Updated 4 October 2026: rewritten with hours to 99 recalculated from OSRS Wiki XP rates, GP costs priced on 4 October 2026 Grand Exchange prices, and the outdated Prayer and Firemaking methods replaced.
Fletching is the fastest 99 in OSRS. Fletching darts takes about 7.5 to 15 hours from level 1, depending on how fast you click. Prayer at a gilded altar is next at about 10 hours, then Construction at about 12.5 hours and Cooking with 1-tick karambwans at about 16 hours. Speed costs money: on 4 October 2026 prices, a fast 99 Prayer costs about 471M GP and a fast 99 Construction about 199M. Cooking is the exception, because it makes a small profit.
All hours below are active play time with no breaks, worked out from published XP rates (see How we calculated these figures). Real hours are usually longer. All GP costs are our own calculation, priced on 4 October 2026.
Fastest OSRS skills to 99, ranked (4 October 2026)
| Rank | Skill | Fastest method | Hours, level 1 to 99 | Cost of main supplies |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fletching | Darts | 7.5 to 15 | about 247M (about 124M on the cheaper dart path) |
| 2 | Prayer | Bones on a gilded altar | about 10.3 | about 471M (about 194M with dragon bones only, 20 hours) |
| 3 | Construction | Mahogany tables, then gnome benches | about 12.5 | about 199M |
| 4 | Cooking | 1-tick karambwans from level 30 | about 16 | about 5.4M profit |
| Slower | Firemaking | Burning logs (Wintertodt is slower) | about 28.5 | about 28M |
| Slower | Herblore | Prayer potions, super restores, Saradomin brews | about 31 | about 114M |
We also checked the training rates for the other skills. Outside the top four, no skill's fastest stated rate stays near 1,000,000 XP an hour across most levels. Farming is a special case: its XP comes from tree and herb runs that wait on growth time, so you cannot do it in one sitting. The Herblore cost covers levels 38 to 99 and the Firemaking cost covers levels 30 to 99.
Fletching: the fastest 99 in OSRS
About 7.5 to 15 hours from level 1, and about 247M GP in supplies.
Darts give a lot of XP for two clicks each, and you can make sets as fast as you can click. Dragon darts can approach 2,250,000 XP an hour if you are fast and attentive. That speed is the low end of our range. At half that clicking speed, the same route takes about 15 hours.
| Levels | Make | XP each |
|---|---|---|
| 1-10 | Bronze arrows | 1.3 |
| 10-22 | Bronze darts | 1.8 |
| 22-37 | Iron darts | 3.8 |
| 37-52 | Steel darts | 7.5 |
| 52-67 | Mithril darts | 11.2 |
| 67-81 | Adamant darts | 15 |
| 81-90 | Rune darts | 18.8 |
| 90-95 | Amethyst darts | 21 |
| 95-99 | Dragon darts | 25 |
The cost. You buy dart tips and feathers and sell the darts back. On 4 October 2026 prices, rune darts are the expensive step: a rune dart tip cost about 1,110 GP and a finished rune dart sold for about 240 GP. Levels 81 to 90 on rune darts cost about 147M of the 247M total.
The cheaper path. Stay on adamant darts until 90, then make amethyst darts to 99. This took the cost to about 124M on our prices and added under an hour at the fast clicking speed. Amethyst darts need level 90 Fletching. Some accounts must first change a game setting to allow two-click dart fletching.
For the full skill, see our OSRS Fletching guide.
Prayer: the second fastest 99
About 10.3 hours from level 1, and about 471M GP in bones.
The fastest Prayer XP outside the Wilderness is offering bones on a gilded altar in a player-owned house, with both incense burners lit. That gives 350% of the bone's normal XP. You do not need your own altar: you can use one in another player's house.
- Levels 1-70: dragon bones, about 643,000 XP an hour.
- Levels 70-99: superior dragon bones, about 1,340,000 XP an hour. They need level 70 Prayer.
The cost. Superior dragon bones cost about 19,600 GP each on 4 October 2026 prices, and 70 to 99 needs about 23,400 of them. That is about 460M of the 471M total.
Cheaper options. Dragon bones all the way to 99 cost about 194M and take about 20 hours. The Chaos altar in the Wilderness is faster and cheaper per XP, because it has a 50% chance to keep each bone. It is in a dangerous area where other players can attack you, so it carries a real risk of losing your items.
Older guides send you to "Reanimate Dragon". That spell was removed in April 2021. Ensouled dragon heads now use Master Reanimation, which needs level 90 Magic.
For the full skill, see our OSRS Prayer training guide.
Construction: a fast 99 if you can pay for planks
About 12.5 hours from level 1, and about 199M GP in planks.
- Levels 1-33: basic furniture. This stage is only about 18,000 XP, so we allowed about 10 minutes.
- Levels 33-52: oak larders, up to about 500,000 XP an hour. This takes about 13 minutes.
- Levels 52-77: mahogany tables, up to about 900,000 XP an hour. A careful player can go from 52 to 77 within 2 hours.
- Levels 77-99: gnome benches in the superior garden, just over 1,100,000 XP an hour. This is the fastest Construction XP in the game and takes about 10.5 hours.
The cost. Mahogany planks cost about 2,140 GP each on 4 October 2026 prices, and 52 to 99 needs about 92,000 of them. Our cost does not include the butler fees.
A cheaper option. From level 74, oak doors use oak planks instead of mahogany. With a demon butler they can reach about 550,000 XP an hour. That is about half the speed of gnome benches.
For the full skill, see our OSRS Construction guide.
Cooking: the fastest 99 that pays you
About 16 hours from level 1, and about 5.4M GP profit on 4 October 2026 prices.
- Levels 1-30: cook fish in order: shrimps from 1, herring from 5, trout from 15, salmon from 25.
- Levels 30-99: 1-tick karambwans. You need the quest Tai Bwo Wannai Trio to cook them. The rate grows from about 464,000 XP an hour at level 30 to about 950,000 at 99, assuming 5,000 karambwans an hour.
How 1-ticking works. Hold down the 1 key or the space bar and keep using raw karambwans on a fire or range. Each cook then takes one game tick (0.6 seconds). It needs fast, steady clicking.
Burning. Karambwans stop burning at 99 Cooking, at 93 in the Hosidius Kitchen, or at 86 in the Hosidius Kitchen after the elite Kourend & Kebos Diary.
A slower, low-effort option. Jugs of wine give 470,000 to 490,000 XP an hour from level 68, and you can make them from level 35. That route takes about 27 hours.
For the full skill, see our OSRS Cooking guide.
Firemaking: slower than its reputation
About 28.5 hours of burning logs from level 1, and about 28M GP in logs.
Firemaking is often listed as a fast 99. On the rates we used, it is not one of the four fastest. Burning logs with the best log at each level gives about 74,000 XP an hour at the start and about 520,000 near 99:
- Levels 1-30: red logs with a firelighter.
- Levels 30-45: willow, then teak, then arctic pine.
- Levels 45-75: maple, then mahogany, then yew.
- Levels 75-99: magic logs, then redwood logs from 90.
Wintertodt. Wintertodt needs level 50 Firemaking. It is a slower, but profitable and low-effort alternative to burning logs. It takes about 40 hours from 50 to 99, or about 50 hours if you fletch every root. Do not fletch the roots unless you would otherwise miss the 500-point reward.
For the full skill, see our OSRS Firemaking guide.
Final thoughts about these fast 99s
If you have the GP, Fletching, Prayer and Construction can each reach 99 in a long weekend of play. If you do not, Cooking is the fastest 99 that does not cost you money. Whatever you pick, take regular breaks. Repetitive clicking for hours is hard on your hands and eyes.
How we calculated these figures
- XP needed: 13,034,431 XP from level 1 to 99, from the OSRS Wiki experience table.
- Hours: for each level range, the XP needed divided by the XP per hour the OSRS Wiki training guide states for the best method in that range, then added up. These are active hours with no breaks or banking mistakes.
- Fletching hours: the wiki gives a rate only for dragon darts (about 2,250,000 XP an hour). We applied the same number of darts per hour to every dart tier for the fast case, and half that speed for the slow case.
- Construction levels 1-33: the wiki gives no rate, so we assumed 100,000 XP an hour. It changes the total by only a few minutes.
- Other skills and Wintertodt: the highest XP rate stated in each other skill's OSRS Wiki training guide, and the Wintertodt hours and description from the OSRS Wiki Firemaking training guide. The other-skill check is a scan of stated rates, not a full level path.
- GP cost: the main supplies only (dart tips and feathers, bones, planks, karambwans, potions, logs), priced at the 7-day median Grand Exchange price ending 4 October 2026, 12:48 UTC. Items you sell back are counted after the 2% GE tax. Butler fees, house and altar costs, and low-level supplies are not included.
- Who did this: an AI editor computed the figures and wrote this guide from the sources above.
Prices change daily, so read each GP figure as a snapshot for 4 October 2026.
From Probemas (store): Probemas sells OSRS gold and in-game items, including superior dragon bones. This is a paid service and is not part of the in-game methods above.
Item, boss and game images: © Jagex, from the Old School RuneScape Wiki.