OSRS Quest Order: Skip Attack, Strength & Defence to Mid-40s Without Grinding

Game screenshots and facts are cited from the Old School RuneScape Wiki (strategy, equipment, drops, and related pages). Writing is original editorial, not a copy of the wiki article.

Fresh OSRS accounts waste hours killing chickens and cows when the game hands out tens of thousands of Attack, Strength, and Defence experience through short, easy quests. A carefully ordered quest rush can take a level 3 account to 45 Attack, 34 Strength, and 31 Defence with zero standing-and-clicking grind. This guide breaks down the exact quest order, the safety tricks that make boss fights trivial, and the cases where a gold-bought supply kit or quest service is the honest time-saver.

1. Why Questing Beats Grinding at Low Levels

At combat levels 1–40, melee experience rates are terrible. Chickens give 12 XP per kill, cows give 32, and even monks only offer 60 XP per kill with constant banking. By contrast, a single completion of Waterfall Quest grants 13,750 Attack and 13,750 Strength XP — the equivalent of hundreds of low-level monster kills. The early quests listed in the wiki's melee training guide total 61,775 Attack, 20,375 Strength, and 15,300 Defence XP, which is enough to jump straight to 45 Attack, 34 Strength, and 31 Defence with no direct training at all.

Questing is also safer than it looks. Almost every boss in these quests can be safespotted with a basic magic spell like Fire Strike, or flinched by stepping in and out of melee range. The only real dangers are environmental — like the Fire Giants in Waterfall Quest or the Khazard Warlord in Tree Gnome Village — and they are easy to avoid once you know the route.

2. Requirements & Who This Skip Is For

This quest order is designed for new accounts that are ready to leave Tutorial Island and want to skip the tedious early combat grind. It works for mains, ironmen, and even some restricted builds — but pures must be careful with quests that give Defence XP. If you plan to stay 1 Defence, you will need to skip Holy Grail and Dragon Slayer I entirely, and consider a different route for later melee XP.

The core quest order below assumes you are willing to train Magic to 13 and Agility to 25. Both are fast and can be done in under an hour with a little planning. If you are a hardcore ironman, complete Witch's House first for the Hitpoints cushion, then continue.

3. The Core Quest Order: From Level 1 to Mid-40s

The following table lists the recommended quests in the order you should complete them. The order matters: Witch's House first gives you enough HP to survive Waterfall, and Waterfall gives you the Attack and Strength to make the later boss safespots even more forgiving.

After completing all eight quests, your character will have 45 Attack, 34 Strength, and 31 Defence without ever training melee conventionally. Add in the Hitpoints from Witch's House and you are ready to equip a rune scimitar at 40 Attack and adamant armour at 30 Defence.

4. Safespotting, Flinching, and Surviving the Boss Fights

Every boss in the core quest order can be killed without taking damage, but the techniques differ. Safespotting uses Magic from behind an obstacle so the enemy cannot reach you. Flinching is a melee-only method where you step out of the boss's attack range, hit once, and step back before it can retaliate. Both methods are safer than face-tanking, especially on a fresh account with low Defence.

For Waterfall Quest, the biggest threat is the room with level 86 Fire Giants. They hit hard, but you can run past them if you have at least 17 Hitpoints and some food. The Moss Guardian can be safespotted from across the rocks. In Fight Arena, all three bosses — the scorpion, ogre, and Bouncer — can be safespotted using the arena walls. Tree Gnome Village's Khazard Warlord is often flinched because the safespot is less obvious. The Black Demon in The Grand Tree can be safespotted from the corridor leading to its lair. Finally, the Black Knight Titan in Holy Grail is best flinched by stepping in and out of its melee range.

5. Avoiding Unwanted XP & Account Purity

Not every account wants Defence XP. If you are building a 1 Defence pure, quest rewards like Holy Grail's 15,300 Defence XP will ruin the build. The core order above includes Holy Grail because it is the fastest Defence XP to 31 for mains and ironmen, but pures must skip it and replace it with another Attack or Strength quest — or simply stop at 45 Attack and 34 Strength.

Similarly, Dragon Slayer I gives 18,650 Defence XP and 18,650 Strength XP, but it also unlocks dragon tasks for Slayer. For a pure, that Defence XP is unacceptable, so Dragon Slayer is usually postponed until after the account's Defence level is intentionally raised through other means. Pest Control is a common way to train Defence without Attack or Strength XP on a pure. We cover that route in detail in our guide on OSRS Pure Defence: Pest Control to 42 Defence and Void Knight Gear Without Attack or Strength XP.

For prayer, many early quests offer Prayer XP as well. The Restless Ghost, Priest in Peril, and Recruitment Drive are common early picks, but their requirements and exact rewards should be verified on the wiki's quest experience rewards page. Since this guide focuses on melee quest rewards, we recommend checking the Quest experience rewards page when planning a balanced account.

6. What Comes After: Mid-40s Training & Unlocks

Once you hit 45 Attack, 34 Strength, and 31 Defence, the next efficient step is usually to start training on crabs. The wiki's fastest experience section recommends Gemstone Crabs in the Tlati Rainforest for their effectively infinite Hitpoints and zero Defence. They require completion of Children of the Sun to access Varlamore and can be killed without food. Ammonite Crabs on Fossil Island are a solid alternative if you want to bank Numulite.

At 40 Attack you can wield a rune scimitar, which is the best early melee weapon until you unlock better gear. At 30 Defence you can wear adamant armour. If you have gold to spare, buying a rune scimitar, adamant armour, an amulet of strength, and climbing boots from the Grand Exchange gives you a significant damage boost for crab training. A small supply of strength potions will also speed up your max hit and XP per hour.

7. Common Mistakes to Avoid During the Quest Rush

Many players start Waterfall Quest immediately after Tutorial Island and then die to the Fire Giants because they have 10 Hitpoints. The fix is to do Witch's House first, which grants 6,325 Hitpoints XP and brings you to around 20+ Hitpoints. Another mistake is forgetting to bring a rope for Waterfall Quest or not having the correct items for Glarial's Tomb, which forces a long walk back.

Some players try to fight the quest bosses with melee even when safespotting is available. Fight Arena's Bouncer is level 137 and hits hard; meleeing it at 30 combat is a quick death. Always safespot or flinch. Finally, pures often ruin their accounts by completing Holy Grail or Dragon Slayer I without checking the Defence XP reward. If in doubt, look up the quest on the wiki first.

8. Time, Cost, and the Honest Shortcut

The entire quest rush from level 3 to mid-40s can be completed in a few hours if you know the routes and have teleports. Grinding the same XP at low-level monsters would take many times longer because of low damage, constant banking, and respawn competition. For players with limited playtime, spending a small amount of gold on supplies — runes, stamina potions, teleport tabs, and decent food — easily pays for itself in time saved.

Buying OSRS gold is a legitimate way to afford these supplies without spending hours earning gp first. A few hundred thousand gold covers all the runes, food, and early gear you need. For those who would rather skip the questing altogether, questing services exist, but you should always verify the service's reputation and never share sensitive account details. The safest approach is to buy gold from a trusted marketplace, gear up, and complete the quests yourself — you'll learn the game and keep full control of your account.

If you decide to buy gold to fund your quest rush or your post-quest crab setup, check current rates on our marketplace: View live gold rates.

Sources and Further Reading

• Pay-to-play Melee training — OSRS Wiki
• Free-to-play Melee training — OSRS Wiki
• Ironman Guide/Melee — OSRS Wiki
• Waterfall Quest — OSRS Wiki
• Quest experience rewards — OSRS Wiki
• Glarial's Tomb — OSRS Wiki