Invention Explained: RS3's Most Powerful Elite Skill

Invention is the skill that makes all your other gear better. It's an elite skill (levels 1–120) with its own systems, and once it clicks it becomes one of the most impactful things on your account — both in combat and skilling.

Requirements and unlock

Invention unlocks once you have level 80 Crafting, 80 Divination, and 80 Smithing (these can't be boosted). You'll typically start it via the Invention tutorial. Because it needs three other skills at 80 first, it's a mid-to-late game skill rather than a starter.

The three systems that matter

Augmenting. You add an augmentor to a weapon, armour piece, or tool, turning it into augmented gear. Augmented items gain their own item XP as you use them, level up, and — crucially — hold gizmos. Augmented degradeable gear runs on divine charges instead of degrading normally.
Gizmos & perks. A gizmo is a shell you fill with materials to produce perks — mechanical effects, mostly positive, that you apply to augmented equipment. The right perks are a real, permanent power boost to your gear.
Disassembly. You break items down into materials (and a little Invention XP). Those materials are what you feed into gizmos, so disassembly is the engine that supplies your perks.

Augmented gear degrades differentlyAugmented degradeable equipment burns divine charges from a charge pack instead of wearing out — so keep charges topped up or your gear stops working mid-fight.

Its own XP curve

Invention doesn't use the standard experience table — it has its own. That's why its milestones look different:

99 Invention: 36,073,511 XP (vs 13,034,431 for a normal skill).
120 Invention: 80,618,654 XP (vs 104,273,167 for a normal skill).

The XP Calculator accounts for Invention's curve automatically — just select it as the skill.

Why it's worth prioritising

Perks upgrade gear you already own — a well-perked weapon and armour hit harder and last longer, no new gear required.
Devices and passive income — Invention lets you build machines and gadgets that skill or generate resources for you.
It counts toward elite goals — Invention is one of the 120-cap elite skills and pushes your total level up.

Get the current best setups

Which perks to chase, and the cheapest materials to make them, shift with prices and updates — so use the maintained source:

RuneScape Wiki — Invention and its Perks and Disassembly pages.

Track your Invention level and progress toward 120 by searching your name on The Codex. Invention details here are courtesy of the RuneScape Wiki.