How to Reduce the Cost of Training Prayer in RuneScape Using Distractions & Diversions, Useful Items and Killing Monsters

Training Prayer in RuneScape can be very expensive. Here are some methods on how the cost of Prayer training can be reduced, using Distractions & Diversions, some specific monsters and various useful items.

Distractions & Diversions

Penguin Hide & Seek

Penguin Hide & Seek is a Distraction & Diversion that can be done every week. It can be started after talking to Larry in East Ardougne zoo, although, after completing the quest, Hunt for Red Raktuber, Larry disappears and the the polar bear Chuck in his cage is dealt with instead. There are ten penguins and one polar bear agent.

Penguins roam the world in a number of different disguises, such as rocks, cacti, barrels, bushes, crates and mushrooms. These disguises are defined by where the original spawn of the penguin is. During the Christmas holiday event, the penguins are all snowmen, and during the Halloween event, they are all pumpkins.

No official Penguin Hide & Seek worlds exist, but an unofficial one is World 60. There are several friend chats that are used to hunt penguins on this world, World60pengs, W60pengu and W60pengs. Once in World 60, joining one of these chats will help you find the penguins.

Penguin locations reset every week on Wednesday, between 0:00 and 1:00 GMT. Penguins can be found in many different places, some of which may require quests to be completed in order to enter. Penguins may even spawn in the Wilderness, and Player Killers may need to be avoided.

Once the quest Cold War is completed, five of the ten penguins will now give a reward of two Penguin Points, not one. Once the quest Hunt for Red Raktuber is completed, the polar bear agent may also be spied on. The polar bear only appears in wells. Once both quests are completed, sixteen Penguin Points may be earned every week. Larry and Chuck will only keep track of up to 50 Penguin Points, so any earned after this will be lost.

Penguin Points may be exchanged for money or experience. The amount of experience depends on the level of the skill being trained. Experience is the recommended use for the points earned.

Tears of Guthix

Tears of Guthix is a Distraction & Diversion that can be played once the Tears of Guthix quest has been completed.

The D&D requires blue tears to be collected from the walls. Green tears need to be avoided, as they deduct points. There is a limited amount of time to collect the Tears, based on the number of quest points earned, and the points where the Tears appear on the walls randomly change. The amount of experience earned is based on the level of the skill.

The Tears may only be collected once per week. The Tears do not have a fixed weekly reset point, like Penguin Hide & Seek does, but instead work from a week after the last time they were collected. In addition, to collect the Tears, in the intervening week, the player must have earned either 100,000 experience points or one quest point so, if these goals haven't been met, it is entirely possible to wait longer than a week before the player can collect the Tears again.

The Tears only provide a boost to the players lowest levelled skill, so this can only be used to earn experience if Prayer is the lowest skill.

Troll Invasion

Troll Invasion is a Distraction & Diversion located in Burthorpe. The fastest way to get to Burthorpe is the Burthorpe Home Teleport spell, which arrives just to the east of Troll Invasion. The game is played at the wall and gatehouse to the west of Burthorpe, and can be started by talking to Captain Jute. This is a safe game; dying whilst playing it will not result in the loss of any items.

The D&D is a single player game, and you can either fight the Trolls, who come in twenty waves of increasing difficulty,  or keep the gatehouse repaired, and either stop the Trolls for ten minutes or 1,500 Trolls are defeated. Once the twenty wave invasion is fought once, a "hard" invasion of seven waves is unlocked.

The first time the minigame is played each month, a Reward book can be earned. The amount of experience earned from the book is dependent on the level of the skill to be trained, and the wave reached if fighting the invading Trolls, or the number of Trolls killed if repairing the gatehouse.

Monsters

Many monsters drop Bones or Demonic ashes that can be used to train Prayer if buried or scattered, both of which can be done automatically using Bonecrusher and Prayer urns, but there are some monsters that give Prayer experience when killed.

Ghasts

Ghasts are undead inhabitants of Mort Myre. When initially encountered, they cannot be fought, and will either turn a players' food rotten or do damge. In order to kill them, a player must have a Druid pouch from the Nature Spirit quest, which must be filled by casting Bloom and then harvesting Mort Myre fungi, Mort Myre stems or Mort Myre pears and adding them to the pouch. Each charge in the pouch causes an attacking Ghast to become fully visible, and can then be attacked. Alternatively, the Ouroboros pouch from the Temple Trekking activity can be used, said pouch having unlimited charges and never needs filling.

Pouches can be directly used on Ghasts to make them visible, rather than waiting for one to attack.

When a Ghast is killed, a player will receive 30 Prayer experience for doing so.

This is quite time consuming, especially with a normal Druid pouch that requires refilling (the Ouroboros pouch reward from the Temple Trekking minigame is more useful), and is more of an incidental way of training Prayer.

Skeletal Horror

After completing both the Rag and Bone Man and Fur 'n' Seek wish lists, the Skeletal Horror may be fought once per week after the previous battle giving an extra 1,000 Prayer experience each time it is successfully fought. You have to wait one week after each victory before it can be fought again.

The Bonesack (e) and the Ram skull helmet (e) will both allow the player to teleport to the Skeletal Horror. This will only work once per week, and only after the Horror has been reconstructed.

The Skeletal Horror is a dangerous opponent, and should not be underestimated. Make sure you have enough equipment, and a means of getting back to your Gravestone at the entrance to the Skeletal Horror's area quickly should you be killed.

Items

There are a number of items which have either a direct or indirect use in helping to reduce the cost of Prayer training.

Bonecrusher

Bonecrusher is a Dungeoneering reward which is discussed in detail in the Dungeoneering section.

Brawling Gloves (Prayer)

Brawling gloves of all types are untradeable. The only way of obtaining them is as a drop from Revenants in the Forinthry Dungeon. WARNING: The Dungeon is both a multi-way combat area and part of the Wilderness. As such, you may be attacked by Player Killers, so do not bring anything you are unwilling to lose.

Wearing the gloves gives a 50% bonus when training Prayer, although they have no effect when using either Urns or the Ectofuntus. They do provide a 50% bonus when using a Gilded Altar, which stacks with the altars existing bonus.

If bones are buried in the Wilderness whilst these gloves are worn, they provide the same bonus as using the Ectofuntus, but without having to grind Bonemeal or collect Buckets of slime.

The gloves will last for 1,274 uses before disintegrating, and cannot be recharged. The most efficient use of the gloves is with a Gilded Altar with both Incense burners lit and using Frost dragon bones.

Ectophial

The Ectophial is a reward from the Ghosts Ahoy quest. It allows unlimited free teleports to the ground floor of the Ectofuntus, which is useful when training Prayer there.

Morytania legs

The Morytania legs are a Task reward which are discussed in detail in the Tasks section.

Wisdom Aura

The Wisdom aura, available from the Members Loyalty Programme for a normal price of 40,000 Membership Loyalty Points, provides a 2.%5 experience bonus for thirty minutes once activated. The aura will then require 24 hours and 30 minutes to recharge before it can be used again. Although the aura will not stack with the bonus from the Ectofuntus or Bonus XP Weekends, it will stack with the altar in the POH Chapel. The aura can therefore be used to provide a bonus for certain types of Prayer training, reducing the cost. 30 Day Membership: RuneScape 3 [Instant Access]
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