The abyss allows fast access to any runecrafting altar (but not Astral), but at a little risk. To get to you it you have to navigate the wilderness, avoiding revenants and then pass the obstacles to get away from the monsters lurking inside the Abyss.

Before you are granted access to the Abyss, you will have to complete the Rune Mysteries quest and completed the 'mini quest' which involves doing a small favour for the Mage of Zamorak. Speak to him north of Edgeville, after this you will have to go and speak to him in South Eastern Varrock.

When you enter the Abyss you will be skulled and have your prayer drained to 0. Being 'skulled' means you will have a skull appear above your character. When you are skulled, you will loose all items upon dying.

Wearing a Forinthry bracelet will prevent you from becoming skulled on entry to the abyss.

You DO NOT need a talisman or tiara to use the abyss. To get to the Abyss you must go to the Mage of Zamorak and select Teleport.


He is located north of Edgeville in the wilderness (level 5). See minimap above or click here for a bigger map. Although you should remember this from the mini-quest. When you are in the abyss, you will be surrounded by monsters, so you need to find the best/quickest route into the center. There are many different skill related obstacles to choose from:

The higher level you have in the related skill, the faster you will get through the obstacle.

	Name	How to get through
	Squeeze Through Gap	This is a very simple obstacle and only requires agility to get through it. Clicking on it will give you the Squeeze through option.
	Distract The Eyes	This method is related to the Thieving skill. You will try to distract them go get past without them seeing.
	Chopping Tendrils	Chopping the tendrils requires a hatchet. A mithril hatchet is recommended as it is the the highest level one with a low weight, so it saves run energy.
	Burn Boil	For this you will need a Tinderbox.
	Mine Rocks	Mining the rocks will require you to bring a pickaxe. A mithril pickaxe is suggested for the same reason a mithril hatchet is to cut the tendrils. (light yet effective.)

There are 3 different types of monsters in the outer circle of the Abyss. These are:

Combat Level		Name	Description
41		Abyssal Leech	These are the smallest abyss creatures but can prove to be quite an annoyance as they hit at twice the normal speed. They will hit mostly 1s and 2s. Despite this, they're still not that dangerous.
59		Abyssal Guardian	Compared to the Abyssal Leech, these hit at the normal speed but can hit slightly higher.
81		Abyssal Walker	This is the most dangerous Abyssal Creature and the one to avoid.They hit at the normal speed but can hit a lot higher than the other abyss creatures.

These monsters turn into dust rather than bones when they die. There are 4 pouches you can use to hold extra essence which enables you to runecraft more runes per inventory.

They are dropped by the Abyss Monsters listed above, which is the only way to obtain them.

Pouch Name	Small Pouch	Medium Pouch	Large Pouch	Giant Pouch
Essence Held	3	6	9	12
Level Required	1	25	50	75

Pouch Degradation
For every use of your pouch, it will degrade slightly. (though you will not notice this.) Eventually after a certain amount of uses, the pouch will degrade fully, and you will have to get it repaired. You can do this by speaking to the Dark Mage who is located in the center of the Abyss. To access the runecrafting altars, you must be in the inner circle, where you can enter the different rifts. Upon entering them you are transported to the runecrafting altar.

This map shows the location of the rifts around the inner wall of the abyss.