Runecrafting is a skill that involves players making runes which are used for magic spells. However, to runecraft, players must first finish the Rune Mysteries Quest.
Rune Essence
To craft runes, players first need rune essence, commonly referred to as 'ess'. Since rune essence is in rocks, players will need a pick axe to mine the essence out of the rocks.
Ess is located in massive underground mines. To access these mines, players need to talk to certain NPCs who can teleport them to the mines. A play can either right-click on the NPC and select the 'teleport' option, or they can talk to them and ask to be teleported. The right-click option is faster than talking. There are four NPCs that can teleport players to the ess mines, however, only two of them are available for free players.
- Aubury - This NPC is located in Varrock's rune shop, south of Varrock's east bank. This is the NPC that almost all players use, as he is a short walk away from a bank, so a player can quickly deposit their ess and go back to the Aubury to mine more quickly. This is the recommended person players use to teleport them.
- Wizard Cromperty - This wizard is located in East Ardougne, northeast of the marketplace. Only members can talk to this NPC, as he is only on the member servers.
- Wizard Distentor - This wizard is located in the Magic Guild in Yanille. A magic level of 65 is required to enter the guild, though with a Wizard's Mind Bomb, a player can enter the guild at level 65. Many members use this NPC as he is close to a bank like the Aubury.
- Wizard Sedridor - This wizard is located in the basement of the Wizards' Tower, south of Draynor Village. He is very far away from a bank. Players are recommended to use the Aubury instead.
- Level 23 Banshees - Although these monsters do not teleport players to the ess mines, they sometimes drop 13 noted ess when they are defeated. However, banshees are only available to members and a slayer level is required to fight them
It is recommended that players mine a large amount of ess and then craft their runes. For example, a player should mine 28 ess, then bank them, and then go back to the mines and repeat. When they've gotten about 500 ess, then they can make some runes. This method is faster than mining 28 ess and then crafting the runes.
Talismans
Talismans are important as they are needed to make runes. To obtain talismans, players will have to kill monsters or buy them from other players. However, talismans are not a common drop from monsters, so obtaining one may take some time.
Each talisman has a name that indicates what runes it players can make with it. For example, to make air runes, a player needs to find an air talisman. However, free players can only make air, mind, water, earth, fire, and body runes. Members can make cosmic, chaos, nature, law, and death runes.
Talisman Table
| Talisman | Dropped by/Obtained by |
|---|---|
| Air Talisman | Dropped by level 2 goblins and wizards. One is given to players during the Rune Mysteries Quest. |
| Mind Talisman | Dropped by imps, wizards, and dark wizards. |
| Water Talisman | Dropped by wizards and dark wizards. |
| Earth Talisman | Dropped by men, women, wizards, dark wizards, and Al Kharid warriors. |
| Fire Talisman | Dropped by guards, wizards, skeletons without weapons, and dark wizards. |
| Body Talisman | Dropped by guards, wizards, and dark wizards. |
| Cosmic Talisman | Rare reward from a Mysterious Man and is a very rare drop from the higher levelled monsters in the member servers. |
| Chaos Talisman | Dropped by hobgoblins, skeletons, ice warriors, shadow warriors, lesser demons, hill giants, and fire giants. |
| Nature Talisman | Dropped by hobgoblins, jogres, moss giants, and green dragons. |
| Law Talisman | Reward for finishing the quest Troll Stronghold. |
| Death Talisman | Dropped by dark beasts and is a reward for finishing the quest Mourning's End Part 2 |
Tiaras
Talismans take up a space in a player's inventory, allowing them to only hold 27 ess in their inventory. However, a tiara can fix this. A player can combine a talisman and a tiara together, allowing the player to wear the tiara on their head while still being able to craft runes. With the talisman inside the tiara, players can hold 28 ess.
If a player has a grey tiara with no markings on it, then it is un-enchanted. To enchant a tiara, the player needs to bring the talisman to an altar (altars are explained in the next section). For example, if a player wants to make air runes wearing a tiara, then they will have to bring their air talisman to the air altar and combine the talisman and the tiara.
Players can also earn some xp from making a tiara, shown in the table below.
Tiara Table
| Tiara | Exp Recieved |
|---|---|
| Air Tiara | 25 |
| Mind Tiara | 27.5 |
| Water Tiara | 30 |
| Earth Tiara | 32.5 |
| Fire Tiara | 35 |
| Body Tiara | 37.5 |
| Cosmic Tiara | 40 |
| Chaos Tiara | 42.5 |
| Nature Tiara | 45 |
| Law Tiara | 47.5 |
| Death Tiara | 50 |
Altars
Altars are where you make your runes. Tiaras or talismans are needed to enter these altars.
With your talisman, right click on it and you should see an option that will saw "Locate". Clicking on this option will tell you where the altar is locted.
When you arrive at the altar, it will look demolished and called a "mysterious ruins". Use your talisman with the mysterious runes to be teleported to the altar. If you are wearing a tiara, you just have to click on the mysterious ruins and you will be teleported inside.
Listed below is the locations of the altars.
| Altar | Location |
|---|---|
| Air Altar | Northeast of the Crafting Guild and south of Falador |
| Mind Altar | Between Ice Mountain and Goblin Village |
| Water Altar | South of Lumbridge, in the swamps, and southeast of Draynor Village |
| Earth Altar | Northeast of Varrock |
| Fire Altar | Northeast of Al Kharid |
| Body Altar | Between Ice Mountain and Barbarian Village, as well as south of the Monastery |
| Cosmic Altar | The southern part of the Lost City |
| Chaos Altar | Wilderness level 9, northwest of Edgeville. |
| Nature Altar | North of Shilo Village |
| Law Altar | Northern part of Entrana |
| Death Altar | Mourning's End Part 2 temple, bottom floor. |
Crafting the Runes
Inside the the mysterious ruins, click on the altar in the center which looks like a circle to craft your runes. Listed below is a table about making runes with exp earned from making 1 rune.
| Rune Name | Level Needed to Make | Exp Earned |
|---|---|---|
| Air | 1 | 5 |
| Mind | 2 | 5.5 |
| Water | 5 | 6 |
| Earth | 9 | 6.5 |
| Fire | 14 | 7 |
| Body | 20 | 7.5 |
| Cosmic | 27 | 8 |
| Chaos | 35 | 8.5 |
| Nature | 44 | 9 |
| Law | 54 | 9.5 |
| Death | 65 | 10 |
Multiple Runes
As your runecrafting level increases, you can make more runes. However, you only earn exp from how many ess you have. For example, you have only 1 ess in your inventory, but make 2 air runes. You'll only be given 5 exp, because you only used 1 ess.
Listed below is a table with information about when you can make multiple ess. "Lvl for x2" means "level needed for 2 runes per ess".
| Rune Name | Lvl for x2 | Lvl for x3 | Lvl for x4 | Lvl for x5 | Lvl for x6 | Lvl for x7 | Lvl for x8 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Air | 11 | 22 | 33 | 44 | 55 | 66 | 77 |
| Mind | 14 | 28 | 42 | 56 | 70 | 84 | 98 |
| Water | 19 | 38 | 57 | 76 | 95 | - | - |
| Earth | 26 | 52 | 78 | - | - | - | - |
| Fire | 35 | 70 | - | - | - | - | - |
| Body | 46 | 92 | - | - | - | - | - |
| Cosmic | 59 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Chaos | 74 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Nature | 91 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Law | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Death | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Essence Running and the Law Company
Due to the difficulty of training runecrafting, a new job area has opened up: essence running. An essence runner travels between a bank and a runecrafting alter, players get very rich doing this. The general scenario is that a runner will trade 27 unnoted essence for 27 runes of the type that the crafter is making. Sometimes, if this has been agreed beforehand, the runner trades 26 unnoted essence for a certain amount of cash or if the crafter and runner are friends, they might just exchange noted essence for unnoted essence so the crafter is really using their own essence but doesn't have to do the jumping back and forth to the bank. The preferred runes to use runners for are natures and laws.
The Law Company operates on world 66 or if that is full on world 99. This company is not limited to certain players, anybody pretty much participates if they feel like it. The only thing that unites this network is the standard agreement of 27 unnoted essence for 27 law runes and 27 noted essence to be traded outside of the law alter. This way the runners (who obviously can't make laws themselves) get law runes to train magic, teleport, or to sell for around 300 gp each on the RuneScape market, and the crafters get fast runecrafting experience. This is one of the easiest ways to raise runecrafting.
Training
Runecrafting is a hard skill to train, as the runes you craft give low exp. It is best to just craft the highest level rune you can make.