Analysis, Discussion and Tips for Success

General Discussion

Most Prayer training is linked to combat indirectly, via bones -- you kill monsters to get bones, then bury the bones (or use them on a gilded altar, etc.) to get Prayer XP. Ghasts are different: they are the only monster in RuneScape that gives Prayer XP directly, at 30 XP per kill. (There are also higher level ghasts as part of the Temple Trekking minigame, but that can't be used as a reliable Prayer training method.) This Prayer XP is on top of the normal combat experience you get for each kill.

Ghasts are odd creatures that live in the Mort Myre Swamp. They start out in a state where they are nearly invisible and immune to attack, but can be made corporeal using a druid pouch (as you did during the Nature Spirit quest). This process, unfortunately, slows down the number of these you can kill per hour, and you also need to refill the pouch periodically as described below.

Note that this is one of the few methods where you make money rather than losing it while training Prayer, which can make it a good choice for lower level players on a budget. However, it is pretty slow compared to offering bones on an altar, which means it may be a bad choice for higher level players. Remember that while using dragon bones to get XP, for example, costs a lot of money per hour, you can offset much of that by collecting the bones yourself. If you can get bones quickly, you can often get a lot more XP for a lower cost in terms of gold and/or time by doing combined activities, such as killing dragons, keeping the bones, selling the dragonhides to get more bones, and offering all of them on a gilded altar. This situation is modeled in this guide via the use of the various SAE indexes, which devalue activities like killing ghasts when you are high enough level to earn a lot of money per hour.

Location and Access

Ghasts are found all over Mort Myre Swamp. The best place to fight them is just inside the Canifis gates, for easy access and banking. The fastest way to get there is to use a ring of slaying to the Morytania Slayer Tower and then run due south for about 20 seconds. Alternatives include the fairy ring code "C K S", a home portal to Canifis, or as a last resort, running from Varrock.

Enter the swamp and then run southwest until you find a large open area -- the ghasts will find you soon enough.

Required and Recommended Equipment

I recommend meleeing these, using level-appropriate melee gear. Since these are undead, wear a Salve amulet or Salve amulet (e) if you've completed the necessary quests.

In addition to your combat gear, you also should bring a blessed silver sickle, both to prevent swamp decay damage and to generate more druid pouch items if necessary. Since these are easy to kill I wear a ring of slaying (for its teleport near the area), to save an inventory slot for drops.

Required and Recommended Supplies

Only lower-level players will need any food (I assume a minimum of level 30 skills to be able to kill ghasts, as it is very slow even then.) Super attack and super strength pots are recommended to speed kills. Super defence pots will be handy for lower levels but are not needed for higher levels.

In order to make the ghasts visible (see below under combat notes) you need a druid pouch, which is "charged" by filling it with "items of nature" created using the blessed sickle near rotting logs, bushes or branches in Mort Myre Swamp. (You learn how to do this during the Nature Spirit quest, so refer to a guide for that quest if you need a refresher.) There are three items: pears, stems and mushrooms, which are worth 3, 2 and 1 point respectively. The mushrooms are used in Herblore and hence are very expensive, so obviously you don't want to use those. Pears are hard to get from other players, but mort myre stems are not difficult to get on the Grand Exchange, so that is the way to go if you don't want to gather them yourself.

If you want to fill your pouch yourself, there's a spot a few clicks southwest of the Canifis entrance to the swamp where you'll find two bushes, three branches and two logs arranged in a horseshoe shape. Stand in the middle and select "Bloom", then pick the items that appear; when you have at least three pears or stems, fill the pouch. Doing this takes some prayer points, so just continue until out of prayer points. Then teleport to your house or a location with an altar, save the mushrooms (to use for Herblore or to sell) and then repeat. You can pretty easily get over 1,000 charges in an hour.

Familiar Suggestions

These are decent herb droppers, so you should use a macaw. It will give a much higher number of good herbs, and fewer of the low-valued ones. (The difference in value works out to over 500 gp extra per herb, on average.)

Technique and Tips

Ghasts initially spawn in a form that is nearly entirely transparent, and also immune to attack by players. It must be transformed into a regular monster form using a druid pouch. To fight many ghasts you must "use" the pouch each ghast to make it appear; this will sometimes happen spontaneously when a player gets near a ghast, but it is too slow to just wait for it to happen. Each time a ghast appears, one "charge" is used up from your druid pouch, which can be refilled as descibed in the supplies section above.

Ghasts that have not been made visible are very hard to see, and they don't appear on your minimap. I have found that it is easier to spot them with the camera angle panned all the way down to eye level. Fortunately, while they are aggressive, they will tend to swarm around you, so you can use your pouch on one after the other. In fact, if they stop doing this, I recommend running out of the area briefly and then returning, so they become aggressive again.

Because of the pouch annoyance, for maximum efficiency you should prepare the next kill while doing the current one. This is especially important for higher level players to get a high kill count (maximizing Prayer XP and drops). While fighting the current ghast, right-click the druid pouch and select "Use". Now find the next ghast you want to kill, and hover the mouse over it. As soon as the current ghast is killed, click to make the next one visible, and start fighting. Since most of the ghasts' drops are small amounts of coins, fishing bait and other junk, you only need to break your stride to pick up herbs and other good drops.