Conqueror’s Guide to Runes

Introduced as part of Season VII: Wolves of Ragnarok, Runes essentially allow you to augment your weapons and armour in order to increase their effectiveness and your hero’s attributes and abilities. It’s a system that benefits heroes with more upgrade options the more they advance in a season, which promises more dynamic and unpredictable battles as the final stages of a campaign draw near.

First, in order to unlock the ability to equip Runes, you need to visit the War Scholar and complete ‘The Lore of the Runes’ quest. Thereafter, you can equip Runes either from the Seasonal Runes tab of the Season Interface (press F5), or by selecting the Rune icon on the Character Screen (press P) when an applicable item is selected.

The Runes you can assign to your equipment are dictated to by your Season Level. At level 1, you can only equip a single basic Rune (The First Trial), while at level 45, every Rune is unlocked (The Twelfth Trial).

Runes are not in-game items that you need to collect to be able to equip them. Rather they are etchings that you learn to mark your equipment with. This means that if it is unlocked, you can apply the same Rune to every applicable item that you own. Note however that some Runes are limited to the type of equipment (weapon, helm, chest piece), while others are limited further to a specific class of weapon.

You can have up to three Runes applied to any items, but Runes are not stackable - you cannot have two of the same Rune applied to the same item. In addition, Runes are divided by grade. The higher the grade, the more ‘power’ a Run requires to be effective. Each item of equipment that can accommodate Runes has a maximum power of six. 

At the end of Season VII the Rune system will no longer be accessible and the bonuses from any applied Runes will cease to be active. However, the system will be adapted and remain a feature in future seasons, likely with a new name and reassigned bonuses in keeping with the themes of that season.