OSRS Runecrafting Guide: Level 1-99 in Old School RuneScape

Runecrafting in Old School RuneScape (OSRS) is a skill that, while often perceived as slow and tedious, unlocks significant benefits and profitable opportunities as you level up. This comprehensive OSRS Runecrafting guide will take you through everything you need to know to efficiently train Runecrafting from level 1 to 99. Whether you’re an Ironman account looking for self-sufficient training methods or a main account seeking the fastest or most profitable routes, this guide covers all viable pathways to Runecrafting mastery.

Why Train Runecrafting in OSRS?

Investing time in Runecrafting offers several compelling advantages in OSRS:

Firstly, high-level Runecrafting unlocks some of the most lucrative skilling money-making methods in the game. Reaching level 95 Runecrafting allows you to craft Wrath Runes, which can generate up to 1.8 million GP per hour, making it a highly rewarding activity for end-game players.

Secondly, Runecrafting is a requirement for several quests in OSRS. Notably, Desert Treasure II, a recent and significant quest, requires level 60 Runecrafting. Furthermore, Fremennik Exiles is another important quest, particularly for Ironman accounts.

For completionists, Runecrafting is essential for achieving certain capes. You’ll need level 60 Runecrafting to obtain the Quest Cape, and level 91 Runecrafting is required for the prestigious Achievement Diary Cape.

Lastly, training Runecrafting can passively contribute to other skills. Training at Zeah from level 77 to 99 and participating in the Guardians of the Rift minigame provides substantial amounts of Mining and Crafting experience, making it a more efficient use of your playtime.

Essential Runecrafting Unlocks

Before diving into training methods, understanding key unlocks that enhance your Runecrafting experience is crucial:

Essence Pouches: These are indispensable for efficient Runecrafting. They allow you to carry more essence per trip, significantly increasing your XP rates. You can obtain essence pouches in two main ways:

Abyssal Creatures: Killing monsters in the Abyss or the Abyssal Area can drop pouches. Abyssal Leeches in the Abyssal Area (accessible via the (ALR) Fairy Ring code) are recommended for their relatively common pouch drops (1 in 42 chance), dropping pouches in order from smallest to largest.
Guardians of the Rift Minigame: Pouches are also obtainable as rewards from the Guardians of the Rift minigame.

Pouches degrade with use and require repair. The Dark Mage, located in the center of the Abyss, repairs pouches. Accessing him requires completing the Enter the Abyss miniquest, making it essentially mandatory for serious Runecrafting training.

NPC Contact Spell: Unlocked after Lunar Diplomacy and requiring 67 Magic, the NPC Contact spell allows you to remotely contact NPCs, including the Dark Mage. This is highly recommended as it allows pouch repairs from anywhere, saving significant time.

Guardians of the Rift Minigame: Completing the Temple of the Eye quest unlocks this minigame, which is a highly recommended training method from mid to high levels. It offers good XP rates and valuable rewards.

Rewards from Guardians of the Rift include:

Raiments of the Eye Set: This set provides a 60% chance to craft extra runes when Runecrafting, significantly boosting profits and XP in the long run.
Abyssal Needle: Used to create the Colossal Pouch, which combines all smaller pouches and holds an additional 10 essence, further improving efficiency.

Daeyalt Essence: Obtained by mining Daeyalt rocks in Darkmeyer (requires 60 Mining and Sins of the Father quest). Using Daeyalt essence grants 50% more Runecrafting XP compared to regular essence. While not the most efficient mining method, it can be a viable AFK option.

Daeyalt rocks deplete and respawn, with only one being active at a time, indicated by a magical aura. Mining yields Daeyalt Shards, which can be converted to essence by Noranna Tytanin in Darkmeyer, who banks them directly for you.

Quest Unlocks for Runecrafting: Several quests unlock the ability to craft specific runes:

Sins of the Father: Required to craft Blood Runes through traditional methods (not on Zeah).
Rune Mysteries: While not strictly necessary to train Runecrafting, it unlocks the ability to use XP lamps on the skill and is a prerequisite for the Enter the Abyss miniquest, making it highly recommended.

Pathways to Level 99 Runecrafting

There are various approaches to reach level 99 Runecrafting, each with different time investments, profitability, and intensity levels. Here are some key pathways:

Recommended Pathway: Balances decent XP rates with good profit, taking approximately 276 hours and yielding over 96 million GP profit.
Fastest Pathway: Prioritizes speed, reaching level 99 in around 140 hours but incurring a cost of approximately 18 million GP.
AFK Methods: Focus on minimizing attention and clicks, sacrificing some XP rate for less intensive training.
Profitable Methods: Maximizes profit while training, though often at the cost of slower XP rates compared to the fastest methods.

Recommended Runecrafting Pathway

This pathway offers a balanced approach, combining efficient XP gain with substantial profit on your journey to level 99.

Level 1-27: Questing

Start by leveraging quests to quickly bypass the initial slow levels.

Rune Mysteries & Enter the Abyss Miniquest: Completing these quests grants 1000 Runecrafting XP and a small essence pouch. Both are quick to finish, especially with efficient teleports. Useful teleports include the Necklace of Passage to the Wizard’s Tower and the Skills Necklace to the Fishing Guild (if you lack Ardougne Teleport). Completing Enter the Abyss will bring you to level 9 Runecrafting.
Level 9-10: XP Lamp: To reach level 10 for the Temple of the Eye quest, use an XP lamp from another short quest. X Marks the Spot or Client of Kourend are excellent choices for quick XP lamps. If you’ve already used these lamps elsewhere, craft Mind tiaras (explained in the Fastest Pathway section) to reach level 10.
Temple of the Eye Quest (Level 10-27): Completing this quest grants over 9000 Runecrafting XP, boosting you from level 10 to level 27 and unlocking the valuable Guardians of the Rift minigame. It’s best to do this quest early to skip tedious low-level training.

Level 27-77: Guardians of the Rift & Ourania Altar

At level 27, you have two primary training options: Guardians of the Rift and the Ourania Altar. Both offer similar XP rates, with Ourania Altar being slightly faster at lower levels.

Ourania Altar: Recommended if you have completed Lunar Diplomacy for the Ourania Altar Teleport spell. It’s faster at lower levels and more AFK than Guardians of the Rift.
Guardians of the Rift: A minigame offering comparable XP rates and valuable rewards. Recommended if you haven’t completed Lunar Diplomacy.

Ideally, from level 27 to 77, alternate between the Ourania Altar (up to level 50) and Guardians of the Rift. If Lunar Diplomacy is not completed, focus solely on Guardians of the Rift. Ourania Altar is generally more AFK, while Guardians of the Rift provides better rewards.

Guardians of the Rift Guide (Level 27-77):

Worlds: Use dedicated Guardians of the Rift worlds, typically found in the minigame grouping tab.
Teleport: Use the minigame teleport after completing Temple of the Eye.
Plugins: Install the “Guardians of the Rift Helper” and “Runecrafting Utilities” plugins on Runelite for enhanced gameplay. The Helper plugin highlights important objects, while Runecrafting Utilities provides useful features like pouch option swaps.
Recommended Items:
- Chisel & Pickaxe: Wearable or in inventory.
- Rune Pouches: As many as you can use.
- Runes for NPC Contact: To repair pouches remotely.
- Varrock Armour (Any Tier): Provides a 10% chance for double guardian fragments when mining.
- Graceful Outfit: For run energy regeneration.
- Raiments of the Eye Set: If available, wear this set over Graceful and Varrock Armour for increased rune output.
Gameplay Loop:
- Start: Grab a weak cell and 10 uncharged cells from the table. Create a guardian or repair a barrier.
- Mining Fragments: If 56 Agility, climb down rocks to the East for large guardian remains. Otherwise, mine fragments south of the arena. Mine until you have at least 160 fragments.
- Chisel Essence: Chisel fragments into essence at the workbench near the entry. Fill pouches and inventory.
- Craft Runes: Head to the arena center. Only 2 altars are active at a time (indicated by aura). Enter an active altar with the required Runecrafting level, craft runes, and empty pouches.
- Deposit Stones & Repair Barriers: Exit the altar, deposit stones at the guardian in the center, and repair barriers with charged cells (obtained from crafting runes).
- Deposit Runes: Deposit valuable runes in the blue deposit pool or drop worthless runes.
- Portal Essence Mining: Wait for yellow portal (appears every 160 seconds). Enter it, mine a full inventory of essence, refill pouches, mine again, and exit.
- Repeat: Continue crafting chiseled essence and portal essence into runes, alternating between them while waiting for portals.
- Rewards: At round end, receive Runecrafting XP bonus and elemental/catalytic reward points. Use points at the Rewards Guardian for potential loot (1 elemental and 1 catalytic point per roll).

Ourania Altar Guide (Level 27-77):

Requirements: Lunar Diplomacy quest, 71 Magic for Ourania Teleport (or tablets).
Inventory Setup:
- Rune pouch with runes for teleports and NPC Contact.
- Dust Battlestaff (if 71 Magic) for unlimited air and earth runes.
- Stack of cheap runes (e.g., mind runes) for banker payment.
Bank Setup:
- Stack of pure essence.
- Stamina potions (or Vile Vigour spell if 96 Magic and Arceuus spellbook).
Process:
- Teleport to Ourania Altar.
- Run West across the bridge, then South to the ladder down to the Ourania Altar banker.
- Banker Setup: Speak to Eniola and set up a quick payment deal, choosing mind runes for payment.
- Fill Essence: Withdraw a full inventory of pure essence.
- Run to Altar: Use an item on a player running towards the altar to follow them (preventing pathing issues).
- Craft Runes: Click the altar to craft runes and empty essence pouches.
- Teleport Back: Teleport back to Ourania Altar using the spell or tablet.
- Repeat: Repeat the process.

Level 77-90: Zeah Blood Runecrafting & Guardians of the Rift

At level 77, Zeah Blood Runecrafting becomes available. While offering lower XP rates than Guardians of the Rift, it is significantly less click-intensive and more AFK. Alternate between Blood Runes for AFK training and Guardians of the Rift for faster XP.

Zeah Blood Runecrafting Requirements: 100% Arceuus House Favour, recommended 69 Agility (73 Agility for shortcut), Medium Kourend Achievement Diary (slight XP boost). Kourend Elite Diary for 10% more runes (increases profit).
Profitability: Blood Runecrafting on Zeah is profitable, especially with Blood Essence (net profit of 135k each). With Raiments of the Eye set, Blood Essence, and Kourend Elite Diary, you can profit up to 59 million GP from level 77 to 90.
Gear & Inventory:
- Chisel.
- Blood Essence.
- Raiments of the Eye set or Graceful.
- Pickaxe (any type).
Process:
1. Mine Essence: Go to essence rocks in North Eastern Arceuus (69 Agility shortcut available). Mine and chisel a full inventory of essence blocks. Rocks deplete, so move between them.
2. Dark Altar: Return via the 69 Agility shortcut and go West to the Dark Altar. Convert essence to Dark Essence.
3. Chisel & Mine: Chisel Dark Essence while running back to essence rocks. Mine another full inventory.
4. Blood Altar: Return to Dark Altar, convert essence, run West, then East, then South to the Blood Altar. Craft Blood Runes.
5. Repeat: Continue mining, converting to Dark Essence, and crafting Blood Runes. 73 Agility shortcut further speeds up the process. Use 2 inventories of Dark Essence for each rune crafting trip.

Level 90-99: Zeah Soul Runecrafting & Guardians of the Rift

At level 90, Zeah Soul Runecrafting unlocks, offering approximately 20% faster XP per hour than Blood Runes. Continue alternating Zeah Runecrafting with Guardians of the Rift.

XP Rates: Guardians of the Rift provides up to 65k XP/hour at level 90, while Soul Runes offer around 45k XP/hour.
Profitability: Training solely with Soul Runes from 90-99 can yield 63 million GP profit (102 million with Raiments of the Eye). Total profit from level 77-99 by solely Zeah Runecrafting can reach up to 161 million GP.
Gear & Inventory: Same as Blood Runecrafting, but without Blood Essence. Raiments of the Eye set or Graceful are recommended.
Process: Similar to Blood Runecrafting, but with the Soul Altar instead of the Blood Altar.
1. Essence Mining & Dark Essence Conversion: Mine essence in Arceuus, convert to Dark Essence at the Dark Altar.
2. Soul Altar: Run to the Soul Altar (North Eastern path from Dark Altar, then East, then South). Craft Soul Runes.
3. Repeat: Use the level 49 Agility shortcut on the way back to essence rocks to speed up trips.

Level 90-99 Guardians of the Rift (Colossal Pouch): Continue training at Guardians of the Rift, utilizing the strategies outlined earlier. A key upgrade at level 85 Runecrafting is the Colossal Pouch, crafted with the Abyssal needle (obtainable from the Rewards Guardian at a rate of 1 in 300).

Fastest Runecrafting Pathway

For players prioritizing speed above all else, the Fastest Pathway focuses on maximizing XP rates, even at the cost of profit.

Level 1-2: Air Tiaras

Start by crafting Air Tiaras for a quick initial boost. You’ll need 4 Air Talismans and 4 empty tiaras. Go to the Air Altar south of Falador, use a talisman on the altar entrance, then use talismans on the main altar inside to create tiaras.

Level 2-23: Mind Tiaras

Mind Tiaras are the fastest tiara to craft due to the Mind Altar Teleport (Arceuus spellbook or tablets from GE). Craft approximately 225 Mind Tiaras to reach level 23 (requiring about 18 Mind Altar Teleports).

Process: Teleport to Mind Altar, use a Mind Talisman on the altar entrance, then use talismans on the altar inside with tiaras in your inventory.
1-Tick Tiaras: For maximum speed, 1-tick tiara crafting by rapidly using talismans on the altar can yield up to 45k XP/hour.

Level 23-99: Lava Runes

At level 23, Lava Runes become the fastest Runecrafting method, scaling from 38k XP/hour at level 23 to over 110k XP/hour at higher levels.

Requirements: Recommended 82 Magic and Lunar Diplomacy for the Magic Imbue spell.
Gear & Inventory:
- Rings of Dueling or Ring of the Elements (for Fire Altar teleport).
- Stamina Potions.
- Binding Necklaces.
- Rune Pouch with runes for NPC Contact.
- Fire Tiara (for altar access).
- Graceful Outfit (prioritize over Raiments of the Eye due to low Lava Rune value).
- Earth Talisman (if not using Magic Imbue, up to 3 with Colossal Pouch).
Process (with Magic Imbue):
1. Teleport to Fire Altar: Use Ring of Dueling (PVP Arena) or Ring of the Elements (Fire Altar).
2. Enter Altar & Magic Imbue: Enter the altar, run to the center, and cast Magic Imbue.
3. Craft Lava Runes: Use earth runes on the altar, empty pouches, and use earth runes again.
4. Bank & Repeat: Teleport to bank, recharge jewelry, and repeat.
Process (without Magic Imbue): Similar process, but use an Earth Talisman each time you craft runes on the altar, as Magic Imbue is not available to imbue the Earth Talisman effect.

AFK Runecrafting Methods in OSRS

For those seeking less intensive training, several AFK Runecrafting methods are available, albeit with reduced XP rates.

Ourania Altar (Semi-AFK): Offers AFK intervals of around 25 seconds during the run to the altar. Use “item on player follow” to run to the altar AFK.
Astral Runes (AFK with Render Distance): Provides 30-second AFK intervals during runs. Click next to the altar from the bank and use increased render distance (Runelite GPU or HD mode) to AFK the run. Yields up to 40k XP/hour with Colossal Pouch.
Zeah Runecrafting (Mining AFK): Offers up to 3-minute AFK intervals during the essence mining process. Decent XP rates for low intensity, reaching up to 45k XP/hour with Soul Runes.

Profitable Runecrafting Methods in OSRS

Maximize your GP gains while training Runecrafting with these profitable methods. Equip the Raiments of the Eye set from Guardians of the Rift for a 60% bonus rune crafting chance to further boost profits.

Blood Runes (Non-Zeah): One of the most profitable methods, yielding up to 1.7 million GP per hour. Use Blood Essence for a 50% chance to craft an extra Blood Rune without additional XP, maximizing profit. Requires 77 Runecrafting and Sins of the Father quest. 74 or 93 Agility shortcuts are helpful (93 Agility shortcut requires 78 Mining).
- XP Rates: Up to 47k XP/hour with Colossal Pouch and level 93 Agility shortcut.
- Gear & Inventory:
  - Fairy Ring teleport (e.g., Fairy Ring item, Slayer Ring).
  - Bank teleport (e.g., Ring of Dueling, Amulet of Glory).
  - Essence Pouches.
  - Rune Pouch with NPC Contact runes.
  - Blood Tiara (for altar access).
- Process:
  1. Fairy Ring Teleport: Use Fairy Ring code DLS.
  2. Enter Abyss: Enter the walls South, then North East.
  3. Agility Shortcut: Use 93 Agility shortcut (or 74 Agility shortcut if lower level). Clear blockage for 93 Agility shortcut initially (requires pickaxe).
  4. Blood Altar: Run to the Blood Altar.
  5. Craft Blood Runes: Enter altar and craft runes, emptying pouches.
  6. Bank & Repeat: Teleport to bank and repeat.
Wrath Runes (Level 95): The most profitable Runecrafting method, generating up to 1.8 million GP per hour with the Raiments of the Eye set. Requires 95 Runecrafting and Dragon Slayer II completion.
- XP Rates: Up to 40k XP/hour with Colossal Pouch.
- Gear & Inventory:
  - Anti-Dragon Shield.
  - Mythical Cape.
  - Bank teleport.
  - Essence Pouches.
  - Wrath Tiara (for altar access).
- Process:
  1. Mythical Cape Teleport: Use Mythical Cape teleport.
  2. Mythic Statue: Enter Mythic Statue in the center.
  3. Wrath Altar Cave: Run South through dragons, enter cave opening to Wrath Altar.
  4. Craft Wrath Runes: Enter altar and craft runes, emptying pouches.
  5. Bank & Repeat: Teleport to bank and repeat.

Conclusion

This comprehensive OSRS Runecrafting guide provides various methods to train from level 1 to 99, catering to different playstyles and goals. Whether you prioritize speed, profit, or AFK training, choosing the right pathway will make your Runecrafting journey more enjoyable and efficient. Select the method that best suits your preferences and start crafting your way to Runecrafting mastery in Old School RuneScape!