Runecrafting

Runecrafting is a skill that allows players to craft their own runes for magic spells. The experience earned from making runes is small, making runecrafting a very slow skill to raise. Due to the fact that you have to mine your own pure essence or buy from other players.

Rune Essence
To craft runes, players need rune stones, known as 'rune essence'. Rune essence is also commonly referred to as 'rune ess' or just 'ess'.

There are two kinds of rune essence, normal essence and pure essence.

Normal Essence
Normal rune essence is used to make air runes, mind runes, water runes, earth runes, fire runes, and body runes.

Pure Essence
Pure essence is used to make any runes, although it is the only kind of essence which can be made into cosmic runes, chaos runes, astral runes, nature runes, law runes, and death runes. Level 30 Mining is required for this.

Pure essence can also be used to craft any rune type unlike Rune essence which can only be used to craft the basic elemental runes (Water rune,Earth rune, Fire rune & Air rune).

Obtaining Rune Essence
Both normal essence and pure essence are located in the same massive underground mines. However, players require a mining level of 30 to obtain pure essence. It is obtained automatically upon mining the rune essence, in place of regular essence.

To access these mines, players need to talk to certain NPCs who can teleport them to the mines. A player can either right-click on the NPC and select the 'teleport' option or talk to the NPC and ask to be teleported. However, the right-click option is faster than talking. There are five NPCs that can teleport players to the essence mines. However, only two of them are available for free players. These are the NPCs that teleport you to the essence mine.
 * Aubury - owner of the shop that sells runes in Varrock, reasonably close to East Varrock bank
 * Wizard Sedridor - found in the basement of the Wizard's Guild south of Draynor Village
 * Wizard Cromperty - This wizard is located in East Ardougne, northeast of the marketplace.
 * Wizard Distantor - This wizard is located in the Magic Guild in Yanille. A magic level of 66 is required to enter the guild, This NPC is close to a bank like Aubury. This is the closest teleporter to a bank.

Alternatives
Some monsters also drop rune essence, for example the Minotaur in the first level of the Stronghold of Security and Banshees, which drop countless noted Pure Essence.

Talismans
Talismans are important as they are needed to make runes. To obtain talismans, players will have to kill monsters or buy them from other players. However, except from abyss monsters, talismans are an uncommon drop from monsters, making them hard to obtain.

Each talisman has a name that indicates what kind of rune a player can make with it. For example, to make air runes, a player needs to find an air talisman..

Note that all talismans of elements (Fire, Earth, Air and Water) will be dropped by the corresponding wizard south of Falador, close to Malignus Mortifer.

Tiara's
Talismans take up a space in a player's inventory, allowing them to only hold 27 essence in their inventory. However, a tiara can fix this. A player can combine a talisman and a tiara together, allowing them to wear the tiara on their head while still being able to craft runes. With the talisman inside the tiara, players can hold 28 essence. Players can either craft a tiara or buy one from another player.

If a player has a grey tiara with no markings on it, then it is un-enchanted. To enchant a tiara, the player needs to bring the talisman to an altar (explained in the next section). For example, if a player wants to make air runes wearing a tiara, then they will have to bring their air talisman to the air altar and combine the talisman and the tiara. Players can also earn some runecrafting xp from making a tiara, shown in the table below. Additionally, making a tiara does not have a runecrafting level requirement.

Note: There is no astral tiara/talisman as the alter is found in the world, not in a special portal/zone.

Altars
Altars are where players make their runes. Tiaras or talismans are needed to enter these altars hidden inside 'mysterious ruins'. Players can find altars by finding them on their own, using a talisman, or by asking other players.

To find an altar using a talisman, players can right-click on the talisman and click on the 'locate' option. In the chatbox, the player will notice a message that will tell them the direction they need to go in, whether it be northwest or southeast.

When a player has found the mysterious ruins, they then need to enter the ruins. The player can enter by using their talisman with the ruins. If they are wearing an enchanted tiara, all they have to do is click on the ruins.

When the player is inside the ruins, they are now in the altar. They can then use their essence with the altar to craft some runes. While inside an altar, a player can also enchant a tiara if they have an un-enchanted tiara in their inventory. With the un-enchanted tiara, all they have to do is use with the altar and it will become enchanted. The table below lists the locations of where the altars are.

Abyss
Players can also be teleported inside the ruins by using the Abyss, which does not need a tiara or a talisman to use. This is possibly the best way to craft your own runes. However, despite being much faster in many cases, players often choose not to use this route due to the risk of the Wilderness. Players travel to level 5 Wilderness to be teleported.

Note: you need to have completed the Abyss Mini quest to do this method

Crafting Runes
When a player has entered the mysterious ruins, all they have to do is click on the altar. They will then craft all the essence they hold into a rune.

Crafting multiple runes
As a player's runecrafting level increases, they can make more runes. However, they only earn experience based on the amount of essence they have. For example, a player may have only 1 essence in their inventory, but can make 2 air runes. They will only receive 5 experience, as they only used one essence. The number of runes made from the essence in a player's inventory in an action that gains a level is determined by the player's level before the runecrafting action, even if crafting the same amount of essence one piece at a time would yield more runes.

Law and Death runes cannot be multicrafted.

Combination Runes
To craft combination runes, a player needs to take existing runes that are one half of the combination, with a matching talisman (not a tiara), along with an equal amount of pure essence to the Altar which comprises the other half of the combination. Use the talisman for the existing runes on the altar, resulting in:


 * The talisman is consumed.
 * 50% success in making combination runes.

For 100% success, players can wear a 'Necklace of Binding' (enchanted emerald necklace), but this is only good for 15 uses. The runes made can often save inventory space when used for certain spells, including those in Ancient Magicks. Alternatively, the player may use the lunar spell Magic Imbue to make combination runes without using the opposing talisman.