Ourania Runecrafting Altar

The Ourania Runecrafting Altar (also known as the ZMI Altar (Zamorak Magical Institute) or the Ourania Altar) is one of the several Runecrafting altars located throughout RuneScape. The altar is in the Ourania Cave, which is west of the Battlefield, and south of West Ardougne.

Strategies
It is highly recommended for maximal experience per hour to use certain strategies. (Please refer to the main article link above).

Pros: Cons: Tip: 'Emptying' your Wicked hood here daily is a very fast and effective way to gain fast experience.
 * [[File:XP Counter icon.png]] The experience here is double to what you would normally get for the runes.
 * [[File:Ardougne cloak 2.png]] The Ardougne cloak 2 (and higher) adds a chance of creating more runes in the Ourania Altar (rune output is increased by roughly 15%). Though no extra experience is gained from the extra runes.
 * [[File:Armadyl rune.png]] The player will be able to craft all runes that are available in the game (except Armadyl runes and Combination runes), despite (maybe) not having the required level or quest requirements. Also note that there are no requirements to craft runes at the altar.
 * Worlds Icon.png The official Ourania Runecrafting World is World 36. This is the best world to go to, as runecrafting here will make it less likely you will be attacked since you're traveling in big groups. Though it is still considered dangerous.
 * [[File:Master runecrafter body.png]] Master Runecrafter robes (full set gives: +5% exp.) will work here. However, they have a maximum boost of 700 experience per altar click or batch.
 * [[File:Runecrafting-icon.png]] The higher the player's Runecrafting level, the higher-levelled the crafted runes will be.
 * [[File:Ourania teleport.png]] Using Lunar Magicks teleports (level 69: Moonclan Teleport, and 71: Ourania Teleport) is highly recommended.
 * [[File:Explorer's ring 4.png]] Multiple runes can not be created at this altar (with the exception of the effect from the Ardougne cloak 2). Also an Explorer's ring can only be useful to replenish run energy (3 and 4) not for multiple runes
 * [[File:Coins 10000.png]] With the random nature of the rune mix, the cost of pure essences may exceed the street value of the crafted runes. Consequently, the higher the player's RC level, the less losses/more profit. Though generally this will cost you money.zmilocation.png
 * [[File:Water runecrafting gloves.png]] Runecrafting gloves (Air, Water and/or Earth from the Fist of Guthix minigame) will not work here, as the experience is already doubled.
 * [[File:Pure essence.png]] Only Pure essence may be used to craft at this altar. (Hence, Rune essence can also not be used to only make elemental runes.)

Further description
There are actually two altars in the Ourania area, and the Runecrafting altar goes by several names, which can cause some confusion:
 * 1) The Ourania Runecrafting Altar is in the cave itself. It is sometimes called the Ourania Altar, the Ourania rune altar, or the ZMI altar. This is a runecrafting altar, not a prayer one.
 * 2) A Zamorakian Chaos altar (used to recharge prayer points only) is outside the cave, near the cave's entrance. This altar is a prayer altar, not a Runecrafting one. (Elsewhere there is an altar called Chaos Altar, used to make chaos runes.)

Crafting runes at the Ourania Altar is the only known method of producing soul runes, as the equivalent altar may or may not be released into the game at a later date. The magic supply shops and the Grand Exchange are still the dominant supply for these runes.

Transportation
Five efficient methods to access the altar:
 * Ourania Teleport (71 Magic) - Appear on the path to the altar entrance.
 * Spirit Tree (Tree Gnome Village Quest) - Travel from the Tree Gnome Village to the Khazard battlefield and walk southwest.
 * Ardougne Teleport (51 Magic and Plague City Quest) - Exit the city through the zoo and head southwest.
 * Kandarin Monastery Teleport (Ardougne Easy Tasks) - Walk northwest from the monastery.
 * Castle Wars Teleport (Ring of Duelling) - Walk north from the Castle Wars lobby.

Banking
There are six methods of banking when runecrafting at the Ourania Altar:
 * 1) Teleport up and down between Lunar Isle (Tele Group Moonclan: Level 70 Magic, Moonclan Teleport: level 69 Magic, or Home teleport: level 0 Magic) and The ZMI (use Ourania Teleport: level 71 Magic). Group teleport tends to land the player a few squares closer to the bank than self teleport.
 * 2) Ring of kinship: This ring will transport you to Daemonheim and has unlimited charges.
 * 3) Ring of duelling: Use this ring to teleport to the Castle Wars lobby and the Ourania Teleport spell to return to the altar.
 * 4) Games necklace: Use this necklace to teleport to the Burthorpe Troll Invasion area and the Ourania Teleport spell to return to the altar. This is marginally cheaper than the Ring of Duelling, and just as efficient since the Loyalty Programme update placed a bank outside the Warrior's Guild.
 * 5) Eniola, a travelling banker: Eniola will allow you access to your bank account in exchange for 20 of any one type of rune. Using runes which are common, or not often used, such as body runes, or elemental runes, is the smarter economical decision. Currently, the cheapest runes are Body Runes or Mind Runes at 5 gp and 2 gp a piece respectively. Due to an update, you no longer need to close the bank window to fill Runecrafting pouches with pure essence.
 * 6) Use the TokKul-Zo to teleport to any of the three "Fight" options and the Ourania Teleport spell to return to the cave. This is just as close to a bank as the Castle Wars teleport but does not use any charges on the ring.

Paths
There are two paths leading to the altar:
 * Shorter, dangerous route.
 * Longer, safe route.

Shorter route
The zamorak warriors, mages and rangers are often fighting the cave lizards. Players with a combat level of 110 or below will probably want to take the alternate route, but higher level players will be able to wear a combination of magic and melee armour and run through relatively unscathed.

There are several tactics used to minimise damage taken on the shorter route:
 * Increasing magic defence as much as possible and activating the protect from missiles prayer can greatly reduce damage taken. Black dragonhide armour is a good choice since it is lightweight, affordable, and provides decent armour and life point bonuses.
 * Wearing at least dragon or better melee armour with the protect from magic prayer active, and using the salt-water spring bath in Oo'glog to provide infinite run energy is also feasible. To reach the altar from Oo'glog:
 * Run north to reach the gnome glider (One Small Favour Quest required), go to the Grand Tree then take the Spirit Tree south of the Grand Tree to go to Khazard battlefield.
 * Use the Ourania Teleport spell.
 * Players with 85-90+ Agility can obtain the Agile top and Agile legs, which greatly reduce your weight, but at the cost of low armour and life point bonuses (between mithril and adamant armour).
 * Using a Regen bracelet, the prayer Rapid Heal, and/or the Lunar spell Dream can help restore lifepoints more quickly.

Longer route
This route is a long winding pathway. Once players reach the end of the path, they will have to squeeze through a small crack in the wall to reach the altar. The wall-crack shortcut has no Agility requirements.

Experience at different levels
At higher Runecrafting levels, experience does improve, but only slightly. As multiple runes are not produced by the Ourania Runecrafting altar, the average experience per pure essence can be calculated.

Around level 50, the experience per essence is approximately 14.8

Around level 60, the experience per essence is approximately 15.4

Around level 70, the experience per essence is approximately 17.4

Tips

 * Air, Water, and Earth runecrafting gloves, rewards from the Fist of Guthix minigame, do not boost xp received from crafting runes at the Ourania Altar.
 * The best familiars to use are the Spirit Terrorbird using the Tireless run scroll or the Abyssal parasite, Abyssal lurker, or Abyssal titan familiars which hold extra essence. Magpies are also a good option, as although they don't directly help with the crafting, they give a good amount of money to help with covering essence costs. There is a small Summoning Obelisk near the Moonclan Teleport location, so that you can renew summoning points when needed, if you bank there.
 * The nearest source of essence (assuming you are banking on Lunar Isle) is right on Lunar Island, northeast in the dungeon. Simply take a pickaxe there (watch out for level 111 Suqahs). The next closest is in East Ardougne. Wizard Cromperty, whose house lies north-east of the East Ardougne marketplace, provides a teleport to the essence mines.
 * It is safer to run in a group to the altar as it reduces the chance of being attacked.
 * Wielding a Staff of earth and using Tele Group Moonclan instead of Moonclan Teleport is an easy way to slightly increase Magic xp gained. Many mages teleport this way, so if you don't want to use your runes, make sure you have accept aid on and hitch a ride with them. It is also recommended to review the teleport destination before accepting, as sometimes a player may telegroup to a dangerous area such as the Ice Plateau.
 * At zero weight, and 59+ Agility, a player can make the long trip (safe route) within 100% run energy.
 * A player can save on banking trips by withdrawing their pouches and ess; and before exiting the banking interface, right-clicking on their pouches and selecting "fill". This will fill the pouches. The player can then withdraw more ess filling up the player's backpack. This means one banking per trip.
 * The deposit-all feature can be used to massively increase your experience rate. Withdraw your pouches and all of each rune that you will need to teleport (or if you are using Eniola, your stack of preferred runes) and then fill your bank to maximum capacity. You can simply click the deposit all button to bank the different runes you make at ZMI, instead of taking extra time to bank them all individually (or losing profit by dropping them on the return trip).
 * Rather than simply filling the bank with "random items", instead generate the needed items from other things in your bank, such as emptying a bolt pouch, collection bag, tackle box and so on, decanting potions held in the bank from four to two doses (by using a vial on the potion), and removing items from a costume room. This is beneficial as they can easily be put away/back together/decanted to restore the bank space once Runecrafting is finished.
 * Additional consideration - For players with 75+ runecrafting, consider using only the giant, large, and medium pouches. Configure as necessary with the large amount of inexpensive runes. Fill the giant and large pouches, and only fill half of the medium pouch every 10 runs. This will allow for only 2 x 20 runes (40 total) per run per bank visit. Repeat steps 2-5 of the alternative method. Once the giant pouch degrades on the 11th refill, players should THEN fill the medium pouch to capacity, along with the large pouch. After filling the two smaller pouches, players should withdraw the necessary runes for the NPC Contact spell (1 astral rune, 1 cosmic rune, and 2 air runes), as well as filling the rest of the player's inventory with pure essence. Contact the Dark mage to have him fix the giant pouch. Fill the giant pouch, and bank one final time to fill the player's inventory, then craft runes using the 2-bank method. This SIGNIFICANTLY reduces the amount of time between trips, allowing for greater amounts of xp / hr (as the Ourania runecrafting altar is based on the player's runecrafting level). The only downside to this is, since banking is done so quickly, it drains run energy quickly. It is strongly advised for a player to have at least 65 Agility (75+ recommended) to attempt this method, unless the player wishes to use Surefooted Aura, or Super energy potions in between runs, or a Spirit terrorbird familiar. However, terrorbird familiars are not recommended because the amount of run energy restored is based on the player's agility level, AND the amount of frequent run recharging makes the player a slightly greater target for the NPC's to attack.

This '2-bank' method not only reduces the cycle time (time it takes to bank, craft runes, and bank again), but it also saves a modest sum per hour on bank charges. Assuming body runes or mind runes are the preferred currency (at 5 coins per rune) for using Eniola's banking services, and a player can make 55 cycles (VERY probable using the aforementioned method), then the following savings can be achieved each hour:

55 cycles @ 360 coins (using 4 pouches / abyssal familiar for 3 bank visits): 19,800 coins per hour for banking charges

50 cycles @ 240 coins (using aforementioned method for 2 bank visits): 12,000 coins + 5 cycles @ 360 (3 bank visits when repairing giant pouch): 1,800 coins - totalling 13,800 coins per hour for banking charges.

Therefore, for 55 cycles, a player would save 19,800 - 13,800 = 6,000 coins, or 1,000 runes per hour. As a side note, the 4-pouch method DID NOT take into account the extra banking fee it would take to repair a degraded pouch.

This is based on the assumption that a player can make 55 cycles per hour using all 4 pouches, which is generally unsustainable, whereas 40 - 45 cycles per hour is a more reasonable estimate than 55 cycles per hour, based on the additional mouse-clicking time delay of filling and emptying all 4 pouches on each cycle.


 * Wearing an Ardougne cloak 2 or higher will grant the player a chance of receiving more runes from Ourania Altar (though it will not increase the experience you receive).
 * If you have never used mouse keys before, now is a great time to try them out. A few minutes of set up will save plenty of time!

Music unlocked

 * Altar Ego

Trivia

 * 'Ourania' (Ουρανία) was the Muse of astronomy in Greek mythology (the name means 'heavenly' or 'of the heavens' in Ancient Greek). This is significant considering the proximity of the grave of the astronomer Scorpius and the Observatory. Furthermore 'Ouranos' (Ουρανός) is the Greek word for 'Sky'.