Best OSRS Skills to Train First

There is no single correct order, but there is a useful principle: train the skills that unlock other things first. A level that opens content is worth more than a level that only raises a number, and early on the difference compounds quickly.

The genuinely high-priority ones

Quest-gating skills

Before anything else, look at what your quests need. Quests are the most efficient experience in the early game by a wide margin, and most of them are blocked by a handful of modest skill requirements.

Each of these takes minutes and unlocks hours of far better experience.

See quests with no requirements for what you can start immediately.

Magic

Magic is the most useful non-combat skill in the game, and it is useful long before it is high.

Teleports save an enormous amount of walking. High Level Alchemy at 55 converts items into GP at a fixed rate and trains the skill at the same time — one of very few activities that pays you while levelling. Superheat at 43 trains Smithing alongside it.

Even on a pure skilling account, Magic earns its place.

Agility

Agility gives no combat benefit and is tedious to train, which is why people put it off. It also permanently improves run energy recovery and unlocks shortcuts that cut travel time across the whole map.

More importantly, training it produces marks of grace, which buy the graceful outfit. Graceful reduces weight and boosts energy recovery further, and you will wear it for the rest of the account's life.

Getting this out of the way early makes everything else less irritating.

Prayer

Prayer 43 unlocks the protection prayers, and that single unlock changes what content is survivable more than any other early milestone. It is worth prioritising over almost anything else in combat progression.

The Restless Ghost quest gives 1,125 experience in five minutes, which covers levels 1 to 9 immediately.

Combat: train it, but understand the order

The standard advice is to train Attack, Strength and Defence together, and it is broadly right. Two refinements:

Strength is the highest-value melee stat for most of the game, because damage determines kill speed everywhere.

Defence is only optional if you care about player-versus-player. Accounts built for PvP deliberately leave it low to stay in a favourable combat bracket. If you have no interest in that, train Defence freely — it makes everything more forgiving. Our combat level calculator shows exactly how each stat affects your bracket.

For members, Waterfall Quest gives 13,750 experience in both Attack and Strength with no requirements at all. Do it before training either.

Skills that pay while you train them

If GP is the constraint, these do double duty:

Skills that can wait

Construction is the most expensive skill in the game. The useful unlocks — a gilded altar for Prayer, teleport portals — are worth having, but there is no urgency at low levels and no money at low levels to spend on it.

Herblore costs GP to train and the potions only matter once you are doing content that needs them.

Firemaking has almost no practical use outside Wintertodt, which is itself an excellent early activity. Train it through Wintertodt rather than for its own sake.

Runecraft is slow enough that most players leave it until they have a reason. Rune Mysteries is still worth doing early, because Runecraft is completely inaccessible without it.

A workable order

For a fresh members account:

1. Early quest requirements

   Enough Crafting, Mining and Cooking to unblock the quests above.

2. Waterfall Quest

   13,750 experience in both Attack and Strength, with no requirements at all.

3. Prayer to 43

   Protection prayers change what content is survivable more than any other early milestone.

4. Magic to 55

   High Level Alchemy pays you while it levels the skill.

5. Firemaking to 50, then Wintertodt

   Supplies and GP, and the only reason Firemaking matters.

6. Agility toward graceful 7. Farming to 32 for herb runs 8. Combat and Slayer as the long-running background

For free-to-play, the shape is similar minus the members skills: quests first, then Magic to 55, then combat with Mining or Woodcutting as the income.

None of this is prescriptive. The best skill to train is the one you will actually keep training — an efficient route you abandon after two days is worse than a slower one you enjoy. Our skill guides cover training routes, costs and unlocks for all 23 individually.

A first twenty hours

If you want a concrete plan rather than principles, this is a defensible order for a fresh members account.

1. Hours 1–3: the quest requirement levels

   Crafting 8, Mining 10, Cooking 20. These take minutes each and unblock quests worth many times the time spent.

2. Hours 3–5: Waterfall Quest

   13,750 experience in both Attack and Strength, with no requirements at all. It takes your combat from nothing to genuinely usable in one sitting.

3. Hours 5–8: Prayer to 43

   Protection prayers change what is survivable more than any other early unlock. The Restless Ghost covers the first nine levels in five minutes.

4. Hours 8–14: Magic to 55

   High Level Alchemy pays you while it levels the skill, and the teleports save time in every session afterwards.

5. Hours 14–20: Firemaking 50, then Wintertodt

   Wintertodt supplies gp, resources and several skills at once, and is the best use of an early account's time once it is accessible.

Why this order and not another

Each step is chosen because it makes the next one cheaper, which is the only principle that matters in early training.

Training a skill to 30 the slow way when a quest would have given you the same levels is the most common early mistake, and this order is designed to avoid it.

Skills that pay while you train

What this plan deliberately skips

No Runecraft beyond Rune Mysteries, no Construction, no Herblore. Not because they are bad skills, but because none of them makes the next twenty hours easier — and at this stage that is the only test worth applying.