Runespan

The Runespan is a dimension where runic energies are much purer than on Gielinor, the main reason the Runecrafting Guild is stationed in the Runespan. Although debated in the Runecrafting Guild, Wizard Finix claims the runecrafting altars currently used to craft runes will become unstable, and the Runespan will become the only method to create runes.

Using a special type of rune essence attained only through runespan, players can siphon rune energy from creatures that roam the area, or from intermittent nodes. This gives Runecrafting experience that was designed to be the best in the game. When leaving the Runespan, all runes players have created will be taken away by the guild wizards and converted into points which can be spent on rewards.

The Assist System does not work to gather runes from creatures or nodes that the player does not have the required level to siphon, nor does it work to cross platforms that the player doesn't have the level to cross.

Location


The Runespan portals can be found at the top of the Wizards' Tower, flanking the Runecrafting Guild entrance, after talking to Wizard Finix. The low-level portal on the east side of the tower, near Wizard Finix, and the mid-level portal is on the west side. There is no high-level portal, however one of the two skilling portals in the Max Guild Garden can be attuned to the highest level of Runespan which requires at least one 99 or the ability to wear the quest point cape.
 * Wizards are stationed at every Runecrafting altar, and will offer to teleport players to the Wizards' Tower after a brief conversation.
 * Players can teleport to Draynor Village and walk to the Wizards' Tower.
 * Runecrafting guild teleports can be used to go directly to the Runecrafting guild, then exit the portal and re-enter choosing the Runespan location.
 * Members can use wicked hood to teleport them in front of the low-level (south east) and mid-level (south west) portal to the Runespan.
 * Members can teleport to the tower by going through the eastern portal on the second floor of the Wizards' Guild (requires level 66 Magic).
 * Members can use the fairy ring code, taking them to the south of the tower.
 * Players can use the law, death, blood, or infinity ethereal head to teleport them in front of the low-level portal to the Runespan, if they also have a wicked hood.
 * Players can also enter the top floor of Runespan via the Max Guild by attuning a skill portal to the high-level floor of Runespan.

Gameplay


Players do not need to take anything with them into Runespan. However, if a player owns any pieces of Master Runecrafter Robes, it is strongly recommended to bring these as they will increase experience earned inside the Runespan. An empty inventory allows more space for the items associated with the activities. There are 17 unique items collected in the Runespan. All runes and essence stack in the inventory. Note that any runes brought into the Runespan are different from the runes crafted within, therefore they are separate items and will not stack together or benefit in any way.

Start by collecting 25 rune essence from floating essence. If players run out of essence or drop below 25 essence at any point, they can collect more essence from floating essence, to a maximum of 25. However, essence after the initial amount is more effectively collected from siphoning creatures. You can also optionally buy 10 of each rune available at the player's level from Wizard Finix, enabling movement between platforms immediately. This costs up to 177 points, but the cost of the runes equals their value when redeemed, so you will receive those points back when you leave.

There are two main ways to earn experience and Runespan points; siphoning either creatures or concentrated energy nodes. Siphoning creatures can turn up to 5 essence into runes. Once the creature is drained, it gives 50 essence, regardless of the type of creature. Experience is awarded for siphoning. Each different creature produces a specific rune. Siphoning concentrated energy nodes allows faster experience than siphoning creatures, but nodes only appear for fixed periods of time, appear at random locations, and don't give rune essence when depleted.

It's also possible to chip away at creatures to turn 10 runes back into essence. Each creature chipped requires 10 of a specific rune. This can bypass the limit of 25 essence per load, but chipping gives no experience. Chipping will be more time efficient for faster island hopping.

Players can move from island to island using platforms at the cost of runes. Each transport platform costs different runes, which are displayed on the platforms and in their examine text. Players can access the three levels of the Runespan by using the vine and bone ladders.

There are two distractions and diversions specific to the Runespan, the yellow wizard and the runesphere, which allow extra experience to be gained.

You can exit the Runespan by asking any wizard for a teleport back to the Wizards' Tower or by using any other teleport method. All runes and essence are turned into points when players leave.

There are three distinct levels of the Runespan, each catering to different Runecrafting levels. Free-to-play players only have access to the lower level and part of the middle level. Runes gathered here are taken by the Runecrafting Guild, but members are able to claim points towards wicked robes, new magical staves, and a new massive pouch (requires level 90 Runecrafting) which holds 18 essence. All players are rewarded with Runecrafting experience.

While in the Runespan, players have an interface appearing in the left of the minigame HUD with the following icons.

Experience
The Runespan is playable at any Runecrafting level. Experience is gained by siphoning runes from the creatures and nodes within the Runespan. Experience is also gained from helping the yellow wizard.

For free players, fleshy growths (46.2 exp) give the best experience per hour, around 50k experience points per hour at higher levels, followed by fireballs (34.8 exp), and then vines (32.3 exp). Although fire storms require the highest level they do not give the most experience points per hour due to the inconsistency between the range of experience gained, which however averages to 32.5 exp.


 * Experience rates were tested with 99 Runecrafting, and the experience values do vary based on chance. The hourly experience rates are just estimates; moving time, experience from esslings/esshounds/esswraiths, and experience from wizards is excluded.


 * Essences are worth more experience if used with runes that give a higher average experience than most runes, meaning, you won't have to spend as much time siphoning creatures which will increase the experience per hour.
 * The yellow wizard's experience changes your hourly experience quite a bit, although the experience change varies depending on how far away the wizard is, or how often you get called.

Points
Creating runes awards points that can be used to buy rewards. When players leave the area, the points will automatically be redeemed. Using runes to travel around the Runespan will decrease the player's point total because runes are used to cross platforms. Chipping away at creatures will also decrease points because runes in the player's inventory are exchanged for rune essences.

Creatures
Inhabiting the Runespan are various creatures who can be "siphoned" for runes to help cross platforms to other islands. Every successful siphon consumes one rune essence and creates a rune of the creature's type. There is a possibility of failing to siphon the creature, which will consume no essence, give no runes, and grant 0-2 experience. The chance of failing decreases at higher Runecrafting levels. Any number of players can siphon runes from one creature at the same time, but if one of the players siphons a total of 5 runes without pause, the creature will be destroyed. When this happens, 50 or more rune essence is given to those players still siphoning it. The creatures respawn after a few seconds, at or near the same location. If all players siphon 4 or fewer runes from a creature then stop and resume siphoning, it can be siphoned indefinitely.

Creatures can also be "chipped", which requires ten lower-levelled runes and gives 10-20 rune essence. The same creature cannot be chipped twice in a row; players can't chip the same creature until they have chipped three others.

Nodes
A node is an elemental object within the Runespan that can be siphoned for runes, giving Runecrafting experience. If the siphon is unsuccessful, the player can gain either 0 or 2 experience. A white ring appears below all nodes which shows which runes will be crafted from it. Unlike creatures, nodes do not respawn in the same locations when depleted.

There are basic nodes pertaining to one element (such as cyclones, rock fragments, and fleshy growths), but there are also nodes that players can siphon two different types of runes from (such as fire storms, which grant air runes and fire runes). Combination nodes such as fire storms will never yield both runes at once, with the higher level rune having a lower chance of being obtained; a fire storm will reward the player with 22.5 experience if it produces an air rune, or 42 experience if it produces a fire rune.

Siphoning a node will give twice the experience as siphoning their respective creature. For example, players who siphon a Death esswraith receive only 60 experience per rune, while siphoning skulls gives players 120 experience per rune.

The nodes don't change any faster or slower when people are siphoning from them, much like the coal and gold deposits in the Living Rock Caverns. This means that no matter how many people are siphoning from a single node, it will last for a randomly determined amount of time before disappearing or changing to another node type.

The chances of finding a better node increase as players go up the floors. For example, shifters and jumpers are uncommon sights on the middle floor. The higher-level nodes on a floor (shifters and jumpers for middle floor, skull+ for the upper floor) rarely spawn on the larger islands and are more commonly found on the smaller islands.

Occasionally a node will be replaced, while still active, with another, different node in the exact same location. Nodes can be replaced with either a lower or higher level node. A player siphoning a node that gets replaced will continue siphoning without the need to reclick it. However if the node changes into a higher level node than the player can siphon they will automatically stop siphoning, and have to find another node.

Platforms
Platforms transport players from one island to another, much like bridges. Crossing them uses up certain runes as well as a small number of points currently held in inventory. The symbols on the platforms show which runes are required to use the platform. If players examine the platform, it will show them the runes needed to cross.

In the case of missile platforms, a variety of elemental runes can be used interchangeably depending on what is available in the player's inventory. The most abundant rune type will always be used. If multiple rune types are equally abundant, the lower level one would be used. For example, water runes would be used over fire runes.

When moving from a smaller island to a larger one, neither runes nor points will be used. Players will get a game message; "You were not charged for travelling to the bigger island". However when moving from a larger island to a smaller one, runes and points will be consumed. This will be indicated on your mini-map with a red bridge.

When moving from two similarly sized islands runes and points will be consumed in either direction of travel. This will be indicated on your mini-map with a tan bridge.

Runes
A player can initially start with 25 rune essence by collecting from floating essence. The rune essence is converted into one or more of the fourteen runes by siphoning creatures or nodes. A player can use their current points to buy some runes (10 of each rune that a player can siphon for) from Wizard Finix once per session, but the current points and the points currently held in inventory will not be updated unless another rune is crafted. The points will be deducted and the bought runes will be transferred to the inventory. The runes may then be used for crossing between gaps. Unlike the runes used in Gielinor, these runes are not tradeable nor could they be used for magic.

Area
The Runespan is split into three levels. Different creatures, nodes and platforms can be found on each.

Lower level


The lower level of the Runespan can be accessed at any Runecrafting level by using the portal on the top of the Wizards' Tower. It is completely available to all players. There are 52 islands on this level. All types of esslings are found on this level.


 * Creatures
 * Air essling
 * Mind essling
 * Water essling
 * Earth essling
 * Fire essling


 * Nodes
 * Cyclone
 * Mind storm
 * Water pool
 * Rock fragment
 * Fireball
 * Vine


 * Platforms
 * Float platform
 * Earth platform
 * Ice platform
 * Small missile platform

Middle level


The middle level of the Runespan can be accessed at 33 Runecrafting by climbing the vine ladder, located on the lower level. Members with 50 Runecrafting also have the option of starting on the middle level when entering the portal in Wizards Tower. Islands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 15 and 44 are accessible in free-to-play. There are 46 islands on this level. All types of esshounds and esslings (except Fire esslings) are found on this level. Esshounds are quite common in this floor compared to esslings. If you look out from some of the islands in the middle level you may see the runecrafting guild. This is odd, however, because when the player is inside the guild they only see a few empty islands floating around, but cannot actually see the Runespan.


 * Creatures
 * Air essling
 * Mind essling
 * Water essling
 * Earth essling
 * Body esshound
 * Cosmic esshound
 * Chaos esshound
 * Astral esshound
 * Nature esshound
 * Law esshound


 * Nodes
 * Cyclone
 * Mind storm
 * Water pool
 * Rock fragment
 * Fireball
 * Vine
 * Fleshy growth
 * Fire storm
 * Chaotic cloud
 * Nebula
 * Shifter
 * Jumper


 * Platforms
 * Float platform
 * Earth platform
 * Ice platform
 * Small missile platform
 * Conjuration platform
 * Missile platform
 * Vine platform
 * Mist platform
 * Comet platform

Upper level


The upper level of the Runespan can be accessed at 66 Runecrafting by climbing the bone ladder on the middle level. This floor is available exclusively to members. There are 33 islands on this level. All types of creatures and nodes are found on this level. Esswraiths are somewhat common while esshounds and esslings are not as common in this level.

Players with access to the outer part of the Max Guild can tune a portal to take them straight to the upper level. Otherwise, the upper level can be reached by entering the middle level portal, trading in some points for runes with Wizard Finix, and going south-west to the bone ladder. Players without the points to trade for runes can get to the upper level by collecting rune essence, siphoning the air essling for 3 air runes, taking the float platform south, siphoning the chaos esshound for 2 chaos runes, then taking missile platforms south-west and west to reach the bone ladder.


 * Creatures
 * Air essling
 * Mind essling
 * Water essling
 * Earth essling
 * Fire essling
 * Body esshound
 * Cosmic esshound
 * Chaos esshound
 * Astral esshound
 * Nature esshound
 * Law esshound
 * Death esswraith
 * Blood esswraith
 * Soul esswraith


 * Nodes
 * Cyclone
 * Mind storm
 * Water pool
 * Rock fragment
 * Fireball
 * Vine
 * Fleshy growth
 * Fire storm
 * Chaotic cloud
 * Nebula
 * Shifter
 * Jumper
 * Skulls
 * Blood pool
 * Bloody skulls
 * Living soul
 * Undead soul


 * Platforms
 * Float platform
 * Earth platform
 * Ice platform
 * Small missile platform
 * Missile platform
 * Vine platform
 * Mist platform
 * Comet platform
 * Skeletal platform
 * Greater missile platform
 * Flesh platform
 * Greater conjuration platform

Strategy

 * 1) Most strategies involve minimising movement between islands and staying near a central island. If maximum points is the player's goal, they should choose an island with the highest level creature that they can siphon. If maximum experience is their goal, it's best to find an island that has many nodes somewhat below their level (these grant the fastest experience) and with the lowest level creature possible (which grant the fastest rune essence).
 * 2) Before entering the Runespan, check the maps above and the tables below this section to find out which runes will be needed to activate the platforms to reach a chosen island.
 * 3) Upon entering the Runespan, the player's first action should be to collect 25 essence from the nearest floating essence; there is always at least one on every island.
 * 4) * If players have reward points already, they should speak to Wizard Finix and exchange their reward points for 10 of each rune that they can siphon. This allows players to be able to move between platforms immediately, instead of having to spend time and manually siphon enough runes to do so upon every entry to the Runespan. The reward point cost of the exchange will be equal to the reimbursement value of the runes upon leaving the Runespan, so there is no reason not to exchange. These runes alone should also be sufficient to get to a chosen island.
 * 5) * It is recommended to have an upkeep of about 20 runes of every kind if the player decides to travel, since 20 of each rune is usually sufficient for movement around the Runespan, as well as to help out the yellow wizard when available (which takes 10 runes of a given kind). Otherwise, players might find that they do not have the runes they need to teleport on the same island and may need to wait patiently for a node to spawn, or travel back one or two islands to gather them; particularly law runes and other higher or basic level runes depending on which level of the Runespan the player is on. So gathering a few more runes earlier can be helpful.
 * 6) Players should make their way to their chosen island, siphoning from essling creatures as they go. These low level creatures are quick to deplete and every creature yields about 50 rune essence each. This will help increase the player's stock of rune essence quickly.
 * 7) Once players reach their chosen island, they should stay there. For maximum points, they should siphon the highest level creature on that island repeatedly. For maximum experience, first stockpile at least 1000 rune essence by siphoning esslings, and then siphon any nodes that appear.
 * 8) * Mid-level nodes are generally faster experience than the highest levelled nodes siphonable.
 * 9) * If a mid/high level node appears on a connected island, hop there until the node is depleted and then hop back.

Yellow wizard
There are a number of wizards on each level that stand in random spots and periodically teleport to different locations. Each level has one wizard wearing yellow robes (yellow wizards only appear on the first level on free worlds) and several others wearing blue robes. Each player can see all of the wizards at any given moment, though the wizard wearing yellow robes is random to each player. Despite this, multiple players can see the same wizard as the yellow one at the same time.

Every 10 minutes after logging into or entering the Runespan or successfully handing the yellow wizard runes, a red message will appear in the chatbox saying that a wizard needs the player's help. If the player chooses not to help the wizard, the message will not be called out again.

To find the yellow wizard, talk to any of the wizards in blue robes, including Wizard Finix. After a short chat or choosing the right click option "Find Wizard," a flashing arrow will point to where the yellow wizard is located. On rare occasions the yellow wizard will appear on your island, making his experience bonus worth while.

Once the yellow wizard is found, players can either talk to him or choose the right click option "Best Rune" in order to find which type of rune he needs. In either case, the player must then use a stack of runes on the yellow wizard. He will take 10 runes from that stack (or the entire stack if there are less than 10) and in return he will grant a reward of Runecrafting experience based on the type and number of runes provided and whether the rune provided was what he asked for (when not providing the requested rune, higher level runes yield more experience), as well as the player's runecrafting level. See XP rewards, below, for more details.

Players may not always be able to reach the yellow wizard because he may be on an island that can only be traveled to using a high level platform. Players may also not be able to fulfill the yellow wizard's request, as he can ask for any level rune including soul runes even on floor 1. In this case, players can give the wizard a lower level rune at the cost of receiving less experience.

All of the wizards will teleport once every 4 minutes 31.5 seconds. If a player is going to be in the Runespan for a long period of time, it might be worthwhile to note when a wizard appears or disappears and use that time to calculate future teleport times. Doing so can reduce the likelihood of just barely missing a yellow wizard.

Hunting tips
The best place to hunt yellow wizards is on the middle level of the runespan. To increase the number of wizards helped per hour, use a stop watch to monitor the ten minute period until a wizard calls out. After roughly 9 minutes (there being 1 minute until call out) prepare by running to Wizard Finix at the centre of the map. He never changes location making him the best blue wizard to find. Players should then ask him to point to the yellow wizard. Locate the yellow wizard, and by this time the player should have received the call out message. Give him runes and restart the stop watch.

On the upper level, the same technique can be used, but because Wizard Finix is at the far southwest corner of the map near the ladder to the middle level, it is recommended that players start searching at 8 minutes. Unfortunately, if players find the Yellow Wizard too early, he may teleport away before he calls for help.

After asking one of the wizards for the Yellow Wizard's location, the minimap will display a flashing arrow with the exact location of the Yellow Wizard. It can therefore be helpful to examine the minimap (which can be expanded) to find the Yellow Wizard's location.

XP rewards
Because the "best rune" doesn't always yield the most experience, the table below presents a strategy that will maximise the experience reward.

At runecrafting levels under 33 (players limited to floor 1), it is not recommended to find the yellow wizard as the extra experience is very little and players can easily gain 5-10 levels between wizard callings. Giving the wizard the "requested rune" yields more experience than fire runes. At level 76 and below, players should turn in the highest level rune available and not the requested rune as this will reward more experience, and if a wizard requests the highest level rune the player has, it is actually more beneficial to give the wizard the second highest rune. Because of this it is strongly recommended that players read what rune the wizard wants before handing over a rune. At level 77 the experience for requested runes jumps and the highest possible rune, blood runes, will give only 4,600 experience (if not requested) while the requested rune (no matter how low level) gives roughly 5,100 experience. Due to this, players with at least level 77 should follow the request. Non-members should start giving the requested rune when their runecrafting level is near 60.

Runesphere
The runesphere is an alternating occurrence in the Runespan which requires players to successfully siphon off its many layers of runic energy, using up one rune essence per runes received of whatever layer the Runesphere is currently on. The current layer is denoted by symbols on the sides of the runesphere. Players also receive rune dust, which can be exchanged - when used on the Runesphere's core - for 25 Runecrafting experience per rune dust.

The Runesphere will disappear after 1 hour and 20 seconds (3620 seconds) whether or not all of the layers have been siphoned as it constantly decreases with or without players. After it disappears, a new one will spawn in 2 hours 30 minutes and 50 seconds (9050 seconds), and they spawn and disappear on each world at the same time, but not necessarily the same location.

Players can siphon up to 1,000 dust per day, granting a maximum of 25,000 experience, and can only hand in dust once per day beginning at 0:00 UTC. Players may work together on finding additional runespheres after handing in dust, but they will not earn any more rune dust.

When a runesphere is active, an icon will appear at the top left of the screen, saying "runesphere active". Hovering your cursor over the icon will tell you which floor that the runesphere is found on. Wizards can be asked for directions to the runesphere, and will give a general direction such as "south east".

Note that it is not always located on the floor the player is currently on, so going up or down floors may be required to find it. Also, if you are having trouble locating a runesphere, the wizards on the floor with an active runesphere will have a dialog option to help you locate a runesphere.

When players have found it, they can start drawing runes and experience from it by siphoning it. The runesphere will begin on a particular rune, and as it is siphoned from, will gradually decrease one rune at a time (law to nature to astral and so on) until it reaches air, after which it will become a runesphere core.

Siphoning a runesphere gives very fast experience and allows a player to receive bonus xp from it as an energy ball. The layers of the runesphere also need higher Runecrafting levels than their corresponding creatures and nodes. For example, the nature layer requires 64 runecrafting to siphon, while nature esshounds and shifters only require 44 runecrafting. The experience given is rapid, but not as important as the yellow wizard's rewards as it affects XP per hour drastically as the rune dust only awards up to 25,000 Runecrafting experience. At higher Runecrafting levels, a node such as an Undead Soul or Bloody Skulls can award more experience than a Runesphere.

Rewards


Runes gathered in the Runespan are taken by the Runecrafting Guild if players leave the Runespan. In return, players receive Runespan points to spend on various rewards, only available to members. It is possible to buy a second wicked hood, but it will not give extra free runes, essence or teleports each day. However, extra wicked hoods can be given different colours.

Each other part of the robes provides an additional 25 free essence and 1 rune claim per day, and owning all 3 adds an extra daily altar teleport. They do not have to be worn for the bonus to count. (Owning the Wicked robe top, wicked legs, and wicked cape will upgrade your wicked hood from 100 essence withdrawal per day, 2 rune withdrawals per day, and 2 free rune-altar teleports per day - to 175 essence withdrawal per day, 5 rune withdrawals per day, and 3 free rune-altar teleports per day.)

Points can be spent in Wizard Finix's reward shop next to the Runecrafting Guild portal. To buy everything in the shop, players will need 282,360 points. The maximum number of points that can be saved is 214,748,364.

Esteem
Esteem is purely cosmetic; it does not affect siphoning rates. For every level earned, esteem changes the design/symbol on the wicked hood, cape and robes.

The symbol for the corresponding rank is also displayed on the back of the wicked hood, the left shoulder of the wicked robe top, and the front of the wicked legs.

Rank 1 (the highest tier) costs 211,860 points total and is required for the trimmed completionist cape.

Buying a rank subtracts the cost from the higher ranks. For example, buying the tier 10 rank at 15 points will reduce the cost of all ranks by 15 points so buying tier 9 after tier 10 would only cost an additional 45 points.

Re-colour
Players can re-colour their equipped wicked equipment for 2,000 points. If a full set of robes of one colour is desired, it would be cheapest to obtain the full set, equip it, and then purchase the re-colour. Alternatively, you can re-colour each piece individually, but will still cost 2,000 points each time.

Lower level

 * Runearia
 * Runebreath
 * Runecalm
 * Runesque
 * Runeward

Middle level

 * Runeiverse
 * Runenergy
 * Runespan
 * Runesphere
 * Runetine

Upper level

 * Runefear
 * Runefire
 * Runescar
 * Runewaste
 * Runewrath

Trivia

 * On 28 April 2012 at 8:00 PM UTC, when the See the Future event began, rifts to the Runespan opened in the Grand Exchange near the west wall, at the Catherby fruit tree patch, and in the central market of East Ardougne. Esslings also appeared with them. Wizard Finix was also seen for a brief time during this teaser, and left along with the rift orbs. Approximately 10 minutes after the rift spawned, the esslings disappeared, a Runesphere appeared in place of the rift. It also disappeared after a few minutes.
 * The Runespan was "tweaked" on 28 August 2012 with The Big Chinchompa update.