Iconic and Generic RuneScape 2 Items

When thinking about generic medieval fantasy signatures, my mind always think of RuneScape first. To be more precise, I think about items related to mining and smithing. As such, I spent roughly one week taking a look RuneScape 2's item signatures.

RuneScape 2 is interesting because I think that the developers understood the concept of signatures - or at least they did subconsciously. I believe so as the game is a masterclass in reusing assets. While items such as "Bronze longsword" and "Rune longsword" are technically distinct signature, they both use the same "longsword" base form. The most obvious example of this is the melee equipment being recolors of the same set of models.

Another thing I wanted to find out is why some items feel more "RuneScape-y" than others. While most items in RuneScape 2 fit well within a medieval fantasy setting, some still somehow feel out of place. The biggest example of I can think of this is the Barrows armors. That set always weirded me out for some reason. The same can be said about a plethora of quest items.

To perform this study, I picked a 317 cache, which is game data for the 18 June 2005 version of the game. I created a spreadsheet which I listed the base form for every item in the game. I then further resorted this list to see which items feel "RuneScape-y". It should be noted that this is not an exact science and is purely based on off vibes I get from the items.

I used a tool called Lin's Cache Suite to read 317 items data (also used to make images for the table below). For some items I opted their variation found in build 448 (08 February 2007) to get their more modern and iconic variants. Images for build 448 were made using a tool called RSDataSuite.

When I speak of generic items, this generally means item that could reasonably exist within other games. This is not merely a list of iconic RuneScape items, hence why items like "Fire rune" are missing.

Without further ado, here the list of base generic signatures found in RS2 items:

Image	Base signature	Primary usage	Item ID	Item name	Revision
	Sword	Melee equipement	1279	Iron sword	317
	Scimitar	Melee equipement	1323	Iron scimitar	317
	Dagger	Melee equipement	1203	Iron dagger	317
	Battleaxe	Melee equipement	1363	Iron battleaxe	317
	Mace	Melee equipement	1420	Iron mace	317
	Shield (rectangular)	Melee equipement	1175	Iron sq shield	317
	Shield (kiteshield)	Melee equipement	1191	Iron kiteshield	317
	Shield (round)	Melee equipement	1171	Wooden shield	317
	Full helm	Melee equipement	1153	Iron full helm	317
	Med helm	Melee equipement	1137	Iron med helm	317
	Platebody	Melee equipement	1115	Iron platebody	448
	Chainbody	Melee equipement	1101	Iron chainbody	448
	Platelegs	Melee equipement	1067	Iron platelegs	317
	Plateskirt	Melee equipement	1081	Iron plateskirt	317
	Wizard hat (no belt)	Magic equipement	579	Wizard hat	317
	Hood (neckfree)	Magic equipement	4302	Ham hood	317
	Vestment top	Magic equipement	577	Wizard robe	317
	Vestment bottom	Magic equipement	1011	Blue skirt	317
	Magic staff (no orb)	Magic equipement	1379	Staff	317
	Magic staff (with orb)	Magic equipement	1387	Staff of fire	317
	Bow	Range equipement	841	Shortbow	317
	Arrow	Range equipement	884	Iron arrow	317
	Gloves	Misc equipement	1059	Leather gloves	317
	Boots	Misc equipement	1061	Leather boots	317
	Cape	Misc equipement	1007	Cape	317
	Pickaxe	Mining items	1267	Iron pickaxe	317
	Ore	Mining items	436	Copper ore	317
	Hammer	Mining items	2347	Hammer	317
	Ingot	Mining items	2349	Bronze bar	317
	Axe	Woocutting and firemaking items	1349	Iron axe	317
	Logs	Woocutting and firemaking items	1511	Logs	448
	Ashes	Woocutting and firemaking items	592	Ashes	317
	Fishing rod	Fishing items	307	Fishing rod	317
	Fishing bait	Fishing items	313	Fishing bait	317
	Cage	Fishing items	301	Lobster pot	317
	Shrimps	Fishing items	315	Shrimps	317
	Fish	Fishing items	325	Sardine	317
	Lobster	Fishing items	377	Raw lobster	317
	Swordfish	Fishing items	371	Raw swordfish	317
	Shark	Fishing items	385	Shark	317
	Hide	Crafting items	1739	Cowhide	317
	Wool	Crafting items	1737	Wool	317
	Wool ball	Crafting items	1759	Ball of wool	317
	Cloth	Crafting items	950	Silk	317
	String	Crafting items	1777	Bow string	317
	Needle	Crafting items	1733	Needle	317
	Thread	Crafting items	1734	Thread	448
	Jewel	Crafting items	1603	Ruby	448
	Ring (no jewel)	Crafting items	1635	Gold ring	317
	Ring (with jewel)	Crafting items	1641	Ruby ring	317
	Necklace (no jewel)	Crafting items	1654	Gold necklace	317
	Necklace (with jewel)	Crafting items	1660	Ruby necklace	317
	Chef's hat	Cooking items	1949	Chef's hat	317
	Apron	Cooking items	1005	White apron	317
	Bucket (empty)	Cooking items	1925	Bucket	448
	Bucket (with liquid)	Cooking items	1929	Bucket of water	448
	Pot (empty)	Cooking items	1931	Pot	317
	Pot (with contents)	Cooking items	1933	Pot of flour	317
	Egg	Cooking items	1944	Egg	317
	Wheat	Cooking items	1947	Grain	317
	Garlic	Cooking items	1550	Garlic	317
	Cabbage	Cooking items	1965	Cabbage	317
	Banana	Cooking items	1963	Banana	317
	Berries	Cooking items	1987	Grapes	317
	Cheese	Cooking items	1985	Cheese	317
	Tomato	Cooking items	1982	Tomato	317
	Beef meat	Cooking items	2132	Raw beef	317
	Chicken meat	Cooking items	2138	Raw chicken	317
	Dough	Cooking items	2307	Bread dough	317
	Bread	Cooking items	2309	Bread	317
	Pizza	Cooking items	2289	Plain pizza	317
	Chocolate bar	Cooking items	1973	Chocolate bar	317
	Cake tin (empty)	Cooking items	1887	Cake tin	317
	Cake	Cooking items	1981	Cake	317
	Bowl (empty)	Cooking items	1923	Bowl	317
	Bowl (with liquid)	Cooking items	1921	Bowl of water	317
	Jug (empty)	Cooking items	1935	Jug	317
	Jug (with liquid)	Cooking items	245	Wine of zamorak	317
	Pie	Cooking items	2325	Redberry pie	317
	Coins	Misc items	995	Coins	317
	Bones	Misc items	526	Bones	317
	Feather	Misc items	314	Feather	317
	Knife	Misc items	946	Knife	317
	Nails	Misc items	4820	Iron nails	317
	Rope	Misc items	954	Rope	317
	Shovel	Misc items	952	Spade	317
	Shears	Misc items	1735	Shears	317
	Plank	Misc items	960	Plank	448
	Dye bottle (empty)	Misc items	1581	Blamish snail slime	317
	Dye bottle (with liquid)	Misc items	1763	Red dye	317
	Beer glass	Misc items	1919	Beer glass	448
	Beer glass (with contents)	Misc items	1917	Beer	448
	Wine bottle	Misc items	3164	Karamjan rum	317
	Potion vial (empty)	Misc items	229	Vial	448
	Potion vial (with liquid)	Misc items	2428	Attack potion(4)	448
	Book (no trim)	Misc items	5	Instruction manual	317
	Book (golden trim)	Misc items	3230	Big book of bangs	448
	Scroll (closed)	Misc items	550	Newcomer map	317
	Scroll (left-right)	Misc items	2677	Clue scroll	317
	Scroll (top-bottom)	Misc items	27	Fishing pass	317
	Untouched cert	Misc items	3102	Combination	317
	Untouched paper	Misc items	3827	Torn page 1(s)	317
	Notes sheet	Misc items	717	Scrawled note	317
	Map	Misc items	2376	Skavid map	317
	Paper pile	Misc items	4572	Pages	317
	Key	Misc items	85	Shiny key	317
	Poison bottle	Misc items	273	Poison	317
	Pendant	Misc items	86	Pendant of lucien	317
	Small chest	Misc items	405	Casket	317
	Gift	Misc items	290	Research package	317
	Genie lamp	Misc items	2528	Lamp	317
	Skull	Misc items	553	Skull	317
	Unicorn horn	Misc items	1487	Unicorn horn	317
	Eyeball	Misc items	221	Eye of newt	317
	Rat's tail	Misc items	300	Rat's tail	317
	Small egg cluster	Misc items	223	Red spiders' eggs	317
	Masquerade mask	Misc items	979	Highwayman mask	317
	Pirate's hat	Misc items	2651	Pirate's hat	317
	Pirate's hook	Misc items	2997	Pirate's hook	317

So the first time I that seems obvious is that all the forms seen above seems to appear in the free to play version of the game (though not necessarily as items). While I suppose this could be chalked up as me just being nostalgic for a specific set of items, I also think that most of the items displayed here were released during the RuneScape Classic days. So I suspect that there could be more going on here.

I presume it's not impossible that RuneScape was most "pure" in its early day and became more "impure" as they needed to come up with new ideas that strayed away from the generic medieval fantasy signature.

I also take note that RuneScape ironically cultivated its own distinct signature in a way. Although the game has many "barrel" items that clearly fit within the generic medieval fantasy signature, said barrel to do not feel like a valid RuneScape item in my mind. I suspect that since free to play version is the first thing 99% of players experience, its content dictate the what I consider to be the "RuneScape vibe". This is interesting because I only briefly played RuneScape 2 as a kid. I only really got into the game while playing RuneScape 3 with a membership early on during my teenagehood. One might think that this would have overwritten the "RuneScape vibe" in my brain, yet it didn't. I guess first impressions really are important.

On a final note, generating those image previews were soul draining for some reason. While parsing the 317 item list was relatively quick, making the images made me feel very stiff. Curious. I intended list generic signatures found in scenery objects and NPCs, but if I end up doing that, it will a text-only table.

Written by manpaint on 20 March 2025.