Ourania Runecrafting Altar

OS

The official world for Ourania Runecrafting Altar is world 36 (P2P).

The altar

The Ourania Runecrafting Altar (also known as the ZMI Altar) is a special Runecrafting altar located in the Ourania Cave, which is west of the Battlefield, and south of West Ardougne.

It converts pure essence into an assortment of random runes without a chance of bonus runes being created. The altar, which requires no talisman, tiara or staff to enter, gives double the normal experience for every rune crafted. However, the Abyss has since been given a 250% runecrafting experience modifier, increased to 350% with a demonic skull. Players do not need a specific Runecrafting level in order to craft at this altar, but the chance of crafting higher-levelled runes increases with a higher Runecrafting level.

Once inside the Ourania Cave, quickly reached by an Ourania Teleport, players may use a bank there that requires a payment of 20 runes of any type. They can then go to the altar by taking either a short and dangerous route or a longer and safe route. The long route has no monsters and has a crack at the end that requires no Agility level to use.

Getting there

• Casting Ourania Teleport requires 71 Magic and access to the Lunar spellbook, and places the player on the path to the altar entrance.
• Use Spirit trees to teleport from the Tree Gnome Village to the Battlefield and walk south-west.
• Cast Ardougne Teleport, requiring 51 Magic and Plague City, and head south-west.
• Teleport to the Ardougne Monastery with the Ardougne cloak 1, and walk north-west.
• Teleport to Castle Wars with the ring of duelling, and walk north from the lobby.

Mechanics

A player crafting runes at the Ourania altar.

The player is able to craft all runes that are available in the game (except Armadyl runes and Combination runes), despite not having the required level or quest requirements. However, the higher the player's Runecrafting level, the higher-levelled the crafted runes will be. The experience here is double to what you would normally get for the runes.

The Ardougne cloak 2 (and higher) adds a chance of creating more runes in the Ourania Altar (rune output is increased by roughly 15%), though no extra experience is gained. Master runecrafter robes (the full set gives 5% more experience) will work here. However, they have a maximum boost of 700 experience per altar click or batch. Runecrafting gloves from Fist of Guthix will not work here, as the experience is already doubled.

Paths

There are two paths leading to the altar: a shorter, dangerous route, and a longer, safe route.

Longer route

A player on a section of the long path

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.

Shorter route

The shorter route contains Zamorak warriors, Zamorak mages, Zamorak rangers, Zamorak crafters, and cave lizards.

The key is to stay light and protect against the warriors, mages, and rangers, who are aggressive and fight with all three styles, it is recommended to wear armour that boosts Defence against Magic, and activate Protect from Missiles (there is an altar just outside the cave). However, after the Evolution of Combat, the ZMI members do not do much damage; the run through them should not take more than 20 seconds, and even with 1 Defence and no armour, you should not take more than 1,500 damage total in one run (therefore possibly feasible even to level 3 skill pures if they bring several pieces of cheap food like trout). Remember to turn Auto Retaliate off, and set Right Click or Hidden in attack options of Combat Settings.

Here is a list of a recommended setup with downgradeable options:

Recommended equipment for Ranged

Slot	Item (most effective → least effective)
	Mighty slayer helmet	Armadyl helmet	Royal dragonhide coif	Black dragonhide coif	N/A
	Amulet of fury	Amulet of glory	Amulet of defence	Holy symbol	N/A
	Ardougne cloak 2 or higher	Any Cape of Accomplishment	Spottier cape	Spotted cape	Obsidian cape
	Agile top	Wicked robe top	Armadyl chestplate	Royal dragonhide body	Black dragonhide body
	Agile legs	Wicked legs	Armadyl chainskirt	Royal dragonhide chaps	Black dragonhide chaps
	Any Ranged shield	Void knight deflector	Falador shield 3 or 4	Blessed spirit shield	N/A
	Penance gloves	Regen bracelet	Barrows gloves	N/A	N/A
	Boots of lightness	Spined boots	Carapace boots	Snakeskin boots	N/A
	Ring of life	Explorer's ring 4	N/A	N/A	N/A

Banking

Eniola will allow you access to your bank account in exchange for 20 of any one type of rune. Using cheap runes such as mind runes at 19 coins each is recommended. Due to an update, you no longer need to close the bank window to fill Runecrafting pouches with pure essence. Previously it is common to deliberately keep a full bank, so you can bank the various runes crafted without banking the pouches, but this is now unnecessary due to bank presets.

There are a few other methods of banking when Runecrafting at the Ourania Altar:

• Use the TokKul-Zo to teleport to any of the three "Fight" options and the Ourania Teleport spell to return to the cave. This is just as close to a bank as the Castle Wars teleport but does not use any charges on the ring. Note that it requires you to choose an option in a popup interface that can be interrupted when the Zamorak ranger near the altar is attacking you. This can be avoided by squeezing back through the gap into the long path.
• Teleport up and down between Lunar Isle (Home Teleport or Moonclan Teleport) and the Ourania Altar (Ourania Teleport). Tele-group Moonclan tends to land the player a few squares closer to the bank than Moonclan Teleport.
• The ring of kinship will teleport to Daemonheim and has unlimited charges.
• The ring of duelling will teleport to the Castle Wars lobby.
• Use the games necklace to teleport to the Burthorpe Troll Invasion area and the Ourania Teleport spell to return to the altar. This is marginally cheaper than the ring of duelling, and just as efficient since the Loyalty Programme update placed a bank outside the Warriors' Guild.
• Memory strands can be clicked inside the currency pouch (if favourited) for teleporting to Memorial to Guthix site.

Music unlocked

• Altar Ego

Trivia

• Ourania (Ουρανία), or Urania, was the muse of astronomy in Greek mythology (the name means "heavenly" or "of heaven" in Ancient Greek). This is significant considering the proximity of the grave of the astronomer Scorpius and the Observatory.