Orientation

Rune diagrams are drawn with north at the top, and the world rarely lines up that neatly. This page covers how far you can turn, tip, or flip a pattern and still have it wake.

Turning a rune

You can build any rune facing any of the four compass directions. Turn the whole pattern as one piece and it still matches.

Runic tries each turn of the pattern exactly as drawn. A mirror image of a lopsided pattern is a different shape, so copy lopsided runes as drawn and then turn them as you like. Most patterns are symmetrical, so this rarely comes up.

Ground, wall, and ceiling

Every rune page lists where the rune can be drawn, under Drawn on in the info box:

Drawn on	Where it works	Examples
Ground	Flat on the ground, facing any direction. Most runes work this way.	Hearth, Initiation
Ground or ceiling	Flat on the ground, or flat against a ceiling.	Warp, Freightpoint
Ground, wall, or ceiling	Any flat surface.	Waypoint, Teleporter, Faithpoint
Wall	Upright against the face of a wall.	Stature
Ground, standing upright	A single upright wall of blocks, like a doorway.	Viatorem's Arch, Dreamcatcher

On a ceiling

A ceiling rune is the ground pattern turned upside down. To reach its heart, right-click the heart itself or the block just above it, the mirror of clicking the block below a ground rune.

For runes with layers, the flip includes the layers: the bottom layer of the diagram goes against the ceiling, and each layer above it in the diagram hangs one block lower.

On a wall

A wall rune is the ground pattern tipped up onto a wall face. The top edge of the diagram may point up or down, and the rune may face any compass direction.

Layers

Runes with more than one layer are built from the bottom up, each layer resting directly on the one below. You can turn a layered rune to face any compass direction; the layers always keep their order.

Signatures when a rune turns

Signature arms read by the world's compass, whichever way the rune faces. Turn a Waypoint a quarter turn and its arms keep their compass names: the arm on the north side is still the north arm.

On a wall, Runic reads the arms like a map pinned up in front of you:

• The top arm is north.
• The bottom arm is south.
• The side arm toward the east or the south is east.
• The side arm toward the west or the north is west.

So a Waypoint on a wall and a Teleporter on the floor can share a signature. Place the Waypoint's top arm block in the Teleporter's north arm, its bottom arm block in the south arm, and so on.

Where travelers arrive

A Waypoint picks its open side when you attune it:

• On the ground or a ceiling, it opens toward whichever side has less solid block to cross before open air. A Waypoint under open sky delivers travelers on top of it, and one in a ceiling delivers them underneath, with headroom to stand.
• On a wall, it opens one block out from the wall, on the side where you stood when you attuned it.

A side sealed by bedrock or barrier blocks never counts as open. If both sides are sealed, the Waypoint refuses: This waypoint has no safe exit — bedrock or barrier seals both sides.

Building on any surface with a command

Staff can place a rune on the ground, a wall, or a ceiling with /runic build. The plane option is horizontal, vertical, or ceiling. See Commands.