Invention Basics Guide 
Note: a Table of Contents can be found in the pinned messages.
Introduction
Invention, the only elite skill in the game, is one of the best ways to easily increase your DPS and defences, as well as provide a ton of utility. As such, it is very important to unlock and train it as soon as possible.
This guide will cover the following:
⬥ Unlocking Invention
⬥ Materials (parts and components)
⬥ Gizmos & Perks
⬥ Adding gizmos to items
⬥ Augmentation & item levels
⬥ Invention machines
⬥ Tech trees - Dwarven/Goblin
⬥ Ancient Invention
⬥ Training methods
⬥ Tips & tricks
If you are just looking for information on what perks you should use, check out #perks and #perk-information.
Unlocking Invention
Requirements
⬥ Unlocking Invention has the following requirements:
• 80 Smithing 
• 80 Crafting 
• 80 Divination 
Unlocking Invention
⬥ First head to the Invention guild located just north of Falador (around the Dwarven mines area).
⬥ Next go to talk to the dwarf inside called Doc.
⬥ Doc will walk you through a basic Invention tutorial that shows you how to augment items.
The Inventor's Workbench
Using the Workbench
⬥ This is where you'll manufacture most of the items Invention gives you access to.
⬥ Each bench has two click options: discover and manufacture
⬥ You must first discover an item before you can manufacture it.
Discovery Tab
⬥ This is the screen you'll see when you open the Discover tab.
⬥ On the left, there are blueprints, corresponding to Invention items.
⬥ A blueprint must be successfully 'completed' before the corresponding item is accessible to you.
⬥ Selecting a blueprint brings up a small minigame:
• You first select 5 modules (through trial and error) from 10 options to find the ones that work.
• Then you arrange them into order to successfully unlock items, which gives some experience.
⬥ Note:
• The modules can be placed in any order (but correct orders give up to 5x more experience).
• The different levels of success are: Poor < Satisfactory < Good < Excellent < Perfect
⬥ Once you have discovered items, you can manufacture them using the other side of the workbench.
Manufacturing Tab
⬥ The right side of the bench allows you to manufacture invention items.
⬥ This includes things like divine charges 
, gizmos 
, invention items 
, certain augmented items 
, and much more.
Materials
What Are Materials
⬥ Materials are parts and components used in the creation of all Invention items and perks.
⬥ You get them primarily from disassembling things.
⬥ There are 4 types of materials: common, uncommon, rare and ancient.
⬥ You can check what materials you have by clicking on the aforementioned icon. Items can also be disassembled by dragging them to this icon.
⬥ As you start collecting materials, they will be filled into your invention pouch, looking something like this.
Obtaining from the Grand Exchange
Click on any material name to be linked to the calculator for best items to disassemble.
⬥ Set your Junk Reduction chance according to your level
⬥ Use the sort buttons under "Cost per mat" to sort from lowest to highest
⬥ Ignore any items that have a low value for the "Trade vol." column
⬥ Pay attention to the "Mats per hour" column as you go down the list and consider the time/money tradeoff
For convenience, the following lists are compiled by balancing the above factors at zero junk chance reduction. Higher level players are encouraged to use the calculators themselves as the increased junk chance reduction may make other items better for disassembly.
Common Materials
⬥ 
Base - Royal/broad-tipped bolts, Medium bladed adamant salvage, Dragonhide shields
⬥ 
Blade - Steel+ darts, Adamant javelins, Guthix mjolnirs, Medium bladed adamant salvage
⬥ 
Clear - Air/earth/fire/water orbs, Rubies
⬥ 
Connector - Black salamanders, Magic stocks
⬥ 
Cover - Huge plated steel salvage, Small plated mithril salvage
⬥ 
Crafted - Flatpacks (carved teak magic wardrobe/mahogany table), Potions (Powerburst of masterstroke (4), Zamorak brew (3), Antipoison++ (4)), Black salamanders
⬥ 
Crystal - Crystal teleport seeds (kill Lletya elves and recharge), Crystal tools (via tool seeds)
⬥ 
Deflecting - Huge plated steel salvage, Small plated mithril salvage
⬥ 
Delicate - Air/earth/fire/water orbs, Potions (Powerburst of masterstroke (4), Zamorak brew (3), Antipoison++ (4))
⬥ 
Flexible - Maple+ shortbows (includes 
) or shieldbows (includes 
)
⬥ 
Head - Steel+ arrows, Royal/broad-tipped bolts
⬥ 
Magic - Body runes, Portent of restoration VIII/IX
⬥ 
Metallic - Medium bladed adamant salvage
⬥ 
Organic - Cooked menaphos fish, Woad leaves
⬥ 
Padded - Dragonhide armour (red vambraces/non-red bodies best), Battlestaves
⬥ 
Plated - Huge plated steel salvage, Small plated mithril salvage
⬥ 
Simple - Flatpacks (carved teak magic wardrobe/mahogany table), Steel+ darts, Yak-hides, Maple+ logs
⬥ 
Smooth - Air/earth/fire/water orbs, Rubies
⬥ 
Spiked - Steel+ darts, Magic stocks
⬥ 
Spiritual - Spirit dagannoth/terrorbird/rune minotaur/barker toad/arctic bear pouches and scrolls
⬥ 
Stave - Maple+ shortbows (includes ) or shieldbows (includes )
⬥ 
Tensile - Maple+ shortbows (includes ) or shieldbows (includes ), Black salamanders
Uncommon Materials
⬥ Dextrous - Yew+ shortbows, Black salamanders
⬥ 
Direct - Battleaxes/spears/hastae (Warrior’s guild), Pickaxes/mattocks (shops)
⬥ 
Enhancing - Air/earth/fire/water orbs, Potions (Powerburst of masterstroke (4), Zamorak brew (3), Antipoison++ (4))
⬥ 
Ethereal - Portent of restoration VIII/IX, Infernal magic incense sticks
⬥ 
Evasive - Dragonhide armour (red vambraces/non-red bodies best)
⬥ 
Healthy - Potions (Powerburst of masterstroke (4), Zamorak brew (3), Antipoison++ (4)), Cooked menaphos fish/Woad leaves (slow)
⬥ 
Heavy - Huge plated steel salvage, Small plated mithril salvage
⬥ 
Imbued - Battlestaves
⬥ 
Light - Rubies/diamonds
⬥ 
Living - Seeds (reed/prickly pear/sunchoke/barberry/fly trap), Cooked menaphos fish
⬥ 
Pious - Tortured souls, Fossilised bone
⬥ 
Powerful - Spirit dagannoth/terrorbird/rune minotaur/barker toad/arctic bear pouches and scrolls, Body runes, Battlestaves
⬥ 
Precious - Rings of slaying, Diamond necklaces
⬥ 
Precise - Maple+ shortbows (includes ) or shieldbows (includes )
⬥ 
Protective - Huge plated steel salvage, Small plated mithril salvage
⬥ 
Refined - Use junk refiner device
⬥ 
Sharp - Steel+ darts, Guthix mjolnirs
⬥ Strong - Maple+ shieldbows
⬥ 
Stunning - Black salamanders, Magic stocks
⬥ 
Subtle - Scimitars (shop), Medium bladed adamant salvage
⬥ 
Swift - Steel+ darts
⬥ 
Variable - Harralander/tarromin tar
Rare Materials
More expensive components are typically obtained by augmenting the item and getting it to Level 9 before disassembly. This grants 4x the components.
⬥ 
Armadyl - Warpriest of Armadyl armour, Armadyl equipment
⬥ 
Ascended - Sirenic equipment
⬥ 
Avernic - Twin Furies' drops (compare methods)
⬥ 
Bandos - Bandos equipment
⬥ 
Brassican - Cabbages
⬥ 
Clockwork - Dwarf multicannons
⬥ 
Corporeal - Blessed spirit shields
⬥ 
Culinary - Culinaromancer's gloves (all 10% chance)
⬥ 
Cywir - Helwyr's drops (compare methods)
⬥ 
Dragonfire - Royal crossbows, Dragonfire shields
⬥ 
Explosive - Hand cannons
⬥ 
Faceted - Crystal teleport seeds (kill Lletya elves and recharge), Empty light orbs, Crystal tools (via seeds), Crystal flasks
⬥ 
Fortunate - Treasure trails unique items
⬥ 
Fungal - Ganodermic equipment
⬥ 
Harnessed - Elemental workshop equipment
⬥ 
Ilujankan - Vindicta's drops (compare methods)
⬥ 
Knightly - Black/white equipment
⬥ 
Noxious - Noxious equipment
⬥ 
Oceanic - Seasinger's equipment
⬥ 
Pestiferous - Korasi's sword, Void knight equpiment
⬥ 
Resilient - Masuta's warspear, Mizuyari, Tetsu equipment, Dinosaurhide armour
⬥ 
Rumbling - Drygore weapons, Raids armour
⬥ 
Saradomin - Saradomin mjolnirs, Saradomin's whisper/hiss/murmur
⬥ 
Seren - Attuned crystal equipment, Crystal equipment
⬥ 
Shadow - Gregorovic's drops (compare methods)
⬥ 
Shifting - Khopesh of the Kharidian, Chaotic weapons
⬥ 
Silent - Death lotus darts, Death lotus extract (DG reward shop: 5k tokens each), Death lotus equipment
⬥ 
Third-age - Third Age equipment
⬥ 
Undead - Malevolent equipment, Linza's equipment
⬥ 
Zamorak - Ward of subjugation, Zamorak mjolnirs, Warpriest of Zamorak armour
⬥ 
Zaros - Nex's drops (Pernix or weapons best), Ancient defenders
Ancient Materials
Ancient materials can be bought in crates directly from the Grand Exchange.
⬥ 
Historic
⬥ 
Classic
⬥ 
Vintage
⬥ 
Timeworn
Other Methods
⬥ Uncommon and rare components can also be passively gained through combat from the Scavenging 
perk.
• It is recommended to add Scavenging 2 (5 ) to a piece of armour at low to start passively obtaining uncommon components as some of these are troublesome to get otherwise.
• This can be upgraded to Scavenging 4 (9 ) upon unlocking Ancient Invention and placed on a piece of slayer armour.
• See #scavenging-farming if wanting to specifically amass components via Scavenging
⬥ Some shops also provide a supply of items to disassemble at rates below the GE value. This may be especially useful for ironmen accounts.
• Warriors' Guild Armoury
• White Knight Master Armoury
⬥ Killing monsters for untradable drops is a cheaper method of obtaining certain components
• Killing Armadyl or Zamorak spiritual warriors in a Player-Owned Slayer Dungeon provides a supply of unowned warpriest armour for and components
• Killing elves in Lletya provides Crystal teleport seeds that may be recharged at Eluned/Islwyn and disassembled for cheap and quick and
Gizmos and Perks
Gizmos are the main focus of invention. They allow you to put perks on your weapons, armour and tools which allow for some very useful effects during skilling or PvM.
Making Gizmos
⬥ There are separate gizmos for tools , weapons and armour each needing to be discovered at the workbench.
⬥ Unlock gizmos by discovering their blueprints at the following levels:
• Weapon gizmos - level 3
• Armour gizmos - level 16
• Tool gizmos - level 22
⬥ You can then create at the workbench if you have sufficient resources.
Adding Perks to Gizmos
⬥ Click a gizmo to bring up the following menu:
⬥ Click or drag materials to fill the slots on the top right. This will fill them with the selected material.
⬥ Depending on the materials used and their layout, the possible perk results are shown on the bottom right.
⬥ Click Create to create the gizmo.
⬥ Each gizmo can hold up to 2 perks.
• This is why most endgame PvM perks are a combo of two perks - this maximises the number of perks you can have
• e.g. a single gizmo containing Biting 4 
and Mobile 
perks
⬥ Keep in mind:
• Not all perks are guaranteed outcomes. Be prepared to try multiple times in some cases.
• Perks with multiple ranks will be more effective at higher ranks.
⬩ e.g. Biting 1 gives 2% crit chance, Biting 4 gives +8% crit chance
• You should wait to get expensive endgame perks at level 120 Invention.
Adding Gizmos to Items
⬥ Gizmos can only be added to augmented items, as follows:
• Tools: 2 tool gizmos each
• MH and OH weapons: 1 weapon gizmo each
• 2H weapons (excluding shieldbows): 2 weapon gizmos
• Defenders: 1 weapon OR armour gizmo
• Shieldbows (e.g. strykebow, darkbow): 1 weapon AND 1 armour gizmo
• Body/leg armours: 2 armour gizmos each
Note: weapon and armour gizmos can be either normal or ancient. You should use ancient as soon as they're available as they offer better perks. For more detailed info, see Ancient Invention.
⬥ To remove a gizmo from an item, there are a few options:
• Gizmo dissolvers will remove a single gizmo, destroying the perks in that gizmo.
• Augmentation dissolvers will de-augment the item, destroying all gizmos/perks.
• Equipment separators will remove and return the gizmos to you, but require items to be level 15 or higher.
⬥ Augmented items (and the perks in them) will not work unless you have divine charges stored. You can either create them at the workbench or buy them at the GE.
Augmentation
How to Augment Items
⬥ Items can be augmented in two ways:
• For most items: click Augmentor → use on Item
• Degrade-to-dust items: take fully-repaired Item + + → create augmented item at Workbench
Item Levels
⬥ Augmented items gain experience as you use them, increasing their item level.
⬥ Maximum item levels can be increased by discovering blueprints:
• Level 5 - at 4
• Level 10 - at 27
• Level 15 - at 60
• Level 20 - at 99
⬥ As items increase in level, they get some benefits, notably:
• Level 3 - disassembles for 2x materials
• Level 6 - disassembles for 3x materials
• Level 8 - gizmos are returned when disassembling
• Level 9 - disassembles for 4x materials
• Level 10 - disassembles for maximum experience
• Level 12 - siphons for maximum experience
• Level 15 - equipment separators can be used on this item
• Level 20 - perks are 10% more effective on this item
⬥ Note that items use less charges as they level up, making them more efficient.
Machines
⬥ Towards the back of the Invention guild, you'll be able to create machines (starting at level 60).
⬥ These machines can do some very handy stuff such as High Alching 
and disassembling items, and even partially processing items (e.g. logs → planks, herbs → unf potions, etc.)
⬥ Up to 5 spots for machines (pink), and one spot for a power generator (red) are available:
⬥ Clicking on an empty machine hotspot you'll see a list of the machines you can make and the materials/items needed to make them.
⬥ Machines are powered by divine charges .
• Charges are added to the power generator to supply power to the rest of the machines.
⬥ Machines each consume a certain level of 'power' - i.e. a way to limit how many machines you have at once.
• This limit increases as you build better generators.
• Having a tier 3 Workshop at Fort Forinthry increases the power capacity of machines by 25%.
• The Jumbo generator provides 160 power.
⬩ The Jumbo generator with a tier 3 Workshop provides 200 power.
⬥ Machines cannot be turned on/off - to change your power allocation, you must destroy/rebuild them.
Tech Trees
What Are Tech Trees
⬥ Tech trees are found on the small noticeboard next to the bank in the Invention guild.
⬥ They're used to unlock additional blueprints to discover create items.
⬥ Currency for unlocking blueprints can be gained by completing tasks for each tree.
• Tasks usually require handing in materials or finished items.
• One task is added every 12h, stacking up to 5.
Dwarven Tech Tree
The following blueprints are part of the Dwarven tree:
⬥ Corporeal components
⬥ Sprinkler MK1
⬥ Mining Accumulator
⬥ Book switcher
⬥ Calorie bomb
⬥ Auto-sanctifier
⬥ Kinetic Cyclone
⬥ Dungeoneering lock melter
Goblin Tech Tree
The following blueprints are part of the Goblin tree:
⬥ Pestiferous components
⬥ Mechanised chinchompas
⬥ Woodcutting accumulator
⬥ B.A.N.K Stander
⬥ Monkey mind-control helmet
⬥ Dungeoneering party simulator
⬥ Electrified box trap
⬥ Oldak coil
Ancient Invention 
What Is It
⬥ With the release of Archaeology , Ancient Invention was introduced to the game.
⬥ This includes new tools (higher tier t70→t80), new gizmos , new materials & perks.
⬥ 85 Invention (boostable from 68 with an extreme potion 
) is required to discover, create and use ancient gizmos.
• Ancient blueprints technically require 95 but blueprints and ancient materials are both tradeable on the GE.
Note: Ironmen 
cannot boost for this, and will have to get the blueprints themselves at level 95.
Ancient Gizmos
⬥ Ancient gizmos have 9 slots (vs. the regular 5 slots of normal gizmos), allowing for more perk choices and combinations.
⬥ This makes getting a starter set of perks for PvM very easy - see #perks.
⬥ Keep in mind though that as with regular gizmos, it's not worth going for high-end perks till 120 Invention.
⬥ Discovering 'perfect' rated blueprints is also a good source of XP early on.
How to Train Invention
Training Methods
⬥ Invention is primarily trained by disassembling or siphoning augmented equipment once it reaches an appropriate level.
• Items disassemble for full XP from level 10 or higher.
• They siphon for full XP from level 12 or higher.
• You can siphon/disassemble at lower levels, but this gives less XP.
⬥ Items gain XP and level up as you use them appropriately (combat items when fighting, skilling tools when skilling).
⬥ In general: faster XP gain → faster item levelling → faster Invention XP
⬥ XP Capacitors 
(tradeable on the GE) should be used to double the rate of item XP gain, effectively doubling your Invention XP/hr.
Level 1-4
⬥ Tutorial puts you at level 4.
Level 4-27
⬥ Discover item maximum level 5 blueprint.
⬥ Buy any cheap augmentable weapon (crystal halberd or black salamanders for example) and level it up to level 5.
⬥ At level 16, research augmented body armour and buy some cheap augmentable armour and level up to level 5.
⬥ When your weapons / armour reach level 5, disassemble them for xp. Do this until you hit level 27.
Level 27-60
⬥ Discover item maximum level 10 blueprint.
⬥ Continue as before but disassemble your weapons/armour at level 10 instead.
⬥ At level 45, research augmented leg armour. Buy some cheap augmentable leg armour and level it up along with your torso and weapon.
Level 60
⬥ Discover item maximum level 15 blueprint.
⬥ Stop using your cheap gear - augment your main gear and level it up.
⬥ At level 12, siphon the items for XP. Repeat till you reach level 120.
Tips and Tricks
Blueprints
⬥ Extreme invention pots (requiring 85 Herblore 
) let you research blueprints up to 17 levels earlier.
• If you can't make them, use super Invention potions instead.
⬥ Blueprints will give double XP on DXP weekends.
Perks & Materials
⬥ Augmentable items will disassemble for more materials at level 3 (2x), 6 (3x) and 9 (4x).
⬥ Level items up for disassembly when possible, especially for expensive materials.
⬥ Scavenging 3/4 perk can add up to a lot of uncommon/rare materials over time as you PvM.
• This is especially noticeable when AFK farming, or doing high KPH activities like Slayer 
⬥ When going for a specific perk, always calculate the optimal way to get it in advance.