Old School RuneScape News

The Summer Summit saw us share information about Deadman: Reborn, Group Ironman, Leagues III - and the announcement of Old School's third raid, the Tombs of Amascut. With Thursday's game update you'll get your hands on the new Raid rewards in a beta!

[h3]PSA: This week's game update will go live on Thursday instead of the usual Wednesday release.[/h3]

In this blog we wanted to briefly recap what was announced at the Summit and, most importantly, begin the discussion about potential rewards before it goes to the polls!

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Click the above video to watch the Summer Summit Raids announcement!

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[h2]The Tombs of Amascut[/h2]

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 find 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.

Sketches and references for the Tombs of Amascut. Click to see it in more detail. This is concept art and may not be representative of the final appearance of the Tombs!

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[h2]The Raid[/h2]

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.

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[h2]Beneath Cursed Sands[/h2]

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, and will instead be coming at a later date.
  
• 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!
  

[h3]Requirements & Rewards (SPOILER WARNING!)[/h3]
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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
  

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[h2]Tombs of Amascut: Rewards[/h2]


Here's where we'd love to get your feedback. As with any rewards proposals, it should go without saying that nothing here is set in stone. Your feedback is going to be key in shaping what we're offering, and we really want to see what suggestions you have too! To make sure we see what you have to say, we'd invite you to do one of the following:

• Join the Official Old School RuneScape Discord server and head to the #tombs-of-amascut channel in the Summer Summit area.
  
• Use the #OSRSRaids hashtag on Twitter.
  
• Reply to the Tombs of Amascut Reddit thread or make your own threads with '(Raids)' in the title.
  

Masori Equipment

The Masori were a clan of powerful ranged users active during an ancient war which embroiled much of the Kharidian forces. They focused primarily on defending ordinary people from the violent thieves and murderers who sought to take advantage of the chaos caused by the war. The group has been long since disbanded, but their equipment can still be found amongst the palaces of wealthy Menaphites or among the treasures of long dead Pharaohs.

Before we discuss the Masori equipment, we'd like to introduce a new status effect, Low Life. A player is considered to be Low Life when below 40% of their maximum health.

The Masori equipment consists of a chestpiece, legs, and amulet. Equipping the Masori items requires 80 Ranged and 20 Defence. The armour set will be the very first pieces of equipment in the game to utilise Low Life. When the player is in a state of Low Life and has the chestpiece and legs equipped, the equipment set will gain additional stats. This set effect provides additional accuracy and ranged strength for as long as you remain in Low Life (whenever you remain below 40% of your maximum health). The amulet shares this effect and it also has an additional passive effect. When equipped, and not influenced by Low Life, you'll take damage equivalent to 15% of your current health at a rate of every three game cycles.

Let's take a look at the stats:

The Masori equipment. A potential reward from the Tombs of Amascut, introducing 'Low Life' to Old School.

And for how that compares to other existing equipment and what the set effects mean:

• When Low Life is active, the accuracy and strength bonus surpasses Armadyl (Chestplate and Chainskirt) by 11 and 6 respectively.
  
• The amulet base offensive stats are similar to the Amulet of Fury, with it slightly surpassing its Zenyte equivalents when Low Life is active.
  

We think this new equipment could lead to the emergence of innovative and interesting playstyles. The set effect offers a way to balance the introduction of new, powerful equipment without devaluing existing equipment which boasts defensive bonuses. Its Low Life effect will mean that it is extremely useful in some cases, but will fall short in other areas because of the need to maintain specific Hitpoints. Let's use Vorkath as an example. If you're 99 Hitpoints, you'd need to stay below 40 Hitpoints to keep its effect active. Whilst Vorkath's unavoidable damage doesn't hit as high as 40, you'll need to eat fairly often to keep above the highest possible hit to ensure you stay alive, making it both extremely difficult to maintain the Low Life effect.


Heka of Tumeken and the Ward of Elidinis

Tumeken was the God of Sun and Elidinis was the Goddess of Fertility. As husband and wife, they led the Menaphite Pantheon. Whilst Tumeken and Elidinis steered the people of the Kharidian Desert spiritually, it was the responsibility of the human Pharoah to rule the Desert. Osmumten was the last Pharoah to rule before the end of the ancient war. Osmumten fought alongside Tumeken against enemy forces. Tumeken sacrificed himself to end the war, and before Elidinis disappeared to mourn the loss of her family she gifted Osmumten with Tumeken's Heka and her own broken Ward.

The Heka of Tumeken is a wand-like magical weapon. Equipping the Heka will require 84 Magic. It has a built-in spell with charges which will need to be replenished, using one Soul Rune and three Chaos Runes per charge. The Heka has an attack rate of two ticks. Every fourth hit the Heka will fire a stronger attack which deals significantly more damage, albeit with a longer delay after the attack. We know that weapons with fast attack speeds scale harder with additional bonuses, like the Toxic Blowpipe. To offset this and to help make the Heka scale more similarly to other magic weapons, the standard faster attacks will only benefit from 50% of your Magic strength. The slower fourth hit will be much stronger, benefitting from 150% of your Magic strength bonus. Its attack range will be shorter than other staves too, with it being six rather than seven (casting with the long range setting will boost it to eight).

For the min-max savvy players out there who like calculations, the following formulas should help with any theorycrafting you'd like to put together:

• Standard fast attacks scale based on '(Magic Level / 6) + 1' for the base max hit.
  
• The slower fourth attack scales based on '(Magic Level - 25) / 2' for the base max hit.
  
• After this is calculated, any Magic strength from other sources is then applied.
  

Let's take a look at the stats:

The Heka of Tumeken, a wand-like magical weapon.

The Ward of Elidinis will be the new best-in-slot magical shield. Players will get the broken Ward as a rare reward 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 the Ward. Players without those stats will be able to pay Abbot Langley 20,000,000 GP to create it for them.

Equipping the Ward will require 80 Magic, 80 Defence, and 80 Prayer. The broken Ward will be tradeable, whilst the fixed Ward will be untradeable. Players can dismantle the Ward to recover 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.

Let's take a look at the stats:

The Ward of Elidinis, a new best-in-slot magical shield.

Lightbearer

Ahmek was a powerful warrior who sought to capitalise on the chaos caused by the end of the ancient war. Ahmek crafted a powerful ring which he imbued with the unstable energy left behind from Tumekin's sacrifice. He hoped to use this ring to emerge as a new power in the region. By forcibly uniting thieves and mercenaries under his command, he planned to overthrow Osmumten. His plans proved fruitless, however, when the ring was stolen and he was murdered in his sleep. The Menaphite Guards claimed the ring from the body of the murderous thief, and dutifully presented it to the Pharoah.

The Lightbearer is a ring with no Attack, Defence, or Other bonuses. It does, however, have a very unique effect. When equipped, your special attack energy will regenerate 100% faster (approximately 15 seconds per 10%/150 seconds per 100%). Unequipping the ring will cause the timer to reset.

We think that for the most part, you'll want to continue using rings like the Berserker ring. But there'll be some situations where the additional special attack rate will warrants its use. We think this ring will shine in places where kill times are longer, or where you'll want to use a special attack per kill (like Graardor, K'ril, Abyssal Sire etc) - or maybe even use it whilst Woodcutting or Fishing!


Osmumten's Khopesh

Known to his people as Osmumten the Hunter, he was renowned for bringing down many of the land's deadliest beasts. During his hunts he wore armour and weapons crafted by the region's finest artisans. One such weapon was his Khopesh. Though based on a traditional Kharidian design, Osmumten's Khopesh was modified to give it a long and sharp end to make it more versatile than other weapons of its kind. The Khopesh would eventually be buried with Osmumten.

Osmumten's Khopesh is primarily a Stab melee weapon which boasts accuracy comparable to the Elder Maul, and an Attack Speed of five. Equipping the Khopesh will require 82 Attack. We expect its damage-per-second output to be comparable to Rapier-tier weapons on opponents with low Defence, with much greater damage-per-second output on opponents with higher Defence.

We'd like to introduce a new unique mechanic for the Khopesh. Other weapons will roll '0 - max hit'. The Khopesh will roll '(max hit * 0.15) - (max hit - (max hit * 0.15))'. This means that if the max hit is 60, its attack would roll between 9-51. This makes it a very consistent weapon which excels against high Defence targets.

The Khopesh would also have a special attack which increases its max hit to its true max hit for one attack, as well as boosting its accuracy by an additional 50%. This means that if its max hit was 60, it would roll 9-60. This special attack will cost 50% special attack energy to use.

Let's take a look at the stats:

Osmumten's Khopesh, a Stab melee weapon which boasts accuracy comparable to the Elder Maul.

Keris Partisan

Upon helping to [redacted] during the Beneath Cursed Sands quest, [redacted] will reluctantly reward you with an enhanced version of Keris, the spear-like Keris Partisan.

In addition to its Stab attack styles, the Partisan will have a Crush attack style, which should prove useful during the Tombs of Amascut and against other beetle-like enemies, like the Kalphite Queen. Equipping the Partisan will require 80 Attack.

We'd like to try something slightly different with this weapon. The Partisan has a socket in which players can insert special jewels. These jewels are obtained as rare rewards from the Tombs of Amascut, and inserting these jewels into the Partisan will bestow different effects onto the weapon. You'll only be able to use on jewel at a time. These jewels will not be tradeable.

We're still considering how we'd like to reward players with these jewels. They could be unlocked as a random drop, or given upon a certain number of Raid completions, or as a reward for killing bosses using specific methods. We're also considering whether they should be permanent one-time unlocks, or whether they should have charges. Naturally this would effect the rarity of the drop. We'd love to hear your thoughts on how they should be implemented!

Let's take a look at the stats:

Keris Partisan, a spear-like enhanced version of Keris.

And here's a look at a few jewel buffs we're considering. Note that the effects apply only during the Tombs of Amascut.

• The Eye of the Corrupter adds a damage-over-time effect to attacked enemies. You won't be able to stack this effect multiple times onto a single NPC but you will be able to apply it to multiple NPCs at any one time.
  
• The Jewel of the Sun applies a debuff to attacked NPCs which causes them to take higher damage for a sustained period of time.
  

In addition to effects that only apply within the Tombs, we're also considering how jewels can provide benefits throughout the whole of Geilinor. For example:

• The Breach of the Scarab adds a 33% accuracy buff against Kalphites, Scarabs and Beetles.
  

We think that the Partisan's upgrade system will allow for a strong sense of progression within the Raid itself, making it very useful in that encounter without encroaching on other gear elsewhere.

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[h2]Concept Art[/h2]

During the Summer Summit announcement (scroll to the top of this blog to watch it!) our artists discussed their approach to designing this content, and also teased you with sketches and concept art. Here are some of those sketches, helpfully unlabelled to keep you all guessing. And again, please note that this is concept art and may not be representative of the final appearance of the Tombs, anything within, or its rewards!

[h3]Click here to see the sketches.[/h3]
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Concept art for Tombs of Amascut. These images may not be representative of the final appearance of the Tombs, anything within, or its rewards!

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That's everything for this blog. We'd love to hear your feedback so please do...

• Join the Official Old School RuneScape Discord server and head to the #tombs-of-amascut channel in the Summer Summit area.
  
• Use the #OSRSRaids hashtag on Twitter.
  
• Reply to the Tombs of Amascut Reddit thread or make your own threads with '(Raids)' in the title.
  

Mods Arcane, Archie, Argo, Ash, Ayiza, Banjo, Boko, Bonsai, Brow, Bruno, Curse, Daizong, Deagle, Dibber, Ditto, Dylan, Ed, Elena, Errol, Fed, Flippy, Gecko, Grub, Halo, Havik, Husky, Jerv, Jndr, John C, Kandosii, Katies, Kieren, Kirby, Lenny, Light, Lottie, Mack, Maylea, Morty, Nasty, Nin, Oasis, Roq, Ry, Sarnie, Skylark, Squid, Steve W, Sween, Tide, Vegard, West, Wolfy & Zuko.

The Old School Team

[h2]Issues and Hotfixes (August 4th)[/h2]

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The second batch of new client features arrive this week, bringing enhancements to core gameplay elements such as minimap management and, excitingly, improved draw distances! Combat Achievers and patrons of the Theatre of Blood have plenty to get their teeth into, too, and some lovely new merch hits the store!

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[h2]New Client Features: Milestone Two [/h2]

We hope you’ve been enjoying the new client features introduced in back in June . Today we’re delighted to announce a number of new features heading to the game as part of our second milestone for this ongoing project!

This week’s batch focuses on priority helpers and indicators, and we're confident these new additions will really improve your core Old School experience.

As a reminder, these features can currently only be used on the C++ client through Steam – we are still working on bringing them to mobile. Stay tuned to our socials for updates as the project develops.

Here’s what we've got for you:


[h3]Settings Menu Re-organisation [/h3]

Your main Settings menu sits at the heart of your gaming experience. It’s where you make the essential tweaks and nudges that shape the gameplay to your liking. As such, we want the process for toggling between options to be as smooth as possible.

With that in mind, we've added three new categories in the form of 'Activities', 'Interfaces' and 'Warnings', which should make some of these key settings easier to find.

Left: Previous Settings Menu, Right: New Settings Menu.

Additionally, the 'Keybinds' section has been removed – you'll now find those settings within the 'Controls' section.

Finally, 'Collection Log Popup' and 'Chat Notification Functionality' have been separated, and you now have options to turn them on individually. You can find them in 'Interfaces' and 'Chat' respectively.


[h3]Agility Helpers [/h3]

Training Agility has just gotten that little bit smoother with this update! We've included visual identifiers for obstacle courses across Gielinor, including the new Shayzien course. Along with your path through a course, any Marks of Grace will also be highlighted. This setting will be OFF as default, so remember to switch it on for the extra assistance.

Marks for the Marks!

[h3]Full List of Courses[/h3]
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• Gnome Stronghold
  
• Draynor
  
• Al Kharid
  
• Varrock
  
• Canifis
  
• Falador
  
• Seers Village
  
• Pollnivneach
  
• Rellekka
  
• Ardougne
  
• Prifddinas
  
• Wilderness
  
• Skullball
  
• Werewolf
  
• Agility Pyramid
  
• Ape Atoll
  
• Barbarian Outpost
  
• Brimhaven Agility Arena
  
• Penguin Course
  
• Shayzien

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If you’re in a hurry, you also have the option to highlight the many shortcuts within the Agility skill guide. Again, this is OFF by default.

Shortcuts are little more obvious now!

We’ve also included a nifty little Infobox that will display the name of the course, track the number of laps you've completed, your laps per hour and the number of laps needed for your next Agility level. Courses with their own unique twist like the Brimhaven Agility Arena will have additional course-specific information.

The Infobox is ON by default.


[h3]Draw Distance [/h3]

Like Gielinor itself, we're very old and can barely recall the days when we enjoyed 2020 vision… but now you can see further than ever before with this update! You'll now be able to increase the draw distance of objects around the player using a bar within the Display tab in Settings. By default this will be on its lowest setting. Note that changing this will not affect the distance at which you can see other players or NPCs.

Image 1: Minimal Draw Distance, Image 2: Maximum Draw Distance.

[h3]Minimap Improvements [/h3]

Eagle-eyed players would have spotted this new feature with last week's update. Yup, you can now zoom in and out of the Minimap! Hover your mouse over it and get scrolling to increase or decrease the size - it’s perfect for scoping out your next destination.

Left: Completely Zoomed In, Right: Completely Zoomed Out

But what if you don't like the Minimap? What if you think it simply gets in the way of all that beautiful scenery?! OK, fine. In the resizeable mode you can now right-click on the globe icon and minimise it. Just don’t blame us if you get lost.

Putting the 'Mini' in Minimap!

[h3]Tile Indicators [/h3]

We're also bringing you three new types of tile indicators, which can be found within the new Activities section of the Settings menu. You now have indicators for your current position, your destination tile and any tiles you mouseover.

Each of these new indicators can be given different colours. Their default setting is OFF.

Blue = Current Tile, Green = Target Tile, Red = Hovered-Over Tile.

[h3]Buff Bar: Ammo Display [/h3]

Check what ammo you’ve equipped and how much you have left on your Buff Bar! When you have more than one type of ammo equipped (e.g. darts and arrows), the ammo in the weapons slot will take priority.

Image 1: With Blowpipe & Ammo, Image 2: Without Blowpipe.

[h3]Extras[/h3]

Stat boost timers will now appear instantly if any boosts are active when logging into the game.

We’ve also made the text colour for stat boost timers more readable.

It's the smaller details that makes the biggest difference.

UI scaling has become more flexible, too - you can now choose between nearest-neighbour, linear and bicubic filtering.

Smooth out those zoomed in edges!

Certain elements such as stat boosts, helpers, opponent information and more will be hidden during cutscenes, leaning into a more cinematic experience.


[h3]Your Feedback[/h3]

We've also created a new set of channels in the Official Old School Discord so you can give us your feedback and suggestions on the latest Steam Client drops. So jump into Discord and let us know your thoughts on the second client milestone!

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[h2]Combat Achievements[/h2]

We're continuing to refine the Combat Achievements experience. Here are the latest tweaks:

• As long as it's bounced to another player, the ‘Perfect Verzik’ task will no longer fail if you take damage from Verzik's green ball attack.
  
• The RPG will now count as a melee weapon for completing Combat Achievement tasks.
  
• The Fight Caves will now save progress correctly in relation to complete Combat Achievements tasks.
  
• The counter page of your Player Owned House Achievement Log will now display on a different scroll, ensuring that high achievers can see their stats too.
  
• Nightmare tasks should now be working as intended.
  
• Performing the Scythe + Serp combo will once again have 100% chance to poison the Purple Crab in Theatre of Blood.

We've adjusted some of the tasks’ difficulty tiers:

• ‘Sleep Tight’: Moved from Master tier to Elite tier
  
• ‘Nightmare (Solo) Speed-Trialist’: Moved from Elite tier to Master tier

Following your feedback, we've tweaked some of the kill count tasks:

• Kill Bryophyta 10 times -> 5 times (Medium)
  
• Kill Obor 10 times -> 5 times (Medium)
  
• Kill Callisto 150 times -> 100 times (Elite)
  
• Kill Venenatis 150 times -> 100 times (Elite)
  
• Kill Vet'ion 150 times -> 100 times (Elite)
  
• Kill Cerberus 250 times -> 150 times (Elite)
  
• Kill Cerberus 500 times -> 250 times (Master)
  
• Kill Alchemical Hydra 250 times -> 150 times (Elite)
  
• Kill Alchemical Hydra 500 times -> 250 times (Master)
  
• Kill Corporeal Beast 100 times -> 50 times (Elite)
  
• Kill Corporeal Beast 250 times -> 150 times (Master)
  
• Kill Zulrah 250 times -> 150 times (Elite)
  
• Kill Zulrah 500 times -> 250 times (Master)
  
• Defeat the Corrupted Gauntlet 50 times -> 10 times (Elite)
  
• Defeat the Corrupted Gauntlet 100 times -> 50 times (Master)
  
• Defeat the Corrupted Gauntlet 200 times -> 150 times (Grandmaster)
  
• Defeat the Gauntlet 50 times -> 100 times (Master)

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[h2]Theatre of Blood - Poll 75 Changes [/h2]

A filter has been added to the Theatre of Blood Party Board to help you find their friends and Clanmates.

Players can now use Verzik's crystal shards on their party members to activate them. To enable this, right-click a crystal and select ‘Toggle’. Both players must have a crystal for this to work, and both crystals will be consumed in the process. Hopefully that’s as clear as a transparent precious mineral.

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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

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[h2]Merch [/h2]

Check out the new Limited Edition pins from Angels Scapes, available now on the Official Merch Store! Dazzle your friends with the Lunar Pin, a shiny set of ceremonial Moon Clan armour on coloured enamel with 2.5D anodized rainbow metal detailing, or stand out from the crowd with the Berty Pin – the craziest house you ever did see, now in pin form!

By popular demand, we have also added Cooking and Farming to the Skillcape keyring range.



Visit the store to grab your pins while stocks last!

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[h2]Other News [/h2]

• The Sinister Offering spell can now be performed without interrupting your actions.
  
• Story Mode has been renamed Entry Mode in the Combat Achievements menu, Collection Log and Theatre of Blood scoreboard.
  
• A typo within the A Night at the Theatre dialogue has been fixed.
• A grammatical error in the description for the Combat Achievement ‘Shayzien Protector’ has been fixed.

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That's everything for this week's game update. We'd love to hear your feedback so please let us know what you think 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, Bonsai, Brow, Bruno, Curse, Daizong, Deagle, Dibber, Ditto, Dylan, Ed, Elena, Errol, Fed, Flippy, Gecko, Grub, Halo, Havik, Husky, Jerv, Jndr, John C, Kandosii, Katies, Kieren, Kirby, Lenny, Light, Lottie, Mack, Maylea, Morty, Nasty, Nin, Oasis, Roq, Ry, Sarnie, Skylark, Squid, Steve W, Sween, Tide, Vegard, West, Wolfy & Zuko.

The Old School Team

It’s curtain up for a rework of A Night at the Theatre, and this time we hope the performance will earn a hearty round of applause! We’ve also tweaked Combat Achievements and we’d love your feedback on some possible boss task changes. All that and more in this week’s update!

[h2]Issues and Hotfixes (July 28th)[/h2]

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[h2]A Night At The Theatre [/h2]

It’s fair to say that A Night at the Theatre has been a bit of a poor show. The quest we released didn’t match what was originally polled, and let’s be honest, it wasn’t up to the standards of an Old School escapade. We completely agree with your feedback, and we’ve taken your suggestions on board.

Today we’re launching a reworked version that should deliver a proper Old School questing experience while still providing a satisfying introduction to the Theatre of Blood. With this change, Story Mode has been renamed Entry Mode.

You'll start the quest the same way as before; by speaking to the Mysterious Stranger lurking outside the Theatre. You still have to take on the challenges of said Theatre at some point during the quest, at a difficulty setting of your choosing.



If you’ve already played it through, there's a couple of things you should know:

• Players who completed the previous version of the quest will still need to complete this version but won't need to complete the raid itself again.
  
• Players who completed the previous version of the quest will lose the two quest points they gained, but will get them back when they complete the rework.
  
• Quest Capes will be lost as normal for players who have not completed every quest.
  
• Players who have already used Combat XP Lamps in the previous version will not receive them again.

With the original version of A Night at the Theatre, you made it clear that you weren't happy about the quest autocompleting as it meant you missed out on the new dialogue. Not only that, but just like with the original version, this reworked quest will be a requirement for the Myreque finale and has elements that will be very important to that quest (most of which were not present in the original version). As such, you'll need to complete this version of A Night at the Theatre even if you completed the original version.

In addition, the quest requirements have changed slightly and there's now an additional XP lamp:

[h3]Requirements & Rewards (SPOILER WARNING!)[/h3]

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The following quest is required to start A Night at the Theatre:

• A Taste of Hope

The following levels are recommended:

• 90 Combat

Upon completion you'll get:

• 2 x 20,000 XP Combat Lamps
  
• 2 Quest Points

[/expand]

We hope you enjoy this fresh approach to A Night at the Theatre!

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[h2]Quest Icon Improvements [/h2]

While we were in reworking mode we thought – hey, why not enhance how quests appear on the world map?



Hovering over a quest icon will now show the name and status of the quest (started, not started, completed, members-only).

Additionally, every quest in the list now has a ‘show on map’ right-click option. This will open the world map and move to the quest’s icon, which will also flash so it’s easy to spot! Miniquests have this option too, but because they don’t have icons it will just open the map and show the rough starting area.

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[h2]Combat Achievements[/h2]

You’ll only fail the task ‘Squashing The Giant’ if you are damaged by a melee or ranged attack and don't have the appropriate prayer activated. We’ve updated the description to reflect this.



The task ‘Prepared for Battle’ has been renamed ‘Shayzien Protector’ and you’ll need to kill a Lizardman Shaman in Molch without being damaged by any of its attacks (except for those pesky purple spawns).



You can now use any demonbane weapons on Easy Tier tasks – not just Arclight.




Other Changes include:

• Phosani's Nightmare and Nightmare kill counts are now combined into one big kill count. Or one small kill count, if you suck at the Nightmare.
  
• Corrupted Gauntlet completions count for Regular Gauntlet KC tasks. Similar to how Phosani KC counts towards the Nightmare tasks.
  
• ‘Fighting As Intended’ and ‘Fighting As Intended II’ can now be completed on Deadman worlds.
  
• Perfect tasks will no longer fail once the NPC starts it death animation.
  
• The mysterious Anim Offhand is no longer for sale at the Grand Exchange. This item was an error, sorry!
  
• Typos have been fixed in the ‘Dagannoth Supreme Adept’ and ‘Playing With Lasers’ tasks.

We've been aware of tasks sometimes not completing in the Theatre of Blood and we've attempted a fix and added extra tracking which is something we'll keep montioring with today's update.


[h3]Potential Changes[/h3]

We’ve received a lot of feedback about some of the boss tasks being much higher and more tedious to grind out than the others. We’d love to hear your thoughts on possible changes to these tasks. If you’re keen, we’d like to make alterations in next week's update:

• Kill Bryophyta 10 times -> 5 times (Medium)
  
• Kill Obor 10 times -> 5 times (Medium)
  
• Kill Callisto 150 times -> 100 times (Elite)
  
• Kill Venenatis 150 times -> 100 times (Elite)
  
• Kill Vet'ion 150 times -> 100 times (Elite)
  
• Kill Cerberus 250 times -> 150 times (Elite)
  
• Kill Cerberus 500 times -> 250 times (Master)
  
• Kill Alchemical Hydra 250 times -> 150 times (Elite)
  
• Kill Alchemical Hydra 500 times -> 250 times (Master)
  
• Kill Corporeal Beast 100 times -> 50 times (Elite)
  
• Kill Corporeal Beast 250 times -> 150 times (Master)
  
• Kill Zulrah 250 times -> 150 times (Elite)
  
• Kill Zulrah 500 times -> 250 times (Master)
  
• Defeat the Corrupted Gauntlet 50 times -> 10 times (Elite)
  
• Defeat the Corrupted Gauntlet 100 times -> 50 times (Master)
  
• Defeat the Corrupted Gauntlet 200 times -> 150 times (Grandmaster)
  
• Defeat the Gauntlet 50 times -> 100 times (Master)

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[h2]Summer Summit [/h2]



On Saturday July 31st we’re going live with Old School’s Summer Summit! This whole lockdown/pandemic thing has got us thinking about how we usually talk about the cool stuff we’re doing. Previously we always went nuts at RuneFest and gave you a year’s worth of content, which was always super exciting – until we’d miss the deadlines we set for ourselves.

This year we’re changing our approach: the Summer Summit will focus on big stuff coming in the next six months. If it goes well, we’ll do the same in another six months’ time, looking at the next half year. Obviously, this second event won’t be called the Summer Summit. Unless we do it in Australia…

Anyway, we reckon this is the best way to keep you updated with a more accurate picture of the adventures to come. We look forward to you joining us on Saturday July 31st on Twitch at 20:00 BST!

To make sure that very first Summer Summit goes as smoothly as possible there will be no Q&A this week as the team prepares for Saturday's steam.

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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

As we continue to improve the world rota system, we are aware that the Australian LMS world is often the only one available to get a competitive game. So, from next week, LMS competitive worlds will alternate between US-only, and then Australia and UK, alongside the rest of the usual rota changes.

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[h2]Other News [/h2]

• There’s now a shadow indicator before Dawn's white orb stun lands, giving you more of a chance to scarper.
  
• In the Player Attack Options menu you can now allow clanmates to be attacked via left-click, for those who are that way inclined.
  
• Crossing the root by the peekhole near the top of the DKs' ladder will no longer clear any pending damage. We really got to the root of the problem on this one…
  
• The Ammonite Crabs are no longer obstructed by their little scuttling siblings.
  
• Unferth has finally realised that Bob has been coming home for food a day earlier than he used to, so hopefully the information he gives is now.... purr-fectly accurate.
  

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That's everything for this week's game update. We'd love to hear your feedback so please let us know what you think 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, Bonsai, Brow, Bruno, Curse, Daizong, Deagle, Dibber, Ditto, Dylan, Ed, Elena, Errol, Fed, Flippy, Gecko, Grub, Halo, Husky, Jerv, Jndr, John C, Kandosii, Katies, Kieren, Kirby, Lenny, Light, Lottie, Mack, Maylea, Morty, Nasty, Nin, Oasis, Roq, Ry, Sarnie, Skylark, Squid, Steve W, Sween, Tide, Vegard, West, Wolfy & Zuko

The Old School Team.

Hello, 'Scapers!

On Saturday July 31st we’re going live with the Old School Summer Summit! This whole lockdown thing has got us thinking about how we usually talk about the cool stuff we’re doing. Previously we always went nuts at RuneFest and gave you an entire year’s worth of content, which was always super exciting – until we’d miss the deadlines we set for ourselves.

This year we’re changing our approach: the Summer Summit will focus on big stuff coming in the next six months. This approach is something of an experiment for us, and if it goes well, we’ll try to do the same in another six months’ time, looking at the next half year. Obviously, that second event won’t be called the Summer Summit. Unless we do it in Australia…

Anyway, in lieu of RuneFest (which we miss immensely!) we reckon this is the best way to keep you updated with a more accurate picture of the adventures to come. We look forward to you joining us on Saturday July 31st on the Old School RuneScape Twitch channel at 20:00 BST!

The Old School Team

We're thrilled to see so many of you try your hand at the new Combat Achievements! Really, Ghommal won't stop raving about it! If you haven't heard yet, Combat Achievements are a brand new task system designed to inject a little more spice and challenge into your PvM experience. It rewards those brave enough to complete some of Gielinor's toughest challenges!

We've been closely monitoring your response to Combat Achievements so far, and and these are our initial thoughts. This isn't an exhaustive list of everything that we've heard, but here's what we're currently looking at for next week.



First off, you've said that some of the tasks feel too difficult in comparison to the rewards on offer. It's absolutely true that the 'Easy' and 'Medium' tier rewards aren't the most noteworthy. Rewards at the higher tiers are better, but are also not considerably game-changing. When we originally pitched the idea of Combat Achievements, feedback suggested that we should focus on promoting players' sense of personal achievement, rather than offer something that players would feel obliged to complete. And while we think that's the right approach, we do however recognise that this design can feel somewhat demotivating to some.

The solution? We think there's scope to increase the rewards, but we'd like to consider this at a later date pending more feedback after the dust has settled. If you still feel we should introduce more rewards later down the line, we'll consider addressing this in a future Poll.

Next, let's talk about the range of difficulty for tasks. Why do some tasks within the same tier have wildly varying levels of difficulty? This is intentional. It's virtually impossible to create tasks that are all equal in difficulty whilst also providing variation for players AND spanning multiple areas of the game. The tier of task provides a ballpark estimate of difficulty for all of the tasks collectively rather than individually. Think of it like this: how do all of the tasks within the 'Easy' tier feel compared to all of the tasks in the 'Medium' tier as a whole? Is there a reasonable and appropriate jump in skill compared to the leap players needed from 'Medium' to 'Hard'? If there are individual tasks which are overly challenging for their tier, that's something we can address on a case by case basis.

Tasks should be challenging, but no task should feel impossible to complete or dependant solely on luck rather than skill. For this reason, we're going to reduce the RNG element of 'Squashing the Giant'. Currently, Obor's ranged and melee attacks do not provide full protection from protection prayers, which means that your success depends on his failure. We plan to change this so that the task will only fail if you aren't using protection prayers against his attacks.

We're also aware that Arclight is required for a couple of 'Easy' and 'Medium' tier tasks, specifically 'Not So Great After All' and 'Demonbane Weaponry'. That's despite our recommendation in the Combat Achievements Blog that players would only need base 60 or base 70 stats respectively to attempt these. So, we'll be changing the tasks to instead require any Demonbane Weapon rather than Arclight specifically, meaning you'll be able to choose between using Silverlight, Darklight, or Arclight to complete them.

We'll also be changing the 'Prepared for Battle' task in the 'Easy' tier so that accounts with low Defence levels can still complete it. We originally promised that these accounts would be able to complete up to and including the 'Hard' task tier, and we'd like to stay true to our word.

Last but not least, the tasks 'Fighting as Intended' and 'Fighting as Intended Il' will be tweaked so that they can be completed on World 45, as there is currently no F2P Permanent DMM World.

We can confirm that if you've already completed any of the tasks being changed, your hard earned completion will not be affected!

You can still expect some additional smaller tweaks and changes, which we'll let you know about in next week's game update newspost. For now, please continue to enjoy the release of Combat Achievements and share your progress with us! Thanks for your patience whilst we address any issues and congratulations to those of you who have been getting stuck in with the new challenges!

The Old School Team