Prayer

Prayer is a skill that allows players to use prayers to their advantage in combat. It is currently the slowest skill to raise on the free world, however its benefits in combat can be exceedingly prosperous, especially amongst members. Prayer is much faster to raise on member servers, given the right resources. 12 combat levels can also be achieved from Prayer (1 - 99).

As of 25 March, 2009, the Prayer icon next to the minimap had a function added. It is called "Quick-prayer". It can now be right-clicked to select a prayer, or a group of prayers, and can be activated when the "Quick-prayer" button is clicked.

"The fourth upgrade for this week will save you valuable seconds in times of need. The Prayer button near the minimap has undergone an overhaul so you can now set a prayer, or group of prayers, before you go into action, and activate or de-activate it with one click. The button will also indicate the loss of Prayer points by gradually fading out – similar to the behaviour of the Hitpoints button. This should help prevent you accidentally running out of Prayer points, and finding yourself suddenly vulnerable to attack." - JaGex



History
Prayer was called Necromancy in the very early stages of RuneScape Classic, and was the last of the original skills in which players were able to reach the maximum skill level of 99. Prayer is also unique in that it was the first skill in which experience could be gained long before any use of the skill was released, similar to Carpentry and Tailoring. Before any of the "Prayers" were made available, players could gain Prayer levels through burying bones and completing The Restless Ghost.

Overview
Increasing a player's prayer level is done through various uses of bones, with Non-members limited to burying them, though members have other options that are faster, such as offering bones to the Gods at a Gilded altar.

Similar to magic, prayer has its own "spells." To use a prayer spell, players can click on the prayer menu, to the right of the equipment menu. Prayer spells available for use are highlighted, while prayers unavailable are dark. When a player clicks on a spell, a circle will appear around it, indicating that they are using it. For some prayers, such as Protect from melee, the prayer is indicated by a small icon above the players head.

Using a prayer spell drains the player's prayer points quickly; use of prayers is therefore temporary. To increase the time, players simply have to increase their prayer level (or equip items that add prayer bonuses, which reduces the drain rate of all prayers). Once the player's prayer points reach zero, all prayers will deactivate and they will not be able to use another prayer until they recharge their prayer points. To recharge, players must pray at an altar. Drinking prayer potions can also restore prayer points. If a Holy wrench is in a player's inventory, an additional 1-2 prayer points is added when drinking a prayer potion.

Prayers are excellent in combat because they give players certain advantages. For example, some prayers improve a player's combat skills, while others can protect them from damage, and others can damage opponents.

Players with level 70 or greater Prayer may also bless the gravestones of others, sacrificing prayer points to increase the stones' lifespans.

Prayer bonus
To the right of the inventory menu is the equipment menu. Here, players can see their bonuses. These bonuses give players advantages and disadvantages in combat.

Players have a prayer bonus. The higher the prayer bonus is, the slower the player's prayer points will drain, when using a prayer.

Each point of prayer bonus slows the drain rate by 3⅓% of the prayer(s) rate. A general formula for a prayer's drain rate with a given prayer bonus is:

modified drain rate = prayer drain rate × (1 + (3⅓% × prayer bonus))

Where the drain rates are the number of seconds per point (i.e. 1 point per x seconds).

For example, if a player uses Protect from melee with a prayer bonus of 0, their prayer points will drain at a rate of 1 point every 3 seconds. If that player then equips armour giving a prayer bonus of +15, the drain rate of protect from melee is slowed by 3⅓%×15=50%, so the drain rate becomes 3×(1+50%)=4.5, that is 1 point per 4.5 seconds.

A prayer bonus of +30 halves the drain rate of prayers - i.e. prayer points will last twice as long.

To have a prayer bonus, players have to wear certain types of armour, clothing, weapons, and jewellery. See the Equipment section for more information.

Prayers


Members have access to all 26 prayer spells, while non-members cannot use the last five (along with Protect From Summoning). Players can also use some prayers at the same time with others, though doing so will drain their prayer faster. Prayers that cannot be used simultaneously are marked in the table with the same background colour. For example, selecting Smite while Protect from Melee is activated will automatically deactivate Protect from Melee.

Notes:
 * + These Prayers will not stack with other versions of themselves (e.g. no Rock Skin + Steel Skin)
 * * These Prayers cannot be used at the same time as each other.
 * ~ Hold time is not reduced against Ancient Magick ice spells.
 * # These prayers have no restrictions, can be used with any others.
 * = Protect from Summoning can't be used at same time as Smite, Redemption or Retribution, but stacks with any other Protect prayer.

Formula
The formula for protection prayers used against players is:


 * Melee, Ranged, Magic, and Summoning attacks:  
 * For example, if 40 damage were inflicted to you, the damage would be reduced to 24 damage (i.e. for every 5 damage that you normally take, only 3 damage is dealt instead.
 * If you were to take 3 damage for example, the result would be rounded off as follows:


 * Magic bind spells:  
 * For example, a spell that would normally hold you for 10 seconds, would be halved to only hold you for 5 seconds.

Earning experience

 * See the bone burial calculator for coins-per-experience-point analysis of bones using live data from the Grand Exchange Market Watch.''


 * Pay-to-play Prayer training for quick information on training prayer

Burying bones
There are many types of bones that players can bury, giving them some Prayer experience. However, most of them are only available to members. To bury bones, players simply have to click on them or right-click the bury bones option.



Worshiping the Ectofuntus
Completing the Ghosts Ahoy quest allows players to learn to worship the Ectofuntus in Port Phasmatys. At the Ectofuntus, players use ground bones and Ectoplasm to receive four times the normal experience they would receive from burying those bones. It is a somewhat slow method, but the experience earned is much better than burying bones.

The ectofuntus gives 400% experience compared to burying bones. See RuneScape Knowledge Base for further information.

Note : Finishing Ghosts Ahoy gives players the ability to use the Ectophial, which helps significantly when worshipping the EctoFuntus.

Shades of Mort'ton
After completing the Shades of Mort'ton quest, players will then be able to cremate Shades to earn some prayer experience as well as some rewards. To learn more, see Shades of Mort'ton (minigame).

Ghasts
After completing the Nature Spirit quest, players can kill ghasts and earn prayer experience. Players will need a blessed Silver sickle and about 3 or 4 druid pouches. Ghasts are not corporeal until players use the druid pouch on them; thusly, an empty druid pouch will not work. Ghasts can be found in Mort'ton and Mort Myre swamp. Killing a ghast earns 30 prayer experience. Larger, more powerful varieties of ghasts that give more prayer experience can be found during Temple Trekking.

Player Owned Houses
Members can also offer bones to their Altar in the Chapel room of a player's house (built with the Construction skill).

The experience ranges from 100% to 250% depending upon the type of altar with an additional 50% or 100% for lighting 1 or 2 burners for a maximum of 350% for the best altar and burners.

Players need to use a marrentill on each burner to light it, while a tinderbox is in the inventory. The burners will stay lit for two minutes, or until the player leaves their house.

All incense burners will give the same bonus. Candles and torches do NOT give any bonus.

As of 25 March players can now right click on the altar and offer "X" amount of bones, making it easier to train prayer. Some players disliked this update because the automatic pray-x function is not as fast as manual clicking was, but others considered it a trade-off since it caused less strain to their fingers.



Many players with a high Construction level choose to build a gilded altar in their house as this is a much faster way to gain prayer experience than any other. Although less experience is granted per bone than the ectofuntus, more bones may be processed in a shorter time span. Often the official forums are a good place to find other players who are happy to allow 'loan' of their altars for a short amount of time.

Armour and weapons
Initiate armour, Proselyte armour, and white weapons and armour give small prayer bonuses. However, they are only available to members. Initiate armour can be bought from Sir Tiffy Cashien after completing the Recruitment Drive quest, and Proselyte equipment can be bought after finishing Slug Menace, while white armour and weapons can be bought after completing the Wanted! quest. All white weapons and armour give a +1 prayer bonus.

Maces
All maces also give a small prayer bonus. However, the Granite Mace, White Mace, Dragon Mace, Ancient Mace and Void Knight Mace are only available to members.

Neckwear
Some of the more powerful amulets, as well as religious symbols, give prayer bonuses.

Rings
Currently only one ring gives a prayer bonus and can be used by both Free-to-play and Pay-to-play players.

Prayer Books
Prayer books are wielded in the shield slot.

Spirit shields
The Spirit shield is made available upon completion of Summer's End. The Spirit Shield can be combined with a Holy elixir to make a Blessed spirit shield. Once a spirit shield is blessed the shield can be further modified by attaching Spirit sigils to create enhanced spirit shields. All spirit shields require completion of Summer's End to wield.

''1. Players must use the elixir with the spirit shield at an altar of Saradomin, which requires 85 prayer. If they lack the required skill level, they can alternatively talk to Brother Jered with a Holy elixir and a plain Spirit shield in their inventory. The monk will then bless the shield, while charging the player in a manner akin to Oziach making a dragon fire shield.''

''2. To attach a sigil to a Blessed spirit shield requires 90 prayer and 85 smithing. If the player lacks the required levels, Brother Bordiss will attach sigils to a blessed shield for 1,500,000 coins.''

Gravestones
Prayer points may be used to repair decaying gravestones. At Level 70 Prayer, a player may bless a gravestone.

Random events
Burying bones can result in several types of random events.

Note that the combat levels of both of these monsters vary according to the player's level, and both of these monsters are highly susceptible to Crumble Undead.
 * A zombie could appear and attack the player (before the Random events update).
 * A shade could also appear and attack the player (before the Random events update). This monster is noted for its potential (though not guaranteed) drop of shade robes.
 * Burying bones was the only way to trigger the Gravedigger random event, before the Random events update.

Training
The most common method of training is to bury bones, or play minigames and miniquests.

Free-to-play:

There are a number of bone respawn locations :
 * Wilderness Graveyard of Shadows/Forgotten Cemetery (level 16-21): ~10 normal bones respawn
 * Edgeville dungeon: 7 normal bones respawn
 * Wilderness Chaos Temple (Level 13) 10-13 normal bones respawn
 * Once you reach about Level 37, Leveling up by using normal bones would become difficult. Consider Big bones.

Since the update on 10 December 2007, the bone yard is now defunct due to it being replaced by the Clan Wars arena, resulting in a loss of that source.

Players may also frequent popular training areas and gather the unwanted bones left behind by players that kill the monsters, or buy bones on the Grand Exchange (though this is quite expensive).

Since the introduction of PvP worlds, another viable training method is to wander around Lumbridge, gather bones, and bury them.

A highly recommended way for free players can train Prayer is to bury Big Bones, as they give 15 xp, while normal bones give about 4.5 xp. If players have enough coins, they could buy Big Bones at the Grand Exchange. When burying large numbers of bones, you can cut the time spent in half with some timing. To do this, click any bone. About halfway through the animation, click another. You will have buried two bones while viewing the animation a single time. When simply burying bones after monster killing, Big bones are useful only if you can kill the monster faster than the time it takes to kill four Chickens.

Prayer Tutor
If burying bones isn't your thing, you can use a different method. This method is more efficient (especially for high level players) but can only be done sparingly. In Lumbridge you can get 6 jobs per hour of play off the prayer tutor, buy a large amount (at least 100) of each of the items she asks for (logs, oak logs, willow logs, pizzas, apple pies, cakes, cooked chickens, crayfishes, cowhides, balls of wool, unstrung symbol, normal bones, leather boots and leather gloves) from the grand exchange and take them to her in note form. Then, once an hour you go up to her and skim through the jobs. It takes less than 5 minutes to do all 6. When you do 15 jobs she gives you an antique lamp which you can use to get (25xlevel) xp. This is not so good for low levels or P2P but someone of level 80 would get 2k xp for less than 15 minutes work. Pay-to-play:

Bones Cost Analysis

If all the bones used to raise Prayer are bought, a player will likely spend 100 million coins to buy them all.

Prayer flashing
Occasionally, some players may prayer flash, which utilizes one of the three protection prayers. They will activate the prayer just before they are about to be hit, and turn it off immediately. This uses almost no prayer points. Although it requires timing and skill (the game allows for some leeway on the timing), doing it successfully can effectively save prayer points and allow you to continue fighting monsters for much longer. One technique for effectively prayer flashing is using a weapon/attack type that is as fast as the monster's attack. Players can use the sound of their own attack to time their next attack. A good example is cockroach soldiers with a scimitar. This was nerfed on 1 April 2009. Jagex made it so that the protection prayer only activates when the icon appears above which had made it harder for players to kill Jad, tormented demons and other strong monsters. This was fixed on 3 April 2009 due to the large complaint of players on the forums.

Places/ Situations where prayer is a near necessity

 * Fighting in the higher levels of the TzHaar Fight Cave and TzTok-Jad.
 * The Quest Desert Treasure. (although many pures with 1 defence and 11-31 prayer have completed this)
 * The Quest While Guthix Sleeps.
 * Fighting the Corporeal Beast is impossible without a very good team and high prayer and hitpoints.
 * ALL God wars dungeon bosses (excluding Zamorak's General which doesn't have a multi target attack
 * Dagannoth Kings (in most cases)
 * Kalphite queen

Related Links

 * Monastery Guide
 * Random Events
 * Crafting
 * Construction
 * Death to the Dorgeshuun
 * Ghosts Ahoy
 * Horror from the Deep
 * Legacy of Seergaze
 * Nature Spirit
 * Priest in Peril
 * Recruitment Drive
 * Rum Deal
 * The Great Brain Robbery
 * Zogre Flesh Eaters
 * Barbarian Training
 * Summer's End

Trivia

 * The first person to achieve 99 Prayer was Lilyuffie88.
 * For members, the minimum prayer bonus is -5, due to Zanik's crossbow.
 * In the Prayer menu, prayers that have a level requirement less than 10 appear as 01, 03, 07, and so on.
 * In the Fist of Guthix minigame, the most used prayer is Protect from Magic, followed by Protect from Missiles and then Protect from Melee.
 * It is possible to obtain 137/99 prayer with the effect of the Ancient Mace special attack (Absolute maximum of 38 at the moment).
 * The lowest combat level you can have when having 99 prayer is level 15. The first person to ever achieve 99 prayer at combat level 15 was Teh Unseen. However, his account has been banned and therefore removed from the hiscores list.
 * On 8 March 2009, Zarfot became the first player to achieve 200 million experience in Prayer.
 * Currently there is a glitch causing players who have just reached 43 prayer to "gain" the Retribution prayer, although it cannot be used. This has been fixed as of 2 April 2009.
 * Currently it would take approximately 214,344,034 coins to reach from Level 1 to 99 buying only Normal Bones.
 * People who use protection prayers during combat are sometimes thought of as 'Prayer Noobs' because they give themselves a bit more of an edge in the fight. These people who call others 'Prayer Noobs' are often looked down upon more from other players.
 * The prayer icon colour was originally yellow but Jagex changed the colour.

NPCs that use Prayer
 * Kalphite Queen
 * Sigmund
 * Zaromark Sliver
 * Tormented Demon
 * Elite Black Knight
 * Elite dark ranger
 * Elite dark mage
 * Elite dark Warrior