Runecrafting

Runecrafting, often shortened to RC, is a free-to-play skill released with RuneScape 2 allowing players to craft runes for Magic spells at Runecrafting altars. Runecrafting is a time consuming skill, being currently the rarest level 99 skill other than the recently added skill, Dungeoneering. It is also the only free to play skill without 2 million accounts ranked on the hiscores. Even though an alleged reward of Rune Mysteries is the access to the Runecrafting skill, players do not need to begin this quest to start training Runecrafting.

First Age
When the humans first came to the realm of Gielinor through the World Gate, Guthix created Runestones, allowing the humans and other sentient races to practice the Magic arts. These runestones were created using an ancient artifact, probably created by the Elder Gods, called the Stone of Jas.

Second Age
In the Second Age, the humans continued and expanded the practice of magic.

Third Age
The God Wars commences. All gods participate in this war to conquer Gielinor. Magic is used intensively during the God Wars in order to defeat the enemies. The art of runecrafting is lost in this age.

Fourth Age
Magic was barely used in this age as the limited supply of runes leftover from the godwars slowly dwindles. The art of magic fades with the supply of runes, until essentialy being lost.

Fifth Age
Humans re-discover how to perform the art of runecrafting, realizing the connection between imbued talismans at altars. The Fremennik claim that the magic belongs only to the gods, and that it was stolen from them by the Moonclan and any whom dare to craft a rune, which they feel insults the gods. Runecrafting soon reaches the kingdoms of Asgarnia and Misthalin, were it becomes widly used in many locations. The main concentration of runecrafting and affilitats of the art can be found at the Wizards' Tower and the Runecrafting Guild.

Essence
To craft runes, players need blank rune stones, called essence. There are two types of essence: Rune essence and Pure essence, both unstackable and are most commonly referred to simply as 'Ess.' Several other common slang names include 'Pures,' 'Pure ess,' and 'Rune ess.'

Rune essence
Rune essence is dramatically limit in its potential, including on members servers. It is only capable of being bound into Air, Mind, Water, Earth, Fire, or Body runes. If a member attempts to craft any other type of rune such as Chaos or Nature with this type of essance, they will be unable to do so. This form of Rune Essence is often called "normal essence" or "regular essence" to distinguish it from Pure essence.

Pure essence
Pure essence can be used in the creation of any and all runes. This kind of essance is the only kind of essence that can be used to craft Cosmic, Chaos, Astral, Nature, Law, Death, Blood, and the various combination runes. Runes crafted at the Ourania Runecrafting altar must also be made with pure essence. In order to mine any amount of Pure Essence, a player must be at least level 30 Mining and have access to the Essence Mines.

Obtaining essence
There are multiple ways to obtain rune essence or pure essence. These include trading with other players and purchasing from the Grand Exchange, mining it, monster drops, rewards from the The Great Orb Project, and the daily reward from the Ardougne Achievement Diary.

Altars
At altars, blank rune essence is transformed into Runes by binding the energies of the altar into the runestone. Tiaras, Talismans or Talisman staves are needed to enter altars hidden inside 'Mysterious ruins'. There are a couple of exceptions to this e.g. the astral altar.

Mysterious ruins
A Mysterious ruin is a large, glowing rock surrounded by pillars. They essentially doorways used to travel from Gielinor to the various specific altars at which runecrafting actually takes place. Entry to each altar requires a specific talisman, tiara or talisman stave which functions as something of a key or trigger which transports the player to the alters. (shown below). By 'Using' a talisman on a Mysterious ruin, players will be transported directly to the runecrafting altar within a landscape related to its theme. A small portal on the floor near the altar provides transportation back to Gielinor.

Both the Ourania and Astral can be accessed without use of a talisman or related accessories. These two alters they have no Mysterious Ruins at their entrance, instead being simply the alter itself.

There is one alternative method to access to all but the Ourania and Astral altars directly, circumventing the mysterious runes entirely, and hence talismans, via usage of the Abyss. This method is related to the quest What Lies Below and its subsequent mini-quest.



Talismans
Talismans are the primary version of the three items which allow players access to the runecrafting alters altars. Each altar has an individual mysterious ruins which reacts only with the corresponding talisman. For example, use of an Air Talisman is needed to enter the Air Altar, Where as attempting to use a Water Talisman on the Air Altar will not produce any result at all.
 * Function:

Most talismans have a 'locate' option, which causes them to function as something of a compass. The result of using the Locate option will be an indication of the direction of the Mysterious Runes corrisponding to the talisman being used, as related to the players current location. The message is generrated in the chatbox.


 * Downside:

Since talismans occupy an inventory space and rune essence are not stackable, talismans quickly become a hindrance to both players attempting to utalize the skill as well as those simply attempting to train. As such, most players seriously commited to runecrafting quickly updrade to tiaras or talisman staves.


 * Specialty Talismans:

There are two talismans that are not directly related to a single alter. The Elemental Talisman is a multi-key type talisman which functions for the Air, Water, Earth, and Fire Alters, but no others. Unfortunatly, this talisman has no Tiara or Staff form, and is members only. The other specialty Talisman is the coveted Omni-talisman, which is also members only. The Omni-Talisman is untradable, but unlike the Elemental Talisman, it may be bound into a tiara or staff form. As it is untradable and may only be obtained within the runecrafting guild, this talisman may be considered to have an indirect requirement of level 50 runecrafting to use. The Omni-talisman, and it's related accessories, provide univeral access to all alters.


 * Obtaining Talismans:

All of the Basic Talismans are tradeable, and can be purchased from the grand exchange or directly from other players. Most talismans are common to semi-rare monster drops. Some of the members talismans are not as simple to get, and may be considerably more dificult to obtain. An alternate meathod of obtaining runecrafting talismans is to purchase them directly from Wizard Elriss withinin the Runecrafting Guild who will trade all but Elemental, Blood, and Death talismans for tokens earned as a reward from The Great Orb Project. The Elemantal Talisman is an uncommon drop recieved from Abyssal Creatures. The Omni-Talisman is obtained only within the runecrafting guild by presenting a specific NPC with a completel collection of all the various talismans. Players will recieve a replacement if they lose or bind the Omni-Talisman for free.

Tiaras
Function: Tiaras are headpieces crafted by players from silver. Blank tiaras may be imbued with the key-like function of a talisman, which cannot then be changed or removed. An imbued Tiara becomes essentially an equipable version of whatever talisman was bound into it. As this frees an inventory slot and gives the player the ability to directly enter a mysterious ruin, without a series of clicks, tiaras are extraordinarily convenient. All tiaras except Omni-tiaras are tradeable, and some (but not all) are quite valuable.

Creation: To bind a tiara, a player must take a talisman and blank tiara to the alter which matches the talisman they intend to bind. With both items in their inventory, the player must use either item on the alter to initiate the binding process. This will earns players Runecrafting experience, the amounts of which is listed here. Making tiaras does not have level requirements, so players with no runecrafting experience may immediately begin binding body or higher talismans for accelerated experience at low levels. However, unlike rune essence which are all crafted simultaneously, tiaras must be bound one by one with no make-x or make-all options provided, which can be quite tedious in large quantity.

The Omni-Tiara: The Omni-Tiara is bound by Wizard Korvak in the runecrafting guild, not at an alter. The player will need to bring him an Omni-Talisman and a blank Tiara. The result is quite ornate in appearance, and functions to provide the player with universal access to the alters while worn. The Omni-talisman provides the same single click entry option as all other tiaras.



Talisman staves
Function: Talisman staves are the final type of talisman accessory, which functions both as a weak weapon as well as an equipable item which allows access to Runecrafting altars through the mysterious ruins. Talisman staves are untradable. Just as tiaras, they provide players with a simple left-click to enter the ruins. These staves provide no assistance in magic, and do not subsitiute for the runes they are related to in any way. These items are considered the symbol of an elite runecrafter. Talisman staves can be in place of tiaras or talismans. In addition, they can be used to distract the eyes in the Abyss, allowing a player to the inner ring.

Creation: A blank Runecrafting Staff can be purchased as an expensive reward from The Great Orb Project minigame, is unteradable, and cannot be wielded while blank. The process of attaching a talisman to the staff is identical to the process of binding a tiara. Player must take both the Runecrafting Staff and the Talisman they wish to attach to it either item on the corresponding altar. Unlike creating tiaras, this action does not give the player Runecrafting experience.  NOTE:  Players are unable to change the talisman type once the staff is bound. As a blank staff takes many hours of work to obtain, players should carefully consider which staff they want to bind. Completed runecrafting staves are also untradable, and it should be noted that they are destroy only, haveing no drop option.  If a player is killed while wielding a talisman staff it will be destroyed  (unless included in the 3 items kept on death.)

Unique staffs: The Omni-Talisman Staff is not created at an alter. The Omni-Talisman and a Blank Runecrafting Staff are bound together within the runecrafting guild by Wizard Korvak. The Law talisman staff is unique in the fact that it has no stat bonuses. Because of this, it is allowed onto entrana allowing the player to reach the Law altar while wielding it, as the mysterious ruins of the law alter are located on Entrana.

Ourania Runecrafting altar
The Ourania Runecrafting altar, also called the ZMI altar, converts Pure essence into a mixture of random runes. Runes crafted on the ZMI altar will not be affected by multiple runecrafting. The altar, which requires no talisman, tiara or staff to enter, gives double the normal experience for every rune crafted. There is no level requirement to use this alter, however the probability of players actually crafting a higher-levelled rune increases with a higher Runecrafting level. The altar boosts individual Runecrafting training to speeds that were previously only available to people using rune running methods.

Once inside the Ourania Cave, which can be quickly reached by an Ourania Teleport, players may use a bank that requires 20 of any type of runes. They can then go to the altar by taking either a short and dangerous route or a longer and safe route. The long, curving path has no monsters that can distract you from Runecrafting, but will almost certainly use all of a players run energy with a single one way trip. At the end of the long path, there is a crack that requires no agility level and gives no agility experience. The shorter path is populated by monsters and various followers of zamarock, all of which are of a level to be a threat or annoyance to all players, and all are agressive.

Abyss
Members can also be teleported directly into the alter by using the Abyss. This area is a 'focal point' with portals leading to most of the alters (ZMI and Astral being the only exceptions. Even a yet-to-become functional soul alter portal is presant.) The abyss does not require a talisman, or related accessories. After a miniquest, players can get teleported to the Abyss by the Mage of Zamorak who can be found north of Edgeville in the level 5-6 Wilderness. When teleported, players will be in an area known as "the outer ring" will be surrounded by a dense population of abyssal monsters. Players will become skulled and have their prayer drained upon entering the abyss, which can be restored with a prayer potion if desired. Players will need to pass through one of a vaviety of obstacle to access the inner ring which contains the portals to the alters, and no monsters.

The popularity of the Abyss has died out since the release of other faster and safer Runecrafting training methods, such as the ZMI altar, Spirit Graahk runecrafting, and The Great Orb Project. However, it is still a viable and most importantly cheep meathod of crafting quantitys or runes for personal use.

Crafting runes
When a player has entered the mysterious ruins with a tiara,a talisman, or runescrafting staff, all they have to do is click on the altar. They will then craft all the essence in their inventory into runes (except any essence in noted form or stored in pouches or in familiars).

Crafting Soul runes
Currently, the only way to craft Soul runes is randomly through the Ourania Runecrafting altar, as there is no Soul altar. However, pictures of the tiara and talisman have been seen on the Knowledge Base by manipulating URLs. Also, at level 90 Runecrafting, a player used to receive a message informing them of their ability to craft Soul runes. This, coupled with the fact that there is a Soul rift in the Abyss (where "A strange power blocks your exit"), indicates that the Soul altar may be released some day.

Crafting multiple runes

 * For calculations of profit / loss from crafting multiple runes, see the Multiple Runes calculator.

As a player's Runecrafting level increases, they can make a multiple amount of runes per essence. However, the experience they earn is still based on the amount of essence they craft and not on the amount of runes received. Multiple amounts of runes can be made at specific levels for different runes. As a player's Runecrafting level gets closer to the next level of multiple runes, they will obtain a bigger chance of crafting that multiple on each essence before reaching that level. The likelihood of creating multiple runes increases with a higher Runecrafting level. After the last set level of multiple runes, players will always craft that multiple (for example, members will always craft double Nature runes after 91 Runecrafting). For Law, Death and Blood runes, the level for double runes would lie above 99, but there is still a chance of crafting double runes, which increases as your level increases. A table showing the set levels of multiple runes follows.

Prior to an update on 17 November 2009, players could only craft multiple runes after reaching the set levels.

Combination runes
Members can craft combination runes which are two elemental runes in one (elemental runes being Air, Water, Earth and Fire runes).

To craft combination runes, a player needs to bring runes that compose half of the combination rune, with a matching talisman, along with an equal amount of Pure essence, to the altar whose element is the other half of the combination. Use the talisman for the existing runes on the altar, resulting in:


 * The talisman being consumed.
 * 50% success in making combination runes.

For a 100% success rate, players can wear a Necklace of Binding (an enchanted Emerald necklace) which lasts for 15 uses.

The combination runes made save inventory space when used for certain spells. Alternatively, the player may use the Lunar spell Magic Imbue to make combination runes without using the opposing talisman.

Players receive less experience at the lower-levelled altars. For example, making Mist runes at the Air altar will give 8 XP for each rune made, while the same runes at the Water altar will give 8.5 XP for each rune made.

Pouches
Inside the Abyss or the Abyssal Area, there are monsters that drop untradeable pouches when killed. Players can store Pure or Rune essence in these pouches (but not both in the same pouch), effectively increasing the amount of essence that may be carried per trip.

There are four types of pouches, each holding an increasing number of essence. Players must acquire each smaller pouch in order for the next pouch to become available to them. Players may have one pouch of each type at a time.

Runecrafting pouches degrade after a certain number of uses. When a pouch degrades, a message will appear in the chat box and the pouch will turn darker in colour. Note that this only affects the biggest pouch at first. When a pouch degrades, its carrying capacity is reduced. The Dark Mage in the centre of the Abyss, who can be contacted through the NPC contact spell, repairs pouches for free, regardless of whether the pouches are in the player's inventory or bank. He will also repair the pouch before it degrades. These pouches can also be bought and repaired by Wizard Korvak in the Runecrafting Guild. See his article for his fees.

Abyssal familiars
To help them while Runecrafting, members may use one of the three following familiars: the Abyssal parasite, Abyssal lurker, or Abyssal titan. Being a special type of Beasts of Burden, they will hold 7 Rune or Pure essence. Note that these familiars are not allowed in the Law altar as it is accessed from Entrana.

Explorer's ring
Wearing an Explorer's ring (versions 2 or 3) gives the wearer a 10% chance of receiving an extra rune and XP on each essence when crafting Air, Water, Earth, or Fire runes. These versions can be obtained after completing the easy or medium tasks of the Lumbridge and Draynor Achievement Diary.

Runecrafting gloves
Runecrafting gloves, which comprise of Air, Water, and Earth, are an untradeable set of rewards from the Fist of Guthix minigame, costing 75 tokens.

Runecrafting gloves give double the experience per essence runecrafted. These gloves crumble to dust after crafting 1,000 essence. Players can then play the minigame to receive another pair. Players may only have one pair of each type at a time.

Runecrafting Guild
The Runecrafting Guild is a guild accessible to players having at least level 50 Runecrafting through a portal on the first floor of the Wizards' Tower.

The Guild features a map of all the Runecrafting altars that are entered through mysterious ruins, wizards, and a two-party activity called The Great Orb Project with rewards including Talisman staff, Runecrafting Teleport Tablets, Rune or Pure essence, Runecrafter Robes, and Talismans. Players may also obtain an Omni-talisman inside the Guild.

Runecrafting training

 * Free-to-play guide
 * Pay-to-play guide
 * An alternate method to training is available to all players in the dungeoneering skill. This method involves the gathering of coins and essence throughout the dungeon then buying more essence and crafting it into the highest level runes and then selling them in order to buy more essence. The difficulty in this method of training is you will only receive 2% the normal exp and you craft 10 essence at a time in an animation slightly faster to that of using bones on an altar. Please note this needs to be done before clicking on the dungeon exit otherwise the countdown timer will beging to move on to next dungeon. It is advised you solo or inform your team that you are doing such in order to ensure nobody clicks on dungeon exit. This method is should no longer be considered as a viable method for powerlevelling since the exp was decreased from 10% down to 2%.

Running and equipment tips
Lightweight things for running back and forth. Either a talisman or tiara. Pouches with essence depending on what you want or need.

Temporary boosts

 * Players may boost their Runecrafting level by eating orange spicy stews from Evil Dave. However, the boost is random and varies between -6 to +6.
 * After completing the Land of the Goblins quest, players can speak to Oldak using the "What have you discovered?" chat option and get a random boost between -2 and 2 to either Runecrafting or Magic.
 * Operating the Runecraft cape increases a player's Runecrafting level to 100.

99 Runecrafting
Once a member has reached level 99 Runecrafting, Aubury in the Varrock rune shop will sell the Runecraft cape for 99,000 coins.
 * Before the dungeoneering update, runecrafting was one of only 4 skills where a new feature or ability is unlocked at level 99 - other than buying a skillcape. (The other three being Summoning, Smithing, and Construction.)
 * No player has managed to reach the 200,000,000 experience cap in Runecrafting so far, however, Phoenix Odin has 199,159,213 experience and is well on his way to become the first.
 * A bug on 14 April 2010 lead to a high number of players getting 99 in runecrafting before Jagex made a rollback. The bug involved runecrafting on a dungeoneering altar, Jagex realised this glitch pretty quickly and switched all the worlds to realtime before shutting them down.This caused lots of active peopleon the rants section of the forumn.