Runespan

The Runespan is a Runecrafting training method released on 30 April 2012. Using rune essence, 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 you have created will be taken away by the guild wizards and converted into points which can be spent on rewards, as the Runecrafting Guild claims ownership of the Runespan, for it is located in the realm of the guild.

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. It is in another dimension where runes can be pulled from elemental nodes or from the wildlife. The Runespan is located in islands in the "vast sea of nothingness" which surrounds the guild.

Runes obtained in Runespan cannot be used to cast any spells other than for passing platforms.

Runespan is a safe activity.

Location
⌊undefined⌋ The Runespan can be found in the Wizards' Tower, by the Runecrafting Guild entrance, after talking to Wizard Finix.
 * Wizards have appeared at every Runecrafting altar, and will offer to teleport you to the Wizards' Tower after a brief conversation.
 * All players can teleport to Draynor Village and walk to the Wizards' Tower.
 * Members can use wicked hood to teleport them to the first floor of the Wizards' Tower.
 * Members can teleport to the tower by going through the east portal on the second floor of the Wizards' Guild. (Requres level 66 Magic)
 * Members can use the fairy ring code DIS, taking them behind the tower.
 * Runecrafting guild teleports can be used to go directly to the guild.

General gameplay
Players do not need to take anything with them into Runespan, either worn or in inventory, although some choose to take weight-reducing gear (which is generally unnecessary) or teleport objects. In particular, players should not take any runes or essence with them.


 * 1) Start by collecting 25 essence from floating essence.
 * 2) Interact with creatures and concentrated energy nodes.
 * 3) * Siphon creatures to turn essence into runes and. Once the creature is drained it gives more essence. Experience is awarded for siphoning. Each different creature produces a specific rune.
 * 4) * Chip away at creatures to collect essence. Note: this is counter-productive because each different creature consume a specific rune type in order to be chipped at. This results in a loss of reward points.
 * 5) * Siphon concentrated energy nodes for more runes and experience. Each concentrated energy node produces a specific rune or set of runes. Concentrated energy nodes do not give more essence when they are drained.
 * 6) Transport from island to island on each level at the cost of runes. Each transport platform costs different runes, which are displayed on the platforms themselves and in the examine text of the platforms.
 * 7) At specific locations, climb between lower levels and higher levels.
 * 8) Optionally participate in two Distractions and Diversions specific to Runespan (the yellow wizard and the runesphere) for an experience reward.
 * 9) Exit 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 first level and part of the second 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 on the top left of their screen with the following icons.

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 first floor 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 on the lower level. Only parts of the middle level are available to free-to-play players. There are 46 islands on this level. All types of esshounds are found on this level.


 * 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


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


 * 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
 * Mist platform
 * Ice platform
 * Small missile platform
 * Missile platform
 * Comet platform
 * Skeletal platform
 * Greater missile platform
 * Flesh platform
 * Greater conjuration platform

Experience
Runespan is playable at any Runecrafting level. At higher levels, the experienced gained per hour is the best in the game, surpassing even the Ourania Runecrafting Altar. It is calculated that the amount of experience gained surpasses 50,000 experience points per hour at level 60. At 99 Runecrafting, siphoning only Soul Esswraiths, you are capable of getting an upwards of 70,000 experience points per hour.

Experience is gained by siphoning runes from the creatures and nodes within the Runespan. Experience is also gained from rescuing the yellow wizard.

Points
Creating runes awards points that can be used to buy rewards. When you leave the area, the points will automatically be redeemed. Using your runes to travel around the Runespan will decrease your point total since it removes runes from your inventory to cross them, however the counter in the corner of the screen won't update until you create another rune, so it won't appear like it did at first.

Creatures
Various creatures inhabit the Runespan, which 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 goes down at higher Runecrafting levels. After 10 runes have been created by any given player siphoning the beast(meaning that multiple people could be siphoning, but when the first person of them all reaches 10 runes made, the beast being siphoned will fall), the creature will be completely broken down, at which point 50 rune essence is given to those players siphoning it. (It appears that the creatures only die if you siphon 10 runes in a single siphon, this means that if you siphon 9 or less runes then stop and resume siphoning and you won't need to wait for the creature to respawn). The creatures respawn after a few seconds, always at the same location.

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; you can't chip the same creature until you have chipped three others.

Nodes
A node is an elemental object within the Runespan that can be siphoned for runes, giving Runecrafting experience. Siphoning a node will give about twice the experience to siphon the same type of runespan creature. If the siphon is unsuccessful, the player can still gain 0-2 xp. 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. When siphoning a node, a white cloud would appear inside the node.

There are basic nodes pertaining to one element (like cyclones, rock fragments, and fleshy growths), but there are also nodes that players can siphon two different types of runes from (like fire storms, which grant air runes and fire runes). Combination nodes such fire storms will not always yield both runes, with the higher level rune having a lower chance of being obtained; a fire storm will reward the player with 22 experience if it produces an air rune, or 42 experience if it produces both an air and fire rune.

Platforms
Platforms transport players from one island to another, like bridges. Crossing them uses up certain runes. The symbols on the platforms show which runes are required to use the platform. If you examine the platform, it will show you the runes needed to cross.

In the case of missile platforms, the type of elemental rune used depend on the amount the player has in their inventory. The most abundant rune type would always be used. If more than one rune type is equally abundant, the lower level one would be used. For example, water runes would be used over fire runes.

It appears that runes are only consumed when going one of the two directions available from a pair of platforms. This is a measure to prevent players from getting stuck on dead end floating islands.

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 a creature or node. The runes may then be used for crossing between gaps.

Yellow Wizard
A message will appear in the chatbox saying that a wizard needs your help. To find the wizard, talk to any of the wizards in blue robes. A flashing arrow will point to where the yellow wizard is located. Give him the runes he requests (up to ten), and he will reward you with Runecrafting experience. You may not always be able to reach the yellow wizard because he may be on an island that requires a platform you do not have access to.

Although a small percentage boost in runecrafting experience is awarded for giving the requested runes, this often pales in comparison to the extra runecrafting experience gained by simply giving the yellow wizard the highest level runes you have available. However, higher levels of Runecrafting will benefit more from using the "requested rune" on the yellow wizards. Through testing, it has been determined that there is a massive jump in this requested rune bonus experience somewhere between levels 74 and 80. Level 80+ players should follow the request, while level 74 and below players should turn in the highest level runes possible.

Runesphere
The runesphere is a rare occurrence in the Runespan which requires multiple people to successfully siphon off its many layers of runic energy, using up rune essence and giving runes of whatever layer the Runesphere is currently on. Players also receive rune dust, which can be exchanged with the runesphere core for 10 Runecrafting experience per dust. The runesphere will disappear after an hour regardless of whether or not all of the layers have been siphoned. You can siphon up to 1,000 dust per day, and you can only work on one runesphere per day.

When a runesphere is active, an icon will appear at the top left of your screen, saying "runesphere active". You then can find the runesphere on one of the 3 floors at your world. It is not always located on the floor you are currently on, so you might have to go up or down floors to find it.

When you've found it you 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) untill it reaches air, after which it will become a runesphere core.

Rewards
Runes gathered in Runespan are taken by the Runecrafting Guild if you leave the Runespan. In return, you receive Runespan points to spend on various rewards. It is possible to buy a second wicked hood, but it will not give extra free runes, essence or teleports each day.

Rewards are exclusive only to members.

Points can be spent in Wizard Finix's reward-shop next to the Runecrafting Guild portal.

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) is required for the trimmed completionist cape and costs 211,860 points total.

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
You can re-colour your equipped wicked equipment for 2000 points total. If a full set of robes of one color is desired, it would be cheapest to obtain the full set, equip it, and then purchase the recolor.

Trivia

 * RuneSpan_Dragon.png 28 April 2012, 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 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.
 * On 30 April 2012, Runespan was offically released to both F2P and P2P members. There was a glitch which had a effect on how many Nodes could spawn during each level, this was since than fixed by Jagex but not without making another glitch which would require a system update to fix. During the first glitch nodes on level one had around 14-20 nodes per island. Level two had a constant 5-8 nodes per island and level 3 had a constant 2-3 nodes per island. When they applied a hotfix shortly after its release these nodes became very rare at level two and three which people have spectated they decreased the spawn rates by 2/3 of the orginal which had serious issues. On the 1st of May, another system update occured in which nodes are now spawning 1/3 the amount when first released. It appears the constant node glitch is caused by an active runesphere.
 * You can obtain strange rocks and spin tickets from the Runespan.
 * The respawn time of the various creatures in Runespan is extremely short. This is to stop brief 'AFKing', as you have to click again on the rapid respawn to resume.
 * While siphoning runes from essence creatures, if you try to perform an emote it says "you are already doing an emote", but the emote of siphoning runes does stop.
 * You can not use the assistance system while siphoning or crossing platforms that you do not have the required level for.
 * Random events can occur here.
 * This activity suggests that, should the ability to craft soul runes be added in the future, it will require 90 Runecrafting, as siphoning all other ess creatures requires the same level as crafting the respective type of rune.
 * Wearing pieces of master runecrafter robes does increase the experience gained while in the Runespan.
 * Using platforms to move from island to island is uninterruptible.