Free-to-play Runecrafting training

Runecrafting is a skill that has gained popularity in recent days, mainly due to the release of Runecrafting guild. In F2P worlds, runecrafting is straightforward to train, but it needs uses of resources and other skills, in some indirect ways. Runecrafting is only profitable at long run and a lot of cash and effort should be invested for training runecrafting efficiently.

Beginners
First thing to remember: Weight is vital to fast runecrafting. Second: Runecrafting would be disastrous to cash if used for power levelling. Below is a list of things a trainer should do before they can use runecrafting to make a living.

Rune Mysteries
Before starting to train runecrafting, the quest Rune Mysteries must be finished to gain access to the skill. A free air talisman is also given as gift from the quest. A pickaxe is recommended to mine some essence just before the quest is completed.

Air rune
Air runes can be crafted once the quest has been completed. At this level, there are many new players that cannot obtain rune essence quickly. Rune essence can be mined for them at Sedridor in the Wizard's tower or Aubury at his magic shop in Varrock. Most of the time, if not all, Aubury's site should be selected to mine rune essence. There are some exceptions explained below. The air altar is located South-west of Falador south entrance and north of Malignius Mortifer. An air talisman or air tiara is needed to get in, and the closest bank is Falador east bank. (Draynor bank if Explorer's ring 3 is obtained) Air runes should be crafted until level 5, 9, or 14, depending on the rune being decided to change. Mind runes and body runes are not recommended to be crafted, because F2P players do not have any mud staff to make use of body runes, and mind runes are very tedious to be crafted.

Mind rune
Mind runes can be crafted if 2 runecrafting is attained. The altar is located east of goblin village (no need to go in the village) and the closest bank is Edgeville bank, which the travel risks going into the wilderness for a few levels. Even with a mind talisman, crafting using mind altar is not recommended for lower levels as the trip is longest among all runecrafting trips. Air runecrafting should be continued.

Water rune
Water runes can be crafted if 5 runecrafting is attained. The closest bank is Draynor bank, to the water altar in the south part of Lumbridge Swamp. Some players that has to complete Lumbridge and Draynor Diary may obtain a water talisman or water tiara, bring a pickaxe and mine essence by Sedridor, and then travel to water altar to craft the runes. These specific players should stay as water runecrafting until 9 or 14 for crafting earth or fire runes. Other than completing the diary, this site has no use because the Wizard's tower is in middle of Draynor bank and water altar.

Earth rune
Earth runes can be crafted if 9 runecrafting is attained. The altar is located south of Lumberyard near a yew tree, North-east of Varrock east entrance. The closest bank is Varrock east bank, though it is also next by Aubury's magic shop. Earth runes are profitable in long run and can minimise loss from bought rune essences. One may stay at earth runecrafting until 30 runecrafting. Either mining essence at Aubury's site or withdrawing the essence can be selected as methods to train runecrafting by this method.

Fire rune
Fire runes can be crafted if 14 runecrafting is attained. The altar is located west of Duel arena, the closest bank being in the arena. Though with similar distance in trips as earth runecrafting, fire runes are experience-oriented and impossible to make profit, though fire runes can be used for fire missile spells. Duelling in the arena takes time, but can reward with completely replenished running energy. One may stay at fire runecrafting until 30 runecrafting. Rune essence must be already stored in bank to use this method.

Body rune
Body runes can be crafted if 20 runecrafting is attained. The altar is located west of long hall in Barbarian village, the closest bank being the Edgeville bank. Body runes give the best experience among all the runes without use of runecrafting gloves, has similar trip distance as earth runecrafting trip but not recommended. It is because body runes are sold as very low price and are nearly useless, except for mage pures than can make use of combination of earth and body runes, along with water staff, to train magic without hitpoint increase. Should one decide to train by crafting body runes, they should stop at level 30.

Runecrafting gloves
Many may wonder why level 30 is often mentioned to stop the original methods. This is because of the runecrafting gloves the minigame Fist of Guthix gives as reward, which come in 3 variety: Air, Water and Earth, doubling experience for 1000 essence crafted using the specific kind of altar. They altogether give 10000, 12000 and 13000 experience upon full use. Each of them costs 75 Fist of Guthix tokens to buy, and any player can only keep one of each kind in the inventory. Below are some explanations about different kinds of gloves:

Air runecrafting gloves
This kind of gloves can be worn at 10 runecrafting, giving 10 experience per essence crafted. Air runecrafting gloves can be best utilised for a runecrafter in air running process, but cannot be used for assisters. The power levelling cost is very large even with this gloves, which is depended on the offer price for noting the rune essence for runners, and their runecrafting level for crafting multiple air runes. Below is a table for power levelling cost for runecrafter in air running:

The result renders being a runecrafter in air running is unwise unless with these gloves. The specified offer price loss is added with the Air runes part of Multiple Runes calculator with the results tabulated clearly in here.. For example, if the runecrafter has 37 crafting and his offer price is 3000 coins, the net loss per essence would be 12 =, rendering a power levelling loss of  gp per XP.

Water runecrafting gloves
This kind of gloves can be worn at 20 runecrafting, giving 11 experience per essence crafted. Generally speaking, water runecrafting gloves should not be bought because water runecrafting trip is not as efficient as earth runecrafting trip.

Earth runecrafting gloves
This kind of gloves can be worn at 30 runecrafting, giving 13 experience per essence crafted. This is the ideal method to train runecrafting normally, provided that the experience per essence is highest among all the methods and loss is minimal.

Runecrafting guild
This guild requires minimum level of 50 to get in, achieved at 101,333 experience. The main feature of the guild, The Great Orb Project, allows quick earning of rune essence and instant crafting. Runecrafting gloves may also be used in the game, though it will be difficult to use gloves if you do not manage inventory space wisely.

Runecrafting gloves of all three kinds can be brought to enhance the experience gained while crafting, and Explorer's ring 2 and 3 gives a slight advantage on crafting elemental runes, causing crafting fire runes slightly better, in case of 50-50 playing with the player playing the last 3 rounds.

According to the order of altars in the minigame, at mind altar and body altar no essence should be crafted, and some essence can be saved on air, water and earth altar. Be careful of inventory space, one should craft fire runes if excess essences are available.

You can buy Runecrafting alter tabs with the points you get from the minigame. This can make runecrafting much faster as they teleport you right outside the alter. It works good with body alter tabs. Take the same amount of varrock teleports and Body alter teletabs, this will provide fast Runecrafting experience.

Explorer's ring
Explorer's ring 2 gives 1/10 probability of crafting extra rune per essence, only when crafting elemental runes. Explorer's ring 3 gives infinite teleport to the Draynor cabbage patch, which can shorten time for travelling between air altar and Draynor bank.

Weight consideration
Difference between 0kg and 1kg is not important in some conditions like water runecrafting trips, but vital in others like earth runecrafting trips. Remember any tiara weighs 1kg and pickaxes are even heavier. Any talisman will occupy one inventory space, and requires "Use" function to get in the altars.

Multiple runes
A detailed table about crafting multiple runes can be seen here, and a calculator for profit by crafting multiple runes can be found here.