Prayer

Prayer is a non-members combat skill. Prayer is trained by burying bones, using them on an altar in a player-owned house, by praying at the Ectofuntus with bonemeal and buckets of slime or killing reanimated monsters summoned via the Arceuus spellbook. Different bones give different amounts of experience.

Prayers are unlocked as the level in the skill goes up, which are used to aid the player in combat. The prayers can help with Attack, Defence, Strength, Ranged, Magic, and Hitpoints; among other uses. When prayers are activated, they drain the player's Prayer points until the prayer is turned off or all Prayer points are used.

Most prayers can be activated immediately before the attack hits and promptly deactivated in order to gain buffs and/or protection with minimal to no expenditure of prayer points. This is called Prayer flicking.

Prayer level-up music (link)

The first music that can be played when levelled up.

Prayer level-up music (link)

The second music that can be played when levelled up.

Recharging Points

The player can recharge all of their Prayer points to full by praying at an Altar, which are most often found in churches.

Certain altars will recharge the player's Prayer points above the maximum. Those altars are as follows.

The Altar of Nature in the Nature Grotto
The Edgeville Monastery (Requires Level 31 Prayer)

Prayer potions, super restores and Sanfew serums will also recharge Prayer points proportional to the player's prayer level.

Quick prayers

On 6 February 2014, data orbs were added and has given the Prayer icon the ability to select your quick prayers. It can be left-clicked to activate, or deactivate, a group of Prayers preselected by the player simultaneously. You can select which prayers are activated by right-clicking the button and choosing the "Setup quick-prayers" option. Before the addition of this function, players had to, sometimes frantically, locate the Prayer icon and activate them one by one. This function allows players to place many of the most useful prayers on immediate standby. It is very useful for prayer flicking. Quick Prayers can also be used as an easy way to turn off all prayers by double left-clicking it (to turn quick prayers on, then off).

Prayers

The Prayer tab contains all of the available prayers. To activate a prayer, simply click it. This will show a whitish circle around each active prayer, and will start to drain Prayer points.

Prayer		Level	Effect	Drain Rate
Icon	Name	Level	Effect	Drain Rate
	Thick Skin	1	+5% Defence	5 points per minute
	Burst of Strength	4	+5% Strength	5 points per minute
	Clarity of Thought	7	+5% Attack	5 points per minute
	Sharp Eye	8	+5% Ranged	5 points per minute
	Mystic Will	9	+5% Magic	5 points per minute
	Rock Skin	10	+10% Defence	10 points per minute
	Superhuman Strength	13	+10% Strength	10 points per minute
	Improved Reflexes	16	+10% Attack	10 points per minute
	Rapid Restore	19	2 x Restore rate for all skills except Hitpoints and Prayer	1.7 point per minute
	Rapid Heal	22	2 x Restore rate for Hitpoints	3.4 points per minute
	Protect Item	25	Player keeps 1 extra item when they die (must be activated before death to occur)	3.4 points per minute
	Hawk Eye	26	+10% Ranged	10 points per minute
	Mystic Lore	27	+10% Magic	10 points per minute
	Steel Skin	28	+15% Defence	20 points per minute
	Ultimate Strength	31	+15% Strength	20 points per minute
	Incredible Reflexes	34	+15% Attack	20 points per minute
	Protect from Magic	37	Protects against magic attacks	20 points per minute
	Protect from Missiles	40	Protects against ranged attacks	20 points per minute
	Protect from Melee	43	Protects against melee attacks	20 points per minute
	Eagle Eye	44	+15% Ranged	20 points per minute
	Mystic Might	45	+15% Magic	20 points per minute
	Retribution	46	Deals damage up to 25% of your Prayer level to nearby targets upon the user's death	5 points per minute
	Redemption	49	Heals the player if they fall below 10% health	10 points per minute
	Smite	52	Removes 1 Prayer point from an enemy for every 4 damage inflicted on the enemy	30 points per minute
	Preserve	55	Boosted stats last 50% longer	3.4 points per minute
	Chivalry	60	+15% Attack +18% Strength +20% Defence	40 points per minute
	Piety	70	+20% Attack +23% Strength +25% Defence	40 points per minute
	Rigour	74	+20% Ranged +23% Ranged strength +25% Defence	40 points per minute
	Augury	77	+25% Magic +25% Defence	40 points per minute

Prayer bonus

Main article: Prayer items

Prayer bonus can be viewed in the Equipment Stats window. Here, players can see all of their bonuses, including Prayer. A higher Prayer bonus will cause Prayer points to drain at a slower speed.

Each point of Prayer bonus slows the drain rate by 3.33% of the regular drain rate of the Prayer(s). A general formula for the time (interval) between dropping Prayer points with a given Prayer bonus is:

$interval_{modified} = interval_{original} \times (1+\frac{bonus}{30})$

Where the drain interval is the number of seconds per point (i.e. 1 point per x seconds).

For example, if a player uses the "Protect from Melee" Prayer with a Prayer bonus of 0, their Prayer points would 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 this Prayer is slowed by 15 / 30 = 0.5, so the drain interval becomes 3 × (1 + 0.5) = 4.5, or 1 point per 4.5 seconds instead of 1 point every 3 seconds.

To generate a Prayer bonus, players must equip certain types of armour, clothing, weapons, and jewellery. See Prayer items for more information.

Prayer bonuses, however, do not help to stave off the side-effects of locations and monsters which drain Prayer.

The maximum Prayer bonus is 61 wearing the following gear:

God mitre ⁽⁺⁵⁾
Ardougne cloak 4 ⁽⁺⁶⁾
God Stole ⁽⁺¹⁰⁾
God Crozier or Void knight mace ⁽⁺⁶⁾
God book, Broodoo shield, or Falador shield 4 ⁽⁺⁵⁾
Proselyte hauberk ⁽⁺⁸⁾
Proselyte cuisse/Proselyte tasset ⁽⁺⁶⁾
Holy wraps ⁽⁺³⁾
Holy sandals ⁽⁺³⁾
Ring of the gods (i) ⁽⁺⁸⁾
God blessings ⁽⁺¹⁾

Using the "Protect from Melee" prayer with this gear would result in 1 point drained per 9.1 seconds.

Prayer flicking

A skilled player may "prayer flick" by turning prayers on right before their effects are required, and turning them off immediately after. This will stop the prayer from continuing to drain Prayer points in between attacks.

For prayer flicking involving Protection prayers, for example, the player will activate the prayer just before they are about to be hit, and turn it off immediately after the hit lands. This uses very few Prayer points, and you can even avoid using Prayer points at all if done quickly enough. Although it requires timing and skill (the game allows for some leeway on the timing), doing it successfully can save Prayer points and allow a player to continue fighting monsters for much longer, or increase damage rates with offensive prayers. If done perfectly, no Prayer should be consumed regardless of how long you do the trick. However, most players will not have absolutely perfect timing. Wearing gear with a high prayer bonus will help you prayer flick much longer. Flicking is considerably easier when fighting a monster that matches your weapon's speed, and/or when playing with sounds on. Many of monsters attack at the standard attack speed, which is the same as that of many popular weapons such as the abyssal whip.

The only disadvantage to prayer flicking is the high click intensity associated with constantly turning prayers on and off.

How to prayer flick

To prayer flick, one must activate and deactivate a prayer so it is active on the needed game tick. If flicking a combat prayer, this is the tick you attack; if flicking a protection prayer, this is the tick your enemy attacks (which is not necessarily the tick in which you appear to take damage). TzTok-Jad is an exception, as his attacks are instead calculated soon after the start of the attacking animation, in order to give the player a chance to pray accordingly.

If flicking against monsters, the player will have to study their attack speed first, and then flick as you would auto-attacks.

Some tips for timing:

If trying to learn prayer flicking for the first time, it is easier to learn against an npc that uses melee, instead of magic or ranged. Activate the protect from melee prayer just before the hit splat appears on your character, and turn it off as soon as you see the 0 hit splat.

If using a standard speed weapon (4 ticks, most commonly abyssal whip/scimitars) and praying offensive prayers, turn your prayer(s) on just as your hitsplat disappears and turn it off as soon as you see the prayer(s) light up. Alternatively if you are fighting a monster with an attack speed of 6 (4 ticks) with a normal retaliation time (2 ticks, therefore does not include any range/mage monster, killerwatts etc.), turn your prayer(s) on just as their attack animation starts and turn it off when you see their hitsplat land on you.
If using a slow speed weapon (5 ticks - e.g. All magic spells) and praying offensive prayers, turn your prayer(s) on after your hitsplat disappears and turn it off as soon as you see it light up.
If using a very slow weapon (6 ticks - e.g. Godswords) timing becomes a little difficult for offensive prayers. Your prayer(s) must be on 2 ticks (1.2s) after your hitsplat disappears. An alternative visual cue is useful if fighting speed 6 normal retaliation monsters - after your initial attack, turn on your prayer(s) as soon as the monster's hitsplat on you disappears, then again as soon as the monster's third attack hitsplat lands on you.
Praying defensively against standard speed normal retaliation monsters, turn your prayer(s) on just as their hitsplat on you disappears. Alternatively, if you are using a standard speed weapon, turn your prayer(s) on after you see your hitsplat on the monster appear. This is most likely the most useful visual cue as it works for ranging/maging monsters too, such as aberrant spectres; however it requires that your attacks be synced correctly.
If you have your settings configured so that experience drops show up on your screen, the time to activate stat boosting prayers is just before the experience for the hit shows. If using OS Buddy, your experience drop will be blue instead of white, if a prayer was active when your damage was calculated. If it's white, then you most likely turned on your prayer too late.

Specific combat style flashing

Melee flicking: Right before the hitsplat is supposed to show up, you should turn on your prayer, and then turn it off again. The hit will always be a 0 if done correctly, but not charge any Prayer points due to it being on for just half a second. You will know that you executed it correctly if the blue hitsplat and your overhead prayer symbol appear at the exact same time.
Ranged/Magic flicking: Right when the monster/player begins the attack animation (Ranged: Pulling up the bow, Magic: Putting hands together for the bolt to form) you should turn on your prayer, and then turn it off again. The hit will always be a 0 if done correctly, but not charge any Prayer points due to it being on for just half a second.
Note: there is a slight delay between when you click the prayer and when it appears/takes effect. The prayer must be active at the beginning of the animation, meaning depending on your ping you may need to click even slightly before the animation begins.
Damage flicking: This can also be done with any other prayer, so you could do it with prayers such as Ultimate Strength for example, to get the extra 15% bonus whilst not draining Prayer points.

The aforementioned exceptions to the rule of initial-tick-counts is TzTok-Jad. He has distinctive attack animations which telegraph the nature of the next attack, but are not part of the attack itself.

For players who have never prayer-flicked before, the killerwatt plane is an excellent training ground. Killerwatts exist only in a single-combat zone (usually absent of other players) and are not aggressive until you attack them first, giving you ample time to prepare; their melee attacks are also fast enough that you don't need to worry about awkward timing. In addition to these advantages, killerwatt melee attacks are dangerous and accurate if your protection prayer doesn't negate the damage, so it will be quite easy to tell whether you have mastered the skill or not. Killerwatts are very easy to flick effectively against with Protect from Melee, and once mastered, you will be able to apply flicking more easily to enemies with slower attack speeds (which, as mentioned above, are more difficult to flick accurately against). Note that killerwatts can attack with either melee or ranged attacks at will, but there is a way to prevent this: see the killerwatt wiki page for details.

Equipment that affects Prayer

Some equipment can bypass or disable overhead protection prayers, as well as drain Prayer.

Equipment	Notes
Dragon scimitar	The dragon scimitar's special attack will disable and prevent a player from using their overhead protection prayers if it hits. This lasts for 5 seconds.
Dragon sword	The dragon sword's special attack ignores Protect from Melee when used against players.
Ancient mace	The ancient mace's special attack ignores Protect from Melee when used against players and drains their Prayer by the amount of damage inflicted, while restoring the user's by the same amount.
Verac's set	The set effect of Verac's has the ability to bypass protection prayers. This mainly applies against other players, although works against the Kalphite Queen too.

Monsters that use Prayer

Several monsters are able to make use of protection prayers.

Monster	Prayers	Notes
Kalphite Queen		Her first form will use Protect from Magic and Missiles simultaneously, while her second form will use Protect from Melee. Her prayers reduce damage against the respective style(s), not completely block. Verac's set works against her prayer during her second form.
Demonic gorilla		When they spawn they usually have Protect from Melee active but may also spawn with Protect from Magic or Missiles on rare occasions. After 50 or more damage has been taken by a particular combat style, it will switch its protection prayer accordingly to that style.
Sigmund		Only when fought during Another Slice of H.A.M.. He will first protect against whatever style the player attacks him with, then Missiles to counter Zanik; once the player uses the ancient mace special attack against him at this point, his Prayer will be drained and he can no longer use it.

Trivia

A Prayer bonus of +30 is required to halve the drain rate of Prayers.
In RuneScape 2, the Prayer icon colour was originally yellow, but Jagex changed the colour on 21 November 2006 when Hunter was released.

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Gathering	Woodcutting • Mining • Fishing • Hunter • Farming
Combat	Attack • Strength • Hitpoints • Defence • Magic • Ranged • Prayer
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