Abyss

The Abyss is a "glue" plane that sits between realms and holds them together. It is a region that, with exception of the Astral and Ourania Runecrafting Altars, provides access to all the existing Runecrafting altars without the need for a talisman. The Abyss consists of two rings; a dangerous outer ring in a multiway combat zone and a safe inner ring with rifts leading to the Runecrafting altars. In appearance, it seems to be oddly organic, with eyes, boils, and strange-looking tendrils.

In The Account of Aesa Fellsdottir (Part 2) it's implied that the Abyss is actually inside the body of Hostilius, a Chthonian demon that was defeated by Zamorak and the Avernic during the demonic rebellion. He was then dragged into the Abyss, where his immense body was 'strung between worlds like a great corpse-puppet'. What the Abyss looks like outside of his corpse is unknown. According to Zaros the Abyss is made of the detritus of previous universes and exists at the very bottom of the universe.

Aside from the abyssal monsters inhabiting it, using the Abyss is also dangerous because players who enter the Abyss will have their Prayer points drained to 0, unless they have an Abyssal Summoning familiar summoned. Abyssal familiars slow down the rate by which prayer is drained, but do not completely prevent it.

Perhaps the most dangerous aspect of using the Abyss is the fact that players have to travel through part of the low-level Wilderness to reach the Mage of Zamorak, who teleports the player to the Abyss.

Players who enter runecrafting altars through the Abyss receive 250% experience when crafting runes. This can be raised to 350% by wearing a demonic skull, which can be bought from the mage of Zamorak for 550,000 coins. The skull is not without risk: when you wear it, a demon's head will appear over you, and players of any combat level will be able to attack you in the Wilderness. Should you die to another player, it will be dropped as 500,000 coins for the killer to loot. There is no requirement to have talismans, tiaras or talisman staffs while in the abyss.

Location
To enter the Abyss located north of Edgeville, the player needs to complete the Abyss miniquest. Once players have completed the Abyss miniquest, use the 'Teleport' option on the Mage of Zamorak north of Edgeville in level 4 to 6 Wilderness to enter the Abyss.

Strategy:
 * Once in the Wilderness, players should run until they reach the Zamorak Mage.
 * The fastest way to reach the Abyss is via the yellow path.

Warning:
 * Players will be able to attack you upon entering the wilderness.
 * Upon entering the Abyss, you will receive a skull. Meaning that you will lose all your items when you die during the time you are skulled, even though the abyss itself is a non-wilderness area. Do not bring any items you are not willing to lose.



Other notes:
 * Inside the Abyss, a player is not in the Wilderness any more, and cannot be attacked by other players. However, if a player attacks immediately before a player enters the Abyss, the attack can hit after the player has been teleported inside, due to lag. Also note that, if teleblocked by a player before entering, using the 'Teleport' option on the Zamorak Mage will not work.
 * Combat experience received in the Abyss is only half that received outside of the Abyss, although it is still very common to see players training magic and range.

Inside the Abyss
The interior of the Abyss is roughly circular, with an 'inner' and 'outer' ring. After the player is teleported into the outer ring, they will have to find a way through to the inner ring where the rifts leading to the runecrafting altars are located.



Outer Ring
The outer ring contains a large number of Abyssal monsters:
 * Abyssal guardian (combat level: 79)
 * Abyssal walker (combat level: 77)
 * Abyssal leech (combat level: 72)

These monsters can hit over 275 (with the exception of the leeches, which hit a maximum of 208), although they often miss if the player has a decent defence level (65+) and wears adequate armour such as Dragonhide, or armour from the 'strategy' section. However, the abyssal monsters should still not be underestimated as, due to their large numbers, a player in the Abyss may take several hits per second. It should be noted that, failed or not, no damage is taken from these monsters during an attempt to pass through to the inner ring. Minimising time between attempts can increase the chances of survival.

Access to the inner ring is gained by utilising different skills to bypass several obstacles:


 * Chopping away tendrils using a hatchet
 * Mining through rock using a pickaxe
 * Distracting eyes (thieving skill needed, but no object needed)
 * Squeezing through gaps (agility skill needed, but no object needed)
 * Burning away boils using a tinderbox

Upon entering the Abyss the player always appears near the mining obstacle or the agility obstacle. With a high mining or agility level, this can be used to one's advantage to train more efficiently. An alternative to the agility obstacle is to proceed past the agility obstacle and pass via the thieving obstacle. Yet another alternative to the mining obstacle is to proceed past the mining obstacle and pass via the woodcutting obstacle.

These obstacles have randomly generated locations upon a player's arrival in the abyss and can be in different locations for different players at the same time. Passing them gives 25 xp in the required skill. The higher the level of the player in the corresponding skill, the higher the chances of passing the obstacle (the chances of passing are approximately skill level ÷ 99).



Inner ring
There are no monsters in the inner ring of the Abyss. There are rifts leading to every Runecrafting altar (except the Astral altar and Ourania altar) there, which makes the Abyss useful for crafting a lot of different types of runes very quickly. Talismans, Tiaras or Staves are not needed to access the altars via the rifts. The following restrictions still apply:


 * The Cosmic rift cannot be accessed until the Lost City quest has been completed.
 * No weapons or armour can be taken through to the rift to the Law altar, as it is located on Entrana. This includes pickaxes, hatchets, Explorer's Ring, and any familiars or scrolls.
 * The Death altar requires the quest Mourning's Ends Part II to be completed.
 * The Blood altar requires the quest Legacy of Seergaze to be completed.

There is a rift for the Soul altar, although it cannot be used.

There is a Dark mage standing at the centre of the inner ring (yellow spot on the minimap), maintaining the rift so the ZMI can use the Abyss to craft runes. He will repair players' Runecrafting Pouches for free.

Pouches
Pouches come in four types - Small, Medium, Large and Giant. The small pouch will be obtained from the Zamorak Mage upon completion of the Abyss mini-quest; you may retrieve the small pouch from him later on if you drop it or lose it. All the pouches are dropped by the creatures in the Abyss and the Alternate Abyss as well. Since the release of the Runecrafting Guild, you can now also obtain some pouches from the Wizard Korvak. He can replace lost medium pouches for free and will repair any others for a fee; and it is thus suggested that players instead visit the Dark Mage in the centre of the abyss to repair your pouches. Korvak charges 9,000 coins & 12,000 coins for Large and Giant pouches respectively, and repairs Medium pouches for free. He also sells Large pouches for 25,000 coins & Giant pouches for 50,000 coins. No matter where you choose to obtain your pouches, you may only get ONE of each size; the pouches are also untradeable. If you try to pick up another pouch, the message, You do not need another small/medium/large/giant pouch will appear. In addition, all pouches will automatically be destroyed upon death (they have a white outline in the 'Items kept on death' interface). This makes a risk, especially when under attack by a player in the wilderness. You must take account for this.

Pouches degrade with each use; the biggest pouch will degrade first. If a giant pouch is being used, 11 trips may be completed with the Giant pouch at full capacity – it will degrade on the 12th trip. More precisely, the Giant pouch will degrade after 135 essence have passed through it. Clicking on the pouch when it is already full of essence does not degrade the pouch, contrary to what many people believe.

When a pouch degrades, the result is that the pouch will carry fewer essence than before. After the first degrading, the giant pouch will hold 9 essence instead of 12. If a degraded pouch continues to be used, the pouch will degrade further, further reducing the number of essence that can be held in it. Eventually the pouch will not be able to hold any essence and will degrade completely.

When a pouch degrades, it will darken in colour; the player will receive a message in their chatbox alerting them to the fact. Pouches can be repaired by speaking to the Dark Mage in the centre of the Abyss (or with the Lunar spell NPC Contact). He will repair pouches whether they have visibly degraded or not. It is possible to contact the Dark Mage every 11th trip to repair pouches so that the pouches may always be used at full capacity. However, it may be difficult to remember to keep track of which trip is the 11th trip, so it is common for players to just go to the Dark Mage after the Giant pouch has visibly degraded, crafting 3 fewer essence on that trip.

Pouches are also repaired even when they are stored in a bank, so they don't have to be carried in the inventory when talking to the Dark Mage. Alternatively, for players who have access to the Lunar spellbook you can repair your pouches by using the Contact NPC spell.

An exception to this is the Massive pouch, which after every 42 uses will crumble into dust. It is also possible to own more than one, but only one may be filled at a time and there is no way of repairing it.

Any pouch that gets dropped may be picked up by the player who dropped it (within three minutes), however, all the essence that was contained within the dropped pouch will be gone.

Using the Abyss as a method of transportation
Because the altars are located throughout the world, it is possible to use the Abyss as a method of teleportation. Some useful (and free) teleports include:
 * Law altar - Entrana
 * Nature altar - Karamja, Shilo Village, Tai Bwo Wannai, Brimhaven Dungeon
 * Water altar - Lumbridge Swamps, Zanaris
 * Fire altar - Al-Kharid, Duel Arena, Shantay Pass
 * Air altar - Champions' Guild, Cooks' Guild, Grand Exchange, Varrock
 * Death Altar - End of Underground Pass and eastern Tirannwn
 * Blood Altar - Quick access to Mutated bloodvelds for Slayer tasks.
 * Earth altar - East Varrock

To use a teleport, simply enter the Abyss, find and enter the altar, then leave via the portal. No tiaras or talismans are necessary when entering the portals to go to the various altars via the abyss.

Combat training
Training Melee, magic, and ranged skills here is a good way to quickly gain experience. The South West and South East corners spawn 15+ creatures that are aggressive and will attack the player upon respawn. Please note that you can only afk them for about 10-15 minutes before they become un-aggressive. To reset the aggression timer simply run away and come back, then repeat the process. Average xp/h is about 300k-400k. Using melee and a halberd, abilities: Hurricane, Quake, Cleave, and Meteor Strike, one can expect 400k-450k xp per hour (not including HP xp). Using ancient magicks or chinchompas are common methods of training here, as rates of 400k-450k experience an hour may be gained with little player interaction.

Tips

 * If you are away from your keyboard when at less than half health, rest in a safe area. Resting restores health faster.
 * Bring lightweight equipment and a one-click teleport.

Trivia

 * When the Abyss was released, it was possible to attack other players inside the abyss by using Ancient Magicks multi-target spells on a monster near the player, you could also select an attacking spell from the spell list and manually use it on a player. Because of the relative obscurity of the recently-released Abyss, many people explored the Abyss with expensive armour, and were a target for the bug abusers. The glitch was later fixed, however, the people who profited from it were not banned.
 * After the update on 10 December 2007, Abyss runecrafting was made much safer due to the fact that there are no player killers around and revenants only occasionally wander close to the Zamorak Mage. However, the player killers were returned with the Wilderness and Free Trade update on 1 February 2011.
 * It is possible to see the Abyssal Area at the far north of the Abyss. You don't even need an Orb of Oculus.
 * According to the game's background, whenever a person is teleported with magic, they are in the abyss for a split second. Hence the Lost & Found office random event. Accordingly, as the Mage of Zamorak during the miniquest with the same name theorizes, The Abyss is a dimension in which the dimensional barriers may be weakening. If this is indeed the case, then many more teleportation methods would be failing, not simply the initial spell that caused the Zamorakians to discover the Abyss as well as allowing all of the abyssal creatures into the same area. As most teleports are quite accurate, this has caused controversy pertaining to the storyline of this miniquest.
 * It is worth noting, however, that the Mage of Zamorak claims that Zamorak has devoted some of his energy to stabilizing the Abyss. It is possible that, as a result, there is now less risk of teleportation spell failure.
 * On 6 June 2009 with the new update of the Hunt for Red Raktuber the thieving obstacle did an emote even if you failed to pass.

Music unlocked

 * Into the Abyss

Abyss Abyss