The spell behind every row
Every tier uses the same members spell on the standard spellbook. Each cast enchants 10 bolts, and the spell works on both the regular and dragon version of that bolt type, so diamond dragon bolts use the same cast and runes as diamond bolts.
| Bolt | Magic level | Runes per cast (10 bolts) | Magic xp |
|---|---|---|---|
| Opal | 4 | 2 air, 1 cosmic | 9 |
| Sapphire | 7 | 1 water, 1 mind, 1 cosmic | 17.5 |
| Jade | 14 | 2 earth, 1 cosmic | 19 |
| Pearl | 24 | 2 water, 1 cosmic | 29.5 |
| Emerald | 27 | 3 air, 1 nature, 1 cosmic | 37 |
| Red topaz | 29 | 2 fire, 1 cosmic | 33 |
| Ruby | 49 | 5 fire, 1 blood, 1 cosmic | 59 |
| Diamond | 57 | 10 earth, 2 law, 1 cosmic | 67 |
| Dragonstone | 68 | 15 earth, 1 soul, 1 cosmic | 78 |
| Onyx | 87 | 20 fire, 1 death, 1 cosmic | 97 |
Elemental staves cover the air, water, earth or fire runes, which matters most for dragonstone and onyx with 15 or 20 elementals per cast. The runes that actually cost money are the cosmic on every cast, plus the law, blood, soul or death rune on the higher tiers. The Magic calculator shows how many casts you need for a level if you are enchanting for xp rather than gold.
What diamond bolts (e) do
Diamond bolts (e) are adamant bolts tipped with enchanted diamond, and their effect is Armour Piercing. It has a 10% chance to activate on each shot (5% against players), and when it does the hit is guaranteed to land and the max hit rises by 15% for that hit, or 26% with a zaryte crossbow. The Kandarin hard diary adds 10% to the base chance, taking it to 11%, with no headgear needed.
Because the effect ignores the accuracy roll, diamonds are the standard bolt against heavily armoured targets, which is why ranged players buy them in tens of thousands. To make them yourself, cut a diamond into 12 bolt tips and attach them to adamant bolts at 65 Fletching, then enchant at 57 Magic. They also drop from Venenatis and Spindel.
Ruby, onyx and the dragon versions
Ruby bolts (e) at 49 Magic carry Blood Forfeit, which costs you 10% of your current hitpoints and deals 20% of the target's, so they are used to open on high-hitpoint bosses before switching to diamonds. Onyx bolts (e) at 87 Magic heal you on a proc and sell for far more per bolt than any other tier, so a small percentage margin is still a lot of coins per cast. Dragon bolt versions need 84 Fletching to tip and trade at a higher price per bolt, which can make a thin margin per bolt into a fat one per cast.
Buy limits decide how long you can do it
Every plain bolt in this table has a Grand Exchange limit of 11,000 every four hours, which is 1,100 casts. At a steady pace that is well under an hour of casting, so enchanting bolts is something you do in short bursts between other things, or spread across several bolt types to use more limits. The enchanted bolts you sell have no sell limit, but daily volume matters: diamond, ruby and dragon bolts move fast, while pearl, jade and topaz bolts trade far less.
The fastest players enchant at the Fountain of Rune in the deep Wilderness, where spells cost no runes but give no xp, with opal dragon bolts a known money maker there. It removes the rune cost entirely but carries the obvious risk, so the table assumes you buy and use your runes like everyone else.
How to read the profit columns
Profit per cast is the price of 10 enchanted bolts after Grand Exchange tax, minus 10 plain bolts and the full rune cost at today's prices. Profit per hour multiplies that by a realistic number of casts. A small positive number is normal; these are processing margins, not big money. If you fletch your own bolts first, the fletching money making list shows whether tipping them is profitable at today's prices, and the rune crossbow price page covers the crossbow most players fire them from.