Metals and ore are a big part of Gielinor, whether it be cutlery, armor, jewelry or anything else, it plays a large part in creating most things. Each metal has it's own properties, strengths and weaknesses, and as much as this page is an attempt to further the information of those, it is the goal for the page to be a guide for people to understand the metals and find out which type of metal would be fitting for the equipment of their character.
Armor and Weaponry Metals
The metals which have been given the most attention in RuneScape are the seven main armor metals. These can be crafted into most known pieces of melee equipment, such as gauntlets or swords, and are also sometimes used secondarily to make serviceable products like nails, wire, or architectural supports.
Ranking
The scale of metals from worst to best in terms of use, durability, protection, etc. in the context of combatant or practical forms like armor, weapons, or knives is as follows:
- Bronze
- Iron
- Steel variants
- Mithril
- Adamant
- Rune
- Dragon
However, the scaling of these metals isn't perfectly linear. Strength, price, and other desirable traits vary independently. Bronze and iron are usually within monetary reach for the average man, steel somewhat less so, but still affordable. Where lines tend to blur is in the upper-tier, fictional metals like mithril, adamant and rune.
Bronze
Bronze is an alloy, primarily consisting of copper with added tin, it is hard and tough, and especially if cold-drawn or cold-rolled. In RuneScape, bronze is used for armor, weapons, arrowheads, bolt tips, wires and plenty other things.
Bronze cannot be used for furnaces as their melting point typically resides around 950°C (1,742°F), and most other metals are above this melting point.
Iron
Iron is the most common of the metals for armor and weaponry, due to it's easy accesability.
Despite bronze being harder than iron (Vickers hardness of 60-258 vs 30-80HV5), iron gives higher defense stats in RuneScape.
The melting point of iron lies at 1538°C (2800°F) and is therefore higher than that of bronze.
Iron has always, in the real world, been tied to the body and the earth heavily. You can smell iron within your blood. The magnetic fields Iron creates make "Ley Lines" from where the name "Taverley" comes from. Iron is especially rooted deeply into Druidism, Wicca, and other pagan faiths as being one of the strongest naturally occuring metals. This may not be true as much for RuneScape, but it is expected iron plays a heavy role.
Iron gates are used on graveyards, in the belief iron repels the dead, and will keep any walking dead trapped within the bars.
Iron, in the eastern lands, is known to be greatly smithed, into a powerful and durable armor, as well as sharp weapons.
Steel
Steel is an alloy much like bronze, however consisting of iron and typically carbon. Possibly one of the most flexible metals used commonly in Gielinorian smithing, it can be crafted in various ways to create various properties. For example, other ores and metals may be added to give the metal different properties; if a white hue is desired, antimony, tin, lead, cadmium, bismuth or zinc might be added, and can be mixed to achieve a desired goal or need.
The melting point of steel is very similar to iron, as iron is the main component in steel.
Steel is significantly harder, stronger, and more refined than iron and bronze, and is also particularly manageable and crafty when heated. As a result, it is therefore a very popular metal used for armor and weaponry in Gielinor and among most roleplayers.
Mithril
Mithril is the lightest of the metals while maintaining moderate strength and hardiness. It is considered to be a rarity which thriving merchants can save up to, nobles would easily have access to along with kings, generals, and perhaps high ranking officers in the military as a promotion gift.
Adamant
Adamant is the heaviest of the metals, and one of the strongest, making it ideal for large weaponry. Despite the many uses of heavy metals, adamant is hard to come by and would therefore be substituted by lead in many cases such as making a fishing weight.
As mentioned in the novel Betrayal at Falador, the Protagonist has an adamantite sword that cuts through the variants of steel with ease, making this metal vastly superior to steel, iron and bronze alike.
The rarity and expense of adamant is high, and adamantite is likely only used for weapons for generals, powerful aristocrats and perhaps a few adventurers.
Gathering adamantite proves to be harder than most other metals, as one must swing the pickaxe correctly to avoid crushing the useful ore, and furthermore, melting the adamantite requires attention and the right temperature, presumeably as the coal dissolves fast at certain temperatures, and that the amount of coal should not exceed a certain percentage per weight to ruin the metal (as seen with steel, whereas if the percentage of coal per weight exceeds 2.1% the steel becomes weak).
Rune
Rune, or runite, as it sometimes is called, is the rarest of the smithable metals available. Within the Lores and Stories of RuneScape, it has been mentioned that wars have been fought about items made of this metal. Therefore, it should be assumed that Rune is possibly the highest status symbol an emperor or great adventurer may possess.
The number of smiths who have sufficient knowledge, much less skill, to work with runite is more or less nonexistent, making the quest to find both ore and a smith to smith it a task for life.
Dragon
- For the full article on how roleplayers approach dragon metal, see here.
Dragon is a metal that most assume was brought to Gielinor by the Dragonkin before the first age. Not much is known of the metal, the beings that brought it, its properties in smithing, or where it's naturally found. However, it is an extremely strong and heavy metal which can often only be earned through great trial and expense. In general, it is not fully accepted in role-play without a proper backstory.
Decorative Metals
Some metals featured in RuneScape are used primarily for aesthetic purposes, often in the context of adding attractive visual details to works created primarily with other metals or crafted into non-practical products like jewelry or artwork.
Gold
Gold is one of the valuable metals. Due to it's atomic composition, gold does not react very well with other atoms and molecules and therefore doesn't oxidate like other metals do, (like iron rusting). This causes gold to maintain it's shiny, yellowish hue and is attractive by most races on Gielinor. (Goblins especially think it's shiny, Dwarves respect the rarity, Humans may be a mix of both.) It's a commonly used form of currency, and a symbol of money there-of.
Gold resists most types of acids (not nitro-hydrochloric acid, mercury and alkaline solutions of cyanide), but other than this, it is not a very strong or hard metal. On top of this, it is a very heavy metal and therefore weaponry and armor isn't favorable to be made of gold. Gold trims, however, could be used on high-ranking officers, kings, nobles and the likes to show their status.
Silver
The Famed Silverlight
Silver is another form of currency, with some holy or magical properties. Silver Stars are a common symbol of the Church of Saradomin, as well as Silver Symbols of Zamorak used commonly. Silver is less desireable and more common than gold, so it can be used to imply humility in comparison. It is also, by far lighter.
Regardless of its malleable nature and light weight, Silver has potential to be very powerful. The sword "Silverlight" is a silver blade blessed to slay or banish demons with ease. Weapons such as the flail of Ivandis are also made of Silver, commonly mixed with Mithril to form a durable, lightweight alloy to fight Vampyres. Wolfsbane daggers are also made of Silver, with a blessing to keep Werewolves in a human form.
Blurite
Blurite is a rare metal only found in the Asgarnian Ice Dungeon mine in the Asgarnian Ice Dungeon. Little is known about the ore, but it is typically turned into bars and can be used to decorate weapons, more rarely as weapons itself or even as currency as seen here.
Utilitarian Metals
Some metals in RuneScape are featured and used primarily for the purpose of making tools, making components of larger devices, combining with other metals to produce more useful alloys, and other such household or secondary purposes.
Tin
Copper
Daemonheim metals
Metals found in the dungeon in Daemonheim cannot be taken out of it, with a few exceptions.