This article is about the upgrade component for armor. For the upgrade item for weapons, see Sigil. For the components used for bag crafting, see Crafting material#Runes of Holding.

superior runes equipped: gain all six effects. Sixrunes equipped: gain all six effects.

superior runes equipped: gain only the first four effects. Fourrunes equipped: gain only the first four effects.

minor runes equipped: no benefit compared to two runes; only two effects applied. Threerunes equipped: no benefit compared to two runes; only two effects applied.

Runes are upgrade components for armor that provide stat bonuses and other effects. Like all upgrade components, attaching a rune to armor of masterwork, rare, or exotic rarity will make that item Soulbound; fine or basic gear will become Account Bound. Unlike other upgrades, the total effect increases with the number of identical runes that are equipped.

Stacking [ edit ]

A complete set of armor can hold up to six runes, one rune in each armor piece. While underwater, the breathing apparatus replaces the headgear, so that characters would need a seventh and matching rune to maintain the same bonuses.

There are three tiers of runes, Minor, Major, and Superior, each with its own minimum level requirement, and providing respectively two, four, or six bonuses; to obtain the full potential of the rune, your armor must include that number of runes.

D Minor runes have no minimum level and have two bonuses, listed as (1) and (2).

runes have no minimum level and have two bonuses, listed as (1) and (2). E Major runes require armor at level 39 or above and provide four bonuses, (1) – (4).

runes require armor at level 39 or above and provide four bonuses, (1) – (4). F Superior runes can be applied to armor at level 60 or above and include six bonuses, (1) – (6).

Typically, odd bonuses increase attributes while even ones produce an effect, such as summoning a parrot when six Superior Runes of the Privateer are equipped.

Equipping lesser tier runes of the same name will not deliver the higher tier bonuses. For example, equipping two Major and four Superior Runes of the Ice results in receiving the first two bonuses from the major rune and the first four bonuses of the superior rune; you will not receive the top two bonuses from either rune set.

and four results in receiving the first two bonuses from the major rune and the first four bonuses of the superior rune; you will not receive the top two bonuses from either rune set. Equipping more than two minor or more than four major runes of the same type will not provide any additional bonuses, i.e. equipping five major runes provides the same benefits as using just four.

When runes are equipped, the tooltip shows the total number of identical runes; the number is red when there are more than two minor or four major runes and blue otherwise.

Active bonuses are shown in blue on the tooltip, or in gray if the bonus is not active for lack of a sufficient number of this rune. This bonus applies only once, across the whole set of runes, not once per rune.

Attribute bonuses stack additively. For example, equipping six Superior Runes of Divinity increases each relevant stat by 78, the sum of the rune's six bonuses.

Acquisition [ edit ]

Overview of superior runes [ edit ]

Superior runes provide all six bonuses, Major runes provide weaker versions of the first four bonuses, and Minor runes only provide weaker versions of the first two bonuses.

For simplicity of documentation, only Superior runes as they exist in PvE/WvW are listed below. See PvP Build#Runes for PvP versions or the section List of runes.

List of runes [ edit ]

The following table gives an overview of all available runes.

Notes [ edit ]

"When hit" runes are not triggered by the ranger's pet.

As of the March 5, 2019 Patch, runes labeled as granting "all stats" now include concentration and expertise among those stats.

Salvage research can be found here