Prayer is the most efficient skill in Old School RuneScape. At absolute peak efficiency — dagannoth bones at the Chaos Altar for the first 738,000 XP, then superior dragon bones for the remaining 12.3 million — it takes roughly 6.6 efficient hours from level 1 to 99. That is faster than any buyable skill except Construction. It is also one of the three most expensive 99s in the game, costing anywhere from 75 million GP (dragon bones at the Chaos Altar) to 275 million+ GP (superior dragon bones at a gilded altar), depending on how much risk and how much clicking you are willing to accept.
And Prayer is not optional. Level 43 unlocks Protect from Melee, Protect from Missiles, and Protect from Magic — the three prayers that make almost all PvM in OSRS possible. Level 70 unlocks Piety, the single biggest melee DPS upgrade in the game. Levels 74 and 77 unlock Rigour and Augury, which do for ranged and magic what Piety does for melee. Without Prayer, you are playing a fundamentally weaker version of the game.
This guide covers every viable training method — from the bone shard altar in Varlamore to the Chaos Altar in the Wilderness, from gilded altars in player-owned houses to the newly buffed offering spells — with exact XP rates, current costs, and honest assessments of risk. And if you decide that grinding 75 to 275 million GP for bones is not how you want to spend your time, we cover the marketplace alternative too.
Prayer at a Glance
| Attribute | Details |
|---|---|
| XP to 99 | 13,034,431 XP |
| EHP to 99 | ~6.6 hours (WiseOldMan: dagannoth bones at chaos altar → superior dragon bones at chaos altar, up to 2,000k XP/hr) |
| Realistic (fast, safe) | 10-18 hours (superior dragon bones at gilded altar, ~700k-1.5M XP/hr) |
| Realistic (balanced budget/speed) | 25-45 hours (dragon bones at gilded altar, ~300k XP/hr, or chaos altar) |
| Fastest XP method | Superior dragon bones at chaos altar: up to ~2,000k XP/hr EHP, or ~500k-700k XP/hr realistically. Also requires 70 Prayer to use superior dragon bones. |
| Cheapest effective method | Dragon bones at Chaos Altar: ~75M GP to 99 at ~6 GP/XP — 50% bone save cuts cost in half |
| Safest fast method | Gilded Altar (World 330): dragon bones at ~300k XP/hr, zero risk, ~155M GP to 99 |
| New meta option (Varlamore) | Bone shards: dragon bones yield 290-348 XP each (more than gilded altar’s 252 XP). Spam-click the libation bowl for over 1M XP/hr — but account for chiseling time |
| Key milestones | 43 (protection prayers), 70 (Piety), 74 (Rigour, scroll), 77 (Augury, scroll), 99 (skillcape) |
How Prayer Works
Prayer is deceptively simple: every 8 Prayer levels increases your combat level by 1, so 99 Prayer adds 12 combat levels. Higher Prayer also increases the effectiveness of prayer potions — they restore 25% of your level plus 7, so a higher level restores more points per dose.
Prayer bonus from your gear reduces how quickly your prayer points drain. Every 30 Prayer bonus halves your drain rate. This is why prayer-boosting gear (Proselyte armour, Sunfire Fanatic armour, god books, prayer-bonus rings) matters for Slayer and PvM — it extends your trips, reduces potion costs, and makes AFK combat possible.
You cannot profit from training Prayer. Every method costs GP. The question is how much — and whether the time you would spend grinding bones is better spent elsewhere.
The Methods: Every Way to Train Prayer, Ranked
As of July 2026, there are six viable Prayer training methods for main accounts — plus passive options that accumulate XP in the background. Here is the full comparison:
| Method | XP Multiplier | XP/hr (Dragon Bones) | GP/XP (Dragon Bones) | Cost to 43 | Cost to 70 | Cost to 99 | Risk | Requirements |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chaos Altar | 3.5× + 50% bone save (≈7× effective) | ~300k-450k | ~5-6 | ~300K | ~4.1M | ~75M GP | 🔴 PK risk | None |
| Bone Shards (Varlamore) | ~4.0-4.8× (varies by bone) | ~600k-1M+ (spam-clicking libation bowl) | ~8-10 | ~400K | ~6M | ~115M GP | 🟢 Safe | Children of the Sun, 30 Prayer |
| Gilded Altar (W330) | 3.5× | ~250k-300k | ~10-12 | ~600K | ~8.2M | ~155M GP | 🟢 Safe | None (use W330 house hosts) |
| Ensouled Heads | Varies by head | ~80k-220k (depends on head) | ~1.5-4.5 | ~200K | ~3M | ~40-80M GP | 🟢 Safe | Arceuus spellbook, Magic levels |
| Sinister Offering | 3.5× (buffed 2026) | ~60k-100k (not including casting cooldown) | ~5-14 | ~400K | ~5M | ~95-180M GP | 🟢 Safe | 92 Magic, A Kingdom Divided |
| Demonic Offering | 3.5× (buffed 2026) | ~60k (ashes only) | ~4-10 | ~300K | ~4M | ~55-130M GP | 🟢 Safe | 84 Magic, A Kingdom Divided |
| Ectofuntus | 4× | ~30k-50k | ~10 | ~500K | ~7M | ~130M GP | 🟢 Safe | Priest in Peril |
| Passive (Bonecrusher) | 0.5× (auto-bury) | Variable | Free | Adds up over Slayer. Morytania Hard Diary required. | ||||
All costs calculated at July 2026 GE prices: dragon bones ~3,000 GP, superior dragon bones ~22,750 GP. Chaos Altar costs assume 50% bone save. Bone shard costs assume dragon bones blessed and broken into shards, offered with blessed wine.
📖 “The First 43 Levels: Quests & Quick Starts” (click to expand)
The First 43 Levels: Questing Before Spending
Before you spend a single GP on bones, complete every quest that awards Prayer XP. This is free XP that skips the most expensive levels — and the quests are fast:
| Quest | Prayer XP | Requirements | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Restless Ghost | 1,125 | None | 10 min |
| Priest in Peril | 1,406 | None | 15 min |
| Holy Grail | 11,000 | 20 Attack, Merlin’s Crystal | 30 min |
| Rum Deal | 7,000 | 42 Crafting, 40 Fishing, Zogre Flesh Eaters | 45 min |
| Spirits of the Elid | 8,000 | 37 Ranged, 33 Magic | 45 min |
| Making History | 1,000 | Priest in Peril, 20 crafting | 20 min |
| Recruitment Drive | 1,000 | Black Knights’ Fortress, Druidic Ritual | 20 min |
| Rag and Bone Man (both) | 5,000 + 5,000 | Various slayer/kill requirements | 1-2 hrs |
These quests collectively award roughly 40,000+ Prayer XP — taking you from level 1 to level 36-37 Prayer without spending a single coin. From there, you need only ~13,000 XP to reach 43 for protection prayers — fewer than 200 dragon bones at a gilded altar, costing roughly 600,000 GP.
Completing the quests first is not strictly necessary — Prayer is fast enough that you can buy your way from 1 to 43 in under an hour for roughly 600k GP at a gilded altar. But for ironmen and budget-conscious players, the quest XP route saves money and provides useful quest unlocks in the process.
Method 1: The Chaos Altar — Cheapest Fast XP (at a Price)
The Chaos Altar in level 38 Wilderness is the single most cost-effective Prayer training method in OSRS. It offers the same 3.5× XP multiplier as a gilded altar, but every bone has a 50% chance of not being consumed. Over thousands of bones, this effectively doubles your supply — making each purchased bone worth roughly 7× its base XP on average.
At current prices (dragon bones ~3,000 GP each), 99 Prayer costs roughly 75 million GP at the Chaos Altar — less than half the ~155 million GP a gilded altar costs for the same bones. The savings are dramatic. From 43 to 99, the Chaos Altar saves you roughly 77 million GP compared to a gilded altar with dragon bones.
The trade-off is that you are in the Wilderness. Players actively hunt Chaos Altar trainers because they know bones are valuable. Even so, the math favors the altar — if you use the suicide method (one inventory of bones, no gear, die or teleport after using them all), you will occasionally lose an inventory to a PKer, but the 50% bone save more than compensates. Most experienced players estimate that even with PK losses, the Chaos Altar saves 30-40% over a gilded altar.
How to Do It Safely
The standard safe method:
- Buy a Burning Amulet (or Ghorrock teleport tablets). Bring nothing else — no gear, no items, nothing you would mind losing.
- Withdraw a full inventory of unnoted bones from your bank.
- Teleport to the Lava Maze (Burning Amulet) and run southwest to the Chaos Altar.
- Use all your bones on the altar. For fastest XP, use the 1-tick method — manually click each bone on the altar in rapid succession, which processes them roughly 3× faster than auto-use.
- After using all bones, die or teleport back to your respawn location. The enchanted symbol (Mage Arena 2 miniquest reward) lets you suicide quickly. Alternatively, click the nearby wine jug to drain your health.
- Bank, repeat.
The RuneLite Menu Entry Swapper makes 1-ticking much easier — set your bones’ left-click to “use” instead of “bury,” then drag your inventory over the altar and spam-click. With the Entity Hider plugin, you can hide other players at the altar to reduce visual clutter.
Some players bring noted bones and unnote them at the NPC just outside the altar for continuous training — this is faster but dramatically riskier, since you are standing in the Wilderness with your entire bone supply. For most players, the suicide method (one inventory per trip) strikes the right balance between speed and safety.
Play on low-population PvP worlds and off-peak hours to minimize PK encounters. The altar is in multi-combat Wilderness, so a team of PKers can kill you before you can teleport. Always keep the altar in view on your minimap and be ready to react.
📖 “Gilded Altar & Bone Shards Deep-Dive” (click to expand)
Method 2: The Gilded Altar — Safe, Reliable, Popular
The gilded altar in a player-owned house is the standard Prayer training method. With both incense burners lit (using marrentill herbs), it provides 3.5× the base XP of any bone. A dragon bone that gives 72 XP when buried gives 252 XP at a gilded altar. A superior dragon bone gives 525 XP.
You do not need 75 Construction to use this method. On World 330 (the official house party world), players host open gilded altars in Rimmington with both burners lit — free to use. Walk into any advertised house, find the altar room, and offer your bones. As of 2026, hosts keep burners lit continuously, so you never need to bring marrentill or a tinderbox yourself.
The W330 Rimmington Loop
- Buy your bones in bulk from the Grand Exchange.
- Withdraw bones as noted inventory, plus a Rimmington teleport (house tab or redirect scroll) and at least 50k coins.
- Unnote bones at Phials in the Rimmington general store — he charges 5 GP per bone and is located 5 tiles from the house portal.
- Enter a hosted house (right-click the house advertisement board, filter for gilded altars with a “Y”).
- Use bones on the altar. Run back to Phials once finished.
- For maximum speed, 1-tick by using each bone manually on the altar. With dragon bones, this pushes XP rates from ~300k/hr to nearly 450k/hr — at the cost of carpal tunnel.
For the absolute fastest safe XP, you can hire a bone runner — another player who retrieves more bones from the bank while you offer at the altar. This is the fastest safe method in the game, approaching 1.5M+ XP/hr with superior dragon bones, but costs extra for the runner’s time. Most players skip this — Prayer is already fast enough without paying for a second person.
The gilded altar is the default recommendation for anyone who wants predictable, zero-risk training. The Chaos Altar is cheaper. The libation bowl is faster. But the gilded altar is where most players train — and for good reason. It just works.
Method 3: Bone Shards — The New Varlamore Meta
Introduced with Varlamore, the blessed bone shard method has quickly become the best-in-slot Prayer training for accounts that can afford the upfront time investment. Here is how it works:
- Bless bones at the exposed altar on Ralos’ Rise (south of the Teomat) — this converts regular bones into blessed bones.
- Chisel blessed bones into shards — a dragon bone becomes 58 blessed bone shards; a superior dragon bone becomes 121.
- Bless jugs of wine at the same altar. Optionally add Sunfire splinters to create blessed sunfire wine, which increases the XP per shard from 5 to 6.
- Fill the libation bowl in the northern building of the Teomat with blessed wine.
- Sacrifice shards at the bowl — up to 100 per action. Spam-click for maximum speed or let it auto-process for AFK training.
The numbers are compelling. At a gilded altar, one dragon bone gives 252 XP. Through the bone shard method with blessed sunfire wine, the same dragon bone yields roughly 348 XP (58 shards × 6 XP) — a 38% increase over the gilded altar. For superior dragon bones, the difference is even larger: 525 XP at a gilded altar versus 726 XP (121 shards × 6 XP) through bone shards.
The catch is time. Blessing and chiseling bones into shards is not instant — it takes a few seconds per inventory. When you factor in the preparation time, the effective XP rate drops. On a main account buying bones from the GE, the blessing and chiseling time is time you are not gaining Prayer XP. For ironmen who were going to process bones anyway, the method is a strict upgrade.
The libation bowl itself is fast — spam-clicking can exceed 1 million Prayer XP per hour at the bowl, making it theoretically one of the fastest XP sources in the game. But this rate only applies during the sacrificing phase. When the time spent blessing and chiseling is included, the effective rate drops to roughly 600k-800k XP/hr for most players. Still faster than a gilded altar, still completely safe, and still more XP per bone than any other method.
Requirements: Children of the Sun quest to access Varlamore, level 30 Prayer to use the libation bowl. Twilight’s Promise speeds up the method, and Perilous Moons unlocks the ability to mine bone shards directly (useful for ironmen, irrelevant for mains buying bones).
📖 “Ensouled Heads, Offering Spells & the New Wyrmscraig Altar” (click to expand)
Method 4: Ensouled Heads — Cheap, Slow, and Combat-Gated
Ensouled heads use the Arceuus spellbook to reanimate dead monsters at the Dark Altar in Arceuus. Kill the reanimated creature, and you receive Prayer XP — typically 130 to 1,560 XP per head, depending on the type. The method also gives Magic XP (from casting) and combat XP (from killing the reanimated creature), making it one of the few Prayer methods that trains multiple skills at once.
The cost numbers are attractive. At ~1.5 to 4.5 GP per XP, ensouled heads are significantly cheaper per XP than dragon bones at a gilded altar (~10-12 GP/XP). The best value heads — chaos druids, giants, and bloodveld — come in at under 2 GP per XP. Abyssal demon and dragon heads give the highest XP per head (1,300 and 1,560 XP respectively) at roughly 3.5 to 4.5 GP/XP.
The trade-off is speed. Even with a dwarf multicannon to kill reanimated creatures quickly, you are looking at roughly 80,000 to 220,000 XP per hour — significantly slower than any altar method. Heads also have low trade volume on the Grand Exchange, so buying them in bulk requires leaving offers overnight at above-market prices.
Ensouled heads are best for:
- Ironmen who accumulate heads naturally through Slayer
- Players training magic and combat alongside Prayer who value the bundled XP
- Budget-conscious accounts willing to trade speed for cost savings
For a main account chasing 99 in under 20 hours, ensouled heads are not the play. For a patient player who does not mind the pace, they are the cheapest active training method in the game.
Method 5: Offering Spells — Buffed in 2026
The Summer Sweep-Up 2026 buffed Arceuus offering spells from 3× to 3.5× XP, making them more competitive with altar methods. Both spells require completion of A Kingdom Divided and have high Magic requirements:
| Spell | Magic Level | Consumes | XP per Spell (3 items) | Cooldown | Best Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Demonic Offering | 84 | 3 ashes | 3×3.5× base scatter XP | 4.8 seconds | Infernal ashes: ~594k theoretical XP/hr, ~6.5 GP/XP |
| Sinister Offering | 92 | 3 bones | 3×3.5× base bury XP | 4.8 seconds | Superior dragon bones: ~810k theoretical XP/hr, ~0.5 GP/XP (rune cost only) |
Here is the thing about offering spells that most guides gloss over: the 4.8-second cooldown limits how many bones you can process per hour. At 600 casts per hour, you process 1,800 bones or ashes per hour — far fewer than the 3,000-6,000+ you can process at an altar. This means offering spells are slower than altars for any given bone type, even though the XP per bone is the same (3.5× at both offering spells and gilded altar).
The real advantage of offering spells is the rune cost is negligible — a single soul rune and a blood rune per cast — meaning you are paying almost exclusively for the bones or ashes themselves, with no altar access needed. This makes Sinister Offering competitive for ironmen near the Fountain of Rune (free rune casting), and Demonic Offering excellent for accounts with a surplus of infernal ashes.
Bottom line: use Demonic Offering for ashes (especially infernal), and skip Sinister Offering for bones — bones are faster at any altar. The cooldown makes offering spells a niche option, not a replacement for traditional training.
New in 2026: The Wyrmscraig Altar (Sailing Content)
Added with the Sailing skill, the Wyrmscraig Altar is a new mid-ground between the gilded altar’s safety and the Chaos Altar’s savings. It provides the standard 3.5× XP but with a 25% chance to save each bone — a middle ground for players who want a discount without the Wilderness. Located on a raised island reachable only by boat, it requires 67 Sailing to access and 57 Construction to build the altar for use. The island is safe, and banking requires sailing back — making it somewhat slower than a gilded altar with a nearby bank but significantly safer than the Chaos Altar. For mid-level accounts with some Sailing levels, it is a solid option. For accounts that have not touched Sailing, the level requirement makes it a detour rather than a shortcut.
📖 “Ironman Methods, Passive XP & F2P” (click to expand)
Ironman Prayer Training
Ironmen face a different challenge: bones are not bought from the GE — they are gathered. This flips the entire meta toward methods that maximize XP per bone rather than XP per hour spent at an altar.
The low-level ironman path:
- Quest to 36-37 Prayer using the quest list above. Restless Ghost and Priest in Peril alone get you past level 15.
- Kill blue dragons in Taverley Dungeon (safespottable, 61 Ranged or Magic) for dragon bones. Alternatively, green dragons in the Wilderness (faster kills but PK risk).
- Use bones at the Chaos Altar — the 50% bone save effectively doubles your gathered supply. Suicide method only. For hardcore ironmen, skip the Chaos Altar and use bone shards instead.
- Collect ensouled heads from Slayer as a passive supplement.
- At higher combat, boss drops become the primary bone source. Zulrah drops noted dragon bones. Vorkath drops superior dragon bones. Cerberus, Hydra, and Dagannoth Kings all drop high-XP bones in large quantities.
The Ectofuntus (4× XP per bone, zero risk, requires grinding bones into bonemeal and collecting buckets of slime) is the traditional ironman method. It gives the most XP per bone of any method and is entirely safe. It is also painfully slow — grinding bones and collecting slime manually reduces the effective XP rate to ~30,000-50,000 per hour. The bone shard method has largely replaced the Ectofuntus for ironmen who have access to Varlamore.
The Forthos Dungeon altar (near the red dragons in Hosidius) is a niche option for ultimate ironmen — you kill red dragons on-site and offer their bones at the altar a few rooms away, eliminating the need to bank.
WiseOldMan’s ironman EHP for Prayer assumes ~1137 hours at Wilderness green dragons (340 bones/hr, scaled to ~600k true Prayer XP rate). In practice, most ironmen spread Prayer training across their entire account progression — collecting bones from Slayer tasks, bossing, and Managing Miscellania over months and years rather than grinding it all at once.
Passive Prayer XP: Train Prayer Without Trying
Five items provide Prayer XP in the background while you do other content:
| Item | Unlock | What It Does | XP Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bonecrusher | Morytania Hard Diary | Automatically buries bones from monsters you kill, giving half the normal bury XP | Variable — adds up to significant XP over 99 Slayer |
| Bonecrusher Necklace | Combine bonecrusher + dragonbone necklace | Same auto-bury effect, but also restores prayer points. Ideal for chinning/bursting maniacal monkeys. | Keeps prayer full indefinitely on bone-dropping tasks |
| Ash Sanctifier | Kourend Hard Diary | Automatically scatters demonic ashes from kills, giving half the normal scatter XP | Adds up on dust devil, nechryael, and abyssal demon tasks |
| Ectoplasmator | Soul Wars (40 Zeal Tokens) | Grants Prayer XP when killing spectral creatures (aberrant spectres, ankous, Barrows brothers, etc.) | Modest — only worth it if you enjoy Soul Wars |
| God Eggs (Woodcutting Guild) | Bird nests from Woodcutting | Exchange god eggs at the Woodcutting Guild shrine for 100 Prayer XP each + a bird nest reward | Trivial XP, but entirely passive |
None of these will get you to 99 Prayer. But over hundreds of hours of Slayer, the bonecrusher alone can contribute millions of XP — XP you did not have to spend GP or time to earn. If you plan to train Slayer to 99, get the bonecrusher as early as possible.
Free-to-Play Prayer
Free-to-play Prayer training is, bluntly, not worth it. The fastest F2P method is simultaneously burying big bones and scattering vile ashes — doing both actions at the same time for roughly 100,000 XP per hour. At that rate, 99 Prayer takes over 110 hours and costs roughly 180 million GP. Obtaining membership — even if only to train Prayer — is one of the single best decisions a free-to-play account can make. The entire skill is balanced around the 3.5× altar multipliers that members have access to. Training Prayer in F2P is playing on hard mode with no benefit.
Cost to Key Milestones: Exact Numbers
Here is what it costs to reach each major Prayer milestone using dragon bones, the standard currency of Prayer training. All figures use July 2026 GE prices (~3,000 GP per dragon bone):
| Milestone | XP Needed | Gilded Altar (3.5×) | Chaos Altar (7× effective) | Bone Shards (Sunfire, ~4.8×) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 → 43 (Protection Prayers) | 50,339 | 200 bones — ~600K GP | ~100 bones — ~300K GP | ~145 bones — ~435K GP |
| 43 → 70 (Piety) | 687,039 | 2,727 bones — ~8.2M GP | ~1,364 bones — ~4.1M GP | ~1,975 bones — ~5.9M GP |
| 43 → 74 (Rigour) | 1,041,539 | 4,133 bones — ~12.4M GP | ~2,067 bones — ~6.2M GP | ~2,993 bones — ~9.0M GP |
| 43 → 77 (Augury) | 1,419,558 | 5,634 bones — ~16.9M GP | ~2,817 bones — ~8.5M GP | ~4,080 bones — ~12.2M GP |
| 43 → 99 (Skillcape) | 12,976,425 | ~51,500 bones — ~155M GP | ~25,750 bones — ~77M GP | ~37,300 bones — ~112M GP |
Rigour and Augury also require their respective prayer scrolls — Rigour from Chambers of Xeric (~18M GP), Augury from the same (~3M GP). These are one-time unlocks, not consumable costs.
A few things to note:
- Superior dragon bones are faster but dramatically more expensive. At ~22,750 GP each and 525 XP per bone at a gilded altar, 43→99 costs roughly 565 million GP — nearly 4× the cost of dragon bones. Use them only if you have disposable GP and value speed above all else.
- The Chaos Altar cuts costs roughly in half across every milestone. If you can tolerate the occasional PK death, the savings are massive — 77 million GP saved from 43 to 99 with dragon bones alone.
- Bone shards sit between the Chaos Altar and gilded altar in cost but offer higher XP rates during the sacrificing phase. They are best for accounts that want speed without the Wilderness.
- Piety at 70 Prayer is the single biggest account upgrade in the game for melee combat. If you are on a budget, aim for 70 and stop. You can push to 77 for Rigour/Augury later when your bank is stronger.
The Grind It or Buy It Equation
Prayer is the most extreme example of OSRS’s buyable skill problem. The training itself is fast — 10 to 45 hours depending on your bone choice and method. The real time sink is earning the GP to buy the bones.
Here is the math for 70 Prayer (Piety) — the most important milestone for most accounts:
| How You Fund 70 Prayer (~8.2M GP, Gilded Altar) | GP/hr Source | Hours to Earn GP | Plus Hours to Train | Total Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mid-game Slayer | ~500k/hr | ~16.4 hrs | ~2.3 hrs | ~19 hrs |
| Herb runs (passive) | ~1.9M effective/hr | ~4.3 hrs (spread over days) | ~2.3 hrs | ~7 hrs active |
| Buy 10M OSRS gold | N/A | 0 hrs | ~2.3 hrs | ~2.3 hrs + ~$3-$5 |
And for 99 Prayer (~155M GP at gilded altar, ~75M at Chaos Altar):
| How You Fund 99 Prayer | GP/hr Source | Hours to Earn GP (Gilded) | Hours to Earn GP (Chaos Altar) | Plus Training Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Slayer bossing (Hydra, Cerb) | ~2-4.5M/hr | 34-78 hrs | 17-38 hrs | +10-45 hrs training |
| Herb runs + birdhouses (passive) | ~1.9M effective/hr | ~82 hrs active | ~40 hrs active | +10-45 hrs training |
| Raids (CoX, ToA) | ~5-15M/hr | 10-31 hrs | 5-15 hrs | +10-45 hrs training |
| Buy OSRS gold (155M) | N/A | 0 hrs | 0 hrs | ~$47-$78 |
| Buy a 99 Prayer account | N/A | 0 hrs | 0 hrs | ~$150-$300 |
At the U.S. federal minimum wage, the 34 to 78 hours it takes to earn the GP for 99 Prayer at a gilded altar is worth roughly $247 to $566 in pre-tax income. Buying the gold — or buying an account with 99 Prayer already trained — costs a fraction of that in both time and money. For a player who values their leisure time at anything above minimum wage, the marketplace math is even more favorable.
This is not an argument that you should buy gold. Plenty of players enjoy earning their upgrades — the first time you activate Piety on a boss fight is a genuine milestone. But before you spend 50+ hours grinding GP for bones, you should know what those hours are worth. Prayer is a buyable skill. The only question is who does the buying — you, with your time, or the marketplace, with a fraction of a day’s wages.
📖 “How to Buy OSRS Gold & Accounts Safely” (click to expand)
How to Buy OSRS Gold and Accounts Safely
If you decide the GP grind for Prayer is not worth your time, here is how to buy without getting burned:
1. Only Use Escrow-Protected Marketplaces
Never send money directly to a seller through Discord, PayPal friends-and-family, or cryptocurrency. On PlayerBay, your payment is held in escrow until you confirm delivery. If the seller disappears, you dispute and get your money back. Direct deals offer zero recourse.
2. For Gold: Face-to-Face Trading Only
Reputable sellers trade gold in-game, face-to-face, at the Grand Exchange. Avoid Wilderness drops, Party Room transfers, or any unverifiable method. Check seller profiles for verified badges, completed sales, and recent positive reviews.
3. For Accounts: Registered Email Transfer Is Everything
With the Jagex account system, the registered email controls everything. If a seller cannot or will not transfer it, walk away. After purchase: change the email, change the password, remove old recovery information, enable 2FA, unlink third-party accounts, and set a bank PIN — within 10 minutes.
Browse OSRS gold to fund your Prayer grind: OSRS Gold Marketplace on PlayerBay
Browse Prayer-trained OSRS accounts: OSRS Accounts Marketplace on PlayerBay
Frequently Asked Questions
How many hours does 99 Prayer take?
~6.6 efficient hours (WiseOldMan EHP, using dagannoth bones then superior dragon bones at Chaos Altar, up to 2,000k XP/hr). Realistically: 10-18 hours with superior dragon bones at a gilded altar (~700k-1.5M XP/hr), 25-45 hours with dragon bones at a gilded altar (~300k XP/hr), or 25-45 hours at the Chaos Altar with dragon bones (similar XP rate, half the cost). Prayer is one of the fastest buyable 99s in OSRS — only Construction and Cooking are faster.
How much GP does 99 Prayer cost?
At current GE prices (July 2026, dragon bones ~3,000 GP): ~155M GP at a gilded altar, ~75M GP at the Chaos Altar (50% bone save), ~112M GP through Varlamore bone shards with sunfire wine, or ~565M GP with superior dragon bones at a gilded altar (fastest safe method). The Chaos Altar is by far the most cost-effective — you save roughly 77 million GP compared to the gilded altar with dragon bones.
What is the fastest Prayer training method?
Superior dragon bones at the Chaos Altar — up to ~2,000k XP/hr at EHP rates, or ~500k-700k XP/hr for a realistic player. This requires 70 Prayer to use superior dragon bones and carries PK risk. The fastest safe method is superior dragon bones at a gilded altar (~700k-1.5M XP/hr, depending on 1-tick speed and whether you use a bone runner). The Varlamore libation bowl can exceed 1M XP/hr during the sacrificing phase, but preparation time (blessing and chiseling bones) reduces the effective rate.
Is the Chaos Altar worth the risk?
For most players: yes. The 50% bone save effectively halves your cost to 99. Even if you lose an inventory of bones to a PKer once every 10-20 trips, the savings still dramatically outweigh the losses. Use the suicide method (one inventory per trip, no gear), play on low-population worlds, and train during off-peak hours. If you are a hardcore ironman, skip the Chaos Altar — one death ends the account. Use bone shards or the gilded altar instead.
Should I use dragon bones or superior dragon bones?
Dragon bones are the sweet spot for 95% of players. At ~3,000 GP each giving 252 XP at a gilded altar (~12 GP/XP), they offer the best balance of speed and cost. Superior dragon bones are roughly twice as fast (525 XP per bone, ~500k-700k XP/hr realistically) but cost ~22,750 GP each (~43 GP/XP at a gilded altar) — nearly 4× the cost per XP. Use superior dragon bones only if you already have disposable GP and want to minimize training time. Use dragon bones for everything else.
What level should I stop at?
43 is required. Protection prayers gate almost all PvM content. 70 is your next target — Piety is the single biggest melee DPS upgrade in the game and costs roughly 8.2M GP from 43 at a gilded altar. 74 and 77 (Rigour and Augury) are endgame goals — they also require prayer scrolls from Chambers of Xeric. 99 is a luxury. It adds 12 combat levels and the skillcape teleport (unlimited house teleports plus all house portals), but the real power gains stop at 77. Most accounts stop at 70-77 unless they are chasing max or want the cape.
Are bone shards better than a gilded altar?
In terms of XP per bone: yes. Dragon bones give 252 XP at a gilded altar and 290-348 XP through bone shards (depending on whether you use sunfire wine). In terms of real-world XP per hour: it depends. The libation bowl spam-clicking is fast — over 1M XP/hr during the sacrificing phase — but blessing and chiseling bones takes time. For main accounts buying bones from the GE, the total effective rate is roughly 600k-800k XP/hr — faster than a gilded altar but with more preparation steps. For ironmen who were going to process bones anyway, bone shards are a strict upgrade. The method requires Children of the Sun, 30 Prayer, and access to Varlamore.
What is the cheapest Prayer training method?
Dragon bones at the Chaos Altar — ~75M GP to 99 at ~5-6 GP/XP. For active methods with zero risk, ensouled heads are the cheapest at ~1.5-4.5 GP/XP, but they are roughly 3-4× slower than altar methods. For passive training, the bonecrusher (Morytania Hard Diary) is free — it adds millions of XP over hundreds of Slayer hours without costing a single GP.
Can I train Prayer for free?
Not actively. Every method that involves bones or ashes costs GP — the only variable is how much. The bonecrusher and ash sanctifier provide free passive XP from monster kills, but they are half the normal bury/scatter rate and are supplements, not primary training methods. Quest XP is free but finite — the available quests give roughly 40,000 Prayer XP, enough for level 36-37. After that, you pay.
Is buying OSRS gold to fund Prayer safe?
Gold buying carries inherent risk under Jagex’s Terms of Service. The safest approach: use a marketplace with escrow protection (like PlayerBay), choose verified sellers with positive reviews, and accept only face-to-face in-game trades at safe locations. Never send money directly to a seller — escrow means your payment is held until you confirm delivery.
The Bottom Line
Prayer is the skill that separates accounts that can do PvM from accounts that can do PvM comfortably. Level 43 unlocks protection prayers. Level 70 unlocks Piety — a 23% damage increase, 25% defence increase, and 23% accuracy increase that applies to every melee hit you will ever land. Levels 74 and 77 unlock Rigour and Augury, which do the same for ranged and magic. There is no substitute. There is no workaround. You either train Prayer, or you play a weaker account.
The training meta is clear:
- Cheapest fast method: Dragon bones at the Chaos Altar. ~75M GP to 99. Half the cost of a gilded altar. Accept the PK risk, use suicide runs, and bank the savings.
- Best safe method: Dragon bones at a gilded altar (World 330). ~155M GP to 99. Zero risk, predictable, the standard approach.
- Fastest safe method: Superior dragon bones at a gilded altar. ~565M GP to 99. For accounts with more GP than time.
- New best-in-slot: Bone shards through Varlamore. More XP per bone than any altar method, over 1M XP/hr at the libation bowl, completely safe. The preparation time (blessing and chiseling) is the only drawback.
For most players, the right answer is 70 Prayer with dragon bones — either at the Chaos Altar if you can tolerate the Wilderness, or at World 330 if you cannot. 70 Prayer unlocks Piety, which is where the real game begins. Everything after that — 74, 77, 99 — is optimization. Powerful optimization, but optimization nonetheless.
And if grinding 8 million GP for 70 Prayer or 155 million GP for 99 sounds like more runecrafting than you signed up for, the marketplace exists. At minimum wage, the time it takes to earn the GP for 99 Prayer at mid-level money-makers is worth far more than the cost of buying the gold outright. Whether that trade-off makes sense is a question only you can answer — but it is a question worth asking.
Ready to fund your Prayer training? Browse OSRS gold on PlayerBay to buy the bones you need, or check out OSRS accounts with Prayer already leveled if you would rather skip straight to Piety.
Disclaimer: PlayerBay is a player-to-player marketplace and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or in any way officially connected with Jagex Ltd, Old School RuneScape, or their affiliates. All trademarks, game names, character names, and associated intellectual property belong to their respective owners. Use of game and brand names is for descriptive purposes only. Gold and account purchases carry inherent risk under Jagex’s Terms of Service, which prohibit real-world trading and account sharing. Buyers should understand these risks before purchasing. Bone and ash prices sourced from the official OSRS Grand Exchange database as of July 14, 2026. XP rates sourced from WiseOldMan EHP tracker, the OSRS Wiki, and community-verified testing. Cost estimates calculated using current GE prices and may change with the market. The 2026 Summer Sweep-Up offering spell buffs (3.5× from 3×) and the Wyrmscraig Altar are documented as of the latest live patch.
Last reviewed: July 14, 2026. Bone prices, XP rates, and marketplace conditions are current as of this date. We update this guide when significant Prayer meta changes, new training methods are released, or bone prices shift materially.
