Hunter is a skill that is commonly trained mostly as normal, however, an emphasis is placed on gathering ingredients for Herblore and Ranged, with bird house trapping, Herbiboar and hunter rumours all providing useful resources.
At higher levels, ironmen will often hunt chinchompas to aid in ranged training.
Important unlocks
Quests and achievement diaries are strongly recommended or required to access several hunter training methods.
- Eagles’ Peak (requires
27) is needed to unlock box traps, the only way to hunt chinchompas - Bone Voyage for access to bird house trapping and Herbiboar
- Children of the Sun for access to the Hunters’ Guild and At First Light (requires 46) for access to Master Tier Hunter Rumours
- Song of the Elves or the hard Western Provinces Diary for the best spots to hunt carnivorous chinchompas
Additionally, higher crafting and woodcutting levels for higher tier bird houses is strongly recommended, and loot from Herbiboar and hunter loot sacks scales with levels in other skills.
Good teleportation options such as fairy rings and higher agility levels for better run restoration may also be helpful when training Hunter.
Recommended training methods
Levels 1-9: Natural History Quiz
The natural history quiz in Varrock Museum has no requirements, is very short, and rewards 1,000 Hunter experience, enough to get to level 9. Completing the quiz will allow players to begin birdhouse trapping without any other training.
Levels 9+: Bird house trapping
Bird house trapping on Fossil Island is recommended alongside other training methods at all levels, as it yields the player bird nests for Herblore experience, and some tree seeds for Farming training, along with fairly high hunter experience for the amount of time invested. This method becomes available after the completion of Bone Voyage.
Consider farming giant seaweed whenever you go to Fossil Island for Crafting experience and/or Hespori seeds.
It is always worth building the highest level bird house possible, as the experience and bird nest yield scales with bird house tier.
Amelia in the Farming Guild is an NPC that never moves and runs Amelia’s Seed Shop. She sells a variety of seeds which can be used in birdhouses. Players can quickly accumulate a large number of seeds using multiple worlds.
Levels 46/57/72/91+: Hunters’ Rumours
At the Hunter Guild in Varlamore, completing assigned Hunters’ Rumours requires the player to engage in a range of traditional hunter training methods. Completing rumours will reward Hunters’ loot sacks, which can give a variety of supplies such as herbs, logs, meats, birds nests, and bones for Prayer experience.
Levels 63/73/80+: Chinchompas
Hardcore ironmen cannot realistically hunt black chinchompas in the Wilderness. It is recommended to get at least level 80 from bird houses before catching red chinchompas, to lay five traps at once.
Hunt black or red chinchompas for Ranged training. Once a high Ranged level has been achieved, chinchompas can also be used for killing Kree’Arra for Armadyl armour pieces, killing the spiderlings at Spindel or Venenatis, used in the Theatre of Blood for players in the range role, or for attempting to complete combat achievements for Fight Caves or Inferno.
Level 80+: Herbiboar
Tracking herbiboars is a decent alternative to hunting chinchompas, as it gives the player herbs and is well-suited for alching or making broad arrows for Fletching training. Players will need to have stamina potions and a herb sack for this, and having a high Herblore level (85+) is recommended for higher-quality herbs. Using stamina potions and a herb sack, attentive players can gain around 115,000-130,000 Hunter experience per hour tracking the Herbiboar depending on Hunter level.
Other methods
While the following methods can all be completed while on a Hunter Rumour, they might be worth considering beyond this.
Level 60+: Orange salamanders
Orange salamanders are caught using traps on Young trees. With partial completion of Beneath Cursed Sands one can access the Necropolis Hunter area, using 4 traps at once, you can expect more than 40,000xp an hour with minimal attention. To prolong trips, it is recommended to bring multiple Waterskins or the Circlet of water and wear Desert clothing. There are also three nearby waterskin spawns to the east. Each trap requires a Small fishing net and a Rope. Both can be stored in the Huntsman’s kit.
Level 69+: Dashing kebbits
Dashing kebbits are caught using Falconry. Dashing kebbit meat is the second highest healing food and restores 10 run energy, and gathering the meat with a meat pouch is reasonably quick.
Level 72/91+: Sunlight/Moonlight antelopes
Both sunlight and moonlight antelopes can be caught via pitfall trapping, offering up to 135,000xp per hour, ammunition for the hunters’ sunlight crossbow and antelope meat which can be cooked after 50 Hunter Rumours have been completed. As antelope meat provides incredibly high healing per inventory slot and antler bolts cannot be obtained anywhere else, hunting these outside of Rumours might be desirable.
Level 75+: Moonlight moths
Moonlight moths can be caught with a butterfly jar, and can subsequently be combined with any raw hunter meat to provide a 2 dose moonlight moth mix which heals 22 prayer points per dose, as an alternative to prayer potions when inventory space is not a limitation.
