Runecraft or Runecrafting is one of the free-to-play skills in Old School RuneScape and one of the most dreaded skills in the game. This is because Runecraft, alongside Agility, Fishing, and Slayer, is one of the slowest skills to level in the game. This means that even the fastest methods will only give you small portions of XP per hour, especially compared to fast skills such as Thieving or Cooking.
Getting to 99 Runecraft can take hundreds of hours of grinding, but most methods will reward you with much profit. This is what makes most players either love or hate the runecrafting skill.
OSRS F2P Runecraft Training
Free-to-play runecraft training is possible but not recommended since you’ll only be able to train efficiently as a member. The available methods are extremely slow, not profitable, or even costly. Even though it is one of the skills that are not worth training on a free-to-play world, if you want to do it as a F2P, you can do either air runes from 1 to 20 and then switch to body runes or straight up body runes from level 1 to 99 for the fastest experience, but this is costly. If you have that kind of GP to pour into the skill, you are better off buying a bond and getting a membership to train the skill as a member.
OSRS Members’ Runecraft Training
As a member, you have a lot more variety when it comes to training your Runecraft skill and loads of quality-of-life upgrades that will make your life easier, as well as access to all of the 15 runes varieties with the appropriate level, on top of a variety of training methods. It is important to remember that having a high Agility level will help you when training Runecraft because your run energy will be drained at a slower rate and regenerate faster. On top of this, having a high magic level is also desirable since it will allow you to cast various teleports closer to runecrafting altars.
Why You Should Level Up OSRS Runecrafting
You will get a cape of accomplishment when you reach 99 in any skill. The runecrafting cape is one of the most useful ones since you can visit any altar without having a talisman or tiara, and it will make your rune pouches not degrade. Besides this, some level milestones will help unlock better Runecraft training methods, items, quests, or achievement diaries.
Rune Unlocks Milestones
- Level 2 – Mind runes
- Level 5 – Water runes
- Level 10 – Dust runes
- Level 13 – Mud runes
- Level 14 – Fire runes
- Level 15 – Smoke runes
- Level 23 – Lava runes
- Level 27 – Cosmic runes
- Level 35 – Chaos runes
- Level 40 – Astral runes
- Level 44 – Nature runes
- Level 54 – Law runes
- Level 65 – Death runes
- Level 77 – Blood runes
- Level 90 – Soul runes
- Level 95 – Wrath runes
Diary Milestones
- Level 5 - Easy Lumbridge & Draynor Diary
- Level 23 - Medium Lumbridge & Draynor Diary
- Level 44 - Hard Karamja Diary
- Level 59 - Hard Lumbridge & Draynor Diary
- Level 76 - Elite Lumbridge & Draynor Diary
- Level 77 - Elite Kourend & Kebos Diary
- Level 78 - Elite Varrock Diary
- Level 82 - Elite Fremennik Diary
- Level 88 - Elite Falador Diary
- Level 91 - Elite Karamja Diary
Quests Milestones
- Level 10 Temple of the Eye
- Level 30 The Slug Menace
- Level 35 What Lies Below
- Level 50 Devious Mind
- Level 55 The Fremennik Exiles
- Level 60 Desert Treasure II - The Fallen Empire
Other milestones
- Level 25 – medium pouch
- Level 27 – Guardians of the Rift
- Level 42 – create Swampbark gauntlets and boots
- Level 46 – create Swampbark helm
- Level 48 – can create Swampbark legs and bodies
- Level 50 – large pouch
- Level 60 – create primordial, eternal, and Pegasian boots
- Level 75 – giant pouch
- Level 77 – create Bloodbark gauntlets and boots
- Level 79 – create Bloodbark helm
- Level 81 – create Bloodbark legs and body
- Level 85 – Colossal pouch
Essence
Essence is an important part of training your Runecraft skill, so you must know your options regarding what essence to turn into runes since it can affect the types of runes you can craft from it and the experience you earn.
Rune Essence
This is the only type of essence available if you’re a F2P. It can be obtained from the GE or at level 30 mining from the rune essence mine, which you unlock after completing the Rune Mysteries quest. You can also get some as a drop from golems and other lower-level monsters or buy it from the Nightmare Zone minigame reward shop, even though it is not advisable since you can get more GP per point with other rewards, like the herb boxes. Since it is not dropped by any monster in large quantities, it is worth more on the GE than the Pure essence. You can use it to runecraft the following types of runes:
- Air
- Mind
- Water
- Earth
- Fire
- Body runes
Pure Essence
Pure essence can be mined after completing Rune Mysteries and with level 30 mining. Still, most of the quantity that enters the game does so as drops from a large variety of monsters, giving you pure essence in generous quantities.
Daeyalt Essence
This is a superior type of essence that will grant you more XP than the regular essence, but it has higher requirements to obtain. You will need level 60 Mining and the completion of the Sins of the Father quest before you can access the Daeyalt mine and exchange the shards you mine there into Daeyalt essence. It is not tradeable nor dropped in any quantities by monsters, and it is valuable because it will give you 50% more runecraft XP.
The mining process is rather AFK, and you don’t have to worry about banking, but it can take time that compensates for the extra chunk of Runecraft XP you’ll get when using it. You can craft all types of runes with it, except for blood and Soul runes in Kourend.
Dark Essence Fragment
Another non-tradeable essence is the dark essence fragment. To get this, you will first need to mine dense essence blocks in Arceuus and then imbue them on the dark altar to obtain dark essence blocks. Afterward, you must use a chisel on the dark essence blocks to get 4 dark essence fragments. They are stackable, but you can only hold 108 in your inventory at a time and cannot add them to your bank. This is why a common strategy is depositing the blocks in the bank.
Dark essence fragments are the only type of essence you can use when runecrafting blood and soul runes in Kourend.
Fast XP Gains for Runecraft
The fastest XP you can get is by creating combination runes alongside using runners to bring you the essence. If you don’t want to pay a runner, creating combination runes is arguably one of the fastest ways to train Runecraft. Still, it will cost you rather than bring you a profit, on top of being extremely click-intensive.
While you can pick any route up to level 23, once you reach this, you can start creating lava runes at the fire altar, the closest elemental altar to a teleport. You will need the following:
- Earth runes
- Quality of life items
- Binding necklace
- Ring of Dueling/Ring of Elements
- Runes to cast contact NPC
- Fire Tiara
- Level 82 Magic to cast the Magic Imbue spell
- Access to the Lunar Spellbook
Most AFK Method to Train OSRS Runecraft
On the opposite end of the spectrum is the most afk method you can approach at the Ourania altar. You can use pure or daeyalt essence here and hop to one of the dedicated worlds. Prioritize health sustain such as the regen bracelet or hitpoints cape besides the graceful or raiment of the eye since, depending on your combat level, the monsters in the caves leading to the Ourania altar might attack you.
While there is no Runecraft level requirement to use this altar, you will significantly benefit from having 71 Magic to cast the Ourania altar teleport. Alternatively, you can buy the tablets via the GE. Using the spell rather than the tablet means you must be on the Lunar spellbook. Before training here, you should also complete the medium Ardougne diary to receive more runes.
You should also have a stack of inexpensive runes, such as air runes, to pay Enola to allow you to access your bank so you can conveniently withdraw essence and fill your inventory and essence pouches for the following run.
The strategy entails clicking an item in your inventory and another player running before you. This will make you chase them as you’re trying to reach them to initiate a trade so you can afk all your way to the altar. Sometimes, this will fail, as attacking monsters might stop some players. You should put your auto retaliate off when doing this method.
After you reach the altar and craft your runes, teleport back to the Ourania caves entrance, enter the caves, bank at Enola, and do the chase trick again.
Most Profitable Methods to Train OSRS Runecrafting
Cosmic Runes
If you got lucky on pearls and got your Raiment this early, you can start crafting cosmic runes at level 59. You should use the Abyss entrance instead because the regular entrance is far from teleports. Simply fill your pouches and inventory with essence at Edgeville, step in the wilderness, and run towards the mage that teleports you to the abyss.
Enter the Cosmic Altar and craft your runes, then teleport back to Edgeville to restock. It is essential to have an amulet of glory and an abyssal bracelet so as not to get skulled. This method involves the risk of stepping into the wilderness.
Blood Runes
At level 77, you can start crafting blood runes. This method involves acquiring the dark essence fragments first, so you must have a pickaxe and a chisel. Go to the dense essence mine, fill your inventory with dense essence blocks, run towards the dark altar to turn into dark essence, and then use a chisel to create the fragments. Head towards the blood altar, teleport to your POH to restore your run energy, bank, then head back to the mine again. Having 73 Agility will significantly increase your efficiency here since you can take a shortcut.
Soul Runes
At level 90, you can start doing Soul Runes. The method is the same, but you must make your way towards the soul altar this time.
Wrath Runes
From level 95 onwards, you can access the most profitable method, crafting wrath runes. They are locked behind the Dragon Slayer 2 quest. The altar is inside the myth’s guild, so wear a mythical cape for easy teleports. Use an anti-fire dragon shield or better for your offhand since there are dragons on the way.
You will also need a tiara and the other runecraft essentials: the essence and rune pouches and the raiment of the eye. It’s best to have an ornate rejuvenation pool in your POH to restore your stats after each run and a teleport to a bank.
