Rune essence


 * See also Pure essence

Rune essence is the raw material that players can craft into runes through the Runecrafting skill. Rune essence can be mined through the Mining skill on non-members worlds, while pure essence is mined on members' worlds by players with at least level 30 Mining. Players receive 5 mining experience per rune essence. Rune essence can only be used to craft the six lowest level runes. It is most commonly called Rune ess by players.

Recently, the price of rune essence has seen a huge jump of up to 65gp but a decrease has started due to the creation of the Runecrafting Guild and peoples curiosity in joining it to play the new runecrafting-related minigame, The Great Orb Project.

The rune essence change
Before the game update on April 20th, 2006, all runes could be crafted from rune essence (see Runecrafting). However, the update made the runes craftable only by members, and only craftable from pure essence -- which can be mined only on members worlds by players with 30 Mining.

It was a measure to try to stop macroers from making a profit off rune essence, as the essence mined without membership or adequate mining level became unusable for high level runes, causing the demand and price of rune essence to drop significantly, making it no longer profitable for real world traders. It is highly disputed whether this goal was achieved, especially since most of the macros just switched to mining pure essence instead (possibly using stolen credit cards), despite the required membership and mining level.

It unfortunately also devalued a good revenue stream for many honest non-member players, players who could previously have become members with a good supply of usable rune essence already banked.

Price speculation on pure essence is rife, as are fears that Runecrafting members will also suffer a grave reduction in supplies, resulting in a price shift on higher level runes and a considerable slowdown in leveling.

This update was met with mixed reactions: Some supported "sticking it to the autoers," while others were concerned that it destroyed the wide availability of non-costly essence for Runecrafting members.

Note that when the change occurred, all rune essence in the banks of members automatically became pure essence; but for non-members with rune essence, there was no change.

When the unbalanced trade update was passed, many players suggested eliminating pure essence, as there were no more bots to mine rune essence.

Location
Rune essence is only minable when you have completed the Rune Mysteries quest. Talk to Aubury in Varrock or Sedridor in the basement of the wizards tower. They will teleport you to the rune essence mine.

On the other hand, for rune crafters level 50 and above, you can buy essences for the Runecrafting Guild with Runecrafting guild tokens from playing The Great Orb Project. 1 token for 1 essence, or Pure essence(members only).

Rune essence is a fairly rare drop from Minotaurs (level 12) in the Stronghold of Security.

History
The Stone of Jas, mentioned in many texts and dialogues in the game, is what gave the Rune Essence its power.