Old School RuneScape News

This week is packed with Tombs of Amascut tweaks! Read on to see what’s changed…

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[h2]Tombs of Amascut Balance Changes[/h2]

If you haven’t been living under a pyramid for the last week, you’ll know that our newest raid, Tombs of Amascut, is live and kicking with over one million completions so far!

We’ve been poring over the ancient scrolls (Reddit etc) to uncover your feedback– we’ve addressed a whole bunch of it! Keep reading for all the deets.

Zebak

• Raised base Hitpoints by ~10%.
  
• Increased the base number of jugs by two.
  
• Jugs no longer set attack delay, but still respect it – so you should be able to pop a jug and hit Zebak immediately, but might have to wait if you hit Zebak before the jug.
  
• Jugs roll two tiles further before stopping.

Overall, we feel like Zebak’s in a pretty good place (balance wise – we won’t comment on his swampy prison). He does, however, have a tendency to die off before he really gets going. We reckon a few extra Hitpoints will make the fight more challenging, without letting it drag on forever.

Although there’s a solution for every jug setup, player positioning can make it tricky to utilise this mechanic. Given how punishing Zebak’s roar is, we’ve made things a bit more consistent with this suite of helpful jug-based changes.

Akkha

• Orbs spawned during the enrage phase will now only deal full damage to one player.
  
• The number of orbs spawned during the enrage phase has been slightly reduced, since many players felt dodging them wasn't really feasible.
  
• To compensate, the base damage of the enrage phase orbs has been slightly increased, However the max damage of the orbs is capped at 25 to prevent them from being overly punishing on higher Raid Levels.
  
• Akkha will change styles if he hasn't swapped for over 60 seconds. We apologise to any would-be lepidopterists out there!

Akkha’s also pretty much functioning as intended. Our chief concern is that the enrage section of his fight is extremely punishing, especially at higher Raid Level. We hope that the above changes will help players feel like dodging the orbs is worth their time.

Additionally, an incredibly creative, tick-perfect kiting tactic known as ‘the butterfly method’ recently surfaced, allowing super-skilled players to take 0 damage and avoid all of Akkha’s special attacks. The method requires some pretty precise clicks, and we’re definitely impressed by the ingenuity, so we’re not removing it entirely. That said, we don’t want to negate the fight completely (or negate the effects of Invocations), so after a short while Akkha will switch things up a bit.

Ba-Ba

• Bananas spawned via the Jungle Japes Invocation now occurs on monkey death rather than randomly.
  
• Bananas spawned via the Jungle Japes Invocation now deal significantly reduced damage.
  
• The damage done by open sarcophagi is no longer dealt in a 3x3 area.

Ba-ba’s looking pretty healthy at the moment – considering the whole skeleton thing – although we have had some feedback regarding the bananas and sarcophagus damage. We hope these changes will make the fight a bit less frustrating!

Wardens

• Adjusted the damage formula for Phase 2 to benefit less from accuracy and have a lower max ceiling.
  
• Reduced core exposure time by 7 cycles.
  
• Increased the Wardens’ Hitpoints during Phase 2 for high-scale groups.
  
• Slightly reduced the amount of damage dealt to the Warden when successfully clearing the Phase 3 skull mechanic.
  
• Slightly increased the base Hitpoints of the Warden during Phase 3.
  
• Reduced the base allowed duration for solving the skull mechanic during Phase 3.
  
• Slightly reduced the Magic level of the Warden during Phase 3.

We may be a little biased, but we think you’ll agree that visually and conceptually, the Wardens are a fantastic fight. That said, the balance is a little off.

As the final boss of the raid, the Wardens should be challenging and resource-intensive – but during Phase 2, arguably the toughest part, players spend more time attacking the core than fighting the boss.

These changes should ensure that the battle feels a little more back-and-forth for big groups and players with high-end gear, without significantly affecting smaller groups with less flashy gear.

Phase 3's skull mechanic deals enough damage that the surviving Warden is almost instantly pushed into the next skull mechanic. Players spend more time interacting with this mechanic than anything in the rest of the fight, so we’ve gone ahead and tweaked the pacing to keep you all on your toes.

Similarly, most groups have never even seen the fail condition for the skull mechanic – so we’ve tightened up the timing to make sure more of you get the full Wardens experience. Good luck!

Path of Apmeken

• Reduced the number of monkeys that spawn in each wave.
  
• Adjusted the timings of the waves so they overlap more smoothly.
  
• By default, players will now receive 100 Potions from the crate rather than 20.
  
• Completing the room will now delete the regular Hammer from your Inventory.

Ba-Ba’s troop of baboons are definitely an engaging encounter, but their antics do mean that the Path of Apmeken takes longer than the other paths. These changes should make it a bit more reasonable, and properly reward you for moving fast!

Path of Het

• Changed the health scaling of Het's Seal for different group sizes.

This change aims to make 1-downs a little more reliable in groups where there may be big differences between the highest and lowest Mining levels.

Mid-raid Loot

• Ambrosia and Liquid Adrenaline are now 1-dose potions.
  
• Liquid Adrenaline now rarely shows up in the Chaos pack.
  
• Ambrosia now only shows up in the Life pack.
  
• Adjusted the quantity of items provided in the Chaos pack.
  
• Increased the amount of Run Energy that Smelling Salts restore.
  
• The mid-raid loot interface no longer stops your movement, so you'll be able to withdraw your supplies on the fly!

Ambrosia and Liquid Adrenaline are both items we wanted people to opt in to if they felt needed, at the high price of losing out on other useful items.

When they were both available alongside Smelling Salts in the Chaos pack, players could get everything they wanted without any real decision making. We hope that these changes get players making more meaningful choices, especially at higher skill levels.

General Changes

• Players can now boost to hit the Prayer level requirement for creating Elidinis' Ward (f).
  
• Players can now boost to hit the Crafting level requirement for creating the Divine Rune Pouch.
  
• Reduced the number of AoE mechanics that stack with each other – for example, walking into a Kephri bomb on a tile where two players once stood will no longer result in taking double damage.
  
• Players using the 'On A Diet' Invocation will be longer be provided with Silk Dressings or Honey Locusts.
  
• Monster Examine has been re-enabled within the Tombs of Amascut.

We noticed that grouping up for ToA could be less desirable because on top of the sheer number of obstacles to dodge, you’re also being more harshly punished for running into them. Previously, if two people were caught in the same AoE attack, the damage would stack, which could result in innocent players getting absolutely obliterated if they wandered into the splash zone. Now that’s fixed, players can group up and run headfirst into danger without endangering anyone else.

You’ll also notice that Monster Examine has been re-enabled, as promised. Enjoy!

Drop Rates

• Slightly reduced the base drop chance for tradeable uniques.
  
• Slightly increased the effect that Raid Level has on tradeable unique drop rate.

We’ve been carefully monitoring the drop rates since release and have decided that some small changes are needed to keep rewards in line with the difficulty of the raid.

While Expert is significantly better than Normal Mode if you’re hoping for uniques, Normal is proving a bit easier than expected, and Expert perhaps a little harder. We want players to really feel the value of trying higher Raid Levels – hence the changes.

We’ll be keeping a very close eye on this as further balancing changes come in and metas develop.

Speaking of further changes, next week we’ll be addressing the balance of specific Invocations, Invocation presets, Ornament Kits, and pet transmogs! Stay tuned!

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[h2]Tombs of Amascut Bug Fixes[/h2]

As with any major release, some pesky bugs have slipped through our net – and we’re not talking about Kephri!

So, without further ado, here’s what we’ve fixed or changed during the week. Please note that many of these were addressed in the ‘Your Feedback, Our Response’ section of last week’s newspost – this is just here to keep everyone in the loop.

• Max hits on the Wardens' cores are now only guaranteed with Melee weapons.
  
• Thralls and pets will no longer appear on top of the skulls during the final phase of the Wardens' encounter, nor on the jugs in Zebak's encounter, nor on the eggs in Kephri's encounter.
  
• Players will no longer find themselves blocked from completing the raid if they die at the same time as the final Warden.
  
• Zebak will now properly reset following a wipe, so no more getting swept away on re-entry!
  
• Players can no longer safespot Ba-Ba using the fallen rubble in some positions. Ba-Ba wanted us to let you know that she's grateful for the occasional downtime but would much prefer to get back to punching anybody who disturbs her.
  
• Players are no longer able to get stuck inside a big rock when fighting Ba-Ba.
  
• Fixed a bug where Akkha's orbs occasionally wouldn't spawn for his enrage phase.
  
• Kephri no longer regenerates HP during her final phase.
  
• Venom pool duration on the Path of Apmeken was reduced from 30 seconds to 20 seconds.
  
• Placing two mirrors in the same location on the Path of Het no longer deletes one of the mirrors.
  
• Mirrors in the Path of Het can no longer be pushed into walls.
  
• Damage dealt to Het's Seal now scales properly with the tier of Pickaxe you're using. Don't forget to store a Pickaxe with the statue if you want to save yourself an Inventory space!
  
• Charged Crystal Pickaxes can now be deposited to the Pickaxe storage on the Path of Het.
  
• Tumeken's Shadow now only grants passive Magic Attack and Damage bonuses to its in-built spell, not to other spells.
  
• Saradomin Brews are no longer disabled by the 'On A Diet' Invocation. Note that Honey Locusts and Silk Dressing are considered food by this Invocation - this is intended.
  
• Players using specific RuneLite plugins will no longer turn invisible when using a Blessed Crystal Scarab, even if those plugins are still turned on.
  
• Grand Exchange clerks will now display the values of new items added alongside Tombs of Amascut.
  
• Pieces of Armadyl Armour now break down into the correct amount of Armadylean Plates for you to fortify your Masori Armour with:
  
  • Armadyl Helmet gives one plate.
    
  • Armadyl Chestplate gives four plates.
    
  • Armadyl Chainskirt gives three plates.
• The Divine Rune Pouch can now be picked up from the ground. Ultimate Irons who've looted a Thread of Elidinis can carry on using their place of death as a morbid storage option for their upgraded Pouch!

Now that you're all up to date with what changed during last week, let's have a look at what we're doing today:

• 1-dose variants of Nectar and Tears of Elidinis are now more visually distinct.
  
• The Infernal Max Cape no longer has an unusual graphical interaction with Tumeken's Shadow. You can finally return to flexing in style!
  
• The Masori Mask no longer has any graphical issues when worn with Tumeken's Shadow or Osmumten's Fang.
  
• The MVP board has had some adjustments made so that players see a wider spread of the various titles available.
  
• Players can no longer melee Zebak without risking being melee’d back.
  
• Zebak's roar can no longer knock players into safespots at the edges of the room.
  
• Jugs should no longer roll through rocks in Zebak's fight.
  
• Jugs should more reliably explode on contact with a rock.
  
• Fixed a bug where the Arcane Scarab was nullifying damage in some instances.
  
• Fixed a bug where the Arcane Scarab was teleporting immediately after firing.
  
• The exploding scarabs between Kephri's shield phases should now detonate more consistently.
  
• Fixed a bug where players could click through the Wardens Phase 1 Obelisk.
  
• The 'tile push' during Wardens Phase 3 no longer pushes players into the terrain.

We’re keeping a close eye on balancing for both difficulty and rewards, but rest assured that we won’t be making any knee-jerk reactions. You can look forward to any balancing changes in later weeks.

We've made some early changes that should alleviate some of the world lag people have been experiencing; we don't think this will be enough and will continue working on the recent server issues. However, we do hope to see some improvements with this update.

Alright – who fancies a celebration?

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[h2]Tombs of Amascut World Firsts[/h2]

In last week's newspost, we challenged players to race to complete the first Normal Mode and Expert Mode runs.

In case you missed it on our socials, we'd like to once again congratulate our Tombs of Amascut World First winners!

• Normal Mode World First (Any Raid Level between 150 and 299) - Group Size: 7
  
  • Rovint
    
  • Oblv Yuumi
    
  • Oblv Poenari
    
  • 54N Kappa
    
  • Animeme
    
  • Hardesnikkel
    
  • Kanao

• Expert Mode World First (Any Raid Level above 300) - Group Size: Solo
  
  • Oblv Jraze

Congratulations to all of the World First runners! Everybody named above will receive 12 months of Membership, so keep a close eye on your in-game inbox to claim your prize!

Everyone else: don’t be disheartened! There are still lots of achievements to go for. We've started to see more than a handful of clears north of 400 Raid Level, who knows where the ceiling might be?!

We can't wait to see just how high players are able to push their Raid Level over the coming weeks!

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[h2]Tombs of Amascut Route Races[/h2]

Now that people are starting to get a little more comfortable within the raid, we'd like to challenge you to go faster.

The Tombs of Amascut Route Races is a speedrunning competition for each of the four paths in Normal Mode Tombs of Amascut.

Simply pick one of the four routes, clear the path, defeat the boss at the end and submit a clear video of the whole thing to us – no extra prizes for filming on Unregistered Hypercam 2. The fastest team for each of the four races will receive two months of Membership for everyone in the group!

We’ll say it again: you must have a recorded video of your speedrun for it to be eligible for the competition. To submit your entry, simply fill out this form, including a link to the video.

T&Cs for the competition can be found here. Good luck!

We'd like to take a moment to thank everybody who's gotten stuck into the Tombs of Amascut over the past week.

The team has absolutely loved watching you take on the various bosses, and we really appreciate all the feedback you've given us so far!

If you've not had a chance to try Tombs of Amascut yet, complete Beneath Cursed Sands and give it a go! Entry Mode is very accessible, so get some friends together and get tomb raiding.

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[h2]Other Changes[/h2]

Don’t worry, we haven’t forgotten about the rest of the game! Here are the other patch notes from this week:

• Fixed a bug that allowed players to access total level worlds without meeting the required total level.
  
• Fixed a bug that prevented Rune Thrownaxe special attacks working on the door supports on Waterbirth Island.
  
• Skill XP tooltips have been adjusted on the C++ client and should now be working as expected on both Desktop and Mobile.

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[h2]PvP Rota[/h2]

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.

The PvP Arena is now using 'Pure' loadouts in Ranked Tournaments this week.

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That about wraps it up for this week!

As always, make sure to get in touch with us using the links at the bottom of the post if you have any thoughts, feedback or further issues to report with Tombs of Amascut.

Thanks for reading and happy raiding!

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Discuss this update on our official forums, on the 2007Scape subreddit, the Steam forums, or the community-led OSRS Discord in the #gameupdate channel. For more info on the above content, check out the official Old School Wiki.

Mods Arcane, Archie, Argo, Ash, Ayiza, Boko, Brow, Bruno, Curse, Daizong, Ditto, Dylan, Ed, Elena, Errol, Fed, Gecko, Goblin, Grub, Halo, Havik, Hornet, Husky, Jalo, Katies, Kieren, Kirby, Kurotou, Lenny, Light, Lottie, Mack, Matheus, Maylea, Markos, Meat, Morty, Nin, Nylu, Regent, Redfield, Roq, Ry, Sarnie, Sigma, Skylark, Soffan, Sova, Squid, Steve W, Tide, Torrance, Veda, Vegard, West & Wolfy

The Old School Team.

Ever enjoyed a quest so much that you want to experience it all again? Or hated one so much you reckon you deserve a big shiny trophy for completing it? Then Quest Speedrunning is the update for you!

Zoom your way through Gielinor in our newest official game mode: Quest Speedrunning!

It's time to square up your strategy, turn 'numbers go up' on its head and test how well you really know Old School’s most iconic quests!



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[h2]Speedrunning Worlds[/h2]



Quest Speedrunning takes place on members-only worlds with separate save files, so your actions here won’t affect your usual account. Speedrun effectively, and you’ll earn reward points which will transfer across to your main account in the normal game mode.

Upon logging on to a Speedrunning world, you’ll be prompted to select the quest you’d like to run. After you’ve made your choice, the game will automatically adjust your stats to the recommended levels for the quest you’ve chosen, as well as providing all the relevant items. This keeps things fair and ensures that everyone starts in the same place.

There are a few key differences between Speedrunning Worlds and normal ones:

• No tutorial.
  
• No trading – all players are considered Iron accounts.
  
• No PvP.
  
• No access to Castle Wars, the PvP Arena, Fight Pits, Last Man Standing, Rat Pits, Soul Wars, or Trouble Brewing.
  
• Teleport cooldowns (such as the Home Teleport) are paused on logout, so players can’t log out and wait 30 minutes to regain their teleport and cheat the system.
  
• Shops have a static stock and items are never sold out.
  
• Items can still be sold to shops but will be immediately deleted.
  
• Items picked up from the floor are player-specific, so multiple speedrunners can obtain the same item without having to worry about competition!
  
• Dropped items behave as normal, but they will be deleted once the speedrun ends.
  
• Death works as normal.

In addition, to discourage chicanery, the following rules apply to players on Speedrunning Worlds who are not on a speedrun:

• XP gain is disabled.
  
• Deaths are safe and any items dropped on death are immediately deleted. If you die while not on a speedrun, you will respawn in Lumbridge with the items you had.

While not speedrunning, you’re free to roam the world and watch other speedrunners do their thing. That said, they might not have time for a chat!

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[h2]Quest Speedrunning Menu[/h2]



Your journey begins in the Quest Speedrunning Menu, which will pop up when you log in to a Speedrunning World. Here, you’ll be able to see all the key information about your run, including:

• Current Speedrun Time
  
• Personal Best Time
  
• Global Best Time
  
• Times required for each trophy (see Rewards section)
  
• Unlocks
  
• Items

Again, once you’ve set up your speedrun your character will be fully reset, and your stats and items will be readjusted to the preset for that quest.

When you’re ready to go, you’ll be conveniently whisked away to the start point of your chosen quest.

You can also open this menu mid-run to cancel your current adventure and start over if things go wrong.

Unlocks

Under this heading you can see all the stats, quests, travel, and other unlocks you’ll get when speedrunning the selected quest. These unlocks are the same for everyone.

Items

This heading shows the items you’ll get when starting your chosen quest. Be aware that the items given are not necessarily the items required – for example, if the quest requires a dagger, you may be given a suitable pickaxe (or the money to buy one) to go mine some ore and smith it into the dagger you need.



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[h2]Speedrun Timer[/h2]

The race will begin after you speak to the relevant NPC and begin the quest – after that point, the Speedrun Timer will be ticking!

Logging out will pause the timer but be aware that doing so will add a couple of seconds to your time to prevent logging out becoming a viable strategy.

Your current time is shown on the Speedrunning Menu and the Speedrunning Helper, which appears onscreen throughout the run and displays the time required for the next trophy.

The timer will automatically stop once the quest is complete or when the speedrun is abandoned, which can be done at any time via the Speedrunning Menu.



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[h2]Implementation[/h2]

Quest Speedrunning will launch with five iconic quests for you to try. This will limit your ability to obtain Reward Points to a maximum of 1600 points, as four trophies can be earned for each quest – but be assured that more are on the way!

Once we’ve given players the chance to try speedrunning and are satisfied that no major changes are needed, we’ll introduce two additional quests a month for at least five months. That means that the number of Reward Points available will increase by 640 Points per month.

We’re hoping that this schedule will also create a sense of community among speedrunners as they try to figure out the monthly quests. We can’t wait to see what wild and wacky strategies you go for!

After five months, we’ll reassess how frequently new quests should be added, and which ones will make it into the game mode.

We want to make sure that any additional quests we add are suitable for speedrunning. In some cases, we’ll need to remove bottlenecks so that people’s world record attempts aren’t ruined by other people standing in the wrong spot!

For now though, let’s take a look at the five quests you’ll be able to speedrun at launch:



Please note that the times given above are subject to balancing changes following player feedback. We’re especially interested to hear from the speedrunning community, as these are the players most familiar with what we’re trying to achieve – but any and all feedback is very welcome.

Additionally, although the first five quests available are all free-to-play, Quest Speedrunning is a members-only game mode.

In the next five months, we’ll be making the following quests available to speedrun:



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[h2]Beta[/h2]

The Quest Speedrunning beta will begin on September 14th, 2022, and last for two weeks. We’ll be using the beta, and corresponding player feedback, to make adjustments and ensure that this game mode hits the right mark.

Keep your eyes peeled for more beta news!

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[h2]Rewards [/h2]

Since Quest Speedrunning is ultimately a niche way to play the game, we think the rewards should be as accessible as possible, rather than limited to the small cohort of players who engage regularly with the game mode.

The vast majority of rewards will be purchasable with Reward Points and tradeable on the Grand Exchange. If you have enough gold, you can get all the rewards simply by paying someone else to do the hard work!

The major exception to this rule is that trophies will be untradeable. Earning a trophy should feel like a real achievement, after all.

With only five quests available at launch, Reward Points will be limited for a short time – but don’t panic! As we said above, each month following launch will bring two new quests, and a whopping 640 Reward Points to earn.

Reward Shop and Reward Points



Reward Points

You can earn four different trophies per quest, ranging from Bronze to Platinum! Earning a trophy for the first time will get you Reward Points – the better the trophy, the more Points you’ll get!

• Bronze: 10 Points
  
• Silver: 30 Points
  
• Gold: 80 Points
  
• Platinum: 200 Points

The total Reward Points available for each quest is 320 Points.

But that’s not all – you’ll also unlock your hard-earned trophies as in-game items! They provide no mechanical buffs, but they will show everyone you meet that you’re a Quest Speedrunning champion.

To unlock the trophies as items, you’ll need to unlock every trophy of that level for all the quests on the Speedrunning list – so to wield the Bronze Trophy, you’ll need to complete all the quests to at least Bronze standard.

You can only earn a given trophy once, but you can always go back and try to earn a higher-level one! Be aware that you can earn multiple trophies in one speedrun, so if you get the Platinum on your first go, you’ll also unlock Gold, Silver, and Bronze.

The Speedrunning Menu will help you keep track of which trophies you’ve already earned, and the Speedrunning Helper will let you know which time you need to beat to earn your next trophy.

Right, before we move on to the other rewards, we’ve got our first poll question!

Poll Question #1: Should untradeable trophies be added to the game as rewards for Quest Speedrunning, as described in the blog? Please note that the exact number of points earned from trophies is still subject to balancing changes.

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Reward Shop

Once you’ve got some Reward Points saved up, you can spend them in the Quest Speedrunning Reward Shop, which can be found just outside the Grand Exchange on main game worlds.

Here’s what they have in stock:

Adventurer's Outfit (Tiers 1-3, Tradeable)



The Adventurer’s Outfit has no stats, but it is the new best-in-slot fashionscape for Quest Cape enjoyers! Choose from one of three distinct sets, each including boots, legs, a body and a hood.

Tier 1 costs 200 Reward Points, Tier 2 costs 600 Reward Points, and Tier 3 costs 1800 Reward Points.

Poll Question #2: Should the Adventurer's Outfit (Tiers 1-3) be added to the game as described in the blog?

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Speedy Teleport Scroll (Tradeable)



The Speedy Teleport Scroll changes your Home Teleport animation to make your character run on the spot! It’ll cost you 600 Reward Points, but we reckon the cardio benefits are worth way more than that.

Poll Question #3: Should the Speedy Teleport Scroll be added to the game as described in the blog?

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Giant Stopwatch (Tradeable)



There’s no excuse to be late when you’re carrying the Giant Stopwatch around! This titanic timepiece is held in the weapon slot, and overrides your ready, walk, and run animations. Take it home for a meagre 1,200 Reward Points!

Poll Question #4: Should the Giant Stopwatch cosmetic be added to the game as described in the blog?

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[h2]Feedback and Survey [/h2]

As always, we’ve been paying close attention to your feedback. Here’s what you had to say about Quest Speedrunning:



And if that wasn’t enough feedback for you, feel free to tell us what you think of our latest plans in our latest Quest Speedrunning survey, which you can find here. We’ll make sure to carefully review your feedback and make any necessary changes before the poll goes live.



Assuming all is well, we’ll be launching the Quest Speedrunning beta on September 14th, and it’ll last two weeks. As we said, we’re especially interested in feedback from the speedrunning community, but we’ll take everyone’s thoughts and ideas into account while deciding our next steps.

We’re aiming for a September 28th release date, which is slightly earlier than the October launch we promised in the Gielinor Gazette. Hurrah!

Last but by no means least, we’d like to thank the speedrunning community for all the time they’ve already spent helping us fine-tune this update. We really appreciate it, and hope that this game mode will exceed all your expectations!

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Discuss this update on our official forums, on the 2007Scape subreddit, the Steam forums, or the community-led OSRS Discord in the #gameupdate channel. For more info on the above content, check out the official Old School Wiki.

Mods Arcane, Archie, Argo, Ash, Ayiza, Boko, Brow, Bruno, Curse, Daizong, Ditto, Dylan, Ed, Elena, Errol, Fed, Gecko, Goblin, Grub, Halo, Havik, Hornet, Husky, Jalo, Katies, Kieren, Kirby, Kurotou, Lenny, Light, Lottie, Mack, Matheus, Maylea, Markos, Meat, Morty, Nin, Nylu, Regent, Redfield, Roq, Ry, Sarnie, Sigma, Skylark, Soffan, Sova, Squid, Steve W, Tide, Torrance, Veda, Vegard, West & Wolfy

The Old School Team.

[h3]Today's game update will take the game offline for approximately 30 minutes as we create backup saves. We're aiming to have the game resume as normal from 11:00 am BST.

Please be advised this is a big update which means a bigger download, so getting back into the game might take a bit longer than normal.[/h3]

The time has come for you to face the evil lurking within the Tombs of Amascut!

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[h2]Tombs of Amascut[/h2]

Want a fancy new desktop background? Click the image for a full-sized version without the Logo!

We’re finally ready to dig into one of the biggest releases of the year! Prepare yourselves for Tombs of Amascut, the most replayable and narrative-driven raid we’ve made to date!

Don’t forget to pack some headphones along with the rest of your tomb-raiding gear – our fantastic audio team have created some proper bangers and some truly spine-chilling sound effects, so for the full Tombs of Amascut experience, you’ll want to give them a good listen. Big thanks to Mods Grace, Kasia, Lord, Slippers and Surma!

One last note before we dive in:

YOU MUST HAVE COMPLETED BENEATH CURSED SANDS TO ACCESS TOMBS OF AMASCUT.

Everyone done that? Great. Now that you’re sitting comfortably, we’ll begin…

Long ago, the people of the Kharidian Desert lived prosperous, luxurious lives, under the watchful eyes of their beloved gods.

All that changed when Amascut, the Goddess of Rebirth, became corrupted. She was reborn as The Devourer, intent on consuming every living soul in existence.

Deep within the desert, an ancient tomb has long hidden a great power – and The Devourer is determined to harness it at any cost.

If she succeeds, all hope is lost. You must traverse the tomb’s many obstacles and foil her evil plans… before it’s too late.

[h3]Requirements[/h3]

[expand]To take on the Tombs of Amascut you'll need to have finished the following quests:

• Beneath Cursed Sands
  
  • Contact!
    
    • Prince Ali Rescue
      
    • Icthlarin's Little Helper
      
      • Gertrude's Cat

This means you'll need the following skill levels (in order required to complete the associated quests):

• 62 Agility
  
• 55 Crafting
  
• 55 Firemaking

[/expand]

Worlds

The following worlds will now be dedicated to Tombs of Amascut:

• World 329 - US East
  
• World 331 - US West
  
• World 531 - Australia
  
• World 333 - UK

We’ve also added two Tombs of Amascut Free For All worlds:

• World 338 - US
  
• World 336 - Germany

Location



Now you’ve completed Beneath Cursed Sands, you should be intimately familiar with the Necropolis. When you’re ready to take on the Raid, just go there and make a beeline for the Giant Pyramid. You can’t miss it!

If you don’t fancy trekking through the desert, there are a few travel options which should make your journey to the raid less arduous:

• After completing Beneath Cursed Sands, bring a Pharaoh’s Sceptre to the Obelisk west of the Pyramid and commune with it to unlock the teleport. Then simply head there for the raid!
  
• Use the Fairy Ring code AKP to travel to a small island near the Necropolis. Make sure you have at least 62 Agility to use the stepping stones!
  
• Take a Magic Carpet to Sophanem and head south to the Necropolis. Be sure to bring your Circlet of Water to protect you from the desert heat!

Starting The Raid



Upon entering the eponymous tomb for the first time, you’ll be met with a cutscene where Maisa will explain how you can help put a stop to Amascut’s plans.

Once inside, you’ll see a few noticeable features:

• Grouping Obelisk - This is where you can make a group or join one.
  
• Bank Camel - This enterprising ungulate has set up shop inside the pyramid and is willing to help you access all your best gear and possessions.
  
• Scoreboard - Keep track of your personal best times and just-okay attempts across different group sizes and difficulty levels.
  
• Invocations Board - A list of all the available Invocations for you to study before heading into the Raid. You’ll also be able to see what each Invocation does on the party creation screen when you head into the raid – but we recommend brushing up on your knowledge here before jumping in.
  
• Claim Chest - Should you lose your items while in the Raid, you’ll be able to claim them back here… for a reasonable fee, of course.
  
• False Door - Much like the equivalent at the Theatre of Blood, you can use this handy shortcut to reclaim any loot you’ve left in the Tomb.

Creating or Joining a Party



You can use the Grouping Obelisk to either create a party or join one using the relevant buttons.

In the Create a Party menu, you can see an overview of your current party members and a big list of everyone waiting to join. You can also set your Invocations and see a nice summary of all the modifiers and restrictions in place for your Raid.

To join a team, pick a party you like the look of and then click ‘apply’ to… apply! From there, the leader can either accept or deny your application. Easy!

The Invocation System

The Invocation system is one of the features that sets the Tombs of Amascut apart from our previous raids. This innovative system will let raiders customise their experience inside the tombs like never before, giving newer adventurers the chance to learn the ropes and letting veterans build on the mechanics they’ve mastered to create whole new challenges.

Sounds good, right? Read on to learn some of the finer details about how Invocations work.

[h3]Invocations[/h3]

[expand]When you first enter Tombs of Amascut, you’ll get the choice to start out with no Invocations (in Entry Mode) or with a set menu of Invocations that should result in a challenging and engaging first-time experience.

You’ll also be able to view the Invocations tab when making or joining a raiding party. You’ll see a big list of all the Invocations, and the party leader will be able to select as many (or as few) as they like for that particular run.

Each Invocation you activate will add to your Raid Level. With no Invocations, your Raid Level will be 0. The tougher the Invocation, the more Raid Level it will add. In other words, your Raid Level shows, at a glance, how difficult the raid will be – and higher risk equals higher reward.

This is the Invocations tab. Active Invocations are highlighted yellow, while inactive or lower tier Invocations are greyed out.

A Raid Level of 0 - 149 will count as an Entry Mode raid. Entry Mode raids are a great way for less experienced raiders to get stuck in and start practicing their skills.

A Raid Level of 150 - 299 will count as a Normal Mode raid. Normal Mode raids are where players with some previous raiding experience will be able to enjoy a challenge and work their way up towards Expert Mode as they get more comfortable inside the tombs.

Anything over 300 Raid Level will count as an Expert Mode raid. Expert Mode is for the best of the best. 300 Raid Level is all it takes to get there, but you can gain up to 600 Raid Level – so far... Test your limits and see how far you can go before the power of Amascut overwhelms you!

As the Raid Level increases, enemies inside the tombs will hit harder and last longer. On the other hand, completing raids with a higher Raid Level will improve your rewards – not to mention your bragging rights!

If you’re struggling to choose, click the button named 'Preset' to use a pre-selected set of Invocations that will count as a Normal Mode raid.

The various Raid Level thresholds, scaling from ‘Entry Mode’ at 0 Raid Level all the way to 'Probably Impossible' at 600 Raid Level.

Here's a quick breakdown of how Raid Level will impact your spoils while you're busy tomb-raiding:

• All the untradeable rewards (the Thread of Elidinis and the Keris Partisan Jewels) can be obtained at any Raid Level.
  
• As you work your way up the ranks and surpass 50 Raid Level, you'll be in with a reasonable shot at earning the Lightbearer and Osmumten's Fang if you see a unique.
  
• Completing a Normal Mode (or higher!) raid will give you a decent chance to loot a piece of Masori Armour, the Ward of Elidinis or even the Shadow of Tumeken if you see a unique.
  
• Any of the greyed out items can be obtained but will be extremely rare. Don't count on seeing any unique that isn't highlighted!

The chance to gain a unique item, and the quantity of the normal loot you receive, is also boosted at higher Raid Level. This means there’s always an incentive to challenge yourself if you want to get your hands on that sweet, sweet loot![/expand]

If you want to find a list of all the Invocations featured within the Tombs of Amascut, then head on over to our friends at the Official OSRS Wiki, who have a page full of ‘em!

Choose Your Path…

Where to find the bosses in order from left to right: Akkha, Zebak, Kephri and Ba-Ba

Invocations aren’t the only way you can customise your experience in the Tombs. Once you’re in the raid, you’ll be presented with five doors. The one in the centre will take you to the Raid’s final encounter, but before that, you’ll have to take on four uniquely challenging paths. Each path leads to a dangerous boss – a powerful creature corrupted by Amascut.

It’s up to you which path you tackle in which order, so once you’ve become familiar with each one, you’ll be able to choose which order suits you best. Here are the options:

• Path of Apmeken: This is the path where Ba-Ba is found
  
• Path of Crondis: This is the path where Zebak is found
  
• Path of Het: This is the path where Akkha is found
  
• Path of Scabaras: This is the path where Kephri is found

Be aware that you cannot return to the main room until the path you’re on is completed – so choose carefully!

Once all four paths are complete, the last doors will unlock, and you’ll be able to take on the final encounter.

Initially, 'Monster Examine' will not show the defensive bonuses of monsters with the release of Tombs of Amascut. Within a few weeks of the launch we will then change it to show the defensive bonuses... I mean, we can't let you have everything! Best of luck…

Rewards

If there's one thing any self-respecting ancient tomb pretty much guarantees, it's the presence of hidden treasures. Brave the Tombs of Amascut and you might just walk away with one of the many spectacular rewards on offer.

[h3]Rewards[/h3]

[expand]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 defended ordinary people from the violent thieves and murderers who sought to take advantage of the wartime chaos. This mighty clan has 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 (or 80 when fortified)

Stats for the standard Masori Armour.

Grafting broken down plates from the Armadyl armour set onto your Masori Armour pieces lets you create the upgraded versions. You’ll need a chisel and 90 Crafting to do so.

Breaking Down Values

• Armadyl Helmet - 1 Armadyl Plate
  
• Armadyl Chestplate - 4 Armadyl Plates
  
• Armadyl Chainskirt - 3 Armadyl Plates

Crafting Values (with 90 Crafting)

• Masori Helmet (Fortified) - 1 Armadyl Plate
  
• Masori Chestplate (Fortified) - 4 Armadyl Plates
  
• Masori Chainskirt (Fortified) - 3 Armadyl Plates

Stats for the fortified Masori Armour.

Shadow of Tumeken

When the Ruinous Powers arrived in their lands, Tumeken and his people found themselves facing an enemy unlike any other. He responded by hunting down a powerful weapon to use against this new threat – but when he found it, he decided instead to create the Shadow of Tumeken.

This staff is powered by the sun itself, and with that brightest of lights comes the darkest of shadows…

Requirements:

• 85 Magic

Stats for the Shadow of Tumeken.

The Shadow of Tumeken has a built-in spell with charges powered by Soul and Chaos Runes. This staff will have an attack rate of five cycles and can only be used in PvM, like other powered Magic weapons.

Base max hit is calculated from the following formula: Magic Level / 3 + 1.

The Shadow of Tumeken also comes with two passive effects:

• Magic Strength from gear is tripled, capped at a total of 100% Magic Strength.
  
• Magic Accuracy from gear is tripled.

Note: the passive effects only apply to the Shadow’s built-in spell.

Elidinis' Ward

After her husband’s noble sacrifice, the goddess Elidinis fled to mourn her loss. Before she left, she entrusted Osmumten, the last true pharaoh, with the broken Ward that had defended her people for so many centuries.

Requirements:

• 80 Magic
  
• 80 Defence
  
• 80 Prayer

Stats for the uncharged Ward of Elidinis (left) and charged Ward of Elidinis (right).

Elidinis' Ward will be your new best-in-slot magical shield. You'll receive 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.

Both the broken and fully repaired Wards can be equipped. The Ward only becomes untradeable when fixed. Dismantling it will 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.

Osmumten's Fang

Known to his people as Osmumten the Hunter, this pharaoh was renowned for bringing down 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

Stats for Osmumten's Fang.

Osmumten’s Fang is a five-cycle weapon that packs a serious punch while on Stab. It’s decently effective against low defence NPCs, but it excels against monsters with a high defence and does full damage to the Corporeal Beast. Its special effect rolls twice for your accuracy when you attack and will take the highest roll from the two, making the weapon way more accurate!

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, imbued with the unstable energy from Tumeken’s sacrifice. With it, he sought to bend mercenaries and thieves across the desert to his will, and overthrow Osmumten.

His scheming proved fruitless, however, when the ring was stolen and Ahmek was murdered in his sleep. In a twist of fate, the thief was almost immediately caught and executed by the Menaphite Guards, who dutifully presented the ring to their pharaoh.

The Lightbearer allows its wearer to unleash a deluge of Special Attacks and can be equipped by anyone fortunate enough to keep it in their possession.

When equipped, your Special Attack energy will regenerate at twice the speed it usually does. Unequipping the ring will reset the Special Attack energy restoration timer.

Thread of Elidinis

It is said that during a great drought, the goddess Elidinis came upon a dry, barren field. She asked the farmer what was growing there – and he replied that he and his wife once supplied all the weavers in Menaphos with flaxen thread, but that the crop needed more water than they had to spare.

Elidinis thought for a moment, and then walked away. When she returned, the waters of the blessed Elid were at her heels. As she walked the arid field, the dead and dying plants returned to life, and then grew full and healthy.

Gratefully, the farmer’s wife dedicated the first spool of flaxen thread to Elidinis. To the goddess’ surprise, no matter how much she used, it never ran out, and to this day it is as strong as her followers’ unwavering faith.

Requirements:

• 75 Crafting

The Thread of Elidinis is an untradeable reward that can be used to upgrade the Rune Pouch. Use it together with a needle to imbue your Rune Pouch with magical energy, allowing you to store an additional Rune type!

Unfortunately, due to Rune polarity (we don’t know, ask your local wizard) it is impossible to have both the new and old version of the Rune Pouch at the same time – that might be a tad too powerful!

Should you misplace the Thread of Elidinis, you will have to re-obtain it through the Tombs of Amascut. You will, however, be able to obtain multiple Threads, and it will be a fairly common drop compared to the other uniques. You can also de-grade the Rune Pouch to retrieve the Thread.

Keris Partisan Jewels



Did you ever notice that the Keris Partisan from Beneath Cursed Sands has a jewel socket? That’s because you can stick jewels in it!

These jewels are all obtainable from Tombs of Amascut. Only one can be used at a time, and they can ONLY be used within the raid.

The exception is the Breach of the Scarab jewel, which passed the initial poll and can be used outside of the raid.

Some example jewels include:

Eye of the Corruptor:

• Using this jewel grants the Keris Partisan a Special Attack, Wrath of Amascut, which costs 75% of your Special Attack energy.
  
• Wrath of Amascut has 100% increased accuracy and 25% increased damage.
  
• Any enemy hit by Wrath of Amascut will receive 25% increased damage for the next 6 seconds (10 cycles).
  
• The Keris Partisan's attack speed will be halved when using Wrath of Amascut. In other words, you'll have to wait 8 cycles after using this Special Attack to be able to start attacking again.

Jewel of the Sun:

• Using this jewel grants the Keris Partisan a passive ability to drain life from defeated enemies at the cost of prayer points.
  
• If a killing blow is dealt to a creature within the Tombs of Amascut with a Keris Partisan sporting a Jewel of the Sun, the player will lose 5 Prayer points but gain 12 Hitpoints. This effect can overheal up to 20% over the player's Hitpoints level.
  
• The Jewel of the Sun gives the Keris Partisan +25% accuracy against creatures with less than 25% health.
  
• Additionally, the jewel grants a Special Attack: Tumeken's Light.
• Tumeken's Light costs 75% of the player's Special Attack energy and 50 Prayer points in order to fully heal (and overheal) the player up to 20% above their Hitpoints level. This Special Attack also cures all poison, restores any drained stats and fully restores Run Energy.

Breach of the Scarab:

• Increases accuracy by 33% against Kalphites, Scarabs, and Beetles.
  
• Remember, this is the only jewel that can be used outside the raid.

[/expand]

[hr][/hr]
[h2]But wait... there's more![/h2]

Although these are all the rewards we plan to offer at launch, we’ve noticed that a lot of you want to keep the theming of new gear consistent with existing useful items. We definitely feel like we’ve achieved that in Tombs of Amascut, especially considering the feedback on the Masori Armour set.

But hear us out… what if there were even more rewards on the way?

As an extra treat, the team have created Ornament Kits for the following items:

• Elidinis' Ward
  
• Osmumten's Fang
  
• Ava's Assembler
  
• Max Cape

A WIP image of the Elidinis' Ward Ornament Kit, showcasing a similar look to the Shadow of Tumeken.

A WIP image of the Osmumten's Fang Ornament Kit, showcasing the corruption that has taken root within the Tombs.

A WIP image of the Ava's Assembler & Max Cape Ornament Kits, fitting in nicely with the new best-in-slot Ranged Masori Armour.

We bet you can’t wait to get your hands on these – but here’s the catch: they’re currently unobtainable.

We’d like to see how Tombs of Amascut settles in before promising players new ways to up their fashionscape. We want to get the lay of the land and make sure these funky new items are placed at the right difficulty level.

Currently, we’re thinking of awarding them for completing the raid at specific Raid Levels above Expert mode, or for completing the Raid with a specific set of Invocations.

So while they won’t be added with today’s update, there’s still lots of discussion to be had. Let us know what you think of these alternate designs and tell us how you think they should be obtained. Follow the feedback links at the end of the post to share your thoughts!

[hr][/hr]
[h2]World Firsts[/h2]

As always, we’re keeping a close eye on the competition to complete Tombs of Amascut first. This time, however, there will be two additional prizes for the first group to complete the raid on Normal and Expert mode.

• Normal Mode: A Raid Level of 150 - 299 will count as a Normal Mode raid.
  
• Expert Mode: Anything over 300 Raid Level will count as an Expert Mode raid.

The first teams to complete these achievements will receive 12 Months of Membership each, so you can carry on raiding right through 2023!

We’ll be verifying each achievement behind the scenes to ensure there’s no funny business going on.

For a full list of Terms and Conditions you can head over to the forum thread.

We’ll also be looking out for any other notable achievements – keep an eye on our socials for all highlights and updates regarding Tombs of Amascut.

[hr][/hr]
[h2]Last Man Standing Changes[/h2]

• Protection prayers in Last Man Standing will once again reduce damage to 60% rather than 30% of the original value. We'd tried a bigger reduction in response to players who wished their talent for switching to be better rewarded, with less impact from lucky rolls. However, some felt that the minigame had become too unforgiving, especially for anyone still learning the ropes, so we've restored those prayer effects to the usual 60% rate, as used across the rest of the game.
  
• The Tome of Fire is now accessible in Last Man Standing so that players can access the buff for the Standard Spellbook.
  
• The stats of Black Dragonhide Armour in LMS now match its stats in the main game.
  
• The Bow of Faerdhinen has been removed from loot crates and chests.
  
• Pures are now unable to use Lunar Spells, as players with level 1 Defence cannot normally access them.
  
• Restricted the use of Prayers that require a Defence level higher than the account build should permit.
  
• Rune Gloves have been changed to Mithril ones for Pure builds.
  
• Visible Special Attack bars have been added to the Zaryte Crossbow, Dragon Knives, and Light Ballista.

[hr][/hr]
[h2]Other Changes[/h2]

• Corrected the description of a task in the Western Provinces Achievement Diary on the Deadman World.
  
• The Smiths’ Gloves can now protect you from harm while harvesting Cave Nightshade.
  
• Using a Pharaoh’s Sceptre to teleport out from Pyramid Plunder to the Mummy will now end the minigame session correctly, so that players are not ejected from the Mummy’s room for no reason.
  
• Werewolves are now less jittery.
  
• Demonbane spells now correctly show max hits when boosted using Mark of Death.
  
• MOBILE ONLY: Skill XP Tooltips now disappear correctly when switching tabs on mobile platforms.

[hr][/hr]
[h2]PvP World Rota[/h2]

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 de-activated with this rota.

The PvP Arena is using 'Zerk' loadouts in Ranked Duels and Tournaments this week.

[hr][/hr]
Discuss this update on our official forums, on the 2007Scape subreddit, the Steam forums, or the community-led OSRS Discord in the #gameupdate channel. For more info on the above content, check out the official Old School Wiki.

Mods Arcane, Archie, Argo, Ash, Ayiza, Boko, Brow, Bruno, Curse, Daizong, Ditto, Dylan, Ed, Elena, Errol, Fed, Gecko, Goblin, Grub, Halo, Havik, Hornet, Husky, Jalo, John C, Kandosii, Katies, Kieren, Kirby, Kurotou, Lenny, Light, Lottie, Mack, Matheus, Maylea, Markos, Meat, Morty, Nin, Nylu, Regent, Redfield, Roq, Ry, Sarnie, Sigma, Skylark, Soffan, Sova, Squid, Steve W, Tide, Torrance, Veda, Vegard, West & Wolfy

The Old School Team.

This week we're introducing new Last Man Standing game modes!

[hr][/hr]
[h2]New Last Man Standing Game Modes[/h2]

Last Man Standing just got a lot more variety with two new game modes! Head to the heart of Ferox Enclave to try them out:

• Zerker: level 75 Attack and level 45 Defence
  
• 1 Def Pure: level 75 attack and level 1 Defence

You’ll be able to choose your preferred game mode from the Settings button on the lobby HUD – after Lisa’s walked you through the game, of course!



When it’s time for a game to begin, the system will look at the preferences of the waiting players, and choose which game mode enters play. For example, if most of the waiting players had Zerker as their preferred mode, a few preferred Max/Med, and only one player chose 1 Def Pure, the game will have a high chance of picking Zerker, a medium chance to choose Max/Med, and a very low chance to choose 1 Def Pure.

However, the system can still choose a random game mode, no matter how many people in the lobby prefer a certain game mode. This ensures variety and prevents big groups (or bots!) from skewing the results too heavily.

The chosen game mode will be announced as you arrive in the battle arena. We’ve increased the countdown duration, so you’ll have plenty of time to get ready to fight!



Now that you have three separate modes to prepare for, you’ll want to properly set up your loadouts. You can do so using the Supply Chat in the lobby.

As always, we’re up for adding more item options in later updates, based on your suggestions. For now, though, we’ve added a choice of Spellbooks:

If your loadout includes the Rune Pouch, it’ll enable a selection of spells from whichever Spellbook you’ve selected:

• Standard: Surge spells and Entangle
  
• Ancient: Ice and Blood Blitz plus Barrage
  
• Lunar: Vengeance and Cure Me

Your choice of Spellbook is specific to each game mode, so make sure to set them before you head out! By default, you’ll have access to the Ancient Spellbook.

It’s also worth noting that Lunar Spells will be available to 1 Def Pures, as is the case in the PvP Arena.

One last note on new game modes - although converting the minigame to accept alternate modes has taken a long time, now that the work is done it’ll be much easier to add new modes in subsequent updates.

We know these aren’t the only game modes you’ve requested for LMS, and we’ve seen some great suggestions from the community – including a mode with no Protect Prayers, which seems mighty interesting! Watch this space…

Last Man Standing Improvements

Over the years, we've seen a huge number of player suggestions for items and mechanics in PvP. Many of these are things whose performance in-game aren't easy for us to gauge. We've used beta worlds in the past to mixed success, since it's often difficult to see large numbers of interactions and give players more time to experiment as we iterate on changes.

With this in mind, we'd like to try and experiment a little more within LMS and give players the opportunity to try out new things and provide us feedback on ways we could keep LMS (and perhaps PvP in other places) fresh. It could be the case that we build on the 'game modes' idea above and implement a mode solely for testing these experimental changes on a regular basis!

This week, the three Protect Prayers have been made more effective. Damage is now reduced to 30%, up from 60%. So, if you got whacked for what should be 100 damage, you’ll take 30 damage instead of 60 with the correct Prayer. This is an experimental change designed to reward players who’ve taken the time to develop their switching skills. We’re open to reverting or rebalancing the buff and will be monitoring feedback closely in the days following the update.

Here are the other improvements we’ve made this week:

• Yellow notifications on the heads-up display should no longer overlap with the Buff Bar on official clients.
  
• The Buff Bar will also no longer show the minigame’s ammo after you’ve left the battle arena.
  
• Lastly, although the supplies in Last Man Standing do look pretty tasty, you probably don’t need to be warned that they’re valuable every time you want to drop some on the floor. We’ve supressed those warnings inside the minigame.

Dark Varrock Map Improvements

• Updated the starting positions for players. This map now uses pairs of spawn points rather than clumps of six, making it more like the spawns on the original Desert Island map.
  
• Loot crates are now more likely to spawn closer to the final safe zone. The map is so large that they previously kept spawning in areas that the fog had already reached.

Loot Chest Improvements

• Loot chests and crates will now check what items you already have when deciding what to give you. No more cussing as you get your third pair of Dragon Claws!

We’ve also added a few bits and bobs to the loot table:





Good luck in the updated minigame, and don't forget to visit the Supply Chest in the lobby before embarking on a fight!

[hr][/hr]
[h2]Further PvP Changes[/h2]

NPC PJ Timer

We’ve fixed some unintended behaviour where NPCs could initiate the PJ Timer.

This meant that if an NPC hit a player, that player couldn’t be attacked for 12 seconds, causing frustration in both PvP and PvM scenarios.

Following this week’s update, NPCs will use a five-second timer, in line with their behaviour before the PJ Timer was introduced.

Here’s how that works:

For PvP:

If Player B is in combat with an NPC, but escapes the NPC without killing it, Player A cannot attack Player B for about five seconds, since Player B is still in combat with the NPC. Likewise, Player B cannot attack Player A.

If, however, Player B kills the NPC, Player A is immediately able to attack Player B – this behaviour is unchanged.

Lastly, if Player A is attacking Player B, NPCs will wait 12 seconds before attacking Player B. This behaviour is also unchanged.

For PvM:

If Player A is in combat with NPC A and then moves towards NPC B from a position NPC A can’t reach, NPC B will wait five seconds before attacking Player A.

If Player A kills NPC A, NPC B can attack Player A immediately – this behaviour is unchanged.

While this fix was necessary to repair the unintended behaviours, we hope the examples above give players the information they need to make sure any would-be escapes aren’t cut short by these changes!

Teleport Delay Changes

Players attempting to teleport from the Revenants’ Cave while attacking the NPCs there will now have to wait about two seconds for their teleport spell to begin - no more teleporting to safety as soon as you see a little white dot appear on your minimap! This change is intended to help tackle players using prohibited software to teleport with seemingly inhuman reflexes.

PvP Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where players could not attack the player that just killed Maledictus.
  
• Fixed a bug where players could log out immediately after attacking another player with some special attacks.
  
• Fixed a bug where players were able to remove the freeze effect for spells like Ice Barrage and Entangle. If you see anybody still able to abuse this bug in-game, please send as much evidence as possible via email to [email protected].

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.

The PvP Arena is now using 'Max/Med' loadouts in Ranked Tournaments this week.

[hr][/hr]
[h2]Poll 76 Cat and Piano Changes [/h2]

Kick back and relax in an upgraded Clan Hall!

Note: these Clan Hall changes were included in last week's post in error. We're sharing them again to make sure nobody misses them!

Be careful where you sit, though – the latest member of your Clan, Hannibal the Clan Hall cat, just got a whole lot more personality! Now you and your Clanmates can pet this fluffy fellow to your heart’s content, and even feed him fish and milk to make sure he’s living his best life. Maybe stay away from the liver and chianti, though…

If you’re the proud owner of a Catspeak Amulet, you’ll also be able to chat to Hannibal and receive his wisdom on a number of topics – including the nearby piano, which has also received some love this week!



We've sent an army of piano tuners (Hannibal kept eating the piano salmons) to your Clan Halls to perform some much-needed musical maintenance.

Adventurers who sit down to play a tune should find that the black keys are now working when using either the 'Entertain' option for your clan or the 'Play quietly' option for yourself.

We hope to see some fantastic covers now that you’ve been given a full range of musical options!

Finally, if you want to see who exactly is busting out another Sea Shanty II in the Clan Hall, the Clan Chat now indicates how many members are currently in the channel, as well as how many people are in the Clan. Click or tap on that info to switch it to the number of guests in the channel instead.

Poll 76 Timeline

So, what’s left in Poll 76, and when can we move on to Poll 77?

We’re pleased to announce that there are only a couple of jobs left.

The first is Poison Dynamite, a new item that should help certain restricted accounts access more of the game. The development work is complete, and the testing is nearly done – but there’s a couple more steps to go. We want to conduct an internal playtest among the Old School team before bringing Poison Dynamite to an open beta, where you can all explode stuff to your hearts’ content.

As it stands, we plan to host the beta a few weeks after Raids 3 launches. The aim is to make sure that Poison Dynamite is in-line with expectations and that there are no unexpected consequences for those most likely to use it.

The second job is further Clan Hall upgrades, including the Combat Ring and the Party Chest. The Party Chest in particular requires further work to make sure it delivers the experience we’re hoping for. Once this work is complete, both upgrades will go through testing before being assigned a release date.

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[h2]Other Changes[/h2]

• Fixed a rare issue where some pets weren’t automatically insured. In this instance, if a player had an uninsured pet in the Bank with placeholders disabled, and that pet was also not marked in the Collection Log, the pet would be marked as uninsured. We recommend double-checking with Probita if you think this issue may have affected your pets, or if you believe your pet should have been automatically insured and it wasn’t.
  
• The Redemption Prayer no longer drains Prayer Points after it turns itself off. Bit overzealous, that!
  
• A few flowers by a house in Ardougne have outgrown their pots and been planted in the ground, allowing safe passage for any passing adventurers.
  
• Sister Senga will now reluctantly allow you to fight Phosani’s Nightmare without having defeated the Nightmare first. Just be assertive about it!
  
• Worlds 490 (USE) and 507 (UK) have been given the activity 'Guardians of the Rift'.

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[h2]Mobile Known Issues[/h2]

Since the Clue Scroll Helper update, there have been a few reports of new bugs on mobile. This typically happens when we are deploying a heavy update on the mobile client and we'll be working on any bugs as they arise, so thank you for all your reports!

The following bug fixes launched last week:

• Entity highlights are working as desktop highlights on mobile clients.
  
• New tooltip UI opens to the right and down, regardless of screen position.
  
• Top left text is appearing as expected on mobile devices.

We’re aware of the following issues and working to fix them:

• Haptic feedback (vibrations) no longer works on 207.2.
  
• Skill XP Tooltips are still displayed after switching tabs on mobile.
  
• Chat Box can become unusable.
  
• External keyboards are having issues on iPads.
  
• The trolley in Garden of Tranquillity does not update after placing a certain statue on it.

We’ll be prioritising the most impactful bugs and will keep you updated on the latest fixes as we make them. Thanks for all your patience as we work on enhancing the mobile experience!

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Discuss this update on our official forums, on the 2007Scape subreddit, the Steam forums, or the community-led OSRS Discord in the #gameupdate channel. For more info on the above content, check out the official Old School Wiki.

Mods Arcane, Archie, Argo, Ash, Ayiza, Boko, Brow, Bruno, Curse, Daizong, Ditto, Dylan, Ed, Elena, Errol, Fed, Gecko, Goblin, Grub, Halo, Havik, Hornet, Husky, Jalo, John C, Kandosii, Katies, Kieren, Kirby, Kurotou, Lenny, Light, Lottie, Mack, Matheus, Maylea, Markos, Meat, Morty, Nin, Nylu, Regent, Redfield, Roq, Ry, Sarnie, Sigma, Skylark, Soffan, Sova, Squid, Steve W, Tide, Torrance, Veda, Vegard, West & Wolfy

The Old School Team.

It’s time for an update on the upcoming Mobile UI changes!

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[h2]Mobile UI Survey Results[/h2]

We’ve been reviewing your feedback on our Mobile UI proposal back in May and using the data we gathered from our survey to inform our next steps! If you haven't seen the first blog yet, we recommend you to take a quick read of that before reading on as it will contain some information about what we're aiming to achieve with the proposal.

As mentioned previously, changes to UI affect every type of player, from mobile-only adventurers to old-timers interested in cross-platform play – so we’re really grateful to everyone who told us their thoughts. Here’s a summary of the results:

• We received feedback from all kinds of players. 36% of respondents primarily play on desktop and occasionally on mobile; 24% of respondents play both desktop and mobile equally; 18%primarily play OSRS on mobile and will occasionally use the desktop version, and 18% exclusively play OSRS on mobile.
  
• Most respondents understood the changes (68% definitely and 27% mostly).
  
• Most respondents ‘definitely’ agreed that the mobile UI needs to be updated (77%) in order to bring more client features to mobile.
  
• Most respondents felt our proposal is ‘definitely’ an improvement to the existing UI (69%), with 16% ‘probably’ agreeing.
  
• Most respondents think our proposal would create more space on the screen (61% ‘definitely’ and 27% ‘probably’).
  
• The art style was a bit more varied. Approximately 55% of players like it, 20% are neutral about it, and 22% don't like the art style at all. The main feedback was that players missed the rounded edges of the stones.

These results have been rounded to their nearest percentage.

From the survey results, it seems that the majority of you feel our proposal is along the right lines – that’s great!
With that in mind, we're proceeding with the changes while addressing the major pieces of feedback we saw.

Our revised changes will cover the following points of feedback:

• Prayer switches and spells being on the same side of the screen overloads one thumb for PvM/PvP activities. This could make these activities more difficult than before.
  
• In our original proposal, we removed single-tap mode. However, feedback highlighted that it was useful for many activities in-game, such as Thieving, Banking, ZMI, blackjacking, Construction and more. Therefore, it should stay.
  
• Switching between chats is a common frustration for mobile players and the original proposal failed to address this.
  

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[h2]New Mobile UI Changes[/h2]

Single Tap Mode

A short and sweet change to kick things off – we recognise that Single Tap Mode is useful for a range of activities on mobile and will therefore be keeping it after all. Hooray!

Dropdown Menu Changes

Next up – to better suit the PvP and PvM playstyle you described to us, we’re replacing the Controls’ dropdown with a list of customisable Hotkeys. This means you’ll be able to move Prayer switches and Spells wherever you need them to be, without overloading one side of the screen.

The Hotkey widget contains five buttons, each of which can be assigned to one of several functions:

• Single-tap mode
  
• Tap-to-drop mode
  
• Opening a side panel (e.g., Prayers, Spellbook - similar to F-keys on desktop)
  
• Highlight mode

This also gives us space to add more features to mobile in the future, which could include:

• Ground item names toggle
  
• Metronome toggle

This customisability should prove useful to advanced players by letting them set up useful shortcuts for whatever activity they are doing. It will also help us make new features on mobile more accessible, and help newer players understand the different options available.

We also think the addition of side panel buttons to the Hotkey panel will alleviate concerns around high-level gameplay, particularly concerning Prayer switches and similar actions. By selecting the Prayer panel hotkey on the left, which opens the panel on the right, sequential actions will now alternate between both thumbs, making fast switches more comfortable

This also means that left-handed players will be able to tailor their hotkeys to better suit their needs. We considered a mirrored UI for left-handed players, but decided against it, because the configuration of side panels, hotkeys and game worlds means that you'll be using both hands equally.







Chat Changes

It’s clear that most of you expected more chat changes in the first iteration of the blog. Your feedback has indicated that this is a key part of the mobile experience, and we’re pleased to say we’ll be focussing on it more in future.

Here’s the list of changes we’d like to make:

• Hide Chat filters inside a Chat Filter dropdown, which should be easier to use than the scrollable list.
  
• Include a Chat toggle to keep things nice and tidy.
  
• Replace the speech-mark button with a more obvious dedicated keyboard button, which should make it harder to open the keyboard by accident.

Pressing the 'Chat filters' toggle will make the familiar buttons appear at the top of the chat (please note that this is a mock-up version and the stones may be changed for consistency):



As a final change, you'll notice that the logout button has now moved to the top left of the screen instead of the bottom left. This was a result of the changes to chat and we think this looked neater.

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[h2]Mobile UI Changes Summary[/h2]
To summarise the full mobile UI changes:

• The side panels have been relocated to the right-hand side in two columns.
  
• The Chat is being reworked following player feedback.
  
• The minimised Minimap has been rearranged to resemble the order of elements on the standard Minimap.
  
• The Popout panel has moved to the bottom-left and has three states.
  
• A new hotkeys dropdown with several widgets is being added.

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[h2]FAQ [/h2]

When is Mobile Portrait Mode coming?

Most of our interfaces – like the Bank - are in a landscape format, so we couldn't implement a portrait mode without extensive redesigns. We're not taking it off the plate completely, but it’s not our current focus.

Can these changes be toggled back to the existing mobile UI?

We’re adding new mobile client features on a regular basis, and having to modify them for previous versions of the UI would be time-consuming and costly – so the answer is no. However, our goal is to ensure that certain elements of the new UI are customisable, to put control back in your hands and give our players the best experience possible.

Why did the buttons go from rounded to square?

The stones from the existing UI were changed to be squarer because when rounded stones are stacked together, it can create holes between them that can be disorienting to play with.

What are the next steps?

After going through your feedback, we’d like to proceed with these changes posthaste. The sooner these changes are made, the sooner our enhanced client team can start enhancing the client!

We also want to give our art team plenty of time to perfect the visuals of the stones – remember, the images in this blog are only mockups!

We’ll be keeping you updated on all our progress via the Gielinor Gazette.

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You can also get involved in the discussion on the Old School RuneScape Discord, the r/2007scape subreddit, or the official RuneScape forums.

Mods Arcane, Archie, Argo, Ash, Ayiza, Boko, Brow, Bruno, Curse, Daizong, Ditto, Dylan, Ed, Elena, Errol, Fed, Gecko, Goblin, Grub, Halo, Havik, Hornet, Husky, Jalo, John C, Kandosii, Katies, Kieren, Kirby, Kurotou, Lenny, Light, Lottie, Mack, Matheus, Maylea, Markos, Meat, Morty, Nin, Nylu, Regent, Redfield, Roq, Ry, Sarnie, Sigma, Skylark, Soffan, Sova, Squid, Steve W, Tide, Torrance, Veda, Vegard, West & Wolfy

The Old School Team