Complete 1-99 Hunter Guide for OSRS (2024)

What’s going on guys! My name is Theoatrix, and welcome to my updated level 1–99 Hunter Guide for OSRS.

Guide Contents

If you'd prefer to watch a video version of this guide, you can watch that below. Otherwise you can continue down the page to read the written guide.

Methods Overview

This is an overview of the hunting methods in this guide:

The fastest pathway from 1 to 99 Hunter, takes around 75 hours. This includes a range of training methods like hunting birds, salamanders, kebbits, and chinchompas.

After the fastest pathway I’ll cover alternative training methods which have their own benefits, but are not the fastest Hunter XP.

There are the new Tecu Salamanders, Red Chinchompas, Herbiboar, Aerial fishing, and Drift Net fishing.

After the Alternative methods, I’m going to show the AFK methods, and as I mentioned, Pyre foxes are a new AFK Hunter method unlocked at level 51.

Maniacal monkeys are great for AFK experience, but they do require Monkey Madness 2.

Afterwards, I’ll cover Birdhouse runs, which are an efficient Hunter method if done quickly,

then I’ll cover the new Hunter Rumours in Varlamore

and then Ironman Hunter training.

Over the years, Hunter has become less click-intensive with Runelite, and the addition of herbiboar, maniacal monkeys, and more. With this guide, I suggest following the fastest pathway.

Fastest Pathway

Now let's move into the fastest pathway, and I’m going to show these methods in order, going from level 1 to 99.

These are all of the items you'll need for this pathway. You'll need different types of traps, some teleports, and some potions.

Varrock Museum - 1-9

So to get started, make your way to Varrock, northeast to the museum. Head 1 level downstairs and speak to Orlando Smith to start the natural history quiz. Then, the idea is that you need to answer the questions correctly on all of the display cases on this floor. (Runelite highlights the correct answers by default)

So you go around, clockwise or anti-clockwise, answering the questions for each display case. And once you've completed them all, you return to Orlando Smith and he rewards you with 1000 Hunter and Slayer experience, getting you straight to level 9 Hunter.

Copper Longtails - 9-12

Next, you'll need a butterfly net, at least 3 Hunter potions, 2 bird snares, at least2 butterfly jars, 4 stamina potions, and a teleport to Piscatoris. The easiest way there is with a Piscatoris teleport scroll which you can buy off the Grand Exchange.

Alternatively, there are some other ways to get there which I’m showing on the map.

Make your way to this part of piscatoris, near the western fence of the falconry, and set up a bird's snare in the darker patch on the map. Next, you wait a little while, until a bird is lured over. And you check the trap, then reset it, and wait again.

You'll repeat this until level 12, which is going to take 5 to 10 minutes.

Copper + Ruby (boosted) - 12-20

At level 12 Hunter, you can boost with a Hunter potion to catch Ruby Harvest butterflies. These almost triple your XP rate if you catch them while you hunt birds. The best location to do this is in the area shown, and here, there are a number of birds near butterfly spawns.

I suggest using Runelite to tag the butterflies with the NPC indicators plugin. You hold shift and right click a butterfly and select tag all.

Then once you’re ready, set up a bird snare, then take a sip of a Hunter potion, and a sip of a stamina potion, then click the closest butterfly to catch it. Once caught, you can hold shift and click on the butterfly jar to release the butterfly, and that only works if you have shift drop enabled. Then, you continue clicking butterflies, and repeat.

You'll want to keep an eye on your bird snare as well, and reset it as soon as it's ready. This is the fastest way to train Hunter from level 12 to 20 and will take under 30 minutes to get there.

Moss Lizards - 20-27/39

At level 20, moss lizards give the fastest XP. These are caught within the Moons of Peril, so you need to complete the Perilous Moonsquest to hunt them. If you don’t have the stats for the quest, you should continue with Crimson Swift birds and Ruby Harvest butterflies until level 27.

The Perilous Moons quest rewards you with a 5 thousand Hunter experience, which will get you from level 20 to 26 Hunter. So you really only have to do moss lizards from 26 to 27 Hunter to reach the next goal.

However, moss lizards are actually on par with the next training methods until level 39. So you could continue with these until 39, but I'm including both pathways in this guide in case you don’t have the stats for Perilous moons.

For moss lizards, you need just 1 rope, and stamina potions are handy, but if you’re an Ironman, there's a place to replenish run in the area.

Make your way to perilous moons, so the fastest way there would be to teleport with a Calcified Moth. Alternatively, the Quetzal transport can take you to the entrance of Cam Torum, if you've built the landing site.

Once you’re in Cam Torum, run all the way north to enter the Moons of Peril. When inside, take the northwestern pathway to enter the earthbound cavern, then follow your way around until you reach the moss lizards' hunter area.

Once you’re here, you firstly set up the traps by clicking on each of the rocks. Then, you rustle the nearby bush to send off moss lizards into your traps.

For the next time you set up the traps, you should follow the 1, 3 then 2, 4 pattern.

Catching these is the fastest experience from when you unlock them, although the combat requirement of the quest may be too tough for some accounts. So otherwise, you should just stick to the previous method, birds and butterflies until level 27.

Eagles Peak Quest 27-29

At 27 Hunter you can complete the Eagles Peakquest for 2.5k Hunter XP. This quest unlocks box trap hunting and is required for future methods on this pathway. It's a fairly short quest, and with the Hunter XP reward, you can go from level 27 to 29 which unlocks the next training method.

Swamp Lizards 29-39

At 29, you unlock swamp lizards in Morytania. For these, you need to have completed the Priest in Peril quest. That’s a quest that almost every account should complete, so if you haven't done it yet, its worth doing just for the swamp lizards' hunter method.

So, to catch swamp lizards, you'll need at least 3 ropes and small fishing nets. And also bring a bit of food if you’re a low level.

A fast way to swamp lizards is by teleporting to Canafis and running south east. Alternatively the ALQ fairy ring is close by and you run south west.

At level 29 Hunter, you can use 2 traps at a time, and the best location to do 2 traps is this area here.

This is the order you should follow:

You first set up both traps, then wait until a trap is triggered by a lizard. If you successfully catch the lizard, you just click the trap to get your Hunter XP and the lizard. If you fail to catch it, you'll need to pick up your rope and net from the ground, then click to reset the trap.

At level 37 Hunter, you can boost to use 3 traps at a time with Hunter potions. So you should do this from 37 to 39 Hunter.

Embertailed Jerboa 39-43

Once you reach level 39, you can catch Embertailed Jerboa. To access them, you need to complete the Children of the Sun quest to enter Varlamore. It's a short and easy quest with low requirements.

To catch Jerboa, you need to use box traps, which require the Eagle's Peakquest. You can buy box traps off the Grand Exchange, or if you’re an Ironman, the Hunter shop in Yanille is easily accessible and sells them.

So, to get started, bring at least 5 box traps, then make your way east of the Hunter guild. The fastest way there is with the AJP fairy ring, or you can also use a Varlamore teleport and then run south. You should bring a few extra box traps in case you go AFK.

At level 39 you can only set up 2 traps at a time, but as soon as you reach level 40 you can set up 3.

Without tick manipulation, you should turn off menu entry swapper to ensure that the "check" option on the box trap is the left click option. If you want more AFK experience, you can swap "check" with "reset", which checks your traps and sets up another one automatically, but at a slower rate.

You can also use tick manipulation to set up box traps more quickly. At a low Hunter level though, you won't benefit as much from tick manipulation since your catch rate is slower. So, if you want to learn about 3ticking Hunter, I talk all about it in the black chinchompa's section.

Falconry spotted kebbits 43-57

Once you reach level 43, you can partake in the falconry. For this, you'll just need at least 500 coins to be able to hire a falcon to use. The easiest way to the falconry is to use a piscatoris teleport scroll off the Grand Exchange and run south east. Alternatively you can use the AKQ fairy ring and run east.

Once you're here, you firstly talk to Mattias near the entrance and ask if you can have a go with his bird. The idea of the falconry is you set your bird off to catch kebbits for you, and then you retrieve the bird to claim the Hunter experience.

If you focus and play actively, you can get decent XP rates here for such a low Hunter level. So you'll start with targeting the spotted kebbits at level 43, and this is the best area to stand in for the fastest experience. It's handy to use Runelite at the falconry so that you can tag the right kebbits.

Falconry dark kebbits 57-60

At level 57, you'll continue at the falconry, but you'll switch to dark kebbits for the fastest experience.

The process is the same as spotted kebbits, except now this is the best area to stand in, since there's 2 kebbit spawns.

Red Salamanders 60-67

At level 60 Hunter you should move onto Red salamanders. These are actually unlocked at level 59, but since you can only use 3 traps at 59, the falconry is faster, so you should wait until level 60 Hunter.

To catch salamanders, you need small fishing nets and ropes, and again you should bring a few extra with you incase you lose some. I would recommend wearing Graceful because you'll be doing a fair bit of running around. Red salamanders are located near the Ourania Altar.An easy way there is to teleport to Castle Wars and run north. Or you can also use an Ourania teleport from the lunar spellbook, or there is a spirit tree close by.

This is the best spot to catch them and at level 60 Hunter, you can use all 4 traps in this area. You should turn on Shift Drop to release the salamanders more easily after you catch them, and you should follow the same process as I mentioned for swamp lizards.

You can also catch these with 4 traps at 57 Hunter, with a Hunter potion boost.

Black Salamanders 67-73

At level 67, the fastest experience is with black salamanders. These are located in the Wilderness, so you should never bring any valuables with you while doing black salamanders, and hardcore ironmen should try an alternative method or birdhouse runs, which I’ll show soon.

So, to get there, you can teleport with a Burning amulet, or a ring of dueling to Ferox. Alternatively a Carrallanger Teleport or the Wilderness Obelisks can take you close by. It's not a super popular PK area, mostly because PKers don’t usually get any loot here, but you will still need to keep an eye out for people just to save you from having to come back here and waste time.

The process is the same as other salamanders. You firstly set up all of the traps, then wait until one catches one or gets dismantled. Then you check the trap or pick up the rope and net, then you click to reset the trap.

Overall you can get up to 125k Hunter XP per hour here which is quite fast.

73-99 Black Chinchompas

At level 73 Hunter, you unlock the fastest training method in the game, black chinchompas.

You need the Eagle's Peak quest to be able to catch these since they're caught with box traps.

These are located in the Wilderness and its pretty common for PKers to come here. The fastest way to them is with a Revenant Cave teleport scroll, which is under 300 coins on the Grand Exchange. Ironmen can get there from the Burning amulet, Lava Maze teleport, or the ring of dueling Ferox teleport.

Black chinchompas are the fastest experience in the game normally but can be an even faster experience if you tick trap placement and kill stray chinchompas, you can get up to and over 250k Hunter XP per hour. You can set up your traps in most of the Hunter areas between the trees, but I prefer setting up traps in this area here.

You can hunt these without 3 ticking, and it’s the same as Embertailed Jerboa where you can either check or reset the box traps. For the fastest experience, you should 3 tick trap placements. To 3 tick, you need items that can start a 3 tick cycle, and those options are all on the screen now. I recommend using herb and tar since you can bring grimy herbs with you incase you accidentally finish the action.

So, to 3 tick, you should use menu entry swapper to set the left click option for box traps to "reset". Then you wait until a trap has caught a chinchompa and you go to reset it, and as soon as it disappears, so as soon as you’ve collected the chinchompas, you start the 3 tick action. Then your character will set up the trap faster than you normally would. So then you can click on the next box trap, and repeat the process. This also works when the box trap gets dismantled, so when you reset it, you can 3 tick to speed it up.

Bringing a bow and arrows with you is useful for killing the stray chinchompas. If you have an alt account with membership, you can speed up your training even further so that you can kill while hunting.

As soon as a chinchompa spawns, there's a chance that it will target one of your box traps. But if it doesn’t, you should kill the stray chinchompa so that it respawns nearby and has another chance of going into your box trap.

A recap of the fastest pathway (taking 75 hours total) is above. Now on to the alternative methods which have their own benefits.

Alternative Methods

Tecu Salamander - 79-99

With Varlamore, came a great alternative Hunter method, Tecu Salamanders. These give around 150k Hunter XP per hour at 99 Hunter, and are unlocked at level 79. These are the XP rates you can expect from Tecu Salamanders. You get about 95k XP per hour with 4 traps, but as soon as you reach level 80 with 5 traps, it jumps to 110k XP per hour.

To catch these, you only need the Children of the Sunquest to enter Varlamore.

These require small fishing nets and ropes to catch since they’re salamanders.

The fastest way there is to take the Quetzal transportation to Cam Torum, which requires the built landing site. Alternatively, you can take the Quetzal to the north, or you can just run west from the main city.

These are the trap locations you should use. While hunting here, you mostly get immature Salamanders, but at a rare rate, you can get a Tecu Salamander, which you can use for combat or sell for a profit.

They're a decent money maker at the moment since they're selling for over 200K each.

Red Chinchompas - 80-99

At level 80 Hunter, once you can place 5 traps, Red Chinchompas become a fairly efficient Hunter training method, all the way to 99.

Your XP rates with red chinchompas really depend on whether you use tick manipulation to reset your traps. You can get up to 195k XP per hour with tick manipulation or 140k XP per hour without.

Red chinchompas are best hunted in Feldip hills. You can hunt in this region in the outer world, or you can use the private Hunting grounds with the Hard Western Provinces Diary. The entrance to this is located to the south in the Feldip hills.

The fastest way to the Feldip hills is to use a Feldip hills teleport scroll off the Grand Exchange. Alternatively, you can use the AKS fairy ring, or there's a spirit tree in Feldip hills as well.

Overall, Red Chinchompas are particularly useful for Ironmen, but still provide a fast way to train Hunter for regular accounts.

Herbiboar 80-99

An excellent alternative method, which is far less click intensive, is hunting Herbiboar. This is done on Fossil Island so this requires thebone voyagequest, along with 80 Hunter.

The XP rates at herbiboar are higher than red chinchompas but lower than black chinchompas. You can get up to 170k Hunter XP per hour here, at 99.

To hunt Herbiboar, you don’t actually need any items, but magic secateurswill yield you an extra herb for every herbiboar you catch. A herb sackis very useful here, allowing you to store the herbs you get. By default on Runelite, there's a plugin called Herbiboar. This shows the starter objects and the trail, which makes this a lot easier.

So to catch a herbiboar, you need to find a starter object and just click on it. Your player will search it and start a trail, which you can follow to search the next object. You continue searching objects until you reach the end of the trail, where a herbiboar will spawn. You can then click on the herbiboar to harvest herbs off its back.

Overall, this is a less click-intensive, but it’ll be a fast way to train Hunter, and I would strongly recommend at least trying it on your journey to 99 Hunter.

Aerial fishing - 35-99

If you're looking to train fishing as well as Hunter, aerial fishing is a decent option. This is done on Molch Island on Zeah, which has no requirements to access, except you do need 35 Hunter and 43 fishing to partake. Your XP rates reach up to 80k Hunter while getting 60k fishing at the same time. At lower levels, its still decent, giving 28k Hunter XP per hour when you unlock it.

To get started with aerial fishing, talk to Alry the Angler On Molch Island. They give you a cormorant, a bird.

You then need bait, and you can pick up king worms on Molch Island, then you can use a knife on the fish you catch to get more bait.

You make your way to the edges of the island, and click on the fishing spots to send your bird out to catch fish. You repeatedly do this for consistent fishing and Hunter experience.

Overall, aerial fishing is not the most efficient training method for Hunter, but it can be worth doing if you need to train fishing as well. Its also great for the rewards, or to switch up your training.

Drift Net fishing - 44-99

Another alternative method is drift net fishing, and drift netting is a very efficient training method in terms of XP rates. You get up to 115k Hunter and 87k fishing XP per hour at 99. If you consider that you’re getting both of those at the same time, its actually the most efficient Hunter and fishing training method in the game.

You need level 44 Hunter and 47 fishing to do drift net fishing, and its located underwater on Fossil Island, so you need Bone Voyage.You should also get the fishbowl helmet and diving apparatus from the Freeing Pirate Petesubquest of Recipe for Disaster. It's strongly recommended to bring flippers as well as any type of trident. You can also pay numulites to send your catches to the bank, so bring some numulite.

For this method, you do need drift nets which you can buy off the Grand Exchange, or ironmen can make them with jute fibres. You use about 100 drift nets per hour here. There's an NPC in the area called Anette which you can store drift nets with. So if you’re just getting started, bring noted drift nets to give to her, then you can withdraw them for free while you train.

So from the diving spot on Fossil Island, make your way north Into the drift net fishing area. Once inside, you can set up the two drift nets. Then, you click on the fish around the area to chase them into the drift nets. Once the net is full, you click it and can send the fish straight to the bank with numulite.

This is the most efficient Hunter and fishing training method in the game, and you can see that from the huge amounts of XP that I’m getting. Overall, I recommend drift net fishing if you’re looking to efficiently max, but if you’re going for 99 Hunter the fastest, this is not your best option.

AFK Methods

There's only 2 viable Hunter training methods that can be considered AFK, and they are maniacal monkeys or pyre foxes.

Pyre Fox - 51 - 99

Pyre foxes are unlocked at level 51 and are found on Varlamore, so you need the Children of the sunquest to access them.

The AFK intervals at pyre foxes last around 20 to 40 seconds.

The XP rates for these reaches only 40k XP per hour at 99 so I would only recommend foxes if you can't complete Monkey Madness 2, because maniacal monkeys are a fair bit faster.

Foxes are caught with deadfall traps, so you need logs and a knife to set one up. You should bring along an axe because there's trees nearby to get an infinite supply of logs.

Pyre foxes are located near the Hunter guild. So the best way there is with a Quetzal whistle from Hunter rumours… alternatively you can take the Quetzal transport system there, or you can use the AJP fairy ring and run west..

So catching these is simple. You click to set up the trap, and you can only set up 1 trap at a time at all levels, then you wait until you catch a fox, and click it to get XP and then again to reset your trap.

Maniacal Monkeys - 60 - 99

So at level 60 Hunter, you unlock the best AFK Hunter method in the game, maniacal monkeys. As mentioned, these require Monkey Madness 2to catch.

Maniacal monkeys provide 50k XP per hour when you unlock them, and it scales to over 100k XP per hour at higher levels.

To catch maniacal monkeys, you need bananas and there's a few ways to obtain them. As a main account, you can buy baskets of bananas off the Grand Exchange, and you can bring an inventory of those for the most AFK training.

You can also bring along bones to bananas, the spell, or the tablets, and since there are bones scattered around the area, you can pick these up for an unlimited banana source. As an Ironman, I would recommend just doing bones to bananas.

Also for maniacal monkeys, you need a Kruk monkey greegree, which you get during Money Madness 2,although if you’ve lost it, you can easily get one back from the quest NPC.

So to get to maniacal monkeys, you make your way to a gnome glider, and the easiest way to one is using a royal seed pod teleport and going to the top of the Grand Tree.

Take the glider to ape a toll. Then run to the hidden trapdoor in the trees.

From the ladder, run north To the monkey bars, and here, you'll need to equip the Kruk monkey greegree to go across.

Then run further north And go into the crevice In the wall.

Now you're at the maniacal monkey Hunter area. If there's another player here, I would recommend hopping worlds since you get the maximum XP if you're training here alone.

Then run to the loading bays and mount a gorilla, and you need to be on a gorilla to be able to hunt here.

Next, you click on a boulder to set up a trap with a banana. Then, you can go AFK for 30 seconds to a minute, and then you click the trap to check it, and click it again to reset it, then you can go AFK again.

Take note, if you’re using bones to bananas, you do have to run outside of the arena to cast the spell since your spellbook is hidden when you're wearing a greegree.

Birdhouse Runs

Birdhouse runs are a time-based Hunter training method, where every 50 minutes you can set up bird houses to collect birds nests and Hunter experience.

Birdhouse runs are great for people that enjoy routine based methods, and these give fairly competitive XP rates if you convert it to an hourly rate.

BUT that’s only if you do really fast birdhouse runs, and quickly return to what you were doing previously. You can see that if you do 1 minute 30 runs, your XP rates are quite high when they’re hourly.

This is how you do a birdhouse run:

You'll need 4 birdhouses which you can buy off the Grand Exchange, or you can make one with clockwork and logs. You'll also need some seeds, and I recommend hops, flower or allotment seeds, you'll need 10 Per birdhouse.

So then you make your way to Fossil Island, and I would suggest teleporting to Fossil Island With a Digsite pendant. Then take the Mushroom Teleport System to the verdant valley, and click on the birdhouse Hunter spot. Then you Use seeds on it to set it up fully. Then you click on the second spot in verdant Valley and do the same thing.

Then using the Mushtree teleport system, teleport to mushroom meadow

And go to the birdhouse spot to the north.

Then once you’ve done that you run down south towards the swamp to the final birdhouse.

Then you can teleport out and get back to whatever you were doing.

Hunter Rumours

With the release of Varlamore, Jagex introduced Hunter rumours. These are sort of like contracts, where you're assigned a monster to hunt. To do rumours, you need access to the Hunter guild which requires 46 Hunter and the "At first light" Quest acts as an introduction to the Hunters guild..

There are 4 tiers of rumours ranging from level 46 To 91, each giving a different amount of experience and reward value at the end.

From rumours, the rewards include the new guild Hunter outfit, which increases your chances of catching a Hunter monster, effectively increasing your Hunter XP rates.

You can get the Quetzal whistles from rumours, which are teleports players to the Hunter guild.

There's also the Quetzal pet, which is a very rare reward from rumours.

Overall, Hunter rumours provide very competitive XP rates if you do them efficiently, and they’re a great way to train if you don’t like doing the same Hunter method over and over again. Rumours allow you to experience a range of different Hunter techniques and monsters around the game.

So this is a run through of completing a rumour:

You start off by going downstairs in the Hunter's guild and speaking to a guild Hunter for a rumour.

I then head to the bank upstairs to get the required teleport and items for hunting.

Then I make my way to Tecu Salamanders which are my Hunter task, and then I catch these until I received the salamander claw, which is the unique item needed to complete the Hunter rumour.

Then I head back to the Hunter's Guild and return to the Guild Hunter Wolf (Master) to complete it, and I’m rewarded with a Hunters loot sack reward.

You can block certain rumours by getting the monster assigned by a lower level guild master which is key to getting the best XP rates.

Ironman Hunter

As an Ironman, training Hunter is similar to training it on a main account. You can follow the fastest pathway that I showed in this video, except there are a few key differences. Chinchompas are great to have on an Ironman for both bossing and training, so consider prioritizing training at red or black chinchompas.

Herbiboar is also excellent on an Ironman, for the source of herbs and decent Hunter experience.

Hardcore Ironmen should avoid doing Black Salamanders and Black Chinchompas obviously because of the Wilderness,

so Red Chinchompas or Tecu Salamanders are an inviting option for Hardcores.

Anyway, that’s my updated level 1 to 99 Hunter guide for Old School. If you missed something, use the content guide at the top of the page to navigate through every step of 1-99 Hunting.