Guide for returning players

This article is currently under construction. The information contained within should not be considered fully accurate and/or complete.

Due to a number of updates throughout the years, a player returning to RuneScape may find they barely recognise the game in front of them. This guide offers a brief re-introduction to the game for returning players, covering some of the most fundamental changes to the game between RuneScape 2/HD and RuneScape 3, and aims to help ease the transition back into Gielinor.

This guide will summarise the major updates a returning player should know about in chronological order and offer a brief guide to important unlocks and objectives that a returning player should aim to unlock at the end.

Unlocks and goals

Get acquainted with the new combat system introduced by the Evolution of Combat (EoC); see the article in question for more details on how it works.

• This means setting up a good Revolution bar. Revolution is a combat mode where the game automatically fires abilities, find a good bar to use at Revolution/Bars.
• Set up action bar binding, which will automatically switch action bars when switching combat styles. To do so, go to Settings > Gameplay > Combat & Action Bar > Action Bar Binding and choose a bar to go along with each style of combat.
• Try out combat for a few minutes on a combat dummy in War's Retreat and during a Slayer task to get familiar with its mechanics.

After getting familiar with EoC, here are some common goals:

• Unlock the city of Menaphos. It is designed to be a hub of skilling and other activities for low-to-mid level players.
• Complete various introductory Exploration achievements, as they will lead the player through most of the game and awards useful items.
• Complete Plague's End, the finale of the elf quest line that unlocks the elven city of Prifddinas. This is where most high-levelled players spend their time and has many skilling spots for high-level players.
• Unlock the Invention skill as it is trained alongside other skills, so unlocking it early provides more of a benefit.

Some common end-game goals include:

• Maxing every skill and earning the Max cape
• Completing every quest and earning the Quest point cape
• Completing the requirements for the Completionist cape
• Complete the drop collection for every boss for the Golden Reaper title

Tips and tricks

1. If you have a hard time adjusting to the new RS3 interface you can use the legacy interface instead. Be warned that this may not be efficient at end-game bosses. The interface can be activated by going to settings (cog icon on toolbar) > gameplay settings > general gameplay > legacy interface mode.
2. If you have a hard time adjusting to the new RS3 combat system you can use legacy combat instead. Be warned that in general this lowers your damage output. The legacy combat setting can be activated by going to settings (cog icon on toolbar) > gameplay settings > general gameplay > legacy combat mode.
3. You should enable the RuneScape Authenticator for greater account security. It is advised to activate an authenticator for the e-mail you use for RuneScape as well.

Important updates

2012

2012 saw some of the most significant changes to Runescape, from Runespan to the Evolution of Combat.

Fully completed lodestone network

• Lodestones: quick teleports with no requirements (Mar). The Lodestone Network replaced the previous Home Teleport spell and allows players to teleport to any activated lodestone with just the click of a button. Run to a lodestone (marked on the world map) and click on it once to activate it permanently.

Lowest level of Runespan

• Runespan: free AFK Runecrafting training (Apr). The Runespan allows players to train Runecrafting in a self-contained environment by siphoning runic energies from creatures and nodes.

• Bonfires: AFK Firemaking training (May). Bonfires allow players to train Firemaking by adding logs to a fire. Once clicked, the player will automatically add logs to a fire at a rate of 3.6 seconds per log until no logs are remaining in the inventory. Fire spirits will occasionally appear from a bonfire and award the player with additional experience and items.

• Queen Black Dragon: boss and tier 80 crossbow (May). The Queen Black Dragon is a mid-level solo boss. She drops components required to assemble the Royal crossbow and its ammunition Royal bolts.

• Daily challenges (Sep). Every day, a Challenge Mistress will assign the player a skilling task. Completing it will award experience and a Treasure Hunter key.

• Evolution of Combat (Nov). The Evolution of Combat completely changed RuneScape's combat mechanics. Visit the main article for more details.

• Quests:
  • The Firemaker's Curse
  • Let Them Eat Pie
  • The Elder Kiln
  • Song from the Depths
  • Carnillean Rising
  • Some Like It Cold
  • Diamond in the Rough
  • Rune Memories
  • The Brink of Extinction

2013

Statue of Queen Glarial, built in the God Statues D&D

• God Statues: monthly D&D awarding Construction and Prayer/Slayer XP (Jan). God Statues are a monthly D&D that awards up to 5 large lamps' worth of Construction experience and 5 medium lamps of Prayer or Slayer experience. The activity involves the player helping Copernicus Glyph to re-build god statues in select areas of the game by correctly setting up scaffolding. Successful construction of the statue awards Construction experience and, depending on if the correct statue for the area is built, either Slayer or Prayer experience may be awarded.

• Sinkholes: hourly D&D for Dungeoneering (Feb). Every hour, a Sinkhole will appear randomly in one of the many possible locations. Participate on the official world and compete against other players for Dungeoneering experience or tokens.

• The World Wakes: Guthix is dead (Mar). The World Wakes was the quest that led to Guthix's death and the player character's appointment to the World Guardian. It marked a major turning in the lore of RuneScape and saw the return of the Gods and the introduction of a new skill (described below) harnessing the energy of the dead god.

• Wilderness Warbands: PVP D&D (Mar). Wilderness Warbands (also known as WBS) is a daily PVP D&D where players loot tents in the wilderness for skilling supplies, which are directly convertible into experience with Quercus. Supplies are available for Herblore, Mining, Smithing, Farming, and Construction, and up to 75 can be looted per day for 363k experience at level 99.

• Charming imp: auto charm collection (Apr). The Charming imp can be bought from the Dungeoneering rewards shop for 100k tokens. It will automatically collect all dropped charms into the player's inventory and can optionally be configured to directly convert the charms into a small amount of experience, should the player not want the charm. It can be added to the toolbelt at the cost of Slayer points.

Concept art for the emissaries of Seren, Sliske, The Godless, and Zamorak from left to right

• God Emissaries (May). The God Emissaries are individuals representing each of the gods in RuneScape. They will assign tasks to the player and, upon completion, will reward a God banner that grants a 2 level temporary skill boost for half an hour every day.

• Monastery of Ascension: slayer dungeon, bosses, and tier 90 crossbows (Jun). The Monastery of Ascension is a slayer dungeon containing slayer creatures and bosses that drop components to a new Tier 90 dual-wield crossbow, the Ascension crossbow and Off-hand ascension crossbow. Making the crossbow requires combining a Dragon crossbow with a component dropped by each of the six bosses, access to which requires keys dropped by the monsters. The monsters also drop the Ascension grips, which are tier 90 power gloves for ranged.

Saradomin and Zamorak fighting next to Lumbridge

• World Event 1: The Battle of Lumbridge, Saradomin vs Zamorak (Jul). After Guthix died and his Edicts lifted, the gods returned to Gielinor. Saradomin and Zamorak fought each other in Lumbridge during this world event, with players choosing to contribute to a side (or both) for rewards such as Warpriest armour. At the end of the event, Saradomin won the battle and Zamorak teleported away.

• New skill: Divination (Aug). After Guthix died, his power and memories spread throughout the world and manifested themselves in the form of wisps. His death also caused craters to open up in the world, and Divination is the skill used to harvest the energy and memories from these wisps to return them to the crater. The skill also introduced:
  • Transmutation. Using divine energy, players can transmute lower level resources into higher level ones. For example, Uncut emeralds can be transmuted into Uncut rubies. Check Divination#Transmutation for possible transmutations and profits.
  • Portents are items that automatically trigger when a condition is met.
    • Portent of restoration automatically heals the player when their health drops below 50%
    • Portent of degradation is the same as the Portent of restoration, but also damages the opponent.
    • Portent of item protection protects an additional item upon death. Does not work in PvP areas.
    • Portent of life resurrects the player upon death. 1 hour cooldown.
  • Signs are just like portents except they are worn in the pocket slot. There are five types:
    • Sign of respite automatically extends the gravestone's timer upon death. It can also be used to extend an existing timer.
    • Sign of the porter automatically teleports certain collected items to the bank (urns will still work).
    • Sign of item protection automatically keeps an additional item when a player dies
    • Sign of life resurrects the player after death and provides 25% of the base life points.
    • Sign of death resurrects the player after death restoring up to 15% of their base life points while dealing that amount as damage to their target.
  • Divine locations are portable skilling resources with drastically increased experience and collection rates. Other players collecting from a placed location will reward additional resources to the player who placed it.

• Bonds: pay for membership with gp (Sep). Instead of paying for membership with real-life money, players can now buy redeeming Bonds for 14 days of membership. Bonds may be bought for real-life currency and sold in-game for coins on the Grand Exchange, so the price of a Bond is set by supply of players buying gold and demand of players buying Bonds for membership.

• Sirenic armour: tier 90 ranged power armour (Oct). Monsters in the Monastery of Ascension (and some other monsters) will drop Sirenic scales, which may be combined with Algarum thread to craft Sirenic armour, which is tier 90 Ranged power armour. The armour uses the normal degredation mechanics but degrades to dust.

• World Event 2: The Bird and the Beast, Armadyl vs Bandos (Dec). In this world event, Armadyl and Bandos both built structures to harness divine energy for the purpose of killing the other God. Players were given the option to aid a faction and could contribute to earn rewards such as the Devotion and Sacrifice abilities. Armadyl ultimately won, killing Bandos.

• Quests:
  • The World Wakes
  • Bringing Home the Bacon
  • Death of Chivalry
  • Birthright of the Dwarves
  • Missing, Presumed Death

2014

Inside the port

• Player-owned ports: run your own port and new tier 85 armour/weapons (Jan). More commonly known as POP, Player-owned ports are a minigame that involves the player managing a port, sending out ships for resources used in crafting tier 85 tank armour and weapons. Resources can also be used to craft scrimshaws, which are pocket slot items that provide a combat or skilling boost.

• Revolution combat mode: use abilities automatically (Feb). The Revolution combat mode will automatically cast abilities in a predefined order. Optimal bars with the highest DPS are listed on Revolution/Bars. Abilities will be prioritised from left to right. Here is an example:
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 

• Master skillcapes: skillcapes for virtual level 120 (Apr). This update introduced new skillcapes obtainable at virtual level 120 for all skills in the game. They are visually distinct from regular skillcapes obtained at level 99 and cost 120k gp.

• Legacy combat and UI mode: just like pre-EoC (Jul). This update introduced the Legacy combat and interface modes to the game, which mimics the way combat and the interface used to look before EoC, respectively. Legacy combat does not have abilities and restores the special attack of most weapons to their pre-EoC state.

• New boss: Araxxor and tier 90 weapons (Jul). Araxxor is giant spider that can be fought for new tier 90 weapons, which are crafted from the three leg pieces obtained by choosing the corresponding paths during the fight. The new weapons are the Noxious staff, Noxious longbow, and Noxious scythe, which has halberd range. All three are two-handed weapons, one for each combat style. They also share the same special attack.

• Soul Reaper: boss slayer assignments (Aug). This update introduced the Soul Reaper, which will let the player receive an assignment killing a boss for Slayer experience and Reaper points, which can be spent in Death's Store for upgrades. This update also introduced Hydrix jewellery:
  • Ring of death bypasses Death's office upon death and the reclaim cost, instead teleporting the player directly to their respawn point. For players with expensive gear this is often cheaper than paying death to reclaim items.
  • Reaper necklace boosts hit chance by up to 3%.
  • Amulet of souls allows protection prayers to protect 60% damage instead of 50% and boosts the amount healed by Soul Split.
  • Deathtouch bracelet has a chance to reflect damage back to the opponent.

The elven capital of Prifddinas, grown out of a crystal

• Prifddinas: high-level player hub (Sep). The elven city of Prifddinas (more commonly known as "prif" or "elf city") is unlocked by completing Plague's End, the finale in the elf quest series. It features:
  • A bank and Grand Exchange less than 10 steps from the lodestone and thus is a major hub where most high-players spend their time
  • A high-level agility course that can be completed by repeatedly clicking in one screen location with the correct camera angles
  • Potion recipes for Combination potions
  • A new level 85 Slayer Master, Morvran
  • An AFK method of training prayer via Cleansing crystals
  • An AFK method of training mining via Seren stones
  • Harps for AFK Crafting training and Harmonic dust, which can be used to make items such as the Crystal pickaxe and Crystal hatchet
  • A Summoning obelisk that awards 20% extra experience at certain hours
  • Multiple transportation options including a Fairy ring, Gnome glider, Spirit tree, and portals to the Clan citadel, Daemonheim, and Player-owned ports

• Ironman Mode: play without trade and Treasure Hunter (Oct). Ironman mode (also commonly called "irons" and "ironmemes") is a game mode chosen on character creation that forces the player to be self sufficient. As such, most forms of player-to-player interaction are disabled, such as minigames, trading, GE, other player's houses, etc. Most players choose to play ironman mode for the challenge and for the exclusion of most forms of micro-transactions from the game.

• Guthixian caches: D&D awarding Divination XP (Oct). The Guthixian Cache D&D can be played as many times a day for up to 200 points, each of which is worth 743 experience at level 99 Divination for 147k experience per day. 200 points can be earned in two sessions of the minigame, each lasting less than 10 minutes, usually only five minutes for high-level players.

Quests

• One of a Kind
• Fate of the Gods
• A Shadow over Ashdale
• The Mighty Fall
• Plague's End
• Broken Home
• Heart of Stone

2015

• Boss pets: minified bosses as pets (Jan). Each kill of a boss now has a chance to drop a miniature version of that boss as a pet, like Chick'arra, Nexterminator, and Corporeal Puppy, which are the pet versions of Kree'ara, Nex, and the Corporeal Beast, respectively. The pets can be used as a cosmetic override for any follower in a non-PVP area, and when examined will show the player's killcount for that boss.

• Wildywyrm and Lava strykewyrm: wilderness slayer monster and boss, new tier 85 weapons (Jan). The Lava strykewyrm and its boss counterpart, the Wildywyrm, can now be found in the wilderness and killed for components for three new tier 85 weapons: the Staff of darkness, Strykebow, and Lava whip, which are created from a Staff of light, Dark bow, and an Abyssal whip, respectively.

• Practice mode for bosses (Mar). When creating boss instances, there is now an option to start the instance in practice mode, which costs nothing to start and makes all deaths safe. This still requires players to use their own supplies.

• Aquarium in POH: raise your own school of fish (Apr). The Aquarium is a new room available for construction in the Player-owned house. It consists of the room itself, built in the house with hotspots for showcasing the player's progress in the Fishing skill and a bathysphere where fish are kept. After building the room, there is a random chance (toggleable in Settings) to obtain Golden eggs which can be added to the aquarium for that fish species to live in the aquarium. It also unlocks other perks such as featherless fly fishing and baitless fishing.

• Area loot: loot drops standing in one place (May). The new area loot mechanic lets the player see all loot on the ground in a 5x5 area around the player (now upgradeable to 7x7 with May's Quest Caravan) and loot them all at once with a single button.

• Minigame spotlight: earn new currency playing minigames (May). Playing a specific minigame on the spotlight (which changes every three days) will now award an additional currency, Thaler, which can be used in Stanley Limelight Traders to purchase minigame rewards, skilling outfits, and more.

• New death mechanic: reclaim items from Death at no risk (May). After death, instead of respawning at the nearest respawn hub with protected items, players are now teleported to Death's office. Death will then offer the option to reclaim items lost for a fee based on the value of the items. Should the player choose not to reclaim their items, leaving the office will spawn the gravestone and start the gravestone countdown timer. If the player fails to reach their gravestone in time, Death will still offer the option to reclaim their items for up to 24 hours after death. See the page on mechanics for more details on the new system.

• World Event 3: Tuska comes (Jun). The third world event involved Armadyl, Saradomin, Zamorak, and The Godless) banding together to fight off Tuska, an invading boar god. Players contributed by teleporting to Tuska's back and gathering anima to kill it. By aligning themselves with a faction, their contribution would be tracked and tallied for their chosen faction. Ultimately The Godless won and Vorago killed Tuska, ending the event. This event also introduced the Tuska's Wrath ability.

• Quick Lodestone teleports: instantly teleport to a lodestone (Jul). Players now have the option to use Vis wax to get quick lodestone teleport charges, which can be used to teleport instantly when using the Lodestone network instead of the traditional 10-second teleportation animation. Each wax is worth 10 charges.

• Elite monsters (Jul). Elite monsters are more powerful versions of a normal Slayer monster with 4x health, 3x damage, and can be killed for 4x combat experience, 2.2x Slayer experience, and 3 rolls on the loot table of a normal variant. They have a chance of spawning on the death of a normal monster and at least one is guaranteed per slayer task. Given these characteristics, they are generally regarded as not worth the effort to kill.

• Portable skilling stations: extra experience training supported skills (Jul). More commonly knows as "portables", these skilling stations are commonly placed near banks and used as a skilling hotspot. They also award additional experience and a chance to save skilling materials, and thus are highly recommended when training a skill for which there is a portable. The following portables are currently available:
  • Portable brazier
  • Portable crafter, which can also tan hides
  • Portable fletcher
  • Luminite injector, which replaced the portable forge in January 2019
  • Portable range
  • Portable sawmill
  • Portable well
  • Portable workbench, added August 2020

• Prifddinas Waterfall Fishing: high level AFK fishing (Sep). This fishing activity awards some of the best Fishing experience in the game. Whilst fishing, players may earn Crystal urchin points which may be spent in the Prifddinas Waterfall Fishing Shop for rewards such as the ability to craft the Crystal fishing rod.

• Event: Invasion of Falador and Falador graphical rework (Oct). This event, released with a graphical rework of Falador, saw Zamorak's Black Knights staging an invasion in search of the Lost sword of King Raddallin. Players could contribute to either side by killing knights of the opposing faction or healing wounded soldiers, amongst other activities. Ultimately the White Knights of Saradomin won with the support of 78% of the players and drove the Black Knights out of Falador.

• Slayer creatures: tier 85 weapons and 32-slot BoB (Nov). This update introduced four new high-level slayer monsters: the Ripper Demon, Acheron Mammoth, Wyvern, and Camel Warrior. These monsters have a chance of dropping tier 85 weapons, the Ripper claw, Wyvern crossbow, and Camel staff, and the tertiary ingredient for the Pack mammoth, which is a Beast of Burden that can hold up to 32 items, two more than the Pack yak.

Quests

• Dishonour among Thieves
• Dimension of Disaster
• Hero's Welcome
• The Light Within
• The Lord of Vampyrium
• Call of the Ancestors
• Beneath Cursed Tides

2016

• New elite skill: Invention (Jan). Invention is the first elite skill released, which are skills that have other skill requirements. Invention requires level 80 in Crafting, Smithing, and Divination to be unlocked. The skill is trained by augmenting existing items, which converts the item into its augmented variant. Doing so will cause it to drain charges from a central charge pool and allow it to gain equipment levels. Siphoning or disassembling an item with a high equipment level will grant a large amount of invention experience. It also features:
  • Disassembly, which removes items from the game in exchange for materials. Materials can be used to create devices and perks to augment existing items.
  • Perks, which are additional effects that can be attached to a weapon, armour or tool. Perks include Mobile, which halves the cooldown for Surge, Escape, and Bladed dive; Imp Souled, which has a chance of teleporting a gathered resource to the bank, and more. A list of optimal perks for PvM can be found on the Optimal PvM Perk Setup page.
  • Devices, which are items created with Invention for various effects including the Urn enhancer, which enhances the amount of experience an urn provides, Portable fairy rings, and more.
  • Machines, which include the Automatic hide tanner, Plank maker, Partial potion producer, Alchemiser, and Auto disassembler. They do exactly what their name suggests and do so even when the player is offline with no other input, as long as there is enough charge stored.

God Wars Dungeon 2 entrance area

• God Wars Dungeon 2: Heart of Gielinor, tier 85 weapons, tier 80 armour (Mar). The Heart of Gielinor is the successor to the God Wars Dungeon and, just like its predecessor, features four bosses spread throughout the dungeon requiring killcount from each faction to challenge. Each boss drops tier 85 weapons (with tier 80 damage but tier 90 accuracy) and components to make Anima Core armour, which is non-degradeable tier 80 armour. It can be further combined with other drops to form tier 85 Refined Anima Core armour. The bosses are:
  • Vindicta, from the Zarosian faction. She drops the tier 85 melee two-handed weapon Dragon Rider lance (which has halberd range) and the Crest of Zaros, which is used to make the melee Anima Core of Zaros armour.
  • Twin Furies, consisting of Nymora, the Vengeful and Avaryss, the Unceasing, are from the Zamorakian faction and drop the Blade of Avaryss and Blade of Nymora, which are tier 85 dual-wield melee weapons. They also drop the Crest of Zamorak, used to make the ranged Anima Core of Zamorak armour.
  • Gregorovic is from the faction of Sliske and drops the dual-wield ranged Shadow glaive (and its off-hand). The Crest of Sliske is used to make the hybrid Anima Core of Sliske armour.
  • Helwyr is from the faction of Seren and drops dual-wield magic Wand of the Cywir elders and its off-hand. The Crest of Seren is used to make the magic Anima Core of Seren armour.

• New client: NXT (Apr). Jagex introduced the new NXT client on 18 April 2016, which supersedes the previous Java-based client. It features better graphics and performance than the previous client and is now the only supported client for playing RuneScape 3.

• New boss: Telos and tier 92 weapons (Jun). Similar to Nex in the God Wars Dungeon, Telos is a high-level boss that be accessed by defeating all four generals, obtaining their key pieces, and combining them. Telos features an enrage mechanic that makes the boss more difficult as enrage increases but also increases the chance of dropping unique loot. The boss drops components for the new tier 92 weapons, the Staff of Sliske, Seren godbow, and Zaros godsword. He also drops the codex for a new ability, .

• The Arc: visit the eastern lands (Jul). The Arc is the first region of the Eastern Lands. First encountered in the Player-owned port minigame, it consists of a series of islands and is a high-level skilling area, requiring level 90 in a gathering skill before any of its content is available. It features a closed economy, which means that it uses a separate non-tradeable currency that must be earned and spent on The Arc islands by gathering materials with the gathering skills.

• Skilling pets (Aug). Similar to Boss pets, skilling pets are rare drops from almost any skilling action in the game. There is a pet for each skill in the game. Collecting five non-combat pets unlocks the Jack of Trades title, and collecting all 19 awards the title Jack of All Trades.

• Minigame: Deathmatch (Sep). Deathmatch is a safe PvP minigame that replaced the Crucible. The minigame supplies players with overloads, super restores, and food and features an arena where the goal is to obtain as many kills as possible.

• Currency pouch: keep all currencies in one convenient place (Sep). The currency pouch is, as the name suggests, an always-accessible pouch containing most currencies in the game, including different reward points for minigames, bonds, tokens, fragments for skilling outfits, and more. All currency stored in the pouch is safe and will not be lost on death. The pouch is accessible anywhere in the game at any time.

The former throne of Zaros

• Empty Throne Room: former throne of Zaros (Oct). The empty throne room is the excavated remains of Zaros' former throne room, and also contains lore behind Zamorak's betrayal of Zaros. It contains training locations for Agility, Divination, and Mining, but the Agility and Divination locations have a daily experience cap.

Quests

• Nomad's Elegy
• River of Blood
• Kindred Spirits
• Gower Quest
• Children of Mah
• Impressing the Locals
• Sliske's Endgame

2017

• New Boss: Nex: Angel of Death, tier 92 wand/orb, and tier 99 prayer (Jan). Nex: Angel of Death is a successor to the original Nex fight. She is a group boss that is optimally done with 7-person teams and drops the Wand of the praesul and the Imperium core, which are tier 92 magic dual-wield weapons. She also drops the Praesul codex which unlocks the tier 99 prayers Malevolence, Desolation, and Affliction (note that three codices are requires to unlock all three prayers) which are upgraded versions of their tier 95 counterparts Turmoil, Anguish, and Torment.

• Memorial to Guthix: passive Divination bonuses (Jan). The Memorial to Guthix is a D&D that provides passive bonuses to Divination and some other skilling activities. When siphoning energy and memories from wisps, players will now also receive Memory strands which, when combined with Engrams found throughout the world, will allow different passive buffs to be activated in the memorial site just south of the Phoenix Lair. Buffs include increasing the duration of Divination springs, bottling the effects of a Guthixian cache, and more.

• Skillcape perks (Feb). Each skillcape now as an associated perk that is activated when the cape is worn. For example, the Agility cape prevents the player for failing an obstacle, the Cooking cape prevents food from getting burnt, and the Magic cape allows the player to switch spellbooks at any bank. For a full list, visit the Skillcape perks page.

• Luck rework (Mar). Luck is now divided into four tiers, and each luck enhancer will only enhance luck up to a certain tier. In general, higher tier luck is required to enhance drops from higher levelled monsters and bosses. This update also introduced the Alchemical onyx, crafted from Fortunate components which are obtained by disassembling rewards from clue scrolls. The Alchemical onyx can be used to craft the Luck of the Dwarves ring, a tier 4 luck enhancer.

• Slayer monster: Gemstone dragons (Apr). Gemstone dragons are a type of dragon located in the gemstone cavern beneath the Shilo Village mine. Killing them outside of a slayer task requires paying the correct gem (Onyx for Onyx dragon, etc).

• Minigame: Shattered worlds (May). The minigame involves clearing levels of monsters for Shattered anima, which can be spent in the rewards shop for the new abilities Slayer's Insight, Kuradal's Favour, Aggression, Bladed Dive, Greater dazing shot, and Salt the wound. Bladed dive is a movement ability that does not share a cooldown with Surge and should be a high-priority unlock.

The Golden Palace of Menaphos

• Area: Menaphos (Jun). Menaphos was designed as a low-level version of Prifddinas, featuring a Grand Exchange a short distance away from the lodestone and multiple skilling locations. It was released along with four quests, each of which has a higher reputation requirement that the one before. Menaphos has four districts: the Imperial, Port, Worker, and Merchant districts, each of which also has a separate reputation system. It also has:
  • Shifting tombs, a minigame that awards reputation and experience in Agility, Construction, Crafting, Divination, Dungeoneering, Prayer, Runecrafting, and Thieving.
  • Soul obelisks, a daily D&D rewarding AFK Runecrafting and Prayer experience.
  • A Player-owned port portal
  • A VIP skilling area with acadia trees, concentrated sandstone rocks, fishing spots for beltfish, catfish, and desert sole, and a bank chest
  • Sophanem Slayer Dungeon contains new slayer creatures that drop Vital sparks, which can be crafted into ability codices for the abilities Golden touch, Limitless, and Unsullied.

• 120 Slayer (Jun). The level cap for Slayer has been raised to level 120. This was introduced at the same time as Menaphos, which features the Sophanem Slayer Dungeon where new post-99 Slayer creatures are located.

• Boss: The Magister, tier 92 weapons, and new abilities (Jul). The Magister is a boss located in the Sophanem Slayer Dungeon with a level 115 Slayer requirement. He drops components to craft the Khopesh of Tumeken and Khopesh of Elidinis, which are tier 92 dual-wield melee weapons.

• Stackable skilling Urns: additional XP when training supported skills (Jul). Urns, originally released in 2011, are objects made from soft clay using the Crafting skill which can be used to gain additional experience when training certain skills. In 2017, urns were made stackable, and new urns were added for Divination, Farming, Hunter, and Runecrafting, in addition to the existing urns for Cooking, Fishing, Mining, Prayer, Smithing, and Woodcutting. When the urn is full, it can be teleported away for 20% of the experience it took to fill the urn.

• Boss drop collection logs (Aug). All bosses now have a collection log that keeps track of all unique drops from a boss. Obtaining all uniques from a boss will grant a title specific to the boss.

• The Lost Grove: slayer area (Sep). The Lost Grove is an island west of Tirannwn that is home to three new slayer creatures: Vinecrawlers, Bulbous crawlers, and Moss golems. They drop two new items: Cinderbane gloves, which greatly enhances poison damage (as well as have a chance to inflict poison), and the Ancient elven ritual shard, which restores 37.5% of prayer every 5 minutes (the prayer equivalent of the Enhanced Excalibur).

• Revolution++: automatically use threshold and ultimate abilities (Nov). This update extends the Revolution combat mode to also have the option to automatically trigger threshold and ultimate abilities found on a revolution bar.

Quests

• Back to the Freezer
• The Jack of Spades
• Crocodile Tears
• Our Man in the North
• 'Phite Club
• Evil Dave's Big Day Out

2018

The new Aura interface

• Aura bag: new aura management interface (Jan). Auras have been moved into their own management interface under the worn equipment interface. All auras are now accessible through this interface and no longer occupy bank space. Auras can be extended using vis wax in the bank from anywhere.

• Enchanted gem-tipped bakriminel bolts (Jan). Bakriminel bolts can now be tipped with gems and enchanted for the same effects as their normal enchanted bolt counterparts, except with damage scaling up to tier 92. They are currently the best-in-slot bolts in game. The most notable are Ruby bakriminel bolts (e) that deal 20% of the opponent's current hp (up to damage cap) and Hydrix bakriminel bolts (e) that instantly give the player 10% adrenaline and increases the adrenaline for each basic ability by 1% for the next 15 seconds.

The Deep Sea Fishing hub

• Deep Sea Fishing: new fishing hub (Mar). The Deep Sea Fishing Hub (more commonly known as "DSF") can be accessed via the Fishing Guild and is a mid-to-high level fishing area. It features:
  • Sailfish, Blue blubber jellyfish, and Green blubber jellyfish, which are new types of food. Sailfish is a new type of fish that heals up to 2400 life points, 100 more than Rocktails, and jellyfish, both the blue and green varieties, heal the player without reducing adrenaline (like Saradomin brews).
  • Swarm fishing is a fishing spot where a variety of fish can be caught. The exact distribution depends on the fishing level. Swarm fishing is extremely click intensive, and as a result, some of the fastest fishing experience in the game.
  • Travelling Merchant's Shop (more commonly knows as "TMS") is a shop that occasionally visits the Deep Sea Fishing hub. It sells a variety of items such as Slayer VIP Coupons, Unstable air runes, redeemable for Runespan points, Livid plant, redeemable for Livid points, Harmonic dust, and more.

• Safecracking: fast Thieving XP (Apr). This update introduced safes that are scattered throughout the world that can be cracked for 300k to 700k Thieving XP/hour. Loot must be fenced by selling them to Chief Thief Robin and stolen valuables can be sold for points or 37,500 each.

• New boss: Solak and tier 92 crossbows (May). Solak is one of the Guardians of Guthix and can be found and fought in The Lost Grove. He drops the tier 92 dual-wielded Blightbound crossbow and its off-hand variant. He also drops Erethdor's grimoire, a pocket-slot item with the same stats as Illuminated god books, with the effect of increasing critical hit chance and raising the damage cap of critical hits to 15,000.

The Hall of Memories

• Hall of Memories: fast and active Divination training (Jun). The Hall of Memories (also knows as "HoM") is an area beneath the Memorial to Guthix that contains the memories of the deceased Guthix. With a dedicated Friends Chat scouting worlds, boosts, and 2-ticking, up to 300k XP/hr is possible training at this location.

• Elite Dungeon 1: Temple of Aminishi (Jun). The Temple of Aminishi (more widely knows as "ED1") is the first Elite Dungeon, a dungeon that functions similar to raids featuring waves of weaker enemies followed by a boss. There are three bosses: The Sanctum Guardian, Masuta the Ascended, and Seiryu the Azure Serpent. The dungeon also features unique loot:
  • Ancient scale, used to upgrade Sirenic armour to tier 92 Elite sirenic armour
  • Masuta's warspear, a tier 82 halberd-range weapon
  • Seasinger weapon upgrade kit and the same for Tetsu, which upgrades the player-owned ports tier 85 weapons to tier 88.

• Elite Dungeon 2: Dragonkin Laboratory (Aug). The Dragonkin Laboratory is the second Elite Dungeon. Just like the Temple of Aminishi, it features waves of weaker monsters followed by bosses, which in this case are Astellarn, Verak Lith, and the Black Stone Dragon. Most of the monsters here are dragons (and count towards a dragon Slayer task). The unique loot is:
  • Draconic energy, used to create Elite tectonic armour
  • Greater Flurry ability codex, used to upgrade Flurry to Greater Flurry
  • Greater Fury ability codex, used to upgrade Fury to Greater Fury
  • Greater Barge ability codex, used to upgrade Barge to Greater Barge

• Player-owned farm: raise your own animals for Farming XP (Sep). The Player-owned farm (commonly knows as POF) is an activity that involves raising livestock in a farm north of Ardougne for Farming experience and new produce. Rabbits, chickens, sheep, cows, chinchompas, spiders, yaks, zygomites, and dragons can be raised on the farm, with increasing Farming level requirements. Produce harvested from the animals can be used to create the new potions. New items include Ultracompost, created by composting Dragon manure, and the Extreme divination, Extreme hunter, Extreme invention, and Extreme runecrafting potions.

• May's Quest Caravan: the Quest Point Shop (Sep). May's Quest Caravan is a reward shop south-west of the Varrock lodestone. Upon reaching certain Quest Point milestones, players can claim one-time rewards from May. Additionally, it also features three tracks to which players may allocate quest points for rewards. The three tracks are:
  • Combat track, which awards the Armour of Trials, a tier 75 hybrid armour set that reduces damage taken from quest bosses, and Vanquish, a tier 75 weapon that deals additional damage to quest bosses and can be switched between all three combat styles.
  • Pet track, which unlocks the Lorehound pet. The pet increases the area of Area Loot and increases the drop chance of rare lore books.
  • Hub track, which upgrades the caravan itself. Upgrades include a portal that leads to the latest quest, a bank chest, and a storage box for unique quest items from which they can be reclaimed if lost.

• More Alchemical onyx items (Dec). The Alchemical onyx can now be used to craft:
  • Grace of the elves, which can store Sign of the Porter charges and has remote teleports to locations attuned by the Max Guild's skill portals. It also halves the prayer drain rate of Light Form, Superheat Form, and Chronicle Absorption and has a chance of spawning Seren spirits while training gathering skills.
  • Passage of the Abyss, which is a pocket-slot item that can store up to six teleportation jewellery that can be compacted by the Teleportation compactor and allows the player access to all stored teleports.
  • Ingenuity of the Humans ability codex, which unlocks the Ingenuity of the Humans ability. The ability guarantees that the next hit within 6 seconds will have 100% hit chance. (This ability was an item prior to 19 August 2019).

Quests

• Pieces of Hate
• You Are It
• The Needle Skips
• Violet is Blue

2019

• Mining and Smithing rework (Jan). The Mining and Smithing rework completely overhauled the the Mining and Smithing skills, completely changing the gameplay mechanics for Mining ores and Smithing items. Level requirements for Smithing and Mining were rebalanced (Rune now requires level 50 Mining and Smithing, for example, in line with the armour tier) and introduced new ores and metals all the way up to tier 90. To summarise:
  • New bars: Orikalkum bar, Necronium bar, Bane bar, and Elder rune bar
  • New mining mechanic: each swing of the pickaxe generates progress towards the next ore and rocks never deplete despite the number of people mining them.
  • New smithing mechanic: each item smithed requires much more time and resources but rewards much more experience.
  • New items: stone spirits, which replaced all ores on drop tables and can be used during mining to double ore yield. Salvage replaced existing smithable armour pieces on drop tables and can only be disassembled, alchemised, or traded.

• Player-owned farm farmhands and storm barn (Feb). New farmhands are available for the player-owned farm which can halt animal growth at adolescent stage (for maximum beans when sold) or collect excess animals at the breeding pen. The newly added storm barn can hold animals without taking up bank space.

• Elite Dungeon 3: The Shadow Reef (Feb). The third elite dungeon is fairly similar to the previous two, except instead of mostly dragons, it's home to mostly undead creatures. The three bosses are the Crassian Leviathan, Taraket the Necromancer, and The Ambassador. This dungeon features:
  • Black stone arrow tips, used to make Black stone arrows that reduce the target's Defence by 0.75% per stack (up to 20 stacks)
  • Black stone heart, used to make the ability codices for the Demon slayer, Dragon slayer, and Undead slayer abilities
  • Swordy McSwordFace, a tier 80 2-handed sword
  • Components to craft the Eldritch crossbow, a tier 92 two-handed crossbow

• Anachronia: The Land Out of Time (Jul). Also knows as fossil island or dino island, Anachronia is a prehistoric-style jungle island north-east of Daemonheim. It features:
  • A player-built base camp with a skillcape rack that lets a player hang a skillcape to gain its effects for as long as the skillcape remains hung
  • The Anachronia Agility Course, which can be run for Codex pages used to create the Double Surge codex and the Double Escape codex, unlocking a second charge for Surge and Escape
  • Totems that can be activated for effects such as removing the God Wars Dungeon killcount requirement, reducing the number of clue scroll steps by one, and more
  • Big Game Hunter, where the players can hunt dinosaurs for Hunter and Slayer experience. Some dinosaurs have the chance to drop components required to craft the Terrasaur maul, the melee equivalent of the Hexhunter bow

The bank interface after the rework

• Bank rework (Sep). The bank rework adds long-requested features such as placeholders, different sorting options, additional tabs, the ability to directly access Diango and the player-owned house storage from any bank, and more.

The Ranch Out of Time

• 120 Herblore, 120 Farming, and the Anachronia Dinosaur Farm (Nov). This update raised the level cap for Herblore and Farming to level 120 and added the Ranch Out of Time (also known as RooT), an extension of the existing Player-owned farm, to the game. More detailed information can be found on the official RuneScape newspost for 120 Farming and 120 Herblore]. New content includes:
  • New crops: Dragonfruit, Avocado, Ciku, Mango, Guarana, Lychee, Carambola, and Golden dragonfruit, all of which can be turned into Primal fruit pulp, which is used as a base ingredient in new potions.
  • New animals: 14 new reptiles are available to raise in the Anachronia Dinosaur Farm, including all the dinosaurs in Big Game Hunter, frogs, and salamanders
  • New potion bombs: Poison bomb, Sticky bomb, and Vulnerability bomb, which can be thrown to apply the effects of the bomb
  • New powerburst potions: all powerbursts share a 2-minute cooldown and provide effects such as doubling the player's HP for the next 6 seconds, double runes crafted, and setting the cooldown of Surge and Bladed dive to 1.2 seconds for the next 5 seconds.
  • New potions: Elder overload potion, Spiritual prayer potion, , Extreme prayer, Weapon poison+++, and Extreme cooking potion
  • Blessed flask, which can store up to 80 doses of extreme prayer potions

Quests

• Chef's Assistant
• Curse of the Black Stone
• Desperate Times

2020

Inside the hub

• War's Retreat/PvM Hub: low requirement boss teleports (Jan). War's Retreat (more popularly known as the PvM hub) has the following features:
  • Boss portals that can be attuned to any boss that has been killed at least once
  • Killing bosses awards Marks of War, which can be exchanged for auras, aura resets, and permanent upgrades to the hub
  • Adrenaline crystal, siphoned for adrenaline to enter a boss fight with 100% adrenaline. Unlocked an 1k boss kills. At 2k boss kills, the adrenaline crystal gains the ability to refresh your adrenaline potion cooldown
  • War's Retreat teleport, unlocked at 10 boss kills, has no other requirement and requires no runes. Combined with boss portals, this allows for a player to teleport out of the boss fight, bank at the hub, and teleport right back to the boss.

• New skill: Archaeology (Mar). Archaeology is a new skill that involves digging up artefacts at the five dig sites and restoring them. The skill can be levelled up to 120 and introduced the following:
  • Ancient invention, which unlocked new ancient gizmos and tools. Ancient gizmos have 9 slots for components instead of 5, and ancient tools act as tier 80 for the purposes of calculating Invention experience when disassembling or siphoning the tool.
  • Ancient summoning, which unlocked the ability to bind demons to a contract for use as a summoning familiar.
  • Relic powers that enhance different aspects of gameplay, such as the Persistent Rage power which disables adrenaline drain outside of combat and the Endurance relic which provides infinite run energy for the player permanently.
  • Inquisitor staff, the magic equivalent of the Hexhunter bow and Terrasaur maul.

• Alchemical hydrix jewellery (Aug). Just like alchemical onyxes, the alchemical hydrix is created by combining a hydrix and fortunate components. It can be used to create:
  • Brooch of the Gods, which can store up to 1000 of each decorated urns and enhances the effects of portable skilling stations. It also has a chance to spawn a divine blessing, which awards 4 uncommon or rare components of a single type.
  • Essence of Finality amulet. Created by combining the alchemical hydrix, the reaper necklace, and the amulet of souls, the essence of finality inherits the effects of both and has the additional ability to store a special attack from any sacrificed weapon for usage during combat with another weapon of the same style, using the currently equipped weapon's damage values for damage calculation.

• Distraction and Diversions (DnD) Update (Sep). This update reworked Penguin Hide and Seek and introduced Effigy Incubator.
  • Penguin Hide and Seek:
    • The game now keeps track of the total amount of penguins spotted, with rewards for certain milestones
    • New Penguin spy device that automatically scans for penguins within a 20-tile radius
    • Graphical update for Penguin disguises
    • Penguin points are now exchanged for lamps instead of directly for xp from the new shop.
    • New secret agent penguins that award a clue scroll casket when spotted
  • Effigy Incubator: construct new effigies that act similar to Urns. Requires completion of Desperate Measures.

• New Digsite: Orthen (Oct). Orthen, located on Anachronia, is a new dig site for the Archaeology skill that requires at least level 90 to begin and contains artefacts up to level 120. Notable rewards include:
  • Monolith power cap raised by 150 for a total of 650. This requires level 120 archaeology.
  • New potions:
    • Archaeology potion raises Archaeology by 3 levels.
    • Summoning renewal restores up to 545 summoning points and 60 special move points over 6 minutes.
    • Holy aggroverload combined the effects of the aggression potion and the holy overload.
    • Powerburst of opportunity doubles the effects of rockertunities and time sprites for 10 seconds.
    • Spirit attraction potion automatically collects spirits (Seren spirit, divine blessing, fire spirit, etc) for 6 minutes.
  • New skilling off-hands, the Orthen furnace core, used for smithing and firemaking, and the Artificer's measure, used for crafting and construction.
  • New relics
    • Bait and Switch automatically cooks fish when fishing
    • Flow State which increases Archaeological precision by 20% at the cost of not receiving any soil
    • Death Note which notes all bone and ash drops.

• Construction Contracts: slower and cheaper construction training (Nov). Construction contracts are a new and less intensive method of training construction wherein the player is assigned to repair 5 pieces of furniture at one of eleven locations in Gielinor. Completion of a contract rewards contract credits which can be spent on the Estate Agents Shop for a Plank box and the Master constructor's outfit.

• Raksha: new boss (Dec). Raksha, the Shadow Colossus, located on Anachronia, is a new solo and duo boss that can be slain for the codices to three new abilities: Greater Chain, Greater Ricochet, and Divert.

Quests

• Once Upon a Slime
• Desperate Measures
• Violet is Blue Too

2021

• Quests
  • Heartstealer (permanent Valentine's quest)

FAQ

• What happened to the price of dark bows and abyssal whips?

  With new and more powerful weapons being introduced to the game, the overall demand of many former high-end items such as abyssal whips and dark bows have fallen due to the weapons now being considered mid-level equipment.

  Increased popularity of the Slayer skill together with updates such as the Evolution of Combat and higher level equipment allowing Slayer monsters to be killed considerably more easily and faster than before has also lead to significant increase in the supply of many Slayer monster drops, further lowering their value.

  Despite the attempts to increase the value of Slayer monster drops like abyssal whips and dark bows with updates such as the weapon add-ons from lava strykewyrms, the prices of the weapons have remained low.

• How do I make money now?

  You can check for money making guides here: money making guide.

• Why do I not use arrows or runes all the time?

  When you use abilities, you will not use arrows or runes; therefore, the amount of runes or arrows used in combat is much lower than it used to be.

• What is the best way to train combat?

  Slayer is recommended as the best way to train combat, because slayer will unlock some of the best monsters in the game for both experience or money.

• Is scamming still a thing?

  Scamming remains prevalent in RuneScape. You will not come across it as often, but it's always recommended to stay cautious and use your common sense.

  You can see some of the known scams and quick tips to avoid them here: Scams

• What skills can reach level 120?

  Only Dungeoneering, Invention, Slayer, Herblore, Farming, and Archaeology can reach a maximum of level 120. All skills can reach a virtual level of 120, which will award a "120 cape" after the level has been met.

• Where are all the players?

  The popular places have changed, so many players are now in the new city Prifddinas, you can also find a lot of players and the portable skilling stations on world 2 or world 84 in Burthorpe.