Death rune

The Death rune is used for blast spells, the highest level combat spells available in the free-to-play version of RuneScape, including Wind Blast, Water Blast, Earth Blast, and Fire Blast. Each Death rune is infused with the properties of death and shock. Death runes are also in great demand with mages that cast Ancient Magicks, as they are used in all Ancient Magicks combat spells, except for those in the Miasmic series. High demand in free-to-play combined with the demand by the Ancient Magick users result in the high price.

These are also the most powerful rune stocked in any store in free-to-play, and can only be crafted by members after completing Mourning's Ends Part II. Crafting them gives 10 experience each. Prior to the update which gave most stores in RuneScape an infinite stock of their goods and a fixed price, death runes were often bought from magic stores until they ran out of stock because there was high demand and the store price was slightly under the street price. After the update, the store price was raised above the street price. However, due to the new update in which all stores are different for each player, players can only purchase a limited number of death runes in game each day, creating a death and making it much harder to purchase large quantities quickly on the Grand Exchange. Members can create death runes using the Runecrafting skill at level 65 at the Death altar in the Temple of Light.

Adult cats can be exchanged for 100 death runes with a Civilian in West Ardougne.

Spells
Death runes are needed in a relatively low number of spells in the standard spellbook, as seen below, but are quite powerful.

Free-to-play spells
All players can cast these spells (in both free-to-play and pay-to-play):
 * Wind Blast
 * Water Blast
 * Earth Blast
 * Fire Blast
 * Tele Block

Pay-to-play spells
These spells can only be cast in pay-to-play:
 * Enchant Crossbow Bolt (Onyx)

* Rush, Burst, Blitz, and Barrage spells are part of the Ancient Magicks spellbook and can only be cast by players who have completed the Desert Treasure quest and have switched their spellbook to Ancient Magicks.
 * Iban Blast (requires Iban staff and completion of the Underground Pass quest)
 * Magic Dart (requires level 55 Slayer and a Slayer staff)
 * Shadow Rush*
 * Smoke Rush*
 * Blood Rush*
 * Ice Rush*
 * Smoke Burst*
 * Shadow Burst*
 * Ice Burst*
 * Blood Burst*
 * Smoke Blitz*
 * Shadow Blitz*
 * Blood Blitz*
 * Ice Blitz*
 * Smoke Barrage*
 * Shadow Barrage*
 * Blood Barrage*
 * Ice Barrage*
 * Vengeance Other**
 * Vengeance**

** Vengeance Other and Vengeance are part of the Lunar spellbook and can only be cast by players who have completed the Lunar Diplomacy quest and have switched their spellbook to Lunar Spells.

The best monsters that consistently drop a decent amount of death runes are Ankou, Infernal Mages, and Brine rats.

In P2P there is a Death Rune spawn in the Feldip Hills. It respawns 1 minute and 45 seconds after picking it up (see map for location).



Store locations
This item can also be bought or sold at:


 * Aubury's Rune Shop in Varrock
 * The Dark Mage above Varrock
 * Baba Yaga in the chicken leg house on Lunar Isle
 * The Wizards' Guild in Yanille

Trivia

 * The most death runes required for a spell are 4, for the smoke, shadow, blood and Ice Barrage spells.
 * The picture on a Death Rune shows a skull & a X, which is most likely meant to imitate a skull & crossbones.