PvP Arena: Rewards Beta | Weekly Game Update (March 16th)
This week we’re kicking off the PvP Arena Rewards Beta and saying goodbye to Leagues III: Shattered Relics!
PvP Arena: Rewards Beta
The Emir of Al Kharid has discovered illicit activity taking place in the glorious old battlegrounds formerly known as the Duel Arena! As a result, all fights are now overseen by the guards of Al Kharid. With this change comes some shiny new rewards - and if you log into a Beta World today, you’ll be able to give some of them a try!
As always, participating in the Beta won’t affect your normal saved game profile.
The Beta worlds are highlighted in blue on the World Select screen and include the following:
World 401 (US East)
World 405 (Germany)
World 407 (UK)
World 409 (US West)
World 412 (Australia)
Upon logging into a Beta World, your account is automatically set up with high stats and most quests auto-completed. You’ll arrive in Ferox Enclave near the loadout table, which gives you a couple of options:
Left-click: Offers a wide selection of gear, preset loadouts and stats
Right-click: Lets you customise your stats
There's also an Altar nearby at which you can switch your active Spellbook. There are also some handy portals to travel to various places around Gielinor.
Along with a plethora of standard gear to choose from, you’ll also have access to all the rewards from the PvP Arena! You’ll notice that they look a bit funny – at this stage of development we’re using placeholder graphics; recycled models with a quick paint-job to distinguish them from other items. Don’t worry, we don’t intend to ship them like this! Further down, you can see some concept art of how the final items might look.
If you missed our PvP Arena Blog then here's what you can expect:
Full list of Beta Rewards
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New Blighted Sacks
For a small number of Reward Points, you'll be able to purchase two new Blighted Sacks that can be used within the Wilderness:
One supplies the Runes required for any Wave spell
Another supplies the Runes required for any Surge spell
These sacks are untradeable. The following behaviour applies should you die with one of them in your Inventory:
Non-PvP death above and below 20 Wilderness: Blighted Sacks sent to your Gravestone if they are not protected.
PvP death above and below 20 Wilderness: Any unprotected Blighted Sacks are destroyed and converted into an appropriate number of coins, which then drop to the player killer.
Imbue Scrolls
The only way players can imbue items outside of Nightmare Zone is by playing Soul Wars. Given this is predominantly a PvP activity, it felt fitting to expand on this offering by giving players the chance to purchase Imbue Scrolls for a low price from the PvP Arena Reward Shop. These would be untradeable and would allow players to imbue the following items:
Black Mask
Salve Amulet
Salve Amulet (E)
Seers’ Ring
Archers’ Ring
Warrior Ring
Berserker Ring
Ring of the Gods
Tyrannical Ring
Treasonous Ring
Ring of Suffering
Granite Ring
Slayer Helmet
Wristbands of the Arena
A Quick Note...
All of the rewards from this point on in the blog act the same way. If you die with them in PvP, they transform into a broken version and money is dropped to the player killer. You must then take them to Perdu to be repaired. They will be broken when purchased, meaning you'll have to pay Perdu to repair them before they can be used in PvP.
You can use a Trouver Parchment on all of them! Unsure of how Trouver Parchments work? The Old School Wiki has a handy explanation.
Wristbands of the Arena
Concept Art for the Wristbands of the Arena.
Do you hate having to complete quests before your account is ready to step foot into the Wilderness and fight other players? Well, shame on you, because quests are great! But sure, for those of you whose spacebars really cannot take the strain, we've got you covered...
Wristbands of the Arena are an untradeable alternative to Barrows Gloves, offering the same stats for those who want to focus entirely on PvP.
Barrows Gloves typically require 41 Defence to equip. Wristbands of the Arena, however, would require just 20 Defence, which we think would bring a little more variety to the PvP scene.
It will also be possible to imbue the Wristbands of the Arena to improve their accuracy stats slightly. Doing so will increase their Defence requirement to 40.
Note that, unlike Barrows Gloves, the Wristbands would only be usable in PvP combat, so you will still have to get questing if you plan on doing anything that would normally call for the Barrows Gloves.
Centurion Cuirass
Concept Art for the Centurion Cuirass.
We’ve come for quests, now it’s time for non-PvP minigames. Skip the Barbarian Assault with our next item, an alternative to the Fighter Torso!
The Centurion Cuirass is a lost artefact unearthed during the restoration of the Arena. Once donned by only the mightiest warriors, this sandy and well-worn armour is now a relic of what once was. A symbol of the arena's past fortune, and a hope that it may thrive once again.
The Cuirass is untradeable, and has similar stats to the Fighter Torso, but with slightly higher defensive stats. It requires 40 Defence to equip.
Calamity Chest & Breeches
Concept Art for the Calamity Chest & Breeches.
The Calamity Armour was once shared between three infamous followers of an Ancient god – Maoma, Saika and Koriff. The Calamity Coven sought to emulate their deity and take control of their own fate, and they reasoned that wealth was their only means to do so. They believed that each and every person had the right to do whatever they needed to take control of their life – and if they were too weak, then others would take control for them.
With these shared beliefs spurring them, they brought about what is known as the Calamity – the complete downfall of the once glorious Duel Arena. Once a bustling hive of healthy competition, under their reign of tyranny it quickly became a dark and corrupt place. Even years after the Calamity Coven retreated into the shadows, the Arena is still fighting to shed its iniquitous reputation.
The Calamity Armour set is an untradeable PvP take on the Void Armour set. Like Void, you’ll need the full set for it to be really effective – and like Void, it pairs with three interchangeable helms that are required to activate the set effects. We’ll talk more about those in a moment.
The armour has low defence, so it’s risky in PvP and requires the wearer to be good at predicting their opponent’s next move and quickly switching gear to reduce incoming damage.
It comes in three tiers, allowing for flexibility with different PvP builds.
The Calamity Chest and Breeches have no requirements.
The Superior Calamity Chest and Breeches require 50 Defence to equip.
The Elite Calamity Chest and Breeches require 75 Defence to equip.
Maoma's Headgear Set
Concept Art for the Maoma's Headgear Set.
Maoma was the corrupt captain of the Emir’s guard. Her job was to oversee fights at the arena and ensure that order was upheld – but in reality, she was taking bribes to look the other way. Some say she even instigated some of the fights to make the Arena more popular and recruited prisoners to bolster the fighters’ ranks!
Moama's Headgear is an untradeable helm that can be used alongside the Calamity Armour to activate the full set effect when using the Melee Combat style.
Maoma's Med Helm has no requirements.
Maoma's Full Helm requires 50 Defence to equip.
Maoma's Great Helm requires 75 Defence to equip.
Koriff's Headgear Set
Concept Art for the Koriff's Headgear Set.
Koriff was the crowd-pleaser. Perhaps the most notorious of all, she was always the centre of attention at the Arena. With a charming personality, she'd make sure the richer visitors had a particularly good time, pampering them with the best seats and service possible. Little did they know of her collaboration with Saika, Maoma, and the thieves they paid to pick the rich guests' pockets.
They say that fighters couldn’t help but come back for more bloodshed, even at the cost of their own life expectancy. They also say that Koriff had a direct hand in encouraging them back to the Arena, only for them to die shortly after. When crowds became tired of certain competitors, you could bet that their bodies could soon be found being dragged from the arena – and that Koriff had earned a windfall betting against them.
Koriff's Headgear is an untradeable helm that can be used alongside the Calamity Armour to activate benefits when using the Ranged Combat style.
Koriff's Headband has no requirements.
Koriff's Cowl requires 50 Defence to equip.
Koriff's Coif requires 75 Defence to equip.
Saika's Headgear Set
Concept Art for the Saika's Headgear Set.
Saika was the puppet master. She was in charge of the Arena’s economy, ensuring profit from the crowds that came to watch the fights. Her greed knew no bounds as she fudged the numbers for years - claiming the cost of running the place was so high that it barely broke even. These sketchy numbers made their way to the Emir, and he kept shelling out to keep it going. Unfortunately for him, the funding would go straight to Saika's pocket. She would pay destitute citizens a pittance to pretend they were working, just to maintain her ruse.
Saika's Headgear is an untradeable helm that can be used alongside the Calamity Armour to activate benefits when using the Magic Combat style.
Saika's Hood has no requirements.
Saika's Veil requires 50 Defence to equip.
Saika's Shroud requires 75 Defence to equip.
Humble Piety & Humble Chivalry
Also with this Beta we'll be automatically unlocking the ability to use the Humble Piety & Humble Chivalry, if you don't have levels set for the normal Piety & Chivalry Prayers.
The Humble Chivalry unlock scroll grants you access to Chivalry if you haven't already unlocked it. The existing 60 Prayer requirement remains regardless of which Prayer version is unlocked.
The Chivalry Prayer changes as follows:
If you have completed the King's Ransom Knight Waves and have level 65 Defence, Chivalry acts as it currently does, granting +20% Defence, +18% Strength and +15% Attack.
If you have not completed the Knight Waves or lack level 65 Defence, Chivalry grants +18% Strength and +15% Attack, and you are blocked from performing PvM attacks while the Prayer is active.
Humble Piety unlock scroll grants you access to Piety if you haven't already unlocked it. The existing 70 Prayer requirement remains regardless of which Prayer version is unlocked.
The Piety Prayer changes as follows:
If you have completed the King's Ransom Knight Waves and have level 70 Defence, Piety acts as it currently does, granting +25% Defence, +23% Strength and +20% Attack.
If you have not completed the Knight Waves, but have at least 40 Defence, Piety grants just +23% Strength and +20% Attack, and you are blocked from performing PvM attacks while the prayer is active.
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So, fancy wielding some of these weapons? Jump into a Beta World, give them a spin and let us know what you think over on the community-led OSRS Discord in the #gameupdate channel, our PvP Arena: Reward Beta thread on the 2007Scape subreddit or via our socials.
Poll 76 Changes
The first batch of changes from Poll 76 have arrived!
The Pharaoh’s Sceptre is now one-handed.
Wounded Shayzien soldiers are now more grateful! Healing them will now get you 0.2% Favour instead of 0.1%.
The fires at Barbarian Village and Rogue’s Den can now be used by left-clicking.
Removed a line of dialogue when collecting Slime and Bonemeal from Robin.
The Fishing Guild Shop now carries Small Nets, Fishing Rods, and more!
A Fishing Net can now be found on a table inside the Fishing Guild.
Leagues III: Shattered Relics Closure
Unfortunately, it’s time to say goodbye to Leagues III: Shattered Relics. All League worlds will close at the usual update time of 11:30 GMT. That means you still have a little time to complete those last few League tasks and scoop up some extra points!
Once the game has been updated, all League worlds will become inaccessible. What will remain, however, is the all-important Rewards Shop!
Your League points will transfer over to the main game, ready to be spent on goodies including the Shattered Relics Relic Hunter Outfit, Home Teleport Animation, Ornament Kits and more.
But that’s not all – we’ve also got a fair few Trophies to hand out! These won’t be available right away, as we’ll want to make sure we’ve correctly identified the thresholds for the different ranks. We’re aiming to make them available around 12:00 GMT (approximately 30 minutes after the update) via a hotfix.
Before that happens, join us in World 500 as we create a celebratory conga line from this League’s start point in Catherby all the way down through Ardougne and beyond! Come along in your swankiest gear and show off all your awesome new items in our grand finale!
Other Changes
Blighted Sacks are no longer deleted if you try to pick them up while you have a Rune Pouch in your Inventory with a vacant slot.
The Splitbark Wizard's menu now defaults to 1 as the chosen quantity.
Konar Slayer tasks can now be completed inside the Ironman instance of the Kalphite Queen’s Lair.
Fixed a bug where random event and quest messaging was appearing in Temple Trekking.
STEAM CLIENT ONLY: When Venom or Poison is active on the Player, the Buff Bar should now display both the amount of damage to be taken on the next cycle, and the time until that cycle.
STEAM CLIENT ONLY: The Buff Bar will now display up to 12 Buffs, or 8 in fixed UI mode.
STEAM CLIENT ONLY: The Buff Bar will now correctly populate on log in when transitioning from desktop to mobile.
Guardians of the Rift
We’re only ONE WEEK away from Guardians of the Rift and its associated quest, Temple of the Eye!
You can look forward to a completely new way to train Runecraft in this non-combat, team-based minigame that sees you protecting the Rift Guardian from the approaching forces of the Abyss! Learn the mysteries of the Rift, experience a brand-new minigame, and unlock awesome rewards, including access to the True Blood Altar!
Want to learn more? Then keep your eye on our socials to see all the great stuff you can look forward to with next week’s update.
Merch Store Update
The eagle-eyed amongst you will have spotted that there were some changes to the merch store last week. Our store partner, BSI, have migrated the store to Shopify. This brings a host of improvements, including:
Better user experience!
Product filters so you can sort by your size and only see what's currently in stock
Local pricing – you can now see exactly what everything costs in your local currency
Expanded shipping destinations – the store now ships to Brazil and many more countries
Reduced tracked shipping costs, especially on larger orders of pins and keyrings to the US
Estimated shipping cost from within each product listing, before you add the item to your basket
Further improvements are expected over the coming weeks, so keep your eyes peeled!
In the meantime, the first of many new lines coming to the store this year include two new tees and Angels Scapes lines celebrating Leagues III and Old School’s 9th Birthday!
As Leagues III: Shattered Relics comes to a close today, why not look back on your achievements with these fabulous limited-edition pins from Angels Scapes? Immortalise your Leagues fashionscape with the Elite Void and Mystic Robe Pins, cheer for Shattered Relics with the Leagues III Banner Pin or take home your very own mysterious figure with the Sage Pin, created with Antique Nickel!
Or if none of those strike your fancy, how about the awesome Leagues III Shattered Relics medal? The perfect reward for a dedicated Leagues player!
In February this year, Old School RuneScape turned 9! We’re celebrating with the Wise Old Man Birthday Pin and a special glitter variant of the DFS Pin.
Other new lines include these uber-cool Zuk and Combat Triangle tees and Crafting and Fletching Skillcape Keyrings!
Check out the Old School RuneScape Collection in our new-look store today!
PvP World Rota
The PvP rota has moved to Period A:
539 - (US) - PvP World
548 - (Germany) - High-Risk PvP World
577 - (US) - Free-to-Play PvP World
559 - (UK) - LMS Competitive
World 390 (AUS) for LMS Competitive has been activated with this rota.
Gather 'round, fragment-hunters – after a thrilling couple of months, Leagues III: Shattered Relics is coming to an end.
It’s been tremendous fun watching you experiment with this all-new approach to the Leagues experience. Where the previous two incarnations were all about making fixed choices in restricted locations, our third outing gave you new ways to adapt and enhance your powers – and with access to the whole World Map! This resulted in all sorts of possibilities for play, just like we hoped it would. Watching you all fusing fragments and switching up your powers has certainly been inspirational for the team as our thoughts turn to Leagues IV…
In the meantime though, let’s focus on the most pertinent question: how will Leagues III end?
First off, you'll be happy to hear that all League worlds will be open until the usual game update time of 11:30 GMT on Wednesday, March 16th. This means you'll have a chance to complete your last few tasks and scoop up some extra points before the regular game update. Downtime will be minimal and comparable to that of a regular game update.
Once the game has been updated, all League worlds will become inaccessible. What will remain, however, is the all-important Rewards Shop!
Your League points will transfer over to the main game, ready to be spent on goodies including the Shattered Relics Hunter Outfit, Home Teleport Animation, Ornament Kits and more.
After all that hard work, you’re probably very keen to get hold of your Trophies! These won't be available straight away, as we’ll want to make sure we've correctly identified the thresholds for the different ranks. We are aiming to make them available around 12:00 GMT (approximately 30 minutes after the game update) via a quick hotfix once the numbers have been confirmed.
Finally, just like last year we want to run a little end-of-Leagues event to say goodbye. Join us in World 500 at 11:00 GMT as we create a celebration line from this League's starting point of Catherby, all the way down through Ardougne and onwards. Come along in your swankiest gear and show off all your awesome items in our grand finale! Here's a rough plan of the route:
We want to thank every one of you for the time you've spent playing this League. The radical re-imagining has really paid off thanks to your creativity and general brilliance as players. Here’s to the next one, because who knows… some of these characters may already be itching to make their return…
PJ Timer & New Broadcast Settings | Weekly Game Update (March 9th)
Issues and Hotfixes
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12:50 GMT, March 9th - The logout timer was increased from 16 cycles (9.6s) to 20 cycles (12s) - Resolved.
With the introduction of the increased PJ timer, we also increased the time it takes you to log out after being in combat from 10 seconds to 12 seconds.
We've opted to revert this following initial feedback. This means the time required to log out after combat will return to 10 seconds as it was before today's update.
We'll monitor how this impacts the Wilderness over the next few weeks and use your feedback to gauge if further changes are required.
13:00 GMT, March 9th - (LEAGUES ONLY) Last Recall was not teleporting you correctly within the new Kalphite Queen instances - Resolved.
This has now been fixed and Last Recall should now correctly teleport into the Lair, instead of an instance.
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This week we’ve got updates on the PJ Timer, Loot Keys, Clan Broadcasts and more!
Player and NPC PJ Timer
Rejoice! The player and NPC PJ Timer has been added to the game!
A bit of background: in most parts of the Wilderness, players who've been attacked by an NPC can't be attacked by other players. That's normally fair and good, but issues can arise when players run into a field of NPCs and 'box' them to unfairly gain protection against honest, hardworking PKers.
Some of you have also fallen victim to 'pile jumping' or 'player jumping' (the eponymous 'PJ'), which is when another player muscles in when your opponent is nearly dead, stealing your kill and swiping the loot.
Last summer we spoke about our solution to both issues: replacing all single-way combat areas in the Wilderness with singles-plus and adding a PJ Timer to those same zones. However, following your feedback we've opted to go with a different solution that'll make Wilderness combat feel a bit more inviting.
A quick note before we get started – we refer to in-game timings as 'cycles.' Each cycle equals 0.6 seconds and is sometimes known as a 'tick'.
Our new proposal will add a PJ Timer to Single-way combat areas for both players and NPCs. We've also increased the length of the PJ Timer from 16 cycles (9.6 seconds) to 20 cycles (12 seconds). To keep consistency with this new change, we've also increased the logout timer to 20 cycles (12 seconds).
This means that whenever you attack something aggressive monsters or player opponents will be unable to hit you for the next 20 cycles (12 seconds). So, if Player A had just finished PvP combat with Player B, NPCs won't be able to get into the action until the PJ timer runs down.
And for those of you who like their Wilderness combat just as it was, you'll be happy to hear that the new PJ Timer is inactive on worlds 318 and 319.
Please note that the new PJ Timer rules will also apply to the extended Timer in the Single-plus combat Revenant Caves.
We believe that these changes will have a positive impact on PvP activity in the Wilderness but as always we'll continue to monitor the effects of this update moving forwards. Once you've given the new system a try, send us your feedback and let us know what you think of the newest changes.
Loot Key Improvements
On the subject of the Wilderness, we're glad to hear that you're all enjoying Loot Keys! We've read through your feedback and there's a couple of changes we're introducing this week.
Firstly, Loot Chests have been added to the Grand Exchange, the Edgeville Bank, and the Mage Arena Bank.
Secondly, we've reduced the price of Loot Keys to 1 million GP. For those of you that have purchased this option before today's update, upon login you will receive the difference (4,000,000 GP) sent straight to your bank.
Okay, now for something a bit more complex.
Prior to this week's update, when two players died, one after the other, and with Loot Keys enabled, the first player to die would have their loot converted to a Key, which would then be handed to the second player to die. The second player would then generate a Key with their own loot, thereby handing back both their own Key and the Key they just earned back to the first player to die. If they died at the exact same time, the 'first' player would be essentially randomly decided by the order in which the server processed the deaths. That's not fair, and it's got to change!
From now on, if you die to a player who is either in the process of dying or has died recently:
Any Loot Keys you have on your person will be destroyed.
Your loot will drop to the floor regardless of the Loot Key settings of the other player.
Happy hunting!
Clan Broadcast Improvements and Group Ironman Notifications Menu
You've given us some great suggestions for improving the existing Clan Broadcast system – and we're implementing some of them this week!
The following items have been added into the current loot broadcasts (assuming they exceed the value set):
Pharoah's Sceptre
Barrows loot
Amulet of Eternal Glory from the Fountain of Rune
Pet broadcasts will now include the KC or XP the pet was at when obtained. We've also added more options which will allow players to further customise their clan's level up notifications.
We've also added new settings for:
New Collection Log entries
New personal bests (only appears after beating your current personal best)
Player kills (under a threshold set by the clan)
When a clan member dies in PvP
Completion of an Achievement Diary tier
10 million XP milestones above level 99
Hardcore deaths (this same setting will announce when a Hardcore Group Iron player loses a life even when their status doesn't change)
And that's not all! We're also adding the Group Ironman Notifications Menu, which will allow you to toggle which broadcasts your group receives and set thresholds for the entire group. You can open this menu from the Group Settings.
We want to ensure that Group Iron players have the same customisation options as clans, so all the above changes will be added to the Group Notification Settings Menu. The exception is the Hardcore death broadcast setting, which is on for Group Iron players by default.
You can now set your clan so that only certain ranks can send broadcast messages. Since Group Ironman groups are smaller and less prone to spam, they can simply enable or disable broadcasts.
With these changes, we've also moved away from the Group Iron broadcasts being determined by individual variables on each group member. Now the data is stored on the group itself and affects everyone, which should be much nicer!
Other Changes
Ironmen now have their own separate Kalphite Queen instance. It works exactly the same as the regular lair, just like other Ironman-only instances throughout the game.
We've also added two braziers in the Kalphite Lair. One is located near the shortcut, and the other is at a safe spot away from the high-level Kalphite by the entrance.
The Birthday Event has been removed. See you all next year and remember to ski responsibly!
Player models will no longer be distorted when transforming into a goblin and then teleporting.
Tweaked the look of the Vasa room in Chambers of Xeric to make it look more organic. The layout and functionality remains the same.
The ability to customise your character's foot shape was only offered at Account Creation, so we've offered the ability to change it at Yrsa's Shoe Store.
You'll now appear to be holding a Barbarian Fishing Rod when fishing with a Barbarian Fishing Rod.
If you don't meet the requirements to make anything at the Prifddinas Singing Bowl, you will now be shown the recipe book to help you identify the ingredients you lack.
Justine's Reward Shop has discounted Trouver Parchments to make them more accessible in future. Refunds will not be offered for Parchments that have already been used or purchased – Justine has to make a living, you know!
The Beekeeper now prioritises granting costume pieces to players who don't have a full set, like other costume-giving random events.
Trees near Prifddinas now have stumps that match their size more accurately.
Certain Combat Achievement tasks now perform their checks correctly in the final phase of the Alchemical Hydra fight.
Fixed a spelling error in Troll Romance.
PvP Rota
The PvP rota has moved to Period B:
560 - (UK) - PvP World
579 - (US) - High-Risk PvP World
561 - (UK) - Free-to-Play PvP World
580 - (US) - LMS Competitive
World 390 (AUS) for LMS Competitive has been de-activated with this rota.
Group Ironman Improvements | Weekly Game Update (March 2nd)
This week’s update brings Group Ironman improvements, homepage changes, and an update on death piles!
Homepage Changes
The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed a direct link to the RuneLite website has appeared on our homepage. We’ve been working with Adam and the team for some time now, and as part of our commitment to that working relationship we’ve decided to provide an official link. We hope that this will also prevent phishing attempts by fake RuneLite sites.
We’d like to take this opportunity to thank Adam, the wider RuneLite team and its wonderful community for their continued support of Old School RuneScape!
Group Ironman Improvements
Player Owned Houses
Group Iron players can now teleport directly to their teammate's Player Owned Houses via the ‘Teleport to House’ spell in the standard spellbook. Right-clicking the spell will present two new options: ‘Group: Choose’ and ‘Group: Previous’. The first option will bring up an interface where you can choose whose house to visit, and the second one will teleport you to the previous house visited.
The following requirements must be met:
The owner of the house is on the same world as the teleporter.
The owner isn't in Build Mode.
The teleporter meets the requirements to access the relevant Player Owned House portal.
In addition, all players can now enter Player Owned Houses while the owner isn’t home. The owner must have the house unlocked, without the ‘Private’ setting enabled. They must also be friends with the visitor.
Group Ironman Storage Expansion
Group Iron players can now increase their Group Storage space by completing specific tasks!
A new button has been added to the Group Storage interface and the Group Settings menu. Clicking it will open a new interface with a list of tasks you can undertake to expand the size of the Group Storage. They will be tracked across the group and will only unlock once a player has accessed the Group Storage after completing a task.
Here's the full list of tasks (X is replaced with the specific task variables):
Equip a Rune Platebody
Equip a pair of Stronghold of Security Boots
Achieve a 99 in a X type skill (Four separate tasks, one per skill type)
Achieve a 99 in the X skill (23 separate tasks, one per skill)
Achieve X Quest Points (Four separate tasks: 50, 100, 150, 200)
Achieve X Combat Level (Three separate tasks: 50, 100, 126)
Achieve X Total Level (Five separate tasks: 500, 750, 1,000, 1,500, 2,000)
Complete All X Achievement Diaries (Four separate tasks: Easy, Medium, Hard, Elite)
Complete the X tier of Combat Achievements (Six separate tasks: Easy, Medium, Hard, Elite, Master, Grandmaster)
Escape Crystals
Verzik's Crystal Shards have been renamed ‘Escape Crystal’. Players can buy them from the Mysterious Stranger outside the Theatre of Blood and from Rick in the Wizards’ Tower for 75,000 GP each. After speaking to Rick and opening the Buy menu once, you can right-click him to access the menu again quickly.
The Escape Crystals have two functions:
You can activate them to instantly teleport away from dangerous situations.
If you have allowed other players to teleport you out of dangerous areas, they can use their crystal to send you away. This consumes both players' crystals. To toggle this, right-click the crystal and press ‘Toggle’. The option is turned off by default.
The Escape Crystals only work in the following areas:
Pest Control
The Inferno
TzHaar-Ket-Rak's Challenges (also known as the Six Jad Challenge)
Chambers of Xeric
Theatre of Blood
Barbarian Assault
Ring of Life
The Ring of Life’s effect (shared by the Max Cape, Defence Skill Cape and Trimmed Defence Skill Cape) now works in the following areas for Hardcore Group Ironman players:
Fight Caves
Fragment of Seren (Memoriam Device replay only)
Galvek (Pool of Dreams replay only)
Glough (Burning Brazier replay only)
Inferno
Knight Waves
Mage Training Arena
Nightmare Zone
Pest Control
Ultimate Ironman Update: Death Piles
Back in December, we proposed some adjustments to death piles – essentially an engine change that would alter the way the game recognises items dropped on death.
In short, we can make the game recognise death pile items on your player save, rather than the world’s save. This would grant greater protection to items dropped by Ultimate Iron players in the event of a world crash or disconnection, but the changes would be noticeable by all account types.
Under the new system, if you had an untradeable item on the ground, visible only to you, it will be saved when you log off and reappear when you log back in. The time the item stays on the ground will remain the same, but critically, the timer will pause while you’re offline.
There are other effects. All account types will notice that if they have the setting enabled which drops food and potions as a supply pile upon death, this pile will also benefit from the paused despawn timer and will appear in any world you log in to. We can also use this system for item drops in mass encounters to avoid the issues we saw when Nex launched, where so many items were dropping that some players’ drops disappeared.
Although feedback for this proposal was largely positive, there were some concerns about memory capacity. Worlds currently delete items if too many of them show up on a single tile, so the worry here is that items could be deleted if multiple players were to world-hop and drop piles of items in the same spot.
We are happy to confirm that the items are saved in their own list, so logging in with saved items will not delete other items on the ground.
The items will only be stored if:
You are both the owner and dropper of that item.
That item will never become visible to anyone else.
Given that this proposal resolves a game-breaking issue experienced by all kinds of players, we consider this change a matter of game integrity, and will therefore proceed without a poll.
We would hope to implement these changes sometime in March, so stay tuned!
Other Changes
Players in Single-way and Singles Plus combat zones can no longer be attacked by two players at once.
On Target worlds, players are now able to interrupt existing fights in Singles Plus areas in order to attack their assigned target, as they can in Single-way zones.
Entering and leaving The Gauntlet with an Amulet of Avarice equipped will no longer clear your skull.
An infinite loop in the ‘I Should See A Doctor’ Combat Achievement has been fixed.
Nightmare (Solo) Speed-Trialist is now an Elite rather than Master task.
PvP World Rota
The PvP rota has moved to Period A:
539 - (US) - PvP World
548 - (Germany) - High-Risk PvP World
577 - (US) - Free-to-Play PvP World
559 - (UK) - LMS Competitive
World 390 (AUS) for LMS Competitive has been activated with this rota.
February is the shortest month of the year, but we packed it with some great updates, including Land of the Goblins, Wilderness changes and our 9th Birthday Event!
We’re super excited about what’s to come over the next few months. Our teams are now all hands on deck, working hard to deliver you all the new content we promised in December. So, without further ado, let’s get stuck in!
Project Status Update
Released Content
Leagues III: Shattered Relics
It’s almost time to close the curtain on Leagues III: Shattered Relics, but thanks to your feedback we already have some great ideas for next time, alongside some quality-of-life changes that’ll make every League going forward an even better experience.
This month we also revealed the awesome Shattered Relics Medals, which we’ll be handing out to certain players for their accomplishments in the League. For more info, check the blog!
New Client Features and Android Open Beta
The Android Open Beta has launched, and we’ll be keeping a close eye on how you’re getting along with the latest features on mobile.
We’re still aiming for an iOS Beta in the near future. Stay tuned for more news on that front!
We’ve already started working on the next batch of new client features, where we’ll be getting clued up on… Clues! See what we did there?
Land of the Goblins
Lastly, February saw the release of the penultimate quest in the Dorgeshuun storyline, which let us all finally equip the ultimate fashionscape accessory, Goblin Mail.
As our first-ever quest port, Land of the Goblins has spurred a lot of interesting conversations about porting other quests. Keep scrolling to see our thoughts on that!
Upcoming Content
Guardians of the Rift
We’ve been toiling away to bring you Guardians of the Rift and the accompanying quest, Temple of the Eye, and we’re happy to report that it’s all coming together!
The minigame has some complex NPC behaviour that’s taken some time to get working. Abyssal Creatures are invading, and the Guardians are fighting back – we want this battle to feel genuinely epic, with real stakes.
Once that’s done, the only thing left to do will be to balance the XP and reward rates, finish a couple of rewards, and spice up the environment with some finishing touches.
Speaking of which – you’ll get to see the hard work our artists have done very soon! If all goes according to plan, we’ll launch Guardians of the Rift and Temple of the Eye on March 23rd.
Agility Shortcut
When we polled Guardians of the Rift we also talked about adding an Agility shortcut near the exit to Ivandis' Tomb for easier access to the True Blood Altar, and that the altar would be inaccessible via The Abyss.
However, we've since decided that it wouldn't make sense to put the shortcut near the Tomb given the surrounding environment. We also considered adding shortcuts in the Meiyerditch Laboratories, but this meant that Blood Runecraft wouldn't hit the XP rate we wanted. With this in mind, we have another solution.
We'd like to propose two shortcuts, one requiring 74 Agility (similar to our initial proposal) which will make Blood Runecraft XP rates viable but not amazing. We'd then like to propose a second shortcut, which can be found in a tunnel below the Hair of the Dog pub in Canifis. This second shortcut would require 93 Agility and 78 Mining as a one-time requirement to open the shortcut. It would take players significantly closer to the Blood Altar, as you can see in the image below. We'd also propose allowing access to the True Blood Altar through The Abyss so that there are multiple viable methods to craft Blood Runes to suit a range of skills, account builds and playstyles. Here's what it'll look like:
A look at the proposed Agility Shorcut.
Based on our testing, the 93 Agility shortcut would be the most viable method, followed by The Abyss, followed by the 74 Agility shortcut. The difference between The Abyss and the 93 Agility shortcut is a slight increase while using the Achievement Diary Cape to speed up Abyss Runecraft and a moderate increase without the Cape.
Let us know what you think!
Beneath Cursed Sands
Beneath Cursed Sands, the next quest in the Desert storyline, is due in April and will bring with it a new area of the desert for you to explore.
Today we’ve got a sneak peek at the work we’ve been doing on this quest and a first look at how the World Map will change once it’s been released. Bear in mind that this stuff is work in progress and may not be final.
A new piece of the map! - A Concept for the Khardian Desert.
Art and Enviromental Concepts for Beneath Cursed Sands.
Tombs of Amascut
Work on the Tombs of Amascut, our third raid, is in full swing! We’ve got working prototypes for the myriad challenges you’ll face in the raid and soon they’ll be shaped into proper encounters.
In other Tombs of Amascut news, we recently released our revised Rewards Blog. Be sure to have a look and let us know what you think!
Lastly, here’s a quick look at the WIP art for one of the NPCs you’ll meet during your time in the Tombs. Who could it be?
A Character Concept for Tombs of Amascut.
The PvP Arena
We recently released our updated version of our Concept & Reward newspost which you should definitely check out if you haven't already! As for when you can get your hands on the PvP Arena, you can expect a public Beta of the rewards in late March.
New Player Experience
In a game as open-ended as Old School RuneScape, it’s easy to become overwhelmed when deciding what to do next, especially when you’ve missed a few updates.
It’s early days yet, but we’ve been looking at improvements for returning players, including the following:
Returning Player Recap
When players return to the game, the first thing they do is figure out what they were up to the last time they played. In a game as large and open as ours, this can take a while, and sometimes players might just walk away instead of trying to work it out.
Our solution is the Player Recap, which provides returners with context about what they were doing before they stopped playing. This would include things like skills trained, quests started, progressed or completed, bosses fought, and equipment earned – all useful bits of information for players looking to pick up where they left off!
Goal Setting and Discovery
A big part of the game is setting personal goals, but it’s hard to do that when you don’t know what’s available or relevant to you. Fairy Rings, for example, make it much easier to travel but their importance is hidden away – even examining one gives you no clues as to what it actually does.
You could always look things up on the fantastic Old School RuneScape Wiki - but you have to know what you’re looking for. That’s our goal here: to help players understand what they want to do next.
This could mean more information in the Quest Journal, or ways to filter and sort quests, like the soon-to-be-added feature Mod Ed’s been showing off on Twitter.
Or perhaps the Skill Guides should provide more details about upcoming milestones to help players understand what they’re unlocking and why it’s useful to them? How about a system that pulls together useful upcoming milestones from different Skills and Quests? You could see at a glance exactly what you have to do to wield the Rune Pickaxe or use the Gnome Gliders.
The key takeaway here is that we want to provide more relevant content to players without telling them what to do or taking away their ability to choose their next goal.
Although we’re currently focussing on new and returning players, there’s the possibility of expanding these features to everyone.
As always, if you have any thoughts or suggestions, we’d love to hear them!
Skilling Update and Community Support
The Irregulars have been kept fairly busy with feedback since the launch of Leagues III, but they’ve also jumped onto their next project.
If you recall, the 2022 Roadmap promised two projects at the start of the year: community event support and a skilling update. The latter is what we’re tackling first.
It always feels great to design a piece of content that makes you wonder why it wasn’t in the game already – and we think we’ve done just that!
We looked at which skills have the toughest player journeys. As you know, Guardians of the Rift will soon be arriving to help with Runecraft, so we’ve investigated another skill with similar issues.
Mod Dylan is a wizard when it comes to interesting gameplay mechanics, and he’s concocted something awesome for the update. As part of this, he's also been working on responsive interfaces that scale nicely to different screen sizes. In future, we’d like to roll it out to other interfaces – especially the League ones. Here’s looking at you, Task menu…
Oh, go on then, we’ll leave you with one last clue: the skilling update we’re working on is called the Giant’s Foundry. That’s all the info you’re getting out of us for now!
Deadman Re-Run
In our last Gazette we mentioned how the team working on our anti-DDoS protection had been impacted due to the recent vulnerabilities with Java and exploits with Log4j.
We've now completed the work on these vulnerabilities, and the team are once again focusing on the anti-DDoS protection needed for the re-run.
Good progress has been made and we expect this to be completed in March. The next step after this will be to organise a beta to ensure everything works as intended, then its on to the official re-run!
Once again we'd like to reiterate that we're committed to re-running the event, but we want to make sure we can confidently deliver a smooth event, so you can experience the final you deserve.
Thank you for your continued patience. Once this work has been completed we'll have much more news to share regarding a re-run and date for the beta.
Poll 76
Poll 76 has wrapped, and everything passed! You can expect changes to Elite Clue Scrolls, pet insurance, Combat Achievements and much more to arrive soon. Learn more on the blog!
Team Ins and Outs
We’d like to introduce you to Mod Soffan, a character artist from RuneScape who’s just joined the Old School Team! Let’s give her a warm welcome!
Hey, Yamers!
I'm Soffan (some people call me Yoffan), and I’ve worked at Jagex for a year as an artist for RS3. Some of my projects there included the models for TzKal-Zuk and the Armadyl Staff!
Recently I’ve decided to rewind time from 2022 to 2007 and join Old School as a character artist. The team has been incredibly welcoming and I can't wait to try something new and take game graphics back to basics.
I started my art career in 2015 and have previously made art for Battlerite and the Tales of Runeterra cinematics. Now it's time to work for the game I love!
I played OSRS a lot growing up and the game helped me during rough times in school and all that other stuff you experience as a kid. Now I want to give back to the game that gave me so much growing up.
Quest Porting
by Mod Ed
Introduction
We’d like to get you all involved with an interesting discussion we’ve been having about quests. They’re a core part of Old School RuneScape, but with the exception of the Elf storyline, all our quest series have been going since 2007, and most will need multiple new entries to set up a satisfying conclusion. In fact, we estimate that resolving all our current storylines will require more than 50 quests!
While 50 quests does sound exciting, it’s also pretty problematic. Even if we doubled our quest production rate, it would still take between five and 10 years to conclude every storyline. As such, we’ve been thinking about ways to increase our quest output without compromising on quality. One option is quest porting.
Between the 2007 backup we used to create Old School RuneScape and the end of 2011, 56 quests were released, mostly continuations of older storylines. With the partial 2012 backup used to create Soul Wars and Nex and improvements in our GFX development tools, we can port these older quests to Old School RuneScape.
The clear benefit is that backporting requires far less work than building a quest from scratch, which would allow us to release more quests a year.
There are, of course, downsides. Backported quests may generate less interest, since players have already experienced the story – and while some of them are iconic, others are completely unsuitable for Old School, either because they were poorly received or because we’ve already taken the story in another direction.
So where does this leave us? We’ve reviewed all 56 quests and found a few that, with a bit of polish, could work in Old School. In fact, you’ve already experienced the first one! Land of the Goblins should give you a good idea of what we’re aiming for with these proposed backports – a quest that stays true to the original with minor tweaks and enhancements where needed.
You’re about to get a closer look at some of the quests we think have backport potential, but before we jump in, please remember that this proposal is in the very early stages. There are no active plans to backport any of these quests. Our goal here is to gather your feedback, so we can decide whether or not to move forward. We also want to make it clear that we’re still committed to creating new and unique quests in Old School RuneScape – this proposal is something to fit alongside new quests, not replace them.
The Path of Glouphrie
The Path of Glouphire | Source: Rune HQ
Released in September 2007, The Path of Glouphrie was an Experienced tier continuation of the Gnome storyline.
We think this quest would make for a great addition to Old School. It's a fun quest that continues a mostly untouched questline. However, we'd want to make some changes to the Slayer creatures found after the quest, as they weren’t very popular in the original release. For a port of this quest we'd actually be able to use our original 2007 backup since it released about the same time.
The Chosen Commander
The Chosen Commander | Source: Rune HQ
Released in March 2009, The Chosen Commander was the Experienced tier finale to the Dorgeshuun Storyline.
Even today it remains a hugely loved quest and backporting it would let us conclude another storyline. We’d likely make a few small changes, such as increasing the difficulty to make it a Master tier quest, but on the whole we think it works perfectly as-is.
Defender of Varrock and The Curse of Arrav
Defender of Varrock | Source: Rune HQ
These continuations of the Mahjarrat storyline were released in September 2008 and July 2009 respectively. Defender of Varrock was Experienced tier and The Curse of Arrav was Master tier.
We’ve been thinking about possible directions for the Mahjarrat in Old School, and we don’t think backporting this quest would contradict our own ideas – in fact, it may enhance them! Both quests were lacking in the rewards department, so we’d consider adding a little something extra even if it’s just more XP. We’d also need to make some changes to account for the events of Below Ice Mountain.
Rocking Out and A Clockwork Syringe
Rocking Out | Source: Rune HQ
This pair of Master tier quests continued the Pirate storyline, released in June 2008 and March 2011 respectively.
So far we haven’t done much with the Pirate storyline, so backporting these quests could be a great opportunity to change that. Rocking Out would likely work well with only minor changes, but we’d need to remove the Dungeoneering element from A Clockwork Syringe for it to work in Old School. As with Defender of Varrock and The Curse of Arrav, we may also consider additional rewards.
Forgiveness of a Chaos Dwarf and King of the Dwarves
Forgiveness of a Chaos Dwarf | Source: Rune HQ
These two Master tier quests continued the Red Axe storyline. Forgiveness of a Chaos Dwarf was released in September 2009 and King of the Dwarves was released in January 2011.
The Red Axe storyline is another that hasn't been touched in Old School, so these quests could make for great additions. We'd probably want to reconsider the difficulty, however, as neither really felt like proper Master tier quests. We’d also need to rethink the rewards, since some of them have already been used in other Old School content.
Nomad's Requiem
Nomad's Requiem | Source: Rune HQ
Even all these years later, the name Nomad still fills a Quest Cape holder with fear. This Grandmaster quest was released in January 2010 and was forever remembered for its notoriously tough boss fight.
Having already ported Soul Wars into Old School, we think that Nomad's Requiem would sit nicely alongside it. There's also a few fun things we'd like to do with Nomad as part of our existing storylines, and backporting this quest would enable that.
We'd want to retain the iconic difficulty of the boss fight while also ensuring it reflects a game without Summoning, which was one of the common strategies to beat it. Reward wise, we’d like to take the opportunity to offer an upgrade for the Soul Cape.
While Guthix Sleeps
While Guthix Sleeps | Source: Rune HQ
Let's not beat around the bush. While Guthix Sleeps is widely considered to be the greatest quest ever released into RuneScape. When it came out back in November 2008, this Grandmaster quest in the Mahjarrat storyline changed everything you thought you knew about questing.
If we were to move forward with backports of The Path of Glouphrie and Defender of Varrock, we'd also unlock the ability to backport While Guthix Sleeps. As with Defender of Varrock and The Curse of Arrav, we think we'd be able to release this quest without contradicting our own plans for the Mahjarrat.
However, we would need to rethink the elements involving Summoning and the rewards as once again they’ve found their way into other pieces of Old School content.
Conclusion
We’re keen to hear your thoughts. Is quest backporting a direction you’d like to go in? What do you think of the quests we’ve selected? Although there are other pieces of content from that period like Dungoneering which we've seen plenty of discussions around, we have no current plans to add anything outside of quests.
As always, you can share your thoughts with us on social media, but we've also put together a quick survey to gather your opinions. You can find that survey here.
Postbag from the Hedge
Hello everyone! I’ve been run off my feet this month – was it really necessary to send Nieve and Konar all those Valentines? Not to speak of the ones you sent to that poor Bloodveld! Luckily there were a few normal letters mixed in there, and what do you know? We’ve got some replies!
We all know how trolls get their names, and I admire your sense of hunger. But was your father named 'Dad'? Was he named for his father? This begs the question, how far back does the line of Dads go? Where does the family 'tradition' start?
Yours,
Breastmilk
Hello!
Dad line go back very far – we famed for toothy troll babies! But tradition end with me. After Dad fight tiny human, me realise that fighting really caused by toxic masculinity. Is rampant in troll culture! Baby troll need father figure. So son named ‘Mam’ instead.
For the eyes of the Wizards' Tower's Chief of Research only.
Hello Sedridor, it has been a while since we've spoken and in the long time since, I've become Aubury's equal in the art of Runecraft. How time flies!
Whilst news of a new type of rune has hopefully reached your ears, I write this letter to you in hopes of finding some information about some runes that appear to have been lost to this world.
Ancient caches of times past appear to refer to the existence of a man known as 'Mage Gower', who discovered what he called 'master runes' that not even I have heard of. Namely, the life, illusion, reality, and time runes. I believe if information about these runes were to be re-discovered, it could push forward our knowledge of magic and perhaps change our perspective on the history of magic as well.
However, if the properties of these master runes are indeed what they claim to be, it may be wise for them to remain hidden away; you could even say that their power is the reason that knowledge of it was sealed away by this Mage Gower.
Best regards,
Spineweilder
Hello there Spineweilder,
I’m glad to hear your pursuit of Runecraft is coming along nicely! It seems like only yesterday you were handing me your first Talisman, and now look at you! Very impressive.
I had heard of these so-called ‘Wrath Runes’, although I didn’t know what to make of the rumours. They’re not referenced in any of the ancient texts I’ve studied, so I’ll confess until you mentioned them just now, I assumed they were a myth.
Once upon a time I’d have said the same of those other runes, but now I’m not so sure. It does beg the question: how many more runes are out there, waiting to be discovered? What hitherto unknown magics await us? An exciting concept, to be sure! Although you won’t catch me slaying any dragons. I’ll leave the firsthand research to you adventurers.
Have either of you ever encountered the mythical Unicow? More importantly, which one of you would be responsible for killing it?
Yours, etc.
Hlwys
Hello Hlwys!
Wow! Until now, neither of us knew there was an adventurer out there with similar hobbies. It’s important to make human connections in this wild, cow-infested world.
We’ve had a frank discussion on this and decided that should either of us ever encounter such a beast, we’ll call the other up and tackle it together. As the more 31337 killer, I’ve actually slain a unicorn before – but the moral toll was a bit much to handle. With Unicorn1337Kilr at my side, though, I feel like there’s nothing I can’t do!
Thanks again for bringing us together, Hlwys. Hope you’ve overcome your chicken trouble!
I was referred to you by one of the more helpful staff in the Arceuus Library, as you are the historian specialising in the history of Hosidius.
During one of my adventures in distant lands across the Western Sea, I visited a massive library, one far larger than even the one in Arceuus, and came across a certain diary written by an adventurer originating from Hosidius.
Most of the pages are stained with blood and have become illegible, but readable entries of the diary appear to have been written during the 33rd decade, which according to Imerominia, should be dated around 200 years ago after the War of the Five Houses.
The adventurer appears to have perished by the hands of Skotizo, the dark demon beneath the Catacombs, who I've had a close encounter with. As the expert in the history of Hosidius, do you know the name of this adventurer and the details behind the events they were involved in?
I should probably send this diary to you in hopes that you may find someone who can recover the entries stained by blood.
Dear Sgt_Henno_Garvie,
A fascinating find! I wonder how it ended up all the way on the mainland?
Yes, all that blood does make it a bit difficult to read. I think this text is from the 124th decade, rather than the 33rd. You can tell by the archaic date format. In the old days, we used to count the days first, then the decade. Highly confusing, but that's how we know this text is authentic! Fantastic work tracking it down.
Unfortunately, records from this time are somewhat sparse. It seems the unlucky adventurer’s parents were humble farmers, which means they would have been spared the worst of the war – and been absent from any military rolls. Sadly, the census conducted by Kharedst the Builder contains countless records of mothers without sons or husbands, so I’m afraid it would be nigh-impossible to track down the exact family from this document alone.
That’s not to say it’s useless for our purposes, though! It provides fascinating insight into life before and after the War of the Five Houses. It’s no wonder this adventurer’s parents weren’t so keen on his travels – King Agata IV’s mismanagement left the kingdom ravaged by famine, and they could’ve used all the help they could get to keep the farm running. That said, I’m glad he didn’t stick around. Most young men and women were drafted into the houses’ personal armies during the war, and Hosidius did not fare well.
You’ll find this interesting – I had a look through the archives and it seems that, post-war, reports of abductions were flowing in from all five houses. You do expect a level of chaos following any conflict, but the records show constant disappearances, once or twice a night for almost a year before they suddenly stop completely. Very odd indeed. One might surmise that the demons were somehow cowed by an even greater power – not anyone I’d like to meet!
I’ve passed the diary on to my contacts in Arceuus House. Hopefully they have a way to clean it up. Perhaps we’ll learn more about this adventurer yet!
I recall when we first met, you mentioned that you were planning an expedition to the Isle of Garmr and Acheron. I believe you said that you didn’t want me to help you kill that boar of yours because you wanted adventuring partners with more experience under their belts. But as it’s been a few years since then, would you consider taking me along on your expedition sometime soon?
Regards,
FursonaHaver
Well met, FursonaHaver!
You are indeed an accomplished warrior. But make no mistake, so too were the companions I lost in Acheron. That dread place holds more dangers than oversized boars – take it from one who’s been there and lived to tell the tale. I’m looking for adventurers with more than muscle and grit. I need people who’ve stared terror in the face and come out swinging. Countless warriors have applied and run off with their tails between their legs when they discover the horrors we’ll face on the Isle. Perhaps you’re different? Should I ever assemble a decent-sized crew, I’ll be sure to call you up.
I hear that people bring you bones and giant shells, and that the Dorgeshuun use the bones to prop up the mine shafts and to make other temporary structures.
What do the Dorgeshuun use snail and tortoise shells for?
Regards,
Sedridor
Hello again!
I’ve been using those shells you bring me for all sorts of things! I especially like the swirly ones, they make lovely hats… although I’m sorry to say the fashion hasn’t quite caught on.
The bigger ones – from ‘Tortoises’, did you say? – are lovely and shiny once you polish them. I’ve turned them into little beads, pins, and even new frames for Ur-tag’s glasses. I think he liked them!
That's your lot! We'd love to hear your feedback on the newest edition and, as with everything else, if you’ve got any ideas about the sorts of things you’d like to see in upcoming editions of the Gielinor Gazette, then please do let us know via our official forums, on the 2007Scape Reddit, the Steam forums or the community-led OSRS Discord in the #gameupdate channel.
Nex Achievements and Loot Keys | Weekly Game Update (February 23rd)
Issues and Hotfixes
[expand type="showmore"]
February 23rd, 12:00 GMT - Due to Nex's expensive drop calculations, Combat Achievements inadvertently called too much code causing the system for item drops to crash during a kill.
HOTFIXED - We have now fixed the underlying issue causing this.
February 23rd, 12:45 GMT - The 100k payment to enter the Revenant Caves is not transferring to a Loot Key upon death. Instead, the gold drops to the floor.
HOTFIXED - The Rev Caves fee should now drop within the Loot Key.
February 23rd, 15:30 GMT - If a player had a full inventory in PvP worlds when getting a kill with Loot Keys enabled, the key would be deleted when attempting to pick it up from the ground.
HOTFIXED - This has now been resolved. If your inventory is full, the Loot Key will drop to the floor and you'll be able to pick it up as expected.
[/expand]
This week, we’ve got some news about the Android Open Beta, Nex Combat Achievements, and Loot Keys!
Old School RuneScape New Android Client Open Beta
The New Android Client Open Beta will officially begin on February 28th!
Before we get to the good part, we’d first like to apologise for the delay. We'd hoped to get this to you in January, but a few unexpected issues slowed things down.
But now it’s almost time, and we can’t wait to hear all your feedback about the new client features making their way to mobile!
A lot of nitty-gritty technical bits arrive in the game as part of this week’s update, allowing us to do some final tests and ensure the client is stable before it rolls out officially.
The Android Open Beta will bring some of the new client features to mobile for the first time, including (but not limited to):
Buff Bars
Fishing Spot Indicators
HUD Improvements (NPC Information and Combat Styles)
Agility and Slayer Helpers
Chambers of Xeric Helper
Woodcutting and Ore Respawn Timers
Increased Draw Distance
Navigation Tile Indicators
Chat Improvements
Entity Highlights for NPCs (new to mobile)
We’ve fixed a number of the issues our fantastic playtesters raised in the Android Closed Beta last November, including bugs related to the XP Tracker and Buff Bar timers. We’ve also increased the amount of time you can spend outside of the app before it disconnects.
Unfortunately, there are still some known issues that we haven’t been able to fix in time for the Open Beta. We’ll be listing these in a separate 'Known Issues' newspost on Monday February 28th. This will be updated as often as needed with any new bugs and other problems we find – it’s your one-stop shop for communication between our bug-busters and yourselves!
Gathering Your Feedback
During the Android Closed Beta, we used Discord as our main channel to communicate between playtesters, QA and our developers. The Android Open Beta will be completely open (hence the name!), and therefore we're unable to provide the same level of support and direct responses as we did for the Closed Beta.
We reckon a survey will be the most efficient method of gathering your feedback – and one will be included in the 'Known Issues' newspost.
We’ll use the information we collect to understand where we need to focus our efforts the most to make the mobile client as good as it possibly can be.
How Can I Get Involved?
If you’ve previously opted into the Android Open Beta, you’ll automatically be eligible for the new client provided your device meets the minimum specs listed below. If you do not want to test the new features, you'll need to opt out - see image below for instructions.
You may find that your app automatically updates the client without being prompted. If this happens to you, you’ll be given notice in-game to let you know you’re using the new client – and if you’re ever unsure whether you’ve got the Beta client or not, the message will repeat for your first five log-ins (including world hops).
Mobile Support
If you have general issues with the mobile client, your first port of call should always be the Mobile Support Hub, which you can find here.
However, if your issue is specific to the Android Open Beta, your best bet is to check the Known Issues newspost once it goes live for all the latest information.
The minimum specifications for the Android Open Beta are:
Android 8.0 (Oreo) or later
At least 2GB RAM
Please note that if your device does not meet these requirements, you will not be able to participate in the Android Open Beta. If you wish to continue playing without these specs, you’ll need to opt-out of the Beta using the instructions in the image above.
Android Beta Feature Showcase
If you're not on mobile but still want to see the new features in action, we're hosting a Feature Showcase livestream on Thursday March 3rd!
Nex Combat Achievements
Since the release of Nex, we've been itching to add some additional challenges for you to show your prowess!
So, this week we've added an array of new tasks for you to sink your teeth into. Here’s a list of the brand new Nex achievements!
[table][tr][th]Tier[/th][th]Name[/th][th]Description[/th][/tr][tr][td]Elite[/td][td]Nex Veteran[/td][td]Kill 1 Nex[/td][/tr][tr][td]Elite[/td][td]Nex Survivors[/td][td]Kill 1 Nex without anyone dying[/td][/tr][tr][td]Master[/td][td]There Is No Escape![/td][td]Kill Nex without anyone being hit by the Smoke Dash special attack[/td][/tr][tr][td]Master[/td][td]A Siphon Will Solve This[/td][td]Kill Nex without letting her heal from her Blood Siphon special attack [/td][/tr][tr][td]Master[/td][td]Contain this![/td][td]Kill Nex without anyone taking damage from any Ice special attack [/td][/tr][tr][td]Master[/td][td]Shadows Move...[/td][td]Kill Nex without anyone being hit by the Shadow Smash attack[/td][/tr][tr][td]Master[/td][td]Nex Trio[/td][td]Kill Nex with only three players inside the arena at the start of the fight. [/td][/tr][tr][td]Master[/td][td]Nex Master[/td][td]Kill 100 Nex[/td][/tr][tr][td]Grandmaster [/td][td]Nex Duo[/td][td]Kill Nex with only two players inside the arena at the start of the fight.[/td][/tr][tr][td]Grandmaster[/td][td]I Should See A Doctor[/td][td]Kill Nex while a player is coughing.[/td][/tr][tr][td]Grandmaster[/td][td]Perfect Nex[/td][td]Kill Nex while completing the requirements for ‘There Is No Escape’, ‘A Siphon Will Solve This’, and ‘Contain This!’[/td][/tr][/table]
Existing rewards for Combat Achievement tiers will remain locked until these new tasks are completed, as normal.
We can't wait to see you all get stuck in!
PvP Changes: Deadman Mode-style Loot Keys
Next up, a highly anticipated PvP change: Loot Keys for PKing! With this new setting enabled, you can opt to have your PvP opponents drop their loot in the form of a Key. That Key will contain up to 28 of your target’s most valuable items, which would otherwise have been dropped on death.
To benefit from this new change, you’ll need to purchase the ability to gain keys from Skully for a cool 5 million GP. You can also speak to him to toggle your newfound ability off and on at any time.
You’ll be able to receive loot keys on both normal and PvP worlds.
Using the Loot Key on the chest next to Skully will allow you to see all the glorious loot stored inside the Keys.
You can hold up to five Loot Keys at any one time. Should you receive a Key after hitting this limit, it’ll drop to the ground along with any loot, as per existing behaviour. Loot Keys cannot be banked.
You'll be able to customize your drops from the following options:
Decide whether your opponent's food and potions go to the Loot Key, or are dropped normally, allowing you more survivability.
Change the value threshold of Loot Keys, so that items above a certain threshold will appear normally on the ground.
Skulled players will have a Skull icon over their head that shows how many Keys they hold. Initially we said that this would only appear for those with two or more Loot Keys, but we’ve since decided it should apply to any skulled player holding between one to five Keys.
Left: a player with one Loot Key. Right: a player with five Loot Keys and the Revenant buff.
The total amount of claimed Keys and total value of loot both claimed and destroyed is tracked, and can be checked with Skully.
Loot Keys and Death
The effects of being un-skulled and the Item Protect Prayer apply to any items not held in Loot Keys, but not Loot Keys themselves. As a consequence, Loot Keys will always be dropped on death – whether PvP, PvM, skulled, or un-skulled.
Should you be unfortunate enough to die with Keys in your Inventory, they will either be transferred to the player that killed you (if they are eligible to receive them) or deleted.
Iron players will be able to unlock Loot Keys, but please note that they will only have the option to destroy the contents of the Key entirely.
Other Changes
Using an Ornament Kit on God Books no longer causes issues.
Fixed a graphical issue with the Shattered Relics Abyssal Whip.
Further to last week’s update, we’ve removed a red cross symbol present in the Dunce Random Event.
Shattered Relics Rankings
PvP World Rota
The PvP rota has moved to Period B:
560 - (UK) - PvP World
579 - (US) - High-Risk PvP World
561 - (UK) - Free-to-Play PvP World
580 - (US) - LMS Competitive
World 390 (AUS) for LMS Competitive has been de-activated with this rota.
We haven’t forgotten about those Tombs of Amascut rewards! In fact, we’ve been discussing your feedback at length. However, in January, a new piece of content dropped that made us re-think a few of our decisions: Nex.
The rewards for defeating the fearsome Angel of Death were really impressive, and this inspired us to reassess Tombs of Amascut’s loot. Your input was also crucial in helping us see how we could push even further with these desert delights!
So, what’s changing? While we are still happy with some of the items we’ve designed, others have undergone significant reworks. As an added bonus, we’ve also included two new features that will neatly coincide with this particular Raid. Let’s get into it!
Concept Art for Tombs of Amascut rewards.
As always, we refer to the in-game timings as cycles. Each cycle is equal to 0.6 seconds and is also commonly referred to as a 'tick' by the wider community.
Masori Armour
The Masori were powerful ranged weapon-wielders active during an ancient Kharidian war. They focused primarily on defending ordinary people from the violent thieves and murderers who sought to take advantage of the wartime chaos. This mighty clan has been long since disbanded, but their weapons can still be found in the palaces of wealthy Menaphites, and among the treasures of long-dead Pharaohs.
Requirements
80 Ranged
30 Defence (80 when upgraded)
Probably the biggest change in this rework is the removal of the Low Life effect – and the additional Dodge mechanics – from Masori Armour. Although some of you liked the unique effect for this set, its uses were a bit niche and many of you felt the tradeoff was simply not worth it.
As such, the armour set will now consist of the Helmet, Chestplate and Chainskirt – and no Amulet. This doesn’t mean that Low Life won’t be visited in some form in the future, but for now, it won’t be a feature here.
Instead, the stats that came from the effects of Low Life on the original Masori Armour will make up the base versions of the new set – plus the original Prayer Bonus:
Wait… base version? Yep, we’ve decided to take a similar approach to Nex rewards and offer some shiny upgrades to the Masori Armour, with the base version still being equippable, with different requirements.
Using plates broken down from Armadyl’s Armour and crafting them (with 90 Crafting) onto your Masori Armour pieces with a chisel, you can create the upgraded versions.
Breaking Down Values
Armadyl Helmet - 1 Armadyl Plate
Armadyl Chestplate - 4 Armadyl Plates
Armadyl Chainskirt - 3 Armadyl Plates
Crafting Values (with 90 Crafting)
Armadyl Helmet - 1 Armadyl Plate
Armadyl Chestplate - 4 Armadyl Plates
Armadyl Chainskirt - 3 Armadyl Plates
The base equipment will focus on low Defence and high Offence, making it one of the best choices for an Offence Ranged build, while the upgraded version will be the new best-in-slot Ranged gear in all categories:
The fully upgraded armour will surpass the Offence capabilities of Armadyl’s pieces. For comparison, the fully upgraded armour will have the following stats over a full Armadyl’s set:
Stab Accuracy: +18
Slash Accuracy: +18
Crush Accuracy: +18
Mage Accuracy: +23
Ranged Accuracy: +19
Stab Defence: +8
Slash Defence: +10
Crush Defence: +10
Mage Defence: +12
Ranged Defence: +8
Range Strength: +8
Prayer Bonus: 0
Heka of Tumeken and The Ward of Elidinis
Heka of Tumeken
Tumeken was the God of Sun and Elidinis was the Goddess of Fertility. As husband and wife, they were the joint leaders of the Menaphite Pantheon. But while Tumeken and Elidinis steered the people of the Kharidian Desert spiritually, it was the responsibility of the human Pharoah to rule in practical matters. Osmumten was the last Pharoah before the end of the ancient war, and he fought alongside Tumeken against enemy forces, until the noble God sacrificed himself to end the conflict. After her husband’s death, Elidinis fled to mourn the loss of her family. Before before she left, the Goddess gifted Osmumten with Tumeken's Heka and her own broken Ward.
Requirements
85 Magic
The Heka of Tumeken is a wand-like magical weapon, requiring 85 Magic. It has a built-in spell with charges which will need to be replenished, using one Soul Rune and three Chaos Runes per charge.
The wand stats haven’t changed too much and still have a base attack rate of two cycles with every fourth hit, firing a bigger attack that deals significantly more damage, and with a longer delay afterwards. For a more visual example:
20 damage → 20 damage → 20 damage → 60 damage
2 cycles → 2 cycles → 2 cycles → 4 cycles
And here’s the newest example of how damage will be calculated:
Standard fast attacks scale based on '(Magic Level / 6) + 1' for the base max hit.
The slower fourth attack scales based on '(Magic Level - 25) / 2' for the base max hit.
Mage Strength no longer applies uniquely to the Heka.
While the original design of the Heka of Tumeken was great on paper, it was lacking a certain 'something'.
If you look at previous raid rewards like the Twisted Bow and the Scythe of Vitur - they were unique, powerful, and most importantly had that wow factor that made them worth the grind.
Instead of scaling differently according to your Magic Strength, the Heka will now unleash a special effect dependent on the spellbook you are attuned to, alongside a fourth, more powerful attack, allowing you more options for your builds. Here’s what we’re thinking:
Standard Spellbook: 10% boosted damage.
Ancient Spellbook: The spell will hit into a 3x3 Area of Effect (AoE) attack.
Lunar Spellbook:
Heal allies by 5% of your current Magic level (rounded down) along the path of the projectile (capped at 5 players).
Increase the Ward’s attack range by 1.
Arceuus Spellbook: Lose 3 Prayer points and in return:
The boost is not permanent and will be lost after a period of time.
Drain 5% of the NPCs Magic Level (up to 20%).
Boost your Magic level by 50% of drained Magic level (capped at 15% additional Magic level).
This means you’ve got a fast-attacking weapon that can be mastered to work effectively in tricky encounters, along with free additional mastery to explore with the unique spellbook effects and varying attack speeds. Because, let’s be real… Magic needs some love!
Ward of Elidinis
We haven’t done too much tweaking to the Ward of Elidinis, since it effectively meets our original design goals. Here’s a recap:
Requirements
80 Magic
80 Defence
80 Prayer
The Ward of Elidinis will be the new best-in-slot magical shield. Players will get the broken Ward as rare loot from the Tombs of Amascut. With 90 Prayer and 90 Smithing, you'll be able to combine the broken Ward with an Arcane Sigil and 10,000 Soul Runes to repair it.
Players without those stats will be able to pay Abbot Langley 20,000,000 GP to create it for them. Additionally, existing Arcane Spirit Shields can be handed to Langley for disassembly, returning just the Arcane Sigil back, so players can make the switch. This won’t require a GP fee, but will destroy a Blessed Shield in the process.
Both the broken and fully repaired Wards can be equipped, but the broken Ward will be tradeable, and untradeable when fixed. Players can dismantle it to recover both the Sigil and the Ward, but the Runes will be lost. Dying in PvP will result in the Sigil and the broken Ward being dropped.
Here are the stats for the charged Ward of Elidinis, and the Arcane Spirit Shield's stats, for comparison:
Lightbearer
Ahmek was a formidable warrior who sought to capitalise on the political instability at the end of the war. He crafted a powerful ring which he imbued with the unstable energy left behind from Tumekin's sacrifice. Ahmek sought to use this ring to emerge as a new power in the region; by forcibly uniting thieves and mercenaries under his command, he would overthrow Osmumten. His scheming proved fruitless, however, when the ring was stolen, and he was murdered in his sleep. The Menaphite Guards claimed the ring from the body of the murderous thief and dutifully presented it to the Pharoah.
We’ve not made any changes to the Lightbearer’s stats or effects, so here’s a reminder:
The Lightbearer is a ring with no Attack, Defence, or other bonuses. It does, however, have a unique effect. When equipped, your special attack energy will regenerate 100% faster (approximately 15 seconds per 10% / 150 seconds per 100%). Unequipping the ring will cause the timer to reset.
We assume that for the most part you'll want to continue using rings like the Berserker ring. But there will be some situations where the additional special attack rate will warrant its use. We think this ring will shine in places where kill times are longer, or where you'll want to use a special attack per kill (like Graardor, K'ril, Abyssal Sire etc). You could even use it whilst Woodcutting or Fishing!
Osmumten’s Fang
Known to his people as Osmumten the Hunter, he was renowned for bringing down many of the land's deadliest beasts. During his hunts, he wore armour and weapons crafted by the region's finest artisans. One such weapon was his Fang, with which he was eventually buried.
Requirements
82 Attack
Osmumten’s Fang is a five-cycle weapon that packs serious punch while on Stab. It’s decently effective against low defence NPCs, but it excels against monsters with a high defence. We expect its damage-per-second output to be comparable to Rapier-tier weapons on opponents with low Defence, with much greater damage-per-second output on opponents with higher Defence.
We’re doing something a bit different with the Fang, so let’s look at how the damage will be calculated. Instead of rolling ‘0-max’ hit like most weapons, it will instead:
Roll ‘(max hit
0.15) - (max hit - (max hit
0.15))’
For example: If the max hit is 60, then it would roll between 9-51.
Alongside this, Osmumten’s Fang will include a special attack. Costing 50%, this special attack would increase the max hit of the weapon to its true max hit for one attack, and boost accuracy by an additional 50%.
For example: If its max hit was 60, it would then roll 9-60, provided it passes accuracy.
One new aspect of the Fang is more similar to the Crystal Halberd and various Spears: this weapon will deal full damage to the Corporeal Beast when on Stab. In addition, we will be removing the 50 damage cap that Corp currently has. Now you’ve got a weapon that’s great for taking on ol' Corp, so you can have more fun hunting the Sigil to make that completed Ward of Elidinis!
And there's more!
Stat Renewal Potion
How about something completely new! We know that one of the most useful potions you can create during Chambers of Xeric is Overload, which boosts all the player's combat stats by 6 + 16% while damaging them for 50 HP. Uniquely, the boost is repeated every 15 seconds until the effects wear off, after which the player heals 50 HP. This makes it better than your standard potions as it ticks up over time.
Tombs of Amascut will introduce a new secondary component called Lily of the Sands. When combined with a Dwarf Weed, this will create the new Stat Renewal Potion. You will need 71 Herblore to create it, and each one you make will net you 150 XP.
Essentially, the Stat Renewal Potion has the same stat-renewal aspect of an Overload, so if your combat stats are below base, it will restore them back up. This means:
The effect would last for five minutes.
The amount it would restore is 16% of your skill level + 6
This potion will not boost your stats above your base level.
Pharaoh's Sceptre Teleport
Ok, one more treat while you’re here! As we’re raiding in the desert, we want to give players an easy way to get to an instance once it comes available.
As it happens, there's already a specific item that can get you to a couple of important places within the Desert: The Pharaoh’s Sceptre. So, let’s make use of it!
Use the Sceptre on an obelisk outside the raid entrance and you'll be granted an additional teleport close to the raid entrance. This will only be possible after completing Beneath Cursed Sands.
If this passes, we’ll also tidy up the right-click menu, so you just have ‘Teleport’ and ‘Teleport to Previous’ options on your Sceptre. Clicking on ‘Teleport’ will then bring you an interface with more options of where to go.
The Sceptre would also be recoloured and made untradeable after completing it’s attunement.
That’s what we’d call a wrap! Got feedback? Here’s how to join the discussion:
9th Birthday Event | Weekly Game Update (February 16th)
This week we’re celebrating our 9th Birthday and showing off some mega-cool Leagues III medals!
9th Birthday Event
It’s Old School RuneScape’s 9th Birthday, and we’re celebrating with a grand party in Al Kharid – but as per usual, something has gone horribly wrong…
Hey, wait a second – we’ve just been informed that nothing has gone wrong and everyone’s having a lovely time! It’s a birthday miracle!
Well, since there’s no monkeys to chase, cat ears to craft, or cakes to bake, you might as well kick back and enjoy the party! Why not go on a treasure hunt, join a cook-off, or partake in a spot of Fishing? Just head to Al Kharid to join the festivities.
As a reward for completing the event, you’ll be rewarded with a brand-new pair of skis, perfect for coasting over the dunes of the Kharidian Desert* in style!
*Adventurers are warned that skis have NOT been tested in cold climates and optimal performance is not guaranteed. The Old School RuneScape Team is not liable for any injuries incurred as a result of using skis outside of the Kharidian Desert.
Leagues III: Shattered Relics
Players will now receive teleports on their Kharedst’s Memoirs after purchasing the Kourend II or III bundles and will have access to them when opening the League interface.
Crafting the Crystal Body or Crystal Legs at the Singing Bowl in Prifddinas will now complete the ‘Craft a piece of Crystal Armour’ task.
The Saradominist Defence effect is now correctly applied in PvP.
Leagues III Medals
Last week, we showed off some exclusive, real-life Leagues III medals. Here’s how you can get your hands on one!
The first set of medals have a Gold, Silver, and Bronze version for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place in the following categories:
Most Leagues Points
Most Tasks Completed
Most XP gained
First to Max
And the second set of medals have just one Gold variant for the dedicated players who complete the following achievements:
First to Obtain All Fragments
First to Unlock all Skills
First to Unlock all Bosses
First to Reach Tier 7
First to Reach Tier 7 without Hitpoints
Although some of these milestones have already been achieved, we’ll be waiting until the League is over to confirm the winners. Should you be among them, we’ll contact you via your player inbox, where we’ll gather a few more details so you can receive your prize!
Remember, the League has been extended – so there’s still time to complete those tasks, earn those League Points, and put yourself in the running!
If you miss out on one of these prizes, then stress not. An Antique Nickel variant of the medal will be coming to the merch store for you to reward yourself with, no matter where you finish!
Good luck!
Additional Changes
Recoloured and redesigned various red cross symbols throughout the game.
Green Dragons in the Wilderness Slayer Cave now drop their loot as banknotes for players with an Amulet of Avarice equipped.
The Zaryte Crossbow’s special attack now triggers the teleport prevention effect after it is used in PvP.
XP is no longer lost upon death in a Deadman world if the dying player is unskulled. This applies to both PvP and PvM deaths.
The Miniquest Journal for Hopespear’s Will now gives more information.
Previously, the music track Dusk in Yu’biusk wasn’t unlocked during Land of the Goblins because it only appears in the post-quest version of Yu’biusk. However, as this was confusing, we’ve allowed players to unlock it during the quest itself – although it still won’t play unless you return to Yu’biusk afterwards.
Oldak’s dialogue following Land of the Goblins now changes based on whether you’ve found a way back to Yu’biusk or not.
The recommended Combat level for Land of the Goblins has increased from 60 to 65.
Fixed spelling errors in Land of the Goblins.
Readded missing Wiki options in the Quest List.
Combat Achievements Competition
Last year on the release of Combat Achievements we threw in some extra thrills with six competitions and some fantastic prizes! We'd like to reveal the winners of those competitions:
Grandmaster: Ginny
Master: Karl
Elite: Nosevesey
Hard: igotnoolife
Medium: evonaabi
Easy: Ozzys
Congratulations to all the winners! Messages have been sent to your player inbox with more details on your prizes!
PvP World Rota
The PvP rota has moved to Period A:
539 - (US) - PvP World
548 - (Germany) - High-Risk PvP World
577 - (US) - Free-to-Play PvP World
559 - (UK) - LMS Competitive
World 390 (AUS) for LMS Competitive has been activated with this rota.
Breaking news! The Emir of Al Kharid has been made aware of illicit activity going on in the glorious old battlegrounds formerly known as the Duel Arena. As a result, all fights are now overseen by the guards of Al Kharid. With this increased security, the locals feel safer approaching the area and even watching the actions. The tribunes are busier than ever before, with crowds cheering for the fighters below.
Word spreads fast and challengers from all parts of the world have come to Al Kharid to fight in the now-reputable venue. People used to shy away from it, knowing that a scrap in the Duel Arena could lead down a dark path.
Now, for the first time in a long time, a victory here may actually be seen as prestigious!
The Basics
Last year we made a number of changes to the Duel Arena in an effort to reduce the amount of Real World Trading and scamming that went on there. These were short-term measures to tide us over until we could deliver a full replacement.
Today, we’re ready to share that replacement with you.
Welcome to the PvP Arena!
The PvP Arena (known by Al Kharidians as the Emir’s Arena) gives players an opportunity to fight each other in a controlled environment, where matches take place on an alternative save game world against players of a similar skill level. You’ll be able to register your interest in finding a fight and then get on with whatever other activities you want until a match has been prepared.
Adjacent to the Chat-channel, Clan chat and Group Iron side-panels, you’ll also see the Grouping side-panel, originally created in 2014 to help players group together for minigames. It provides convenient access to a set of official chat-channels where players can seek other folks interested in playing the same minigame. It now has an extra PvP Arena button, which opens into a new side-panel for… the PvP Arena! What a twist.
Clicking the PvP Arena button will open the PvP Arena's side-panel, replacing the Grouping side-panel.
The Find button invites the player to look for a PvP Arena group.
From here you're able to register yourself for either a 1v1 Tournament or 1v1 Battle where the game decides who you fight against. Alternatively, you can join a manually created 1v1 Tournament, or organise a 1v1 fight against a friend. More on this later in the blog!
Once the match is ready, you’ll be notified that it’s time to fight! You’ll be prompted to swap to the alternative save game world, giving you enough time to get to a safe place where you can hop worlds and participate.
Because fights take place on an alternative save game world, your standard game profile is left behind along with all your levels and items. Instead, you’ll be given the following stats:
You can then specialise into a primary Combat style. Each style offers improved stats that suit your preferred choice. The available options are:
Melee: Attack 85, Strength 95
Ranged: Ranged 95
Mage: Magic 95
Once you’ve picked a primary Combat style, you’ll then need to select a secondary style. This cannot be the same as your primary style. The options are as follows:
Melee: Attack 70, Strength 80
Ranged: Ranged 80
Mage: Magic 80
When the fight is complete, you’ll be able to return right back to where you left off! If you were successful in defeating your opponent, you’ll be rewarded with Rank Points and Reward Points.
Rank points are used to determine your rank. When finding a fight, the PvP Arena system will try to match you with another player with a similar Rank. The more points you have, the higher your Rank is!
Reward points are used to purchase unique items from the PvP Arena Reward store. More on this below!
Rank and Reward points can only be scored by winning a fight generated by the game. There are no rewards for participating in manually organised events.
Let’s look at each of the matchmaking options available and how they differ from one another!
1v1 Tournaments
Until now, Tournaments have been exclusive to the Deadman finales, so relatively few players ever get to experience them. With the introduction of the PvP Arena, we’re making Tournament-style play available to everyone!
Tournaments offer a way for players to participate in a series of 1v1 fights in succession - if you're good enough to make it to the next round, that is! You can let the game form a tournament group for you, selected from the pool of available participants, or have a go at organising one of your own!
To enter a Tournament, simply register your interest via the PvP Arena side-panel. Once enough players have signed up, the game will proceed to create a 1v1 Tournament for successful applicants.
Each Tournament consists of anywhere from 4 to 64 players, with each round being split until there are only two participants left! Here's how this might look for a Tournament of 16 players:
16 players are divided into eight 1v1 battles
The eight winners from the first round then fight in four 1v1 battles
The four winners from the second round then fight in two 1v1 battles
The final two winners then fight each other for the victory.
You’ll receive Rank and Reward Points based on how you place – so give it your all!
Fancy creating your own Tournament? Well, you can! Please bear in mind though that participants in manually-created tournaments will not receive rewards – it’s just for fun!
Ranked 1v1 Duels
Hungry for battle but don't want to commit to a full Tournament? You’re after Ranked 1v1 Duels! These are one-off battles where the game will automatically pit you against an opponent of similar rank.
Just like tournaments, the winner of a 1v1 Battle will receive Rank and Reward Points.
Unranked 1v1 Duels
In Unranked 1v1 duels you’ll choose the opponent you want to fight, mano a mano. You won’t get rewards, but this kind of fight is great for trying out new Combat style combinations, or just getting in some practice ahead of a big Tournament!
Rewards
Your time within the arena won’t go to waste, even if you aren't able to reach the top ranks! There are loads of rewards waiting to be snatched up with your hard-earned Reward points. We haven't given the same love and attention to PvP as we have with other updates, and so we'd really like to be able to provide items that can breathe new life into the scene.
Accordingly, the rewards are focused on PvP, so they can only be used against other players. If any of the non-cosmetic items are equipped, you will simply be unable to attack anything other than players.
The non-cosmetic rewards can only be used in the following PvP-enabled areas:
The Wilderness
PvP Worlds
Soul Wars
Castle Wars
Fight Pits
Notice that some of these items are untradeable, where they'd typically be tradeable. This is intentional. The aim here is to reduce the appeal for illegitimate players – but don’t worry, we're certain these items will still see plenty of use from genuine PvP players!
Ornament Kits
For a small number of Reward points, you'll be able to purchase the following tradeable Ornament kits:
Dragon Claws Ornament Kit
Dragon Warhammer Ornament Kit
Heavy Ballista Ornament Kit
Armadyl Ornament Kit for Armadyl Helm, Chestplate and Chainskirt (one Kit is required for each item).
Bandos Ornament Kit for Bandos Chestplate, Tassets and Boots (one Kit is required for each item).
The cosmetically enhanced versions of the items have identical combat stats, special attacks and requirements to the originals. Should you be killed in PvP without protecting them, your killer will receive both the base item and the Ornament Kit.
We’re limited on how many Kits we can offer with this update, so if you have a favourite you'd rather see in this list be sure to let us know!
New Blighted Sacks
For a small number of Reward Points, you'll be able to purchase two new Blighted Sacks that can be used within the Wilderness.
A Blighted Wave Sack that supplies the Runes required for any Wave spell.
A Blighted Surge Sack that supplies the Runes required for any Surge spell.
These sacks are untradeable. The following behaviour applies should you die with one of them in your Inventory:
Non-PvP Death above and below 20 Wilderness: Blighted Sacks sent to your Gravestone if they are not protected.
PvP death above and below 20 Wilderness: Any unprotected Blighted Sacks are destroyed and converted into an appropriate number of coins, which then drop to the player killer.
Imbue Scrolls
The only way players can imbue items outside of Nightmare Zone is by playing Soul Wars. Given this is predominantly a PvP activity, it felt fitting to expand on this offering by giving players the chance to purchase Imbue Scrolls for a low price from the PvP Arena Reward Shop. These would be untradeable and would allow players to imbue the following items:
Black mask
Salve amulet
Salve amulet (e)
Seers ring
Archers ring
Warrior ring
Berserker ring
Ring of the Gods
Tyrannical ring
Treasonous ring
Ring of Suffering
Granite ring
Slayer helmet
A Quick Note...
All of the rewards from this point on in the blog act the same way. If you die with them in PvP, they transform into a broken version and money is dropped to the player killer. You must then take them to Perdu to be repaired.
You can use a Trouver Parchment on all of them! Unsure of how Trouver Parchments work? The Old School Wiki has a handy explanation.
Wristbands of the Arena
Do you hate having to complete quests before your account is ready to step foot into the Wilderness and fight other players? Well, shame on you, because quests are great! But sure, for those of you whose spacebars really cannot take the strain, we've got you covered...
Wristbands of the Arena are an untradeable alternative to Barrows Gloves. They have very similar stats, but with slightly higher accuracy.
Barrows Gloves typically require 41 Defence to equip. Wristbands of the Arena, however, would require just 30 Defence, which we think would bring a little more variety to the PvP scene.
Note that unlike Barrows Gloves the Wristbands would only be usable in PvP combat, so you will still have to get questing if you plan on doing anything that would normally call for the Barrows Gloves.
Centurion Cuirass
We’ve come for quests, now it’s time for non-PvP minigames. Skip the Barbarian Assault with our next item, which is an alternative to the Fighter Torso!
The Centurion Cuirass is a lost artefact unearthed during the restoration of the Arena. Once donned by only the mightiest warriors, the sandy and well-worn armour is now a relic of what once was. A symbol of the arena's past fortune, and a hope that it may thrive once again.
The Cuirass is untradeable, and has similar stats to the Fighter Torso, but with slightly higher defensive stats. It requires 40 Defence to equip.
Calamity Chest & Breeches
The Calamity Armour was once shared between three infamous followers of an Ancient god – Maoma, Saika and Koriff. The Calamity Coven sought to emulate their deity and take control of their own fate, and they reasoned that wealth was their only means to do so. They believed that each and every person had the right to do whatever they needed to take control of their life – and if they were too weak, then others would take control for them.
With these shared beliefs spurring them, they brought about what is known as the Calamity – the complete downfall of the once glorious Duel Arena. Once a bustling hive of healthy competition, under their reign of tyranny it quickly became a dark and corrupt place. Even years after the Calamity Coven retreated into the shadows, the Arena is still fighting to shed its iniquitous reputation.
The Calamity Armour set is an untradeable PvP take on the Void Armour set. Like Void, you’ll need the full set for it to be really effective – and like Void, it pairs with three interchangeable helms that are required to activate the set effects. We’ll talk more about those in a moment.
The armour has low defence, so it’s risky in PvP and requires the wearer to be good at predicting their opponent’s next move and quickly switching gear to reduce incoming damage.
It comes in three tiers, allowing for flexibility with different PvP builds.
The Calamity Chest and Breeches have no requirements.
The Superior Calamity Chest and Breeches require 55 Defence to equip.
The Elite Calamity Chest and Breeches require 78 Defence to equip.
Maoma's Headgear Set
Maoma was the corrupt captain of the Emir’s guard. Her job was to oversee fights at the arena and ensure that order was upheld – but in reality, she was taking bribes to look the other way. Some say she even instigated some of the fights to make the Arena more popular and recruited prisoners to bolster the fighters’ ranks!
Moama's Headgear is an untradeable helm that can be used alongside the Calamity Armour to activate the full set effect when using the Melee Combat style.
Maoma's Med Helm has no requirements.
Maoma's Full Helm requires 55 Defence to equip.
Maoma's Great Helm requires 78 Defence to equip.
Koriff's Headgear Set
Koriff was the crowd-pleaser. Perhaps the most notorious of all, she would always be the centre of attention at the Arena. With a charming personality, she'd make sure the richer visitors had a particularly good time, pampering them with the best seats and service possible. Little did they know of her collaboration with Saika, Maoma, and the thieves they paid to pick the rich guests' pockets.
They say that fighters couldn’t help but come back for more bloodshed, even at the cost of their own life expectancy. They also say that Koriff had a direct hand in encouraging them back to the Arena, only for them to die shortly after. When crowds became tired of certain competitors, you could bet that their bodies would be carried out pierced with barely-visible crossbow bolts – and that Koriff had earned a windfall betting against them.
Koriff's Headgear is an untradeable helm that can be used alongside the Calamity Armour to activate benefits when using the Ranged Combat style.
Koriff's Headband has no requirements.
Koriff's Cowl requires 55 Defence to equip.
Koriff's Coif requires 78 Defence to equip.
Saika's Headgear Set
Saika was the puppet master. She was in charge of the Arena’s economy, making sure to profit from the crowds that came to watch the fights. Her greed knew no bounds as she fudged the numbers for years - claiming the cost of running the place was so high that it barely made any profit. These sketchy numbers made their way to the Emir, and he kept shelling out to keep it going. Unfortunately for him, the funding would go straight to Saika's pocket. She would pay destitute citizens a pittance to pretend they were working, just to keep up her ruse.
Saika's Headgear is an untradeable helm that can be used alongside the Calamity Armour to activate benefits when using the Magic Combat style.
Saika's Hood has no requirements.
Saika's Veil requires 55 Defence to equip.
Saika's Shroud requires 78 Defence to equip.
Other Reward Ideas
In addition to the juicy loot we've proposed so far, we'd also like to open the discussion on two other rewards - an amulet that can save you from critical PvP damage, with a cooldown between uses, a potion that grants immunity from future Binding spells, without helping against already-existing Binds, and a new left-click teleport than can be used up to level 30 Wilderness.
We're still not entirely sure about the design of these, so we thought it best to put them out there and see what you think!
Amulet of Souls
The Amulet of Souls is a new item created by combining an Amulet of Fury, an Onyx and an Amulet of Souls Scroll. The Scroll can be purchased from the PvP Arena Reward Store. Soul and Death Runes are required to charge the amulet, which stores 10 charges in total.
While wearing the charged Amulet of Souls, if you take damage in PvP that would normally kill you, you are granted another life. You’ll recover from the lethal damage with 5 HP, curing any Poison or Venom in the process.
This effect has a 15-minute cooldown.
In PvP deaths, any unused Death and Soul Runes are removed from the Amulet and given to the player killer.
Thaw Potion and Flame Rose
Flame Roses are a new stackable Herblore ingredient, purchasable from the PvP Arena Reward Shop.
Combining a Flame Rose, Dwarf Weed, White Lily and a Vial of Water will create a Thaw Potion.
Thaw Potions can be consumed to grant immunity from Binding spells for 10 seconds. You'll have to be careful when you decide to pop the pot though! They provide no benefit if you are currently bound and can only be used every two minutes.
Creating Thaw Potions gives a nominal amount of Herblore XP.
New Left-Click Teleport
The only available left-click teleport that can be used up to level 30 Wilderness is the Royal Seed Pod, a reward given to players after completing Monkey Madness II.
This leaves certain PvP focused account builds without a similar option, as the completion of the quest grants Defence experience.
We'd like to change this by offering an alternative to the Royal Seed Pod from the PvP Arena reward shop. This new teleport item would be untradeable and it would teleport players to the PvP Arena.
Poll 76 is here! We’ve had absolutely loads of player suggestions recently, but as we’re juggling a number of commitments at the moment, this poll will focus on smaller changes for the most part. It's all good stuff, though - including some tweaks you've been asking after for a while.
Let's start with Elite Clue changes. We know there is interest in seeing Elite Clue Challenge Questions working like they do for other Clues - this is a big job and one we'll probably look at in a future poll. In the meantime, however, we've focused on the fact that Elite Clue Scrolls work inconsistently compared to the other tiers.
This is because when we added Gilded Armours to the mega-rare drop table, we didn’t adjust the rate for 3rd Age as well. In fact, 3rd Age pieces were actually made rarer because of the additional items! This was a mistake on our part. We have made the adjustment in other tiers since then, but Elite was not included.
Here's how the numbers crunch in practice:
3rd Age from Elite is 1/5,750
3rd Age from Hard is 1/3,250
3rd Age from Master is 1/1,270
As you can see, it's actually harder to get 3rd Age from Elite Clues than Hard ones. So, we plan to fit 3rd Age between Hard and Master clues, at a rate of 1/2750 - and that rate will remain static, even if new items are added to the Clue reward pool!
Should this question pass the poll, it would affect new and existing caskets.
Poll Question #1: Should we change the rarity of 3rd Age items from Elite Clues to fit proportionally between Hard and Master Clues (1/2750)?
On the subject of Clues, we'd also like to award them when you’re completing runs of the Hallowed Sepulchre - a hopefully welcome distraction from those long Agility grinds!
We think we could add Clues to all floors, but it won’t be meta to Clue hunt here.
Poll Question #2: Should we add Clue Scrolls to each floor of the Hallowed Sepulchre, as explained in the Poll 76 Blog?
The release of Nex brought a new best-in-slot armour, and your feedback has been divided. Some of you really love how nostalgic it looks, and others feel that it doesn’t quite fit the Old School style.
As a backport from the original Torva Armour from 2011, we tried to keep as close to the original design as possible, but we can see that it may not be everyone's cup of tea!
Our artists have been paying attention to what you've had to say and they would like to present a simplified version:
Poll Question #3: Should the Torva Armour be simplified as shown in the Poll 76 blog?
Next up, let’s talk pets and insurance!
We've had a few unfortunate situations where a player has lost their pet, either because they weren't able to get it insured, or because they didn't realise they needed to. In the past, we've justified insurance costs for the purposes of sinking gold, but with the recent introduction of the Grand Exchange Tax and purchasable storage space, we might do things a little differently.
What if your insurance fees were automatically covered, so that once you've unlocked a pet, it will always be reclaimable from Probita?
Any pet achieved (with the exception of Cats and Pet Rocks) would be automatically insured. If you are unlucky enough to lose your pet, we could make a design change so that your pet could be redeemed from Probita for her usual fee of 1million GP.
Poll Question #4: Should we automatically insure pets? Cats and Pet Rocks would not be automatically insured.
In even rarer circumstances, players may receive a message letting them know that they ‘would've’ been followed if they achieved a pet drop with a follower out and a full Inventory. While we've taken measures to prevent this happening in the future, we also want to ensure that players receiving this message will also able to get their pet from Probita for her usual reclaim fee. This would not count for duplicate pets.
Poll Question #5: Should we make a change that if you ‘would've been followed’ by a pet, it would not be lost but instead be reclaimable from Probita for a reclaim fee of 1million GP? This would not count for duplicate pets.
We can also ensure that pets marked in the Collection Log as 'received' are reclaimable from Probita in the same way described above. This would mean players who had previously received a pet and lost it through death could reclaim it, as long as it's been tracked by the Collection Log. Unfortunately we won't be able to track pets which have been received and lost before the Collection Log was released. Would you like to see this change?
Poll Question #6: If Question #4 passes, should we allow players to reclaim any pet that they have already unlocked in their Collection log from Probita for the usual reclaim fee of 1million GP?
Lastly, many of you have already forked out millions of GP to insure your pets appropriately. Should the above questions pass, you may reasonably expect your money back! We can ensure that any previously paid insurance fee would be added into a reclaim fee coffer from Probita. The reclaim fee coffer could be used to discount any pet reclaim.
For example, if you had previously insured two pets at 500,000 GP each, your reclaim fee coffer would contain 1million GP, meaning one free pet reclaim.
Poll Question #7: If Question #4 passes, should a player's previously paid pet insurance count towards a coffer from Probita to be used for the purposes of reclaiming unlocked pets?
Since the release of Combat Achievements, a common discussion point has been around Kill Count (KC) tasks. Some players enjoy them, but they’re also pretty time-consuming.
We knew that these types of tasks would be time intensive and we planned it that way to guide players into trying new strategies in PvM. We wanted to encourage you to practice, but some tasks feel longer than necessary and others take almost 100 hours to complete!
We think we can tackle this issue by reducing the quantity of tasks across the board. We won't be able to give specifics on precisely how each task will be reduced, as they're all slightly different. But, as an example, we'd be looking to reduce the Chambers of Xeric Grandmaster Kill Count task from 250KC to 50KC. The lower KC tasks would stay the same.
Poll Question #8: Should the quantity of Combat Achievement Kill Count tasks be significantly reduced?
A while ago we fixed a bug that was allowing some players to kill NPCs without gaining XP. This meant 10 HP accounts could do various types of content that they wouldn't otherwise be able to do!
We jumped in to fix this bug without warning, and unfortunately this sudden change impacted various account builds.
However, we’ve come up with a new item which will allow the affected accounts to resume their journey.
'Poison Dynamite' would be a new item, created with one Dynamite and three Nightshade. It can be lit and deployed with a Tinderbox.
After 5 cycles, the Poison Dynamite will explode, rolling off your highest accuracy stat against the targets appropriate defensive stat. For example, if your Ranged stat is highest, roll your Ranged vs the target's Ranged defence.
It will deal 0-4 damage, only hit the target on the coordinate it was deployed on, and have a 25% chance to poison the target if it deals damage.
It will only hit the target if it's multi combat or if it's a single target and the player is in combat with it.
It will grant kill credit to the player that deployed it, equal to damaging the NPC normally.
A player can only deploy one at a time.
Poison Dynamite is untradeable.
Lighting the dynamite will give a small amount of Firemaking XP.
This cannot damage other players.
We hope that this is a sensible way to let those players resume the content in a way that feels fitting to Old School and not reliant on a bug. We'd like to gather your feedback on this idea and then proceed with it as part of the unpolled changes in Poll 76.
Now, onto max hits. It feels good to hit your max hit on an NPC, knowing you did the highest damage possible, right? Well, in light of player feedback we've been tinkering with ways we can make this feeling even better. We'd like to introduce a visual indicator that distinguishes between regular hit splats and max ones.
Check out what we've designed below and let us know if you like it! We didn't want the design to be too extravagant because we wanted to ensure that the 'max' hit splat is still readable and consistent with the Old School style.
From the left: The dark hitsplat on the left refers to someone else's hit. The hitsplat in the middle is your regular hit. The hitsplat on the far right would be your 'max' hit.
At present we will not be able to offer this toggle in PvP. Unfortunately, this setting gets technically complex when we try to put it on a player - because it's toggleable, each player would have to have the setting enabled to see the max hit splat in PvP.
Poll Question #9: Should we add a toggleable setting that would display a new hit splat when you hit an NPC with your max hit?
Now onto Slayer equipment. Players have pointed out that while V's Shield should feel like an upgrade to the Mirror Shield, it actually feels a bit underwhelming in practice. Despite requiring players to complete the Fremennik Exiles quests and needing several better stats to wield, the best we can say at the moment is that it just… looks a bit cooler.
So, here’s what we could do to make V’s Shield feel like a proper upgrade for Slayer:
Remove the negative offensive bonuses to Ranged/Magic.
Improve the Magic defence to +5 to match the Mirror Shield.
Poll Question #10: Should we improve the Magic defence of V's Shield by +5 and remove the negative offensive bonuses to Ranged/Magic?
Next up, a highly popular request regarding Bryophyta's Staff. Many players have requested to use it in free-to-play, which seems only fair considering that Bryophyta is a free-to-play boss.
We’ve previously asked whether Bryophta's Essence should be free-to-play and this failed to pass the poll.
We'd like to see whether your thoughts have changed:
Poll Question #11: Should Bryophyta's Staff become a free-to-play item?
Poll Question #12: If Question #11 passes, should Bryophyta's Essence also be available as a drop in free-to-play?
If this passes, free-to-play players would be able to take the essence and 50,000 GP to Zaff to acquire the Bryophyta's Staff.
During the Clan release, a hugely popular request was for customisable scenery and hospitality features.
We had a little think and we think drop parties for Clans sounds fantastic! We're excited for players to bring these fun events into their Clan Halls and make them more of a home.
Poll Question #13: Should we add a Combat Ring with safe death and a Party Room Chest and Lever to the Clan Hall?
We can't wait to see you having fun with this!
Speaking of Clan Hall upgrades, we'll also be releasing several unpolled ones, many of which were notes during the release of Clans last year.
Firstly and MOST IMPORTANTLY, we're going to be allowing players to interact with the cat in the Clan Hall.
We'll also be allowing players to use more keys on the piano.
Finally. if you've ever wanted to see the total numbers of players online in your Clan, you're in luck! The side panels for your Clan, the Clan where you're a guest, and the legacy Chat Channel will show a total of how many players are in those places. It would also be possible to separate totals for Clan members and guests if desired – and if space permits.
Moving on to more changes! As a noob, you might remember being surprised by some of the projectiles from certain spawns in the TzHaar Fight Cave (or not! Some of you are scarily good at the game).
During our process of looking into the Enhanced Client, we noticed a discrepancy. The Inferno allows players to see NPCs beyond the usual draw distance, while the Fight Caves do not. It's always been this way and we thought it would be worth asking whether you want us to offer the same draw distance in the Fight Caves, so that you can always see where NPCs have spawned.
We know that the surprise might be part of the fun, which is why we pass it over to you. We considered that this change might also have some impact on speedrunning, though we feel the types of players speedrunning the Fight Caves will already know about where everything is going to spawn based on their earlier observations.
Poll Question #14: Should we allow increased NPC visibility in the Fight Caves, similar to the Inferno?
While we're on the subject of visuals, let's discuss camera effects. There are not many places in the game with these, but they can be distracting when we do include them! As an unpolled change, we’re going to offer a toggle on the Settings menu that will allow you to turn on or off any camera movement and screen effects.
You’d be able to toggle based on the game mode, so we can include the following:
Baba Yaga's House
Fishing Trawler
We also have some specific plans about how we'll handle the tunnel vision effects in Icthlarin's Little Helper, so watch this space for that one!
Please note, this would not apply to effects that interfere with gameplay, such as the Last Man Standing fog.
Fishing Guild Changes
Have you ever found yourself stuck without a Net in the Fishing Guild? You can already grab a Harpoon and a Big Fishing Net from the entrance room, but not a regular Fishing Net.
Poll Question #15: Should we add a Fishing Net spawn inside the Fishing Guild? This would be Ironman-friendly.
We've also noticed that players might find themselves short on other gear while in the Fishing Guild. What if Roachey could provide players with Rods, Harpoons, Nets, and Small Nets? Currently, he just offers Bait and accepts fish.
Poll Question #16: Should we add more items to the Fishing Guild store? This would include the same items as other fishing stores across Gielinor (Rods, Harpoons, Nets, and Small Nets).
To make skilling easier, we'd also like to give you the option to use your spacebar to ‘Smith the last item.’ Should this pass, there would be a clear visual indicator included to let you know what that item is.
Poll Question #17: On the Smithing interface, should we allow players to use the spacebar to 'Smith last item'?
We can also offer the same improvements for the Jewellery Crafting interface.
Poll Question #18: On the Jewellery Crafting interface, should we allow players to use the spacebar to 'Craft last item'?
And how about we give Cooking some love? There are various locations across Gielinor which we think could include a left-click ‘Cook’ operation, similar to ranges. We would ensure that players would not be able to walk on top of the fire, to prevent anyone ‘dinner-griefing’ you by stepping on your beautiful meals!
Poll Question #19: Should we add a left click ‘Cook’ option to the Rogues' Den and Barbarian Village fires?
Next up, it's time to talk about the Pharaoh's Sceptre! We've seen various community requests for us to buff this item, and we'd like to meet you in the middle. What if we made the Pharaoh's Sceptre one-handed instead? This would allow you to flex your Book of Darkness while wielding the Sceptre at Pyramid Plunder!
Poll Question #20: Should we make the Pharaoh's Sceptre one-handed?
We'd like to offer Hellhounds, including Cerberus, the ability to occasionally drop an Ensouled Head, which would give players more of a reason to complete Hellhound tasks.
The Ensouled Heads would count as part of the 'Expert' Reanimation tier and offer 1,000 Prayer XP. It will also work with the Soul Bearer and contribute towards your ‘Hellhound’ Slayer task!
Poll Question #21: Should we give the ability for Hellhounds (including Cerberus) to occasionally drop an Ensouled Head? The drop rate for regular Hellhounds would match other Ensouled Heads at a rate of 1/40. The drop rate for Cerberus would be 1/15.
Too many Giant Keys and Mossy Keys in your inventory? We propose to make them stackable, to avoid Inventory clutter! Note that these items wouldn't stack together, but as two separate stacks.
Poll Question #22: Should we change Mossy Keys and Giant Keys to make them stackable?
We’d also like to add a log-in message that appears when you have items stored in an item retrieval service like at Hespori or Vorkath. If the player dies, the items will still be deleted as usual.
Poll Question #23: Should we send you a log-in message to alert you when you have items stored in an item retrieval service?
Next up, we're looking at removing the prompt given when right-clicking Robin to 'Claim Slime'. Players have been teleporting away by accident without pressing the spacebar after the dialogue!
Poll Question #24: Should we allow players to instantly acquire Slime and Bonemeal when clicking 'Claim Slime' on Robin?
Should this pass, you'll instantly be given Slime and Bonemeal after using the right-click option. We'll also be changing the text to say 'Slime and Bonemeal' rather than 'Bonemeal and Slime'.
During the Guardians of the Rift feedback process, players raised a frustration about the slight delay after clicking on a Runecraft Altar. This delay restricts the player from performing any action for a couple of cycles, which may affect opening Runecraft Pouches or clicking Teleports.
Considering that this delay is not present when crafting combination Runes, we are open to removing it. This change would have an effect on existing Runecraft methods by increasing the XP/hr for conventional Runecraft. All non-combination methods of Runecraft would therefore be slightly buffed. Let's put it to a poll and see what you think!
Poll Question #25: Should we remove the existing delay after using Essence on Runecraft Altars?
Last but not least - Soul Wars! We think an additional Fairy Ring would improve accessibility to the Soul Wars Island, so we'd like to add one to the north coast.
Poll Question #26: Should we introduce an additional Fairy Ring to the Soul Wars Island as shown in the Poll 76 Blog?
Let's talk about a couple of unpolled changes next, which we'd like to introduce as part of the work for Poll 76.
We'll be looking to allow Soul Wars to be playable in every world. We think this would entice organized Clans to go to their own world and allow players who enjoy the sport of it to play it more competitively on themed worlds.
Back in April, we also mentioned that we were looking to allow players to 'Buy X' in the ‘Other’ tab at the Soul Wars Shop. Players will be able to purchase Blighted items and Spoils in custom quantities.
Finally, we'll also be looking to increase the XP from Soul Wars Rewards.
We originally communicated that the XP would be equivalent to intermediate Pest Control at around 80,000 XP per hour. However, at present players achieve around 60,000 XP per hour at best. For this reason, we'll be adjusting the XP calculations to better reflect what was polled, ensuring that players spending their Zeal tokens receive the intended XP for their effort in the minigame.
That's it for Poll 76!
We hope to have more regular polls throughout the year, keeping them relatively short to ensure that we can get the changes out as soon as we can. Let us know your feedback!
