OSRS Optimal Quest Order: Fastest Route to Account Progression

Overview

There is no single correct quest order, because the right one depends on what you are trying to unlock. What is true for everyone is that a handful of early quests give back more than they cost, and doing them first makes everything after them faster.

Three things make a quest worth doing early: it gives combat XP you would otherwise grind, it unlocks travel you will use hundreds of times, or it is a prerequisite for a long chain you will eventually need anyway.

This page ranks the early game by those three tests, with the actual XP numbers, so you can decide rather than follow a list on faith.

Quests That Pay for Themselves in XP

Combat XP from quests is the cheapest combat XP in the game, and several of these have no skill requirements at all. On a fresh account this block alone will carry you past the point where most training methods become viable.

Quests That Unlock Travel You Will Use Forever

Travel unlocks compound. Every one of these saves you a small amount of time on every future trip, and the ones near the top of this list will save you more hours over an account's life than any single training method choice.

Quests That Switch a Skill On

• Druidic Ritual — you cannot use Herblore at all until this is done, and Herblore 70 is a quest cape requirement
• Rune Mysteries — the entry point to Runecraft and to a long chain of later quests
• X Marks the Spot — raises the cap on every clue scroll tier by one and unlocks scroll boxes
• The Knight's Sword — 12,725 Smithing XP, which is most of the way to a usable Smithing level on a fresh account

These are worth doing before you plan any training around the skill, because doing them afterwards means you trained toward a ceiling that was about to move.

The Chains That Gate Everything Late

Four chains account for most of the late-game blocking. If you know where you are eventually going, start these earlier than feels necessary.

A Reasonable Order for a New Account

If you want a default rather than a decision, this order works for most accounts and does not lock you out of anything.

• Free-to-play quests you can clear without stopping, for the quest points and the early XP
• Waterfall Quest, then Tree Gnome Village, Fight Arena and The Grand Tree for combat XP and travel
• Druidic Ritual, Rune Mysteries and X Marks the Spot to switch skills and clue tiers on
• Priest in Peril and Lost City, the two biggest access unlocks in the early game
• Animal Magnetism and Ghosts Ahoy once you have 18 Slayer and Morytania access
• Recipe for Disaster subquests, opportunistically, whenever you happen to meet a requirement
• The Fremennik and Elf chains as your skills reach the 60s
• Grandmasters last: Monkey Madness II, Dragon Slayer II, Song of the Elves, While Guthix Sleeps, Desert Treasure II

FAQ

What is the single best first quest on a new account?

Waterfall Quest. It has no skill requirements, everything can be evaded rather than fought, and it gives 13,750 XP in both Attack and Strength — enough to skip the slowest part of early combat training entirely.

Should I follow the quest journal order?

No. The journal groups quests by difficulty band and then alphabetically, which has nothing to do with prerequisites or geography. Group by region and by chain instead.

Which quest unlocks the most other content?

Priest in Peril, by a wide margin, because it opens Morytania and appears in a long list of later requirement chains. Lost City is second for the travel alone.

When should I start Recipe for Disaster?

As soon as you can do any subquest. It is ten separate subquests with separate requirements, so treating it as a standing side project is far less painful than trying to clear it in one run.

Do I need 200 quest points before Dragon Slayer II?

Yes, and it is the only quest with a quest point requirement that high. Check your total before you start planning the rest of DS2's requirements.

What order should the grandmasters go in?

Whichever order your skills allow, but Desert Treasure II last is usually easiest, because it needs 75 Firemaking, 75 Magic, 70 Thieving, 62 Herblore, 60 Runecraft and 60 Construction all unboosted, plus the Secrets of the North chain.

Related Guides

• OSRS Quests hub
• Fastest Way to Get the OSRS Quest Cape
• How Long Does an OSRS Quest Cape Take From a Fresh Account?
• Desert Treasure I walkthrough
• Desert Treasure II quest walkthrough
• Desert Treasure II bosses & gear
• Secrets of the North
• While Guthix Sleeps
• Perilous Moons
• Bone Voyage
• Fairy Tale II
• King's Ransom
• Dragon Slayer II
• Recipe for Disaster

Bottom Line

Do Waterfall Quest, The Grand Tree, Fight Arena and Tree Gnome Village before you train combat, and Druidic Ritual, Rune Mysteries and X Marks the Spot before you plan training in those skills. Those seven quests change what the rest of the account looks like.

Then get Priest in Peril and Lost City done, because between them they unblock more later content than any other pair of quests in the game.

Grandmasters last, and start the Secrets of the North chain long before you think you need it. Quest and level totals verified against the OSRS Wiki on 3 August 2026.