Old School RuneScape Pure Guide: Builds and Quest Paths

A pure is an Old School RuneScape account built to hit hard at a low combat level. The whole point is to win fights against accounts that "should" be your level. This guide covers every common pure build, the exact quests that unlock pure gear, and the fastest tested paths to 99 in each combat stat. Plan first, train second. One wrong quest reward can ruin the account.

Pure Build Types Compared

All pures follow the same rule. Keep defensive stats low and offensive stats high. The builds differ in how strict they are about it.

Build	Defence level	Core idea	Who it suits
1 Defence pure	1	Defence never moves. Every level goes into attack, strength, ranged, magic, and prayer.	Players who want the lowest possible combat level for their damage and do not mind dying fast.
Zerker pure	45	Trades some combat levels for 45 defence, which opens more armour and helmet options.	Players who want to survive longer in fights and still hit well above their bracket.
Range/2h pure	1	Ranged is the main damage skill. A two handed melee weapon lands the finishing hit.	Low level wilderness fighters who like safe distance damage with a knockout switch.
Med level pure	Varies, mid range	A middle combat account that takes some defence to unlock more quests and gear while keeping offence ahead of it.	Players who want access to more content, like wilderness slayer, without going full main.

Note that accounts with 10 or more defence can mix in wilderness slayer with a Viggora's chainmace, which a strict 1 defence pure handles differently. Pick your defence target before you start, because defence experience cannot be removed.

How Combat Level Math Works for Pures

Attack and prayer combat impact

Your combat level comes from a formula, and on a pure every point matters. Here is how attack and prayer targets shake out on a maxed account with 99 strength, ranged, magic, and hitpoints.

Attack	Prayer	Combat level at max
60	59	83.9
75	59	88.9
75	75	90

Picking your prayer target (59, 67, 75)

Prayer adds one combat level for every 8 levels past your last breakpoint. So go up in steps of 8. The common targets are 59, 67, and 75. Going from 59 to 75 prayer costs you about one combat level. A bare minimum build takes 44 prayer, which covers all protection prayers plus the ranged boost. If you plan to max, get 59 or higher prayer right away at the wilderness altar, before your combat stats make trips risky.

HP creep and how to control it

Hitpoints trains at roughly a 1 to 3 ratio with your combat skills, and it raises your combat level too. You cannot avoid all of it, but you can slow it down. A dwarf cannon gives ranged experience with less hitpoints gain, and splashing or alching gives magic experience with none at all. One warning goes the other way. Do not train magic to 99 with zero hitpoints methods if you plan to PK in clans or at revenants. A maxed account stuck at 93 or 94 hitpoints will regret it.

Quest Order and Item Unlocks

Quests are the backbone of a pure. They hand out huge attack experience with no defence gain and unlock the gear that defines the build.

Unlock	Final quest	Chain before it	Watch out for
Dragon scimitar	Monkey Madness	The Grand Tree, Tree Gnome Village	Do not accept the combat training reward after the quest. It can give defence experience.
Dragon dagger and longsword	Lost City	None	Needs 36 woodcutting and 31 crafting.
Ancient Magicks	Desert Treasure	Temple of Ikov, The Digsite, Druidic Ritual, Troll Stronghold, The Tourist Trap	Long skill list, including 53 thieving, 50 firemaking, and 50 magic.
Ava's device	Animal Magnetism	The Restless Ghost, Ernest the Chicken, Priest in Peril	Needs 18 slayer, 19 crafting, 30 ranged, 35 woodcutting.
God book	Horror from the Deep	Alfred's Barcrawl	Needs 35 agility. Gives 4,662 XP in magic, strength, or ranged.
Mithril gloves	Recipe for Disaster	Five subquests plus their requirements, including Gertrude's Cat and Shadow of the Storm	Shadow of the Storm gives 10k XP in a combat skill of your choice. Pick carefully.
Climbing boots	Death Plateau	None	Gives 3,000 attack XP, so plan for it.

Dragon scimitar and dragon dagger

The dragon scimitar is the classic pure weapon and the dragon dagger is the classic special attack. The Monkey Madness chain also pays out big. The Grand Tree gives 18,400 attack experience and Tree Gnome Village gives 11,450 more.

Ancient Magicks (Desert Treasure)

Desert Treasure unlocks ice barrage and the other Ancient spells, plus 20,000 magic experience and the ancient staff. This is the biggest quest chain on the list, so knock out the skill requirements early.

Ava's device and god book

Ava's device saves your ammo, and an unholy book of Zamorak is the standard pure book. The Armadyl book is best for ranged bonus and the Ancient book is best for magic. Bandos and Guthix books are cheaper fills.

Mithril gloves and climbing boots

Mithril gloves are the standard pure gloves for PKing because they are cheap, even though a combat bracelet or regen bracelet has better stats. Climbing boots from Death Plateau cost 12 gp each after the quest.

Skill Requirements Checklist Before You Start

These are the levels that clear every quest above. Train to these numbers and stop. Anything past them is wasted time on a pure.

53 Thieving (Desert Treasure)
50 Magic (Desert Treasure)
50 Firemaking (Desert Treasure)
40 Cooking (Recipe for Disaster subquests)
40 Ranged (quest chains, reached through normal training)
36 Woodcutting (Lost City)
35 Agility (Horror from the Deep)
31 Crafting (Lost City)
20 Smithing (The Tourist Trap)
18 Slayer (Animal Magnetism)
10 Fishing (Fishing Contest)
10 Fletching (The Tourist Trap)
10 Herblore (The Digsite)

Training Ranged the Fast Way

Train ranged first. It gains the least from small gear upgrades along the way, so there is no reason to wait. This path can reach 99 in roughly two weeks of solid play.

Levels	Method	XP per hour	Rough time
1 to 50	Cannon chaos druids at the Chaos Altar	Builds fast even from 1 ranged	Short
50 to 75	Magic shortbow, then Craw's bow at revenant cave lessers	100k to 165k	About 8 hours to 75
75 to 85	Blowpipe at Nightmare Zone	Steady and semi AFK	3 to 4 days
80 or 85 to 99	Chinning	Fastest in the game for this build	7 to 10 days to 99

Cannon chaos druids and rev caves

Take a burning amulet to the Chaos Altar and cannon the druids there from as low as 1 ranged. Melee with a granite maul or obsidian maul while the cannon fires, then switch to a magic shortbow at 50 ranged. Expect over 100k experience per hour in the low 50s. When your combat can handle it, move to lesser demons in the south revenant caves with a Craw's bow. Rates run about 130k per hour, and around 165k at 67 ranged. Tag every lesser near you and drag them into double hit spots for the cannon. It costs about 1m gp per hour but 70 ranged takes only about 5 hours.

NMZ blowpipe

From 75 ranged, blowpipe at Nightmare Zone. Wear prayer gear, not ranged gear. Ranged gear does not raise your experience rate here, it only cuts AFK time. If you have 67 or higher prayer, run the 10 percent Hawk Eye boost.

Chinning to 99

Start chinning around 80 to 85 ranged and ride it to 99. Use Runelite's ground items plugin to show bones on the floor and keep them inside a 3x3 box at all times. Bones burn when more than 3 or 4 stack up, so pick up and drop extras as needed.

Training Attack and Strength

Melee comes from three sources on a pure. Quest experience, crabs, and Nightmare Zone.

Stage	Method	Rate or reward
Early attack	Waterfall Quest, Fight Arena, Vampire Slayer, Tree Gnome Village, The Grand Tree	Over 60,000 attack XP total from quests, plus 13,750 strength from Waterfall
To 75 strength	Sand crabs	Steady AFK training
75 to 99	Nightmare Zone	70k to 100k XP per hour

Sand crabs and quest XP

Bank the quest experience first so you skip the slow early levels. Then camp sand crabs until about 75 strength. Round off your stats to wield a granite maul at 50 attack and 50 strength, or an obsidian maul at 60 strength with any attack level. In the wilderness, the Viggora's chainmace has the same strength bonus as a dragon scimitar. Just remove the ether when you are not using it there.

NMZ to 99

Around 75 strength, move to Nightmare Zone and stay until 99. Rates land between 70k and 100k per hour depending on your attack and strength levels. Save your points for an imbued berserker ring.

Salve amulet and undead buffs

Do Haunted Mine early. The quest gives 22,000 experience and unlocks the salve amulet, which when enchanted and imbued gives a 20 percent damage and accuracy buff against undead. Extend crab trips with the bearhead from Mountain Daughter and Varrock armour 1 from the easy diary, or have an alt run you supplies.

Training Magic Without Wrecking Your Build

Magic is where most pures go wrong. The wrong method piles on hitpoints, and the safest method can cost over 100m. Know the tradeoffs before you cast a spell.

Method	Rate	Cost	HP gained
Splashing	Very slow but fully AFK	Over 100m to 99	None
Curse, stun-alching, high alchemy	Faster than splashing	Moderate	None
NMZ fire wave and surge	60k to 80k per hour	Rune costs	Some
Black salamander at crabs	About 30k per hour	2 gp per strike	About 20k HP XP per hour
Bursting in MM tunnels or dust devils	Fastest option	High, needs 65 slayer for dust devils	Yes

Splashing and stun-alching

Splash or alch during downtime to reach about 75 magic without touching your hitpoints. Stun-alching and curse splashing move faster than pure splashing. High alchemy from 55 also holds your gp loss down since the alchs return value.

NMZ surge

From 75 magic, fire wave and then surge at Nightmare Zone to 94 or 99. Expect 60k to 80k per hour. Also set up Mage Arena 2 spawns as soon as you hit 75 magic. A couple of minutes a day for about a week lets you farm 15 or more god capes per hour once maxed.

Salamander crabs option

The black salamander at crabs is the budget play. It costs 2 gp per strike, hits over 20 at high magic levels, and gives 66 percent of your magic experience as hitpoints experience. That is about 30k magic and 20k hitpoints per hour. It is perfect if you want hitpoints anyway, and wrong if you are keeping them low.

Using Alts to Train Faster

A second account turns slow, risky grinds into smooth ones. Three setups matter most.

Wilderness altar bone tank. Equip an alt with ghostly robes and a water staff, nothing else worth taking. Get it skulled at Edgeville, then park it in the middle of the altar. PKers attack the skulled alt instead of you, giving you time to log or bank your bones. Use the high risk PvP world, which is hit less often than the low risk one and has a bank near spawn. Or skip all of it and buy the wilderness respawn for 5m.
Revenant caves PKer watch. Park an alt at the cave entrance while you cannon lessers in the south. It calls out incoming PKers so you can hop or run before they reach you.
Cannonball and supply restock. Bring only a cannon on your first trip, set it up, and suicide. Return with full supplies through Bandit Camp on a burning amulet, run east, north through the hellhounds and green dragons, then west. From there, an alt ferries cannonballs, ether, and potions so you never bank mid grind.

What It Costs to Max a Pure

The fast route works best with 150m to 200m to put into stats. You can max for far less if you accept slower methods.

Skill	Budget route	Fast route
Ranged	Cannon less, camp cheaper spots longer	Craw's bow at revs at about 1m gp per hour, then chinning to 99
Magic	Black salamander at 2 gp per cast, or alching	Splashing and NMZ, over 100m total
Melee	Quest XP plus AFK sand crabs	NMZ with points spent on the imbued berserker ring
Prayer	Wilderness altar with an alt tank	Same, plus 5m for the wilderness respawn unlock

Budget vs fast-track spend

The big money sinks are chinning, splashing, and revenant cave supplies. Everything else is cheap. If you are short on cash, swap splashing for salamanders and stretch the crab stages longer.

Money makers to fund training

Zulrah is the standard funding method if your stats allow it. Along the way, chaos druids drop herbs, Tzhaars drop obsidian items, and once maxed, Mage Arena 2 cape farming pays well if you set up spawns early.

Buying vs earning stats

Gp buys speed, not levels. Spending on chins, runes, and supplies turns a six month project into a 2 to 3 month one. Earning as you go is free but slower, and it drags out the awkward mid levels where your account is weakest.

Common Mistakes That Ruin a Pure

Every one of these has killed accounts. Read the list twice.

Accepting the Monkey Madness combat training. Finish the quest, take the dragon scimitar unlock, and never go back for the training reward.
Random prayer levels. Above 59, train prayer in steps of 8. A prayer level of 63 costs combat and gives nothing back.
Maxing magic with zero hitpoints methods when you plan to PK. You end up maxed with 93 or 94 hitpoints and no clean way to fix the gap fast.
Overshooting skill requirements. Train to the checklist numbers and stop. Extra levels in thieving or agility do nothing for the build.
Training ranged last. Ranged gains the least from step by step gear bonuses, so it should come first, not as an afterthought.
Picking the wrong Shadow of the Storm reward. The 10k experience goes to any combat skill except prayer. Choose the one your plan actually needs.
Leaving ether in the Viggora's chainmace. Remove it whenever you leave the wilderness so it does not go to waste.
Ignoring your prayer early. Get 52 or more prayer from level 3 at the wilderness altar. It only gets more dangerous to do later.