Runecrafting

This article is about the Runecrafting skill. For information on training Runecrafting, see Runecrafting training (F2P) (P2P).

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Runecrafting

Also known as	RC, Runecraft
Release date	29 March 2004 (Update)
Members only	No
Minimum level for Hiscores	15 as of 12 Dec 2017
Players with 99	105,350 as of 4 Feb 2023
Players with 120	2,380 as of 4 Feb 2023
Players with 200M XP	793 as of 4 Feb 2023

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Runecrafting is a free-to-play skill released with RuneScape 2 allowing players to craft runes for Magic spells at Runecrafting altars. Runecrafting was accidentally discovered by a Fremennik, which eventually led to a split of clans.

Since the release of the Runespan, the amount of players who have achieved 99 Runecrafting has more than doubled. Because of this, Runecrafting has gone from being the rarest level 99 to currently being the eleventh rarest level 99 (Divination being the first.)

The current minimum requirement to be ranked (at approximately rank 917,728) on the hiscores for Runecrafting is level 15. As of 04 February 2023, there are 105,350 current members that have achieved level 99 in Runecrafting. There are 2,380 current members that have achieved level 120 in Runecrafting.

Runecrafting's Level Up Music

A player crafting runes at a Runecrafting altar.

A player crafting runes in Daemonheim.

History

When the humans first came to the realm of Gielinor through the World Gate in the First Age, Guthix created Runestones, allowing the humans and other sentient races to practice the Magic arts. These runestones were created by Guthix using an ancient artefact called the Stone of Jas, which he found on Gielinor when he arrived.

In the Second Age, the humans continued and expanded the practice of magic. However, the runes that Guthix had provided began to dwindle and became a much sought after commodity. Many mages such as Dahmaroc had to fight each other for runestones. During one such fight, Dahmaroc was turned into stone himself, becoming what he once sought after so much.

By the time of the Fourth Age, the runestones that had been given by the gods had all but depleted due to the heavy use of Magic during the God Wars. The art of magic faded with the supply of runes, until it became a very rare art.

At the start of the Fifth Age, Humans rediscovered magic when the Rune Essence mine was discovered in the frozen wastes to the north, where the Stone of Jas had once rested. By bringing Rune Essence to altars around Gielinor, which the Moon Clan had created, runestones could be created. In the early days Wizards had to trek to the Rune essence mines by foot or sea, with the exception of the Lunar Mages, who had a mine on their island, from where their ancient leader had earlier discovered the Stone of Jas.

The Fremennik claimed that magic belongs only to the gods, and were angered at the act of RuneCrafting. Runecrafting soon reached the kingdoms of Asgarnia and Misthalin, where it became widely used in many locations. The Wizards Tower was then formed, and became the greatest institution of magic in the land.

In year 70 of the Fifth Age the Wizards of the Wizards Tower discovered how to solve the teleportation problem by routing teleports through another plane: the Abyss. This would allow them to teleport directly to the Rune Essence mine from anywhere in the world, which would greatly increase rune production. However there was a disagreement over exactly who should get the credit for the discovery, and the source of the actual spell, a Zamorakian demon, was unacceptable to the Saradominist Blue Wizards. The Blue Order abandoned the ritual to create a teleport "anchor" mid-casting, which caused a fire which destroyed the original Wizards' Tower, a catastrophe blamed in later years on the Zamorakian Red Order. The only survivors of the fire were Perien the Blue and Kelavan the Red. Perien founded a new Wizards' Tower on the site of the old one, and became its Archmage. Due to what happened to the first tower, which was a collaboration between followers of many gods, Archmage Perien restricted access to the tower to Saradominists only, and started teaching the teleport spell to the Rune Essence to only a select few people so that the Essence didn't fall into the wrong hands.

In year 169 of the Fifth Age wizards from the Runecrafting Guild discovered how to access more of the Runespan, an area on the same plane as the Runecrafting Guild, where they could create Runes slightly different to those found in Gielinor. Rune essence here is obtained in floating rocks and in the local fauna, as opposed to that mined at the Rune essence mines. The essences are a different shape, thus cannot be used for traditional magic. They are charged to an element (the same as those in Gielinor) by siphoning the fauna or nodes of elemental energy that appear on the plane. These runes cannot be taken out of the Runespan. However, they can be converted into 'points' upon exiting the Runespan.

Essence

To craft runes players need blank rune stones called essence. There are two types of essence: Rune essence and Pure Essence, both are unstackable. They are most commonly referred to simply as 'Ess.' Several other common slang names include 'Pures,' 'P ess', 'Pure ess,' and 'Rune ess.'

Rune essence

Rune essence is dramatically limited in its potential on members servers. It is only capable of being bound at altars available to non-members - into Air, Mind, Water, Earth, Fire, or Body runes. You will be unable to craft member's runes such as Chaos or Nature. This form of Rune Essence is often called "normal essence" or "regular essence" to distinguish it from Pure essence. It requires only level one in mining to mine.

Pure essence

Pure essence can be used in the creation of any and all runes. This kind of essence is the only kind of essence that can be used to craft Cosmic, Chaos, Astral, Nature, Law, Death, Blood, and the various combination runes such as Steam, Mud, Lava, etc. Runes crafted at the Ourania Runecrafting altar must also be made with pure essence. In order to mine any amount of Pure Essence, a player must be a Member with at least level 30 Mining and have access to the Essence Mines.

Obtaining essence

There are multiple ways to obtain rune essence or pure essence. These include trading with other players and purchasing from the Grand Exchange, mining it, monster drops, rewards from the The Great Orb Project, and the daily reward from the Ardougne Tasks or wicked hood, as well as accessing Archmage Sedridor's personal rune essence chest, provided that the quest Rune memories has been completed.

Runespan Essence

In the Runespan, a different form of Rune essence is utilised. It has jagged edges, unlike its siblings in Gielinor. It is obtained by catching some that is floating about in the runespan, 'chipping off' from an animal or from siphoning all the elemental energy from an animal. Runes crafted from this essence cannot be used to cast conventional magic, and are converted into points as a player leaves the Runespan.

Altars

Main article: Runecrafting altar

At altars, blank rune essence is transformed into Runes by binding the energies of the altar into the runestone. Tiaras, Talismans or Talisman staves are needed to enter altars hidden inside 'Mysterious ruins'. There are a couple of exceptions to this e.g. the astral altar.

Mysterious ruins

The Earth altar's mysterious ruins

A Mysterious ruin is a large, glowing stone slab surrounded by pillars. They are essentially doorways used to travel from Gielinor to the pocket dimension at which runecrafting actually takes place. Entry to each altar requires a specific talisman, tiara or talisman staff which functions as something of a key or trigger which transports the player to the altars. (shown below). By 'Using' a talisman on a Mysterious ruin, players will be transported directly to the runecrafting altar within a landscape related to its theme. Other ways to enter involve wielding a staff or tiara, saving one inventory space. A small portal on the floor near the altar provides transportation back to Gielinor.

Both the Ourania and Astral altars can be accessed without use of a talisman or related accessories. These two altars have no Mysterious Ruins at their entrance, instead being simply the altar itself.

There is one alternative method to gain access to all but the Ourania and Astral altars directly, circumventing the mysterious ruins entirely, via usage of the Abyss.

File:Runecrafting Banner.png

The Runecrafting banner at the GE near Murky Matt

Entering altars

To enter a Runecrafting Altar you must have either a Talisman that matches the current altar you are trying to enter (or Omni-Talisman for Lv. 50 and above), then click Use and then on the Altar. Alternatively you can use a Tiara or the Wicked Hood infused with the power of a Talisman (this can be done inside the altar with a plain Tiara and the Talisman you used to enter the altar or by using them on the hood). The Tiara or Wicked Hood is recommended because equipping it saves an inventory space. It allows entry into the Altar with one click. Altars can also be teleported to through the special ability of the Wicked Hood and/or using pre-made teleport tabs from The Great Orb Project minigame. Talisman staves may also be obtained from this minigame. These work the same way as Tiaras (they are infused with the desired talisman) but can also be used as a weak melee weapon.

Talismans

• Function:

Talismans are the primary version of the three items which allow players access to the runecrafting altars. Each altar has an individual mysterious ruins which reacts only with the corresponding talisman. For example, use of an Air Talisman is needed to enter the Air Altar, whereas attempting to use a Water Talisman on the Air Altar will not produce any result at all. Talismans can be used on altars to create tiaras and staves. Some types of talisman are harder to obtain, and can cost quite a lot of money on the Grand Exchange. However, tiaras are often cheaper as creating tiaras is a way to earn Runecrafting experience.

Most talismans have a 'locate' option, which causes them to function as something of a compass. The result of using the Locate option will be an indication of the direction of the Mysterious ruins corresponding to the talisman being used, as related to the players current location, such as North-East. The message is generated in the chatbox.

• Downside:

Since talismans occupy an inventory space and rune essence is not stackable, talismans quickly become a hindrance to players attempting to utilise the skill as well as those simply attempting to train. As such, most players who are seriously committed to runecrafting quickly upgrade to tiaras or talisman staves at the first opportunity.

• Specialty Talismans:

There are two talismans that are not directly related to a single altar. The elemental talisman is a multi-key type talisman which functions for the Air, Water, Earth, and Fire Altars, but no others. Unfortunately, this talisman has no Tiara or Staff form, and is members only, severely limiting its usefulness. The other specialty Talisman is the coveted Omni-talisman, which is also members only. The Omni-Talisman is untradeable, but unlike the Elemental Talisman, it may be bound into a tiara or staff form. As it is untradeable and may only be obtained within the runecrafting guild, this talisman may be considered to have an indirect requirement of level 50 runecrafting to use. The Omni-talisman, and its related accessories, provide universal access to all altars.

• Obtaining Talismans:

All of the Talismans are tradeable, and can be purchased from the grand exchange or directly from other players. Most talismans are common to semi-rare monster drops, however some of the members talismans, notably the Blood and Death talismans, are not as simple to get, and may be considerably more difficult to obtain. An alternate method of obtaining most runecrafting talismans is to purchase them directly from Wizard Elriss within the Runecrafting Guild who will trade all but Elemental, Blood, and Death talismans for tokens earned as a reward from The Great Orb Project. The Elemental Talisman is an uncommon drop received from Abyssal Creatures, while the Blood and Death talismans are initially received near the end of the quests Legacy of Seergaze and Mourning's End Part II respectively, though they can be gotten (rarely) from certain monsters after the related quest as well. The Omni-Talisman is obtained only within the runecrafting guild by presenting Wizard Elriss with a complete collection of all the various talismans or tiaras. Players can receive a replacement Omni-Talisman without needing to present the talismans or tiaras again.

Tiaras

Function: Tiaras are headpieces crafted by players from silver. Blank tiaras may be imbued with the key-like function of a talisman, which cannot then be changed or removed. An imbued Tiara becomes essentially an equipable version of whatever talisman was bound into it. As this frees an inventory slot and gives the player the ability to directly enter a mysterious ruin, without a series of clicks, tiaras are extraordinarily convenient. All tiaras except Omni-tiaras are tradeable, and some (but not all) are quite valuable.

Creation: To bind a tiara, a player must take a talisman and blank tiara to the altar which matches the talisman they intend to bind. With both items in their inventory, the player must use either item on the altar to initiate the binding process. This will earns players Runecrafting experience, the amounts of which is listed here. Making tiaras does not have level requirements, so players with no runecrafting experience may immediately begin binding body or higher talismans for accelerated experience at low levels.

The Omni-Tiara: The Omni-Tiara is bound by Wizard Korvak in the runecrafting guild, not at an altar. The player will need to bring him an Omni-Talisman and a blank Tiara. The result is quite ornate in appearance, and functions to provide the player with universal access to the altars while worn. The Omni-tiara provides the same single click entry option as all other tiaras.

A player wielding a Death talisman staff

Talisman staves

Function: Talisman staves are the final type of talisman accessory, which functions both as a weak weapon as well as an equippable item which allows access to Runecrafting altars through the mysterious ruins. Talisman staves are untradeable. Just as tiaras, they provide players with a simple left-click to enter the ruins. These staves provide no assistance in magic and will not substitute for the runes they are related to in any way. As such these items are usually just considered to be the symbol of an elite runecrafter.

Creation: A blank Runecrafting staff can be purchased as an expensive reward from The Great Orb Project minigame, is untradeable, and cannot be wielded while blank. The process of attaching a talisman to the staff is identical to the process of binding a tiara. The player must take both the Runecrafting Staff and the Talisman they wish to attach to it to the corresponding altar, and use one of the two items on the altar. Unlike creating tiaras, this action does not give the player Runecrafting experience. NOTE: Players are unable to change the talisman type once the staff is bound. As a blank staff takes many hours of work to obtain, players should carefully consider which staff they want to bind. Completed runecrafting staves are also untradeable, and it should be noted that they are destroy only, having no drop option. If a player is killed while wielding a talisman staff it will be destroyed (unless included in the 3 items kept on death.)

Unique staves: The Omni-Talisman Staff is not created at an altar. The Omni-Talisman and a Blank Runecrafting Staff are bound together within the runecrafting guild by Wizard Korvak. The Law talisman staff is unique in the fact that it has no stat bonuses. Because of this, it is allowed onto Entrana allowing the player to reach the Law altar while wielding it, as the mysterious ruins of the law altar are located on Entrana.

Wicked hood: The Wicked Hood (when fed talismans or tiaras from any altar) allows the wearer to enter any Runecrafting altar currently available to them and functions like a tiara allowing the user left click the altar. It can be obtained from Tam Mcgrubor in Burthorpe with at least level 5 Runecrafting, or purchased from Wizard Finix's Runecrafting Shop for 175 Runespan points.

Altar locations

Altar	Level	Members only?	Location	Closest bank	Picture
Air altar	1	No	South of Cooking Guild. And east of Barbarian Village.	Varrock bank south of G.E	File:Air altar location.png
Mind altar	2	No	North of Falador West of Edgeville	Falador West Walking time: 1min 40s Travelling through the Wilderness and teleporting with an Amulet of Glory takes about 1 min.	File:Mind Altar Location.png
Water altar	5	No	South of Lumbridge in the Swamp South-east of the Lumbridge Swamp Caves entrance Near the shack to Zanaris	Lumbridge Walking time: 2min 30s Teleporting to Draynor Village with an Amulet of glory takes 1 minute. * With a Dramen staff, you may also bank at Zanaris for a time of 1 min 30s. (Requires Lost City quest) Al Kharid bank is the closest, just to the east of the swamp
Earth altar	9	No	North-east of Varrock South of the Sawmill Operator West of the Paterdomus entrance gate North-west of the Tolna's rift	Varrock East Walking time: 53s Using Ring of duelling with Balloon system is fast as well. The trip takes a bit longer but you only have to walk one way which makes it faster.
Fire altar	14	No	North-east of Al Kharid West of the Duel Arena South-east of the Al Kharid mines	Al-Kharid / Duel Arena bank Walking time: 10-15s Using the Ring of duelling to Duel Arena is faster than walking. Al-Kharid / Castle wars bank Walking time: Less than 1 min Using the Ring of duelling to Duel arena, craft, then teleport to Castle Wars bank and repeat.
body Body altar	20	No	South-east of Ice Mountain West of Gunnarsgrunn South of the Monastery South-west of Edgeville	Edgeville / Soul Wars bank Walking time: 50s / 40s Soul Wars is accessible for members only.
cosmic Cosmic altar	27	Yes (Unlocked after Lost City)	Southern part of Zanaris	Zanaris Walking time: 1min 12s* * Using the agility shorcuts is much faster.
chaos Chaos altar	35	Yes	Wilderness level 9, Beware of player killers! North-west of Edgeville South-east of the Dark Warrior's Fortress	Edgeville* / Varrock East* Walking time: ?? / 1min 50s * Edgeville route goes through mysterious ruins, Varrock route goes through Tunnel of Chaos (unlocked during What Lies Below).
astral Astral altar	40	Yes (Unlocked after Lunar Diplomacy)	South-eastern part of Lunar Isle No talisman, tiara, or staff required.	Lunar Isle * Equipping an earth staff and casting Moonclan Group Teleport/Moonclan Teleport will save walking time, although 1 space is needed for law runes; provides additional magic experience.
nature Nature altar	44	Yes	North of Shilo Village	Shilo Village (unlocked after quest) Walking time: 1min 22s* * Less walking time with Spirit Graahk, Fairy ring or Amulet of Glory.
law Law altar	54	Yes	North-eastern part of Entrana * No weapons are allowed for entering Entrana.	Void Knights' Outpost (via ship) / Draynor Village	File:Law Altar Location.png
death Death altar	65	Yes (Unlocked after Mourning's Ends Part II.)	Mourning's End Part II temple, bottom floor Underground pass	Lletya * Advised to use the Abyss instead due to time involved
blood Blood altar	77	Yes (Unlocked after Legacy of Seergaze)	Middle of the Meiyerditch Dungeon	Burgh de Rott (After In Aid of the Myreque) or Canifis

There is no known place to craft a soul rune, other than the Ourania altar. Also, Cosmic, Chaos, Nature, Law, and Death runes can be crafted by non-members while dungeoneering.

Ourania Runecrafting altar

The Ourania Runecrafting altar (sometimes called the ZMI altar) converts Pure essence into a mixture of random runes (without the multiple runes factor taking effect). The altar, which requires no talisman, tiara or staff to enter, gives double the normal experience for every rune crafted. Players do not need a specific Runecrafting level in order to craft at this altar, but the chance of crafting higher-levelled runes increases with a higher Runecrafting level. The altar boosts individual Runecrafting training to speeds that were previously only available to people using rune running methods.

Once inside the Ourania Cave, quickly reached by an Ourania Teleport, players may use a bank that requires 20 of any type of runes. They can then go to the altar by taking either a short and dangerous route or a longer and safe route. Note that the long, curving path has no monsters that can distract you from Runecrafting. At the end of the long path, there is a crack that requires no Agility level and gives no agility experience.

Altar	Level	Members?	Location	Closest bank	Picture
Ourania Runecrafting altar	1	Yes	West of the Battlefield South-west of Ardougne * No talisman, tiara, or staff required	Eniola (uses 20 runes as a banking fee [many suggest Mind Runes as they are a cheaper resource]) Lunar Isle * Equipping an earth staff and casting Moonclan Group Teleport/Moonclan Teleport is another option, although 1 space is needed for law runes; provides additional magic experience. use ourania teleport to get back.	File:Ourania Altar Location.png

Abyss

Members can also be teleported inside the ruins by using the Abyss, a 'focal point' leading to most altars that does not require a talisman, tiara or talisman staff. After a miniquest, players can get teleported to the Abyss by the Mage of Zamorak at level 5-6 Wilderness north of Edgeville. Once teleported, players will be in an outer ring, have all prayer points drained, be skulled, and surrounded by abyssal monsters. They will need to pass through an obstacle to access the inner ring, containing the entries to most altars (except the Astral and Ourania altars).

The popularity of the Abyss has died out since the release of other faster and safer Runecrafting training methods, such as the Ourania altar, Spirit Graahk runecrafting, The Great Orb Project and the Runespan.

Crafting runes

When a player has entered the mysterious ruins with a tiara, a talisman, or runescrafting staff, all they have to do is click on the altar. They will then craft all the essence in their inventory, pouches, and essence stored into their familiar into runes.

Red - Teleportation Runes back to Lunar Isle. Orange - Pouches to hold extra essence (15 above). Purple - Space saving food (strawberries) for Suqah attacks. Blue - Pure Essence

Rune	Pure essence needed?	Level	XP	Ourania altar XP	GE Price	Members
Air	No	1	5	10	90	No
Mind	No	1	5.5	11	19	No
Water	No	5	6	12	25	No
Earth	No	9	6.5	13	18	No
Fire	No	14	7	14	159	No
Body	No	20	7.5	15	48	No
Cosmic	Yes	27	8	16	412	Yes
Chaos	Yes	35	8.5	17	152	Yes
Astral	Yes	40	8.7	17.5	415	Yes
Nature	Yes	44	9	18	405	Yes
Law	Yes	54	9.5	19	570	Yes
Death	Yes	65	10	20	232	Yes
Armadyl	Yes, and Dust of Armadyl	72	10		326	Yes
Blood	Yes	77	10.5	21	678	Yes
Soul*	Yes	90	11	22	1,345	Yes

Crafting a Soul Rune

Currently, the only way to craft Soul runes is via the random effect of the Ourania Runecrafting altar. The soul altar has yet to be released. Although it is expected in eventuality, there is currently no Soul altar or any confirmed plans to release it. However, pictures of the soul tiara and talisman have been seen on official Runescape Knowledge Base by manipulating URLs. Also, at level 90 Runecrafting, at one point in time, players received a message informing them of their ability to craft Soul runes and the required level to craft Soul runes in the Runespan is also level 90. In addition, a Soul rift can be found in the Abyss, however "A strange power blocks your exit". Since the Abyssal rune rifts for Death and Blood runes also existed long before their release to Runecrafting, this stands as a strong indication that the Soul Altar is fully intended to be released in the future.

Crafting multiple runes

For calculations of profit / loss from crafting multiple runes, see the Multiple Runes calculator.

As a player's Runecrafting level increases, they will become able to craft multiple individual runes from a single piece of rune essence, including both pure and regular essence, where it can be used. However, making more actual runes does not translate to an increase in experience. The experience players earn while multi-crafting runes is based on the experience-per-essence they craft, with an essence crafted into an air rune netting the same experience if crafted into 1, 3, or 10 individual runes.

The number of individual runes a player can craft increases as their runecrafting level increases, but is very specific to each different rune. Even the most experienced player will almost never double craft a blood rune. As a player's Runecrafting level gets closer to the level required for the next sequential multiple runes crafting level, the player's probability of crafting that multiple of runes will increase linearly up to about a 60% chance to create an extra rune.

After the last set level of multiple runes, players will always craft that multiple, for example, members will always craft double Nature runes after 91 Runecrafting, and will not create triple Natures. For Law, Death and Blood runes, the level for double runes would lie above 99, but there is still a chance of crafting double runes, the probability of doing so increasing towards 60% as your level increases, but only reaching a fraction of that probability. A table showing the set levels of multiple runes follows.

Prior to an update on 17 November 2009, players could only craft multiple runes after reaching the set levels.

(Levels over 99 are only possible when using potions or role boosts when Dungeoneering. The only boost outside of Dungeoneering that can boost high enough is an Orange Spicy Stew which can give -6 to +6 boost. -5, -6, +5 and +6 are very unlikely.)

Rune	Level for 1x	Level for 2x	Level for 3x	Level for 4x	Level for 5x	Level for 6x	Level for 7x	Level for 8x	Level for 9x	Level for 10x
Air	1	11	22	33	44	55	66	77	88	99
Mind	1	14	28	42	56	70	84	98	-	-
Water	5	19	38	57	76	95	-	-	-	-
Earth	9	26	52	78	104*	-	-	-	-	-
Fire	14	35	70	105*	-	-	-	-	-	-
Body	20	46	92	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Cosmic	27	59	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Chaos	35	74	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Astral	40	82	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Nature	44	91	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Law	54	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Death	65	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Blood	77	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

• You can make more runes per essence if you boost your Runecrafting level. Outside of Daemonheim, you can boost your Runecrafting level by a maximum of 6, and inside Daemonheim, you can boost your Runecrafting level by a maximum of 12. Artisan's ring can further add up to 10 levels when crafting multiple runes.
• At level 104 (requires Runecrafting boost), 5 Earth runes per essence are guaranteed
• At level 105 (requires Runecrafting boost), 4 Fire runes per essence are guaranteed

Combination runes

Members can craft combination runes which are a fusion of two of the elemental runes in a single rune. The combinable elemental runes are limited to: Air, Water, Earth and Fire runes. Players cannot, for example, combine a fire and a nature rune, nor can any combination of non-elemental runes, such as cosmic and death, be made.

Actually crafting combination runes is mildly complex. Players will need to bring:

• A selected type of elemental runes (air, water, earth, fire, or a mix if desired)
• One matching talisman for every elemental rune type brought. (If the player brought fire and water runes, they will need a fire and a water talisman)
• Pure essence (regular essence will not work.)

One pure essence will be used for every combination rune crafted, so the amount of Pure Essence brought should equal the number of runes brought. The usual maximum inventory is 1 talisman, 26 elemental runes, and 26 pure essence. The ingredients must be brought to an opposing altar from the runes being crafted. Players must be able to enter the opposing altar of their choice, which will require either another talisman, related accessories, or usage of the abyss. Once the player has accessed the altar whose element is the desired other half of the fusion, the player must use the Runes on the altar, NOT the pure essence. If the player uses the essence on the altar, all essence in their inventory will be crafted as usual and the player will resultingly be in possession of two stacks of unfused runes. The talisman may also be used on the altar, but this may generate an interface asking about tiaras and other options, using the runes themselves completes the combination without further prompting. The result will be thus:

• The matching Talisman is consumed in the process. One talisman is used every binding, so essence withdrawn from pouches and familiars will require another talisman.
• All essence in the players inventory will be consumed.
• A number of elemental runes equal to the number of essence in the players inventory will be consumed.
• There will be a 50% failure rate in crafting the combination runes. The failed runes will simply vanish.

Function and Usage of Combination Runes

A combination rune saves inventory space when used for Certain Spells. This can also be especially useful on quests, where the players inventory is often very restricted. Mud runes are now highly sought after by members as they are an ingredient (when crushed) in a high level Herblore potion, but are also a common drop in decent quantity from various monsters. Runes which have been combined with the air element are especially useful in combat. Also, each combination rune counts as two separate runes, when applicable. For example, a Lava Rune will count for both 1 earth and 1 fire rune in any spellcast which uses these runes simultaneously. However, if a player casts a spell which only uses a fire rune and not an earth rune, the combination rune will still be expended. Combination runes have usage priority over basic runes. As an example, if a player were to withdraw and utilise the runes to cast the spell Teleport to Varrock with a stack lava runes in their inventory, they would find that they had accidentally used one of their lava runes and still be in possession of the single fire rune required to cast the teleport.

The Necklace of Binding

The Necklace of Binding is crafted through a combination of the Crafting and Magic skills, and is tradeable. It is an Emerald Necklace, which is crafted from an Emerald and Gold Bar, which has been enchanted using the Level-2 Emerald Enchant spell. If this item is worn while crafting combination runes, players will be rewarded with a 100% success rate for each combination rune. However, each Necklace of Binding will function only 15 times before dissolving into dust, at which point it will need to be replaced. The counter related to charges is player specific, and not connected to the item. If a player were to attempt to sell a necklace, which they believed to have 1 usage left, and purchase a replacement, the replacement will still function as if it only has one usage, and will dissolve upon the next crafting. Conversely, the player which purchases the mostly used necklace will find that it will function as many times as their individual charge counter dictates.

When a charge is used, or the necklace breaks, the player will receive a notification in the chat window, which is easy to miss. Players are advised to pay careful attention to these messages or they will be unpleasantly surprised by an unexpected and abrupt return of the 50% failure rate if they continue to craft and do not realise that they have lost the necklace. As such, players planning on mass crafting combination runes will want to have a small stock of these stored in their bank, in plain sight.

Magic Imbue

Members with level 82 in Magic and access to the Lunar Spellbook, there is another method to craft combination runes. Players who are able may use Magic Imbue to circumvent using a talisman at everytime clicking the altar for crafting combination runes. This is very effective at saving money, but is no more efficient at crafting the runes as players must carry astral runes in the place of the talisman, saving no inventory space. When the spell is cast the player will be given a window of around 15 seconds to initiate the binding which must still be done at an altar opposing the runes you wish to combined, and still also requires pure essence present in your inventory. Astral runes are comparably much cheaper and easier to obtain in quantity than any amount of talismans, and Members can wield the appropriate combination staff to avoid carrying spellcasting runes in their inventories. The final benefit of this method of runecrafting is that it provides players with an amount of magic experience in tandem with runecrafting experience, making the entire venture more useful.

The recommended inventory for players intending to use this method is:

• A Steam Staff
• Omni-tiara, or one of the four Elemental Tiaras (Air, Water, Earth or Fire.)
• A sizable stack of Astral Runes. (2 for every binding run)
• A sizable stack of Elemental Runes (Air, Water, Earth or Fire) in denominations of 26.
• 26 Pure Essence
• A Necklace of Binding (to increase the chance of binding runes from 50% to 100%)

List of Combination Runes and Experience rates

Player will notice that it is possible to craft each type of combination rune at two separate altars, however doing so would require inverting the elemental ingredients. Players will receive less experience if they chose to craft at the lower-levelled altars. For example if a player makes Mist runes at the Air altar they will receive 8 experience for each mist rune made, while crafting at the Water altar will give 8.5 experience for per mist rune. The following list reviews both the components and exp. rates of the different combination runes. The 'Low' list relates the experience from crafting at the lower-level altar, the 'High' list relates the experience if crafting at the higher-level altar.

Rune	lvl	Replaces	Low	High	Combination	Elemental	Difference
Mist rune	6	&	8.0	8.5	1163 coins	115 coins	1048 coins
Dust rune	10	&	8.3	9.0	985 coins	108 coins	877 coins
Mud rune	13	&	9.3	9.5	868 coins	43 coins	825 coins
Smoke rune	15	&	8.5	9.5	1011 coins	249 coins	762 coins
Steam rune	19	&	9.3	10.0	999 coins	184 coins	815 coins
Lava rune	23	&	10.0	10.5	966 coins	177 coins	789 coins
			Exp. from type of altar		G.E. price

Pouches

Within the Abyss as well as the Abyssal Area (which are separate locations), there are monsters that drop the varieties of untradeable pouches occasionally when killed. Players can only be in possession of one of each type of pouch at any time, including familiars and banks. Players will not be able to receive a pouch as a drop until they have completed the Miniquest subsequent to What Lies Below quest which accesses the Abyss. Players with access to the Abyssal Area and not the Abyss will not receive pouch drops.

Players can store various amounts of Pure or regular Rune essence in these pouches (but not both in the same pouch), effectively increasing the amount of essence that may be carried per trip. The amount of essence held varies from pouch to pouch. There are five types of pouches, a graduated set holding an increasing number of essence. Players must acquire each smaller pouch in order for the next pouch to become available to them, with the exception of the medium pouch which is handed out at the runecrafting guild with no restrictions, including no quest requirement.

Runecrafting pouches degrade after a certain number of uses, with the larger pouches degrading faster than the smaller pouches. When a pouch degrades, a message will appear in the chat box and the pouch will turn darker in colour. When a pouch degrades, its carrying capacity is reduced. The Dark Mage in the centre of the Abyss, who can be contacted through the NPC contact spell, repairs pouches for free, regardless of whether the pouches are in the player's inventory or bank. He will also repair the pouch before it degrades, effectively resetting the amount it has partially degraded back to zero. These pouches can also be bought and repaired by Wizard Korvak in the Runecrafting Guild, but he charges rather heavily for his services. For his fees view Wizard Korvak's NPC info page. If a pouch is allowed to continue to degrade, it will eventually fall apart entirely, at which point the player will have to acquire another one.

Image	Type of Pouch	Required Level	Essence held	Notes
	Small pouch	1	3 essence	Obtained from the Dark Mage and a reward from the Abyss (miniquest)
	Medium pouch	25	6 essence	Dropped by Abyssal monsters; obtained from Wizard Korvak in the Runecrafting Guild for free
	Large pouch	50	9 essence	Dropped by Abyssal monsters; obtained from Wizard Korvak in the Runecrafting Guild for 25,000 coins
	Giant pouch	75	12 essence	Dropped by Abyssal monsters; obtained from Wizard Korvak in the Runecrafting Guild for 50,000 coins
	Massive pouch	90	18 essence	Obtained from Wizard Finix outside of the Runecrafting Guild for 1,000 Runespan Tokens.

Note: Temporary boosts will not allow you to use a larger pouch than your base level.

Abyssal familiars

Abyssal familiars are the only familiar capable of carrying unnoted rune essence, any other beast of burden cannot handle them. These familiars are to help members with Runecrafting, as they essentially increase the inventory size of the player, although some are also quite combat capable. Members may use one of the three following familiars to carry essence: the Abyssal Parasite, Abyssal Lurker, or Abyssal Titan. These special Beasts of Burden will hold 7, 14 or 20 Rune or Pure essence, but cannot hold any other kind of item. Note that these familiars are not allowed onto the isle of Entrana therefore they may not be used when law rune crafting.

Image	Familiar	Summoning level required	Time (minutes)	Pouch cost
	Abyssal parasite	54	30	4,052 coins (update)
	Abyssal lurker	62	41	5,536 coins (update)
	Abyssal titan	93	42	10,359 coins (update)

Explorer's ring

Among its other benefits, wearing an Explorer's ring (versions 2, 3, or 4) gives the wearer a 10% chance of receiving an extra rune for each essence when crafted at the Air, Water, Earth, or Fire Altars. These versions of the ring can only be obtained after completing the easy or medium Lumbridge and Draynor Tasks. Another benefit of the Explorers Ring 3 is that, when used properly, can cheaply shorten runecrafting runs via the infinite reusability of the cabbage port ability the ring provides. Using this teleport to reach Draynor bank, in tandem with other teleports such as the teletabs from the runecrafting guild, can considerably shorten most runecrafting runs. This method, in some instances, is notably cheaper than other teleport jewellery, and can be useful to low combat level players who wish to avoid using the abyss. Unfortunately this method is invalid for crafting law runes, as the ring is not allowed on Entrana. An Explorer's (3) can also grant three run charges which will replenish run energy by 50%.

For people who do not want to go through the Lumbridge Tasks to get the Explorer's ring or prefer a shorter walk to the bank can use a Dungeoneering Ring of kinship to teleport instead.

Runecrafting gloves

There are three types of runecrafting gloves, one for Air, Water, and Earth. The gloves are an untradeable graduated set of rewards received from the Fist of Guthix minigame, costing 75 tokens. Runecrafting gloves give players double the experience per essence crafted. These gloves have a limited number of usages and will crumble to dust after crafting 1,000 essence. Players can then play the minigame to receive another pair. Players may only have one pair of each type at a time.

Gloves	Normal XP	XP with gloves
Air runecrafting gloves	5	10
Water runecrafting gloves	6	12
Earth runecrafting gloves	6.5	13

Runecrafting Guild

A view of the Runecrafting Guild

The Runecrafting Guild is a guild accessible to players having at least level 50 Runecrafting through a teal portal on the top floor of the Wizards' Tower.

The Guild features a map of all the Runecrafting altars that are entered through mysterious ruins, wizards, and a two-party minigame called The Great Orb Project with rewards including the Talisman Staff, Runecrafting Teleport Tablets, Rune or Pure essence, the various sets of Runecrafter Robes, and Talismans. The runecrafting guild is the location where players may obtain an Omni-talisman. Also Wizard Korvak sells and repairs the various pouches, and will give the player a medium pouch for free, without having to complete any of the related quests. If a player owns and uses a Runecrafting Guild Teleport Tablet, they are able to access the Runecrafting Guild without 50 Runecrafting; this can be abused by players that have been reset due to bots used on the account.

Runecrafting training

Main articles: Free-to-play Runecrafting training and Pay-to-play Runecrafting training

• An alternate method to training is available to all players in the dungeoneering skill. However, this should no longer be considered as viable for powerlevelling since the exp was decreased from 10% down to 2%. This method involves the gathering of coins and essence throughout the dungeon then buying more essence and crafting it into the highest level runes and then selling them in order to buy more essence. The difficulty in this method of training is you will only receive 2% the normal exp and you craft 10 essence at a time in an animation slightly faster than that of using bones on an altar.
• There is another way to train runecrafting while in a dungeon. Although this method is slower than crafting rune essence, it uses up less money for each exp gained. A player can buy tangle gum staves from the Smuggler, using 612 coins for each staff. Free players can only imbue water staves, which yields 11 exp (5.5 Runecrafting and 5.5 Magic). The crafted staves can be sold back to the Smuggler for 165 coins. This results in a loss of 81.3 coins for 1 exp Runecrafting and 1 exp Magic. Crafting rune essence into air runes in a dungeon only results in 1 xp for 500 coins. Crafting 26 staves takes just about 60 seconds for a rate of about 8500 Runecrafting exp/h, not counting the time to buy/sell staves and click the altar. Even for Free-to-play this is no better than crafting runes outside of Daemonheim. Going in at complexity 3 and selling all items gives about 24,236 coins (varies because items on tables vary) and results in about 291xp for water staffs made. One could also use high alchemy on the items instead of selling to Smuggler for more coins. Repeat by exiting and re-entering. This method is boring because each staff has to made one at a time and is very tiring after a number of loads.
• Another way of training Runecrafting, is known as Effigy Crafting where a player hunt effigies by killing monsters such as Cave Crawlers and Gandodermic Beasts, often with aid of a cannon. This method is popular among higher level and wealthy players due to the familiararity with combat. This method can result in 30-40k Rune/Effigy Crafting experience per hour, depending on level. This method also gives good rates of experience in combat stats as well as experience in the stats used to open the effigies.
• On 30 April 2012, the Runespan was released. It provides a new way to train runecrafting that does not involve altars or using one's own essence. It is available to members and free players for training from levels 1 to 99, although nonmembers have limited access to the Runespan and, therefore, limited exp rates. Above level 70 it yields more experience than the Ourania altar.

Running and equipment tips

Players who are intending on a long haul runecrafting session will be constantly irked by depleted run energy (this problem has become less prevalent since the Agility and run energy updates). Players should ensure that they are as light as possible by removing any and all items not essential to the runecrafting process from their person. Weight reducing clothing, such as a spottier cape, boots of lightness and penance gloves or the wicked robes, are recommended for Members, as they will extend the distance that their run energy will carry them. Players should equip only either a talisman staff, wicked hood or imbued tiara, as well as applicable teleport jewellery. A tiara is recommended over a talisman staff simply because it weighs less. Pouches, essence, Lumbridge Explorer Ring (2-4) and/or a talisman should be the only items present in players inventories during a runecrafting run. If you have level 52 summoning you can use a spirit terrorbird to cast tireless run that can restore your run energy.

When using the Ourania altar or the Abyss, sacred clay melee armour can be very helpful if you have less than 90 Defence. Both the platebody and platelegs are only 2 kg and have the defence statistics of rune armour. With the boots of lightness and a spotted or spottier cape, it is simple to keep your weight below zero.

Players with the Agility level to obtain Agile armour are encouraged to wear it, as it provides a moderate defence bonus while reducing the player's weight.

With level 34 Magic, one can use the Surge ability to help cover distances quicker.

Temporary boosts

There are four boosts available to members. None of these boosts stack.

• For up to +6, players may eat orange spicy stews from Evil Dave to get a random boost between -6 to +6. (With a -5 to +5 being a lot more common, since the -6 or +6 boost is very hard to get)

• For up to +2, after completing the Land of the Goblins quest, players can speak to Oldak using the "What have you discovered?" chat option to get a random boost to either Runecrafting or Magic between -2 and +2.

• For +1, at level 99, players can wear and operate the Runecraft cape.
• For +2, complete the skill tasks for any god emissary and activate the god banner's skill boost; the boost will persist for half an hour.

Other uses

• 90 Runecrafting is required to attract Zu Zu The Occultist to the Player-Owned Port
• 90 Runecrafting is required to unlock the ability to create the Seasingers robe set in the Player-Owned Ports distraction & diversion.
• 92 Runecrafting is required to unlock the ability to create the Seasinger kiba and Seasinger makigai dual-wield magic weaponry in the Player-Owned Ports distraction & diversion.

99 Runecrafting, 120 Runecrafting, and 200M xp

A player wearing a Runecraft cape and performing the Skillcape emote

Once a member has reached level 99 Runecrafting, Larriar in the Runecrafting Guild will sell the Runecraft cape for 99,000 coins. She will also sell the Runecraft master cape at the virtual level of 120.

• After completing Rune Memories, the title Archmage [Name] can be unlocked from Archmage Sedridor with 99 Magic and Runecrafting.
• Before the Dungeoneering update, Runecrafting was one of only 4 skills where a new feature or ability is unlocked at level 99 - other than buying a skillcape, the other three being Summoning, Smithing and Construction.
• Runecrafting was previously the only remaining skill in which no player had earned 200M experience. However, on 1 December 2010 Phoenix Odin became the first player to achieve 200M Runecrafting experience.
• A bug on 14 April 2010 lead to an exponential increase in Runecrafting experience when crafting within Daemonheim (on the order of 2,000 experience per nature rune) This led to a high number of players reaching level 99 in Runecrafting within half an hour of the glitch being released, with players making 2 and 3 levels at 70+ with a single crafting session. This forced Jagex to shut RuneScape down for approximately 4 hours during which time they made a rollback of player data to before the glitch was released.

See also

• Runes
• Magic
• Runecrafting Guild and The Great Orb Project
• Wizard Hallam
• Unified Runecrafting Theory
• Free-to-play Runecrafting training, a guide to training Runecrafting for free-to-play players
• Pay-to-play Runecrafting training, a guide to training Runecrafting for pay-to-play players
• Quest experience rewards - Runecrafting
• Grand Exchange Market Watch/Runecrafting
• Runecrafting/Level up table
• Runespan