OSRS Ironman Prayer Training Guide

Training Prayer on an Ironman is much slower since players must obtain bones themselves rather than buying them. However, Prayer is a crucial skill, especially the early levels. Reaching level 43 unlocks Protect from Magic, Protect from Missiles, and Protect from Melee, making quests and many other activities significantly easier.

Quests that give Prayer XP

You should complete these quests to skip the early prayer levels. Completing all the quests below takes the player to level 36 prayer from 1.

• The Restless Ghost rewards 1,125 Prayer XP.
• Priest in Peril rewards 1,406 Prayer XP.
• Recruitment Drive requires Druidic Ritual and Black Knights' Fortress, rewards 1,000.5 Prayer XP.
• Rag and Bone Man I rewards 500 Prayer XP.
• Ghosts Ahoy requires 25 Agility, 20 Cooking, Priest in Peril, and The Restless Ghost, which rewards 2,400 Prayer XP.
• Making History requires Priest in Peril and partial completion of The Restless Ghost, which rewards 1,000 Prayer XP.
• Spirits of the Elid requires 33 Magic, 37 Ranged, 37 Mining, and 37 Thieving, which rewards 8,000 Prayer XP.
• Another Slice of H.A.M requires 15 Attack, 25 Prayer, and rewards 3,000 Prayer XP.
• His Faithful Servants reward 20,000 Prayer XP.

The fastest method of training Prayer on Ironman

Level 1-99: Killing Green Dragons in Myth’s Guild and Using bones at the Chaos altar

This is undoubtedly the fastest Prayer training method for Ironman. It is also safer and requires less attention. However, accessing the Myth's Guild requires completing Dragon Slayer II, which has several prerequisites. Despite the effort, completing the quest is worthwhile, especially if you plan to do it eventually.

Offering the Dragon Bones at the Chaos Temple is very risky due to frequent PKer activity. However, This Altar provides the highest prayer XP for any type of bone, offering 350% XP per bone with a 50% chance to preserve the bone, effectively increasing the average XP gain to 700% per bone. This reduces the amount of bones needed for training prayer which is very helpful on an ironman.

XP per hour at the Chaos Altar

While using the Dragon bones and the Chaos Altar, you can get 200K to 300K prayer XP per hour. This is because you will run into PKers and the altar is not close to a bank. However, this method is still the most efficient and fastest, considering you must kill Dragons to obtain the bones.

Alternative methods of training Prayer on Ironman

Levels 1-99: Using bones at the Gilded Altar

Players can use the Gilded Altar in a friend’s house or create them at their POH if they have atleast 75 construction. You will get 2.5x XP with no incense burners lit, 3x XP with one, and 3.5x XP with both lit. 

Levels 1-99: Ectofunctus

The Ectofunctus outside of Port Phasmastys rewards players with 4x prayer experience per bone. Training Prayer at the Ectofuntus is slower than using a Gilded Altar or Chaos Altar but offers a cost-effective alternative for players who want to save money without requiring a Player-owned House or risking the Wilderness Here is a breakdown of how to train prayer at the Ectofunctus. 

• Grind the bones with the bone grounder upstairs with a pot in your inventory to get bonemeal.
• Climb down the basement and use the bucket on the slime at the bottom to get a bucket of slime. If you have 58 agility, use the weathered wall when filling buckets of slime, then use the ectophial to teleport back up. Alternatively, Buckets of slime can also be purchased from the Trader Crewmember inside Port Phasmtys for 2 coins each.
• Finally, pray at the Ectofunctus by clicking it with the Bone meal and bucket of slime in your inventory to get prayer XP.

Picking bones in Bone Yard and using them at the Chaos Temple

The Bone Yard in Level 32 Wilderness is an excellent spot for ironman to gather bones and big bones due to their fast respawn rate. This makes it a great way to train early Prayer levels without relying on monster drops. However, Level 25 Skeletons roam the area, so low-level ironman should bring armor and food to survive while collecting bones. 

XP per hour from Picking bones in Bone yard

By frequently running to the Chaos Altar in the Chaos Temple, players can expect 18,000 Prayer XP per hour. F2P ironman can also use this spot, but without access to the Chaos Altar, they will only gain about 9,300 XP per hour.

Ensouled heads

Ensouled heads are dropped by their respective monsters and can be reanimated and killed for Prayer XP. During Slayer, players will obtain ensouled heads, allowing them to train both Slayer and Prayer simultaneously. 

Getting Bones for Prayer on Ironman

A significant portion of Prayer training is spent obtaining bones. Dragon Bones are the best choice, as they offer the best balance between ease of acquisition and prayer XP they give.

Killing Green Dragons

Green Dragons are one of the easiest to kill, making them a good source of bones for training prayer on an ironman. Players with 80+ in melee combat stats can get 170 Dragon bones while killing Green Dragons. Check our Green Dragons guide to find the best strategy for killing them.

Recommendations for killing Green Dragons

• Looting bag: if killing them in the Wilderness
• Elite Wilderness Diary: once completed, dragon drop noted bones in the Wilderness, increasing a trip length to 300-300 dragons per hour if using the Dragon hunter lance. 

Locations of Green Dragons

Wilderness

Several Green Dragons can be found in different locations in the Wilderness, but beware of Pkers. A games necklace can take the player close to the North of the Graveyard Shadows and east of Boneyard hunter areas where Green Dragons are located.

Myth’s Guild

If you want to get as many Dragon bones as possible, kill Green dragons in the Myth’s Guild basement after completion of Dragon Slayer II. You should also kill the 2 Blue Dragons after killing the 2 Green Dragons, instead of waiting for them to respawn.

Killing Blue Dragons

If you want to avoid the Wilderness but can’t complete the Dragon Slayer II yet, the best way to get Dragon bones is to kill Blue Dragons. Although they are slower to kill, they can be killed with less effort and lower requirements. Players with decent combat stats can get about 100 Dragon bones per hour while killing Blue Dragons. Check our Blue Dragons guide to find the best strategy for killing them.

Locations for Blue Dragons

Here are the best spots for killing Blue Dragons, which are easily accessible and can give the player the most Dragon bones:

• Isle of Dungeons: This location has 4 Blue Dragon spawns.

• The Taverley Dungeon: Blue Dragon spawns are in this location. Players with 75 agility can follow the shortcut to the Blue Dragons. Without 75 agility, players must go around and enter the gate which requires a dusty key to access. 12 Blue dragon spawns are in the upper level, requiring 70 agility, a dusty key, and a Blue Dragon slayer task to access.

• Heroes’ guild: One Blue Dragon spawn exists in this area, which requires completing Heroes’ Quest to access

• Ogre Enclave: There are 6 Blue Dragon spawns in this location. Requires completion of Watchtower quest.