Runestone

The Witcher

Permanent runes are branded onto blades to produce silver swords of a higher quality than the base weapon; they can not be used on steel swords. The permanent rune stones are combined in three's.

There are also temporary runes, which Geralt can apply himself. These have blade-enhancing effects similar to oils, and cannot be used at the same time as an oil on a given blade. Temporary runes can be applied to either steel or silver swords and provide a temporary upgrade to the weapon, similar to weapon oil in duration. The enhancement depends on the rune stone used, but all last for a period of 24 hours.

Permanent runes:	Temporary runes:
Earth rune	Perun
Moon rune	Svarog
Sun rune	Vodon

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

Runes are placed in the rune slots for swords to enhance their base statistics.

Weapon enchantments	Magical glyphs
Earth rune	Animal rune
Fire rune	Art rune
Moon rune	Sky rune
Sun rune	Time rune
Ysgith rune

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Runestones can be applied to empty upgrade slots on weapons.

Similar to glyphs, runes give upgrades to stats and apply buffs to weapons.
Runes can be looted from monster nests and many treasures, received as rewards for quests, crafted, or purchased from blacksmiths, alchemists and occasionaly some regular merchants.
Runes can be crafted with crafting diagrams in 4 stages:
- 'Empty' Lesser runestone > Lesser runestone > Runestone > Greater runestone

Lesser Rune	Rune	Greater Rune
Lesser Dazhbog runestone 2% Chance to cause burning	Dazhbog runestone 3% Chance to cause burning	Greater Dazhbog runestone 5% Chance to cause burning
Lesser Chernobog runestone 2% Attack Power	Chernobog runestone 3% Attack Power	Greater Chernobog runestone 5% Attack Power
Lesser Stribog runestone 2% Chance to stagger	Stribog runestone 3% Chance to stagger	Greater Stribog runestone 5% Chance to stagger
Lesser Svarog runestone +10 Armor piercing	Svarog runestone +20 Armor piercing	Greater Svarog runestone +30 Armor piercing
Lesser Triglav runestone 2% Chance to stun	Triglav runestone 3% Chance to stun	Greater Triglav runestone 5% Chance to stun
Lesser Perun runestone 2% Adrenaline point gain	Perun runestone 3% Adrenaline point gain	Greater Perun runestone 5% Adrenaline point gain
Lesser Veles runestone 2% Sign intensity	Veles runestone 3% Sign intensity	Greater Veles runestone 5% Sign intensity
Lesser Morana runestone 2% Chance to poison	Morana runestone 3% Chance to poison	Greater Morana runestone 5% Chance to poison
Lesser Zoria runestone 2% Chance to freeze	Zoria runestone 3% Chance to freeze	Greater Zoria runestone 5% Chance to freeze
Lesser Devana runestone 2% Chance to cause bleeding	Devana runestone 3% Chance to cause bleeding	Greater Devana runestone 5% Chance to cause bleeding

Hearts of Stone expansion

Along with runewords and glyphwords, Hearts of Stone adds two new runestones which are only needed to craft the Dumplings runeword. Unlike base game runestones, both of them must be crafted and the diagrams for them are found in specific locations.

Notes

An additional runestone called "Quentin" (in all three variations) has been cut during the development of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The game files still contain a few remnants from it, but the only thing known about it is that it would've had the same base value and weight as the Morana runestone.