Great Runes
A Great Rune is the rarest reward in Tarnished & Rising — earned only by killing a Raid Boss. Unlike anything else you collect, a Great Rune isn't spent to trigger a bonus and gone. Kill its boss once, and you hold that rune forever — through death, through New Game Plus, permanently. There are 14, one per raid-eligible boss.
How a Great Rune Works
Every Great Rune does two things at once:
- A permanent perk — a modest, always-on bonus tied to that boss's family, active from the moment you first kill it and never lost. Hold all 14 and every one of these stacks together.
- One charge of a huge active power — a genuinely powerful effect, lasting 3 to 7 days once activated. Spending the charge uses it up; another charge comes from killing that same boss again (a returning GRUDGE, or a later draw of it), or from a Rune Arc (see below).
Activate a rune's charge any time you choose from the Great Runes tab in your Collections. Only one active at a time — activating a new one while another is still running is blocked, not queued. No Great Rune touches Vigor or healing; every one of them is about damage, Runes, loot, grace, or bending a rule of the game for a stretch.
All 14 Great Runes
| Great Rune | From Raid Boss | Permanent Perk (held forever) | The Active (one charge per kill) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rune of the Relentless | The Sedentary Golem | Workouts deal +20% damage | Iron Week — 7 days: workouts deal ×3 damage |
| Rune of the Prosperous | The Sunken Hollow | +5% all Runes | Golden Tide — 3 days: all Runes ×2, stacking with everything |
| Rune of the Nourished | The Iron Hunger | +8% Runes on calories-in-range days | The Feast — 7 days: one guaranteed loot roll per day you log a meal |
| Rune of the Consistent | The Pale Wanderer | Rage needs one extra bad night to arm | Steady Flame — 7 days: Burning days are judged as Blazing for clues, goals, Ember, and Trials |
| Rune of the Disciplined | The Junk Food Demon | +15% Runes on every bonus quest completed | Demon's Bargain — 7 days: every bonus quest pays ×2 and drops guaranteed loot |
| Rune of the Incorruptible | The Gilded Glutton | Debuff chance halved | Untouchable — 7 days: immune to every curse; the raid cannot rage on you |
| Rune of the Recovered | The Mirewood Stalker | +15% Runes on full-log days (a workout or rest logged, plus all three meals) | Tireless — 7 days: rest days earn workout Runes, deal workout damage, and satisfy workout clues (up to 4 of the 7) |
| Rune of the Resolute | The Creeping Doubt | +5% loot rate on Tier 3 completions | Resolve — 7 days: Tier 3 loot rate +50% |
| Rune of the Unburdened | The Phantom Burden | +10% Runes on weekly tasks | Unburdened — until the game week closes: weekly tasks pay ×4 and stagger the raid 2 nights each |
| Rune of the Well-Fed | The Withered Crown | +10% meal Runes | The Long Table — 7 days: meal Runes ×2 |
| Rune of the Blazing | The Ashen God | +25% Ember on Blazing days | Ashen Dawn — instant: tonight's Site of Grace fires right now, +3 Ember |
| Rune of the Ironwilled | The Iron Veil | Tier 2 completions deal +10% damage | Iron Veil — 7 days: all damage ×1.5; phase-break and Feeding strikes cannot land |
| Rune of the Unstoppable | The Erdtree Tyrant | Weekly kills always drop Rare-or-better | Tyrant's Hoard — instant: 20,000 Runes, a guaranteed Legendary, loot rate ×2 for 3 days |
Loot is the language of four of the fourteen actives, and every raid kill already drops double loot on its own. A found clue in the raid's Hunting or Cornered phase also has a chance at bonus loot, half drawn from the raid-only pool and half from the normal one.
The Rune Arc
A legendary, raid-only item that never appears in the normal loot pool: activating it restores one spent Great Rune charge, your choice which — the only way to get a second charge from a boss you can't easily kill again. It never restores a rune that's currently active or already charged.
Which Bosses Are Eligible
Only 14 of the 28 weekly bosses are raid-eligible; the other 14 never appear as a Raid Boss and have no Great Rune. See All Bosses for the eligible list and each boss's raid-tier unlock.
Notes & Tips
- The permanent perks are a build, not a bonus. Collecting all 14 makes you meaningfully stronger even before you activate a single charge.
- A charge is precious — plan its use. With most actives running 7 days, timing one around a week you know will be strong (a planned Trial, a big lifting week) gets far more out of it than firing it the moment it's earned.
- Golden Tide and a Double Runes consumable stack. Every Great Rune multiplier is designed to combine with everything else you're running — the ceiling is intentionally high, because it's earned and rare.
- See Raid Bosses for the full raid design — the four phases, the clue, curses, the Pact, and how a kill pays out.
- See Collectibles for the full Great Rune collection in your Collections modal.