Runes

What do they do?
Runes affect Runic Weapons equipped in your right hand. Runes can be used as an infinite use consumable that apply buffs until you rest at a Bonfire, Homeward Bone or Die.

Unknown if you need to be in human form. (Wraith rune worked while i was human).

Sable Rune
Effect: Apply Magic(+1 Runic) /Great Magic(+2 Runic) /Crystal Weapon(+3 and higher Runic) on hit. Does not work in the abyss.

Location: Near the first Capra encounter in a house.

Lustrous Rune
Effect: Attacking an enemy applies a lightning weapon type buff to your weapon for a short time.

Only works in light lit areas? Needs confirming.

Location: In Anor Londo in the red carpeted chapel room where a titanite demon used to be. It's the room to the left just before going to turn the lever on the big doors.

Wraith Rune
Effect: Applies the Hidden Body effect on self when you have killed an enemy for a short period.

Location: In Darkroot basin near the top of the ladder used to climb up just after hydra. Cross the bridge from the top of the ladders and it's by the three twin head lizards.

Note: You can deal the killing blow with anything as long as the runic weapon is in hand when they die.

Scintilla Rune
Effect: Deal counter-damage to spawn 1-2 homing soul mass at random.

Location: In the Demon Ruins poison pit just before Bed of Chaos. In the old red slab location.

Omphalic Rune
Effect: ???

Location: In your starting cell on a corpse once you return to Undead Asylum. You need to defeat the Asylum Tyrant (Stray Demon) to get the Tyrant key in order to unlock it. He needs to be killed on your RETURN to the Asylum, since there are some bugs that can arise if you kill him before you leave Asylum (version 1.2.4 and previous versions). If you kill him on these versions before you leave the Asylum, he will NOT drop the Tyrant key, meaning you cannot get the Rune.

Pale White Rune
Effect: Pale rune gives you a buff with the same icon as Bellowing Dragoncrest Ring when you hit an enemy.

Location: In the Duke's Archives in a chest on top of the bookshelves in the second large room. Drop down from the third floor (no rolling/jumping necessary).

Reaper's Rune
Effect: ???

Location: It's in Bone Chimney, in the final corridor (where there is a wheel skeleton waiting for you) after descending the ladder. Right before getting out to the bottom. It seems to show up later in the game (Exact trigger needs confirmation).

Speculation:

☀What is known: While the Reaper Rune is active and used in conjunction with a runic weapon, it will increase your health and stamina pools after a certain amount of enemies are killed in The Parish area. Dying, resting at a bonfire, and certain teleportations will revert your health and stamina to normal levels, but other than that, you are free to keep the increase in health and stamina if you leave the parish in any direction on foot. You can also unequip the rune and the runic weapons and keep the bonus.

More specifics: The amount that your health and stamina increases is based on 2 factors simultaneously: the level of your runic weapon (+0 up to +5) and the amount of enemies you’ve slain with a runic weapon equipped.

For example: with a +0 runic weapon, you could kill all of the enemies in The Parish and only receive a somewhat smaller increase to your max health and stamina. However, killing every enemy in the parish with a +4 runic weapon you receive a substantial increase~ many magnitudes higher than a +0 or +1 runic weapon. (I haven’t tested it with a +5 weapon yet, so it is to be determined if a +5 increases it more).

To be even more specific: I believe that with a +0 runic weapon it does not matter how many enemies in the parish you kill after you receive your first incremental health and stamina increase. With a +0, you get one slight health and stamina increase and that’s it. Killing additional parish enemies will not result in more health and stamina increases. When I used my +4 runic axe, I killed every enemy in the parish and was receiving bonuses after every small batch of killed enemies right up until I killed the 2nd to last enemy.

With concern for what areas and enemies are within the scope of The Reaper Rune’s effect, I believe (but am not 100% positive) that the parish proper is included of course, but also the 3 hollows near the sunlight altar, the 5 hollow soldiers on the drake bridge, the 2 hollow soldiers under the drake bridge, and the 3 rats below the Parish Turret staircase.

When I do my “Reaper Run” with my +4 runic hand axe, I start at the parish turret bonfire, run down and immediately turn left, killing the 3 hollows, 7 hollow soldiers on and under the bridge, and the 3 rats. Then I climb the ladder and turn right and go through the parish (including the inner area with the 8 torch hollows). Then I go up to the part with the Balder knights and the Berenike knight on the bridge. Then I take out the hollows in the chapel, the 3 Hollow soldiers near the entrance to the abandoned church. Then finally I go up the stairs to kill 2 Balder knights and 1 Channeler. It’s at this point that my health and stamina increases stop, and there’s only 1 Balder knight left alive (way in the back near the breakable door). With 30 points into Vitality as a base, at the end of my Reaper Run I have 1948 health points (kind of insane).

* Edit: In a prior thread someone pointed out that they were level 6 and had a +5 runic club but weren’t receiving bonuses that were very large. I’m not sure if your character class/level impacts your bonus yet or not.

** Appears to restore lost vitality from hollowing when killing Balder Knights in Parish.

Ransacker's Rune
Effect: Adds a chance for certain items to go directly in your inventory upon killing enemies (or on the ground if you reached the Item's maximum amount), for example you can get a Soul of a Rusted Knight from a Necromancer. Each enemy have their own list of items they can give. This also appears to be independent from the Item Discovery Stat.

Location: Found on the same corpse as the Reaper's Rune, meaning you need two playthroughs to have both. The trigger appears to be the Regular Gargoyles, not their Red Phantoms counterpart; killing the one with a tail last results in the Ransacker's Rune (which does coincide with its Red Phantom name if we use the O&S's Souls logic) and it means you need to kill the second Gargoyle (the one without a tail) first, then win the fight.

Ransacker's Rune's Item Pool
Hollow (Broken Sword Variant): White Titanite Slab

Hollow (Archer Variant): White Titanite Slab

Hollow (Torch Variant): Souvenir of Reprisal x3, Soul of a Lost Cleric, Dragon Scale

Hollow Warrior: Titanite Shard

Hollow Soldier: Ring of Sacrifice

Crytal Lizard: Humanity, Purging Stone, Soul of a Blind Wizard, Soul of a Rusted Knight, Titanite Shard x1, Large Titanite Shard x1, Titanite Slab, Twinkling Titanite x3, Dragon Scale x3

Black Dog: Twin Humanities, Scarlet Blossom, Soul of a Weary Hunter

Armored Boar: Soul of a Pyromancer, Blue Titanite Slab

Hellkite Wyvern: Humanity

Hollow Thief: Soul of a Lost Cleric

Tree Man (Darkroot Variant): Humanity, Runic Longbow

Twin-headed Reptile: Soul of a Rusted Knight

Demonic Foliage (Darkroot Variant): Blooming Purple Moss Clump

Stone Knight: Purple Moss Clump, Soul of an Old Soldier

Blue Crystal Golem: Blue Titanite Chunk, Blue Titanite Slab

Forest Hunter (Knight with Greatsword, not sure if all of them give the following item): Runic Longbow

Giant Mushroom Man: Runic Longbow

Blue Drake (Grounded): Red Titanite Slab, Dragon Scale

Blue Drake (Flying): Soul of a Lost Cleric

Undead Dragon: Soul of a Blind Wizard, White Titanite Slab

Infested Ghoul: Soul of a Pyromancer

Leech: Humanity, Soul of an Old Soldier, Soul of a Weary Hunter, Soul of a Pyromancer, Rubbish, Green Titanite Shard x1

Mosquito: Humanity, Soul of an Old Soldier, Soul of a Weary Hunter, Soul of a Pyromancer, Green Titanite Shard

Butcher: Humanity

Slime: Soul of a Weary Hunter, White Titanite Slab, Dragon Scale

Maggot: Green Titanite Shard x1

Lesser Capra Demon: Green Titanite Shard

Burrowing Rockworm: Sunlight Medal, Soul of a Blind Wizard, Red Titanite Slab

Parasited Hollow (from Lost Izalith): Humanity, Sunlight Medal, Soul of a Pyromancer, Red Titanite Slab

Demonic Statue: Humanity

Chaos Eater: Sunlight Medal, Soul of a Blind Wizard

Skeleton (Scimitar, not sure if it makes a difference): Ring of Sacrifice

Necromancer: Soul of a Rusted Knight

Bonewheel Skeleton: Soul of a Lost Cleric, Soul of a Blind Wizard, Soul of a Pyromancer, Copper Coin, White Titanite Slab

Black Mass of Souls: Copper Coin

Giant Skeleton (Murakumo Variant): Humanity, Soul of a Lost Cleric, Silver Coin, White Titanite Chunk, White Titanite Slab, Giant's Halberd

Giant Skeleton (Archer Variant): Soul of a Rusted Knight, Soul of an Exiled Witch, Silver Coin, White Titanite Chunk, White Titanite Slab, Giant's Halberd

Bone Tower: Humanity, Soul of a Lost Cleric, Soul of an Exiled Witch, Silver Coin, White Titanite Chunk, White Titanite Slab, Giant's Halberd

Beast Skeleton: Humanity

Male Ghost: Soul of a Lost Cleric, Soul of a Wary Hunter, Soul of a Darkwraith, Titanite Shard, Dragon Scale

Female Ghost (the one that can shoot electricity): Humanity, Titanite Shard

Giant (Lightly Clothed Variant): Humanity, Soul of a Lost Cleric, Soul of a Rusted Knight, Soul of an Exiled Witch, Silver Coin, White Titanite Chunk

Serpent Man: Humanity, Soul of a Blind Wizard, Large Titanite Shard x5, Titanite Slab, Ensouled Titanite

Serpent Sorcerer(ess?): Large Titanite Shard, Soul of a Blind Wizard, Soul of an Old Soldier

Titanite Demon: ??

Mimic: Soul of a Rusted Knight, Green Titanite Shard x1

Giant Sentinel (Normal Variant): Soul of a Doomed Thief

Painting Guardian: Sunlight Elixir x2, Sunlight Medals x3, Soul of a Doomed Thief, Gold Coin

Engorged Zombie: Humanity, Scarlet Blossom, Soul of a Pyromancer, Blue Titanite Slab, White Titanite Chunk

Phalanx: Souvenir of Reprisal x3, Soul of a Blind Wizard, Soul of a Pyromancer

Crow Demon: Souvenir of Reprisal x3, Soul of a Pyromancer

Silver Knight (Spear Variant): Gold Coin

Silver Knight (Archer Variant): Soul of a Weary Hunter

Giant Sentinel (Royal, Caped Variant (right before O&S)): Soul of a Weary Hunter

Darkwraith (Physical Form, not sure if it makes a difference to the Ghost one): Gold Coin, Dragon Scale

Undead Crystal Soldier (Sword Variant): Soul of an Exiled Witch

Picasa: Soul of a Blind Wizard, Blue Titanite Slab, Twinkling Titanite

Giant Clam: Soul of a Blind Wizard, Soul of a Pyromancer, Titanite Slab, Blue Titanite Chunk, Blue Titanite Slab, Twinkling Titanite

Black Knight: Humanity, Ensouled Titanite

Scarecrow (DLC Variant): Soul of a Weary Hunter, Blue Titanite Chunk, Blue Titanite Slab

Undead Attack Dog (DLC Variant): Green Titanite Shard, Blue Titanite Slab

Bloathead: Humanity

Chained Prisoner: Soul of an Old Soldier

Humanity: Soul of an Old Soldier, Soul of a Weary Hunter, Soul of a Doomed Thief, Green Titanite Shard, Blue Titanite Chunk, Blue Titanite Slab

Asylum Demon (the one in Fetid Slagmire, not sure if it makes a difference): Soul of an Old Soldier

Lesser Sanctuary Guardian's Tail (Yes, specifically cutting the Tail, and I'm not sure if being the Lesser makes a difference): Blue Titanite Chunk x1

Haunting Semblance/Profane Image: Soul of a Lost Cleric

Regular Gaygoyle (Tailed Variant, not sure if it matters): Soul of a Lost Cleric OR Soul of an Old Soldier (Got these two at the same time, so I'm unsure)

Gravestalkers: Moonlight Arrows x20

Quelaag: Soul of a Weary Hunter

Capricious Thrall (Capra Demon Boss's second form): Titanite Shard

Bane of Lordran/Ariamis (Gaping Dragon): Dragon Scale

Pinwheel (First one, not sure if it's the same with the real one): Soul of a Lost Cleric

Gravelord Nito: Humanity

4 Kings (Not sure if it's for a specific one): Soul of a Weary Hunter, Titanite Shard

Gwyndolin: Sunlight Medal x3

Prince Jareel: Soul of a Weary Hunter

Manus: Green Titanite Shard x1

Artorias or Sif (Darkroot Fight as you're transitioning to the final Phase (The Abyss in Artorias)): Runic Longbow

The Abyss in Artorias: Soul of a Rusted Knight

Undead Merchant (Male): Humanity x1

Shiva of the East or his bodyguard: Soul of a Pyromancer

Rhythm Rune
Effect: 3 hit combos give a stamina regen buff for a short time.

Location: In the abyss in Oolacile just before Manus.