RuneScape 3 Invention Guide: Augmenting & Perks

Invention is one of RuneScape 3's elite skills, and it quietly powers a huge amount of the combat endgame. It lets you augment your weapons and armor, disassemble items into raw components, and build gizmos that grant perks — bonuses that can meaningfully raise your damage, accuracy or survivability. If you do any serious PvM, Invention is not an optional side skill; it is effectively part of your gear, and endgame guides assume you have it. This guide explains what the skill does, how its systems fit together, and how to approach training it without being overwhelmed.

The systems below were checked against the official RuneScape Wiki, Jagex's skill information and r/runescape in October 2026. Specific perk effects, component sources and material costs change with updates, so treat every example as illustrative and verify the current details in-game or on the wiki before planning a big material investment.

What Invention is and what you need to unlock it

Invention is an elite skill, which means it carries skill requirements you must meet before you can even begin it — you need to have reached high levels in a set of supporting skills, notably the crafting-and-smithing side of production along with Divination. Because of this gate, Invention is not something brand-new players jump into; it is a mid-to-late-game pursuit that rewards an account which has already built a foundation. It levels from 1 all the way to 120 rather than stopping at 99, so it offers a long progression with plenty to work toward.

Once unlocked, Invention opens an entirely new layer of the game built around breaking items down for materials and building new tools, devices and, most importantly, augmented gear with perks. The early levels can feel slow because you are learning the systems and your perks are limited, but the payoff in raw combat power as you progress is large, which is why dedicated PvM players treat reaching and leveling Invention as a priority rather than an afterthought.

Augmenting your gear

The headline feature for most players is augmentation. You apply an augmentor to an eligible weapon or armor piece, which does two important things: it lets that item gain its own experience as you use it, leveling the item up through use, and it allows the item to hold gizmos. Augmented gear that has leveled can later be siphoned or disassembled to recover value and materials, so the investment is not lost when you upgrade. In effect, augmenting transforms your main combat gear from a static stat-stick into a platform for perks.

This is where Invention's real power lives. The perks you attach to augmented gear are what make the skill matter, and they interact directly with the tier system covered in our RuneScape 3 best gear guide. A well-augmented, well-perked item can genuinely outperform a bare higher-tier one, which is why you should fold Invention into your gear planning rather than treating it as a separate project you get to "eventually." Deciding which gear to augment, and when, is a real strategic choice.

Disassembling for components

Invention runs on components, and the way you obtain them is by disassembling items. Almost everything in the game can be broken down, and different items yield different components — some common and cheap, others rare and highly sought-after for the strong perks they enable. A large part of playing Invention well is knowing which items are efficient sources of the specific components you need for the perks you want, rather than disassembling things blindly and hoping for the best.

Many players run "junk refinement" to improve their component yields and keep a careful eye on which byproducts of their normal play are worth disassembling instead of simply selling. This is also where Invention intersects directly with money making, because component demand gives real value to items that would otherwise be worth little, and understanding that demand lets you decide intelligently whether to sell an item or break it down. Over time, this component economy becomes second nature.

Gizmos and perks

Perks are the reward for all that disassembling, and they are where the skill becomes genuinely exciting. You combine components in a gizmo shell, which produces one or two perks with a degree of randomness — adding better and more plentiful components biases the result toward stronger, higher-ranked perks, but there is always an element of luck in exactly what you get. You then attach the finished gizmos to your augmented gear, where their effects apply whenever you use that item.

The best perks provide substantial combat bonuses, and the community has identified well-known perk combinations that are considered close to essential for serious PvM. Because perk creation is partly random, players commonly use a perk calculator to plan their material inputs for the best possible odds of the combination they want, then budget components for several attempts rather than expecting perfection on the first try. Going in with realistic expectations — and enough materials for multiple tries — keeps perk-making from becoming frustrating.

Training Invention sensibly

Invention experience comes largely from augmenting gear, using it until it levels, and then siphoning or disassembling it, as well as from disassembling items directly for their components and experience. The most sensible approach for most players is to augment gear they are already using for combat or skilling, so they train Invention passively as a byproduct of playing other content they would be doing anyway. This turns an otherwise material-hungry skill into something that progresses quietly in the background.

Because leveling Invention consumes materials and gear, it pairs naturally with activities that produce plenty of disassemble-able items, creating a self-reinforcing loop. For speeding up the supporting skills you need both to unlock Invention and to feed it with materials, see the RuneScape 3 fast XP guide. Planning your Invention training around content you already enjoy is far more sustainable than grinding it in isolation.

It also helps to set a clear perk goal before you start pouring materials into the skill, because Invention is easy to drift through aimlessly. Decide which perks you are ultimately working toward for your combat setup, work out which components they require, and then direct your disassembling toward the items that yield those components rather than breaking down whatever happens to be in your bank. A focused Invention plan reaches the perks that actually matter far faster than unfocused leveling, and it keeps the skill feeling purposeful instead of like an open-ended material sink.

Siphoning, repairs and managing the costs

Invention has ongoing costs that are worth understanding before you dive in, because managing them well is a large part of playing the skill economically. Augmented gear holds a charge that depletes as you use it and must be topped up with divine charges, so your augmented equipment has a running cost on top of whatever the base item costs to maintain. When an augmented item has leveled up, you face a choice between siphoning it, which preserves the item while extracting experience, and disassembling it, which destroys the item but typically yields more experience and returns components.

Which choice is better depends on the item and your goals, and learning to make that call sensibly is part of mastering the skill. Keep a steady supply of divine charges and the other consumables Invention runs on, and factor these costs into your decisions about what to augment in the first place — augmenting expensive gear you will not use much simply burns resources. Played thoughtfully, though, Invention largely pays for itself through the components you harvest and the combat power it unlocks, so these costs are an investment rather than a drain once you understand the loop.

Why Invention matters for the endgame

At the very top of the game, the gap between an un-augmented, perk-less setup and a fully optimized one is enormous — large enough that it can be the difference between clearing a hard boss and repeatedly failing it. Invention perks contribute a significant share of a high-end player's total damage and survivability, which is precisely why endgame bossing guides assume you have them equipped and factored into your setup.

If you are climbing toward the hard bosses, the right framing is to treat Invention progress as part of your gear progression rather than a separate skill to be addressed later. The two advance together, and neglecting Invention while chasing gear tiers leaves a large amount of your potential power sitting unrealized on the table, and closing that gap is often cheaper than the next tier jump you were saving for. Our RuneScape 3 bossing guide explains where those perks earn their keep in actual encounters.

Where messymoddingstore.com fits in

Invention eats gold — in components, augmentors and repeated perk attempts — and earning that gold is part of the game, with the RuneScape 3 money making guide covering how. If you would rather fund your Invention another way, our RuneScape 3 gold, accounts and services page lists our RS3 offerings as an optional convenience. Understand exactly what you are buying, read the details carefully, and keep your account secure.

Frequently Asked Questions