Not to be confused with Bonde or bind

A bond is an in-game item that allows a player to pay for selected account-related and out-of-game benefits such as membership, RuneCoins and Treasure hunter keys with in-game resources. Bonds bought with real money start off as tradeable.

Tradeable bonds may be traded to other players and sold on the Grand Exchange. However, when the transaction is complete, the bond will become untradeable. A bond is always bound to a player when it has not been redeemed or traded to another player. It is always kept on death, even when inside the Wilderness. Both tradeable and untradeable versions may be stored in a player's currency pouch, up to a total of 500. Players can only put an offer for one bond per Grand Exchange slot.

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Uses

When purchased using real life currency, bonds are tradeable. Once traded to another player for an in-game sum of money or items, they become untradeable. Bonds can be made tradeable again for a payment of 10% of their Grand Exchange value (10% currently being 1,893,349 coins).

Right click options for the untradeable bond in inventory are: Redeem, Convert, Deposit, Use, Drop, Examine. Redeem allows you to spend the bond. Convert allows you to make the bond tradeable again (for a fee). Deposit places the bond (or bonds) in your bond pouch.

Redeeming

At any time, whether tradeable or untradeable, bonds can be redeemed for one of the following:

Membership: 14 days for 1 bond 29 days for 2 bonds (1 day extra compared to 2 bonds redeemed separately) 45 days for 3 bonds (3 days extra compared to 3 bonds redeemed separately)

RuneMetrics Pro packages: 1 month for 1 bond 6 months for 5 bonds (1 month extra compared to 5 bonds redeemed separately) 12 months for 10 bonds (2 months extra compared to 10 bonds redeemed separately)

15 Treasure Hunter keys

195 RuneCoins

1 character name change (if redeemed on a members server)

Treasure Hunter Daily Key (1 extra daily key, for 28 days)

If the player has both tradeable and untradeable bonds, the latter will be used first.

Other uses

Bonds can be:

Traded with other players

Sold for in-game money

Used to rent or buy up to five additional preset slots from the Gear interface (3 bonds each - note, you can alternatively buy 585 RuneCoins with 3 bonds, use 480 to buy the slot, and have 105 left over)

Used to buy RuneFest tickets (when tickets are eligible to be purchased during the year)

Used to buy Premier Club membership (when eligible to be purchased during the year)

Used to buy Summer Special membership (when eligible to be purchased during the year)

Used to buy Top Trumps

Used to change your character name more than once a month

Used to rent or buy the Wealth Evaluator (3 bonds to buy - note, you can alternatively buy 585 RuneCoins with 3 bonds, use 480 to buy the slot, and have 105 left over)

Used to buy a Block N Load Steam key [1]

key Used to unlock all of the rewards from the Treasure map (Summer Beach Party) during the Summer Beach Party

Charitable donations

Jagex donated approximately $4.70 per bond put into the Well of Goodwill. A selection of charities have benefited from the donations.

Costs

Real-life currencies

Currency Bonds Price per

million coins 1 3 5 10 GBP £3.99 £11.99 £19.99 £39.99 £0.19 USD $6.99 $20.99 $34.99 $69.99 $0.32 CAD $7.39 $22.19 $36.99 $73.99 $0.33 EUR €5.69 €17.09 €28.49 €56.99 €0.27 AUD $7.99 $23.99 $39.99 $79.99 $0.37 BRL R$11.99 R$35.99 R$59.99 R$119.99 R$0.63 MXN $68.99 $206.99 $344.99 $689.99 $3.64 MYR MYR19.99 MYR59.99 MYR99.99 MYR199.99 MYR0.95 DKK KR30.99 KR92.99 KR154.99 KR309.99 KR1.8 JPY 800円 2400円 4000円 8000円 円42.25

In-game money

Unit Price 1 day of membership (1 bond; 14 days total) 1,352,392 1 day of membership (2 bonds; 29 days total) 1,305,758 1 day of membership (3 bonds; 45 days total) 1,262,233 1 day of RuneMetrics Pro packages (1 bond; 1 month total assuming 30 days) 631,116 1 day of RuneMetrics Pro packages (5 bond; 6 month total assuming 182 days)

10-bond plan has roughly the same price 520,151 1 day of bronze/silver/gold membership 1,244,090 1 day of summer special membership 1,051,861 1 Treasure Hunter key (15 total) 1,262,233 1 Treasure Hunter Daily Key (1 extra daily key, for 28 days) 676,196 1 RuneCoin (195 total) 97,095

History

On 4 June 2018, along with membership, the price of a bond increased[2], as well as the number of keys and RuneCoins awarded when redeemed. Prior to this, bonds could be redeemed for 15 keys or 195 RuneCoins, and cost:

Currency Price (each) GBP £3.59 USD $5.99 CAD $6.19 EUR €5.09 AUD $6.99 BRL R$11.99 MXN $68.99

Cost analysis

Assuming min wage, for each of the currencies listed:

Country Min wage Single Bond price Gp/Hr UK Varies, see below £3.99 Varies, see below USA $7.25[3] $6.99 19,637,739 Canada Varies, see below $7.39 Varies, see below Europe Varies €5.69 Varies Australia $18.29[4] $7.99 43,340,867 Brazil Varies, see below R$11.99 Varies, see below Mexico $80.04[5] $68.99 21,966,031 Malaysia MYR4.42[6] MYR17.99 4,651,807 Japan 823円[7] 800円 19,477,827

UK: Cost of 1 bond: £3.99

"Tier" Min wage[8] Bond/Hr Gp/Hr Apprentice £3.30 0.83 15,659,277 Under 18 £3.87 0.97 18,364,061 18 to 20 £5.30 1.33 25,149,748 21 to 24 £6.70 1.68 31,793,078 25 and Up £7.20 1.8 34,165,696

Canada: Cost of 1 bond: $7.39

Province Min wage[9] Bond/Hr Gp/Hr Alberta $13.60 1.84 34,843,770 British Columbia $11.35 1.54 29,079,176 Manitoba, Newfoundland & Labrador $11.15 1.51 28,566,767 New Brunswick, Québec $11.25 1.52 28,822,971 Northwest Territories $13.46 1.82 34,485,084 Nova Scotia $11.00 1.49 28,182,461 Nunavut $13.00 1.76 33,306,545 Ontario $14.00 1.89 35,868,587 Prince Edward Island $11.55 1.56 29,591,584 Saskatchewan $10.96 1.48 28,079,979 Yukon $11.51 1.56 29,489,102

Brazil: Cost of 1 bond: R$11.99

State Min wage[10] Bond/Hr Gp/Hr Paraná R$4.87 0.41 7,690,249 Rio de Janeiro R$4.34 0.36 6,853,323 Rio Grande do Sul R$4.58 0.38 7,232,308 Santa Catarina R$4.13 0.34 6,521,710 São Paulo R$4.11 0.34 6,490,128 All other states R$3.59 0.3 5,668,993

Controversy

A section of the RuneScape community found the introduction of bonds hypocritical and destructive to the integrity of the game, claiming that it was real world trading in the form of gold selling. This is due to the fact that the bonds can be bought with real-life money and sold for in-game gold.

Jagex has said that despite the controversies, bonds did reduce the amount of real world trading that occurred on non-legitimate sites; within one week of the introduction of bonds, the amount of real-world trading dropped by 61%, and the amount of coins that was transferred by real world trading was down by 81%.[11]

Gallery

Misc

Concept art of a bond The official stages for using a bond An ingame popup advertising bonds Email to be eligible to buy Block N Load with bonds. Summer Special for bonds The popup that appears after logging in for the first time following the release of the bonds. The popup that appears that advertises bonds.

Click an image to enlarge

Managing Bonds

Confirmation

Redeemed

Trivia

Despite being tradeable, bonds cannot be placed in the party chest at the Falador Party Room, stored in the treasure chest from Carnillean Rising or a beast of burden; they may also not be staked at the Duel Arena or in Conquest. They also cannot be disassembled or fed to a baby troll.

When buying membership in the UK, two bonds costing £7.18, giving 29 days, are cheaper per day than buying a £7.50 30-day membership card, but more expensive than buying 30 days of membership directly for £4.95.

When redeeming bonds for RuneFest, the room number displayed in the example is "#237". This is a reference to Stanley Kubrick's film The Shining .

. When redeeming bonds for RuneFest, doing so on an account without a verified email gives: You must have a validated email address to purchase RuneFest packages.