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.
There are two kinds of ess, normal and pure. The normal ess can be used to make the six basic runes: air, earth, water, fire, mind, and body. For any other rune players will need pure essence which can only be mined on members servers. Pure essence can also be used to make one of the basic runes if that is the one the player wants to craft. If a player mines a rune essence rock on a members server, they will always receive pure essence if their Mining level is 30 or above, otherwise they will receive normal essence.
Essence 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 five 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 essence and go back to 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 66 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 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 Aubury instead.
- Brimstail: This gnome wizard is located in a cave west of the bridge in the Tree Gnome Stronghold. He is very far from a bank and almost nobody uses him to get to the mines.
- Level 23 Banshees: These monsters are useful for runecrafting because they sometimes drop 13 noted rune essence when they are defeated, removing the need for mining essence. However, banshees are only available to members and a slayer level of 15 is required to fight them. Players also have to wear earmuffs when fighting them.
It is recommended that players mine a large amount of essence and then craft their runes. For example, a player should mine 28 essence, then bank them, and then go back to the mines and repeat. When they've gotten about 500 essence, then they can make some runes. This method is faster than mining 28 essence 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 | 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 leveled 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
| Tiara | Exp received |
|---|---|
| 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 |
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.
Altars
Altars are where players make their runes. Tiaras or talismans are needed to enter these altars. Altars are labeled on a player's mini-map as a small circle with a jagged line through it. Players can find altars by finding them on their own, using a talisman, or by asking other players.
Altars are hidden inside 'mysterious ruins'. To find an altar using a talisman, players can right-click on the talisman and click on the 'locate' option. In the chatbox, the player will notice a message that will tell them the direction they need to go in, whether it be northwest or southeast.
When a player has found the mysterious ruins, they then need to enter the ruins. The player can enter by using their talisman with the ruins. If they are wearing a talisman, all they have to do is click on the ruins.
When the player is inside the ruins, they are now in the altar. They can then use their ess with the altar to craft runes. If a player wants to make a tiara, then they have to have an un-enchanted tiara in their inventory and use it on the altar.
| Altar | Location |
|---|---|
| Air | Northeast of the Crafting Guild and south of Falador. |
| Mind | Between Ice Mountain and Goblin Village. |
| Water | South of Lumbridge in the swamps and southeast of Draynor Village. |
| Earth | Northeast of Varrock. |
| Fire | Northeast of Al Kharid. |
| Body | Between Ice Mountain and Barbarian Village, as well as south of the Monastery. |
| Cosmic | The southern part of the Lost City. |
| Chaos | Wilderness level 9, northwest of Edgeville. |
| Nature | North of Shilo Village. |
| Law | Northern part of Entrana. |
| Death | Mourning's End Part 2 temple, bottom floor. |
Crafting runes
When a player has entered the ruins, they then have to walk towards the altar and then click on it. The player will then craft their rune ess into runes.
| Rune Name | Minimum essence required | Level needed to make | Experience receive from making one rune |
|---|---|---|---|
| Air | Normal | 1 | 5 |
| Mind | Normal | 2 | 5.5 |
| Water | Normal | 5 | 6 |
| Earth | Normal | 9 | 6.5 |
| Fire | Normal | 14 | 7 |
| Body | Normal | 20 | 7.5 |
| Cosmic | Pure | 27 | 8 |
| Chaos | Pure | 35 | 8.5 |
| Nature | Pure | 44 | 9 |
| Law | Pure | 54 | 9.5 |
| Death | Pure | 65 | 10 |
Multiple runes
As a player's runecrafting level increases, they can make more runes. However, they only earn experience from how the amount of ess they have. For example, a player may have only 1 ess in their inventory, but can make 2 air runes. They will only receive 5 experience, as they only used one ess.
| Rune Type | Runecrafting level required to make multiple runes | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| x2 | x3 | x4 | x5 | x6 | x7 | x8 | x9 | x10 | ||
| Air | 11 | 22 | 33 | 44 | 55 | 66 | 77 | 88 | 99 | |
| 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
Due to the difficulty of training runecrafting, playres figured out a way to earn experience faster - use other players.
Players runecrafting often use other players to give them ess and in turn pay them with gp or runes. The players who bring the ess to the runecrafter are known as 'ess runners' or 'runners'. For example, a runecrafter is at the air altar with noted ess. A runner comes into the altar and trades with the runecrafter. The runecrafter gives the runner 28 noted ess, the runner goes to a bank and deposits the notes then withdraws them as items, goes back to the runecrafter, and gives them 28 ess. The runecrafter then uses the ess on the altar, creating the runes. The runner is then given payment, whether it be some gp or runes.
Ess running is common on member servers, though some people also do it on free servers. Runecrafters prefer to use runners when they make nature runes and law runes, as banks are far away from these altars.
Runners can also earn a great amount of money. If the runecrafter is wealthy, then the runner may receive over 500 gp each run, or if the runecrafter is making laws just for experience, then the runner may even receive some laws every run.
The Law Company
The 'Law Company' is runecrafters hiring many runners and giving them law runes as rewards. The Law Company usually operates on world 66, or if that world is full, then it's usually on world 99. This company is limited to members, as only they can craft law runes. However, the runners can receive many laws in less than an hour, sometimes up to 1,000, while the runecrafter earns a large amount of experience from so many runners.
Training
Players are recommended to craft runes that are close to a bank and easy to gain XP. When you craft ones that yield higher experience, you may not be able to get there and back quickly enough to make lots of experience.
Related links
These links are related in some way to runecrafting.
Guides
- Abyss guide.
Skills
Quests
These quests give runecrafting xp upon completion.
- Devious Minds - 5,000 xp.
- One Small Favour - 10,000 to 20,000 xp (optional choice).
- Recipe for Disaster - 20,000 xp.