In OSRS, Runecrafting is another life skill that many players deem as unpopular due to the amount of time you have to spend on leveling to reach level 99. Although you are able to make a lot of money through runecrafting, it has truly slow experience rates and it will become quite tedious and exhausting after a while. Nevertheless, if you are a new player, you should know what approaches you can take to level up the fastest way possible to save some time.

Quests That Gives Runecrafting Experience

In OSRS, there a fair amount of quests that you can do to obtain crafting experience. These include

• Rune Mysteries(required for starting runecrafting)
• Enter the Abyss
• The Ascent of Arceus
• Eyes of Glouphrie
• Devious Minds
• The Fremenik Exiles
• Lunar Diplomacy
• The Slug Menace
• What Lies Below

Out of all these, Rune Mysteries is a required quest because it is the one that will unlock the Runecrafting skill. However, it will not yield any runecrafting experience. It’s about five minutes long, so it will not take much of your time.

If you the “Enter the Abyss” and “The Ascent of Arceus” quests, you will increase your level up to 11. Additionally, completing the Abyss quest will unlock the ability to use the abyss for runecrafting and opens up your path in more runecrafting methods. Furthermore, you will be rewarded with a pouch that is quite essential later on.

The final quest, “Eyes of Glouphrie”, does have some low to mid-level requirements to complete it, doing the first five of these will take you to level 24 runecrafting through quests alone.

Leveling Guide

Tears of Guthix

The Tears of Guthix mini-game requires the “Tears of Guthix” quest to be complete in order to unlock it. You can play once a week and grants a small number of experience points and on the lowest skill you have.

Since most players do not runecraft train that much, this game will give some experience that will help over time. The easiest way to do this mini-game is to use the teleport option on the game’s necklace.

Level 1-9 Air Runes

At level 1 runecrafting, you are only able to do air runes or use the ZMI Altar. Unfortunately, not all the players have the requirements to unlock and use the ZMI Altar.

The Air Rune Altar is located south of Falador, and then north-west of the first T-junction that you encounter when leaving the south gate. It is very easy to find and it is close to the bank. You need to wear an Air Tiara or use an Air Talisman to get inside of the altar.

With any elemental altar available, you must either wear a tiara or use a talisman that corresponds to its element. You need to make 194 air runes to reach level 9 if you want to avoid to do any quests, except the ones that unlock the Runcrafting ability and/or the Abyss.

Simply go inside the altar with your rune or pure essence in your inventory and then press on the altar to make runes.

Level 9-14 Earth Runes

Once you have reached level 9, you can now make earth tunes and you need to make 176 runes to reach level 14. The Earth Altar is positioned south of the Varrock Lumber Yard.

To reduce the time you waste from running back and forth to the bank, you can also use teleports to shorten the distance. The teleport to lumber yard costs a lot though, so it might not be cost-efficient for a beginner.

Level 14-23 Fire Runes

After level 14, fire runes are unlocked and you need 598 runes to reach level 23. This altar is situated north of Al Kharid, near the entrance to the Duel Arena. You can use the ring of dueling to teleport or the rune pouch to teleport to the duel arena, which is close to the altar.

Level 23+ Lava Runes

Upon reaching level 23, you can now make lava runes, which is one of the fastest methods to level up. Lava runes are created at the fire altar.

You need to combine earth and fire rune together.

If you are going this route it’s highly suggested to get 82 magic and lunar diplomacy spellbook. This way you can avoid having to use the earth talisman by using the magic imbue spell.

Click on the magic imbue spell(if you are using it), then Left-click on the earth runes in your inventory, and then finally left-click on the fire altar to make Lava Runes.

Inventory Setup:

Otherwise you need an earth talisman and earth runes to bring with you.

Level 23-77/99 Ourania ZMI Altar

Probably the most popular method of leveling runecrafting.

It’s located north of castle wars. At this place, as you can see in the inventory you make a variety of runes instead of just one. If you have the lunar spellbook and level 71 magic there is a ZMI teleport that you can use. Otherwise, you can use a player-owned house for teleporting here.

Inside the dungeon, you can use the bank, but it costs some runes, which is why you see a bunch of mind runes in the inventory in the picture above.

The exp rates from the ZMI altar scales based on your current level, here is a table showing you the experience rates for each level:

Level 77-90 Zeah Blood Runes

Very AFK, provides 30-35k exp/hour. This is where most people camp at higher runecrafting levels since it’s so AFK.

To start out, mine a full inventory of essence blocks at the essence mine. Once you have a full inventory, run over to the altar to the west. Click on the dark altar, which turns all your essence blocks into dark essence. Go back to the Essence Mine again.

On your way back to the Essence mine, break your Dark Essence blocks into Essence Fragments.

Mine another inventory of Essence Blocks, head back to the Dark Altar, and click on it. Now you will have two inventories of fragments, one of them will be in a pile of fragments and the other one is still in blocks.

Now, head to the blood altar to make your runes. Press on the blood altar to make your first set of runes and then use the chisel on the blocks you have left to make fragments and turn those into blood runes as well. Now repeat from step 1.

Note: If you have 73 agility you can use the shortcut to your right to head back to the dark altar

Level 90-99 Zeah Soul Runes

Provides 39-42k exp/hour. Same method as the Zeah Blood Runes method outlined above, except you go to the Soul Altar instead of the Blood Altar.

Runecrafting Gear

Should I Use Rune Essence Or Pure Essence?

Remember that there is rune essence and pure essence. The rune essence only makes non-member runes, while the pure essence can make any rune. It is best to use pure essence because it is cheaper. Since runecrafting involves a lot of running, you should also wear weight-reducing garments, the Graceful Outfit, and stamina potions to sustain your running. Additionally, it will slightly increase your experience rates.

Runecrafting Essence Pouches

Essence pouches are able to carry rune or pure essence. In simpler terms, runecrafting is basically taking essence from the back to a runecrafting altar and transforming the essence into runes. This will become a repetitive cycle. However, if you are able to bring more essence with each trip, you will be able to make more runes per hour, which translates to more experience points and faster leveling. You are also going to earning more money if you can make more runes per hour.

Rune Pouch Types:

There are four pouches available in the game; the small, medium, large, and giant pouch. You will receive a small pouch as a reward from the “Enter the Abyss” quest. The pouches are, unfortunately, degradable and they are sometimes dropped by abyssal creatures. The small pouch is the only one that is not degradable.

When your pouches degrade, they hold less essence, but you can repair them. You simply have to talk to the Dark Wizard in the center of the Abyss or you can contact him through the Contact NPC Spell, which is available in the Lunar Spellbook. Believe me, this will save you a lot of time, especially if you are not runecrafting.

When using your pouches, you can turn on the Shift-drop option in your game settings. With this feature, you are able to press the “Shift” key on your keyboard and left-click a pouch to empty it instead of having to right-click and then dropping it to empty the pouch.

Runecrafting Skill Cape

Most players do not plan to reach level 99 runecrafting in OSRS, but those who do and obtain the runecrafting cape, usually vow to never runecraft ever again. This cape gives access to all the runecrafting altars and provides some other benefits. For example, it counts as all the tiaras, which are normally required to enter a runecrafting altar, unless you are using the abyss. You also have one of the rarest skill capes in the game.