Prayer is doubtlessly one of the most challenging skills for free-to-play players to level up in Old School RuneScape. The effects that prayers offer can increase attack damage, defend from forms of incoming attacks, and provide buffs for many stats within the game. Defeating stronger enemies becomes astronomically more difficult without a high prayer skill, so the benefit of leveling it should be abundantly obvious on that merit alone.
Record-breaking numbers of fans are still playing Old School RuneScape today and it's easier to play than ever before. Whether players are trying it for the time or coming back after many years everyone needs to know how to boost their prayer skill. Doing so incorrectly can result in extremely high costs when it comes to time and coins so it's crucial that players are more than familiar with the best ways to tackle this training task.
6 The Best Quests
It is vital to pick the best quests for training, especially if you are a free-to-play player. The Restless Ghost quest provides 1,125 experience without having to train prayer in any way. That's an instant boost from level 1 to level 9 in prayer with just one quest, making this one a total no-brainer!
For pay-to-play players, the level gain without training becomes even more impressive. The Restless Ghost, Priest in Peril, Recruitment Drive, and Holy Grail provides a whopping 14,531 prayer experience, enough to go from level 1 to level 30 without any prayer training! The amount of money and bone savings these quests can provide shouldn't be ignored.
5 The Bone Yard
Having enough bones to train with is vital for gaining experience in prayer, so what better place to gather some than The Bone Yard? The Bone Yard is found in the Wilderness north of Varrock. There are several bone drops here that don't even require combat, including a few rare medium bone drops.
However, players with strong combat abilities likely should try to take out some of the skeletons contained within The Bone Yard. Once a player has enough bones, they can safely escape and go bury their bones to train prayer in peace.
4 Bone Buffets
Even super fans might miss this method as it's so simple it's easily overlooked. There are several areas in the game where other players are training by killing various enemies or creatures where there are a lot of bone drops. Not all players will want the bones, so players in need of bones can pick them up for themselves.
For low-level players, anywhere with chicken pens and cow fields is perfect for this. Lumbridge Swamp and the Goblins near the gates to Al Kharid are also good spots to check out. High-level players should check out Varrock Sewer, Crandor, Edgeville Dungeon, Corsair Cove Dungeon, and Asgarian Ice Dungeon.
3 The Chaos Altar
Bones can get quite expensive, so what if there was a way they might not even be used when training prayer? The Chaos Temple not only offers the same experience as any gilded altar but also offers a 50% chance of whatever bones are being used to pray not being consumed afterward.
Players using this method may want to invest in strong defensive gear as the fastest route to the temple goes through a lot of players — players that might be out to kill you to get some experience for themselves. Losing experience and valuable time ruins long training sessions, so only the boldest players go to the temple with almost nothing but a full inventory of bones.
2 Power Burying
It is worth noting this method is only worth it if players have no intentions of ever going beyond a free-to-play account. It is deeply expensive in terms of coins and is also incredibly click intensive. Players must be sure to avoid getting scammed as well so this training method won't become even more cost-prohibitive. Power Burying requires players to buy large amounts of bones at The Grand Exchange and simply bury them en masse. With small bones, this can offer 13,050 experience an hour, and with large bones 43,500 experience per hour. Of course, costing an average of 194,068,247 and 243,309,360 coins respectively for 99 of those bones makes this difficult to manage.
1 Ensouled Heads
Killing creatures resurrected at The Dark Altar from Ensouled Heads can lead to solid prayer experience gains. The rarer and more powerful the head, the more prayer experience is offered after death. Players will need at least 60% favor with the Arceuus house to use this method, but it can be absolutely worth it.
Using Bloodveld heads can net players not only a minimum 145,000 prayer experience an hour but high amounts of magic experience. If players manage to find Ensouled Dragon heads, the numbers can skyrocket. Even with how expensive they can be if purchased from The Grand Exchange, the cost of the head vs experience gained usually ends up as a net gain compared to the coin costs for other training methods.