Rooftops vs Sepulchre: Marks of Grace, Graceful, and When to Swap
16 October 2026 · 18 min readA practical OSRS Agility levelling guide comparing rooftop courses and the Hallowed Sepulchre for marks of grace, the graceful outfit, XP rates, and the moment it is worth swapping.
Game screenshots and facts are cited from the Old School RuneScape Wiki (strategy, equipment, drops, and related pages). Writing is original editorial, not a copy of the wiki article.
Contents
- What Agility Actually Unlocks
- Rooftop Courses and the Marks of Grace Economy
- Hallowed Sepulchre Basics
- Sepulchre XP and Money by Floor
- Graceful Rush: Rooftop Strategy from Level 10 to 60
- When to Swap: Rooftops vs Sepulchre Decision Points
- Common Mistakes and How to Fix Them
- Time, Cost, and the Honest Shortcut
Agility is less about crossing obstacles and more about energy. In Old School RuneScape, run energy drains based on your Agility level and total carried weight; higher levels restore faster while walking and drain slower while sprinting. That sounds passive, but every Slayer task, farm run, clue scroll, and quest journey is shaped by how often you have to walk. Add in shortcuts, quest and diary requirements, and the graceful outfit, and Agility becomes a skill you train because it makes everything else smoother.
The decision between rooftop courses and the Hallowed Sepulchre is really two decisions at once. Rooftops give marks of grace, the only currency for the base graceful clothing, and are relatively low-effort. The Sepulchre demands more attention but trades steady marks for hallowed marks, loot, and much better XP once you can handle the floors. This guide breaks down the exact requirements, the XP and money tradeoffs, and the level where swapping stops being a style choice and starts being a very efficient decision.
What Agility Actually Unlocks
Agility gates content quietly. Many quests require specific levels, from The Grand Tree at 25 to Song of the Elves at 70, and achievement diaries demand dozens more. Shortcuts across the map, from Taverley dungeon pipes to the Trollheim herb patch route, are locked behind levels. But the biggest draw for most players is graceful, and that means learning where marks of grace actually come from.
The full graceful outfit reduces weight by 25 kg and increases natural run energy restoration by 30%. Each piece has its own mark cost and weight reduction, but the set effect is what matters for extended running. The Agility cape can substitute for the graceful cape while preserving the set bonus. Temporary boosts like summer pies and agility potions also help you reach higher-level courses before your base level catches up.
- 10 Agility — Draynor Rooftop Course; your first steady source of marks of grace
- 40 Agility — Canifis Rooftop Course; the best early course for rushing graceful
- 52 Agility + Sins of the Father — Hallowed Sepulchre entry
- 70 Agility — Song of the Elves requirement among other high-level quests
- 77 / 87 Agility — Hallowed Sepulchre floors 4 and 5
Higher Agility also reduces failure chance on many obstacles, though weight does not affect success on most courses. Damage from failed obstacles often scales with your remaining Hitpoints, so bringing a little food at low levels can save trips to the bank.
Rooftop Courses and the Marks of Grace Economy
Rooftop courses are the core Agility method from level 10 onward. Every completed lap has a chance to spawn a mark of grace on the course, which you pick up between obstacles. Marks are not tradeable, and the base graceful set costs 260 marks in total. The individual costs are: hood 35, top 55, legs 60, gloves 30, boots 40, and cape 40. Selling back uncoloured pieces refunds 80% of the marks, but recoloured pieces cannot be refunded.
The most important quirk in the marks economy is the Canifis Rooftop Course. Normally, if you are 20 or more Agility levels above a course, mark spawns are reduced to 20% of their normal rate. Canifis is exempt from this reduction, which makes it the best early source for graceful. Starting at level 40 on Canifis, a full graceful set takes roughly 13–16 hours and 500–900 laps, earning around 54–59 Agility by the time you collect 260 marks.
Seers' Village is the next major rooftop option at level 60, with higher XP and roughly 75–90% of Canifis' mark rate depending on your Kandarin Diary tier. At level 90, Ardougne becomes the best mark source overall, but that is late in the journey. The Wilderness Agility Course gives no marks at all, so don't train there if graceful is still unfinished.
Hallowed Sepulchre Basics
The Hallowed Sepulchre is an Agility activity set in an ancient Saradominist burial ground beneath Darkmeyer. Unlike rooftop courses, it is trap-heavy, timed, and rewards attention. You cannot simply click and wait; every floor is a sequence of obstacles that must be navigated correctly or you take damage and lose time. Access requires completion of Sins of the Father and 52 Agility, with higher floors demanding 62, 72, 77, and 87 Agility respectively.
- Completion of Sins of the Father
- 52 Agility to enter; floor requirements are 62, 72, 77, and 87 (all boostable)
- Recommended 70+ Hitpoints to survive trap failures
- A Saradomin item equipped for the magical obelisks at floor ends
- For coffin looting: 66 Thieving, 56 Construction, 54 Prayer, 7 Magic, and 62 Ranged (all boostable)
Hallowed marks are earned only by looting coffins, not by simply completing floors. Deeper floors give more marks per coffin. The run is timed, and hallowed tokens can add an extra minute per token consumed inside the Sepulchre. If you equip any non-Saradomin god item, the obelisks will drain your run energy instead of restoring it, so check your gear before entering.
Sepulchre XP and Money by Floor
Sepulchre experience is front-loaded per completed floor, but looting coffins costs time and lowers overall XP per hour. Experienced players skip most coffins on the first floors to maximise XP, while players chasing hallowed marks or loot will spend more time on obstacles. The table below uses the wiki's realistic rates for both playstyles.
| Floor | Agility Req | Floor XP | Realistic Looting XP/h | No Looting XP/h |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 52 | 575 | 30,000 | 40,000 |
| 2 | 62 | 925 | 40,000 | 50,000 |
| 3 | 72 | 1,600 | 63,000 | 71,700 |
| 4 | 77 | 2,875 | 73,000 | 81,000 |
| 5 | 87 | 5,725 | 90,000 | 98,500 |
At floor 5, players who only loot the Grand Hallowed Coffin and make few mistakes can sustain above 100,000 XP per hour. In general, looting anything on floors 1 and 2 is not worth the XP loss, and only specific coffins on floors 3 and 4 are worthwhile. Money making scales similarly: floor 3 looting is about 668,328 gp per hour, floor 4 about 963,391 gp, and floor 5 about 1,707,360 gp, assuming you have the required Thieving, Construction, Prayer, Magic, and Ranged levels to access all coffins.
Graceful Rush: Rooftop Strategy from Level 10 to 60
Early Agility levels can be skipped almost entirely with quests. Completing The Tourist Trap (using both XP rewards on Agility), Recruitment Drive, The Depths of Despair, and The Grand Tree grants a total of 19,700 Agility XP, taking you from level 1 to 33 without touching a single course. That is faster than low-level rooftops and sets you up for the mark grind.
From there, Draynor to 20, Al Kharid to 30, and Varrock to 40 are the standard rooftop progression, but many players tolerate them only because they are quick. At 40, the plan changes depending on your goal. If you still need graceful, Canifis is the answer. It is not good XP, but its mark rate is anomalously high for the level. You will likely finish graceful around level 54–59 if you started at exactly 40. After that, leave Canifis immediately; the XP is too low to justify continuing.
For players who care about both graceful and efficient XP, Seers' Village at level 60 is the compromise. With at least the medium Kandarin Diary done, marks spawn at a good enough rate that finishing graceful there is reasonable, and the XP is far superior to Canifis. The Ardougne Rooftop Course at 90 is the best mark source overall, but by then most players have had graceful for dozens of hours.
When to Swap: Rooftops vs Sepulchre Decision Points
The swap is not a single level. It depends on whether graceful is finished and what you value most. The table below summarises the common goals and the method that fits them.
| Your Goal | Method | When / Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Full graceful as early as possible | Canifis rooftops | Levels 40–59, ~13–16 hours, low XP but best early marks |
| Graceful + better XP | Seers rooftops | Level 60+, marks at 75–90% of Canifis with Kandarin diary |
| Fastest Agility XP | Hallowed Sepulchre | Floor 3 at 72 Agility; floor 5 at 87 Agility is 90–98k XP/h |
| Profit while training | Hallowed Sepulchre | Floor 5 looting can exceed 1.7m gp/h |
| Low-attention training | Brimhaven Agility Arena tagging | Click every 40–60 seconds; see AFK guide |
At 52 Agility, Sepulchre floor 1 offers roughly 30,000 XP/hour with looting and 40,000 without. That is comparable to mid-level rooftops, but it requires Sins of the Father and far more attention. The clear shift happens at floor 3 (72 Agility), where realistic rates reach 63,000–71,700 XP/hour, and floor 5 (87 Agility) where 90,000–98,500 XP/hour makes it the fastest Agility XP in the game. If you already have graceful, there is almost no reason to stay on rooftops once you can comfortably run floor 3 or higher, unless you specifically want marks of grace for recolours.
One caveat: Sepulchre gives hallowed marks, not marks of grace. The hallowed marks buy unique items like the hallowed ring, grapple, focus, symbol, hammer, and dark dye, but they cannot buy the base graceful set. If you still need graceful, split your time or finish the set on rooftops first. After that, Sepulchre is the efficient home for Agility training.
Common Mistakes and How to Fix Them
- Staying at Canifis past full graceful. Once you have 260 marks, leave. The XP is terrible after level 60 and you are wasting hours.
- Entering Sepulchre without a Saradomin item. The magical obelisks will drain your run energy if you have any non-Saradomin god item equipped. Check your ammo, cape, and blessing.
- Looting every coffin on floors 1–3. Research shows it is generally not worth looting anything on floors 1 and 2, and only specific coffins on floors 3 and 4. Loot selectively or your XP per hour collapses.
- Forgetting that floor requirements are boostable. A summer pie can open floor 4 at 72 Agility or floor 5 at 82, but make sure you can handle the traps before boosting.
- Buying the hallowed grapple before the hallowed ring if you fail often. The hallowed ring prevents damage and reduces time lost on failed obstacles, which is better for learners; the grapple is more useful for experienced runners.
- Training without stamina potions or weight-reducing gear. Even with graceful, stamina potions keep you running between obstacles and preserve XP rates.
Time, Cost, and the Honest Shortcut
Time goals are easier to plan with the numbers in this guide. A full graceful set at Canifis takes roughly 13–16 hours. From 52 Agility to 99 at Sepulchre floor 5, using the realistic 98,500 XP/hour, is around 130 hours of focused play. A rooftop-only route will take longer because the highest rooftop courses do not match floor 5 Sepulchre rates, though exact hours vary with attention and diary unlocks. If you plan to do both, expect 150–200 hours depending on how much time you spend collecting marks instead of maximising XP.
Cost is the part players often underestimate. Stamina potions, summer pies for boosting floors, food for early failures, and hallowed tokens or crystal shards for Sepulchre all add up. Buying OSRS gold can cover these consumables, letting you train without constant money-making detours. If the 100+ hour grind is not something you want to do personally, an Agility service is the honest alternative. Many players buy an account or boost when the hourly value of their time is higher than the cost of the service.
Ready to fund your Agility training? View live gold rates and get back to the rooftops or Sepulchre without the supply grind.
Sources
When should I switch from rooftops to Hallowed Sepulchre in OSRS?
Switch once you have full graceful and can access Sepulchre floor 3 at 72 Agility. Floor 3 gives 63,000–71,700 XP/hour, which beats mid-level rooftops. At 87 Agility, floor 5 offers 90,000–98,500 XP/hour, making Sepulchre the fastest training method available.
How many marks of grace do I need for full graceful?
The full graceful outfit costs 260 marks of grace. Individual pieces cost 35 for hood, 55 for top, 60 for legs, 30 for gloves, 40 for boots, and 40 for cape. Selling uncoloured pieces back refunds 80% of the marks.
Is Hallowed Sepulchre better XP than rooftops?
Yes, at higher levels. Sepulchre floor 5 at 87 Agility gives 90,000–98,500 XP/hour, while no rooftop course reaches those rates. Even floor 3 at 72 Agility offers 63,000–71,700 XP/hour, which is competitive with or better than most mid-level rooftops.
Can I get graceful from Hallowed Sepulchre?
No. Hallowed Sepulchre gives hallowed marks, not marks of grace. Hallowed marks buy unique rewards like the hallowed ring, grapple, and dark dye, but the base graceful set must be bought with marks of grace from rooftop courses.
What quest unlocks Hallowed Sepulchre?
The Hallowed Sepulchre requires completion of Sins of the Father and 52 Agility. You also need access to Darkmeyer. The quest has its own requirements, including combat stats and other skill checks, so check the wiki if you are unsure.
Do I need high combat for Sepulchre?
Not really, but 70+ Hitpoints is recommended. Trap damage scales with your current Hitpoints, so higher HP gives more room for mistakes. Bringing food is acceptable for learners. The activity is Agility-focused; combat stats are not used except indirectly through quest requirements.
How long does 99 Agility take at Sepulchre vs rooftops?
From 52 Agility, Sepulchre floor 5 at 98,500 XP/hour takes roughly 130 hours to reach 99. A rooftop-only route will take longer because the highest rooftop courses do not match that XP rate. Expect 150–200 hours total if you also detour for graceful or marks.
