering can still be cast at the Fountain of Rune, which can be efficiently accessed using the Wilderness sword 3 once daily or the Wilderness sword 4 as often as the player needs. However, it's generally not worth going out of the way to bank ashes at tasks where extremely long trips are possible or inventory space is a concern - ashes might be banked at tormented demons, for example, but probably not at hellhounds or K'ril Tsutsaroth.

The Ectofuntus outside of Port Phasmatys rewards 4× Prayer experience per bone. Each bone must be ground through the bone grinder and put into a pot, then offered alongside a bucket of slime for experience and ecto-tokens, which can be claimed from ghost disciples. It is a safe alternative to the chaos altar before having a gilded altar. Hardcore ironmen are recommended to use this instead of the chaos altar.

At level 58 Agility, use the weathered wall when filling buckets of slime, then use the ectophial teleport back up, which shortens trips dramatically. Buckets of slime can also be purchased from the Trader Crewmembers inside Port Phasmatys for 2 coins each, eliminating the need to gather slime.

After the completion of the medium Morytania Diary and higher, Robin will exchange bones for pots of bonemeal and buckets of slime daily.

With reanimation spells in the Arceuus spellbook, ensouled heads dropped by monsters can be reanimated and killed for Prayer experience. This method is slow and unpredictable, but by saving up heads to reanimate all at once, it can be good experience.

Prayer experience is one of the available rewards from Pest Control. If using this method, it is recommended that you have a combat level of 100+ (which allows you to complete veteran games, therefore getting 5 points per game) and have completed the hard tier of the Combat achievements, which gives you 3 extra points per game. In total, you'll gain 8 points per game.

The experience per hour will depend on your Prayer level. Assuming your Prayer level is around 80, it is possible to reach around 40k experience per hour.

Bones can be transformed into blessed bone shards at the exposed altar, then used with jugs of blessed wine (made by using jugs of wine on the exposed altar) on the libation bowl for up to 5x base Prayer experience per bone. This is increased up to 6x when using jugs of blessed sunfire wine instead, but this requires using sunfire shards.

Kill green dragons in the Wilderness, but beware of player killers. Use a looting bag for extra looting space and longer trips. North of the Graveyard of Shadows and east of Bone Yard Hunter area are easily accessible via a games necklace teleport to Corporeal Beast's Lair, or a ring of dueling teleport to Ferox Enclave, which also has a bank and the pool of refreshment and Clan Wars free-for-all portal to restore health and Prayer. West of the Dark Warriors' Fortress is safer but can be crowded.

It is recommended to collect enough dragon bones for 70 Prayer quickly after getting high enough stats. Once the elite Wilderness Diary is completed, dragons drop noted bones in the Wilderness, greatly increasing trip length for up to 300–330 dragons per hour when using the dragon hunter lance. However, even early game with a dragon scimitar, dragon defender, antifire potions, Protect from Magic, and a looting bag, green dragons in the Wilderness are the fastest source of banked Prayer experience available.

The fastest method of banking Prayer experience for hardcore ironmen is killing green dragons in the Myths' Guild basement after completion of Dragon Slayer II. Kill the 2 green dragons then kill blue dragons while waiting for the green dragons to respawn. The hides can also be looted, though it does make for more trips.

Another way to get dragon bones, that avoids the Wilderness, is to kill blue dragons. While slower to kill, they can be killed with potentially less effort and lower requirements due to the availability of safespots to kill them.

The Dragon nest east of Tal Teklan only requires Children of the Sun to enter (though Twilight's Promise is recommended for access to the Quetzal Transport System), a close bank in Tal Teklan, and many safespots for blue or red dragons. Players with 40 agility can access a log balance shortcut for even faster banking.

Other locations to safespot blue dragons include the Isle of Souls dungeon (fairy rings recommended for travel, ring of dueling suggested for banking), the Taverley Dungeon (70 Agility recommended, Falador Teleport suggested for travel and banking), the Heroes' guild basement (Heroes' Quest required, running to the Rogues' Den suggested for banking), and the Ogre Enclave (Watchtower quest required, fairy rings recommended for travel, ring of dueling suggested for banking).

Water spells or Iban Blast can be used to kill blue dragons with relatively low requirements.

With water spells, Water Bolt with chaos gauntlets can offer good damage relative to the cost of the runes. Other options include Water Strike, which can be used if upfront rune costs are a restrictive factor; and Water Blast, which hits harder than Water Bolt (24 vs 18 without chaos gauntlets, 24 vs 22 with) but costs more to use if runes are bought from shops.

For Iban Blast, Underground Pass can be completed quite easily prior to reaching level 43 Prayer for Protect from Melee. However, the Dark Mage must be paid 200,000 coins to increase the amount of charges Iban's staff can hold to 2,500. The staff can be recharged for free by returning to the paladin's well, however this requires re-navigating the Underground Pass (with a bow and arrow, rope, and spade) unless Regicide is completed for access to chartering to Port Tyras.

With level 66 Crafting, the blue dragonhides can be tanned, crafted into blue d'hide vambraces, and converted to coins by using High Level Alchemy. This generally recoups most or all of the costs of the runes if Iban Blast or Water Blast are used, and can be profitable if Water Bolt is used.

Later, blue dragons can also be killed effectively with melee and ranged, starting off with weapons such as a leaf-bladed sword or hunters' sunlight crossbow. Without needing to safespot, other locations such as the Ruins of Tapoyauik and the Myths' Guild basement may offer better rates with quicker banking/returning available due to closer teleports (with the pendant of ates and mythical cape respectively) being available.

An alternative way to get dragon bones is to kill red dragons in the Forthos Dungeon. Although they have higher hitpoints and are more resistant to melee and ranged attacks, these red dragons are very close to the Sacred Bone Burner, meaning the player can continue to camp for longer periods of time without banking and can skip bringing their bones into the Wilderness. Note that the Sacred Bone Burner will not grant experience for the first 100 dragon bones offered unless the player has first placated Olbertus by giving him five dragonstones, which can be difficult to acquire early on as an Ironman.

Another alternative method of obtaining bones is to kill frost dragons in the Grimstone Dungeon. This allows the player to obtain end-game sailing supplies such as dragon metal sheets and dragon nails while also gathering the bones needed to train prayer. This method requires 87 Sailing and an Eternal brazier built in order to access the island where the frost dragons reside. Frost dragons drop Frost dragon bones and are the only source of superior dragon bones outside of Vorkath.

Prayer experience can be gained through Slayer as well. Ensouled heads dropped by monsters can be reanimated and killed for Prayer experience. The dragon hunter lance makes blue dragon tasks worthwhile and makes unlocking red dragons an additional unlock that may be considered. Killing Vorkath on task becomes very efficient with the dragon hunter lance and high stats, as it is very profitable and Vorkath also drops a lot of useful supplies. Dagannoth Kings may also be killed on task for noted dagannoth bones after completion of the elite Fremennik Diary.

Prior to completing Dragon Slayer II, Slayer can be used to get 70 Prayer banked with bones and ensouled heads which will be around 80 Slayer. Blue dragons are not worthwhile to rush for blue dragon tasks as they are significantly slower to kill than green dragons.

Certain bosses drop considerable amounts of bones, which can add up passively when killing them for other reasons. Some examples include Zulrah, Cerberus and Vorkath having a chance of dropping many noted dragon bones, Alchemical Hydra and Vorkath dropping two guaranteed bones (hydra bones and superior dragon bones respectively) per kill, or the Moons of Peril providing wyrmling bones and blessed bone shards from their Lunar Chest.

The following table lists expected experience banked per kill for some bosses:

Boss	Average Loot/Kill	Average XP/Kill	Notes
Dagannoth Kings (Rex, Prime, Supreme)	Dagannoth bones x 1	437.5 XP (Gilded altar with burners) 600 XP (Libation bowl with sunfire wines) 875 XP (Chaos altar)	Bones are dropped as notes after completion of the Elite Fremennik Diary.
Calvar'ion	Dragon bones x 1.41	355.3 XP (Gilded altar with burners) 490.7 XP (Libation bowl with sunfire wines) 710.7 XP (Chaos altar)	Assumes Calvar'ion's guaranteed big bones drop is ignored.
Moons of Peril (Full Run)	Sun-kissed bones x 5.4 Blessed bone shards x 67.8 Wyrmling bones x 9.6	2570.4 XP (Gilded altar with burners) 3074.4 XP (Libation bowl with sunfire wines) 3276 XP (Chaos altar)	Gilded altar and Chaos altar XP values assume the sun-kissed bones and blessed bone shards are used with sunfire wines at the libation bowl. "Kill" refers to a loot of the Lunar Chest, not an individual kill of each Moon boss. Loot is 1/6th if only one Moon is killed, 1/2 if two Moons are killed.
Zulrah	Dragon bones x 0.77	194 XP (Gilded altar with burners) 268 XP (Libation bowl with sunfire wines) 388 XP (Chaos altar)
Vorkath	Superior dragon bones x 2 Dragon bones x 0.933 Vorkath's head x 0.02	1316.3 XP (Gilded altar with burners) 1807.9 XP (Libation bowl with sunfire wines) 2601.4 XP (Chaos altar)	Assumes Vorkath's head is used to cast Master Reanimation.
Cerberus	Infernal ashes x 1 Dragon bones x 0.78	526.9 XP (Gilded altar with burners) 601.9 XP (Libation bowl with sunfire wines) 723.8 XP (Chaos altar)	Requires a Slayer task of hellhounds or itself to be killed. Assumes infernal ashes are offered with Demonic Offering.
Alchemical Hydra	Hydra bones x 2 Dragon bones x 3.57	1668.4 XP (Gilded altar with burners) 2356.6 XP (Libation bowl with sunfire wines) 3336.8 XP (Chaos altar)	Requires a Slayer task of hydras or itself from Konar quo Maten to be killed.
Doom of Mokhaiotl (per floor)	Sun-kissed bones x 2.4	649 XP (Libation bowl with sunfire wines)

Some methods, while not being particularly effective sources of Prayer experience in themselves, are useful for other purposes and can provide small amounts of Prayer experience as a byproduct.

After completing Below Ice Mountain, the Ruins of Camdozaal are unlocked, which includes a low-intensity, non-combat (only requires Fishing and Cooking) method of training Prayer. Using the small fishing net (in the area, there are spawn points of a small fishing net and a knife, both tools that one will need for this method) and offering all fish types with decent efficiency (tetra stop ruining at Level 61 Cooking), players can obtain experience rates per hour of 5,600 Fishing, 7,400 Cooking, and 2,400 Prayer. Using the big fishing net (simplest way to obtain one would be purchasing one for 20 gp from Harry's Fishing Shop. in Catherby; players can obtain a knife from the spawn point in the Camdozaal fishing area) and offering all fish types with decent efficiency (catfish stop ruining at Level 78 Cooking), one can obtain experience rates per hour of 7,000 Fishing, 9,100 Cooking, and 3,200 Prayer.

Sulliusceps, an effective method of woodcutting training that does not require tick manipulation, often drop unidentified fossils upon being cut. These fossils can be redeemed for Prayer experience after calcification at the Mycelium pool with calcite and pyrophosphite, providing Prayer experience at approximately a rate of one Prayer experience for every 6 woodcutting experience. Calcite and pyrophosphite can be acquired at the Volcanic Mine, amongst other fossil island activities.

Hunter's Rumours, which unlock Quetzal feed to finish the Quetzal Transport System, the perfected quetzal whistle, the guild hunter outfit, and Quetzin, provide sun-kissed bones and blessed bone shards, which can be redeemed at the libation bowl for Prayer experience.

Shades of Mort'ton, which unlocks among other things bloodbark armour and zealot's robes, rewards small amounts of Prayer experience when each Shade is cremated using pyre logs.

After Sins of the Father is completed, collected vampyre dust from Feral Vampyres, Vampyre Juveniles, or Vyrewatch Sentinels can be used in the Hallowed Sepulchre for a token amount of Prayer experience. Each dust gives 100 Prayer experience when used to open a Saradomin Brazier. With the Hallowed symbol, you gain 200 Prayer experience per dust.

Stealing valuables for thieving experience has a rare chance of rewarding a blessed bone statuette, which can be broken down into blessed bone shards and sacrificed at the libation bowl for Prayer experience.

At 41 and having started Perilous Moons, Calcified rocks can be mined for modest AFK Mining experience and blessed bone shards.

At 84 and having completed the Hard Wilderness Diary, the chests in the Rogue's Castle in the Wilderness can be stolen from, providing amongst other loot and some of the best Thieving experience in the game a 1/22 chance of getting 18 Vile ashes. If offered using Demonic offering, this amounts to a ratio of roughly 1 Prayer experience for every 7.2 thieving experience gained. However, there is a high risk of dying and losing ashes to player killers, so heavy caution is advised.