ASHMARCH

Runecrafting

Twelve altars, from Air at level 1 to Blood at 77, each paying XP per essence. Pure essence comes from Mining 30, pouches from the Abyss, and from Runecrafting 35 the Abyss puts every altar a rift away.

Runecrafting turns essence into runes at twelve altars, from Air at level 1 to Blood at 77. XP is paid per essence, not per rune. The numbers on this page are base XP before your game mode's rate: Regular and every Ironman mode earn 5x, Lucky 3x, and Unreal and Ultra Ironman 1x. See Game Modes.

Getting Essence

Talk to Aubury in his rune shop in south-east Varrock and choose Teleport to go to the Rune essence mine. Sedridor in the Wizards' Tower basement and Wizard Distentor in the Yanille Magic Guild can send you there too, and there is no quest to finish first. Mine the essence rock with any pickaxe from Mining 1 for 5 Mining XP each. The rock never runs out, and the portal takes you back to Aubury's shop.

From Mining 30 the rock gives pure essence instead of rune essence. Rune essence only works at the first six altars (Air to Body). Cosmic and every altar above it need pure essence, so get Mining to 30 early.

Altars, Levels and XP

Rune	Level	XP per essence	Essence
Air	1	6	Rune or pure
Mind	5	6	Rune or pure
Water	9	7	Rune or pure
Earth	9	7	Rune or pure
Fire	14	7	Rune or pure
Body	20	8	Rune or pure
Cosmic	27	9	Pure only
Chaos	35	9	Pure only
Nature	44	10	Pure only
Law	54	11	Pure only
Death	65	13	Pure only
Blood	77	15	Pure only

More Than One Rune per Essence

At certain levels every essence you craft turns into more than one rune. The XP per essence stays the same, but the stack you walk away with grows. Law, Death and Blood runes never multiply.

Rune	One more rune per essence at	Most per essence
Air	11, 22, 33, 44, 55, 66, 77, 88	9
Mind	14, 28, 42, 56, 70, 84, 98	8
Water	19, 38, 57, 76, 95	6
Earth	26, 52, 78	4
Fire	26, 52, 78	4
Body	35, 70	3
Cosmic	59	2
Chaos	74	2
Nature	91	2

Getting Into the Altars

Each altar stands inside a ruin. Use the matching talisman on the ruins, or wear the matching tiara and simply click them. Right-click an Air, Mind, Water, Earth, Fire or Body talisman and choose Locate to be told which way its ruins are.

A tiara frees up the talisman's inventory slot. Use a silver bar on a furnace and choose Tiara (Crafting 23, 52.5 Crafting XP). Then take the blank tiara and the talisman into the altar and use the talisman on the altar. Only the blank tiara is used up, so you keep the talisman.

Water talismans only drop from Dagannoth Prime, and Death talismans only from Dark beasts. There is no Chaos or Blood talisman to find, so those altars are reached through the Abyss.

The Abyss

From Runecrafting 35, the Mage of Zamorak will teleport you into the Abyss. He stands north of Edgeville in level 5 Wilderness, so other players can attack you on the way. Inside, squeeze through the gap to reach the inner ring, then step into the rift for the altar you want. The rifts take you straight to the altar with no talisman needed, although each altar still checks your level.

The Blood altar stands in the heart of the Abyss itself, so the Abyss is the only way to it. It has no exit portal, so bring a teleport to leave. Soul and Astral runes cannot be crafted.

Reaching the Mage means walking into the Wilderness, where you can be attacked and lose what you carry. Bring essence, pouches and a teleport rather than your best gear. The Wilderness guide covers what you keep if you die.

Essence Pouches

Pouches carry essence on top of your 28 inventory slots, so all four together add 30 essence to every trip. Each pouch holds one type of essence at a time, and they never degrade. They drop from the Abyssal leeches, guardians and walkers in the Abyss.

Pouch	Holds	Drop chance
Small pouch	3	1/25
Medium pouch	6	1/50
Large pouch	9	1/100
Giant pouch	12	1/200

Best XP at Each Level

Levels	Altar	XP per 28 essence	At 5x
1–8	Air	168	840
9–19	Earth, or Fire from 14	196	980
20–34	Body	224	1,120
35–43	Chaos (Abyss)	252	1,260
44–53	Nature (Abyss)	280	1,400
54–64	Law (Abyss)	308	1,540
65–76	Death (Abyss)	364	1,820
77–99	Blood (Abyss)	420	2,100

These figures are for one inventory of 28 essence, before pouches, outfits or bonus XP. A full set of pouches adds 30 more essence to each trip, which more than doubles the XP per run.

Every skill takes a turn as the bonus XP skill for 30 minutes, shown on the Information tab. During Runecrafting's turn every essence pays 30% more XP.

Selling Runes

Aubury in Varrock buys and sells air, water, earth, fire, mind, body, chaos and death runes. Lundail in the Mage Arena bank also stocks cosmic, nature, law and blood runes. A shop only buys the runes it stocks. You can also sell to other players on the Trading Post.

Rune	Shop sells for	Shop buys for
Air, water, earth, fire, mind	8	7
Body	7	6
Chaos	70	59
Cosmic	115	98
Death	155	131
Nature	185	157
Law	188	160
Blood	275	233

Last updated 24 September 2026