RS3 Necromancy Guide 1-120 (2026): Fastest Training and Gear

Quick summary

• Route: do the Necromancy! quest (1–5), then lesser communion rituals to 26, then Kili Row and Rune Mythos (26–27). Train combat from 27 to 90, and switch to powerful rituals from 90 to 120 (RuneScape Wiki).
• Upgrade every 10 levels. Do Kili's task at each tenth level and craft the best Death Skull gear you can (RuneScape Wiki).
• Souls drive your unlocks. 400 souls opens tier 3 talents and 2,000 unlocks Spectral Scythe. 30,000 starts Alpha vs Omega (Rasial), and 35,000 unlocks Split Soul and Conjure Undead Army (RuneScape Wiki).
• AFK combat tops out around 1.6 million XP per hour at armored phantoms in the Wilderness Crypt. Rituals are faster at 90+ but more active (RuneScape Wiki).
• 2026 changes: in March, Jagex cut Death Skulls' cooldown inside Living Death from 12 to 10 seconds. In May, Dungeoneering Remastered added Necromancy gear, rituals and rewards to Daemonheim.

This RS3 Necromancy guide covers RuneScape 3's newest combat skill, released on 7 August 2023, from level 1 to 120. The route, monster XP, gear recipes and ritual mechanics come from the RuneScape Wiki's Necromancy training page; the 2026 changes come from Jagex's game news. Time-to-target figures are our arithmetic from the wiki's XP table. XP rates assume good gear and focus, so expect less if you play casually.

Free-to-play or members? Free-to-play accounts can train Necromancy to 20; members can reach 120, which also raises the maximum combat level to 152 (RuneScape Wiki).

Start with the Necromancy! quest (levels 1–27)

1. Start the quest: step into the glowing blue portal by the Draynor lodestone. Necromancy! takes you from level 1 to 5 (RuneScape Wiki).
2. Pick up free supplies. In the City of Um, Lupe gives free ritual supplies and Sostratus gives your first T10 gear (Jagex).
3. Do lesser communion rituals with 50 fragile mementos (you can bring them noted) at the ritual site west of the City of Um. Aim for 400 souls, which puts you around level 26 (RuneScape Wiki).
4. Do Kili Row and Rune Mythos at 26. Kili Row unlocks gear upgrades, and Rune Mythos unlocks incantations. Together they give 1,500 XP and put you at 27 (RuneScape Wiki).
5. Do two lesser ensoul material rituals to make lesser ensouled bars. Then upgrade your death guard and skull lantern to tier 20, which needs level 15 Smithing (RuneScape Wiki).

Bring useful items: ashes, vials of water, bones and normal combat supplies. A salve amulet (from Haunted Mine) makes undead "significantly better to fight than anything else".

Best Necromancy training spots from 27 to 90

Combat XP is proportional to the monster's life points. The wiki recommends mostly undead and demons:

Levels	Monster	Location	XP per kill	Notes (RuneScape Wiki)
1–40	Ghostly troll bruiser or thrower	City of Um troll cave	90	Weak to the salve amulet (e)
40–60	Ghoul	North of Canifis	325	Drops congealed blood for super necromancy
40–50	Ankou	Stronghold of Security, level 4	307.5	Undead
50–60	Shadow warrior	Legends' Guild basement	390	Undead; can capture souls for a player-owned slayer dungeon
50–60	Bandit	Bandit Camp, Kharidian Desert	97.5	Low effort with tier 50 gear
60–80	Bloodveld	Slayer Tower, floor 2	512	At least 200,000 XP per hour AFK with aggression potions
60–80	Armored zombie	Chaos Temple Dungeon	310	Very AFK with T60 armor
70–80	Bound skeleton	Wilderness north of Fort Forinthry	600	Up to 180,000 XP per hour AFK; hits hard
70–80	Exiled kalphite marauder	South of Bandit Camp	350	About 147,000 XP per hour on T70 gear
80–90	Abyssal savage	West of Rogues' Castle	750	Up to 900,000 XP per hour AFK

Jagex's lower-level options: Jagex's milestone post suggests giant spiders in Lumbridge Swamp, crawling hands in Burthorpe and ghosts in Taverly Dungeon for levels 5–30. It suggests flesh crawlers and banshees for the 40s. Slayer tasks are a good way to structure your combat training (Jagex).

Necromancy gear progression every 10 levels

Level	Upgrade	Requirement (RuneScape Wiki)
20	T20 death guard and skull lantern	Kili Row; 2 lesser ensouled bars
30	T30	Kili's Knowledge I
40	T40	Kili's Knowledge II; unlocks Threads of Fate, Conjure Vengeful Ghost and Conjure Putrid Zombie
50	T50	Kili's Knowledge III; T10–T50 Deathwarden robes from lesser ensouled cloth and thread
60	T60 and greater rituals	Kili's Knowledge IV; Underworld Grimoire 2; deathwarden nexus for runes
70	T70: Deathwarden (tank) or Deathdealer (power)	The Spirit of War quest, which needs 3,000 souls
80	T80 weapons	Skip T80 armor (wiki)
90	T90 weapons, then power armor	Kili's Knowledge VII (power) needs several hard boss kills

The T70 choice: T70 Deathwarden adds 500 total health and a 1% chance per piece to dodge an attack. Deathdealer is the power armor, with more damage (RuneScape Wiki). The wiki recommends the tank path for everyone, because it lets you upgrade weapons to T80 and T90 easily. You can come back for power armor tasks later.

Dungeoneering Remastered (May 2026) adds options. Daemonheim now has T1–T11 Necromancy gear, necromantic runes and ectoplasm. Its reward shop sells Gravite (T55) and Chaotic (T80) guards and lanterns, and a Ruinous guard (T90 weapon with T100 accuracy). Commander Zilyana drops a new T80 Necromancy amulet, Saradomin's Hum (Jagex). The Ruinous guard needs level 90 Dungeoneering and Necromancy, 750,000 tokens and a warped stone.

Necromancy soul milestones

Souls	Unlock	Source
400	Tier 3 talents	RuneScape Wiki
2,000	Spectral Scythe	RuneScape Wiki
3,000	Start The Spirit of War (needed for T70)	RuneScape Wiki
4,500	Spectral Scythe II (needs level 70)	RuneScape Wiki
8,500	Spectral Scythe III (needs level 80)	RuneScape Wiki
30,000	Start Alpha vs Omega (Rasial access)	RuneScape Wiki
35,000	Split Soul and Conjure Undead Army	RuneScape Wiki

How to get them:

• At 60: do greater communion rituals with spirit mementos. With two Multiply II glyphs (level 66, boost if needed), each ritual gives 43 souls. You need 38 rituals for Spectral Scythe, and the wiki suggests 58 + 93 more for its upgrades before 90.
• At 90: powerful communion rituals become the fastest soul source.
• Spectral Scythe is "an extremely powerful ability for levelling Necromancy" (RuneScape Wiki), so get it early.

Necromancy rituals at 90+

At level 90 you can clear the dust from the ritual site and unlock powerful (tier 3) rituals. From here on, rituals give the best XP rates (RuneScape Wiki).

How ritual XP works:

• Disturbances give most of the XP. Completing the ritual itself gives less than 10% of the total, so you have to clear disturbances.
• Soul storm and Defile: soul attraction controls which disturbances appear. At 301%, soul storm can spawn and a disturbance is guaranteed every eligible tick. At 501%, on powerful rituals only, Defile can spawn. It gives the most XP of any disturbance.
• Timing: disturbances spawn every 12 ritual ticks. On tier 3 rituals they appear at 70, 58, 46, 34, 22 and 10.
• Glyphs: draw Attraction III glyphs with a +17 boost at 90 (a supreme or elder overload). Glyphs drawn together all run out after 36 tier 3 rituals.
• The 610% setup: 3 Attraction III glyphs plus Speed II on your Necromancy cape skips the last 10 ticks. It's about 2.5% better than 700% (a community data post the wiki cites).

Gear that boosts rituals (RuneScape Wiki):

Item	Effect
Underworld Grimoire 1–4	+3% to +12% disturbance XP
Alteration necklace	Alteration glyphs 20% stronger
Ring of Kayazu	+80% soul attraction, 20% chance to double disturbance rewards; needs 88 Archaeology and 67 Crafting
Ritualist's outfit	+6% Necromancy XP for the full set; needs 68 Necromancy
Ensouled pumpkin mask	Light sources don't degrade (not for ironmen)
Necromancy cape (99)	Acts as an extra alteration glyph

AFK Necromancy vs rituals at 90+

Method	XP per hour (RuneScape Wiki)	Effort	Best for
Ravenous ghouls, Slayer Tower Mausoleum	Up to 850,000	AFK	Easy start at 90
Abyssal savages, west of Rogues' Castle	Up to 1.1 million	AFK	Steady AFK
Abyssal beasts, south of Lava Maze	Up to 1.3 million	AFK	Profit too: over 9 million coins per hour in drops
Armored phantoms, Wilderness Crypt	Up to 1.6 million	AFK	Top AFK rate
Powerful rituals	Highest	Active	Fastest XP and souls

Time to target (our arithmetic, using the wiki's XP table):

• 90 to 99 takes 7,688,099 XP. That's about 7 hours at 1.1 million per hour.
• 99 to 120 takes 91,238,736 XP. That's about 57 hours at 1.6 million per hour, or 70 hours at 1.3 million.
• Rituals cut these times further, but they need active play and glyph and potion costs.

Capes: at 99 you can buy the Necromancy cape from the Spirit of Accomplishment, and at 120 the Necromancy master cape from the Spirit of Mastery for 120,000 coins (RuneScape Wiki).

Example: you hit 90 with T90 weapons and Deathwarden armor and want 99 quickly but can only half-watch the screen. Abyssal savages at up to 1.1 million XP per hour get you there in about 7 hours by our arithmetic. Switch to powerful rituals on days when you can play actively and want souls for Split Soul as well.

Necromancy changes in 2026

Combat Style Modernisation (March 2, 2026). Jagex raised Magic, Ranged, Attack and Strength to level 120 and disabled combat auras such as Invigorate. To keep Necromancy level with them:

• Death Skulls' cooldown inside Living Death dropped from 12 to 10 seconds.
• The Impatient perk and the Fury of the Small relic now work with Basic Attacks.

Jagex said this makes "triple Death Skulls rotations inside Living Death more consistently achievable." It also slightly raises Necromancy's total adrenaline.

Dungeoneering Remastered (May 11, 2026). Necromancy is "now fully part of the Dungeoneering experience." Daemonheim gained a mini ritual site that uses ink and candles from the Smuggler. The Ring of Kinship gained three Necromancy classes: Necrolord (accuracy), Conjurer (conjure duration) and Soulweaver (residual souls). New Occultist necklaces add T30 and T50 Necromancy amulets (Jagex).

Plan for alts and returning players

• Returning players: your Invigorate aura no longer works, but Death Skulls cycles faster inside Living Death to make up for it (March 2026).
• Ironmen: the ensouled pumpkin mask's light-source effect doesn't work for ironman accounts (RuneScape Wiki). Plan for light-source costs.
• Daemonheim alts: Dungeoneering now drops Necromancy gear and runes, so a new account can train both together (May 2026).
• New accounts: the RuneScape beginner guide covers quests and early skill goals to do alongside Necromancy.
• Making it pay: at 95 Necromancy, Rasial is one of the better high-level money makers; the RS3 money making guide compares it with other methods, and abyssal beasts already earn well in drops while you train.
• Coming from Old School? Necromancy has no OSRS equivalent; if you mainly play the other game, the Old School RuneScape beginner guide is the place to start.

The RuneScape hub lists the other RS3 guides and services.

Want a hand with this?

If you would rather not grind this part yourself, RuneScape leveling services are listed on FullBoosts. Read Jagex's Rules of RuneScape before you buy any service from anyone, FullBoosts included — a marketplace listing isn't publisher permission.

FAQ

What is the fastest way to train Necromancy in RS3? Combat with Death Skull gear from 27 to 90, then powerful rituals with high soul attraction from 90 to 120 (RuneScape Wiki).

What is the best AFK Necromancy method? Armored phantoms in the Wilderness Crypt, at up to 1.6 million XP per hour (RuneScape Wiki).

How many souls do I need for Split Soul? 35,000. Spectral Scythe needs 2,000, and Alpha vs Omega needs 30,000 to start (RuneScape Wiki).

Should I pick tank or power armor at 70? The wiki recommends the tank (Deathwarden) path first, because it makes T80 and T90 weapon upgrades easier.

How long does 99 to 120 Necromancy take? About 57 hours at 1.6 million XP per hour with AFK combat (our arithmetic). Rituals are faster.

Can free-to-play players train Necromancy? Yes, up to level 20. Levels 21 to 120 need membership (RuneScape Wiki).

Related guides

• RS3 money making guide 2026
• RuneScape beginner guide: quests and skill goals