Runecraft

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Runecraft
Released		29 March 2004 (Update)
Also called		Runecrafting, RC
Members		No
Type		Production
Statistics
Players with 99		75,780 as of 1 March 2024 - update
Players with 200M XP		125 as of 17 March 2024 - update

File:Runecraft icon (detail).png

Runecraft, often called Runecrafting, is a skill that allows players to craft their own runes for Magic spells. The experience earned from making runes is small, and due to the need for constant running and banking, it is fairly click and attention intensive. However, due to the constant demand for different types of runes, it can create a very generous profit despite its slow experience rates.

Due to how slow Runecraft is to train, many players look to avoid training Runecraft, and use the experience from lamps, books of knowledge, and from playing Tears of Guthix to raise the skill's level without having to train it.

With the release of the Blood and Soul Altars on 7 January 2016, training Runecraft has become less time consuming for high-level runecrafters, with blood runes reaching experience rates of around 38,000 per hour and soul runes reaching up to around 47,000 experience per hour. Alternatively, if the player is willing to put in the effort, lava runes can be crafted for between 68,000 and 75,000 experience per hour from level 75 and up. The Guardians of the Rift minigame, unlocked after the Temple of the Eye quest, is a popular alternative to traditional runecrafting offering experience rates of up to 55,000 experience per hour.

Crafting runes

In the Runecraft skill, magical runes are crafted by binding the magical energy from runic altars into magical stones. These stones are called essence. There are various types of essence, with each of these types being able to be crafted in a selection of runes.

Template:Skill clickpic Level	Rune		Exp	Essence required	GE Price	Members?
						Use	Craft
1		Air	5	Normal/Pure		0	0
2		Mind	5.5	Normal/Pure		0	0
5		Water	6	Normal/Pure		0	0
9		Earth	6.5	Normal/Pure		0	0
14		Fire	7	Normal/Pure		0	0
20		Body	7.5	Normal/Pure		0	0
27		Cosmic	8	Pure		0	1
35		Chaos	8.5	Pure		0	1
40		Astral	8.7	Pure		1	1
44		Nature	9	Pure		0	1
54		Law	9.5	Pure		0	1
65		Death	10	Pure		0	1
77		Blood	10.5	Pure		1	1
77		Blood (Kourend)	23.8	Dark		1	1
90		Soul	29.7	Dark		1	1
95		Wrath	8	Pure		1	1

Essence

The types of essence are rune essence, pure essence, daeyalt essence, dark essence fragments and blood essence. Besides these types of essence, there are three types of cores that can be crafted into specific runes.

Rune essence

File:Rune essence detail.png

Rune essence can be used to craft air, mind, water, earth, fire, and body runes.

Obtaining

Rune essence can be acquired by mining and from monster drops.

Mining rune essence requires completion of the Rune Mysteries quest. After completing this quest, a selection of wizards can teleport the player to the rune essence mine, where the player can mine the Rune Essence to obtain rune essence for the Runecraft skill.

Rune essence can be obtained by mining by free-to-play players and by members that have a Mining level lower than 30.

Pure essence

File:Pure essence detail.png

Pure essence can be used to craft air, mind, water, earth, fire, and body runes as well as cosmic, chaos, astral, nature, law, death, blood, and wrath runes.

Obtaining

Pure essence can be acquired by mining and from monster drops.

Mining pure essence requires completion of the Rune Mysteries quest. After completing this quest, a selection of wizards can teleport the player to the rune essence mine, where the player can mine the Rune Essence to obtain pure essence for the Runecraft skill.

Pure essence can be obtained by mining only by members that are level 30 or higher in the Mining skill. However, free-to-play players can obtain via trading with other players.

Pure essence can be also be obtained quickly by members by playing the Temple Trekking minigame.

Daeyalt essence

File:Daeyalt essence detail.png

Daeyalt essence can be used instead of pure essence, to craft air, mind, water, earth, fire, and body runes as well as cosmic, chaos, astral, nature, law, death, blood, and wrath runes. Doing so grants a 50% bonus in experience gained from creating these runes. This effect also applies to runes crafted at the ZMI.

Obtaining

Daeyalt essence can be acquired from the Daeyalt essence mine in Darkmeyer. Shards can be converted to daeyalt essence by trading Noranna Tytanin located near the entrance of the mine at a 1:1 ratio. Any essence received is sent to the bank.

To trade in the shards for daeyalt essence, a version of the vyre noble disguise needs to be worn.

Access to Darkmeyer and the essence mine requires completion of Sins of the Father.

Dark essence fragments

File:Dark essence fragments detail.png

Dark essence fragments can be used to craft blood and soul runes.

Obtaining

Collecting dark essence fragments requires level 38 and 38 or higher. The ability to use the dark essence fragments to craft runes requires level 77 or higher.

Dark essence fragments require a few steps to obtain. In the dense essence mine mine the dense runestones to obtain dense essence blocks. This requires a pickaxe and a chisel. Bring these dense essence blocks to the Dark Altar to bind its energy into the blocks. This will turn the dense essence blocks into dark essence blocks. Use a chisel on the dark essence blocks to obtain dark essence fragments.

Blood Essence

File:Blood essence detail.png

Blood essence cannot be used to craft runes; instead, it offers the chance to craft an extra blood rune per pure essence, daeyalt essence or dark essence fragment when activated.

Obtaining

Blood essence is an uncommon drop from both Nex and the Tombs of Amascut. It can also be obtained as a rare drop from certain monsters in the Ancient Prison, and may be found inside the Intricate pouch reward from the Guardians of the Rift minigame.

Cores

File:Mind core detail.png

Cores can be used to craft mind runes (using Mind cores), body runes (using Body cores) and chaos runes (using Chaos cores). For each type of rune, the corresponding core needs to be used. A core acts as 10 pure or rune essence. For example, at level 2 runecraft, one mind core would give 10 mind runes and 55 experience, and at level 98 runecraft, one mind core would give 80 mind runes and still 55 experience.

Obtaining

Cores are dropped by the golems in the Ruins of Camdozaal. Each core is dropped by the corresponding golem.

• Mind cores are dropped by Mind Golems.
• Body cores are dropped by Body Golems.
• Chaos cores are dropped by Chaos Golems.

Talismans

Main article: Talisman

File:Air talisman detail.png

Talismans are quite important in the runecrafting skill, as they are the keys used to access most altars. Each one is magically attuned to the Runic altar that shares its name. An air talisman, for example, is attuned to the Air Altar. A player may use the talisman only on its corresponding 'mysterious ruin', to repeatedly reach the altar inside. Talismans can be acquired from drops or by trading with other players.

A talisman exists for the air, mind, water, earth, fire, body, cosmic, chaos, nature, law, death and Wrath Altar.

Tiaras

File:Tiara detail.png

A talisman can be fused with a tiara. This creates an equipable item that lets you left-click on the corresponding mysterious ruins to enter, and saves an inventory space. The elemental and catalytic talismans are instead combined with a Gold tiara.

Altars

Main article: Runic altar

Runic altars are locations at which players can use the Runecraft skill to turn essence into runes. Each altar corresponds to a different type of rune.

Regular altars

File:Nature Altar inside.png

Inside the Nature Altar.

Most altars are located in another dimension, accessible through Mysterious Ruins scattered across the surface of Gielinor. This includes the air, mind, water, earth, fire, body, cosmic, chaos, nature, law, death, blood and Wrath Altar. The Astral Altar is the only regular altar that is not accessed through Mysterious Ruins.

Mysterious Ruins are not labelled on the world map. Players can discover the ruins' location by clicking 'locate' on a talisman. A talisman, tiara, or runecraft cape is required to actually enter the ruins and use the altars.

When a player clicks on the altar, all essence in their inventory are converted to a type of rune (depending on the altar), and they gain Runecraft experience. They can also enchant a tiara if they have a normal tiara and talisman in their inventory. Use either the tiara or the talisman on the altar to combine them into an enchanted tiara.

Blood and Soul Altar

The blood and Soul Altar can be found in Arceuus, near the dense essence mine. No talisman or tiara is needed to use these altars as they are in the regular dimension.

Ourania Altar

The Ourania Altar, also known as the ZMI Altar, converts pure essence into an assortment of random runes, with a chance of bonus runes being created if players have the medium Ardougne Diary completed. The altar, which requires no talisman or tiara to enter, gives roughly 1.7 times the normal experience for each pure essence used. Rune essence cannot be used. Players do not need a specific Runecraft level in order to craft at this altar, but the chance of crafting higher-levelled runes increases with a higher Runecraft level. Players can not craft a wrath rune through the Ourania Altar; this is the only rune uncraftable at the Altar outside of combination runes.

Abyss

Main article: Abyss

File:Abyssal leech.png

The Abyss is a special region that requires completion of the Enter the Abyss miniquest. The Abyss provides access to all the runic altars without the need for a talisman, with the exception of astral runes and wrath runes. The Abyss consists of two rings: a dangerous outer ring in a multiway combat zone and a safe inner ring with rifts leading to the runic altars. In appearance, it seems to be oddly organic, with eyes, boils, and strange-looking tendrils. Aside from the abyssal monsters inhabiting it, using the Abyss is also dangerous because players who enter the Abyss will have their Prayer points drained to 0, and players who enter without wearing an Abyssal bracelet will also be immediately given a skull.

Official worlds

The following official worlds are assigned to Runecraft training or minigames:

World	Location	Members	Activity
327	File:Germany flag.png Germany	1 {{#vardefine:p2ptotal|}}	Ourania Altar
425	File:Australia flag.png Australia	1 {{#vardefine:p2ptotal|}}	Guardians of the Rift
425	File:Australia flag.png Australia	1 {{#vardefine:p2ptotal|}}	Guardians of the Rift
445	File:United States (west) flag.png United States (west)	1 {{#vardefine:p2ptotal|}}	Guardians of the Rift
459	File:Germany flag.png Germany	1 {{#vardefine:p2ptotal|}}	Guardians of the Rift
464	File:Germany flag.png Germany	1 {{#vardefine:p2ptotal|}}	Guardians of the Rift
478	United States (east)	1 {{#vardefine:p2ptotal|}}	Guardians of the Rift
480	United States (east)	1 {{#vardefine:p2ptotal|}}	Ourania Altar
490	United States (east)	1 {{#vardefine:p2ptotal|}}	Guardians of the Rift
492	United States (east)	1 {{#vardefine:p2ptotal|}}	Guardians of the Rift
507	United Kingdom	1 {{#vardefine:p2ptotal|}}	Guardians of the Rift
513	United Kingdom	1 {{#vardefine:p2ptotal|}}	Zeah Runecrafting
522	United Kingdom	1 {{#vardefine:p2ptotal|}}	Guardians of the Rift
534	File:Australia flag.png Australia	1 {{#vardefine:p2ptotal|}}	Guardians of the Rift

Multiple runes

As a player's Runecraft level increases, they can make more runes. However, they only earn experience based on the amount of essence they use. The number of runes made from the essence in a player's inventory in an action that gains a level is determined by the player's level before the runecrafting action, even if crafting the same amount of essence one piece at a time would yield more runes. For example, a player with a Runecraft level of 22 will craft 3 air runes for each pure essence used.

The Raiments of the Eye, obtainable from playing Guardians of the Rift, grant 10% more runes per piece, with a 20% set bonus for a total of 60% when the full outfit is worn.

Rune		Lvl for 1x	Lvl for 2x	Lvl for 3x	Lvl for 4x	Lvl for 5x	Lvl for 6x	Lvl for 7x	Lvl for 8x	Lvl for 9x	Lvl for 10x
	Air	1	11	22	33	44	55	66	77	88	99
	Mind	2	14	28	42	56	70	84	98	-	-
	Water	5	19	38	57	76	95	-	-	-	-
	Earth	9	26	52	78	104	-	-	-	-	-
	Fire	14	35	70	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
	Body	20	46	92	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
	Cosmic	27	59	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
	Chaos	35	74	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
	Astral	40	82	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
	Nature	44	91	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
	Law	54	95	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
	Death	65	99	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Runic extracts

Players can use runic extracts, a catalyst obtained from the Scar essence mine, to craft additional bonus runes when runecrafting.

The following table outlines the cost and bonus runes per extract: Template:Scar extract table

Combination runes

Members have an extension to Runecraft, which is the ability to combine two runes into one item.

To craft combination runes, a player needs to take existing runes that are one half of the combination, with a matching talisman (not a tiara), along with an equal amount of pure essence to the altar which comprises the other half of the combination. Use the existing runes or the talisman for the existing runes on the altar. This has a 50% chance of success per rune, and any failed runes are simply destroyed. The talisman will be consumed regardless of how many runes are made. Players can wear a binding necklace to have a 100% chance of success instead.

The player may use the Lunar spell Magic Imbue to make combination runes without needing the opposing talisman. Using binding necklaces and Magic Imbue to craft lava runes can yield the highest Runecraft experience per hour in Old School RuneScape.

Level	Rune		Combination	Exp (Low)	Exp (High)	GE Price
6		Mist rune	+	8	8.5
10		Dust rune	+	8.3	9
13		Mud rune	+	9.3	9.5
15		Smoke rune	+	8.5	9.5
19		Steam rune	+	9.3	10
23		Lava rune	+	10	10.5

Players receive less experience at the lower-levelled altars. For example, making mist runes at the Air Altar will give 8 experience for each rune made, while making them at the Water Altar will give 8.5 experience for each rune made.

Essence pouches

Main article: Essence pouch

Essence pouches are bags that can hold varying amounts of rune, pure or daeyalt essence for use in the Runecraft skill. Essence pouches are highly prized among runecrafters because they can be used to take larger loads when runecrafting and mining pure essence.

Essence pouches decay with use, and must be repaired by visiting the Dark mage in the centre of the Abyss (or by contacting him with the NPC Contact Lunar spell) or they will disappear. Note: The pouches do not have to be brought directly to the Dark Mage in order to be repaired; any and all pouches that are stored in the bank will also be repaired.

Essence pouches are dropped by monsters in the Abyss and the Abyssal Area after completion of the Enter the Abyss miniquest.

Type		Runecraft Level	Capacity	Cumulative capacity	Uses before decay (approx.)	Dropped or Obtained by
	Small pouch	1	3	3	No decay	Abyssal guardian, leech, walker, or Dark mage
	Medium pouch	25	6	9	45	Abyssal guardian, leech, walker
	Large pouch	50	9	18	29	Abyssal guardian, leech, walker
	Giant pouch	75	12	30	10	Abyssal guardian, leech, walker
	Colossal pouch	85	40	40	8	Created using all previous pouches and an abyssal needle

Infusing

File:Pegasian crystal detail.png

The three crystals dropped by Cerberus, being the primordial, pegasian and eternal crystal, can be infused to the dragon boots, ranger boots and infinity boots respectively to create the primordial boots, pegasian boots and eternal boots.

This process requires level 60 or higher in the Runecraft and Magic skill and grants 200 experience in both skills.

Splitbark armour can also be infused into Swampbark armour at the Nature Altar after reading the Runescroll of swampbark or into Bloodbark armour at the true Blood Altar or false Blood Altar after reading the Runescroll of bloodbark.

Runecraft pet

File:Rift guardian (follower, fire).png

Main article: Rift guardian

The Rift guardian is a skilling pet that can be obtained while training Runecraft. The chances of getting it are dependent on the player's Runecraft level, the rune the player is crafting, and the number of essence used.

Tips

• As training the Runecraft skill involves a lot of running, a high Agility level and the Graceful outfit will be very beneficial.
• An alternative method for training Runecraft is by using rune runners. A runner is a player that changes noted essence into unnoted essence by converting them in a bank or a shop. At the appropriate altar, the runner trades the Runecrafter changing unnoted essence for noted essence and some fee (usually coins or runes). The Runecrafter increases the amount of essence processed and the runner gets a good reward.
• Another good way is to have an Ornate rejuvenation pool in your house and use house teleports while running, using rejuvenation pool then Amulet of Glory to Edgeville and run to the Abyss.

Temporary boosts

Main article: Temporary skill boost

Temporary skill boost/Runecraft Temporary boosts do not allow players to use higher tier essence pouches.

Quests

Quests requiring Runecraft

Quest	Runecraft requirement	Other requirements
Temple of the Eye	10	-
Perilous Moons	20	File:Construction icon.png 10 , 20 , 20 , 48
The Slug Menace	30	30 , 30 , 30
What Lies Below	35	42 (unless you have access to the Abyss)
Devious Minds	50	65 , 50
The Fremennik Exiles	55	65 , 60 , 60 , 60
Desert Treasure II - The Fallen Empire	60	75 , 75 , 70 , 62 , File:Construction icon.png 60

Quests rewarding Runecraft experience

Main article: Quest experience rewards

Quest	Experience reward	Runecraft requirement	Other requirements
The Ascent of Arceuus	}}500	-	12
Enter the Abyss (miniquest)	}}1,000	-	-
The Slug Menace	}}3,500	30	30 , 30 , 30
Perilous Moons	5,000	20	File:Construction icon.png 10 , 20 , 20 , 48
Temple of the Eye	}}5,000	10	-
Devious Minds	}}5,000	50	65 , 50
Lunar Diplomacy	}}5,000	-	61 , 40 , 49 , 5 , 65 , 60 , 55
The Eyes of Glouphrie	}}6,000	-	File:Construction icon.png 5 , 46
What Lies Below	}}8,000	35	42 (unless you have access to the Abyss)
The Fremennik Exiles	}}30,000	55	65 , 60 , 60 , 60
Total	{{#var:RunecraftExp}}

Skill choice

Upon completing any of the following quests, players may choose to allocate experience to Runecraft. These rewards usually come in the form of items, such as lamps or books, and are independent of any experience rewards directly received for completing the quest. Template:SkillChoice

Changes

Date	Changes
[[{{#explode:23 March 2022| |0}} {{#explode:23 March 2022| |1}}]] [[{{#explode:23 March 2022| |2}}]] (update | poll)	The pre-existing delay after using Essence on Runecraft Altars has been removed.
[[{{#explode:14 April 2021| |0}} {{#explode:14 April 2021| |1}}]] [[{{#explode:14 April 2021| |2}}]] (update | poll)	Runecrafting cores have been added to the game.
[[{{#explode:18 May 2017| |0}} {{#explode:18 May 2017| |1}}]] [[{{#explode:18 May 2017| |2}}]] (update | poll)	Players with level 95 Runecraft can now craft double law runes. Players with level 99 Runecraft can now craft double death runes.
[[{{#explode:23 February 2017| |0}} {{#explode:23 February 2017| |1}}]] [[{{#explode:23 February 2017| |2}}]] (update | poll)	Essence pouches will no longer degrade if a Runecrafting skillcape or Max cape is worn while filling the pouch. Existing pouches which are degraded will not be repaired in any way with this change, but they will also not degrade any further whilst a Runecrafting skillcape or Max cape is worn.

See also

• Runecraft/Experience table, a list of all Runecraft experience sources
• Runecraft/Level up table, a list of all requirements and unlockables within the Runecraft skill