Ourania Altar

The Ourania Runecrafting Altar (also known as the ZMI Altar) is one of the several Runecrafting altars located throughout RuneScape. The altar is in the Ourania Cave, which is west of the Battlefield, and south of West Ardougne.

The Ourania Altar converts pure essence into an assortment of random runes without a chance of bonus runes being created. The altar, which requires no talisman, tiara or staff to enter, gives double the normal experience for every rune crafted. Players do not need a specific Runecrafting level in order to craft at this altar, but the chance of crafting higher-levelled runes increases with a higher Runecrafting level.

Once inside the Ourania Cave, quickly reached by an Ourania Teleport (from the lunar spellbook), players may use a bank there that requires a payment of 20 runes of any type. They can then go to the altar by taking either a short and dangerous route or a longer and safe route. Note that the long, curving path has no monsters. At the end of the long path, there is a crack that requires no Agility level to cross.

Getting there

 * Casting Ourania Teleport requires 71 Magic, and places the player on the path to the altar entrance.
 * Use Spirit trees to teleport from the Tree Gnome Village to the Battlefield and walk south-west.
 * Cast Ardougne Teleport, requiring 51 Magic and Plague City, and head south-west.
 * Teleport to the Ardougne Monastery with the Ardougne cloak, and walk north-west.
 * Teleport to Castle Wars with the ring of dueling, and walk north from the lobby.

Mechanics
The player is able to craft all runes that are available in the game (except combination runes), despite not having the required level or quest requirements. However, the higher the player's Runecrafting level, the higher-levelled the crafted runes will be. The experience here is double to what you would normally get for the runes.

The Ardougne cloak 2 (and higher) adds a chance of creating more runes in the Ourania Altar (rune output is increased by roughly 15%), though no extra experience is gained.

Paths
There are two paths leading to the altar: a shorter, dangerous route, and a longer, safe route.

Longer route
This route is a long winding pathway. Once players reach the end of the path, they will have to squeeze through a small crack in the wall to reach the altar. The wall-crack shortcut has no Agility requirements.

Shorter route
The shorter route contains Zamorak warriors, Zamorak mages, Zamorak rangers, Zamorak crafters, and cave lizards. The warriors, mages and rangers often fight cave lizards. Players with a combat level of 110 or below will probably want to take the alternate route, but higher level players will be able to wear a combination of Magic and melee armour and run through relatively unscathed.

The key is to stay light and protect against the members of the Zamorak Magical Institute, who are aggressive and fight with all three styles, it is recommended to wear armour that boosts Defence against Magic, and activate Protect from Missiles.

Banking
Eniola will allow you access to your bank account in exchange for 20 of any one type of rune. Using runes which are common, or not often used, such as elemental, body, and mind runes, is the smarter economical decision. Players can speak to him to set up a quick-payment deal, where they can choose which runes Eniola will automatically take from the player upon banking.

Usage of bank fillers is highly recommended with crafting runes at the Ourania Altar due to multiple runes being crafted. This enables a player to have the ability to click the Deposit Inventory button without depositing any rune pouches or runes used to bank.

There are a few other methods of banking when Runecrafting at the Ourania Altar:


 * Teleport up and down between Lunar Isle (Home Teleport or Moonclan Teleport) and the Ourania Altar (Ourania Teleport). Tele Group Moonclan tends to land the player a few squares closer to the bank than Moonclan Teleport.
 * The ring of duelling will teleport to the Castle Wars lobby.

Trivia

 * Ourania (Ουρανία), or, was the muse of astronomy in Greek mythology (the name means "heavenly" or "of heaven" in Ancient Greek). This is significant considering the proximity of the grave of the astronomer Scorpius and the Observatory.