Squeal of Fortune

The Squeal of Fortune (also known as the SoF) is a daily activity available to both members and free players, initially introduced on 28 February 2012. It shares its side-stone interface with the Solomon's General Store. Free players get one spin a day while members normally get two spins a day. The Squeal of Fortune resets every midnight UTC. Rewards include armour, weapons, xp lamps, coins, and an assortment of equipment — some as illustrious as Lucky equipment, the untradeable counterparts to powerful existing equipment.

When a player logs in, there is a small button in the middle of the game screen which may be moved freely with the mouse. The introductory task system must be completed or turned off for it to appear. Pressing it brings the player to the wheel containing a selection of thirteen items which always consists of one super rare item, two rare items, four uncommon items and six common items. The selection of items changes from spin to spin, but logging out then back in results in no change.

Players activate the wheel by clicking the green button a single time, which will show the graphics of the wheel spinning and stopping; they may press it again at any moment to instantly stop the wheel and produce a prize. There are two speeds at which the player may spin, both below the green button, that allow the player to spin one at a time (×1) or using 10 at a time (×10). When the wheel stops, the player is presented with their prize which they may either claim, convert to coins, or (in the case of winning cash bags and double spin tickets) discard.

Note that the wheel's graphics do not necessarily reflect the odds of the wheel stopping on a particular slot. The chance of obtaining a super-rare item is significantly less than the 3 in 100 chance the wheel suggests.



Obtaining more spins
On 2 April 2012, a game update introduced a variety of new ways to obtain additional spins for the Squeal of Fortune.

When buying spins, it is important to remember that they expire in 6 months time. Spins that are obtained through any other means do not expire.

Spins on the Squeal of Fortune are used in the following order:
 * Order of Use
 * Daily spins
 * Spins obtained through gameplay
 * Purchased spins

For non-purchased spins, there is a cap on the number of unused spins that you are allowed. You will not earn spins beyond this amount:
 * Maximum allowed spins
 * Daily spins: 3 (these are use-or-lose spins)
 * Spin tickets: 10
 * Other spins obtained through gameplay: ~100

Daily spins
Free players get one spin a day while members normally get two spins a day, and members who bought a silver or gold membership package get three daily spins. The Squeal of Fortune resets every midnight UTC. Daily spins do not roll over to the next day.

Monster drops
Nearly every monster in RuneScape, barring those in minigames or Dungeoneering, has a chance of dropping a spin ticket. They can still drop if you already have 10 earned spins, but you will be unable to claim it until you use one.

Skilling activities
Players may gain spin tickets through any of the same methods that can be used to find a strange rock, whether they are a member or not. Unlike strange rocks, a spin ticket obtained whilst skilling with a full inventory will not replace an item of the player's, it will be redeemed automatically.

Distractions and diversions - P2P
Every month, the player may gain a single spin ticket for starting a game of Troll Invasion. Additionally, a different distraction and diversion is chosen each week to give the player a spin ticket for simply participating. The events rotate each week in the following order:
 * Evil Tree — chop, light or nurture an Evil Tree
 * Shooting Star — mine any size star and gain experience
 * Penguin Hide and Seek — redeem at least one Penguin Point
 * Circus — start one of the events

Quests
As of 24 April 2012 the completion of any quest will earn the player 2 additional spins to the Squeal of Fortune, this includes any subquest of Recipe for Disaster, the wishlists for the Rag and Bone Man and the Thieving Guild capers. Quests completed prior to this update will not count.

Challenges
As of 19 September 2012 a free spin is given for completing a daily challenge, totaling to between 28 and 31 extra spins a month if every day's challenge were to be completed.

Advertisements
When on the claim screen a free spin button may appear which, when clicked on, will have the player watch a short video ad then award one free spin. These ads do not seem to appear in the downloadable client, only when playing on your browser. Not every country, however, has ads available for players, and thus some players will not receive this chance for a free spin. Use of third-party ad-blocking browser extensions may also prevent this option from appearing.



Buying spins
Spins can be bought in groups of 10, 20, 40, 100 or 200 spins, with a bonus 5 spins being given for buying 20, a bonus 35 spins for buying 40 spins, a bonus of 100 spins for buying 100 spins and a bonus 250 spins for buying 200 spins. A maximum of $200 US can be spent a day when buying spins and bought spins will expire after 6 months. There is also a second cap of $500 US a week so you can't spend $1400 US in a single week.



Premier Club
If a player joins the Premier Club and purchases a silver or gold package, the player will be granted one additional spin each day as long as the player remains signed up as a Premier Club member. This amounts to 3 spins a day, as opposed to 2 spins a day for players who are only members.

The value of spins included in the Silver package is worth approx $45.50USD with numerous other benefits included.

The value of spins included in the Gold package is worth approx $91.00USD with numerous other benefits included.

Other offers
There are also packages available to USA residences using game cards available for $10 or $25, and offer a range of options when redeemed, some of which include spins:
 * 30 days of membership and 5 Spins for $10
 * 60 days of membership and 32 Spins for $25
 * 460 RuneCoins and 40 Spins for $25

Rewards
Most items are deposited directly into the players bank; however, experience boosting items such as XP lamps or any pendant of skill are placed in the player's inventory. If a lamp or pendant is won and one's inventory is full, or another prize is won and one's bank is full, the player will be unable to claim the prize. Exiting the Squeal of Fortune interface and clearing an item will allow a player to claim the prize upon re-entering the Squeal of Fortune interface.

All items found in the rare section can be found in the very rare section as well with the exception of a Large XP lamp. Just as the large lamp is the only item from the rare section not able to be in the very rare section, the Huge XP lamp cannot be found in the rare section.

Coin convert
Every item on the Squeal of Fortune (except for double spin tickets and money pouches) has the option to be converted into a predetermined amount of coins. Generally, this value is the same as the item's high alchemy value; however, items exclusive to the wheel convert into a set amount of coins with price increasing with rarity. This feature is available for P2P as well as F2P.

Controversies
The main controversy over the Squeal of Fortune is that it is considered to be a form of Real World Trading by a number of players, due to the fact than many items from the Squeal of Fortune either have a significant gold or xp value. Jagex has always regarded RWT as a rule-breaking activity; however, they have redefined real world trading as being completed via a third party to avoid incriminating themselves with their own rule.

The Super-Rare-A-Day Promotion currently has many players angered, as many believe that the removal of the cosmetic Super Rare items is an attempt by Jagex to lure players into purchasing spins for the Squeal of Fortune, only to later release these same items as cosmetic overrides on Solomon's General Store. The basis for this angry speculation is that the items are:  The rarest cosmetic items to win on the Squeal of Fortune, purely cosmetic, untradable, and these items had no previous listed shelf-life as a potential prize on the Squeal of Fortune.

Trivia

 * The update was not included in the February 2012 Behind the Scenes; a similar event took place in February 2011 with the Wildywyrm.
 * The name is a play on words of the game show Wheel of Fortune.
 * The icon does not appear in the Duel Arena, in Stealing Creation or within Daemonheim's floors, but it does appear on the exit balcony when you leave a dungeon. The icon does appear in Clan Citadels and Player owned ports, however you cannot access the tab to Squeal of Fortune in these places.
 * Opening the Squeal of Fortune's interface does not pause game ticks, so time limits for equipment and minigames are still imposed.
 * The small agility lamp and the small thieving lamp have been changed to the same gold colour of the medium and large lamps and they are the only small lamps of that colour.
 * On the day the Squeal of Fortune was released players could press the spin button once then again to stop it at the slot they wanted. This caused huge amounts of rare lucky items to enter the game, it was patched around 2 hours after the release. No player rollbacks were administered.