The short version
30-second read- Start Slayer and Farming on day one. Slayer is the longest and cannot be bought, and Farming runs on real days between crop cycles rather than playtime.
- Buyable skills are hours, not weeks. Firemaking 75, Cooking 72, Herblore 70, Fletching 70, Crafting 70 and Construction 70 turn into a shopping trip with enough GP.
- Check the unboostable exceptions first. Training Mining to 72 with a boost still gets you refused at Song of the Elves.
- Train combat through Slayer tasks. Doing them separately means paying for the same levels twice on the way to 74 Slayer.
Overview
Nobody can give you an honest single number for this, and any guide that does is guessing. What can be answered precisely is what the project consists of, and that is genuinely useful, because the total is dominated by a small number of components you can measure yourself.
From a fresh account, a quest cape means 182 quests, 341 quest points, 24 skill requirements and a combat level of 85. The absolute minimum total level is 1,631, and that number assumes you use both available boosts and take the cheapest route to combat 85.
This page breaks the project into its parts so you can put your own hours against them, instead of trusting somebody else's arithmetic about an account that is not yours.
| Detail | Value |
|---|---|
| Quests | 182, of which 24 are free-to-play |
| Quest points | 341 |
| Minimum total level | 1,631 |
| Skills with a hard requirement | 24 |
| Combat level required | 85 for Dream Mentor |
| Slowest single requirement | Slayer 74 — no buyable XP |
| Longest single quest chain | Recipe for Disaster, ten subquests |
| Cape cost | 99,000 coins from the Wise Old Man |
What the Total Is Actually Made Of
Split the project into four buckets. Three of them are predictable and one is not, and the unpredictable one is where estimates go wrong.
| Part | What it is | How predictable it is |
|---|---|---|
| Quest playtime | Actually clicking through 182 quests | Very predictable — it is the smallest bucket, and does not change much between accounts |
| Buyable skill training | Firemaking 75, Cooking 72, Herblore 70, Fletching 70, Crafting 70, Construction 70 | Predictable if you have GP. These are hours, not weeks |
| Non-buyable skill training | Slayer 74, Agility 70, Mining 70+, Fishing 60+, Woodcutting 74, Farming 70, Hunter 70, Runecraft 60 | This is the bucket that sets your timeline |
| Combat to level 85 | Reaching combat 85 with 130 combined Attack and Strength | Largely free if you train Slayer, expensive if you leave it to the end |
The first two buckets are days of play for most people. The third is weeks or months depending entirely on how you train and how much you play. That is why a fresh-account quest cape estimate varies by an order of magnitude between players — it is the same project, but the third bucket is not the same size for everyone.
The Skills That Decide Your Timeline
These are the requirements with no shortcut. If you want a personal estimate, price these out at your own realistic hours and add a few days for everything else.
| Skill | Level needed | Why it takes real time |
|---|---|---|
| Slayer | 74 | XP cannot be bought, tasks are random, and it gates The Blood Moon Rises |
| Agility | 70 | Courses are slow and there is no way to accelerate them with money |
| Woodcutting | 74 | Long, low-XP-per-action training with no buyable route |
| Farming | 70 | Gated by real time between crop cycles, not by clicks |
| Hunter | 70 | Slow per-action XP and heavily dependent on which method you use |
| Runecraft | 60 | Notoriously slow at low levels, though 60 is reachable well before the painful part |
| Mining | 70 unboosted | Song of the Elves will not accept a boost here |
| Fishing | 60 unboosted | The Fremennik Exiles will not accept a boost here |
How to Get a Real Estimate for Your Account
Rather than trusting a number from a stranger's account, do this — it takes about ten minutes and it will be accurate.
Step by step
- Open the quest journal and count how many quests you have left, not how many exist
- List which of the 24 skill requirements you currently fail, and by how many levels
- For the buyable skills, price the materials — that turns weeks into a shopping trip
- For the non-buyable skills, take the XP remaining and divide by a rate you can genuinely sustain, not a best-case rate from a video
- Add the grandmaster prerequisite chains you have not done, especially Secrets of the North and Sins of the Father
- Add your realistic weekly playtime, and be honest about it
The number you get from that will be far better than any published average, because the only variable that matters — how much you play and how you train — is one you actually know.
Common Ways People Lose Months
- Leaving Slayer until a quest demands it, instead of running it throughout
- Leaving Farming until last, when it is limited by real days rather than hours
- Training combat separately from Slayer and paying for the same levels twice
- Doing quests in journal order, which sends you back and forth across the map
- Starting Recipe for Disaster without reading which subquests need what
- Not checking the unboostable exceptions and training Mining to 72 with a boost, only to be refused at Song of the Elves
FAQ
Is there a typical number of hours for a quest cape?
No honest one. The quest playtime is a small and fairly fixed part of the project; the rest is skill training, and that scales with how you train and how much you play. Price your own remaining requirements instead.
What total level do I need?
1,631 at absolute minimum, using boosts in Fishing and Mining and taking the cheapest route to combat level 85 that still gives 130 combined Attack and Strength for the Warriors' Guild.
Which requirement should I start first on a fresh account?
Slayer and Farming. Slayer because it is the longest and cannot be bought, Farming because it is limited by real-world time between crop cycles rather than by playtime.
Do free-to-play quests count?
Yes, all 24 of them count toward the 341 quest points, but the remaining 158 quests are members-only, so the cape is not achievable without membership.
Can I buy most of the skill requirements?
Six of them, roughly — Firemaking, Cooking, Herblore, Fletching, Crafting and Construction all respond to GP. The other eighteen need play time, and eight of those have no buyable route at all.
Can BILS tell me how long my account would take?
Yes, that is how we quote it. Send your stats and remaining quests in live chat and we price the actual gap rather than a generic package.
Still stuck on a mechanic? Ask the team on our Discord, it is free.
Bottom Line
Quest playtime is the small part. Slayer 74, Agility 70, Woodcutting 74, Farming 70 and Hunter 70 are what actually decide whether your quest cape is a few weeks or most of a year.
Start Slayer and Farming immediately and the rest of the project reorganises itself around them, because those two are the only components you cannot buy or rush.
We quote quest cape work per account rather than as a package, because the honest answer genuinely depends on where you are starting from. Quest and level totals verified against the OSRS Wiki on 3 August 2026.
Enjoyed the guide?
Drop a like — it helps other Adventurers find the good stuff.
Community
Comments
Silence in the hall…
Be the first Adventurer to leave a mark.
Join the thread
Add a comment
Tips, drops, or “this carried my account” — keep it useful.
