Pure Essence

Pure essence is a raw material used in the Runecraft skill to make all types of runes. They can create the same runes as rune essence as well as cosmic, chaos, astral, nature, law, death, blood, wrath, and any combination runes. Pure essence does not provide any bonus over rune essence when crafting runes lower than cosmic runes; they are however much cheaper.

Unlike runes, pure essence does not stack. Essence pouches can be used to transport additional essence, when collecting or using pure essence to craft runes. Pure essence is one of the most commonly traded items in Old School RuneScape, due to its very high demand by runecrafters.

Members with a Mining level of at least 30 will mine pure essence instead of rune essence (both granting 5 experience) on member worlds at the Rune essence mine, after completing the Rune Mysteries quest. To access this mine, which contains four rocks with an unending supply of essence, players must get teleported by one of the five NPCs who are able to do so. The speed at which essence is mined does not depend on the player's Mining level, but rather their pickaxe's tier.^[1] As such, this means every roll at mining essence will be successful.

It is possible for players with essence pouches and a high level pickaxe to mine upwards of 2,100 pure essence an hour. If mining pure essence, players should consider taking weight-reducing clothing, or energy-boosting items and the aforementioned essence pouches so that more pure essence can be mined per hour. The best place to mine essence is by going to Wizard Distentor who is located in the Wizards' Guild in Yanille, but this requires 66 Magic. Players without this level should go for Aubury in Varrock. Members who have unlocked Guardians of the Rift may also use Archmage Sedridor at Wizards' Tower, using the portal to bank at the minigame for a very short travel time. However, players can also go to Brimstail at Tree Gnome Stronghold, Wizard Cromperty in Ardougne, or the Lunar Isle mine if they so choose. However, these locations are not recommended, due to their comparatively long distances from banks.

Wizard Cromperty in Ardougne will also provide 100 free noted pure essence daily for those who have completed the medium Ardougne Diary.

Pure essence can be purchased from Dom Onion's Reward Shop using points earned in the Nightmare Zone minigame. However, ironmen are restricted from buying it or any of the other resources available in the shop.

Ironmen who have completed In Aid of the Myreque and Darkness of Hallowvale may find Temple Trekking a good way of obtaining pure essence relatively early on, before options such as Zulrah or Gargoyles are viable. By using easy NPCs and route one, most encounters are fairly fast or can be evaded, and each reward token gives 50+ essence. This can lead to approximately 3,000 essence per hour. As an alternative, stronger players can take easy NPCs through route 3, and are rewarded with approximately 600 essence per run, resulting in up to 8,000 essence per hour.

With partial completion of Desert Treasure II, tainted essence chunks can be mined from the Scar essence mine and converted into pure essence via the essence orifice at a rate of two chunks per 5 pure essence. This can yield up to 10,000 essence per hour.

• Priest in Peril: 50 × pure essence (alternatively rune essence)
• Wanted!: 20 × pure essence (alternatively rune essence)

When training Runecraft, pure essence is a common choice for the input resource. Because it is one of the only two tradeable essences, and the only tradeable essence that can craft members-only runes, some players will trade with other players at the runic altars to increase the amount of runes they can craft per trip, extending to being able to permanently stay at the altar with a high enough trade frequency. This practice is called essence running. Essence running is allowed at all altars except at the Ourania Altar, where trading is prohibited.