Hunter training

Hunter training is click-intensive, but very fast at higher levels. It has the potential to be profitable, and a viable method of generating money.

Equipment
The equipment that a player wears while hunting can have an effect on the chance of a successful capture as well as the mobility of the player.

Bonus experience
The enhanced Yaktwee stick grants you a 5% xp boost in ALL hunter activities in which you can wield the stick. This is obtained by hunting charm sprites. It will take 2-3 hours of hunting there, at a reasonable xp-rate, so it is recommended that you do this at level 72. See its page for more info on Charm Sprites

With the addition of the mini-game Heist you can use the rewards points to collect bonus experience in Hunter.

Hunter specific equipment
Players can wear Hunter gear specific to each of the four major Hunter areas in order to greatly increase the chances of a successful catch. It is recommended a player crafts or purchases the appropriate Hunter gear. The increased catch rate is quite valuable. The table below summarizes the Hunter gear by region.

Additional equipment
Hunting often involves a significant amount of running. Weight-reducing clothing will make it possible to run further, indirectly increasing the rate of obtaining experience. The following items will reduce a player's weight:
 * Penance gloves
 * Boots of lightness
 * Wicked cape > Spottier cape > Spotted cape
 * Agile legs > Wicked legs
 * Agile top > Wicked top
 * Gold athlete's hat > Silver athlete's hat > Bronze athlete's hat

Inventory
Your inventory for hunting is different depending on what you are hunting. For example, it is pointless to bring a Butterfly net if you are hunting salamanders in the Haunted Woods. Additionally, there are a number of items unrelated to the Hunter skill that players choose to bring to work on other skills simultaneously.

Hunter related items
Below is a list of the hunting gear needed for most types of hunting and the type of hunting it is used for:
 * Butterfly net and at least 5 Butterfly jars. (Butterfly netting)
 * Bird snare(s) - 5 recommended (Bird snaring)
 * Box trap(s) - 5 recommended (Box trapping)
 * Teasing stick and decent Hatchet (Pitfall trapping)
 * Unlit torch and hatchet (or logs). (Deadfall trapping)
 * Ropes and small fishing nets - 5 recommended Swamp lizards (with more in bank). (Net trapping)
 * Food as some areas/prey can damage you.
 * 500 coins if using the Falconry for training. (Falconry)
 * Hunter potions for higher efficiency/catch rates
 * Dramen staff or Lunar staff if using the fairy ring teleport network (After completion of Fairytale III, a Dramen staff or Lunar staff is no longer required.).
 * Arctic bear is recommended, since it provides a +7 invisible hunter bonus. (Requires 71 Summoning)
 * Scentless potion - As many as needed
 * Zamorak's favour for a boost in hunter xp when hunting jadinkos. See its page for details on how to obtain it.
 * Juju hunter potion for hunting in the Herblore Habitat. (only if hunting draconic/god jadinkos)

Note that the recommended amount of traps is 5 at a time. There is no use for carrying more than 5 and as such it is not adviseable to carry more than 5. Less, at hunter levels lower than 80, is an option since you cannot use the extra ones anyway. At least 2 are recommended in case you make a mistake and lose a trap.

Note: Most of the hunting gear can be bought in two of the three hunting shops. The first shop is Aleck's Hunter Emporium in Yanille. The second is the Hunter Shop in Nardah. Ayleth Beaststalker's Hunting Supplies Shop has a few basic supplies for those new to the hunter skill.

Non-hunter related items
Below is a list of the additional items that a player may want in order to train other skills simultaneously with hunting:
 * Bonecrusher may be used to train Prayer if hunting prey that drops bones.
 * Herbicide may be used to train Herblore if hunting prey that drops herbs. Note that the herbs will be consumed upon being dropped.

Options for training
This table lists various methods of hunting, all of which are viable to an extent.

Notice that just because a method requires a higher hunter level does not imply that it is more effective than a method available for a lower Hunter level. A creature that yields less experience but also takes less time per catch may prove more effective than a creature that yields more experience at a lower rate.

Best training options
This guide shows the fastest way to 99 hunter. At high levels, profits can be huge.

Hunting with brawlers
There is only one method that is really worth using hunting brawling gloves for. That is hunting the black salamanders. Black salamanders are ~300k xp per hour with brawling gloves. They normally give 304 xp each and you will have ~247 caught per hour. No profit is made since the player is releasing the salamanders to increase efficiency. Lasting for ~275 catches, the gloves can potentially give 300k xp per hour for ~1.1 hours. There used to be some player killers roaming around that part of the wilderness, but these days you almost never run into one that wants to interrupt your hunter-training

Divination
With the release of the Divination skill, Hunter experience equal to the player's Hunter level multiplied by 10 can be obtained by capturing chronicle fragments. It would take 15,057 fragments to get from level 1-99 Hunter. This makes training Divination a good way to train both skills simultaneously. A notification will appear in chat when one escapes from the spring.

Protean Traps
With the recent release of Protean traps, a new way of gaining heaps of experience has arrived. If you have these traps, obtainable from Treasure Hunter, they act as Bird snares, Box traps or Marasamaw plants when deployed. Although you gain no resources from this, the experience earned is excellent. It is advised to use these traps on Grenwalls due to the fact that each succesful capture gives 125% experience (1375xp), while each failed capture gives 50% experience (550xp). These boosts stack with the Enhanced Yaktwee Stick's xp boost, effectively raising the xp for one capture to 1443.75xp and a failed capture to 577.5. Let it be said that these do not work on the private hunting grounds, and therefor have to be placed in Tirannwn. There, you have the possibility of catching pawya's as well, but that is no problem as Pawya's give proper xp as well. It is not advised to use these in the Herblore Habitat, due to the large quantity of Common Jadinko's caught.