Old School RuneScape News

This week we’re embarking on a new adventure with Leagues III: Shattered Relics!

Please note that with this week’s update, the game will be down for longer than usual with an aim to launch at 12:00pm GMT – to allow the team to carry out some final testing.

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[h2]Leagues III: Shattered Relics[/h2]

Get ready to experience Old School RuneScape in a brand new way! Leagues III: Shattered Relics is finally here, and you’ll be able to play it as much as you like until March 2nd, 2022.

Let’s take a look at that trailer again…

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

To start your Leagues adventure, you’ll need an account with active membership. Once you’ve got yourself one of those, simply open up the game and select one of the worlds marked in green on the World Selector page. At launch, there’ll be 22 Leagues worlds available:

• US (East): 401, 402, 403, 404, 578 & 581
  
• US (West): 409, 410, 411 & 540
  
• EU: 405, 406, 458, 459 & 460
  
• UK: 407, 408 & 558
  
• Australia: 412, 568, 569 & 570
  

When you begin you’ll start as a fresh new Iron account. But don’t worry – this doesn’t affect any of your stats in the main game, so you can use whichever account you like for this game mode!

Leagues III: Shattered Relics begins with an opening cutscene explaining where you’ve come from and what’s about to happen. After that, you’ll appear in the familiar fishing town of Catherby, where a mysterious figure is waiting to explain everything you need to know.

An image from the opening cutscene.

The Leagues III starting area.

The Sage has kindly stepped in to help guide you on your journey through this League, and provide a short tutorial. The basics remain the same - complete tasks to unlock League Points, which in turn can be exchanged to unlock more Fragment slots (and later, main game rewards). You can also gain Sage’s Renown, which is your main currency for unlocking the biggest restrictions in this League: skills and bosses.

Initially, you’ll only be able to earn XP in Fishing, Thieving and Defence, along with one Combat skill of your choice (Attack, Magic or Ranged). You’ll also get a starting Fragment based on your selection.

From there on out, the choice is yours! Unlike previous Leagues, there are no area restrictions and you can explore the whole of Gielinor however you see fit. Plus, your Run Energy will never deplete!

If you do need any additional information about the League, its mechanics, or anything else, you can find it in the new Leagues tab in the Character Summary window.

The Leagues tab.

Read on for information about getting started, or dive straight in! Further details can be found at the OSRS Wiki, the official Old School RuneScape Discord, the official Leagues III Discord, or the 2007Scape subreddit.

Expand the tabs below to learn more about Leagues III: Shattered Relics!

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[h2]LEAGUE-SPECIFIC RULES[/h2]
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• You will start as a new Iron player near the town of Catherby, which means you cannot trade with other players or use the Grand Exchange.
  
• You will have the normal items from Tutorial Island in your Backpack and Bank.
  
• All skills except Defence, Fishing and Thieving, plus the Combat skill of your choice, will be locked.
  
• Additional skills, bosses and quest bundles can be purchased with Sage's Renown which can be earned by completing tasks.
  
• You may still perform skilling activities within the range of your locked skills, but will not receive any experience. For example, you can still cut normal trees and receive logs without unlocking Woodcutting, but you cannot progress to oak trees until you unlock the skill.
  
• XP rates will be accelerated by 5x the usual rate.
  
• For this League, Clue Scrolls will stack in Clue Scroll Boxes.
  
• Any death will respawn you at the starting point in Catherby.
  

The starting area, just west of Catherby.

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[h2]TASKS[/h2]
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Tasks are a collection of goals that earn you League Points. They include all kinds of activities including skilling, obtaining rare drops, killing creatures, completing quests, and even playing minigames.

You can find a full list in the ‘Tasks’ tab of the Leagues Menu, where you’ll also be able to check how many League Points you need for your next Fragment Slot. The Task List can also be filtered by tier, type, area, skill and whether or not you’ve completed it.

The Tasks tab.

The amount of League Points received varies according to the tier of the task, ranging from Easy to Master. You’ll also earn Sage’s Renown, which we’ll learn about later on.

The Tasks tab.

Our friends at the OSRS Wiki have a full list of tasks for you to peruse!

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[h2]SAGE'S RENOWN UNLOCKS[/h2]
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Leagues III: Shattered Relics introduces a new currency called Sage’s Renown, which you’ll earn by completing tasks. Sage’s Renown is used to unlock skills and bosses, and for auto-completing quests. You can find all these options under the ‘Unlocks’ tab in the Leagues Menu.

Unlike League Points, Sage’s Renown disappears once you spend it – so choose your unlocks wisely!

To begin with, you’ll only have four skills available. To gain XP in the others, you’ll need to unlock it with Sage’s Renown. Please note that you won’t receive any extra XP when unlocking the skill – you’ll be starting from Level 1, even if you got XP from a quest!

The skill unlocks interface.

Bosses can also be unlocked with Sage’s Renown. You must meet all the normal pre-requisites for a particular boss before you can face them, even after they’re unlocked.

The bosses unlocks interface.

Quests are a bit different – they come in bundles, rather than individual unlocks. Unlocking a specific questline will auto-complete all the quests in the bundle.

The quests auto-complete interface.

Select a bundle and click the Info button to learn which items and areas you’ll unlock. If you’ve already completed some of the quests in the bundle, you’ll get a discount.

Please note that you can only auto-complete quests while in a Bank. Any XP you would ordinarily gain from the quest will NOT be received – you’ll have to actually do the quest to get your hands on that!

An example of a quest bundle.

You can find a full list of restricted content and the associated unlock cost in the Restricted Content section of the OSRS Wiki.

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[h2]FRAGMENTS AND SET EFFECTS[/h2]
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The all-powerful Relics of the previous two Leagues have been split into Fragments and scattered across Gielinor!

It’s not all bad though – by experimenting with Fragments, you’ll be able to customise your gameplay experience like never before!

You can learn all you need to know about Fragments and Set Effects in the ‘Fragments’ section of the Leagues Menu – but here’s a quick run-down.

The Fragments menu.

Here’s the key thing about Fragments – unlike Relics, your choices aren’t permanent, and you can swap Fragments around as you please. You can do so by simply dragging and dropping a Fragment into any unlocked slot. If there’s already a Fragment in the slot, it’ll be replaced.

This menu also lets you filter Fragments to see only the ones you’ve unlocked. You can also check individual Fragment Effects, and your current active and passive effects, such as your current XP boost.

Here's the first Fragment in an active slot.

To maximise your Fragments’ potential, you’ll need to take advantage of their Set Effects. Using Fragments from the same family will activate their Set Effect, an awesome, super-specialised buff. Read all about ‘em in the Fragments menu!

Lastly, Fragments will level up as you gain experience while they’re active. Your active Fragments will get one XP point for every XP point you earn – so they should level up sharpish!

So what are these Fragments? There are lots of different ones, but we suppose we can give you a sneak peek. When you pick your first Combat skill to unlock, you’ll gain a matching Fragment. Let’s take a look:

Your first choice.

Unwavering Warrior (Attack)

Choosing Attack as your first Combat skill will get you a free Steel Scimitar and the Unholy Warrior Fragment. When active, melee attacks get an accuracy boost when you are on 0 Prayer Points:

• Level 1: 12%
  
• Level 2: 20%
  
• Level 3: 30%
  

Focused Ranger (Ranged)

Along with an Oak Longbow and some Iron Arrows, you’ll also receive the Bottomless Quiver Fragment when choosing Ranged as your starting Combat skill.

With this Fragment active, Ranged ammunition and weapon charges have a chance to be saved – with the exception of Chinchompas, who are sadly irreplaceable.

• Level 1: 40%
  
• Level 2: 60%
  
• Level 3: 90%
  

Masterful Wizard (Magic)

Choosing Magic as your starting Combat skill nets you a Staff and some Runes, plus the Arcane Conduit Fragment. When active, Runes and Magic weapon charges have a chance to be saved on cast:

• Level 1: 40%
  
• Level 2: 60%
  
• Level 3: 90%
  

Please note that your starting Fragment and skill cannot be changed, although you can find the other two Fragments later on. Plus, you can unlock the other skills using Sage’s Renown.

How do you find Fragments, you ask? Well, every Fragment in the League can be discovered while partaking in regular activities as part of ordinary gameplay. Want a Firemaking Fragment? Light some fires! Hunter? Catch some kebbits! And so on.

Any kind of Combat has the chance to get you a Combat Fragment, so get to Slaying!

Check out the following pages from the OSRS Wiki to see a full list of Fragments and Set Effects.

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[h2]WAYSTONES[/h2]
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With the whole of Gielinor to explore, we thought we’d save you some time by creating easy transport options. Along with your unlimited Run Energy, you’ll find Waystones in certain major cities and popular destinations. Once activated, you can travel between Waystones as many times as you like, with no cooldown.

An active Waystone near Catherby.

Here's a handy guide to the Waystone network:

A list of Waystone locations from in-game.

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[h2]HISCORES AND LEAGUE POINTS[/h2]
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You’ll get League Points for completing tasks, and harder tasks offer more Points – but you’ll need to be a real tough cookie to reach the higher echelons of the Leagues HiScores table! The more tasks you complete, the higher you’ll climb!

We’ll also be bringing back League Firsts, which will be awarded to the quickest player to complete this League’s most impressive feats including:

• Obtaining a pet
  
• Achieving a Level 99
  
• Completing an Elite Achievement Diary
  
• Maxing a Fragment
  
• Obtaining all Fragments
  
• Unlocking all skills
  
• Unlocking all bosses
  
• Reaching Tiers 5,6, and 7 (three separate firsts)
  
• Reaching Tiers 5,6, and 7 without unlocking hitpoints (three separate firsts)
  
• Completing each tier of the Combat Achievements (six separate firsts - Easy, Medium, Hard, Elite, Master and Grandmaster)
  

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[h2]REWARDS[/h2]
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Leagues might be a temporary game mode, but we don’t want you going away empty-handed! You’ll be able to spend your hard-earned League Points on various rewards back in the main game – including some from previous Leagues. Let’s have a gander…


Shattered Relic Hunter Outfit

As long-time League fans will know, each League has its own themed outfits, available in three distinctly fashionable tiers. The more points you accumulate in the League, the higher tier of outfit you can access. Naturally, you get more flair for your fashion at the higher tiers – and each outfit comes with its own emote, too.

The Relic Hunter outfit for Leagues III is the Shattered Relic Hunter Outfit, and it’s perfect for sailing ominously down the River of Souls in.

All variants of each Relic Hunter outfit (from left to right: Tier 1, Tier 2 & Tier 3).

Shattered Relics Home Teleport Animation

Spice up your tawdry old Home Teleport animation with a stylish new variant, perfect for when you’re too ‘shattered’ to schlep back to Lumbridge. This little scroll will teach you to teleport in style by placing down some Relics. Careful with those, now!

The Relic-centric Home Teleport animation.

Leagues Banner

Show your support for your favourite League (so far) with this themed banner! The banner is wearable, though if you don't fancy using up a main-hand slot, it can be proudly displayed in your Player Owned House via the Leagues Hall.

The Leagues III Banner.

Weapon Variety Pack

Show the bosses who’s boss with the Shattered Relics Weapon Variety Pack, including cosmetic recolours for all kinds of playstyles. Whether you’re wielding the Abyssal Whip, the Tentacle Whip, the Rune Crossbow, God Books, or just strutting your stuff in Mystic Robes, this pack has a fancy new option for you.

Cool whip! (Left: Abyssal Whip, Right: Tentacle Whip)

A classic, given new life. (Rune Crossbow)

Which God Book do you wield? (left to right: Armadyl, Bandos, Guthix, Saradomin, Zamorak & Zaros)

Mystic Robes for mystic bros. (Mystic Robes)

Dwarven Multicannon Ornament Kit

The Dwarven Multicannon is an interesting item. It’s expensive to operate, but packs a hefty punch, and can greatly speed up those Slayer tasks! The advantages are obvious: it can be used at the very start of the game as the quests required to unlock it are pretty low level. It then remains viable right up to 99 Slayer.

How could we possibly improve this iconic weapon? Uh, by sticking an Ornament Kit on it, obviously! Use the Kit to give your Multicannon a fresh look, not unlike a certain something from classic RuneScape.

A cannon based on a classic! (Dwarven Multicannon)

Void & Elite Void Ornament Kit

Void is the perfect reward for Leagues III because it already fits with Melee, Range and Magic Combat thanks to the different Helmet types. Plus, the Void and Elite Void variants are great for both mid and late game PvM players. A snazzy Leagues-themed recolour for these outfits is the perfect reward for speedy ‘Scapers.

Enter the void in style! (left to right: Void Melee, Ranged, Mage, Void Elite, Melee, Ranged & Mage)

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[h2]LEAGUE TO LEAGUE REWARDS[/h2]
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Certain stuff is so rare and exciting that getting it in a temporary game mode is kind of a buzzkill! To remedy this problem, certain items can be carried over from League to League, including:


Pets

You'll be able to reclaim any pet received during the first two Leagues so it can follow you about in Leagues III: Shattered Relics. Note that pets obtained in this manner will not count towards the League First.


Seasonal Cosmetics

For those of you who participated in the Halloween or Christmas event during Leagues II: Trailblazer, you'll be able to claim your holiday rewards from the main man Diango! Find him in Draynor Market.

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[h2]LEAGUES VETERAN WORLDS[/h2]
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Last time, we noticed that the League Veteran Worlds were not being used as intended, and weren’t utilised as much as we expected. We’ve scrapped them for Leagues III, but in return we’ve increased the number of League worlds available!

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[h2]LEAGUES TROPHIES[/h2]
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Unlike other rewards, League Trophies can’t be bought – only earned. They’re an exclusive reward for those who strived to clamber up the top tiers of the HiScores – so it wouldn’t be fair if just anyone could grab ‘em at the Grand Exchange!

To get your hands on one, you’ll need to place in one of the following tiers:



All League Trophies can be displayed in the Player Owned House or held. They also all have a unique emote that you can access by right-clicking them.

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As a bonus, we'll be keeping an eye on the first person to take down the fearsome fifth general Nex, by themselves! If you're the first one to accomplish this feat, you'll earn yourself a few months of membership.

And that just about wraps it up! We hope you enjoy your time in Leagues III: Shattered Relics and we can’t wait to see you race to grab those League Firsts and hit Dragon tier.

On your marks, get set… go!

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[h2]Between Two Worlds[/h2]

Our epic trailer for Leagues III: Shattered Relics features an original soundtrack, Between Two Worlds, created by Tal Richards, and featuring Ciele and Bizarre Star Strings.



Enhance your experience with our most open and versatile Leagues as Between Two Worlds is now streaming on all major platforms including Spotify, Apple Music and more. For a full list, check out this page.

You can also join us on Thursday, January 20th at 17:00 GMT over on Twitch for an exclusive interview with Tal Richards & Ciele before our Leagues III Q&A begins!

And to learn more about our fantastic musicians, check the following links:

• Tal Richards Artist Page
• Tal Richards on Twitter
• Ciele's Artist Page
• Ciele on Twitter

You can watch the full music video here:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

We’d like to give a special thanks to Mod Scratchr, Mod Zarella, Mod Shed, Mod Grace, Mod Surma, Mod Kasia, Mod Razor, Mod Bob, Mod Archie, Mod Parrish, Mod Daz, Mod Aethra, Mod Kandosii, Mod Dnz, Rick Nath and Surface Digital for their work on this amazing video.

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[h2]Other Changes[/h2]

Before we walk you through the bits and pieces we’ve changed this week, we’d like to have a word about botting at Last Man Standing.

Every day we ban thousands of bots in Old School, but we understand that some do slip through the net. The anti-cheating team remain committed to tackling bots, and the methods we use to detect bots continue to advance. Unfortunately, due to the low entry requirements for Last Man Standing, new bots continually return to cheat after other accounts they use have been banned. To help resolve this, and improve your player experience, we’ve added additional requirements to Competitive and High Stakes modes.

Players will now need a total Skill Level of 750 and at least 30 Quest Points to participate in these modes.

We understand that higher requirements are frustrating for legitimate players, and apologise for the inconvenience. Your patience is much appreciated as we work to make this minigame fun and fair for everyone.

• The Edgeville General Store now stocks a Knife, in case players leaving Edgeville need to slash any spider webs.
  
• Monster Examine is now re-enabled on Nex. Learn more in our latest Nex post.
  
• Dying at the same moment as killing TzKal-Zuk now correctly subtracts 1 KC from a task.
  

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[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 activated with this rota.

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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 reference on the above content, check out the official Old School Wiki.

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

The Old School Team

This week brings a few early changes to Nex!

Please note that with this week’s update, the game will be down for a bit longer than usual – approximately 30 minutes – to allow the engine team to carry out some necessary work.

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[h2]Nex: Changes & Tweaks [/h2]



We’re blown away by how much you lot are enjoying Nex. It warms our heart to see so many people breaking into the Ancient Prison and beating up the beasties within.

However, as with any new bit of content, we’ve had to make a few small quality-of-life adjustments. The following will go live with this week’s update:


[h3]New Changes [/h3]

• Nex's Soul Split healing has been combined into one hitsplat in her final stand.
  
• If there are less than 20 people in an encounter all loot will drop underneath Nex. Any encounter with 20 people or above, loot will drop under the player.
  
• The final phase of Nex has been updated to be a little more consistent with targeting and melee attacks.
  
• The wander range on Ashuelot Reis has been reduced.
  
• Nex's Loot Table has been slightly altered.
  
• Nexling now appears on the 'All Pets' page of the Collection Log.
  
• Nex can now be selected as an activity when setting up Clan events.
  
• The Zaryte Crossbow’s effect has been added to the Worn Equipment Set Bonus interface.
  
• The value of Ecumenical Key Shards has increased to prevent them from being deleted when too many items are dropped nearby.
  
• Ancient Spiritual Mages can now drop Dragon Boots.
  
• Spiritual creatures within the Ancient Prison no longer drop Bones (because they don’t have any!).
  
• The alchemy value of Blood Essence has been reduced.
  
• Active Blood Essence is no longer alchable.
  
• Fixed an issue where players would not receive loot if they joined an instance at the same moment the boss fight began.

Particularly sharp players will also have spotted a few hotfixes introduced between updates to ensure everything was running smoothly. For your convenience, here’s a big ol’ list of those:


[h3]Previous Changes[/h3]

• Players who have completed the Hard and above Combat Achievements can now have friends join their privately rented Nex instance.
  
  • To do so, you and your friend will both need to be added and showing as ‘online’ in the Friends’ List, and you must both be on the same world.
    
  • Only the player creating the instance will need to have completed the relevant Combat Achievements.
    
  • These privately rented instances are capped at a maximum of 20 players and you are still required to gain Ancient Essence before being able to enter the boss room.
    
• The maximum number of players able to take on Nex at any one time has been reduced from 80 to 60. In addition:
  
  • Nex's attacks will now hit more players.
    
  • Nex will no longer preserve the order of special attacks between phases.
    
  • Nex's 1-attack delay has been removed on Soul Split and now activates immediately during her final phase.
    
• Nex will now ‘flip’ even if she's in the centre of the room.
  
• The base value of Blood Essence has been decreased while the value of all Torva pieces, the Nihil Horn, completed Zaryte Crossbow) and Zaryte Vambraces has been increased.
  
• The Supply Drop quantity has been decreased in higher-scaled Nex encounters.
  
• Players can now wear either a Gas Mask, Facemask or Slayer Helm to slightly reduce the duration of the
• cough* effect as part of Nex’s smoke mechanic.
  
• The door of the Ancient Prison will now warn players if they have items remaining to be collected from the Chest.
  

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[h2]Other Changes [/h2]

• The south-west corner of the Duel Arena area is now a safe zone on PvP worlds.
  
• After tagging an impling successfully with a Binding spell, you now have a few seconds of grace during which other players cannot attempt to catch 'your' impling.
  
• Added an Account Deletion button on iOS, which can be found in the Useful Links section of the Account Management tab. This button links to the Personal Data Rights page where you can request the permanent removal of your personal data and choose to disable your account.
  
  • This will not appear for Game Center-created accounts that have not linked to a RuneScape account.

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[h2]PvP World 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.

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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 reference on the above content, check out the official Old School Wiki.

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

The Old School Team

[h2]Issues and Hotfixes (January 5th)[/h2]

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Long ago, in the Second Age of Gielinor, the land was ruled by a tyrannical ancient god. At the height of his power, one of his closest allies overthrew him and the most loyal followers were imprisoned by powerful magics – including Nex, his faithful general.

Years later, at the height of the God Wars, a mysterious individual fooled a group of Saradominists into freeing Nex and her allies. This unprecedented threat forced the armies of Saradomin, Zamorak, Armadyl and Bandos to unite and drive their foes back into the Ancient Prison – but in the process, the magical protections sealing Nex and her bodyguards inside were damaged.

This leaves Nex’s prison somewhat… vulnerable. And while officially speaking, the followers of her old master have been purged from Gielinor, certain nefarious types would be happy to see Nex freed once more.

It’s January 5th, the first Old School update of 2022 – and now’s your chance to enter the Ancient Prison and take on this iconic boss yourself!



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[h2]The Ancient Prison[/h2]

So, hypothetically speaking, how might one enter this ‘Ancient Prison’? The sharp-eyed among you will have noticed that we released a short miniquest, ‘The Frozen Door’, on December 16th.

Without spoiling anything, completing this will secure entry into the Prison, where you’ll meet with Ashuelot Reis, a follower of Guthix who has dedicated herself to the unenviable task of keeping Nex contained. She’ll give your group a brief overview of the Prison complex before asking you all to join her outside Nex’s chamber.



The Prison is filled with foes from Nex’s army: Spiritual Warriors, Mages and Rangers, and the delightful-sounding Blood Reavers.

The format here should be familiar to anyone who’s conquered the rest of the God Wars Dungeon – defeating Nex’s minions adds to your Ancient Essence count, and when it reaches 40, you’ll be able to enter the boss room. However, not all beasties are made equal, and some will give you more Essence than others!

If you’re feeling magnanimous, you can bypass all that senseless killing with an Ecumenical Key, which will let you march right into Nex’s chamber. You can also lower the Essence requirement by completing Combat Achievement tiers.

Your Essence count is shown on the Kill Count interface, but it will be hidden until you’ve unlocked the Frozen Door. Once you’ve reached (or bypassed) the required amount of Essence, you may pass through to the inner chamber.

We don’t want to reveal too much about the battle itself – but let’s just say it’s going to test you!

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[h2]The Rewards[/h2]


Torva Armour

This melee set consists of a Full Helm, a Platebody, and a pair of rather stylish Platelegs. It offers better offensive and defensive capabilities than the Bandos set, but doesn’t have the defensive chops and tasty Prayer bonus offered by Justiciar.

You’ll notice that on drop, the pieces of the Torva set are broken and unequippable. That’s what happens when you leave your armour sitting around in a frozen prison for centuries! You’ll need to repair it using components salvaged from the Bandos set. A furnace in the Frozen Prison will let you break down your Bandos gear and get tradeable Bandosian Components in return. Combine those with the broken Torva pieces, and bam! There’s your new melee set.

There are no skilling requirements for breaking down the Bandos pieces, but you’ll need level 90 Smithing or greater to use them to repair the Torva set.

Here’s how many components you’ll get per piece:

• Bandos Chestplate: 3 Components
  
• Bandos Tassets: 2 Components
  

Note that the Bandos Boots cannot be broken down into components. We made this decision to preserve the potential Bandos Chestplate/Tassets item sink. Besides, have you ever tried attaching a pair of boots to a chestplate? You’d look ridiculous!

Anyway, here’s how many Bandosian Components you’ll need to repair the Torva pieces:

• Torva Helm: 1 Component
  
• Torva Chestplate: 2 Components
  
• Torva Platelegs: 2 Components
  

Bandosian Components and both broken and repaired Torva pieces are all tradeable.

You’ll need at least 80 Defence to wear the Torva set.




Zaryte Vambraces






Zaryte Crossbow






Ancient Godsword






Ancient Ceremonial Robes

This set consists of a Mask, Top, Legs, Gloves and Boots. It has the same stats as Monk Robes and will be added to the Collection Log.

If you’re familiar with the Nex of old, please note that wearing items from this set will not allow you to bypass the Ancient Essence requirement to unlock the boss room.

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[h2]Additional Information[/h2]

• You’ll need a minimum Kill Count of 50 to show up on the Nex HiScores.
  
• Monster Examine is not currently powerful enough to examine Nex’s stats.
  
• Hardcore Group Iron players cannot face Nex alongside players from outside their group, and will be kicked out of the boss room if other people are in the arena at the start of the fight. This works exactly as it does for The Nightmare.
  
• Regular Group Iron players can take on the challenge with others, but will be given plenty of warnings as doing so loses their Group Prestige. Again, this works exactly as it does for The Nightmare.
  
• Ecumenical Key Shards are untradeable. 50 shards can be converted into one key. If you’re capped out on Ecumenical Keys, you won’t be able to forge a new one.
  
• Blood Essence is stackable, tradeable and can be activated – which makes it untradeable. A player can only have one active Blood Essence at a time. If you create a Blood Rune with an activated Blood Essence in your Backpack, you’ll get the chance to craft additional Blood Runes. One Essence has 1,000 additional Blood Runes/charges and the chance to trigger the effect is 50% per Rune.
  
• Nex has the chance to drop a pet! Take good care of it!
  
• Nex can be fought solo in a private instance. Instances are unlocked by completing the Hard Combat Achievements tier, after which you can purchase an instance for 150,000 GP per entry. Higher Combat Achievement tiers lower this cost.
  

[hr][/hr]
[h2]In Other News[/h2]

• The Christmas Event 2021 has been removed.
  
• The Slayer Gem and related items can now tell you your current task streak even when you don't have a task.
  
• Added a PvP section around the Duel Arena as a safe zone.
  
• Teleporting to a Player Owned House in Rimmington will no longer play the wrong music when Classic Music Mode is enabled.
  
• Nex messengers are no longer able to appear in underwater areas.
  
• Fixed a bug where some Combat Achievements for Group Ironmen were calculated incorrectly owing to the fact that some tasks are disabled for smaller groups.
  

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[h2]PvP 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 activated with this rota.

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

Mods Arcane, Archie, Argo, Ash, Ayiza, Banjo, Boko, Brow, Bruno, Con, Curse, Daizong, Deagle, Dibber, Ditto, Dylan, Ed, Elena, Ellie, Errol, Fed, Gecko, Grub, Halo, Havik, Hornet, Husky, Jndr, John C, Kandosii, Katies, Kieren, Kirby, KT, Kurotou, Lenny, Light, Lottie, Mack, Matheus, Maylea, Markos, Meat, Morty, Nasty, Nin, Nylu, Oasis, Peppers, Regent, Redfield, Roq, Ry, Sarnie, Sigma, Skylark, Sova, Squid, Steve W, Tide, Veda, Vegard, West, Wolfy & Zuko.

The Old School Team.

Today we’re bringing forward the poll questions for Tombs of Amascut, Old School’s highly anticipated third raid! We’re not quite ready to poll rewards just yet, but we’d like to get your seal of approval on the raid itself, so we can get stuck into developing it.

We also have two brand new quests we’d like to run past you!

The first is Beneath Cursed Sands, which will be the sequel to Contact! and will ultimately grant access to the Tombs of Amascut once completed. Should it pass the polls, we’ll be releasing this one sometime in April.

The second quest is Land of the Goblins, which we mentioned in December's Gielinor Gazette. It’s the next installment in the Cave Goblin questline, and should it pass the polls, we’re expecting to release it sometime in February.

Lastly, we’re looking at adding a little bit of extra spice to TzHaar-Ket-Rak's Challenge. Read on to find out more!

The Tombs of Amascut

Long ago, the citizens of the Kharidian Desert lived prosperous and luxurious lives thanks to the benevolence of the Gods of the Menaphite Pantheon. However, that all changed when Amascut, the Goddess of Rebirth, was corrupted. Warped into the Devourer, she became intent on devouring every soul in existence.

Her brother, Icthlarin, along with her former High Priestesses have since been fighting tirelessly against Amascut, in a bid to negate her destructive efforts.

After years of plotting, Amascut has finally found a way to overcome the efforts of Icthalarin and his allies.

Deep within the desert, an ancient pharaoh called Osmumten lies buried. His tomb has long hidden a great power. It is this great power that Amascut seeks, and if she can lay her hands on it she will become unstoppable.

You must take the fight to Amascut before it's too late.

Let's dig in to what you need to know about the Tombs of Amascut:

• Groups of up to eight participants.
  
• Four initial challenges, followed by two final bosses to be fought in a twin boss encounter.
  
• Invocations will allow for customisable difficulty, which will also impact your loot potential!
  
• Invocations will replace standard difficulty systems, like the ones used in other raids.
  
• Each Invocation will affect the raid or your group in different ways.
  
• Some Invocations can affect the health, defence, or damage modifiers for the enemies within the Raid.
  
• Other Invocations might impose group restrictions, like reducing the amount you can heal or prohibiting certain spells.
  
• We intend to be quite creative with these modifiers. The above examples are fairly simple and safe, with the intention to provide early insight into their impact for this blog, but we'd like to experiment with different ideas that might drastically change things.
  

On entering the Tombs of Amascut you will encounter four paths:

• The upper level of the Tombs will consist of four paths, each ending in a boss.
  
• Each path is comprised of its own series of challenges to be overcome.
  
• These challenges are more akin to puzzles rather than killing a single entity, like a boss.
  
• These can range from things like traps with Sepulchre-like dodging, or defeating new foes in unconventional ways.
  
• Once you reach the end of a path, you'll then fight the boss of that path in a more conventional combat encounter.
  
• The raid will be altered in some way with the death of each boss, changing the remaining boss encounters.
  

This means that the path order you choose will matter!

Defeat the four bosses to descend to the lower levels:

Once you defeat the first four bosses you'll unlock the lower level.

• You'll enter a chamber containing the two ancient guardians of the Tombs.
  
• These guardians need to be fought at the same time.
  
• Defeat the guardians to drive Amascut from the tomb and claim your rewards!
  

We'll discuss the rewards a bit later, but first let's talk about how you might access the Tombs of Amascut.

Poll Question #1: Should Tombs of Amascut be added to the game, as described in the blog? If this question passes, the rewards for the raid will be polled at a later date.

The Tombs of Amascut will be our most narratively-driven Raid yet, and no narrative is complete without a quest!

When Sophanem was beset by a series of plagues, the gates to the golden city of Menaphos quickly closed. The city has been locked down ever since, with no one allowed to leave or enter. However, rumours have escaped of strange happenings inside Menaphos and there are stories of citizens mysteriously disappearing.

These odd happenings need to be investigated, but few are willing to do so. Maisa, a spy from Al Kharid, has grown tired of inaction. She is determined to solve this mystery herself, but she won't be able to do it alone...

• Beneath Cursed Sands is a Master-level quest which will advance the desert storyline.
  
• In this sequel to Contact! You'll find yourself investigating mysterious disappearances from Menaphos, the city of gold. Note: Menaphos will not be opening its gates just yet.
  
• Solving this mystery will grant you access to the Raid itself.
  
• We're aiming to release the quest before the Raid to give you ample time to ready yourself!
  
• 
  

Requirements & Rewards
Being a Master-level quest, there are naturally some mid-level requirements to meet:

• Completion of Contact!
• 62 Agility
  
• 55 Firemaking
  
• 55 Smithing
  

Upon completion you'll be rewarded with:

• 1 Quest Point
  
• Access to the Tombs of Amascut
  
• The ability to upgrade the Keris to the Keris Partisan
  
• 15,000 Agility XP
  

[bPoll Question #2: ]If Tombs of Amascut is added to the game, should Beneath Cursed Sands also be added? Beneath Cursed Sands is a Master-level quest which will advance the desert storyline. Completion of this quest will be required to access the Tombs of Amascut.





This one might seem like it’s come out of nowhere, since the original Cave Goblin quest came out in 2007, just after the big backup that Old School is built upon. But after poking around in the files, we discovered that the majority of the work for this quest is already done! All that remains is to add a few missing parts and some tweaks to make it suitably Old School. After this (assuming it passes polling, of course) we can finally continue Zanik's story.

Land of the Goblins is an Experienced-level quest which advances the Dorgeshuun storyline.

Requirements & Rewards (SPOILER WARNING!)

Being an Experienced-level quest, there are naturally a few requirements:

• Completion of Fishing Contest & Another Slice of H.A.M.
• 38 Agility
  
• 40 Fishing
  
• 45 Thieving
  
• 47 Herblore
  

Upon completion you'll be rewarded with:

• 2 Quest Points
  
• 8,000 XP in Agility, Fishing, Thieving & Herblore
  

Poll Question #3: Should Land of the Goblins be added to the game, as described in the blog? Land of the Goblins is an Experienced-level quest which advances the Dorgeshuun storyline.

So you've managed to defeat six JalTok-Jads and at this point you’re wondering what else TzHaar-Ket-Rak could possibly have in store. How about an endurance test where you're pitted against an infinite number of JalTok-Jads until you perish?

We really do mean infinite – every time one dies, another one takes its place, forever. Each freshly spawned JalTok-Jad will be on the same attack cycle, meaning they can continue going round in circles and attacking continuously. It would be possible to unlock this fiendish challenge after finishing the six previous challenges set by TzHaar-Ket-Rak.

The final challenge rewards TokKul based on how many JalTok-Jads you manage to defeat, with personal and global statistics being added to the scoreboard next to TzHaar-Ket-Rak.

Poll Question #4: Should TzHaar-Ket-Rak's Final Challenge be added to the game, as described in the blog? The final challenge is an endurance test where you're pitted against an infinite number of JalTok-Jads until you perish.


Mods Arcane, Archie, Argo, Ash, Ayiza, Banjo, Boko, Brow, Bruno, Con, Curse, Daizong, Deagle, Dibber, Ditto, Dylan, Ed, Elena, Ellie, Errol, Fed, Gecko, Grub, Halo, Havik, Hornet, Husky, Jndr, John C, Kandosii, Katies, Kieren, Kirby, KT, Kurotou, Lenny, Light, Lottie, Mack, Matheus, Maylea, Markos, Meat, Morty, Nasty, Nin, Nylu, Oasis, Peppers, Regent, Redfield, Roq, Ry, Sarnie, Sigma, Skylark, Sova, Squid, Steve W, Tide, Veda, Vegard, West, Wolfy & Zuko The Old School Team

The end of the year is nigh, and that means we're at the final Gielinor Gazette of 2021! And just like last year, today we're showcasing a look ahead to 2022! So grab your festive brew, stick on your ugliest Christmas jumper and let's get stuck in!

[hr][/hr]
[h2]Project Status Update[/h2]

It’s been an interesting year for the world and Old School RuneScape, which has now hit the ripe old age of eight! It seems crazy to think we'll soon be ten years old.

Among a variety of smaller updates and QoL improvements, including those from Poll 74 & 75, we've released a variety of content this year! Ranging from new quests in both Misthalin and Kourend (such as the epic A Kingdom Divided) to new challenges for some of the most popular PvM content, with two new modes for Theatre of Blood and the return of Phosani’s Nightmare.

The team also released a brand new skilling boss, the mighty Tempoross! And, after a long wait, we saw the release of the Clan System and later, Group Ironman. We even released a new C++ client on Steam which comes bundled with a plethora of handy improvements like increased draw distance, XP trackers and more - much of which we’ve recently tested on mobile with the Android Beta.

With everyone longing for the next RuneFest, we also held our very first Summer Summit - a show jam-packed full of updates on some of the biggest content coming to the game.

Nex is arriving on January 5th and if you haven't already seen it, we recently dropped a teaser trailer showcasing the arrival of the fearsome fifth general! We hope you enjoy taking on the newest edition of the God Wars Dungeon when she arrives. For those players who have completed Desert Treasure, you should keep an eye out for when you first return to Gielinor.

With the rewards being designed and implemented, Leagues III is now officially ready for release on January 19th! We are super excited and will be sharing some more about Shattered Relics over the next month, so stay tuned!

That being said, we know many of you feel that there’s not been as much content for YOU this year, and we understand why. While 2021 saw some fantastic, and quite frankly long-overdue system improvements, they took up a large portion of the development time that we'd usually spend on creating new playable content. This is something we'd like to avoid in 2022 - having a healthy balance between game improvements and adding new content is one of the main driving forces that shaped next year’s roadmap.

To support our new roadmap, we've made some changes to how the team operates. Previously, the development team were split into five groups (excluding Art, QA, etc.), with each team having various projects assigned to them. The key problem with this approach is that with projects being distributed amongst teams, each was focused on its work specifically and few people were looking at the game as a whole.

Instead, the teams have been split from groups of 4-5 people to teams of 2-3, each of which will focus on a particular area of the game. This will allow the projects they undertake to have a purpose beyond the scope of just a singular goal. We’ve now got developers working on most core areas of the games, which should result in a wide variety of content that caters to different types of players over the year.

As with any change, it'll take some time to adjust, but the team is genuinely excited, and we hope you are too! We'll continue being flexible with our roadmap, as is the norm when it comes to planning, but we're hopeful this new dynamic will give us a more stable base going into 2022 and beyond.

Now, onto the roadmap… let's have look at some of the core projects we'll be working on in the first half of 2022!



Unlike the previous roadmap, which split the content into two main sections, 2022’s version focuses mainly on our teams. Each coloured section (or row of blocks) are projects assigned to specific teams. The top row of blocks showcases what would be considered the 'Big Beats' for each month, and consists of the following:

• January: Nex and Leagues III
  
• February: Land of the Goblins
  
• March: Guardians of Gielinor and Community Event Support
  
• April: Beneath Cursed Sands and Easter Event
  
• May: PvP Arena (Duel Arena Replacement)
  
• June: Skilling Update and Wilderness Boss Rework
  

Some of these projects we’ve already spoken about and some (like Nex and Leagues III) are just around the corner. Get comfy and have a read back through some of our previous newsposts for more information about those!

Land of the Goblins, the next instalment in the Cave Goblin questline, is not too far away either. We're aiming for a February release, with a blog coming out in the next few weeks containing quest details. It might seem like it’s come out of nowhere, but for those of you not in the know, the original Land of the Goblins quest came out in 2007, just after the backup Old School is built upon. After poking around in the files, we discovered that the majority of the work for this quest is already done! All that remains is to add a few missing parts and some tweaks to make it suitably Old School. After this (pending it passing a poll, of course!), we can finally continue Zanik's story!





You might have previously seen the ideation pitch for Guardians of Gielinor in last year's December Gazette. In short, it’s a fun and interactive way of training Runecraft that fits alongside the existing methods, while also offering a different way of training the skill. We’ve seen many players asking for a new way to train Runecraft, and we think this could be the answer.

The Community Event Support involves mostly behind-the-scenes changes to help create more community-driven events, though we'll also be looking into changes that will benefit everyone! Afterwards, this team will shift their focus towards providing a better experience for several skills with the Skilling Update.

We'll be dedicating one of the newly created teams to examining the experience of new players when they first step foot in Gielinor. We're not looking to make drastic sweeping changes here, but it's important we pay attention to new adventurers if the game is to continue to grow.

Alongside all of this, we’ll also be continuing with our steady stream of QoL improvements, with Poll 76 coming to you via a blog in early 2022!

Wondering what that big yellow box is in the middle? Well, that’s pointing towards our new ideation approach, something that Mod Ed will be talking about later.

In regards to Tombs of Amascut and the Wilderness Boss Rework, we want to give you an explanation of their placement on the roadmap, which we appreciate is a little later in the year than expected.

Tombs of Amascut is our third raid, and we're really looking to go BIG! It's our largest-scale raid to date and we know how important it is that we get this right, so we want to spend more time making sure it's is up to the standard you'd expect from a raid - especially since we're trying something new. Before the end of this year, we hope to share more information about Old School's third raid and the next quest in the Desert storyline.

Beneath Cursed Sands will lay the foundation for the events of Tombs of Amascut, but we want to stress that it's a project in its own right. You can look forward to playing it in April.

With the new team structure, we now have dedicated resources to focus on PvP and similar activities. We know that PvP has been an underserved segment of our community in recent years - we don't want that to be the same for 2022. With the Duel Arena removal happening imminently, the initial focus of this team will be on its replacement, the PvP Arena. Following this, the team will then move on to the Wilderness Boss Rework.

We also know many of you want to see Bounty Hunter return. We hear you loud and clear, and as such, we're hoping to deliver in the second half of 2022! We still have a lot of work to do with a design that prevents abuse like previous iterations - it may well be that we cannot achieve this without making drastic changes. Never fear - we'll keep you updated with our progress.

As for PvP, we want to take a moment to apologise to those of you who were looking forward to these upcoming changes, especially the Wilderness Boss rework. This is a project we've delayed multiple times now, so we understand the scepticism around this ever happening. We're confident that with our new team structure, and a team dedicated to delivering these projects, we'll be able to deliver a quality update for you all to enjoy.

That's all we can say about the roadmap for now, but 2022 already looks to be a great year for Old School - and this roadmap only covers the first half!

We’ll be looking to shed more light on what's still to come later in the year. With the success of our Summer Summit, we want to run similar events, even bigger and better! In fact, this time we’re aiming to have two - one in the spring and one in the autumn. Expect more details about upcoming content and some big yet-to-be-seen reveals - all delivered by the teams directly working on those projects! We've got some exciting things we're working on outside of this roadmap, too, so stay tuned for more information in the near future.

Old School wouldn’t exist without your continued support and love for the game. We love making content that you enjoy, and your passion continues to drive us. So thank you, from the bottom of our hearts.

We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us, and we can’t wait to have you onboard for the journey!

[hr][/hr]
[h2]Ideation Update[/h2]
by Mod Ed


[h3]What is Ideation?[/h3]



We have some exciting new plans for our ideation process throughout 2022. However, if you've not read some of our previous Gazettes, you might not actually know what ideation is. So let us explain!

Ideation is a process that has existed for two years now, and the format has changed little in that time. Every four weeks, each member of the Old School team (including those in non-development roles) has the opportunity to take two ideation days. For these two days, the team has a chance to focus on coming up with ideas for potential future Old School RuneScape updates, without the distraction of their normal work duties. These ideation sessions alternate between having a set theme to follow, and open ideation where anything goes.

Ideation is designed to be as flexible as possible. Some people choose to work on ideas alone, while others form teams (often with people they wouldn't normally get to work with). Some ideas come in the form of a document or presentation, but others may get an actual working prototype.

Regardless of what is produced during ideation, people have a chance to pitch their ideas to the wider team in regular pitch sessions. In these, the team provides feedback and guidance to help ensure each idea is the best it can be. After that, the creators of a pitch have a few options. They may choose to discard their idea, deciding that it wasn't meant to be. Alternatively, they may decide to do further work on it in a future ideation session to address feedback. The last option is to submit the idea for the backlog, in which case it is reviewed by a small group to ensure it's appropriate.

Over the past two years, many projects released into the game have come from the ideation backlog. For anyone interested, here's some of the most notable:

• Leagues I: Twisted League
  
• The Nightmare of Ashihama
  
• Darkmeyer
  
• Hallowed Sepulchre
  
• Costume Room Rework
  
• Getting Ahead
  
• Soul Wars
  
• TzHaar-Ket-Rak's Challenges
  
• Shooting Stars
  
• Below Ice Mountain
  
• Theatre of Blood: Hard Mode
  
• Phosani's Nightmare
  
• Halloween 2021
  
• Nex (upcoming)
  
• Land of the Goblins (upcoming)
  
• Guardians of Gielinor (upcoming)
  
• The Tombs of Amascut (upcoming)
  

[h3]The Latest Pitches[/h3]



Before we go over the changes coming to ideation in 2022, let's have a look at some recent pitches. While we'd love to hear your feedback on these ideas, do be aware that ideas are all they are at this stage. None of these pitches have been approved for development, so it may be a long time (if ever) before they actually make it into the game. There's four pitches to look through in this section, and Mod Oasis has a deep dive into a fifth pitch later in the Gazette.


Fairytale III - Among Thieves

In this Master level finale to the Fairytale trilogy, you must help the Fairy Resistance deal with the Fairy Godfather once and for all. To do so, the Fairy Queen tasks you with performing a daring heist to steal the Fairy Nexus, a powerful device that is key to the Fairy Godfather's plans. To have any hope of success, you must gather a band of the finest (or not so finest) thieves around. Alongside the usual XP and Quest Point rewards, completing the quest will unlock new Fairy Rings and an update to the Magic Secateurs.


Guild of Shadows

Back in 2018, we spoke about our amazing new Advanced Warfare skill. Hopefully you've realised by now that it was in fact just an April Fools joke. However, beyond the Tactical Nukes and Australianisers, it seems we may have accidentally designed something with real potential. That's where the Guild of Shadows comes in. This is a new guild for the Thieving skill, and it focuses on completing various Thieving-based contracts. For example, you might be asked to infiltrate an area to destroy some supplies or to plant an incriminating document on an unsuspecting character. Completing contracts will earn reputation within the guild, which can of course be exchanged for XP and other rewards.


Tourist Attraction

Hadley the Tourist Guide wants some help in setting up some new adventurous activities to attract new visitors to Kandarin. Once these have been set up, they can be used as new training methods in various skills. For example, the rock climbing activity requires you to make a rock climbing wall near Baxtorian Falls. Once built, you can use the climbing wall to earn Agility and Strength XP. Just make sure you choose the most optimal route, or you'll run out of energy and have to start over again.


Solphus

Solphus is a tortoise skilling boss designed for 1-3 players. The fight with Solphus is split into two phases. The first is all about preparation, requiring you to use you Hunter and Woodcutting skills to gather the supplies you need to defeat the boss. Once you have what you need, you can begin the actual fight, where you must use your Farming and Construction skills to build traps. By luring the boss onto these traps, you'll be able to do enough damage to defeat it. But of course, you'll need to ensure it doesn't defeat your group first! Beating the boss will offer the chance of grabbing new rewards, including new Ranged ammo, new Farming equipment, and of course, a new pet.


[h3]The Future of Ideation[/h3]

As you can see, the past two years of ideation have delivered some amazing pitches, many of which have made it into the game for you all to enjoy. Still, despite the successes, ideation has some problems, which we're hoping our 2022 plans will solve.

As mentioned above, ideation should be about coming up with new pitches without the distraction of normal work duties. While great in theory, this is something that has rarely worked in reality. Removing distractions for two full days every four weeks has proved problematic for many reasons, especially when you consider that we update our game every week. As such, we find that many team members are unable to find the time for ideation, despite wanting to take part.

Finding time isn't the only problem the team has faced. While many great updates have come from the ideation backlog, there are many more great ideas that have languished there. The unfortunate reality is that our release schedule does not have enough room for many of the great ideas that ideation has produced.

To address these issues, 2022 will see the end of our current ideation schedule. Rather than two days every four weeks, we're going to run week long game jams every three months. For these weeks, there will be no game update, no blog releases and all but the most critical meetings will be cancelled. This will give the team a whole week free of distractions to come up with the best ideas possible. Having a full week will also mean that the ideas produced will be far more fleshed out, making it much easier for them to make it into the release schedule.

Our trial of this new approach will happen in March. We'll let you know exactly when closer to the time. If the trial is successful, we'll look to run further game jams in June, September and December.

One thing we're super keen on is bringing you all along for the game jam ride. You can expect plenty of social content you can get involved with - we want your early feedback and suggestions! We'll also have a dedicated section in the Gazette after each game jam where we'll preview everything that was produced.

That's all on our new ideation approach for now. As always, we'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback.

[hr][/hr]
[h2]A Heated Showdown[/h2]
by Mod Oasis


[h3]Twisted Beginnings[/h3]

Before we dive into A Heated Showdown, do be aware that this is just an ideation pitch. As such, there is no guarantee this idea will ever make it into the game.

Going into ideation this time round, we had a plan. Not one we stuck to... but a plan nonetheless!

Last year, we released the quest 'Getting Ahead', a short one-off story based in Kourend that we referred to as a 'Twisted Tale'. Our original goal for this ideation was to design and create a number of Tales to help fill out Kourend and Kebos with more stories, characters and points of interest that players would recognise and remember. So that's exactly what we did! We have this great online whiteboard tool that makes collaboration really easy, which is vital when working from home. We took screenshots all over Kourend and Kebos, marking out areas of interest with little red question marks. We were mainly looking for locations that artists have mapped down, but have nothing specific tied to them in-game. This allows us as designers to build fitting stories that are inspired by the areas themselves.

The Twisted Tales ideation board.

Some very early concepts for Twisted Tales.

The great thing about ideation is that inspiration can come from anywhere. Ideating in a group means you can bounce ideas off each other, finding what works and what doesn't, challenging the bias in our ideas, and really drilling down into something that hopefully becomes a great addition to the game.

Two of the quest ideas even came from outside Old School. The first, from playing the beginning of Dark Chronicle, was of a travelling animal show, where the players needed to run around Kourend, trapping the animals and returning them to their ship wrecked traveling Zoo! There was also the idea of a shoot out, the inspiration for which... I'll be honest, I'm not entirely sure where this came from. It might have been a meme of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly? It hit me that we've never really explored the Western genre in Old School, a game that's filled with tropes from various media, and now would be a great chance to do so!


[h3]Pilgrimage to the Sands[/h3]

So, you want to make a Western-themed quest. Where do you go from there? With the release of Tombs of Amascut next year, we decided it would be best to move the quest over to the desert - it's a great chance to show some love to the content drought-ridden area and add some more life.

Nardah, Better, Faster, Stronger

The quest then went through a lot of iteration, with a bunch of questions we needed to answer:

• Where should it start?
  
• Should there be any requirements?
  
• What existing locations and characters can we leverage?
  
• What kind of rewards will it have?
  

These aren't questions you set in stone at the very start, but things we consider throughout the design phase. For example, a project that reuses existing assets and locations requires a smaller art budget, which in turn means that as long as we've got the dev time to actually implement it, the chances that it will make it into the game are higher!

We chose Nardah as the starting point for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it fits the Western theme perfectly! We could picture the tumbleweed rolling across the road as the player walks into a deserted town. Secondly, there's already some narrative we can build from. By using the Spirits of the Elid, where the player restores water to the town, we've already had a starting point - a town that was run down but is now beginning to heal and repair. This leaves it ripe for some evildoers to come in and ruin the whole thing!

Once we had a location and the start of a story, we split into two teams, one of which worked on a prototype of the puzzle. Our aim was to capture the cinematic Wild West shoot out experience, where the hero's taking out bandits and saving the town. But the hard part? Translating the idea into fun and memorable gameplay that fits within the Runescape world. We wanted to break away from standard Runescape combat, even though it's quite a scary thought.

Essentially, the mini-game uses round-based combat. The player chooses their and their partner's actions - be it shoot, move, hide or eat. Then you click 'Go' and everything happens at once, meaning you'd need to predict what the bandits were going to do and plan your actions accordingly. It's quite a step away from anything we've done in Old School, and requires much testing and prototyping to really nail down the mechanics.

Tests for the fight against the Bandits.

We also wanted to make a new weapon that was a better fit for the quest than a Crossbow. 'Tourist Trap' introduces the Desert Mining Camp, which handily comes with a bunch of evil bandits who capture people to use as slaves. Plus, at the end of the quest you gain access to a new dart technology. We could expand on this by using darts as ammunition in a new weapon. One idea we had for this weapon was that it could only be shot a few times, after which the player would need to manually reload it in their Backpack. An alternative was that it shoots solely through special attack, meaning if you run out of special you need to wait for it to recharge before you can shoot again (the special essentially becomes the reload mechanic).


[h3]Where do we go now?[/h3]

The design for 'A Heated Showdown' has been finished and pitched to the rest of the team. As explained above, the ideation process is undergoing some changes next year to allow us developers more time to prototype and test our ideas. We're going to make some tweaks and changes, especially to the reward weapon (to ensure it has its niche within Old School). It will then be sent off to a more formalised review, in which some of the leads will look at the quest and the roadmap over the next few years and decide where it could fit in. We can't guarantee this quest will go into the game, but it's been great to share our ideation process with the community.

Thanks for reading my ramblings about a Western-style shootout in the desert! I hope it was insightful, and even stirs some creativity in you! As designers, we rarely have perfectly laid out plans, but doing some exploration can lead to some great results. Inspiration can really come from anywhere!

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[h2]Postbag from the Hedge & Player Creation Showcase[/h2]

Unfortunately due to the character limit within Steam announcements we've had to remove the Postbag and Hedge from the Steam version of the Gazette. However, you can find them all by checking out the December 2021 Edition over on our official Old School news site.

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That's everything for the return of the Gielinor Gazette. 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.

Mods Arcane, Archie, Argo, Ash, Ayiza, Banjo, Boko, Brow, Bruno, Con, Curse, Daizong, Deagle, Dibber, Ditto, Dylan, Ed, Elena, Ellie, Errol, Fed, Gecko, Grub, Halo, Havik, Hornet, Husky, Jndr, John C, Kandosii, Katies, Kieren, Kirby, KT, Kurotou, Lenny, Light, Lottie, Mack, Matheus, Maylea, Markos, Meat, Morty, Nasty, Nin, Nylu, Oasis, Peppers, Regent, Redfield, Roq, Ry, Sarnie, Sigma, Skylark, Sova, Squid, SteveW, Tide, Veda, Vegard, West, Wolfy & Zuko

The Old School Team