Vigil
formerly known as Prayer
Bone-fueled prayers — combat boosts, damage reduction, restoration.
Vigil is Tideward's prayer system, renamed from RuneScape's "Prayer" because that name was too distinctive to the genre's leader. Mechanically: bones drop from combat, you offer them at altars to gain Vigil XP, and Vigil XP unlocks prayers — passive combat boosts you can toggle on for short bursts of damage, defense, or healing. The classic skill behind every long boss fight in idle RPG history.
How Vigil works
Bones come from killing nearly every enemy in the game (more from bigger enemies — dragon bones are the high-XP sweet spot). Offer them at any Vigil altar to convert bone-XP-value into Vigil level XP. The conversion rate scales with altar tier — your starting parish altar is fine for early levels; the Hearth basilica is the end-game gold standard.
Unlocked prayers consume "prayer points" (your prayer pool, which scales with Vigil level). Active prayers boost combat stats — +5% Attack from Burst of Strength, +25% damage reduction from Steel Skin, +10% Magic accuracy from Mystic Mind. You can have multiple prayers active simultaneously, but pool drain stacks fast. Most players keep prayers off during AFK and only flip them on for boss windows.
High-Vigil players also get access to curses — alternative prayers that debuff enemies instead of buffing you. Curses are the difference between a 90-second boss fight and a 30-second one at high levels.
Inputs
- Bones (drops from nearly every combat encounter)
- A Vigil altar (parish, abbey, basilica)
- Prayer points (regenerates out of combat)
Outputs
- Vigil XP
- Unlocked prayers and curses
- Combat boosts during active windows
Tips for training Vigil
- Dragon bones are the best Vigil XP per bone in the game — save them for high-tier altars.
- Don't leave prayers on overnight — you'll burn through prayer pool and lose the boost the moment it matters.
- A capped Vigil opens the curse book, which transforms boss fights more than any gear upgrade.
- Bones-to-Peaches (Magic spell) lets you skip altar trips on long AFK sessions — train both skills together.
- Hearth basilica gives a 50% bonus to bone XP. Build it as soon as you can.
Skills that pair with Vigil
The 23 trades aren't isolated. Vigil works best alongside these:
Frequently asked about Vigil
Why is it called Vigil instead of Prayer?
"Prayer" is too closely associated with RuneScape's skill of the same name in the same App Store category. Tideward renamed it Vigil during the May 2026 rebrand to avoid the trademark cluster.
Do prayers drain even when I'm offline?
No. Prayers automatically deactivate when you close the app. Re-enable them when you're back. Offline progression assumes prayers off.
What's the most important prayer to unlock?
Steel Skin (level 28) for AFK survivability, then Eagle Eye (level 44) for Ranged training, then the curse book at level 50 for boss fights.
Train Vigil on every Apple device.
Tideward is in TestFlight alpha — free, native on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Vision Pro, and Apple Watch. CloudKit syncs your character across all of them with no account needed.