Crystal ward (historical)

The crystal ward is a powerful shield available after a player completes the Roving Elves quest, and a possible reward from this quest along with the crystal bow. To wield the crystal shield, a player must have 70 Defence and 50 Agility.

Before the release of Prifddinas, this item was called the crystal shield. Upon the redesign and overhaul of crystal equipment, this item was renamed and made unusable. Players however can convert this item into the newer crystal ward at no cost by using the re-attune option.

Degradation
The crystal ward degrades over time. When a player obtains a new crystal ward, it will be a "New crystal ward". However, after receiving 2500 hits, it degrades into a "Crystal ward 9/10", and for every 2500 hits taken thereafter it will degrade another 1/10th, until it reverts into a crystal seed after a total of 25,000 hits taken.

Once a crystal ward runs out of charges, it turns back into a crystal seed, and must be recharged before it can be used again. Ilfeen will recharge crystal seeds into crystal wards or crystal bows. She can be found teleporting back and forth between two clearings in Isafdar. (From the lodestone, take the northeast path, jump over the leaftrap, go to the end of the path, then turn left to go through the dense forest. You'll see the musician, and keep going northeast. You'll see another leaf trap, but just before it, you should go left through some trees, then around a fallen tree on the ground, and go north to the clearing. She'll be there, or if not, wait a few minutes and she will be). However, players who have completed The Prisoner of Glouphrie can also find her in the centre of the elven village Lletya.

Initially, Ilfeen charges 750,000 coins to re-enchant a crystal seed into a crystal ward. However, the price is decreased by 150,000 coins each time Ilfeen re-enchants a seed for a player, in the following manner, until reaching the minimum recharge cost of 150,000 coins:

Ilfeen is also able to re-enchant partially degraded crystal equipment, at a proportion of the cost. For example, a Crystal ward in '9/10' condition can be recharged back to full condition for 15,000 coins if the minimum recharge cost has already been reached. A recharge this way will also count towards reducing the cost for future re-enchantments.

It is important to note that the count of the number of times you have had an object recharged is shared between the crystal bow and ward. If you have had a crystal bow recharged twice, then a ward recharge would cost 450k, as if you had already recharged it twice as well.

Obtaining & trading
A crystal ward with 2/10 charges is a possible reward for completion of Roving Elves. Additionally, players can buy new crystal wards from Islwyn for 750,000 coins each. Unlike Ilfeen's recharge price, the price of a new crystal ward does not decrease.

The distinction between a new crystal ward and a full crystal shield is important, as only new crystal wards are tradeable. A crystal ward that is bought from Islwyn is new; a crystal seed that is re-enchanted into a crystal ward by Ilfeen is full. Once damage is taken by a new crystal shield, it becomes a full crystal ward, and is untradeable.

As crystal seeds are tradeable, players can buy them from other players or the Grand Exchange and pay Ilfeen to re-enchant them into crystal shields.

Those wishing to get rid of their non-new crystal wards while recouping some money face a difficult problem: it cannot be alchemised, cannot be traded, unlike other degradable equipment cannot be repaired and then traded or instantly degraded by dropping it or dying with it, and unlike other crystal items has no right click "Revert to seed" option. Even dying in the wilderness with it does not give the other player any gold, so doing that with a friend isn't an option either. The best solution is to equip the shield and nothing else and enter an area with many aggressive enemies, such as dagannoths or the Abyss, to intentionally degrade it quickly. Alternatively, enter a dark area such as the Lumbridge Caves without a lightsource.

Trivia

 * Even though it takes only 50 Agility to wield the crystal ward, an agility level of 56 (although temporary boosts may be used) is needed to complete the Regicide quest, which is a prerequisite to complete the Roving Elves quest. It is however, possible to buy the shield from the Grand Exchange at full charge, but it cannot be wielded until Roving Elves is complete.
 * If a player attempts to cast low level alchemy or high level alchemy on a Crystal ward, they will receive a message saying 'You can't do that to elven crystal!' because of a bug allowing you to alch recharged crystal armour and weapons in f2p worlds for 900k.
 * One could pay less for a crystal ward by degrading the partially damaged one you receive from the end of Roving Elves, selling the crystal seed on the Grand Exchange, and then buying a brand new ward from Islwyn with some of the money you received from the seed, thus saving about 200K. You are saving money because to recharge a crystal ward costs 750K, and you also must have a seed with you already. However this is a short-sighted strategy, since the cost of recharging the shield falls rapidly, whereas the cost of a new one stays the same.
 * After the EoC update, there was a bug that the ward didn't degrade in combat. This has been fixed.

Crystal shield Crystal shield