Runecrafting pouches

Pouches are bags that can hold varying amounts of rune essence or pure essence for use in the Runecrafting skill. Pouches are highly prized among runecrafters because they can nearly double the amount of essence that can be carried per load (with all pouches being used, you can carry up to 54 essences in your inventory). Pouches can be used to take larger loads when mining pure essence. Taking pouches to mine pure essence isn't required but is highly recommended for faster mining and less loads. This item is one of the Items Not Kept on Death.

There are four different sizes of pouches. Players may only own one of each size. As the size of the pouch increases, so does the Runecrafting level required to use it. Each pouch can carry either pure essence or rune essence, but not both at once.

Pouches are dropped by monsters in the Abyss and the Abyssal Area. You can now also obtain some pouches from the Wizard Korvak in the Runecrafting Guild; see more below for info on this wizard. Pouches degrade with use and must be repaired or they will vanish.

Note: If you drop a pouch with runes inside, all runes will disappear from the pouch once you pick it up.

Obtaining
Pouches are dropped for free by Abyssal Leeches, Guardians and Walkers. They live in two areas of Abyssal Space, one accessed through the Mage of Zamorak in level 5 Wilderness north of Edgeville, and the other via fairy ring.

The pouches are dropped in increasing size. If you have a small pouch in your bank or inventory you will get a medium pouch, and so forth. Once you have a giant pouch, the abyssal creatures will stop dropping them. Note that the pouches are obtainable before players reach the level required to use them.

Wizard Korvak in the Runecrafting Guild can replace lost medium pouches for free. He also sells Large pouches for 25,000 coins and Giant pouches for 50,000 coins. However, you need a Runecrafting level of 50 to get into the Runecrafting guild area to buy pouches.

There is an excellent spot located in the South-western most portion of the Abyssal space where there are good hiding spots in an area thick with leeches. Using the Fairy Rings to reach the Abyssal Area (code: ALR) is a safer option than entering the Abyss with the help of the Mage of Zamorak. However, this method requires a Dramen staff, Lunar staff or completion of Fairy Tale III. A Forinthry bracelet, Ring of Life and a one click teleport may be useful. Food such as lobsters are effective as long as the Guardians and Walkers are avoided. If you find an Abyssal charm and either have 54+ summoning or plan on training summoning, keep it. It can be used to make familiars (Abyssal parasite, Abyssal lurker, and Abyssal titan) that will hold up to 7 rune/pure essence.

Degrading
Pouches degrade over time and each one will accept a number of uses before it degrades. When they do, the capacity of the pouch is reduced by a few essences (3 for the Giant pouch, 2 for the Large pouch, 1 for the Medium pouch). It decays within:
 * 10 full uses (120 essences) for the giant pouch,
 * 29 full uses (261 essences) for the large pouch
 * 45 full uses (270 essences) for the medium pouch.

The small pouch doesn't decay. Pouches decay on filling them, not emptying them. Degraded pouches will continue to degrade and lose essence capacity until they disappear or are repaired. There are four ways to repair pouches:


 * Talk to the Dark mage in the Abyss and he will repair them for free. It is not required to have the pouches in one's inventory; he can fix the pouches even if they are stored in the bank. For an Abyss runecrafter, it is recommended to just mend the pouches during a usual abyss trip, but players who don't feel comfortable with the Abyss can leave their pouches in the bank, so there is no risk of losing them. All pouches are repaired at the same time by the Dark mage even if they have not visibly decayed.


 * NPC Contact (Lunar Magic) spell - As of 8 December 2009, players who have access to the lunar spellbook can use the NPC Contact spell to have the Dark mage repair pouches from afar. This saves the player a long trip to the Abyss.


 * Repair Rune Pouch (Lunar Magic) spell - As of 4 April 2011, you can repair and strengthen your pouches via this spell in the lunar spellbook. This spell must first be unlocked in the Livid Farm activity, and requires a magic level of 75 to cast as well as 2 Astral, 1 Cosmic, and 1 Law rune . Strengthening the pouches enables them to be used for a longer period before decaying.


 * Wizard Korvak in the Runecrafting Guild can replace lost medium pouches for free, and repair any others that need it for a small fee: Large pouch repairs cost 9,000 coins and Giant pouch repairs cost 12,000 coins. Again, you need a Runecrafting level of 50 to get into the Runecrafting guild area to speak to Wizard Korvak.