Runecrafting pouch

Pouches are bags that can hold varying amounts of rune essence or pure essence for use in the Runecrafting skill. Pouches are highly prized among runecrafters because they can more than double the amount of essence that can be carried per load (with all pouches being used, you can carry up to 53 essences in your inventory). Pouches can be used to take larger loads when mining pure essence. Taking pouches to mine pure essence isn't required but is highly recommended for faster mining and less loads. These bags are among the Items Not Kept on Death.

Abyss (miniquest) is required to access pouches and the Abyss.

At Runefest 2011, there was a vote of which attendees were able to vote on which skill update of the options offered they wanted to see released into the game in 2012. The winner was a Runecrafting minigame that would take place in a factory-type setting and not involve running to altars. It also includes an update to the Wicked hood and the ability to combine pouches. The Runespan was released in April 2012.

There are five different sizes of pouches. Players may only own one of each size, except for the Massive pouch (however, only one massive pouch can be filled at a time). As the size of the pouch increases, so does the Runecrafting level required to use it. Each pouch can carry either pure essence or rune essence, but not both at once.

Pouches are dropped by monsters in the Abyss and the Abyssal Area after completing the abyss miniquest. You can now also obtain some pouches from the Wizard Korvak in the Runecrafting Guild; see more below for info on this wizard. Pouches degrade with use and must be repaired or they will vanish.

Note: If you drop a pouch with rune essence or pure essence inside, all of them will disappear from the pouch and are not retrievable.

Obtaining
Pouches are dropped for free by Abyssal Leeches, Guardians and Walkers. They live in two areas of Abyssal Space, one accessed through the Mage of Zamorak in level 5 Wilderness north of Edgeville, and the other via fairy ring.

The pouches are dropped in increasing size. If you have a small pouch, which the Dark Mage can give for free, in your bank or inventory you will get a medium pouch, and so forth. Once you have a giant pouch, the abyssal creatures will stop dropping them. Note that the pouches are obtainable before players reach the level required to use them.

There is an excellent spot located in the South-western most portion of the Abyssal space where there are good hiding spots in an area thick with leeches. Using the Fairy Rings to reach the Abyssal Area (code: ALR) is a safer option than entering the Abyss with the help of the Mage of Zamorak. However, this method requires a Dramen staff or Lunar staff. Food such as lobsters are effective as long as the Guardians and Walkers are avoided.

Degrading
Pouches degrade over time and each one will accept a number of uses before it degrades. When they do, the capacity of the pouch is reduced by a few essences (3 for the Giant pouch, 2 for the Large pouch, 1 for the Medium pouch). It decays within:
 * 10 full uses (120 essences) for the giant pouch,
 * 29 full uses (261 essences) for the large pouch
 * 45 full uses (270 essences) for the medium pouch.

The small pouch doesn't decay. Pouches decay on filling them, not emptying them. Degraded pouches will continue to degrade and lose essence capacity until they disappear or are repaired. There are four ways to repair pouches:


 * Talk to the Dark Mage in the Abyss and he will repair them for free. It is not required to have the pouches in one's inventory; he can fix the pouches even if they are stored in the bank. For an Abyss runecrafter, it is recommended to just mend the pouches during a usual abyss trip, but players who don't feel comfortable with the Abyss can leave their pouches in the bank, so there is no risk of losing them. All pouches are repaired at the same time by the Dark mage even if they have not visibly decayed.