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Table of Contents
1.0: Introduction
2.0: Welfare Equipment
3.0: Mining Rune Essence
4.0: Preparing for your trip
5.0: The Altars and Runes
5.1: Air
5.2: Mind
5.3: Water
5.4: Earth
5.5: Fire
5.6: Body
6.0: Making Tiaras
7.0: Runecrafting-related minigames
7.1: Fist of Guthix
7.2: Great Orb Project
8.0: General Tips & Tricks
9.0: Profit Section
1.0: Introduction
Greetings everyone, welcome to my first guide! This guide will talk about everything there is to know about Runecrafting in F2P. Enjoy!
Runecrafting is the last skill released for F2Pers. It is released when Runescape 2 came out, and its main purpose is to supply Magic with runes. Runecrafting is a skill that is unique from others, and in the long run can give some of the best profit in the game. Unfortunately, not a lot of people actually enjoy training the skill, and it is currently the rarest 99. It is also the only F2P skill that does not have 2 million players ranked, and nobody has gotten 200M experience from it yet.
2.0: Welfare Equipment
Of course, every skill requires usage of equipment, and Runecrafting is no exception. Here are some of the most important things that you must have, in order to succeed in Runecrafting.
Rune Essence
The basic, uncharged Rune Stone. Without these, you cannot even train your Runecrafting skill. This is the item used to create all the runes craftable in F2P (Air, Mind, Water, Earth, Fire, and Body).
To get this item, you must either mine it at an essence mine (either Aubury or Wizard Sedridor) or buy it from the Grand Exchange.
Prices for Rune Essence can be found here.
Talismans
The items used to enter Runecrafting altars. This, along with Rune Essence, are musts to training Runecrafting.
To get Talismans, you can buy them on the Grand Exchange.
Tiaras/Talisman Staffs
It is recommended to bind your talisman with a tiara or talisman staff. They not only give you an extra inventory space for another essence, but you can 1-click on the mysterious ruins to enter the altar faster! Make sure you do this!
Tiaras can be bought easily on the Grand Exchange. These are recommended for low-level runecrafters, and for people that use teleport runes.
Talisman staffs can be bought in the Runecrafting Guild, for 10000 tokens each. These are a nice status symbol for high-level runecrafters, but they make no difference to a tiara, so getting talisman staffs may seem obsolete. It is up to you to obtain one, however.
Explorer's Ring 3
Ah, the Explorer's Ring. A very essential item to use while Runecrafting. It has a chance of creating extra Air, Water, Earth, and Fire runes from a piece of essence, and what's more is that you can even get extra exp from these runes! I was able to craft up to 9 extra runes per inventory, essentially meaning I crafted 37 essence in one inventory!
Not only that, but it restores 50 points of run energy 3 times per day, so you can do 1-2 trips without resting at a musician.
You can also use the Cabbage-port feature infinitely, and it teleports you to the cabbage patch northeast of Draynor. This is especially useful when crafting Water Runes.
Make sure you get this item, and if you do, wear it on at all times!
To get the Explorer's Ring 3, you must complete the Lumbridge Achievement diary on the firstl 3 difficulties: Beginner, Easy, and Medium.
Explorer's Ring 4
http://images4.wikia...er's_Ring_4.png [Image display blocked; image is linked instead.]
A slight upgrade to the Explorer's Ring 3. Contrary to popular belief, it does NOT give an extra run energy recharge. Getting this ring is optional, but you should still try and get it anyway due to the rewards that you can get at the end.
To get the Explorer's Ring 4, you must complete the Lumbridge Achievement diary on all 4 difficulties: Beginner, Easy, Medium, and Hard.
Teleport Runes + Air Staff
If you wish to speed up your exp/hour in Runecrafting, you better use these, in conjunction with an Air Staff.
These require law runes to use, so buying them off the Grand Exchange is recommended.
That isn't to say that you can just use these teleports at any time. All teleports, except the home teleport (which you shouldn't be using), have requirements.
The rune requirements are assuming that you are using an Air Staff to cast your teleports.
requires 25 Magic, and 1 Law and Fire Rune. 
requires 31 Magic, and 1 Law and Earth Rune. 
requires 37 Magic, and 1 Law and Water Rune. Prices of law runes can be found here.
Prices of air staffs can be found here.
Runecrafting Gloves
These pairs of mystical gloves double the experience per essence that you craft, and last for 1000 essence. They can be obtained by playing the minigame Fist of Guthix.
If you are a good Fist of Guthix player, these gloves are extremely beneficial to your Runecrafting, as one pair of gloves can double your exp/hour! Get these if you can!
Air, Water, and Earth runecrafting gloves require 10, 20, and 30 Runecrafting to use, respectively. All can be bought with 75 tokens per pair. Note that you may not buy multiples of each.
Rune Pickaxe
The ultimate pickaxe, in F2P at least. If you wish to mine your own essence, you better get this pickaxe. This is optional if you buy essence, though.
Rune pickaxes require 41 mining to use.
Prices of rune pickaxes can be found here.
Altar Teleport Tablets
The tablets of teleportation. Using one of these will teleport you to the respective altar, cutting the trip time in roughly half. Using these in conjunction with teleport runes, and you can have extremely fast exp/hour rates! Get these if you can!
All teleport tablets can be bought in the Runecrafting guild. They require 30, 32, 34, 36, 37, and 38 tokens respectively. They can be stacked.
3.0: Mining Rune Essence
Don't have enough cash to buy your essence? Well, here's an alternative: mining your essence!
This is what you should bring with you:
Next step: locating the mine.
The red circle is the place where Aubury is located (the guy who brings you to the mine).
The blue circle is the nearest bank (Varrock East).
Right-click "Teleport" on Aubury, and you should end up in a place like this:
You just have to click on the rune essence rock once, and wait until you fill up your inventory with essence.
After that, exit the portal and return to the bank. Repeat the process.
Average time per trip: 1 min 44 sec (104 sec)
Trips per hour: 35
Essence per hour: 980
Mining exp per hour: 4900
4.0: Preparing for your trip
Now that we got all our equipment ready, let's prepare our first step: organizing the trip.
Start off at the bank. Your inventory should look like this:
Your worn equipment should be either of the two (you can replace the tiara/talisman staff with any other type):
The next step: approaching to the altar.
The place where the altar is located should look like this:
(In this case, it is the Mysterious Ruins at the Fire Altar.)
Left-click "Enter" Mysterious Ruins, and you should end up in a place like this:
Once here, left-click "Craft-rune" on the altar, and your inventory should become a rune pile.
The message in red is a result from crafting the essence. Note that the explorer's ring message appeared - this means extra runes has been crafted by the ring.
After that, exit the portal, and rest at a musician. They look like this:
Rest only if your run energy is running low. On some trips, there will be no musician, just rest when your run energy drops to zero.
Run back to the bank, and repeat the process.
5.0: The Altars and Runes
Now, to actually runecraft, you must select from one of 6 altars to runecraft at. Everyone starts at the air altar, and as your level increases, you can move on to other altars.
Here are the level requirements for each altar:
Level 1: Air
Level 2: Mind
Level 5: Water
Level 9: Earth
Level 14: Fire
Level 20: Body
As your level increases, you can also craft multiple runes per essence. Note that you can only gain experience from each essence you craft, not from each rune you craft. The only exception to this rule is extra runes crafted from Explorer's Ring, in which you do get extra experience from those runes.
However, you also have a chance of creating more multiple runes than usual. For example, if you are between level 11 and 22 Runecrafting, you can craft either 2 or 3 air runes from a piece of essence.
Note that you cannot craft more than the max amount of runes possible for each essence. For example, if you are 92+ Runecrafting, you can only craft 3 body runes from a piece of essence. You cannot craft 4 body runes.
I shall go over the levels of which levels you will craft multiples in the individual sections.
5.1: Air
Altar Location & Landmarks:
Exp per essence: 5, 10 (with air gloves)
Exp per inventory: 140-185, 280-325 (with air gloves)
Varrock West Bank
This is an excellent route to the air altar, and, as a fun fact, the closest route out of all the altars! What's more is that you only have to listen to the musician once every 2 trips in this route. This is recommended for lower levels, if you're a high level, use Varrock teleports.
Average time per trip: 58 seconds (no musician), 1 min 20 sec (with musician)
Trips per hour: 52
Exp per hour: 7280-9620, 12280-14620 (with air gloves)
Note: At the 36th trip with air gloves, only 20 of the essence gets double exp, and after that, all essence return to normal exp. My exp/hour will figure in this.
Varrock West Bank + Varrock Teleport
To make things even faster, let's add in the Varrock teleport! In this method, you will be using a fire staff instead of an air staff, so you can take 27 essence with you instead of 26. It cuts down profit a little, but it's negligible. Oh, and you only have to rest at the musician once every 3 times.
Average time per trip: 40 seconds (no musician), 1 min 14 sec (with musician)
Trips per hour: 70
Exp per hour: 9450-12950, 14450-17600 (with air gloves)
Note: On the 38th trip, only 1 essence will have double exp. After that, it is as if you crafted without using gloves.
Prices of air runes can be found here.
5.2: Mind
Altar Location & Landmarks:
Exp per essence: 5.5
Exp per inventory: 154, 143 (if using Falador teleports)
Falador West Bank
This is the only real route if you don't use teleports. This is a very slow route to crafting mind runes. In fact, on your way back there is a good chance that you will be walking towards the musician instead of running. This is not a recommended route if you can cast teleport to Falador.
Average time per trip: 2 min 44 sec (with musician)
Trips per hour: 22
Exp per hour: 3388
Falador West Bank + Falador Teleport
Utilizing the Falador teleport, this significantly decreases the time to the altar. In fact, since mind runes are not profitable even at 98, using Falador teleports is a must to crafting mind runes. Be sure to get 37 magic for this.
Average time per trip: 1 min 39 sec (with musician)
Trips per hour: 36
Exp per hour: 5148
Prices of mind runes can be found here.
5.3: Water
Altar Location & Landmarks:
Exp per essence: 6, 12 (with water gloves)
Exp per inventory: 168-222, 336-390 (with water gloves)
Draynor Bank
Due to the distance from Draynor bank to the altar, this is not a very good method of crafting water runes. This is not recommended if you have the stats to complete all 3 Lumbridge Achievement diaries.
Average time per trip: 2 min 12 sec
Trips per hour: 27
Exp per hour: 4536-5994, 9072-10530 (with water gloves)
Draynor Bank + Cabbage-port
This is really the only viable route when crafting water runes. In fact, this is one of the reasons why the explorer's ring 3 is a must - it shortens your water runecrafting trip dramatically! Do not craft water runes until you have this ring!
Average time per trip: 1 min 42 sec (with musician)
Trips per hour: 35
Exp per hour: 5880-7770, 11760-13650 (with water gloves)
Prices of water runes can be found here.
5.4: Earth
Altar Location & Landmarks:
Exp per essence: 6.5, 13 (with earth gloves)
Exp per inventory: 182-240.5, 364-422.5 (with earth gloves), 169-227.5 (if using Varrock teleports), 338-396.5 (if using Varrock teleports + earth gloves)
Varrock East Bank
If you can't use teleports, you can still use this route for your runecrafting. Unlike the mind altar, this is decently fast compared to the teleportation route. This is recommended for low level crafters, if you are a high-level crafter, you can choose to do the teleport route.
Average time per trip: 1 min 28 sec (with musician)
Trips per hour: 41
Exp per hour: 7462-9860.5, 13962-16360.5 (with earth gloves)
Note: Just like air gloves, you use up your charges in 36 trips. The remaining 5 trips are as if you crafted runes without gloves.
Varrock East Bank + Varrock teleport
A faster alternative to crafting earth runes would be to use the Varrock teleport. There is a slight disadvantage though - you can only craft 26 essence per trip. However, that is made up by the number of trips used when crafting earth runes. This is also slightly more costly as it involves buying law and fire runes, but profit is still possible after 52 Runecrafting.
Average time per trip: 1 min 2 sec (no musician), 1 min 32 sec (with musician)
Trips per hour: 47
Exp per hour: 7943-10692.5, 14443-17192.5 (with earth gloves)
Note: On your 39th inventory, the gloves crumble to dust, and only 12 of the essences crafted will have double exp. After that, it is as if you crafted runes without gloves.
Prices of earth runes can be found here.
5.5: Fire
Altar Location & Landmarks:
Exp per essence: 7
Exp per inventory: 196-259
Al Kharid Bank
Some might be suggesting why the Duel Arena bank isn't better. Two factors. One: No musician. Two: It is actually further than Al Kharid Bank. So, if you're crafting fire runes, be sure to bank at Al Kharid!
Average time per trip: 1 min 38 sec (with musician)
Trips per hour: 37
Exp per hour: 7252-9583
Prices of fire runes can be found here.
5.6: Body
Altar Location & Landmarks:
Exp per essence: 7.5
Exp per inventory: 210
Edgeville Bank
This is really the only route you should be going. Ignore the musician up north, instead rest at the bank each trip.
Average time per trip: 1 min 45 sec (with resting)
Trips per hour: 34
Exp per hour: 7140
Prices of body runes can be found here.
6.0: Making Tiaras
Before we start making tiaras, know the simple equation here:
http://images2.wikia...dy_Talisman.PNG [Image display blocked; image is linked instead.] + http://images1.wikia.../6/6c/Tiara.png [Image display blocked; image is linked instead.] = http://images4.wikia.../Body_Tiara.PNG [Image display blocked; image is linked instead.]
Got it? Good.
Now, let's start off. Since body tiaras are the only tiaras worth making for experience, I shall only mention them. Check the body runes section for where to go to craft.
Your inventory should look like this:
Once you enter the altar, craft your tiaras. Right-click "Use" on the tiara, and click on the altar. A make-x prompt will appear, which you should accept to make all into tiaras. When finished it should look something like this:
The messages in red are results from crafting the tiaras.
Exp per tiara: 37.5
Exp per inventory: 525
Time per trip: 2 min 05 sec (125 sec)
Inventories per hour: 29
Exp per hour: 15225
Prices of body talismans can be found here.
Prices of tiaras can be found here.
Prices of body tiaras can be found here.
7.0: Runecrafting-related minigames
7.1: Fist of Guthix
Fist of Guthix, the area of the Guthix druids, is a minigame where you must endure 2 rounds. One as the hunter, one as the hunted.
The objective is to survive as long as you can while gathering charges (if hunted), and to kill your opponent as fast as possible (if hunter).
Why is this minigame significant to runecrafting, you may ask? The answer is simple: runecrafting gloves.
Wearing a pair will double the exp per essence, and they last for 1k essence. They cost 75 tokens.
Notice the double exp part. This shall be the main reason as of why you should be getting them.
Now, in this section, I shall go over the most effective tactics to winning the minigame. Other insignificant methods will simply not be mentioned.
As the hunter
Your main objective is to kill your opponent as fast as possible. It is recommended to have the following stats:
59+ Magic (for fire blast)
45+ Prayer (for 15% all)
60+ Melee stats + rune items
60+ Ranged (maple shortbow + adamant arrows recommended)
Now, to actually describe the strategy. You start off in one of the eight corners of the arena, and your opponent will always be at the opposite corner.
You should run a straight line across the arena like this:
(image here)
Most opponents that I have met will use the teleport orb as soon as they see you coming, so be sure to attack your opponent before you teleport!
After that, your opponent will likely stand in the center, gathering as much charges as possible. Either range with your bow, hit with your melee weapon, or autocast fire blast, turn on boosting prayers, and attack away! Make sure you alternate attack styles.
Once your opponent's HP is low, pull out a gravite 2h, if you have one. Be sure to turn off your autocast if using magic, otherwise you will continue to cast fire blast!
Once you have killed your opponent, the round ends.
As the hunted
Your main objective is to gather as much charges as possible, using the stone of power.
Make absolute sure you have 43 Prayer! This shall reduce the damage done to you by a whole ton, regardless of attack style!
It is also recommended to have 60+ Defence and Hitpoints so you can survive for a fair amount of time.
For your equipment, use prayer boosting gear. That way, your protection prayers can last you longer, and you can gain more charges.
Once you start the round, grab a stone of power, and click on the teleorb. That's right, the most effective method to win as hunted is to stay in the center. This is why I recommend you to have high Defence, HP, and the Prayer requirement.
Your hunter is most likely to find you at the center. Once he starts attacking, activate the protection prayer of the attack style he/she is using. After that, watch your hitpoints.
When your hitpoints is 16 or more points below your hitpoints level, use a bandage. One heals you 15 HP, pretty much the most healing 1-click food in F2P.
The reason why I said 16 is that your hitpoints heals by itself, and in you heal at 15, chances are you will autoheal and the bandage will only heal 14 HP, not using it to maximum effectiveness.
Once you run out of bandages, activate steel skin. This is also another reason why I want you to use prayer boosting gear - you will be using multiple prayers.
When your hp falls below half, activate rapid heal. It might not make a big difference, but hey, every hp point counts.
Once you die, the round ends.
Tokens Per Hour
For each match you win, you will get an average of 7-10 tokens per round. If you lose, you will only get one token.
Each match takes roughly about 5-10 minutes, as well.
This means that you can get a max of 120 tokens per hour, while you can also get something as lousy as 6 tokens per hour.
On average though, you should be able to get at least 65 tokens per hour, which isn't too good but not so bad either.
Rewards
What you are really looking forward to getting in this minigame are mainly the gloves, but you should be going for some other useful things too.
Runecrafting Gloves: 75 tokens each, can only buy one pair at a time. Doubles RC exp for 1k essence. For Air, Water, and Earth only.
Rune Gauntlets: 200 tokens each. These are the best melee gloves for F2P due to its stats, and how it degrades only if you die with it.
Rune Berserker Shield: 300 tokens each, 30 tokens recharge fee. The best stats for a F2P melee shield, but due to its degrading nature, it's not that efficient to use.
Green Dragonhide Coif: 150 tokens each, 15 tokens recharge fee. The best stats for a F2P coif, but again, it's not that efficient due to its degrading nature.
7.2: Great Orb Project
Great Orb Project, the area full of orbs, is a minigame which puts you on one of two teams, in a competition to see which team can get the most orbs.
You are put in one of two teams - green, or yellow.
This minigame is located in the Runecrafting Guild, which requires 50 Runecrafting to enter.
This minigame is also significant to Runecrafting, obviously because it is RC-related, but also because of its nice rewards.
You get to buy talismans, teleport tablets, runecrafter robes, talisman staffs, and rune essence with the tokens given from this minigame.
What team should I join?
The obvious answer to this question is: any team.
However, if you are going for effectiveness, this is actually NOT the case.
The team that you should be joining is yellow, for a number of reasons.
1. Yellow orbs are easier to see and click.
2. You can see the activity bar easier on the yellow side.
3. Yellow generally has the better players, which means more wins per game.
There is a con, however, and that is most of the time, yellow is full of people. So, whenever you finish a game, join yellow as soon as possible.
The Game
When you join a team, you will be given the following items:
- Attractor wand. This wand attracts the orbs to you. You want to generally use this wand for scoring.
- Repellor wand. This wand repels the orbs away from you. This helps get orbs out of sticky situations, but in general you want to avoid using it.
- Barrier wand. This wand generates a barrier that prevents any orbs from going through. The barriers generally gets destroyed pretty easily so using it is not really advised.
- A runecrafting hat of your team's color. You will automatically wear this.
However, these are not the only items you should be using. Here are some other stuff you might want to consider:
- Explorer's Ring 3. When a round ends, you shall be given essence to craft. This gives you a chance of extra runes from the essence, so use it!
- Runecrafting gloves. Did I mention that in GOP, this gives triple the usual exp instead of double? This is because the essence given already gives double exp, so this adds on to it.
- Runecrafter robe parts. These give an invisible bonus in the minigame. It might be small, but it helps. Wear the full set when you can!
The Strategy
Remember why I said that you should generally avoid using the repellor and barrier wands? This is because in this minigame, offensive play (scoring as many orbs as you can) is favored. Unless extremely skilled, playing defensively with the repellor and barrier will get you nowhere, and your teammates shall flame you.
When scoring orbs into an altar, it must be "touching" the altar itself. That is why you want to stand on the inside squares of the altar, specifically these ones:
(image here)
The exception is for large altars like mind and earth, where you will be doing a lot of running. This is probably the only reason why you want to use your repellor, as to avoid too much running and wasting time.
As for ranking the altars' difficulty from hardest to easiest, here they are:
Earth
Mind
Water
Body
Fire
Air
You will probably get the most essence on the easier rounds and less on the harder rounds, because of the difficulty to score orbs.
When should you craft the essence?
This is also a question that most people have been asking, so I shall put my insight into this.
- At the end of the air altar, always use all of your essence. Most of the time you might get more than enough essence for one inventory, so use them all.
- Never use essence at the mind altar. At the cost of fire runes and at the exp of airs, save yourself an inventory space by saving mind ess at the water altar.
- Save as much essence from the earth/fire altars for the body altar. They give the most exp per ess, and cost more than fires.
- Since the earth altar is a difficult altar, you won't be getting that much ess anyway, so save them for a later altar.
So, in a summary, always craft at air and body, craft mind ess at the water altar, and save earth/fire ess for body. You should be getting 1k-2k exp per game if you always win.
Tokens Per Hour
Each game takes a minute to start, each altar in GOP takes 2 minutes, and the total "essence" time adds up to 1 and a half minutes.
So each game should take an average of 15 minutes.
That means in an hour, you will be able to play 4 games.
For each altar you win, you get 100 tokens. For each altar that you draw on, you get 50 tokens. For each altar you lose, you get 10 tokens.
Not to mention if you are the winning side, you get an extra 150 tokens.
That means you can get a max of 750 tokens per game, or a min of 60 tokens per game.
Which means you can get 3000 tokens per hour at max.
On average, you can either be winning everything or losing all, and results other than that don't happen quite often.
Rewards
- Talismans (air, mind, water, earth, fire, body). 50 tokens each. It's advised to buy the most expensive talisman for cash, depending on prices and how well they sell.
- Runecrafter robes (yellow, green, blue) 1000 tokens each piece, 4 pieces in the set. These are not only great in the minigame but also for magic training.
- Teleport tablets. 30 for air, 32 for mind, 34 for water, 36 for earth, 37 for fire, and 38 for body. These help speed up your runecrafting process.
- Talisman staff. 10000 per staff. This acts exactly the same as a tiara, but it has pretty good bonuses for a staff.
- Rune essence. 1 per ess. Instead of buying from the GE, you can buy it here for more profit overall.
8.0: General Tips & Tricks
- Wear as little as possible, to minimize your weight. This helps you run longer.
- Zero weight items (amulets, capes, rings) do NOT affect run.
- Since runecrafting is a skill that is slow to level up, try to go with methods that give you good profit.
- If you have access to runecrafting-boosting gear (FOG gloves, ER3), use them! They will strongly benefit you in the long run.
- If you have lots of cash to spare, you can do tiaras for significantly faster exp.
- Always try to restore run via musicians rather than resting, unless the musician is way off your runecrafting path.
- Use up your explorer's ring charges. They give 50 of your run energy back, make use of it!
- Make use of teleports too. Although they take up 1 or 2 slots in your inventory, the extra time saved makes up for it.
9.0: Calculating Profit
Unlike calculating exp per hour, profit is not fixed. Prices shift each and every day, so I can only get a rough estimate of the average profits.
If you wish to calculate profit though, here's the equation:
P = r - (e + t)
in which P is profit, r is the total value of all your crafted runes, e is the cost of essence, and t is the cost of teleports (if any).
But, if you really wish to see the numbers, well here they are, ranked from best to worst:
Great Orb Project - 420k buying talismans + 2k in crafted runes per hour (assuming you win each game, 750 tokens)
Water runes - 100k-200k per hour
Air runes - 10k-150k per hour
Earth runes - 50k-100k per hour
Mind runes - (-60k)-(-6k) per hour (loss)
Body runes - (-60k)-(-40k) per hour (loss)
Fire runes - (-80k)-(-50k) per hour (loss)
Which means, if you want good cash, water is a guaranteed cash flow, while GOP depends on a good team. It is up to you to decide which is the best for you.
---
Well, this marks the end of my guide, so...
HAPPY RUNECRAFTING!
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)
I'm definitely going to use this guide when I start training RC.
. I'll make sure I focus more this time round.
