Runes (2024)

Runes are small, weightless, magical stones with symbols on them representing various elements. Players need the right combinations of runes to cast spells using the Magic skill.

Runes can either be bought from the various Magic shops found throughout Old School RuneScape, created from rune essence through the Runecraft skill, procured from drops by killing monsters, or picked up from various spawns on the ground.

Elemental staves (the staff of earth, the staff of air, the staff of fire, and the staff of water) provide an unlimited amount of runes of their stated type to cast spells while wielding them.

Free-to-play runes[edit | edit source]

All players can use the runes listed below, though free players can only craft runes up to body runes (using the Runecraft skill). The two free-to-play Magic stores (in Varrock and Port Sarim) only sell the basic elemental runes, chaos runes, and death runes.

Rune		Use	Runecraft	Level	GE price
	Air rune	Used to cast air missiles and one of the four basic elemental runes.		1	4
	Mind rune	Used to cast basic missile spells (Wind, Water, Earth and Fire Strike).		2	2
	Water rune	Used to cast water missiles and one of the four basic elemental runes.		5	4
	Earth rune	Used to cast earth missiles and one of the four basic elemental runes.		9	4
	Fire rune	Used to cast fire missiles and one of the four basic elemental runes.		14	4
	Body rune	Used to cast low level curse spells.		20	5
	Cosmic rune	Used for item enchanting spells (jewellery, crossbow bolts, and orbs).		27	104
	Chaos rune	Used to cast low level missile spells (Wind, Water, Earth and Fire Bolt) as well as Crumble Undead.		35	72
	Nature rune	Used for transmutation spells such as Low and High Level Alchemy and Superheat Item, as well as Binding.		44	105
	Law rune	Used to cast teleportation spells and Telekinetic Grab.		54	122
	Death rune	Used to cast medium level missile spells (Wind, Water, Earth and Fire Blast).		65	121

Members runes[edit | edit source]

The Wizards' Guild located in Yanille has the cheapest Magic shops available to members. Located on its upper floors, it sells every rune except astral, cosmic, wrath, and combination runes.

Only members can use the runes listed below.

Rune		Use	Level	GE price
	Sunfire rune	Used as replacement of Fire Runes.	13	109
	Astral rune	Used to cast Lunar spells. Lunar Diplomacy is required to craft and use these runes.	40	79
	Blood rune	Used to cast high level missile spells (Wind, Water, Earth and Fire Wave).	77	201
	Soul rune	Used to cast high level curse spells, teleport-other spells and some more spells.	90	174
	Wrath rune	Used to cast very high level missile spells (Wind, Water, Earth and Fire Surge).	95	243

Combination runes[edit | edit source]

These runes are members only, and act as one of each of their composite runes.

Rune		Combination	Level	GE price
	Mist rune	Air rune Water rune	6	115
	Dust rune	Air rune Earth rune	10	12
	Mud rune	Water rune Earth rune	13	114
	Smoke rune	Air rune Fire rune	15	34
	Steam rune	Water rune Fire rune	19	64
	Lava rune	Earth rune Fire rune	23	12

Obtaining runes[edit | edit source]

Monster drops[edit | edit source]

Many monsters drop runes in RuneScape, but some more than others. These are some of the most notable and easy.

• Level 7 and 20 Dark wizards south of Varrock, south of Taverley, and in Draynor Village
• Wizards in the Wizards' Tower south of Draynor Village
• Elemental mages south of Falador
• Chaos druids in Taverley Dungeon and Edgeville Dungeon
• Flesh Crawlers in 2nd floor of the Stronghold of Security
• Zombie (common) in 2nd floor of the Stronghold of Security
• Infernal Mages in the Slayer Tower
• Hill Giants in the Giants' Plateau. Note that the giants are level 28, but even novice players can gain runes from them. There’s usually one or two high-level characters fighting the giants. When a one of these players kills a giant, the giant will occasionally drop a rare rune-such as a law, nature, cosmic or death rune. If your character can’t go head-to-head with giants, just activate sprint, grab the rune, and retreat to the entrance of the plateau. The giants won’t follow you past the edge of the plateau, so it’s a good spot to heal in-between rune drops. Bones to bananas is good for this; there’s plenty of bones around, and your character can transmute them directly into bananas.

Runecraft[edit | edit source]

Runecraft is the skill of crafting runes from rune essence. Through this skill, players can create their own runes for use in Magic.

Rogue Trader[edit | edit source]

Runes can be obtained by completing Ali Morrisane's Rogue Trader minigame, which players may complete after finishing The Feud quest. After completing the minigame, players are able to obtain runes for a cheaper price. Unlike most shops, prices here stay the same while you are buying or selling runes.

Rune		Price sold at	Price bought at
	Air rune	4	2
	Mind rune	3	1
	Water rune	4	2
	Earth rune	4	2
	Fire rune	4	2
	Body rune	3	1
	Cosmic rune	62	25
	Chaos rune	112	45
	Nature rune	225	90
	Law rune	300	120
	Death rune	225	90
	Blood rune	500	200
	Soul rune	300	150

Rune shops[edit | edit source]

There are several Magic shops around RuneScape that sell runes. These are identified with the flame icon on the map. Shop names in italics are members-only. Note wrath runes can not be bought from shops anywhere.

Barrows[edit | edit source]

The Barrows minigame provides large amounts of catalytic runes (mind, chaos, death, and blood) from the chest, though very high combat skills are required in order to be successful at the Barrows.

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