Prayer

For a list of all requirements and unlockables within the Prayer skill, see Prayer/Level up table.

This article has a calculator here.

Calculators determine experience and costs based on real-time prices from the Grand Exchange Market Watch.

This article has skill training guides: Members / Free-to-play

Skill training guides document optimal XP/hour methods to train a skill, as well as alternate passive or less expensive methods.

Prayer
Released		4 January 2001 (Update)
Also called		Pray
Members		No
Type		Combat
Statistics
Players with 99		110,672 as of 1 November 2022 - update
Players with 200M XP		170 as of 19 November 2022 - update

Prayer is a non-members combat skill. Prayer is trained by burying bones, using them on an altar in a player-owned house, by using them on the altar in the Chaos Temple (hut), by praying at the Ectofuntus with bonemeal and buckets of slime, by killing reanimated monsters summoned via the Arceuus spellbook, or by scattering Demonic ashes. Different bones and different Demonic ashes give different amounts of experience.

Prayers are unlocked as the level in the skill goes up, which are used to aid the player in combat. The prayers can help with Attack, Defence, Strength, Ranged, Magic, and Hitpoints, among other uses. When prayers are activated, they drain the player's prayer points until the prayer is turned off or all prayer points are used.

Most prayers can be activated immediately before the attack hits and promptly deactivated in order to gain buffs and/or protection with minimal to no expenditure of prayer points. This is called prayer flicking.

	Prayer level up - normal
The music that plays when levelling up.

	Prayer level up - with unlocks
The music that plays when levelling up and unlocking new content.

Recharging points

The Prayer interface.

The player can recharge all of their prayer points to full by praying at an altar, which are most often found in churches.

Praying at these altars will recharge the player's prayer points above the maximum:

• The Altar of Nature in the Nature Grotto
• The Edgeville Monastery (requires level 31 Prayer)
• Altars found within the God Wars Dungeon boss chambers.

In addition, consuming prayer potions, super restores, sanfew serums, Ancient brews and Zamorak brews will recharge prayer points proportional to the player's Prayer level, and consuming jangerberries restores 1 prayer point each. The Falador shield will also recharge a certain percentage of prayer points once or twice daily depending upon the tier of the shield.

The special attacks of these weapons will also restore prayer points: ancient mace, eldritch nightmare staff, Saradomin godsword.

The Catacombs of Kourend also have a special effect, where burying bones will restore a few prayer points based on the type of bone.

Quick prayers

The quick-prayers interface.

On 6 February 2014, data orbs were added and has given the Prayer icon the ability to select your quick prayers. It can be left-clicked to activate, or deactivate, a group of prayers preselected by the player simultaneously. You can select which prayers are activated by right-clicking the button and choosing the "Setup quick-prayers" option. Before the addition of this function, players had to, sometimes frantically, locate the prayer tab and activate them one by one. This function allows players to place many of the most useful prayers on immediate standby. It is very useful for prayer flicking. Quick prayers can also be used as an easy way to turn off all prayers by double left-clicking it (to turn quick prayers on, then off).

Prayers

The prayer tab contains all of the available prayers. To activate a prayer, simply click it. This will show a whitish circle around each active prayer, and will start to drain prayer points.

All prayers up to Mystic Might are available for free-to-play players, but prayers from Retribution onward require the player to be on a members' server. Additionally, Chivalry and Piety require completion of Camelot Training Room, and Preserve, Rigour, and Augury must be unlocked through prayer scrolls from Chambers of Xeric.

Level	Prayer		Effect	Drain Rate	Drain Effect	Members
1		Thick Skin	+5% Defence	1 point per 12 seconds	3	0
4		Burst of Strength	+5% Strength	1 point per 12 seconds	3	0
7		Clarity of Thought	+5% Attack	1 point per 12 seconds	3	0
8		Sharp Eye	+5% Ranged	1 point per 12 seconds	3	0
9		Mystic Will	+5% Magical attack and defence	1 point per 12 seconds	3	0
10		Rock Skin	+10% Defence	1 point per 6 seconds	6	0
13		Superhuman Strength	+10% Strength	1 point per 6 seconds	6	0
16		Improved Reflexes	+10% Attack	1 point per 6 seconds	6	0
19		Rapid Restore	2 x Restore rate for all skills except Hitpoints and Prayer	1 point per 36 seconds	1	0
22		Rapid Heal	2 x Restore rate for Hitpoints	1 point per 18 seconds	2	0
25		Protect Item	Player keeps 1 extra item when they die (must be activated before death to occur)	1 point per 18 seconds	2	0
26		Hawk Eye	+10% Ranged	1 point per 6 seconds	6	0
27		Mystic Lore	+10% Magical attack and defence	1 point per 6 seconds	6	0
28		Steel Skin	+15% Defence	1 point per 3 seconds	12	0
31		Ultimate Strength	+15% Strength	1 point per 3 seconds	12	0
34		Incredible Reflexes	+15% Attack	1 point per 3 seconds	12	0
37		Protect from Magic	Protects against magic attacks	1 point per 3 seconds	12	0
40		Protect from Missiles	Protects against ranged attacks	1 point per 3 seconds	12	0
43		Protect from Melee	Protects against melee attacks	1 point per 3 seconds	12	0
44		Eagle Eye	+15% Ranged	1 point per 3 seconds	12	0
45		Mystic Might	+15% Magical attack and defence	1 point per 3 seconds	12	0
46		Retribution	Deals damage up to 25% of your Prayer level to nearby targets upon the user's death	1 point per 12 seconds	3	1
49		Redemption	Heals the player if they fall below 10% health	1 point per 6 seconds	6	1
52		Smite	Removes 1 prayer point from an enemy for every 4 damage inflicted on the enemy	1 point per 2 seconds	18	1
55		Preserve	Boosted stats last 50% longer	1 point per 18 seconds	2	1
60		Chivalry	+15% Attack, +18% Strength, +20% Defence	1 point per 1.5 seconds	24	1
70		Piety	+20% Attack, +23% Strength, +25% Defence	1 point per 1.5 seconds	24	1
74		Rigour	+20% Ranged attack, +23% Ranged strength, +25% Defence	1 point per 1.5 seconds	24	1
77		Augury	+25% Magical attack and defence, +25% Defence	1 point per 1.5 seconds	24	1

Prayer drain

See also: Prayer items and Prayer drain calculator

While active, each prayer slowly depletes a player's prayer points. Different prayers drain prayer points at different rates. For example, a low-level prayer such as Thick Skin drains prayer significantly slower than its higher level counterpart, Steel Skin.

Prayer bonus, determined by worn equipment allows a player to slow the rate at which prayer points are drained. Players can view their prayer bonus in the Equipment Stats window. Only certain types of armour, clothing, weapons, and jewellery grant a prayer bonus.

In practice, each point of prayer bonus effectively increases the duration prayer points will last by 3.33%. For example, if a player uses the "Protect from Melee" prayer with a prayer bonus of 0, their prayer points would drain at a rate of 1 point every 3 seconds. If that player then equips armour giving a prayer bonus of +15, the player can expect this duration to increase by 50%, draining 1 point per 4.5 seconds instead of 1 point every 3 seconds.

Prayer bonus does not help to stave off the side-effects of locations and monsters that drain Prayer.

Prayer drain mechanics

Each prayer has an associated drain effect, and the total across all activated prayers is added to an internal prayer drain counter each game tick. Whenever this counter value exceeds a certain theshold, known as the player's prayer drain resistance, one prayer point is depleted, and that player's current prayer drain counter value decreases by their prayer drain resistance. As this can occur more than once per game tick, it is possible to lose more than one prayer point within a single game tick.

Players have a base prayer drain resistance of 60, increased by 2 for every point of prayer bonus. In the example above, a player with a prayer bonus of +15 would have a prayer drain resistance of 90, instead of 60. This would result in prayer points taking an average of 50% longer to deplete. Prayer drain resistance can be calculated with the following formula:

${\mathit {drain}}_{\mathrm {resistance} }=2\times {\mathit {bonus}}+60$

The number of seconds it takes for one Prayer point to drain, requiring the summation of the drain effect of each Prayer as drain effect, is then calculated with the following formula:

${\mathit {seconds}}=0.6\times \left({\mathit {drain}}_{\mathrm {resistance} }/{\mathit {drain}}_{\mathrm {effect} }\right)$

Prayer flicking

Flicking lets a player use prayers in combat without having their prayer points drain continuously. A skilled player will turn prayers on right before their effects are required, and turn them off immediately after. This will stop prayer from continuously draining between attacks. For prayer flicking involving protection prayers, the player will activate the prayer just before being hit, and turn it off immediately after the hit lands. This uses up very few prayer points, and negates prayer point usage completely if done quickly enough.

Although flicking requires timing and skill, doing it successfully can save prayer points and allow a player to fight monsters for much longer, or increase damage rates with offensive prayers. In some cases, flicking can take advantage of mechanics, such as rendering Dessous unable to attack the player. If done perfectly, no prayer will be consumed regardless of how long the fight lasts.

Most players will not have totally perfect timing. Wearing gear with a high prayer bonus will help you prayer flick much longer. Flicking is considerably easier when fighting a monster that matches your weapon's speed, and/or when playing with sounds on. A metronome set to 100 beats per minute (or once every 0.6 seconds) can be used for practicing.

The disadvantages to prayer flicking are the high click intensity associated with constantly turning prayers on and off, and the time needed to get good and consistent at it. If used in a high risk situation, incorrectly flicking may backfire as it can cause players to not have prayers on at the right time.

How to prayer flick

Flicking Protect from Melee and an offensive prayer when using a 4-tick weapon against a 6-tick monster.

Flicking Protect from Melee and an offensive prayer when using a 4-tick weapon against a 4-tick monster.

To prayer flick, one must activate and deactivate a prayer so it is active on the needed game tick. If flicking a combat prayer, this is the tick you attack. If flicking a protection prayer, this is the tick your enemy attacks (which is when their attack animation begins, not necessarily the tick in which you take damage). If flicking against monsters, it will help immensely to know the monster's attack speed.

Flicking offensively with a crossbow on the Rapid setting. Note that the XP drop and overhead prayer appear at the same time.

While it is possible to prayer flick against monsters that use Magic or Ranged attacks, it is best to practice against monsters that use melee at a 2.4 second (4 tick) interval while using a 4-tick weapon if you are learning how to flick for the first time. Practicing during Slayer tasks is a relatively safe and yet rewarding way to learn. Mutated Bloodvelds are an example of a good monster to practice at: they are not aggressive, their hits are accurate (meaning you will see easily when you make a mistake), and they are easy to reach.

In essence, when using protection prayers, activate the prayer just before the opponent's attack animation begins (for example, a ranger raising his bow and shooting the arrow, or a meleer swinging his sword). When using offensive prayers, activate the prayer just before your attack animation begins (and the experience drop shows up, if your hit is successful). To consume no prayer points, turn the prayer off within the next tick.

Note: Latency to the server is unavoidable, usually the ping at 20 to 150 milliseconds to the closest server. Keep this in mind when prayer flicking.

There are some exceptions to the rule of protection prayer having to be active on the first tick of the attack: for example, many of TzTok-Jad, The Nightmare and Verzik Vitur's attacks are calculated shortly after the start of their attack animation to allow the player to react to them switching between their attacks.

1-tick prayer flicking

Demonstration of 1-tick prayer, including activation and deactivation.

While this method is very click-intensive, it is possible to have your quick-prayers active at all times while not draining any prayer points. 1-tick prayer involves activating and deactivating your quick-prayers on every single game tick, and requires precise timing along with strict adherence to the click pattern. Notably, this is the only way to reliably protect yourself in a multi-combat zone filled with aggressive enemies without expending prayer points, and works against enemies that cannot be reliably prayer-flicked against due to varying attack speeds (such as cave horrors). In addition, it can reliably be used for both protection and offensive prayers, to nullify and deal more damage at the same time. When done correctly, your overhead prayer should be visible at all times, but you will not lose any prayer points.

The Preserve and Rapid Heal prayers provide no benefit when using this technique.

Equipment that affects Prayer

See also: Prayer items and Armour/Prayer armour

Some equipment can bypass or disable overhead other players' protection prayers, as well as drain, restore or depend on Prayer.

Most of this equipment cannot bypass monster protection prayers, with the exception of Verac's set against the Kalphite Queen.

Special attacks

Weapon		Notes
	Ancient mace	The ancient mace's special attack ignores Protect from Melee when used against players and drains their Prayer by the amount of damage inflicted, while restoring the user's Prayer by the same amount. It can restore the user's Prayer above their base level.
	Dragon scimitar	The dragon scimitar's special attack is more accurate and will disable as well as prevent a player from using their overhead protection prayers if it is a successful hit, for 5 seconds.
	Dragon sword	The dragon sword's special attack hits the target with 25% increased accuracy and damage, and ignores Protect from Melee when used against players.
	Abyssal bludgeon	The abyssal bludgeon's special attack deals a hit with 0.5% extra damage for every prayer point the attacker is missing.
	Bandos godsword	The Bandos godsword's special attack increases damage dealt by 21% and doubles the accuracy, draining one of the target's Combat stats by the amount of damage dealt, until it reaches 0. If the stat drained reaches 0 before all of the damage could be accounted for, another stat will be drained by the amount remaining. Stats are drained in the following order: Defence, Strength, Prayer, Attack, Magic, Ranged.
	Saradomin godsword	The Saradomin godsword's special attack increases damage dealt by 10% and doubles the accuracy. If it is a successful hit, it restores the user's Hitpoints by 50% of the damage dealt (with a minimum of 10 Hitpoints) and Prayer by 25% of damage dealt (with a minimum of 5 prayer points).
	Eldritch nightmare staff	The Eldritch nightmare staff's special attack increases damage dealt and restores the caster's prayer points by 50% of the damage dealt. It can boost the caster's prayer points above their base level.

Passive/set effects

Equipment		Notes
	Necklace of faith	When the user is hit down to less than 20% of their maximum hitpoints (including being hit for 0), they will have their Prayer restored for 10% of their Prayer level, destroying the necklace in the process.
	Dragonbone necklace	After it is equipped, burying bones (either manually or through the Bonecrusher) will restore a certain number of Prayer points.
	Sapphire bolts (e)	The passive effect of enchanted sapphire bolts causes the target to lose prayer points calculated as 1/20th of the attacker's current Ranged stat, and the attacker gains about half of them.
	Sapphire dragon bolts (e)
	Spectral spirit shield	The passive effect of the spectral spirit shield reduces the effectiveness of all Prayer draining attacks by 50%. This effect does not work against other players.
	Verac's set	The set effect of Verac's has a 25% chance to ignore the target's Defence, armour and protection prayers.

Spells

Spell		Notes
	Saradomin Strike	On a successful hit in PvP, Saradomin Strike lowers opponent's prayer points by 1.
	Corruption spells	Cast on oneself. The player's next successful hit has a chance to inflict corruption on an enemy player. Corruption drains 6 prayer points over 18 seconds.

Miscellaneous

Item		Notes
	Prayer book	Right clicking the prayer book while wearing a Holy symbol allows the player to use prayer to heal poison at the cost of some prayer points.
	Prayer cape	Boosts Prayer by 1 when operated, only usable at 99 Prayer. Can be done once every 60 seconds.

Monsters that use Prayer

Several monsters are able to make use of protection prayers.

Monster	Prayers	Notes
Kalphite Queen		Her first form will use Protect from Magic and Missiles simultaneously, while her second form will use Protect from Melee. Her prayers are purely visual, and only indicate a higher defence bonus against a particular attack style.
Mother		Mother protects against the last attack style that was used against him until the player extinguishes the Fire of Domination, at which point Mother only protects against Magic.
Demonic gorilla		The gorilla will spawn protecting from a random style. After 50 or more damage has been taken, the gorilla will switch its protection prayer according to the style of the last damage it took.
Sigmund		Only when fought during Another Slice of H.A.M.. He will first protect against whatever style the player attacks him with, then Missiles to counter Zanik; once the player uses the ancient mace special attack against him at this point, his Prayer will be drained and he can no longer use it
Crystalline Hunllef / Corrupted Hunllef		The Hunllef will spawn in protecting from a random style and change its protection prayer to protect against the sixth attack it receives that it is not protecting from.
Judge of Yama		Fought during the A Kingdom Divided quest.
Xamphur		Fought during the A Kingdom Divided quest.
Nex		Nex uses ancient curses, which are Zarosian prayers, during her final phase.
Akkha		Denotes complete immunity to the attack styles prayed against. The prayers change in correlation to number of attacks of a particular style are used during the fight, unless the Stay Vigilant invocation is active, in which they change randomly.
Tumeken's Warden / Elidinis' Warden		Denotes complete immunity to the attack styles prayed against. The Wardens will activate "Protect from All" briefly when Energy Siphons are active.

Temporary boosts

Main article: Temporary skill boost

Boost		Level increase	Visibility	Other info
	Prayer cape	+1	Visible	Activating the cape's effect will increase the corresponding skill by 1.
	Edgeville Monastery and Nature Grotto altars	+2	Visible	Monastery requires 31 Prayer, and is available to free players. Altar of nature requires completion of Nature Spirit.
	Spicy stew (yellow spice)	±0-5	Visible	Depending on type of stew, any skill can be boosted or reduced by 0 to 5 levels randomly.
	God Wars Dungeon altars	+0-11	Visible	Gaining a boost requires a god item in correspondence to the aligned god, restoring +1 for every item worn (e.g. 2 Armadyl items worn restores +2 extra prayer if praying at the Armadyl altar).
	Ambrosia	5-24	Visible	Restores Hitpoints by $\lfloor {\frac {HitpointsLevel}{4}}+2\rfloor$ and prayer points by $\lfloor {\frac {PrayerLevel}{5}}+5\rfloor$. Any lost Hitpoints or prayer points are fully restored prior to the boosts. Only usable within the Tombs of Amascut
	Ancient mace	+1-39	Visible	Requires completion of Another Slice of H.A.M. Uses 100% of Special attack bar and restores Prayer equal to the damage dealt. This can fill your Prayer up to your Prayer level + the damage dealt. For maximum effect, it's advised to use the special attack on an Undead combat dummy in conjunction with a high strength bonus and Slayer helmet prior to entering combat.
	Eldritch nightmare staff	+1-60	Visible	Uses 55% of Special attack bar and restores Prayer equal to 50% of the damage dealt. Similar to the Ancient mace, this can boost Prayer above the base level.

Quests

Quests requiring Prayer

Quest	Prayer requirement	Other skill requirements
Another Slice of H.A.M.	25	15
Scorpion Catcher	31	-
Legends' Quest	42	50 , 50 , 50 , 45 , 56 , 52 , 50 , 50 , 50
Enakhra's Lament	43	50 , 45 , 39
Rum Deal	47	50 , 42 , 40 , 42
The Great Brain Robbery	50	16 , 30
Hopespear's Will (miniquest)	50	-

Quests rewarding Prayer experience

Main article: Quest experience rewards

Quest	Experience reward	Prayer requirement	Other requirements
Rag and Bone Man I	500	-	-
Making History	1,000	-	-
Recruitment Drive	1,000	-	12
The Restless Ghost	1,125	-	-
Priest in Peril	1,406	-	-
Mountain Daughter	2,000	-	20
Ghosts Ahoy	2,400	-	25 , 20
Another Slice of H.A.M.	3,000	25	15
Rag and Bone Man II	5,000	-	40 , 20
The Great Brain Robbery	6,000	50	16 , 30
Rum Deal	7,000	47	42 , 50 , 40 , 42
Spirits of the Elid	8,000	-	37 , 33 , 37 , 37
Swan Song	10,000	-	100 , 66 , 62 , 62 , 45 , 42 , 40
Holy Grail	11,000	-	20
Hopespear's Will (miniquest)	38,750	50	-
Total	98,181

Skill choice

Upon completing any of the following quests, players may choose to allocate experience to Prayer. These rewards usually come in the form of items, such as lamps or books, and are independent of any experience rewards directly received for completing the quest.

Quest	Experience reward	Skills available	Skill requirements
X Marks the Spot	300	Any	None
Client of Kourend	500 twice	Any	None
Fairytale II - Cure a Queen	2,500	Any skill above 30	49 , 57
A Tail of Two Cats	2,500 twice	Any skill above 30	None
The Great Brain Robbery	5,000	Any skill above 30	16 , 30 , 50
King's Ransom	5,000	Any skill above 50	65
Darkness of Hallowvale	2,000 three times	Any skill above 30	5 , 20 , 22 , 32 , 33 , 40
A Taste of Hope	2,500 three times	Any skill above 35	48 , 40 , 40 , 45 , 38
A Kingdom Divided	10,000	Any skill above 40	54 , 52 , 52 , 50 , 42 , 38 , 35
Architectural Alliance (miniquest)	10,000	Any skill above 40	None
In Search of Knowledge (miniquest)	10,000	Any skill above 40	None
Curse of the Empty Lord (miniquest)	10,000	Any skill above 50	Some players will need 31
One Small Favour	10,000 twice	Any skill above 30	36 , 25 , 18 , 30
Recipe for Disaster (The final battle)	20,000	Any skill above 50	175 , 70 , 48 , 50 , 53 , 53 , 25 , 59 , 40 , 50 , 40 , 40 , 10 , 10 , 36
Legends' Quest	7,650 four times		107 , 50 , 50 , 45 , 56 , 52 , 42 , 50 , 50 , 50 , 50
Sins of the Father	15,000 three times	Any skill above 60	62 , 60 , 56 , 52 , 50 , 50 , 49
Total	187,900

Other Prayer experience rewards

Source	Experience reward	Requirements
Information clerk	4000	151+ Kudos
Total	4,000

Trivia

• A Prayer bonus of +30 is required to halve the drain rate of prayers.
• In RuneScape 2, the Prayer icon colour was originally yellow, but Jagex changed the colour on 21 November 2006 when Hunter was released.
• Within the game cache, there is an unused icon for Protect from Summoning (). This is left over from the original Old School RuneScape backup from August 2007 when the Summoning skill was still being developed.