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For rune references in other Dragon Age titles, see Runes.

Runecrafting is a skill that allows the creation of weapon runes and armor runes. These runes can be inserted into Weapons and Armor to give a bonus to that item. It is only available to characters in the Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening expansion.

Tiers[]

Runecrafting
Runecrafting
  • Activated
  • Range: Personal
  • Activation: 0
  • Cooldown: 0s
  • Requires: Level 20
The character has learned basic techniques of lyrium inscription, allowing the creation of simple runes.
Improved Runecrafting
Improved Runecrafting
  • Upgrade
  • Requires: Level 22
The character has discovered more precise methods for tracing ancient symbols, allowing the creation of intricate second-tier runes.
Expert Runecrafting
Expert Runecrafting
  • Upgrade
  • Requires: Level 24
The character has delved deeply into the histories of early Tevinter images, allowing the creation of powerful third-tier runes.
Master Runecrafting
Master Runecrafting
  • Upgrade
  • Requires: Level 26
The character has become one of Ferelden's foremost scholars on iconography, allowing the creation of exacting fourth-tier runes.

Tracing acquisition[]

The following table outlines where to find/purchase the rune tracings for each rune type.

Rune Tracing Acquisition
Tracing Type Journeyman Expert Master Grandmaster Masterpiece Paragon
Flame Weapon Initial Cera Cera Cera Kal'Hirol - Trade Quarter Kal'Hirol - Trade Quarter
Frost Weapon Initial Cera Cera Vigil's Keep - Throne Room, Yuriah Architect's Lab Architect's Lab
Slow Weapon Cera, Octham Cera, Octham Octham Blackmarsh, Octham Yuriah Blackmarsh
Hale Weapon[1] Cera, Glassric Glassric Glassric Vigil's Keep - Throne Room Silverite Mine Silverite Mine
Dweomer Weapon[1] Cera, Octham Octham Octham Yuriah (+1 upgrade) Yuriah (+2 upgrades) Yuriah (+3 upgrades)
Cold Iron Weapon[2] Cera, Glassric Glassric Glassric Glassric Kal'Hirol - Main Hall Kal'Hirol - Main Hall
Silverite Weapon[2] Cera, Glassric Glassric Glassric Yuriah (+1 upgrade) Yuriah (+2 upgrades) Yuriah (+3 upgrades)
Lightning Weapon Cera Cera Cera Yuriah (+1 upgrade) Yuriah (+1 upgrade) Yuriah (+2 upgrades)
Paralyze Weapon Cera, Octham Cera, Octham Octham Octham Kal'Hirol - Main Hall Kal'Hirol - Main Hall
Stout Armor Initial Glassric Glassric Glassric Kal'Hirol - Trade Quarter Kal'Hirol - Trade Quarter
Tempest Armor Cera Cera Cera Cera Vigil's Keep - Deep Roads Vigil's Keep - Deep Roads
Immunity Armor Cera, Octham Octham Octham Octham Kal'Hirol - Main Hall Kal'Hirol - Main Hall
Reservoir Armor Cera, Glassric Glassric Cera, Glassric Yuriah (+1 upgrade) Yuriah (+2 upgrades) Yuriah (+2 upgrades)
  1. 1.0 1.1 Bug: Masterpiece and Paragon level Hale and Dweomer Runes are erroneously classified as Armor Runes, however resistance bonuses are still granted normally.
  2. 2.0 2.1 Bug: Masterpiece and Paragon level Cold Iron and Silverite Runes are erroneously classified as Armor Runes. These effects do not trigger as Armor Runes, making them useless.
Hybrid Rune Tracing Acquisition
Tracing Type Location
Intensifying Weapon Bartender at The Crown and Lion.
Momentum Weapon Blackmarsh
Menacing Weapon Glassric
Elemental Weapon Kal'Hirol
Evasion Armor Cera
Endurance Armor Yuriah (+1 upgrade)
Amplification Armor Octham
Diligence Armor Blackmarsh

Crafting cost and raw materials[]

Most runecrafting materials can be bought from Cera in the throne room of Vigil's Keep.

The following table breaks down the materials needed to craft runes from scratch, by tier. Note that only the Journeyman Dweomer Rune crafting requires an Etching Agent. None of the other Journeyman runes have that requirement. The table has an additional column to account for this special case. It will take a player 32 Novice Runes, 63 Blank Runestones and 56 Etching agents to create a Paragon rune from scratch.

Rune Crafting Materials Needed
Rank Novice Runes Blank Runestones Etching Agents Etching Agents - Dweomer
Journeyman 1 1 1
Expert 2 3 2
Master 4 7 3 7
Grandmaster 8 15 10 18
Masterpiece 16 31 25 41
Paragon 32 63 56 88
Rune Crafting Costs
Tracing Novice Journeyman Expert Master Grandmaster Masterpiece Paragon
Hale 63Silver 25Bronze 63Silver 80Bronze 1Gold 28Silver 15Bronze 2Gold 83Silver 25Bronze 6Gold 2Silver 25Bronze 12Gold 49Silver 5Bronze 25Gold 51Silver 45Bronze
Flame 66Silver 0Bronze 66Silver 55Bronze 1Gold 33Silver 65Bronze 2Gold 94Silver 25Bronze 6Gold 24Silver 25Bronze 12Gold 93Silver 5Bronze 26Gold 39Silver 45Bronze
Frost 66Silver 0Bronze 66Silver 55Bronze 1Gold 33Silver 65Bronze 2Gold 94Silver 25Bronze 6Gold 24Silver 25Bronze 12Gold 93Silver 5Bronze 26Gold 39Silver 45Bronze
Lightning 66Silver 0Bronze 66Silver 55Bronze 1Gold 33Silver 65Bronze 2Gold 94Silver 25Bronze 6Gold 24Silver 25Bronze 12Gold 93Silver 5Bronze 26Gold 39Silver 45Bronze
Cold Iron 66Silver 0Bronze 66Silver 55Bronze 1Gold 33Silver 65Bronze 2Gold 94Silver 25Bronze 6Gold 24Silver 25Bronze 12Gold 93Silver 5Bronze 26Gold 39Silver 45Bronze
Tempest 66Silver 0Bronze 66Silver 55Bronze 1Gold 33Silver 65Bronze 2Gold 94Silver 25Bronze 6Gold 24Silver 25Bronze 12Gold 93Silver 5Bronze 26Gold 39Silver 45Bronze
Dweomer 71Silver 50Bronze 80Silver 85Bronze 1Gold 62Silver 25Bronze 3Gold 51Silver 45Bronze 7Gold 38Silver 65Bronze 15Gold 21Silver 85Bronze 30Gold 97Silver 5Bronze
Silverite 77Silver 0Bronze 77Silver 55Bronze 1Gold 55Silver 65Bronze 3Gold 38Silver 25Bronze 7Gold 12Silver 25Bronze 14Gold 69Silver 5Bronze 29Gold 91Silver 45Bronze
Slow 88Silver 0Bronze 88Silver 55Bronze 1Gold 77Silver 65Bronze 3Gold 82Silver 25Bronze 8Gold 0Silver 25Bronze 16Gold 45Silver 5Bronze 33Gold 43Silver 45Bronze
Immunity 88Silver 0Bronze 88Silver 55Bronze 1Gold 77Silver 65Bronze 3Gold 82Silver 25Bronze 8Gold 0Silver 25Bronze 16Gold 45Silver 5Bronze 33Gold 43Silver 45Bronze
Paralyze 1Gold 10Silver 0Bronze 1Gold 10Silver 55Bronze 2Gold 21Silver 65Bronze 4Gold 70Silver 25Bronze 9Gold 76Silver 25Bronze 19Gold 97Silver 5Bronze 40Gold 47Silver 45Bronze
Reservoir 1Gold 10Silver 0Bronze 1Gold 10Silver 55Bronze 2Gold 21Silver 65Bronze 4Gold 70Silver 25Bronze 9Gold 76Silver 25Bronze 19Gold 97Silver 5Bronze 40Gold 47Silver 45Bronze
Stout 1Gold 32Silver 0Bronze 1Gold 32Silver 55Bronze 2Gold 65Silver 65Bronze 5Gold 58Silver 25Bronze 11Gold 52Silver 25Bronze 23Gold 49Silver 5Bronze 47Gold 51Silver 45Bronze


Hybrid Rune Crafting Costs
Tracing Cost
Intensifying 1Gold 51Silver 25Bronze
Menacing 1Gold 74Silver 35Bronze
Momentum 6Gold 13Silver 25Bronze
Elemental 2Gold 94Silver 25Bronze
Evasion 6Gold 24Silver 25Bronze
Endurance 2Gold 14Silver 50Bronze
Amplification 4Gold 10Silver 85Bronze
Diligence 2Gold 49Silver 70Bronze

Notes[]

  • If you can generate enough money (see exploits below), buy several Manuals of Focus, and re-distribute your main character's skills to rune crafting as soon as you can. Store all of your items in your personal storage chest, and buy up all the blank runes and etching agents. Then, choose which runes you would like to have, buy all of the novice runes you can, and craft your paragon or masterpiece runes until you have as many as you need to cover all of your equipped weapons and armor, and a few extra as you acquire more party members. Then, use a manual of focus to redistribute your skills since you won't be needing rune crafting anymore. It is a time consuming process, but makes the game much easier even at higher levels.

Barrier Runes[]

Barrier runes as well as their tracing are very rare in-game with the exception of Sandal in the Apprentice Quarters in Witch Hunt DLC who is selling unlimited quantities of Novice Barrier Runes. For pcPCusers there are several workarounds. See here for more information.

Exploits[]

Profit Margins[]

  • Elemental Rune: 2Gold 55Silver 75Bronze
  • Intensifying Rune: 2Gold 23Silver 75Bronze
  • Diligence Rune: 1Gold 75Silver 30Bronze
  • Menacing Rune: 1Gold 28Silver 15Bronze
  • Endurance Rune: 85Silver 50Bronze

Intensifying Runes[]

This is the easiest and most profitable method to gain gold per batch. With an empty inventory and 90Gold 75Silver 0Bronze, buy 60 Novice Cold Iron Runes, 60 Novice Lightning Runes, 180 Blank Runestones, and 120 Etching Agents. Make 60 Journeyman Cold Iron Runes and 60 Journeyman Lightning Runes. Then, make 60 Intensifying Runes and sell for 225Gold 0Silver 0Bronze, for a profit per batch of 134Gold 25Silver 0Bronze. This will also earn much higher money before reaching Ambassador Cera's inventory limit.

Diligence Runes[]

Diligence Runes provide an excellent way for farming gold. Diligence Armor runes sell for 4Gold 25Silver 0Bronze while the materials only cost 2Gold 49Silver 70Bronze at Vigil's Keep, and it is easy to craft batches of 60 at a time (assuming 125 inventory space) for a profit of approximately 105Gold per batch. This is easily done by first buying 60 Novice Immunity Runes and 60 Novice Silverite Runes along with Etching Agent and Blank Runestones, and crafting them into 60 Menacing Runes. Buy 60 Novice Tempest Runes (along with more Etching Agent and Blank Runestones) and craft the runes into Diligence Armor runes. However, if your main character does not have the Runecrafting skill, then it may be less time consuming to craft the runes in batches of 40 by first buying all the ingredients (40 Novice Immunity Runes, 40 Novice Silverite Runes, 40 Novice Tempest Runes, 80 Blank Runestones and 80 Etching Agents), exiting the keep with a party member who does have the skill, crafting the runes in one go, and entering the keep and selling the runes for a profit of 70Gold 12Silver 0Bronze.

Menacing Runes[]

A slightly faster option is to just make the intermediate rune, Menacing Rune, instead of the Diligence Rune. If materials are purchased from Cera in the Keep, the Menacing Rune costs 1Gold 74Silver 35Bronze and sells for 3Gold 2Silver 50Bronze. This results in a profit of 1Gold 28Silver 15Bronze per rune sold back, for a margin of 73.5%. The sale of a Diligence Rune nets 1Gold 75Silver 30Bronze, which is 70.2% of its 2Gold 49Silver 70Bronze purchase price. As crafting a single rune takes less time, this option is more efficient, but at the cost of reduced overall profit possibilities (see warnings below).

Warnings[]

  • Selling too many items to one storekeep will corrupt a savegame. This is similar to the Potent Lyrium Potion bug, but has a higher limit. If the inventory storage slot count exceeds 1000 for all items, the store will not display, preventing all further sales and purchases. Normal stacking rules apply (stacks of 99 crafting items occupy a single slot, all else occupies one slot per item), save that for Cera, the infinite stacks of 99 novice runes occupy a single slot each, whereas normal runes occupy one slot per rune. Thus, if one purchases Cera's lyrium potions, she can be sold a total of 985 runes. The finite nature of rune sales means that using only Menacing Runes, while slightly faster, will not be more profitable overall than using Diligence Runes. Using only Cera's store, one may accumulate a profit of 1262Gold 27Silver 75Bronze by crafting only Menacing Runes, or a profit of 1726Gold 70Silver 50Bronze by crafting Diligence Runes. More can be made by selling to other storekeeps in the Awakening world, of course, but will be limited by how many other items they already have. Granted a great deal of patience and a desire to maximize profit, one may purchase all inventory slots that cost less than 1Gold 75Silver 30Bronze and destroy the items (by dragging them out of one's inventory) to make room for more Diligence Rune sales.
  • Before creating a rune type to masterpiece or Paragon, be sure to make a save of before and after the event. It is recommend to not craft more than 25 Paragon runes as it may corrupt the save file.
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