Dragon bones
- "Dragonbone" redirects here. For the armour kit, see Dragonbone upgrade kit.
Release date | 23 October 2002 (Update) |
---|---|
Members? | Yes (for F2P only in Daemonheim) |
Quest item? | No |
Tradeable? | Yes |
Equipable? | No |
Stacks? | No |
High Alch | 0 coins |
Low Alch | 0 coins |
Destroy | Drop |
Store price | Not sold |
Examine | These would feed a dog for months. |
Weight | 1.5 kg |
Dragon bones are associated with the Prayer skill, and are dropped by all adult dragons, excluding wyverns and frost dragons . Dragon bones give 72 Prayer experience when buried (60 experience on RuneScape Classic), 288 Prayer experience when offered at the Ectofuntus, or 252 Prayer experience when offered at a gilded altar with 2 burners lit. The relative ease of collecting dragon bones, combined with the amount of experience earned from them, makes them widely viewed as a fast, cost-effective way to train Prayer. Free players can only obtain and use dragon bones by killing green dragons and iron dragons in the Daemonheim dungeons. They cannot buy, sell, or obtain any of these bones outside the dungeons of Daemonheim.
Members can also get dragon bones as a reward from the Soul Wars minigame by selecting the 'Gamble' option when choosing rewards. If a player gets dragon bones, they will likely be noted in quantities of 11 or 22.
Dropping monsters
Levels 1 to 99
Monster Combat level Quantity Rarity Green dragon 79 1 Always Green dragon (Daemonheim) 73, 97 1 Always Iron dragon (Daemonheim) 84, 89, 98 1 Always Jogre 53, 58 1 Very rare Dragon impling Not applicable 52–95 (noted) (hunter) Uncommon Zombie impling Not applicable 3 (hunter) Common
Levels 100 and above
Monster Combat level Quantity Rarity Black dragon 227 1 Always Blue dragon 111 1 Always Bronze dragon 131 1 Always Brutal green dragon 227 1 Always Green dragon (Daemonheim) 120, 153 1 Always Iron dragon 189 1 Always Iron dragon (Daemonheim) 114, 138 1 Always King Black Dragon 276 1 Always Mithril dragon 304 1 Always Red dragon 152 1 Always Steel dragon 246 1 Always Chaos Elemental 305 1 Uncommon Queen Black Dragon 2100 5 Always
Price history
In Runescape Classic, the street price of Dragon bones was about 3000 coins. The price fell below 2000 coins at the beginning of the year 2009. It then started to gradually increase up to 6000 coins by July of 2010, but fell again to 4500 coins by the end of January of 2011. After free trade was reintroduced, the price skyrocketed and fluctuated between 5500 and 6500 coins. However due to the amount of bots killing dragons, the price of dragon bones dropped down to 2000 coins. With the introduction of the Bot-Nuking day, the price of Dragon bones rapidly rose to well over 5000 coins per bone. Recently, sighting of green dragon bots are steadily increasing, which has begun to affect the price, which has now fallen below 3000 coins per bone.
Cost and XP Analysis
This table can be used to compare and decide on how to train with the bones for the most desired cost versus experience gained. Notice how the cost in coins per XP point varies greatly depending on how the bones are used — but also remember that the different methods have different training speeds.
Bury | Gilded altar | Ectofuntus | |
---|---|---|---|
Experience | 72 | 252 | 288 |
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- Notes:
- It is assumed that two incense, mahogany or marble burners are lit while using the Gilded altar.
- The costs only include the cost of bones. The cost of clean marrentills used with the burners is not calculated.
Tips
- Almost all dragons, with the exception of baby dragons, frost dragons and skeletal wyverns, drop dragon bones. Most dragons are strong opponents. However, green and blue dragons are the weakest types of dragons, and dragon bones are mostly accumulated by killing them.
- Green dragons are the lowest level dragons in the game. They can be found in various places in the Wilderness, as well as in two locations in the Chaos Tunnels. Green dragons in the Chaos Tunnels are grouped together with baby black dragons, while players may be attacked by Player Killers while fighting green dragons in the Wilderness locations.
- The high value of dragons' drops (bones plus hides every kill for chromatic dragons) makes dragon-hunting a highly profitable combat activity. Players can make 120K to over 450K coins per hour fighting green dragons, depending on how fast they can kill the dragons and bank the loot. About 35K to 100K can be made per run on dragons (depending on inventory space /B.O.Bs), and more if more valuable items are brought back as well.
- Baby dragons do not drop dragon bones. Instead, they drop babydragon bones.
- Burying dragon bones is not recommended; usually they are best used on a gilded altar.
- Dagannoth bones, ourg bones and frost dragon bones are faster ways to train Prayer than Dragon bones, but cost much more per Prayer experience point.
- While gilded altars give the fastest experience, some prefer to use the Ectofuntus due to the fact that gilded altars give 36 less XP per bone. Although it's slower, the Ectofuntus gives more experience per bone, decreasing costs, and eliminates the need to obtain marrentill and/or find a house party offering an altar.
Trivia
- In Runescape Classic, Elvarg dropped dragon bones that F2P players could Telegrab once they defeated her. These bones were labeled as 'Members object' and could not be used unless the player was a member.