A gilded altar is the highest level altar that can be built in the chapel of a player-owned house. It can be used to recharge Prayer. When bones or demonic ashes are used with the altar, the player gains 250% of the experience normally received from simply burying the bones.

Incense burners add an additional 50% experience per lit burner, achieving a maximum additional 100% bonus when both burners are lit (and a total of 350% of the normal experience received). All incense burners give the same amount of experience and require a clean marrentill and a tinderbox to light. Because of these bonuses, the gilded altar is a popular choice for players wishing to train Prayer.

Once an altar has been created, anyone who visits the player-owned house has access to the altar itself and the bonus experience it has to offer. This has led to players grouping up in friends chats to track players currently "hosted" altar. This has led to an evolution of many "house parties" from actual get-togethers to sharing one's altar access. Ironmen cannot interact with an altar other than their own.

During Double XP Weekends, altars only give their usual bonuses; furthermore, no bonus experience is used, and experience-boosting items or other bonuses will not work. This usually makes it hard to find an open altar (other than your own) due to many players considering it to be a waste of time when you could be gaining double the experience rates in other skills.

The total cost to buy all the materials for the altar is 1,189,482 coins, or 1,171,300 coins if purchased from the stonemason and the Construction supplies shop.

Bones on Altar

A player using a gilded altar


A Construction level of 75 is required to build a gilded altar. It can theoretically be built as early as level 66 by using a crystal saw (+3 boost to level), a sculpting chisel (+1), and orange spicy stew with three doses of Orange spice (+5). However this is difficult to achieve due to the random (-5/+5) boost that the orange spicy stew provides.

An option with guaranteed success requires 68 Construction and a POH tea (+3) (from teak shelves) which, combined with the crystal saw and the sculpting chisel, gives a total boost of +7.

Players often advertise their open altars on the official RuneScape forums in the Community section, on the Events thread. Yanille on world 31 also often hosts open altars, and so this world is commonly used for training Prayer.

Experience rates

Bones/Ashes GE price Prayer exp. Prayer cost/exp.
Accursed ashes Accursed ashes 243 43.75 5.55
Airut bones Airut bones 7,112 463.75 15.34
Hardened dragon bones Hardened dragon bones 9,885 504 19.61
Baby dragon bones Baby dragon bones 2,793 105 26.6
Bat bones Bat bones 899 18.55 48.46
Big bones Big bones 184 52.5 3.5
Bones Bones 225 15.75 14.29
Burnt bones Burnt bones 1,519 15.75 96.44
Curved bone Curved bone N/A 52.5 N/A
Dagannoth bones Dagannoth bones 6,873 437.5 15.71
Dragon bones Dragon bones 2,287 252 9.08
Fayrg bones Fayrg bones 9,366 294 31.86
Frost dragon bones Frost dragon bones 14,498 630 23.01
Impious ashes Impious ashes 3,616 14 258.29
Infernal ashes Infernal ashes 1,830 218.75 8.37
Jogre bones Jogre bones 1,777 52.5 33.85
Gorilla bones Gorilla bones N/A 63 N/A
Large zombie monkey bones Large zombie monkey bones N/A 17.5 N/A
Long bone Long bone N/A 52.5 N/A
Monkey bones Monkey bones 111 17.5 6.34
Ourg bones Ourg bones 29,476 490 60.16
Raurg bones Raurg bones 42,974 336 127.9
Reinforced dragon bones Reinforced dragon bones 19,199 665 28.87
Searing ashes Searing ashes 34,419 700 49.17
Shaikahan bones Shaikahan bones 22,711 87.5 259.55
Tortured ashes Tortured ashes 3,598 315 11.42
Wolf bones Wolf bones 2,128 15.75 135.11
Wyvern bones Wyvern bones 13,875 175 79.29
Zogre bones Zogre bones 1,121 78.75 14.23

