Ourania Runecrafting Altar

The Ourania Runecrafting Altar (also known as the ZMI Altar (Zamorak Magical Institute) or the Ourania Altar) is one of several Runecrafting altars located throughout RuneScape. The altar is in the Ourania Cave, which is west of the Battlefield, and south-west of West Ardougne.

The official Ourania Runecrafting World is world 70. ZMI altar Runecrafting on this world is sometimes considered better because other players may be killing the monsters on the route, reducing the hits you take, and free tele-group spells to Moonclan might be offered at the altar. However, not everyone prefers world 70 due to it being too crowded with too many familiars at the bank; also, group teleports may distract players from Runecrafting before they are ready to teleport, so some players prefer to have Accept Aid switched off.

There are actually two altars in the Ourania area, and the Runecrafting altar goes by several names, which can cause some confusion:
 * 1) The Ourania Runecrafting Altar is in the cave itself. It is sometimes called the Ourania Altar, the Ourania rune altar, or the ZMI altar. This is a runecrafting altar, not a prayer one.
 * 2) A Zamarokian Chaos altar (used to recharge prayer points only) is outside the cave, near the cave's entrance. This altar is a prayer altar, not a Runecrafting one. (Elsewhere there is an altar called chaos altar, used to make chaos runes.)

Description
Only pure essence may be used to craft at this altar. The mix of random runes depends on the Runecrafting level of a player. You can craft runes without any requirement to do so, level or quests.

As the altar gives double the experience per pure essence, it provides faster Runecrafting experience and roughly halves the amount of essence needed to achieve Runecrafting levels. The Ourania Altar converts essences into runes on a one to one basis (i.e. multiple runes cannot be created at this altar). With the random nature of the rune mix, the cost of pure essences may exceed the street value of the crafted runes.

Crafting runes at the Ourania Altar is the only known method of producing soul runes as the equivalent altar has not yet been released into the game. The magic supply shops are still the dominant supply for these runes.

Transportation
A few ways can be taken to get to the altar:
 * Ourania Teleport (71 Magic) - appearing at the starting of path to the entrance
 * Spirit Tree - from Tree Gnome Village to the Khazard battlefield and travel south-west
 * Ardougne Teleport (51 magic with Plague City Quest done) - walk out from the zoo and head south-west
 * Kandarin Monastery Teleport (using Ardougne cloak)

Banking
There are four methods of banking when using the altar:
 * 1) Moonclan Teleport (69 Magic): To return to the altar, use the Ourania Teleport (71 Magic) spell.
 * 2) Ring of kinship: This ring will transport you to Daemonheim and has unlimited charges. (zero cost.)
 * 3) Ring of duelling: Use this ring to teleport to the Castle Wars bank and the Ourania Teleport spell to return to the altar.
 * 4) Eniola, a travelling banker: Eniola will allow you access to your bank account in exchange for 20 of any one type of rune. Using runes which are common, or not often used, such as body runes, or elemental runes, is the smarter economical decision. Currently, the cheapest runes are Body Runes or Mind Runes at 4gp and 5 gp a piece respectively. That's up to 100 coins per bank, now that using runecrafting pouches due to the update that allows you to fill your pouches without closing the bank. This is also the fastest method for banking.

Paths
There are two paths leading to the altar:
 * Shorter, more dangerous route.
 * Longer, danger free route.

Shorter route
The zamorak warriors, mages and rangers are often fighting the cave lizards. Lower level players around 70 or below will probably want to take the alternate route, but higher ups will be able to wear any combination of magic armour and melee armour and run through relatively unscathed.

If a player goes to the altar from the shorter route, there are various tactics.
 * Using Sacred Clay Armour affords good protection at a very low weight cost.
 * Increase their magic defence as much as possible and put on protect from missiles for the whole journey. Ghostly robes are a good choice, as they provide modest magic defence while being weightless, allowing run energy to last longer.
 * Switching around prayers to try and avoid the varied attacks while running through.
 * Wear full melee armour with the protect from magic prayer, using the baths from the As a First Resort... Quest for run energy. From Oo'glog,
 * Run north to reach the gnome glider (One Small Favour Quest required), go to the Grand Tree then take the Spirit Tree south of the Tree to go to Khazard battlefield.
 * Use Lunar Magicks spells.
 * Players with at least 85-90 Agility are recommended to obtain the agility clothes, which greatly decrease your weight, at the same time giving you a decent defence bonus.
 * Using a Regen bracelet, along with the prayer Rapid Heal, and the Lunar spell Dream is very helpful, though the latter is not recommended unless you're very low on lifepoints and don't wish to use food.

Longer route
This route is a long winding pathway. Once players reach the end of the path, they will have to squeeze through a small crack in the wall to reach the altar. The wall-crack shortcut has no agility requirements. The Zamorak crafters are commonly killed in hopes of their rare rune drops.

Rates
The runes craftable at the Ourania Runecrafting Altar occur in the following proportions (at level 56, 57, 58, 59, 67, 80, and 90 Runecrafting respectively):


 * At level 55 with Ardougne Cloak 2 (based on a 668 Essence test with 853 runes produced and 40 essence per run):


 * At level 56 with Ardougne Cloak 2 (based on a 1216 Essence test with 1468 runes produced and 40 essence per run):


 * At level 57 (based on a 1,000 essence test):

The total cost for 40 pure essence is roughly 0 coins, therefore the loss for an inventory (of 40) is about 0


 * At level 57 with Ardougne Cloak 2 (based on a 1342 Essence test with 1618 runes produced and 40 essence per run):


 * At level 58 with Ardougne Cloak 2 (based on a 1433 Essence test with 1757 runes produced and 40 essence per run):


 * At level 67 (based on a 1,512 essence sample):

The total cost for 42 pure essence is roughly 0 coins, therefore the loss for an inventory (of 42) is about 0


 * At level 80 (based on a 509 essence test):

The total cost for 40 pure essence is roughly 0 coins, therefore the profit for an inventory (of 40) is about 0


 * At level 90 (based on a 1,179 essence test):

The total cost for 44 pure essence is roughly 0 coins, therefore the profit for an inventory (of 44) is about 0


 * At level 90 (based on a 918 essence test) with ardougne cape 3(creating 1,096 runes):

The total cost for 44 pure essence is roughly 0 coins, therefore the profit for an inventory (of 44) is about 0

''Note: All prices shown are taken from the Grand Exchange Market Watch. To update outdated prices, see Grand Exchange Market Watch/Runecrafting.''

Tips

 * Air, Water, and Earth runecrafting gloves, a reward from the Fist of Guthix activity, do not work at ZMI altar to boost exp.


 * If transporting to Lunar Isle to bank without a Seal of Passage, talk only with the eastern banker, 'Bird's-Eye' Jack. Talking with the other bankers will result in the player being kicked off the island.


 * The familiars to use here are the Spirit Terrorbird to scroll extra run energy or the Abyssal parasite, Abyssal lurker, or Abyssal titan familiars which hold 7 extra essence. There is a small Summoning Obelisk right at the lunar colony entrance, so that you can renew summoning points when needed, if you bank there.


 * The nearest source of essence is right on Lunar Island, North and east in the dungeon. Simply take a pick there (running to avoid the Suqahs level 111) mine and continue to Ourania. The next closest is in East Ardougne Wizard Cromperty whose house lies north-east of the East Ardougne marketplace and who provides a teleport to the essence mines.


 * It is safer to run in a group to the altar as it reduces the chance of being attacked.


 * To reduce damage, players tend to use Protect from Missiles as well as Rapid Heal as there is an altar just as you enter. Defence boosting prayers such as Steel Skin or Chivalry, or even the Leech Defence curse can also help to reduce damage taken.


 * When teleporting back to Lunar Isles, wield a Staff of earth and use Tele Group Moonclan instead to increase Magic XP gained. Many mages teleport this way so if you are a lower level (but completed or at least started Lunar Diplomacy) or don't want to use your runes, make sure you have accept aid on and hitch a ride with them. It is also recommended to review the teleport destination before accepting, to make sure it is teleporting to Lunar Isle, as sometimes a player may telegroup to a dangerous area such as Ice Plateau.


 * A player can make the long trip (safe route) within 100% run energy with 59+ Agility.


 * A player can save on banking trips by withdrawing their pouches and ess; and before exiting the banking interface, right-clicking on their pouches and selecting "fill". This will fill the pouches. The player can then withdraw more ess filling up the player's backpack. This means one banking per trip.


 * The deposit-all feature can be used to massively increase your xp per hour. If you withdraw your pouches (and if you are using Eniola, your stack of preferred runes) and then fill your bank, you can simply click the deposit all button to bank the different runes you make at ZMI, instead of taking extra time to bank them all individually (or losing profit by dropping them on the return trip).


 * Additional consideration - For players with 75+ runecrafting, consider using only the giant, large, and medium pouches. Configure as necessary with the large amount of inexpensive runes. Fill the giant and large pouches, and only fill half of the medium pouch every 10 runs. This will allow for only 2 x 20 runes (40 total) per run per bank visit. Repeat steps 2-5 of the alternative method. Once the giant pouch degrades on the 11th refill, players should THEN fill the medium pouch to capacity, along with the large pouch. After filling the two smaller pouches, players should withdraw the necessary runes for the NPC Contact spell (1 astral rune, 1 cosmic rune, and 2 air runes), as well as filling the rest of the player's inventory with pure essence. Contact the Dark mage to have him fix the giant pouch. Fill the giant pouch, and bank one final time to fill the player's inventory, then craft runes using the 2-bank method. This SIGNIFICANTLY reduces the amount of time between trips, allowing for greater amounts of xp / hr (as the Ourania runecrafting altar is based on the player's runecrafting level). The only downside to this is, since the amount of banking is done so quickly, it places a heavy drain on the run energy. It is strongly advised for a player to have at least 65 Agility (75+ recommended) to attempt this method, unless the player wishes to use Super energy potions in between runs, or a Spirit terrorbird familiar. However, terrorbird familiars are not recommended because the amount of run energy restored is based on the player's agility level, AND the amount of frequent run recharging makes the player a slightly greater target for the NPC's to attack.

This '2-bank' method not only reduces the cycle time (time it takes to bank, craft runes, and bank again), but it would also save a modest sum per hour on bank charges. Assuming fire runes are the preferred currency (at 6 coins per fire rune) for using Eniola's banking services, and a player can make 55 cycles (VERY probable using the aforementioned method), then the following cost-savings can be realised per hour:

55 cycles @ 360 coins (using 4 pouches / abyssal familiar for 3 bank visits): 19,800 coins per hour for banking charges

50 cycles @ 240 coins (using aforementioned method for 2 bank visits): 12,000 coins + 5 cycles @ 360 (3 bank visits when repairing giant pouch): 1,800 coins - totalling 13,800 coins per hour for banking charges.

Therefore, for 55 cycles, a player would save 19,800 - 13,800 = 6,000 coins, or 1,000 fire runes per hour. As a side note, the 4-pouch method DID NOT take into account the extra banking fee it would take to repair a degraded pouch.

This is based on the assumption that a player can make 55 cycles per hour using all 4 pouches, which is generally unsustainable, whereas 40 - 45 cycles per hour is a more reasonable estimate than 55 cycles per hour, based on the additional mouse-clicking time delay of filling and emptying all 4 pouches on each cycle.


 * Wearing an Ardougne cloak 2 or higher will grant the player a chance of receiving more runes from Ourania Altar (though it will not increase the experience you receive).

Trivia

 * The song 'Altar Ego' is unlocked here.
 * "Ourania" is another name for the Greek muse, Urania.
 * The cave lizards are aggressive to the Zamorakian guards, so players may take advantage of this to receive less damage, but not by much.
 * An issue with the rune payment interface for the banker at Ourania Altar was resolved on 9 November 2009.
 * The Zamorakian warriors appear to be wearing a red version of Guthan's Helm.
 * Even without the necessary runecrafting levels, it is still possible to make every type of rune at this altar, although higher level runes tend to be less likely to be crafted.
 * The higher your runecrafting level, the higher chance you have of receiving better runes, and lower chance of receiving lower leveled runes.