Runecrafting

Every rune starts as Rune Essence, mined from the essence rocks that stand around rune geysers, looted from packs, or pulled back out of unwanted runes with Runes to Rune Essence (40% back at level 61, 60% from 81). You turn it into runes at a rune altar or at the anima vents scattered across Ashenfall.

The altar offers two ways. Attuning is a two-phase minigame that pays the full XP and up to ten runes per essence. Auto crafting is instant but pays a quarter of the XP and only five runes per essence until the rune's Efficiency perk (air at 22, astral 30, water 58, earth 68, fire 75, nature 87, law 94) lifts it to ten. In the attunement phase you sweep a pointer around the rune to find a frequency and lock it in: a strong resonance promises 100% bonus runes, moderate 66%, weak 33%, and the stronger the harder. The phase gets longer by 0.6% per level, and backing out costs nothing but time. In the infusion phase cracks open on the rune and you seal them before they start draining the bonus; at most five show at once, and sealing every crack before any drains is a Perfect Infusion. Even a botched infusion pays more than auto crafting. Infusion gets shorter at 17, 48 and 78.

XP per rune after the May 2026 rebalance: Air Rune 5, astral 8, water 10, earth 13, fire 18, Nature Rune 25, Law Rune 50. The recipes unlock at 1, 3, 11, 15, 25, 38 and 50 in that order.

Anima vents work at any level and hand out runes you cannot craft yet. A normal vent takes 10 essence for 100 runes and 40 XP (70 with a 45% boost); Lesser Anima Siphoning at 46 raises the runes to 120 and Greater at 71 to 150. Some vents are concentrated and give triple if you bring triple the essence, and Greater Elemental Spirits at 64 makes the wisps from Summon Elemental Spirits (level 19) point them out. From level 34 one siphon in five throws up a Pure Essence rock: hit it with a spell, an arrow or a bolt before it fades for 700 XP, 20 to 30 extra runes of the vent's kind and 20 to 30 nature and law runes on top. Vents refill after three in-game days, and the Runecrafting cape doubles whatever they give.