OSRS Runedoku Solver

How a runedoku works

A runedoku is a sudoku played with runes. Ali Morrisane in Al Kharid has caskets of runes he cannot open, and their locks are the puzzle. The small casket is a 4 by 4 board in four 2 by 2 boxes, played with Water, Fire, Earth and Air runes. The large casket is a 9 by 9 board in nine 3 by 3 boxes, played with those four and Mind, Body, Law, Chaos and Death runes. Fill every square so that no rune is repeated in a row, a column or a box. The runes the board starts with cannot be moved; you place the rest by choosing a rune on the left of the lock and clicking a square (Remove Runes takes one back out), then press Open Casket.

The game has 9 small boards and 11 large ones. A large board can also come with every rune moved one or more steps along the order Water, Fire, Earth, Air, Mind, Body, Law, Chaos, Death, so the same pattern turns up with different runes. Enter a few runes from your lock and the page finds which board it is and can fill in the rest of the starting runes for you.

Solving it one step at a time

With One step at a time the page hides the answer and shows the square to fill next and why. A square whose row, column and box already hold every rune but one can only take that rune. When no square is that tight, a row, column or box that has only one square left where a rune can go settles it. Every large board the game sets that can be finished at all can be solved with these two steps alone.

The small boards start with only four runes, and each of them can be finished seven ways. One of the seven always follows the pattern 1234 / 4321 / 3412 / 2143, row by row, with the numbers standing for whichever runes match the starting four, and that grid opens every small casket. The page gives that grid, and when nothing is forced it picks the rune the pattern puts there. If your own runes already break the pattern, it gives one of the other grids that finish the board.

When the board cannot be finished

A rune repeated in a row, column or box turns red at once. A board can also be impossible with no repeat in sight, when a rune is in a square it cannot keep; the page then lists every rune of yours that, taken out, leaves a board that can still be finished. If a starting rune was entered in the wrong square the board will not match one of the game’s, which is worth checking first.

One large board in the game’s files, large board 11 on this page, gives one square two runes and the game draws the first, a Body rune in the same column as another Body rune. No grid finishes it as drawn.

Forcing or picking the small casket

The small casket also opens without the puzzle. Forcing the lock takes a Strength roll and an Agility roll, and both must pass; picking it takes a Thieving roll, which is better with a lockpick in your inventory. Each try uses the game’s skilling chance, which rises with your level from 1 to 99. A failed try lowers the skill by 0 to 3 levels, each equally likely (forcing lowers Strength and Agility by the same amount), so a run of failures makes the next try harder until the levels come back at one a minute. The page counts that in: its tries a casket are for trying again straight away. A failed pick breaks the lockpick 1 time in 5, for half a point of Thieving experience. Opening it by force is worth 2.5 Strength experience and 2.5 Agility, and picking it 5 Thieving. The large casket opens only through the puzzle: forcing or picking it always fails and still lowers your levels.

What a solve gets you

Once a casket is open Ali offers to sell you everything inside for one price, without saying what is in it, or to show you the runes first. Buying blind is the cheaper of the two, by about 6 to 10%, and the runes you see cost less than his usual rune stock. The first small casket you open adds water, fire, earth and air runes and their packs to his shop for good; the first large casket adds nature, law, chaos, death, mind, body, blood, cosmic and soul runes and the mind and chaos rune packs. His rune prices do not change as his stock runs down. After that, more caskets are a way to buy a limited batch of runes a little cheaper.

Ironmen cannot use the Grand Exchange, so the page compares Ali’s prices with the cheapest other shop you can reach for each rune. Most runes cost the same in Aubury’s shop in Varrock or Lundail’s in the Mage Arena as anywhere else. Blood and soul runes are cheaper behind a quest: Battle Runes sells blood runes at 400 after Enter the Abyss, and Amlodd’s shop in Prifddinas, Baba Yaga on Lunar Isle (Lunar Diplomacy started, and a seal of passage or the elite Fremennik Diary) and the Magic Guild Store in the Wizards’ Guild (66 Magic and The Hand in the Sand) sell blood runes at 400 and, Amlodd aside, soul runes at 300. Tick what you have done and the table uses those shops. Ultimate ironmen and group ironmen have their own copy of Ali’s rune stock. On Hardcore Worlds the Grand Exchange is separate from the main game’s, and the permanent Deadman world is a server of its own whose Grand Exchange takes no tax; both are valued at main-game prices and marked ~. On world 345 the experience from forcing or picking is multiplied as for any other skilling there. The shop price calculator works out buying any amount from any shop, Ali’s included.

Getting the caskets

The caskets are part of Rogue Trader, a set of errands for Ali Morrisane in Al Kharid that is not on the quest list. It needs The Feud (30 Thieving, which cannot be boosted) and Rune Mysteries, so it is members only. Ask Ali about runes, speak to Aubury in his rune shop in Varrock about supplying him, and go back to Ali, who shows you the caskets. Asking Ali what is in it for you, or finishing all of Rogue Trader, also cuts the magic carpet fare from 200 to 100 coins, and from 100 to 75 with the ring of charos (a). The Optimal Quest Guide shows where The Feud fits in your quest order, and the quest XP rewards calculator what it gives. Stuck on a lock with guesses instead of a grid? The Mastermind solver works out the code from each guess and its marks.