OSRS Ensouled Heads vs Bones Prayer Training to 70

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.

Prayer is the skill that quietly decides whether you can survive boss fights, complete quests, or push deep into the Wilderness. Most players know they need 43 Prayer for protection prayers, but the journey to 70 unlocks Piety, the strongest melee prayer in the game, and sets up every PvM grind after it. The question is not whether to train Prayer, but how to do it without burning through your entire bank.

This guide compares two of the most discussed training paths: reanimating ensouled heads and offering bones at altars. We'll walk through early quest rewards, the gilded altar and Chaos Temple meta, passive methods, and what to unlock before you hit 70. We'll also look at when buying gold to fund your prayer supplies is the honest time-saver.

1. Prayer Before 70: Unlocks and Why It Matters

Before choosing a method, understand what you're working toward. Early Prayer levels open protection prayers at 43. Level 50 is recommended for completing all quests, and level 70 unlocks Piety. The maximum prayer level you'll need for achievement diaries is 85, but for most players 70 is the practical first goal. A higher Prayer level also means more prayer points restored per dose of prayer potion or super restore, making your supplies last longer.

You can skip a large chunk of low-level training by completing quests. The Restless Ghost, Priest in Peril, Recruitment Drive, and Holy Grail together award 14,531 Prayer experience, enough to jump from level 1 to 30. Spirits of the Elid adds another 8,000 Prayer experience but has more requirements.

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2. Ensouled Heads vs Bones: The Core Decision

The central choice is between two fundamentally different ways to gain Prayer experience. Bones at an altar offer high XP rates but consume expensive resources. Ensouled heads require Magic to reanimate and then kill, granting both Prayer and Magic XP, and can sometimes be profitable because heads are often cheaper than the equivalent Prayer experience in bones. However, exact profit and rates change with the Grand Exchange, so treat every number here as a snapshot, not a guarantee.

Method	XP Rate / Efficiency	Cost / Profit	Requirements	Risk / Attention
Ensouled heads (active)	Varies by head type and Magic level; check the wiki for exact XP per head. Slower than top bone methods but includes Magic XP.	Often break-even or profitable if head prices are low, but not guaranteed.	Arceuus spellbook, Magic level depending on head tier, runes.	Moderate attention; safe in most locations.
Gilded altar (bones)	350% per bone (3.5x burying XP). Example: dragon bone gives 252 Prayer XP.	High cost; no bone saving effect. Requires many bones.	Player-owned house with gilded altar, both burners lit.	Low risk, high click intensity.
Chaos Temple altar (bones)	350% per bone plus 50% chance to not consume each bone, average 7x burying XP (504 per dragon bone). Stacks with Zealot's robes to 7.37x.	Highest effective value per bone; cuts bone cost roughly in half compared to gilded altar.	Access to Wilderness level 38, member's only for altar bonus.	High risk from PKers; needs attention.
Libation bowl (bone shards + wine)	Up to 1.4M XP/h with sunfire wine at high Prayer levels; lower without.	Complex supply chain; can be cost-competitive but preparation time reduces effective profit.	Varlamore access, quest requirements for Teomat, etc.	Click-intensive; preparation heavy.

If you want speed and can handle Wilderness risk, Chaos Temple is the best bones option. If you want to train Prayer while also training Magic and possibly turning a profit, ensouled heads are worth a serious look. The rest of this guide breaks down each path.

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3. Ensouled Head Training: Profit, Magic XP, and Setup

Reanimating ensouled heads is an alternative Prayer training method that sits between active and passive. You cast a reanimation spell from the Arceuus spellbook on an ensouled head, which creates a monster. Killing that monster grants Prayer experience and combat XP. The exact amount of Prayer XP depends on the head type, and the Magic requirement for the spell increases with higher-tier heads. Always check the current wiki table for the head you plan to use.

One major advantage is that reanimated monsters count toward Slayer tasks, with the exception of reanimated dragons. This means you can train Slayer, Magic, and Prayer simultaneously on tasks where ensouled heads drop, such as Bloodvelds or Abyssal Demons. Some players buy ensouled heads in bulk and complete the reanimation killing in a safe spot, treating the method as a profitable alternative to bones when head prices are low. However, the profit margin is volatile; before committing to a large buy, verify the current Grand Exchange prices for both heads and the runes you'll need.

Because the method requires time to kill each reanimated monster, it is generally slower prayer experience per hour than offering bones at a gilded altar or Chaos Temple. But if you value Magic XP or want to avoid the Wilderness entirely, ensouled heads are a strong choice for levels up to 70 and beyond.

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4. Bone Training: Gilded Altar vs Chaos Temple

If you choose bones, you have two mainstream options: a gilded altar in a player-owned house, or the Chaos Temple in the Wilderness. Both give 350% experience per bone when fully set up, but the Chaos Temple's 50% chance to not consume bones makes it far more efficient per bone.

A gilded altar with both incense burners lit gives exactly 350% XP per bone. For example, burying a dragon bone normally gives 72 Prayer experience; offering it at a gilded altar gives 252 Prayer experience. It is completely safe but you will need many more bones to reach the same level because every bone is consumed.

The Chaos Temple altar also gives 350% per bone, but every bone has a 50% chance to be saved. That save can activate repeatedly on the same bone, so the average experience per bone is 2x what you'd get from a gilded altar, or 7x normal burying. In practice, buying 53% of the bones you would need at a gilded altar gives you about 97% chance to reach your prayer goal. The cost savings are significant, but you trade safety for efficiency.

Transportation to the temple can be done via a burning amulet to Lava Maze entrance and running southwest, Ghorrock Teleport (96 Magic) and running south, Cemetery Teleport (71 Magic) and running north, or using a player-owned house obelisk to level 44 Wilderness and running south. If you've completed the Hard Wilderness Diary, you can use any obelisk to teleport to level 44 Wilderness.

Inside, an Elder Chaos druid will unnote any bones for 50 coins per bone, allowing you to bring noted bones and avoid frequent bank trips. There is also a wine of Zamorak spawn on a table, obtainable via Telekinetic Grab; with the Hard Wilderness Diary you get it in noted form.

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5. The Chaos Temple Meta: Efficient Use and Survival Strategy

The Chaos Temple is in level 38 Wilderness and is multi-combat, so player killers are a constant threat. There are two main strategic approaches: low-risk per-trip with quick returns, or high-efficiency noted bones with longer risk windows.

For minimum risk, many players use the "planning to die" method: take an inventory of bones and a teleport to the Wilderness, run to the altar, offer the bones, then suicide to the wine of Zamorak or let the Chaos Fanatic kill you. Set your respawn point to Ferox Enclave or Edgeville (each costs 5,000,000 coins to unlock) for a fast bank run, or use a PvP world where the respawn point is next to a bank chest. Lowering hitpoints with a locator orb or dwarven rock cake speeds up the suicide. Wearing Dinh's bulwark or defensive gear can help you survive long enough to use all your bones before dying.

If using Zealot's robes at the altar, they go to your gravestone on death, so you can return with a new inventory and loot the gravestone to keep the bonus active. Another tip is to keep the logout menu open with your cursor on the logout button, and use the ::renderself chat command to hide your own character so you can spot anyone logging in beneath you.

For higher efficiency, bring noted bones and use the Elder Chaos druid to unnote them for 50 gp each. This eliminates bank runs but increases risk because you'll be carrying a large stack of value. Decide which tradeoff works for your risk tolerance.

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6. Passive Prayer: Bonecrusher, Ash Sanctifier, Ectoplasmator

Not all Prayer training requires dedicated grinding. Passive items can add Prayer XP while you train Slayer or combat. The bonecrusher automatically crushes bones dropped by monsters, granting half the burying XP (full with the elite Morytania Diary). The ash sanctifier does the same for ashes, with full XP from the elite Kourend & Kebos Diary. The ectoplasmator gives Prayer XP equal to 20% of a spectral creature's max health, requires 40 Prayer, and is purchased from Soul Wars for 250 Zeal Tokens. It stacks with the bonecrusher on monsters that drop both bones and are spectral, like ankou.

These items are excellent if you're already doing Slayer or camping a profitable monster. For example, if you're using ranged for Slayer tasks, our OSRS Ranged Training guide covers efficient setups that pair well with passive prayer gear. Reanimating ensouled heads during Slayer tasks also falls under this passive umbrella: as long as you don't bank the heads, you can cast reanimation directly on dropped heads and kill them for Prayer XP alongside your task.

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7. Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

• Skipping quest rewards: Always do the early Prayer quests before buying bones; it's free XP that saves gold.
• Overbuying bones for gilded altar: If you're going Chaos Temple, buy 53% of the gilded altar amount to have a 97% success chance, not the full amount.
• Ignoring the bone-saving effect: The Chaos Temple's 50% save makes it far cheaper than gilded altar per XP, but only if you survive. Manage risk.
• Not checking ensouled head prices: The profit from ensouled heads depends entirely on current GE prices. Check before bulk buying.
• Forgetting Zealot's robes: If you already have them, always wear them at Chaos Temple for extra bone saving. They stack multiplicatively, giving a 52.5% chance to save a bone.
• Suiciding without a close respawn: Without a Ferox Enclave or Edgeville respawn, the run back to the bank is longer, cutting your XP/hr.

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8. Time and Cost Tradeoffs: Realistic Goals to 70

The fastest Prayer training in the game is offering blessed bone shards with sunfire wine at the Teomat's libation bowl, reaching up to 1,656,000 XP per hour under optimal conditions, but that requires extensive preparation. For most players aiming at 70, the Chaos Temple with dragon bones is the sweet spot between speed and cost. With dragon bones, each bone averages 504 Prayer XP at the altar, so you can calculate how many bones you need for your target level. Check the wiki's prayer level table for the exact XP required from your current level to 70.

If you have plenty of gold, buying dragon bones and using the Chaos Temple efficiently can get you from 43 to 70 in a few hours. If you're short on cash, ensouled heads can fund themselves or even profit, but the same XP will take longer. The choice comes down to time versus gold.

When you decide to buy supplies, you can check the current market for bones or heads and purchase gold to cover the cost. Many players use a reputable marketplace to convert real-world money into gold, then buy the items they need. This is not a game rule violation if done through a legitimate third-party market, but always ensure you're using a trusted service.

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9. Gearing Up and Buying Smart

Before you commit to a method, gather the relevant gear and supplies. For Chaos Temple runs, bring cheap defensive equipment, a locator orb or rock cake, and a teleport out (like a royal seed pod or amulet of glory). For ensouled heads, ensure you have the required runes and Magic level for your head tier. For passive training, unlock the bonecrusher and ash sanctifier as soon as possible if you plan to do Slayer.

If you need gold to fund prayer training, consider buying gold from a reputable marketplace. It can save hours of money-making and let you focus on the skill itself. View current live gold rates to see what your budget gets you. Remember to verify all item prices on the Grand Exchange before buying in bulk.

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10. Sources

• Pay-to-play Prayer training - OSRS Wiki
• Chaos Temple (church) - OSRS Wiki