Of all the skills in Old School RuneScape, Runecrafting is arguably one of the more annoying ones to train. For much of Runcrafting’s history, the only way to get moderate experience rates was through high-click intensive methods that caused agony to most players.
Currently, there are a few methods that are either decently AFK or provide high experience rates, they have only just become available a couple of years ago.
Recommended Read: How to Get Xeric’s Talisman in OSRS
But fear not! In this guide, I am going to walk you through the best routes to training levels 1-99 in Runecrafting, as well as offer helpful advice that will make the journey as efficient as possible. Grab your Essence pouches, talismans, and Stamina potions, and get ready to reach 99 Runecrafting in Old School RuneScape!
To efficiently get to 99 Runecrafting in OSRS, you should start by either questing or turning in books at the Arceuus Library for rewarded Runecrafting experience. From here, you can either craft Lava runes at 27 Runecrafting for the fastest Runecrafting experience or start playing the Guardians of the Rift minigame for a healthy balance between experience and profit. At higher levels, you can craft Blood/Soul runes at the Dark Altar, or even make Wrath Runes for the potential to make 2m gp per hour!
Table of Contents
- Best Way to Reach Level 99 RuneCrafting in OSRS
- Levels 1-77: Finding Books at the Arceuus Library
- Levels 1-99: The Ourania Altar
- Levels 23+: Runecrafting Lava Runes
- Levels 27+: The Guardians of the Rift Minigame
- Levels 95+: Runecrafting Wrath Runes
- Other Things to Consider
- Obtaining the Runecrafting Skillcape
Best Way to Reach Level 99 RuneCrafting in OSRS
Many of the methods used to train Runecrafting are a bit more on the tedious side. Thankfully, the skill makes up for the long grinds by being incredibly profitable.
Levels 1-23: Runecrafting Air, Water, Earth & Fire Runes
To start off your Runecrafting journey, making elemental runes is a simple process that will help show you the fundamentals of Runecrafting.
All you need is an inventory of Rune essence and a talisman of the associated altar.
Once you have both, you can go to one of the Runecrafting altars, enter the altar (use your talisman on it), craft runes, and repeat!
The easiest altars to reach are the Air and Fire altars, as both are either near a bank or relatively close to a teleport location.
You can run back and forth from the East bank in Falador to the Air altar or use a Ring of Dueling to teleport near the Fire altar and Castle Wars to bank.
This process is still incredibly slow, but it demonstrates the bare-bones method of training Runecrafting. Doing this will take a few hours of Runecrafting before you reach level 23.
Levels 1-77: Finding Books at the Arceuus Library
An unconventional but decent method to train Runecrafting at early levels is returning books at the Arceuus Library.
In the Arceuus Library, you can talk to either Professor Gracklebone, Villa, or Sam to learn about a book you are looking for.
From here, talk to Biblia to learn where the book is located to find and return to them.
Each time you do so, you will gain a Book of Arcane Knowledge, granting you a set amount of Magic or Runecrafting experience (you can choose which one).
Once you have at least 20% Arceuus favour, you will be able to talk to Horphis to find Dark Manuscripts for him.
If you are playing Old School RuneScape over RuneLite, utilizing the plugin highlighting the best-chanced locations for each book is highly recommended, as it will drastically speed up your search time.
If you don’t want to deal with/are unable to get Essence (i.e. Ironman accounts), this is a great method to do as it does not require any items.
Levels 1-99: The Ourania Altar
It would not be a Runecrafting guide without at least mentioning this altar. If you want a healthy balance of great experience rates and moderate clicking, consider going to the Ourania Altar.
Unlike other altars, using Pure Essence on this altar will give you random runes depending on your Runecrafting level.
Therefore, you can access it at any Runecrafting level, but it is recommended you wait until you can make higher-tiered runes to increase your experience rates and profit.
In order for this method to be viable, you should complete the “Lunar Diplomacy” quest, along with having 71 Magic to cast both the Ourania Teleport and NPC Contact spell (to repair degraded Rune pouches).
Other than this, weight-reducing gear is a near necessity.
At the entrance to the altar, there will be a man named Eniola, who you can pay 20 runes of any kind to access your bank.
You can also set it up so 20 of a selected rune are automatically taken each time you talk to him.
With your Essence, an Air Staff, and a Rune Pouch with Law, Astral, and Earth Runes, run through the tunnel, avoiding the Zamorakian creatures, and craft your runes at the altar.
Then teleport back to the start, take a sip of a Stamina Potion, refresh your inventory at the Bank, and repeat.
Although there is a longer route with no monsters attacking you, it is far slower and will drastically reduce your experience rates.
Going to the Ourania Altar worlds of 327/480 is recommended, as everyone running at once will result in each player being targeted far less.
Depending on your Runecrafting level, you can expect anywhere between 20k-75k Runecrafting exp per hour and 250k-400k gp per hour, depending on which runes you hold onto.
Levels 23+: Runecrafting Lava Runes
Of all the regular methods to train Runecrafting, Lava runes offer the fastest experience rates per hour. At the same time, it is incredibly click-intensive, requiring a high level of focus.
Lava runes are a form of combination rune that can be created by using either Earth runes and a Fire talisman on the Fire altar or Fire runes and an Earth talisman on the Earth Altar.
The best method to do this is teleporting between the Duel Arena and Castle Wars with a Ring of Dueling, along with full Essence pouches and runes to cast the Imbue spell (so you do not need to sacrifice a Talisman every time).
Thankfully, I have already provided an in-depth guide on how to make Lava runes, which I highly recommend you read so you know the complete process.
Making Lava runes like this can earn you anywhere between 38k-110k Runecrafting experience per hour, depending on how many Essence pouches you have.
Obviously, being able to carry more Pure essence means higher experience rates.
Levels 27+: The Guardians of the Rift Minigame
Once you have completed the “Temple of the Eye” quest, you can participate in Guardians of the Rift, a Runecrafting-based minigame.
Keep in mind that you will need at least 10 Runecrafting to complete the quest.
In this minigame, you mine fragments from the various deceased guardians and craft them into runes.
Each time you do so, you will get a type of cell that you can use to either activate a guardian or charge a barrier to protect the temple from the incoming Abyssal creatures.
When it comes to gear, it is best to wear either weight-reducing gear or the Runecrafting skilling outfit (the Raiments of the Eye set that’s rewarded from this minigame) and have Essence pouches, a chisel, a pickaxe, and a Rune Pouch with runes to cast “NPC Contact” to repair your pouches when they degrade.
Depending on your Runecrafting level, you can expect to gain between 25k to 65k Runecrafting experience per hour.
Although this method is technically slower than Lava runes, it is significantly easier to do and moderately profitable.
This minigame also comes with its own rewards, such as the Runecrafting skilling outfit, the Abyssal Lantern, the Abyssal Needle (used to make a Colossal Pouch), and its own pet.
It is also recommended that you complete certain quests before doing this minigame, as you will be able to craft the associated runes for greater profit and experience rates.
- “Lost City” – Cosmic Runes
- “Troll Stronghold” – Law Runes
- “Mourning’s End Part II” – Death Runes
- “Sins of the Father” – Blood Runes
Levels 77+/90+: Runecrafting Blood & Soul Runes
Once you reach 77 Runecrafting and have 100% Arceuus favour, you will be able to craft Blood Runes at the Dark Altar in Arceuus.
Along with crafting Soul Runes, this method has a relatively low experience rate but is still highly profitable.
Before you get started, it is recommended to use either the Graceful outfit or the Raiments of the Eye set.
With your best pickaxe and a chisel, you should have at least 73 Agility to access the shortcut from the Dark Altar to the Essence mine.
The act of making Blood and Soul runes in Arceuus is slightly different than the traditional way of Runecrafting.
Instead of bringing pouches full of regular Pure essence to the altar, you mine Dark Essence Fragments directly from the mine, use them on the Dark Altar, and then craft them at the respective altar.
Starting at the Essence mine, get a full inventory of Dark Essence Blocks and run north, crossing the rocks and running west.
After using them on the Dark Altar, use your chisel to turn them into Dark Essence Fragments, keep running west, then south to follow the path to the Blood Altar.
This method of making Blood Runes only gives around 35k Runecrafting experience per hour, but you can make nearly 1m gp per hour doing this.
You can also have a Blood Essence in your inventory to give yourself a 50% chance of getting an extra Blood Rune per essence, but it will be destroyed after 1k Blood Runes are created.
At 90 Runecrafting, you will be able to make Soul Runes in a similar fashion.
Follow the same steps of getting the Dark Essence Fragments and using them at the Blood Altar, but this time, run back east and follow the circular path to the Soul Altar.
Although it is less profitable than making Blood Runes, you will be able to get around 45k Runecrafting experience per hour, which will nicely speed up your grind to 99 Runecrafting.
Levels 95+: Runecrafting Wrath Runes
While you’re in the endgame for Runecrafting and after you complete the “Dragon Slayer II” quest, you can craft Wrath Runes for profitable by slow experience rates.
Starting at the Myths’ Guild, bring your normal Runecrafting setup, along with a form of dragonfire protection and your Myths’ Cape for an easy teleport.
Run through the dungeon below the guild to the cave opening on the south wall, avoid the dragons, make runes at the Wrath Altar, and teleport back.
Although experience rates are similar to Soul runes, you can expect around 44k Runecrafting experience and 1.2m gp per hour.
However, if you have obtained a full Raiments of the Eye outfit, your profit nearly doubles to 2m per hour.
Other Things to Consider
Runecrafting is clearly one of the more bothersome skills to train in the game, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t things that can help speed up the grind.
There are different quests, items, and tips you should know that will alleviate some of the pains of reaching 99 Runecrafting.
Quests that Give Runecrafting Experience
Even at level 1, there are different quests you can do that allows you to bypass most of the early-level training.
Quest (Runecrafting Level Required if Needed) – Runecrafting Experience Rewarded:
- The Ascent of Arceuus (None) – 500 exp
- Enter the Abyss (None) – 1k exp
- Lunar Diplomacy (None) – 5k exp
- The Eyes of Glouphrie (None) – 6k exp
- Temple of the Eye (Lvl 10) – 5k exp
- The Slug Menace (Lvl 30) – 3.5k exp
- What Lies Below (Lvl 35) – 8k exp
- Devious Minds (Lvl 50) – 5k exp
- The Fremennik Exiles (Lvl 55) – 30k exp
Items that Improve Runecrafting Training
- Essence Pouches are pouches that can store Rune/Pure essence in different quantities. The Small (3), Medium (6), Large (9), and Giant (12) pouches can be obtained either from the Abyssal Creatures in the Abyss or by looting the Rewards Guarding at Guardians of the Rift.
- The Abyssal Needle is used to combine all of the Essence Pouches into a Colossal Pouch, which holds 40 Rune/Pure essence. It can be obtained at a 1/300 rate by looting the Rewards Guardian at Guardians of the Rift.
- The Raiments of the Eye is the Runecrafting skilling outfit that gives you extra runes when crafting. Each piece gives you 10% more runes, maxing at 60% when you are wearing the full set. This can be bought from the rewards shop at Guardians at the Rift with Abyssal Pearls.
- The Abyssal Lantern is an item that can be lit with different logs to provide extra bonuses to Runecrafting, ranging from preventing pouch degradation to increasing the amount of Blood Runes you craft. It can be obtained at a 1/700 rate by looting the Rewards Guardian at Guardians of the Rift.
- The Graceful Outfit (although not necessarily a Runecrafting-based item) is the Agility skilling outfit that increases run-restoration. Each piece of the outfit can be obtained by turning in Marks of Grace to Grace in the Rogues’ Den.
Obtaining the Runecrafting Skillcape
Once you spend enough time running around between altars, congratulations!
Once you reach 99 Runecrafting, you can obtain the Runecrafting skillcape for 99k by talking to Aubury in Varrock.
This skillcape will act as a talisman for all altars and prevent Essence Pouches from degrading.
This has been an in-depth guide for Runecrafting levels 1-99 in Old School RuneScape!
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