The Spoils of 99 Runecrafting - An in-depth guide on its worth

What's up guys, thought I'd make a thread detailing the spoils of 99 Runecrafting. On Tuesday or Wednesday, I will finally complete my goal of an Untrimmed Runecrafting Cape. The entire goal took a good bit less than a year, with breaks sometimes spanning a month at a time. So, is 99 Runecrafting worth it in Old School Runescape? Let's see. Keep in mind this guide LARGELY assumes you play Runescape legitimately and don't bot or RWT. In terms of that, I will show you why 99 Runecrafting is beyond "worth" it.

When I finish 99 Runecrafting, I will have made 2,152,000 Nature Runes. This yields me about a 600 million GP profit. Factor in Glory Recharges (which I always got free) and Stamina Potions, my profit is still well over 550M GP.

So, 99 Runecrafting nets you over 1000 dollars worth of GP. In that regard, doing it by hand makes it not really worth it (if you just want real money). Botting it you'd probably get banned, but yeah it'd be worth it. However, if you're looking at it solely in a gameplay perspective, it is absolutely worth it as it will take care of almost if not all of your buyable skills. You could also get quite a substantial Runescape 3 bank if you were to Runecraft in 07 and then swap the GP back to the core game. This is probably better gp/hr than any method in Runescape 3 (save for staking/gambling, which aren't surefire methods).

I have gotten a lot of Skype messages and private messages inquiring about Runecrafting tips + tricks + such. Here I can provide you with all of my knowledge on the skill. Firstly, I believe that Runecrafting takes a special kind of discipline. It is not catered to the casual Runescape player, especially in terms of experience (1k ess crafted into Nature Runes = 9k xp, and no 91 and double nats does not equal double XP). However, if you're not in it for experience, you have a couple of options:

World 336 Nature Running - Here you will find hosts, usually dressed in gold robes. You can trade these hosts your essence and receive 2x nature runes in return. This is an incredibly convenient way to avoid the massive, and I mean massive, grind to 91 Runecrafting. Depending on time of day, number of hosts (aka Nature Crafters/doublers), and amount of runners, your gp an hour will fluctuate from 350k-500k/ hr. This is an incredibly easy process for a lot of quick gold. You can either go through Karamja to get to the Nature Altar or you can travel through the Abyss, which is recommended (however, there are a few PKING Clans that frequent the area outside of the abyss to kill defenseless runners). Sometimes there are even hosts that offer 2.5x Nature Runes. It really depends on the host, the 2.5x hosts are usually hosts without 91 rc, so they're paying for the XP (whereas a 91 RC host loses no money and gains all the XP).

If Running is not your forte or sounds too tedious/complicated, stick to solo Runecrafting. Law Runes via the Balloon Method or Nature Runes via the Abyss are constant, consistent, and surefire moneymakers. At 91 RC, I make over 1m easily an hour Runecrafting. With Stamina Pots, I can do about 4200 Nature Runes, which = 1,176,000 gold pieces.

That leads to another oft-asked question - Should I use Energy Potions, Super Energy Potions, or Stamina Potions?

Well, firstly, let's go over the differences:

Energy Potion - Replenishes 10 percent of your run energy per dose.
Super Energy Potion- Replenishes 20 percent of your run energy per dose.
Stamina Potion- Reduces your run diminish by 70 percent, also restores 20 percent of your run energy per dose. 1 dose lasts 2 minutes.

My rankings of these potions:

1. Stamina Potions - These are BY FAR your best option. They cost about 5k each but here's why they're so great - You can do 2 trips worth of Natures for every dose of a stamina potion. That's over 15k per dose you're making, meaning for every 100k gp in nature runes approximately, you're only losing 5k of that on a potion. In addition, stamina potions eliminate the need for clicking constantly (which helps because RC is already a highly click intensive, non-AFK skill). I suggest you keep a stamina potion in the bottom right corner of your inventory, so that you can have easy access to it and never worry about running out of run energy.

2. Energy Potions - If you're on a budget, opt for Energy Potions over Super Energy Potions. They only replenish 10 percent run per dose, but all that means is a little more time @ the bank and clicking. Why would you do this? Because Energy Potions are FAR cheaper than Super Energy potions, like 4x cheaper last I checked. That means you're paying four times less for a potion that replenishes half of the run energy as a super energy. It's very economically and mathematically obvious that this is the smart choice. If your net worth is over even 5m, though, opt for Stamina potions. You won't regret it.

3. Super Energy Potions - Overpriced, no run time diminish like Stamina potions, slightly less clicking than Energy Pots for 4x the price. Not worth it, don't bother buying them. You're just wasting money and throwing away profit by using these.

What are the best perks of 99 Runecrafting?

-The knowledge that you achieved arguably the most tedious, monotonous, and difficult 99 in Old School Runescape. Some may argue that Slayer or Agility are more tedious, but I disagree. Slayer is probably the most fun skill in the game as it focuses on combat, combat variation, the leveling of multiple skills whilst doing it, etc. Agility is hard, but with Rooftop Agility, it is not harder than Runecrafting.

-An incredibly high rank in Runecrafting. When I 99, I will be in the Top 300-400 of ALL Runecrafters in the game. Considering OSRS has been out for 2 years, and not even 400 people have 99 Runecrafting, shows just how hard the skill is to max - but also the reward of maxing it.

-An extremely lucrative amount of cash will come into your possession, and it will never stop - Double Nats are 1M+ an hour - easily. You will make 600m off of 99 Runecrafting. Nature Runes demand never diminishes in OSRS, as the price of them continue to sky-rocket even post Grand Exchange (going from 225 ea - 280 ea, wouldn't be surprised to see 300+ ea soon).

-With this cash, all buyable skills are a piece of cake. Fretting over getting 99 Herblore or 99 Prayer? 99 Runecrafting makes that a walk in the park. Dying to make a good pure but don't have money for 99 Magic or Ranged? Runecrafting will get you there 10 times over.

Other General Tips + Tricks -

1. Do Runecrafting in bits and pieces to avoid burning yourself out. Set aside days or weeks that you're going to Runecraft and take it slow. While the XP is slow, your GP gains won't be. Single Nats should easily net you 300-600k an hour depending on speed, efficiency, and luck (no pkers, no deaths, etc).

2. Do the Abyss, even if level 1 Runecrafting. Do Air Runes/Fire Runes until 35 Runecrafting, and then make Chaos Runes until 44. At 44 you do Nature Runes all the way to 99, and can mix in Astrals or Law Runes if you want to mix it up. I did Nature Runes entirely from 44-99.

3. You'll die doing Runecrafting if you're not multitasking. Minimize the game window and have Netflix up or Pandora up in the background. If you attempt to Runecraft with no music or side-distraction, you will feel that you are in a nazi concentration camp toiling over long hours of labor. I'm barely kidding/exaggerating.

4. Accept the fact that, no matter how you do it, Runecrafting will not be fast. If you want fast, go play End of Combat/Content Scape 3. Go do ZMI or Runespan or whatever douchey way there is that massively devalued Runecrafting in the core game. Gp gains will be relatively steady and consistent, but Runecrafting for experience will make you want to punt a baby across a football field. You will be getting 10-18k xp/hr. Yes, you read that right, 10-18k.

5. Any Abyss related obstacle should be relatively easily passed if the respective skill is 50 or higher. A combat level of over 70 / 60 HP / 60 def is probably the minimum you need to Abyss RC at max efficiency. Otherwise, you're going to get pounded in the Abyss and need to eat frequently and you might die frequently. If you're a low level, I suggest a ring of life.

6. Have an alternative means of teleporting, bring a ring of duelling in case your Glory charges run out and you forgot to switch it.

7. Go to World 2 GE to look for cheap glory recharges to replenish your stock of charged glories.

8. Teleporting into the Abyss is NOT impacted by the Teleblock spell, so if you get entangled by a PKER, don't panic and make your way towards the zammy mage and attempt to teleport. Attempting to run south back to the bank usually results in sure death (depending on their combat level).

9. Have fun, if you think of it as a grind, you will fail miserably.


I hope this detailed guide will help people mulling over whether or not 99 Runecrafting is worth it in Old School Runescape. From a NON-RWT NON-Botting perspective, yes it is worth it. Any other questions, don't hesitate to ask me.

 

So much green. Duke pls.

Interesting read though.

 

It's only fitting I color OP as Nature Rune green, come on Sellermon

 

That is definitely not "nature rune green" Anyways, advanced congratulations on your goal buddy!

 

great thread. i am currently working on 99, 98 at the moment. it's very long lol

 

It's as close as you're going to get on here. Unless you wanted to read everything in lime green which I doubt.

Anywho - This guide should help anyone debating on whether or not to do it.

 

Very, very good advice, I think the grind to 91 RC is to much for ever me but I would kill to have that on my level 15 skiller.

 

Thanks for the guide, I'm gonna give it a go and hopefully stick it out!

thanks for the help

 

How much ingame time do you think this has taken you?

 

Really nice read Duke, early congrats on your goal as well I never thought you'd actually make it when I posted on your first original thread months back.

 

Huge congratulations dude, 99 runecrafting must take some real dedication. I might have to try 99 runecrafting some time, never been encouraged enough to do something like that, seems like it really pays off though.

 

Thanks everyone, I think I crammed everything in there that I can think of. Oh and if the green is really bothersome, I'll change it hahaha, it was 6 am and I felt a little loopy.

@Euterpe, really hard to say how much in-game time it took. It had to have been hundreds of hours.

 

A year of Runecrafting... pls no.

 

Lol, only with breaks though. Could do it in 4-6 months without them.

 

very nice duke!, I am not going to do this but I am astonished on how long it took you and the profit you made from it.

 

Almost there Duke last time i checked your progress thread you we're around 96 RC almost there man best of luck, that cape is gonna look sexy AF

 

It's pretty motivating realizing you'll profit such an astronomical amount. Pretty much, if you want an Ely without staking your way to one, do RC'ing. lol

Someone already asked this, but i'll ask it differently... how many hours would you say you spent over the course of 44-99? Just as a really rough rounded number. A long long time ago I had a friend tell me he averaged it out to be 700-800 hours? I can't remember what method he said.

Man. This is going to take a long ass time hahaha. Seems definitely worth it though.

Congrats though! What 99 are you going for next?

 

Nice man, might start working on it myself. Congrats on 99 Rc once you achieve it.

 

I admire your patience so much, I don't think I could do more of a week at a push of runecrafting.

 

Training runecrafting above level 91 is still rediculously slow but I guess it feels a little faster when you know them IRL $ gainz are coming in.

I remember first looking at your thread months ago, didn't thought that you would finish it off that fast tbh. Congratulations dude, unique achievement especially because the cape is untrimmed!

Are you trying to keep the cape untrimmed for now, by the way?