Ironman Prayer Training: Green Dragons vs Ensouled Heads vs Pest Control for 70 & 77

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 on an Ironman is a different beast. Without the Grand Exchange, every dragon bone you offer is one you personally risked your inventory to collect. The choices for reaching 70 Prayer for Piety—and 77 for every prayer in the standard and Ancient books—boil down to how much time you want to spend gathering, how much attention you can give, and how comfortable you are in the Wilderness. This guide compares the three most discussed Ironman routes: green dragons fed into the Chaos Altar, ensouled heads reanimated from Slayer, and Pest Control points. We’ll cover unlocks, supplies, realistic expectations, and when buying gold or a service is the honest shortcut.

Because the wiki’s Ironman Guide/Prayer is dense, we’ve pulled the key facts you need to make a decision without spending hours in a browser. Remember that rates vary by account stage and player skill; everything here should be cross-checked against the live wiki pages linked at the end.

1. Why 70 and 77 Prayer Change Everything

Level 43 Prayer is the opening goal for Protect from Magic, Missiles, and Melee, but the serious Ironman milestones start at 70 and 77. 70 Prayer unlocks Piety, the single largest melee damage and defence boost in the game, which transforms bossing, Slayer, and raids. 77 Prayer unlocks every prayer in the standard and Ancient books, including the highest-tier combat prayers. These levels also restore more prayer points per dose of prayer potion, which matters when supplies are scarce. The level 50 milestone is enough for most quests, but if you plan to do high-level PvM, 70 and 77 are the targets most Ironmen set.

2. The Three Methods at a Glance

Green dragons, ensouled heads, and Pest Control each solve the same problem—how to turn time into Prayer experience—but they differ sharply in risk, attention, and supply gathering. Use this table to see which fits your playstyle.

The Chaos Altar is the efficiency king, but it assumes you already have a stack of bones. Green dragons are the most common source of those bones for early and mid-game Ironmen, which is why they are paired in this comparison. Ensouled heads shine when you want to train Slayer anyway, and Pest Control is the fallback for players who refuse to step foot in the Wilderness.

3. Green Dragons into the Chaos Altar

Green dragons in the Wilderness drop dragon bones, the best widely accessible bones for an Ironman. The wiki’s Ironman Guide lists Wilderness green dragons under obtaining bones, and while exact spawn locations shift with updates, the pattern is consistent: kill dragons, bank bones, then use them at a boosted altar. Because the dragons are in the Wilderness, you trade faster bone collection for PK risk.

Once you have your bones, the Chaos Altar is the best place to use them. The altar gives 350% experience per bone with a 50% chance to not consume the bone. Over a large stack, that averages out to 700% experience per bone—twice what a gilded altar with both burners lit offers. The altar is in level 38 Wilderness, so every trip is a risk.

To use the altar efficiently, most Ironmen bring one inventory of bones, offer them all, and then die to the wine of Zamorak or Chaos Fanatic to get a fast respawn near a bank. Note that you can unnote bones at the Elder Chaos druid for 50 coins each if you want to bring noted stacks, but that makes you a bigger target. Teleports include a burning amulet to the Lava Maze, Cemetery Teleport on Arceuus, or Ghorrock Teleport on Ancients. At peak efficiency, the wiki suggests around 500,000 Prayer experience per hour at the altar itself, not counting bone gathering.

4. Ensouled Heads as a Slayer By-Product

If you plan to train Slayer anyway, ensouled heads turn otherwise-banked kills into Prayer experience. Monsters like Bloodvelds and Abyssal Demons drop ensouled heads, and reanimation spells on the Arceuus spellbook bring them back as monsters that grant Prayer XP when killed. The reanimated monster also counts toward your Slayer task—except for reanimated dragons—so you don’t lose Slayer progress.

This method is not raw efficiency, but it is the best passive Prayer training for Ironmen. You gather heads during tasks you would do anyway, and the reanimation spells cost runes but save you from separate bone runs. The key is to bring the correct runes on task and cast the reanimation spell as you go. For exact rune costs and head tiers, the wiki’s Prayer training page has a full table—always verify before stocking up, because spell costs vary between heads.

Ensouled heads are also a decent complement to green dragon bones. Some Ironmen kill green dragons for bones and keep the ensouled dragon heads that drop, then reanimate them later for extra Prayer XP. However, not all green dragons drop ensouled heads, so treat this as a bonus rather than a main plan.

5. Pest Control as a No-Gather Option

Pest Control is the safety school of Ironman Prayer training. You earn points by defending the Void Knight, then trade those points for Prayer experience. The Ironman Guide lists Pest Control as available from level 25, but the exact experience per point changes with your combat level and chosen boat. Safe, repeatable, and completely free of supply gathering, it’s a solid option if you want to watch a video while training.

The downside is speed. Pest Control is much slower than offering bones at the Chaos Altar when you already have a stack, but it requires zero Wilderness risk and zero banking. It also trains combat stats simultaneously, which none of the other methods do. For early Ironmen who need combat levels anyway, Pest Control can be an efficient two-for-one.

6. Questing to Skip the Early Grind

Before you gather a single bone, a bundle of easy quests can push you straight to 37 Prayer with zero training. That saves hours of low-level bone burying and gets you closer to the first protection prayers. The following quests give enough total experience to reach level 37:

• The Restless Ghost — 1,125 XP
• Priest in Peril — 1,406 XP
• Holy Grail — 11,000 XP (requires 20 Attack and Merlin's Crystal)
• Recruitment Drive — 1,000.5 XP
• Rag and Bone Man I — 500 XP
• Ghosts Ahoy — 2,400 XP (requires Priest in Peril and some low skill requirements)
• Making History — 1,000 XP
• Spirits of the Elid — 8,000 XP (requires 33 Magic, 37 Ranged, 37 Thieving, and 37 Mining)
• Another Slice of H.A.M — 3,000 XP (requires some low stats)

7. Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

• Bringing noted bones to the Chaos Altar without a plan. Noting at the Elder Chaos druid costs 50 GP per bone and turns the altar into a PKer magnet. Use the suicide method with one inventory unless you have high combat and escape options.
• Forgetting to set your respawn point to Edgeville or Ferox Enclave. If your respawn is Lumbridge, every death becomes a long run. The 5M cost for a close respawn is worth it over dozens of trips.
• Not using Protect Item. Your stack of bones is protected if it’s your most valuable item? Actually bones are not protected unless it's your one protected item? You can protect one item; often you protect the bones if noted? But with suicide method, you bring unnoted bones, so nothing to protect. Still, protect item saves your teleport or armor.
• Reanimating ensouled heads with the wrong spellbook. The Arceuus spellbook is required. Swapping spellbooks mid-task wastes time and runes.
• Using Pest Control at low combat and expecting fast XP. The points per hour scale heavily with combat; don’t judge Pest Control on a level 50 account.
• Ignoring quest XP. Skipping early quest rewards means manually burying normal bones for hours to reach 37. Always do the quests first.
• Overcooking the grind. Prayer is slow, but trying to gather 2,000 dragon bones in one sitting leads to PK deaths and burnout. Bank in smaller batches and use the Chaos Altar save rate to your advantage.

8. Time, Supplies, and the Honest Shortcut

The biggest misconception about Ironman Prayer is that the altar is the slow part. In reality, gathering the bones is 80% of the time. Green dragons in the Wilderness might yield 20-30 dragon bones per hour depending on your combat stats and PK interference, while offering those bones at the Chaos Altar takes only a few minutes if you suicide and repeat. That imbalance is why many players look for shortcuts.

If you’re playing a main account, the honest shortcut is simple: buy gold, purchase dragon bones or superior bones, and train at a gilded altar or the Chaos Altar without ever touching a green dragon. You can check live gold rates to see what that would cost. For Ironmen, gold is useless—but you still have options. A trusted boosting service can take over the tedious gathering or the altar clicking, effectively buying back your real-life time. Always confirm the service follows Jagex’s rules and uses only legitimate methods; account sharing for profit carries risk, so do your research.

If you prefer to stay fully self-sufficient, compare the safer libation bowl method discussed in our Libation Bowl vs Chaos Altar guide—it’s slower but removes Wilderness risk. Supplies matter too: prayer potions, stamina potions, burning amulets, and a decent melee setup for green dragons all have costs in time to obtain. Planning those supply runs efficiently is the difference between a 3-week grind and a 3-month grind.

9. A Practical Next Step

Here’s a straightforward order to follow for most Ironmen:

1. Complete the early Prayer quests to reach 37 without training.
2. Decide your tolerance for Wilderness risk. If high, plan green dragon runs into the Chaos Altar; if low, start Slayer and bank ensouled heads, or camp Pest Control.
3. Set up your Chaos Altar kit: burning amulet, cheap defensive gear, food, and a close respawn point.
4. Gather bones in increments, not all at once. Use the altar’s save rate to reduce the total bones needed.
5. Reach 70 Prayer for Piety, then decide if 77 is worth the extra time for your account goals.

Whether you grind it yourself or use a service, Prayer is a milestone skill that unlocks the rest of the game. Choose the method that respects your time as much as your account’s integrity.

10. Sources and further reading

• Ironman Guide/Prayer — primary source for methods and milestones
• Pay-to-play Prayer training — general mechanics, passive training, altar math
• Chaos Temple (church) — altar details, transportation, bone-saving mechanics

All images in this guide are from the Old School RuneScape Wiki and are used under the wiki’s license. Visit the linked pages for the most recent information.