Death rune

The Old School RuneScape Wiki also has an article on: osrsw:Death runeThe RuneScape Classic Wiki also has an article on: classicrsw:Death-Rune

This article is about the rune. For other uses, see Death rune (disambiguation).

The official world for RC Running & ZMI Altar is world 36 (P2P).

This article has a money making guide here. Description: Crafting death runes through the Abyss Please add tips to the subpage, rather than the article below.

Death rune
Release																				24 May 2001 (Update)
Members																				No
Quest item																				No
Properties
Tradeable																				Yes
Equipable																				No
Stackable																				Yes
Disassembly																				Yes
Destroy																				Drop
Values
Value																				310 coins
High alch																				62 coins
Low alch																				41 coins
On death																				Reclaimable Value: 326 Reclaim: 100
Weight																				0 kg
Examine
A medium level catalytic rune.
Grand Exchange
Exchange																				326 coins (info)
Buy limit																				25,000
Loading...
Advanced data
Item ID																				560
Links																				MRID • recipe

Item JSON: {"edible":"no","members":"no","stackable":"yes","stacksinbank":"yes","death":"reclaimable","name":"Death rune","bankable":"yes","gemw":{"name":"Death rune","limit":25000},"equipable":"no","disassembly":"yes","release_date":"24 May 2001","id":"560","release_update_post":"New magic system online!","lendable":"no","destroy":"Drop","highalch":41,"weight":0,"tradeable":"yes","examine":"A medium level catalytic rune.","noteable":"no"}Buy limit: 25000

Death runes are used in great amounts by mages that cast Ancient Magicks, as they are needed to cast the different varieties of the rush and burst combat spells. Death runes are also needed to cast the level 85 spell Teleport Block, the only free-to-play spell which requires death runes. Members can create death runes using the Runecrafting skill at level 65 at the Death altar in the Temple of Light after completing the quest Mourning's End Part II.

Crafting them gives 10 experience per essence (or 0.2 experience per essence in Daemonheim, 20 at the Ourania Runecrafting Altar, 25 through the Abyss and 35 through the Abyss with a Demonic skull). These are the most powerful rune stocked in any store in free-to-play.

Price / Experience comparison
Grand Exchange price		GP / Exp (per essence)
Nature rune	741	82.3
Law rune	270	28.4
Death rune	326	32.6
Blood rune	1,400	133.3
Soul rune	1,580	143.6

Adult cats can be exchanged for 100 death runes with a Civilian in West Ardougne or 200 death runes while possessing the Ardougne cloak 1 or better (Works even if it is still in the bank).

250 Death runes (along with 750 Air runes) can also be obtained from any Slayer Master for 35 Slayer points after completing the Smoking Kills quest.

Crafting multiple death runes

For more information about Runecrafting multiples, see crafting multiple runes.

Multiplier		GE Price
1x	65	326

Spells

Free spells

All players can cast these spells.

Spell		Level	Runes	Spellbook	Spell type
	Teleport Block	85	111	Normal	Combat

Member spells

Only members can cast these spells:

Spell		Level	Runes	Spellbook	Spell type
	Animate Dead	84	6151530	Ancient	Combat
	Blood Burst	68	24	Ancient	Combat
	Blood Rush	56	13	Ancient	Combat
	Enchant Bakriminel Bolt (Hydrix)	99	11120	Normal	Skilling
	Enchant Bakriminel Bolt (Onyx)	98	11120	Normal	Skilling
	Enchant Crossbow Bolt (Onyx)	87 (90 for ascendri bolts)	1120	Normal	Skilling
	Ice Burst	70	24	Ancient	Combat
	Ice Rush	58	13	Ancient	Combat
	Shadow Burst	64	24	Ancient	Combat
	Shadow Rush	52	13	Ancient	Combat
	Slayer Dart	50	13 Slayer staff, Staff of Light, Staff of darkness, or Abyssal wand	Normal	Combat
	Smoke Burst	62	24	Ancient	Combat
	Smoke Rush	50	13	Ancient	Combat
	Vengeance	94	2410	Lunar, Daemonheim	Combat
	Vengeance Group	95	3411	Lunar, Daemonheim	Combat
	Vengeance Other	93	3310	Lunar, Daemonheim	Combat

Removed spells

Spell		Level	Runes	Spellbook	Spell type
	Bounty Teleport	32	111	Normal, Lunar, Ancient	Teleport
	Iban Blast (historical)	50	15	Normal	Combat

Products

This is an auto-generated list (update now), and shows the first 100 items alphabetically. For all items, click here.

Item	Skills	Materials	GE price
Ascendri bolts (e) × 10	90	10 × Ascendri bolts 20 × Fire rune 1 × Death rune 1 × Cosmic rune	83,800
Hydrix bakriminel bolts (e) × 10	99	10 × Hydrix bakriminel bolts 1 × Cosmic rune 1 × Blood rune 1 × Death rune 20 × Fire rune	93,550
Onyx bakriminel bolts (e) × 10	98	10 × Onyx bakriminel bolts 1 × Cosmic rune 1 × Blood rune 1 × Death rune 20 × Fire rune	70,960
Onyx bolts (e) × 10	87	10 × Onyx bolts 20 × Fire rune 1 × Death rune 1 × Cosmic rune	66,590
Praetorian hood	114	1 × Praetorian hood (damaged) 36 × Ancient vis 48 × Samite silk 40 × Zarosian insignia 30 × Death rune	N/A
Praetorian robes	114	1 × Praetorian robes (damaged) 30 × Ancient vis 54 × Samite silk 40 × Zarosian insignia 50 × Death rune	N/A
Praetorian staff	114	1 × Praetorian staff (damaged) 36 × Imperial steel 58 × Ancient vis 30 × Zarosian insignia 100 × Death rune	N/A

Locations

Store locations

This is an auto-generated list (update now). For a full list, see here. For help, see the FAQ.

Seller	Location	Cost	Currency	Base stock	Members?
Ali's Discount Wares	Al Kharid	310	Coins	100
Aubury's Rune Shop (New Varrock)	New Varrock	310	Zemomark	10
Aubury's Rune Shop	Varrock	310	Coins	10
Baba Yaga's Magic Shop	Lunar Isle	310	Coins	300
Battle Runes	Wilderness	310	Coins	100
Battle Runes	? (edit)	310	Coins	30
Betty's Magic Emporium	Port Sarim	310	Coins	10
Carwen Essencebinder Magical Runes Shop	Burthorpe	310	Coins	10
Freebie mage weapons shop	Lumbridge	Free sample	-	10,000
Lundail's Arena-side Rune Shop	Mage arena bank	310	Coins	300
Magic Guild Store - Runes and Staves	Wizards' Guild	310	Coins	1,000
Rune Shop (Anachronia)	Anachronia	310	Coins	10
TzHaar-Mej-Roh's Rune Store	TzHaar City	465	Tokkul	100
Void Knight Magic Store	Void Knights' Outpost	310	Coins	100

Item spawns

• West of the gnome glider in Feldip Hills

Drop sources

For an exhaustive list of all known sources for this item, see here.

Showing 100 out of 179 sources.

Source	Level	Quantity	Rarity
Air elemental	44	1	Uncommon
Angry barbarian spirit	106	5	5/128
Ankou (elite)	72	10	Uncommon
Ankou	60; 61; 63	10	9/128
Armoured zombie	21; 42; 46; 84; 86; 91	3	1/128
Augmented Sunspear (magic)	N/A	15	Common
Augmented Sunspear (melee)	N/A	15	Common
Augmented Sunspear (ranged)	N/A	15	Common
Balfrug Kreeyath	102	5–10	Uncommon
Bandit (Kharidian Desert Bandit Camp)	54	2	Uncommon
Bandit (Pollnivneach)	53	2	Uncommon
Bandit (Wilderness)	18	2	Rare
Bandit Brawler Melee	112	2	Uncommon
Barrows	N/A	15	4/40
Barrows	N/A	70–1,190	Common
Berserk barbarian spirit	106	5	Uncommon
Black Knight Titan	28	2	Uncommon
Black Knight	30	2	2/128
Black key black	N/A	Unknown	Rare
Black key brown	N/A	Unknown	Rare
Black key crimson	N/A	Unknown	Rare
Black key purple	N/A	18	Rare
Black key red	N/A	Unknown	Rare
Bladed muspah	150	20	Common
Brine rat	49	7	Common
Bronze dragon	86	25; 45	3/512
Brutish jadinko	91	3	Uncommon
Casket (CS Week)	N/A	30	Uncommon
Chaos Elemental P2P	305	100–226	Rare
Chaos Giant	126	35–50	1/25
Chaos dwarf hand cannoneer	70; 101	3	1/132
Chaos dwarf	28; 45; 47; 84; 101; 108	3; 6	1/128
Chaos dwogre	92; 98	6	Uncommon
Chaos witch apprentice	121	6–48	Unknown
Chaos witch channeler	143; 147	6–48	Unknown
Chaos witch mender	109	6–48	Unknown
Chaos witch	141	6–48	Unknown
Chest (Oldak)		2–4	65/1400
Chest (Rogues' Castle, Ground floor)	N/A	3–5	2/128
Chewed bones	N/A	8–15	Common
Chimp ice	N/A	30–50	Common
Columbarium	N/A	8–15	Common
Crystal chest Taverley	N/A	50	Common
Cyclops Ardougne Zoo	63	2	Rare
Dagannoth Prime	303	61–92	Common
Dark beast (elite)	114	30	Uncommon
Dark beast	105	10	5/64
Dark wizard (The Zamorakian Undercity)	114	6–48	Unknown
Death rune pile	N/A	100	Always
Desert strykewyrm	103	15	Uncommon
Earth elemental	44	1	Uncommon
Earth warrior (elite)	88	2	Uncommon
Earth warrior	78	2	4/128
Elf	85	2	Common
Elite Black Knight	100	1–3	Uncommon
Elite Dark Mage	98	3–6	Rare
Enraged barbarian spirit	106	5	Uncommon
Essence impling jar		13	1/100
Essence impling	42	13	1/100
Exiled Kalphite Queen	356	161–200	Uncommon
Feral vampyre	61	2	6/128
Ferocious barbarian spirit	106	6–9	Uncommon
Fire elemental	44	1	Uncommon
Fire spirit (item) normal	N/A	2–8	Rare
Force muspah	150	20	Uncommon
Former vampyre	N/A	15	Rare
Frost dragon	112	10; 15	Uncommon
Ganodermic runt	112	5–6	Uncommon
Giant Oyster	N/A	30	Common
Giant ant worker	49	2–10	Uncommon
Glacor	112	32–50	Uncommon
Gnoeals	70	1–4	Common
Gnome Restaurant	N/A	7–13	Uncommon
Greater reborn mage	82	1	Uncommon
Grifolapine	103	8–13	Uncommon
Grifolaroo	107	4–10	Uncommon
Grotworm	63	10	4/100
Guthix wizard	105; 119	15; 45	Uncommon
Harold	98	5	Uncommon
Harpie Bug Swarm (elite)	72	3	Uncommon
Harpie Bug Swarm	63	3	Uncommon
Hero		2	Uncommon
Hill giant	44	2	Rare
Ice giant	51	3	Rare
Ice strykewyrm	106	20	Common
Ice troll	84; 89	15	Common
Igneous TzekHaar-Hur	140	10–15	Unknown
Imperial mage akh	130	20	Uncommon
Imperial ranger akh	130	20	Uncommon
Imperial warrior akh	130	20	Uncommon
Infernal Mage (elite)	82	7; 30; 60	Common
Infernal Mage	72	7	17/128
Ivory Bre'egth (cursed)	82	4	Uncommon
Ivory Gromblod (cursed)	82	4	Common
Ivory Shredflesh (cursed)	82	4	Common
Jungle strykewyrm	93	10	Uncommon
Kalphite Guardian	72	18; 28; 45	Uncommon
Kalphite Queen	333	100–150	Common
Kalphite Soldier	65	3–12	Uncommon
King Black Dragon	276	50; 74	Common

Disassembly

Death rune
Disassembly category	Runes and talismans
Disassembly XP	1.9
Item quantity required	50
Material count	8
Base junk chance	?  28.5% Your actual junk chance depends on your junk chance reduction researched. See the table below for all values, and Junk for more information. Reduction Junk chance None 1 28.5% 1 34 28.3 2 49 27.7 3 64 27.1 4 69 26.6 5 78 26.0 6 83 25.1 7 91 24.6 8 95 23.7 9 105 22.8
Common materials
Magic parts	85/100
Uncommon materials
Crafted parts	13/100
Rare materials
Powerful components	2/100

Update history

This information has been compiled as part of the update history project. Some updates may not be included—see here for how to help out!

• update 24 May 2001 (Update):
  • Added to game.

Trivia

• The most death runes required for a spell are 15, for the Animate Dead spell.
• The picture on a death rune shows a skull & X, which is most likely meant to imitate the jolly roger or more commonly known as the skull & crossbones.
• Death was rolling a death rune with his fingers in 2009 Halloween event. This may be a reference to Pirates of the Caribbean, when Jack did this with one of the cursed Aztec gold coins while in skeletal form.
• Prior to the Evolution of Combat update, death runes were used in Blast spells, Surge spells, Blitz spells and Barrage spells. The removal of their usage in these spells caused a dramatic fall in their Grand Exchange price.
• Although Death runes have no use in Dungeoneering for free players following the Evolution of Combat, they can still be runecrafted and can even be found in the starting room.
• In the German version of RuneScape, they're called "afterlife runes".