Upcoming updates

This page is a list of upcoming RuneScape updates.

Mining and Smithing rework
During RuneFest 2015 it was revealed that a rework of Mining and Smithing is planned for 2016. This update is intended to be released in September or October of 2016. The rework will involve making the combat gear that is being created "more relevant to the levels that it is being worn at" as well as making the higher levels of the skills worthwhile.

A future rework of these skills was first mentioned at RuneFest 2013 by Mod Jack. The project was pursued again after it being voted the most wanted update by long-term players currently on a break and third most popular by current players.

Tech trees expansion
An expansion of the dwarven and cave goblin tech trees is planned for release in the week beginning 16 May 2016. 10 new technologies will be added, including 2 new cannon variants. There will also be changes to the way that tech trees work. Players will no longer be penalised for being aligned to a particular tech tree. There will be separate Dwarven and Goblin Currency which will be used to unlock inventions from the specific tech trees. Currency will be gained by completing tasks, obtainable from the technology noticeboard in the Invention Guild, of handing in components or manufactured devices. Players will be able to complete up to 5 tasks per tech tree every 12 hours. Being aligned to a tech tree will allow the player to gain the respective currency faster. This system will replace the existing tech tree system: players will be refunded the inspiration cost for inventions that they have already discovered and given some of the new currencies. 2 weeks after the tech trees expansion is released, unlocking all inventions from both the dwarven and goblin tech trees will become a completionist cape requirement.

New dwarven tech tree:

New goblin tech tree:

Bonus experience
The current restriction of players being unable to grant direct or bonus experience in Invention from sources such as experience lamps, stars and books, the Jack of trades aura and Distractions and Diversions will be lifted on 25 July 2016. However, players will only be able to gain 50% of the experience from these sources for Invention that they would in other skills. Additionally, experience from disassembling or siphoning augmented items will not be affected by bonus experience. In future Bonus XP Weekends Invention's experience bonus will be 1.5x, or 2.5x with bonus experience for actions affected by bonus experience. Tears of Guthix and Guthixian butterflies will only grant the player Invention experience if Invention is their lowest skill and they meet the skill requirements to train it. Daily challenges involving Invention will not be added at this time. Ancient effigies will not gain an Invention skill requirement to open them, but it will be possible to use a Dragonkin lamp on Invention, at the 50% experience rate.

Other
In the short-mid term (first six months of 2016) Jagex are planning to improve the proportion of positive perks. Following on from the initial 10% reduction in charge drain rate on 14 March 2016, Jagex are looking into further decreasing charge drain as they still believe that it is too costly.

Beyond this they are looking at adding more augmentable devices for skills which do not involve use of tools e.g. Smithing and Crafting. The addition of augmentable pickaxes for Mining, which was dropped and replaced by augmentable Fishing tools during the initial release of Invention content for non-combat skills, is planned to be released alongside the Mining and Smithing rework. Degradeable level 90 items which are not currently augmentable e.g. sirenic and tectonic equipment will be made augmentable in future. Jagex are also looking into making refined anima core armour augmentable. However dyed equipment will not made augmentable. Batch 2 of Invention will be released in the second half of 2016. This is planned to include content post level 99, machines, a larger Invention Guild and additional tech trees.

Mega May
During May 2016 there will be a month long event called Mega May. This will feature an investigation themed event as well as bonuses to different in game areas each weekend, similar to Winter Weekends.

15 Year Anniversary Celebrations and Gower Quest
15 Year Anniversary Celebrations marking 15 years since the creation of RuneScape will be ongoing throughout 2016. In addition in-game celebrations, these will feature:


 * Re-opening of RuneScape Classic for the whole year.
 * Release of a Gower Quest featuring Andrew and Paul Gower in mid 2016.
 * Creation of a documentary, RuneScape - 15 Years of Adventure, about the history of RuneScape, to be released in Spring 2016. This will include interviews with the 3 Gower brothers; former and current staff, including Mark Ogilvie; and players, including Zezima.

Sliske's Countdown
The final four quests of the Sliske quest series are being released in 2016 as part of what Jagex are calling Sliske's Countdown, alongside the God Scoreboard. The first quest in the series, Nomad's Elegy, was released on 15 February. The remaining quests are:

Kindred Spirits
Kindred Spirits is a quest planned for release in May 2016. It will feature the barrows brothers and a previously unknown barrows sister and will be part of the Sliske quest series.

Fate of the Gods II
Fate of the Gods II is an upcoming quest that will be a sequel to Fate of the Gods as well as part of the Sliske quest series. It is expected to be released in Autumn 2016.

Sliske's Endgame
Sliske's Endgame will be the finale of the Sliske quest series, it is planned for release in the second half of 2016.

Olympic Games event
There will be an in-game event to celebrate the Olympic and Paralympic Games, as with the Gielinor Games in 2012.

Duelling anywhere
A mode where players are able to challenge each other to friendly, non-staked duels anywhere in RuneScape will be released in May 2016.

Solo boss
A new solo boss monster was mentioned at RuneFest 2015. Concept art from Runefest showed a boss fight taking place underwater, however the underwater concept is unlikely to feature in the actual update.

A "solo boss" is one of the updates planned for the second half of 2016. Following the release of Heart of Gielinor the Watch team will now be focusing on developing the solo boss. The boss will have two tiers: one is intended to be the new hardest solo-focused PvM challenge and the other is intended to be accessible to more players.

More Raids
RuneFest 2015 revealed plans for more Raids on Mazcab, involving two new elemental-styled bosses, in a similar fashion to Yakamaru, which will be thunder and fire-based; as well as the airut shaman. Jagex are aiming to approach the second installment in a different way, based on feedback on the release of Raids. This may involve allowing more players to access content, though not making the content less challenging, possibly including skillers, solo players and smaller teams.

An update involving Raids is planned for released in the second half of 2016.

Void Knights' Outpost
Void Knights' Outpost will be graphically updated in May 2016.

Ships
A graphical update for ships, including the Fishing Trawler and Trader ships, has been completed and is ready for release. It may be released alongside The Arc.

Port Sarim
A Port Sarim graphical rework is being worked on by the Guardians team and is planned for release in July 2016, alongside the release of The Arc. A graphical rework for the area was first mentioned in the GameBlast livestream in 2014, however Mod Kelpie later clarified that further work was required before the rework would be ready for release.

Combat equipment behaviour on death
A large group of combat equipment will be changed to drop as items with charges remaining, rather than as coins or in broken forms, when players die, including on death in player killing. Drops from dyed equipment and superior armour from player-owned port will not be affected (but inferior armour will be). Hydrix equipment and tier 90 armour that degrades to dust will also not be changed following player feedback.

LootShare improvements
It will be made possible for players to receive ancient effigies and clue scrolls while using LootShare.

Boss pet improvements
Boss pet drop items will be altered so that they are kept on death and araxyte pets will show the player's Araxxi kills on their examine.

Boss pet overrides will become available for all pets, including araxyte pets and Bombi. An override for Vitalis will be added at a later date when interface unlock versions are added for item drop boss pets. This is planned for released in the week beginning 9 May 2016.

Costume room storage
It will be made possible to add superior void knight gloves to the armour case of a player-owned house's costume room.

God books overrides
Mod Orion is working on making cosmetic overrides for god books during his personal project time. Players will be able to use different recolours if they have created the corresponding god books. Additional colours will be available if the player has all other recolours unlocked.

Removal of content
The ninjas are looking into decluttering the game by removing "dead content" that is no longer being used by players. The Rat Pits minigame was removed on 11 April 2016. The team has considered also removing Mobilising Armies and redistributing the minigame's rewards to other sources, however they have stated that "No decision has been made and it is unlikely to be made for a while."

Eastern Lands: The Arc
The Arc region of the Eastern Lands, currently the first region that players may send voyages to in player-owned port, will be added as an in-game area that players will be able to visit themselves in July 2016.