Random events

Random events exist in RuneScape to discourage players from using macros to play the game for them.

Monster levels
The level and max hit of some monsters depends upon player level:

Guardians
Guardian random events are monsters that will attack players while they are training skills. They are usually quite powerful and often the best option is to run away.


 * Rock Golem - Mining
 * River Troll - Fishing
 * Shade and Zombie - Prayer
 * Tree Spirit - Woodcutting
 * Watchman - Thieving (Discontinued)

Gift givers
All random events in RuneScape excluding the guardians will give the player a gift upon completion of the required task.


 * Beekeeper (members only) - Mandatory task
 * Candlelight - Mandatory Task
 * Certers - Avoidable
 * Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (members only) - Avoidable
 * Drill Demon - Mandatory Task
 * Drunken Dwarf - Avoidable
 * Freaky Forester - Mandatory Task
 * Frogs - Mandatory Task
 * Genie - Avoidable
 * Grab the Evil Twin - Mandatory Task
 * Gravedigger - Mandatory Task
 * Lost & Found office (also known as the Abyssal network) - Mandatory Task
 * Lost Pirate - Avoidable
 * Maze - Mandatory Task
 * Mime - Mandatory Task
 * Mysterious Old Man - Avoidable
 * Pillory (members only) - Mandatory Task
 * Pinball (you're sent there by the Mysterious Old Man) - Mandatory Task
 * Pirate's Combination Lock (members only) - Mandatory Task
 * Prison Pete - Mandatory Task
 * Quiz Master - Mandatory Task
 * Rick Turpentine - Avoidable
 * Sandwich Lady - Avoidable
 * Strange Box - Mandatory Task
 * Strange Plant (members only) - Avoidable
 * Security Guard - Avoidable
 * Surprise Exam! - Mandatory Task
 * Evil Bob - Mandatory Task

Dangerous Random Events
Many random events are beneficial or at least not too much of a disturbance. Several random events can be completed by forcing an active player to click on the NPC and engage it in conversation. There are some random events which should generally be avoided due to the risk of death, especially to lower level characters and players who are not prepared for battle. Some players deliberately refuse to flee from random events to commit suicide.

Events that can hurt/kill

 * Exploding Rock - If the player continues to mine a "smoking" rock, it will explode, breaking their pickaxe. If a player is LOW on hit points, the explosion can kill them!
 * Evil Chicken - Run or fight it to the death. Protect from magic prayer nullifies all damage.
 * Poison Gas (members only) - Run or be poisoned to death, gas hits between 2 and 3.
 * Swarm - Although not very dangerous, the swarm cannot be hit and eventually if no action is taken, it might kill lesser players that are really low on hit points.
 * Shade - Run away or fight it to the death. Protect from melee prayer nullifies all damage.
 * Strange Plant - Picking the fruit after it is fully grown on the plant will prevent the plant from attacking you and it will wither until it disappears. The plant WILL poison a player if it hits for damage and it can kill you.
 * Zombie - Run or fight it to the death. Protect from melee prayer nullifies all damage.
 * Tree Spirit - Run away or fight it to the death. Protect from melee prayer nullifies all damage.
 * Rock Golem - Run or fight it to the death. Protect from melee or range prayer can be used to avoid damage. The Golem mainly attacks with melee, however it will also range the player by tossing smaller rocks from a distance so it's important to have the Protect from Range prayer engaged if you run away.

Events that can cause equipment damage or loss

 * Ent - If the player continues to cut the tree after the tree ent appears (you can see the Ent's arms swinging and the red eyes/mouth on the tree trunk), their axe will be broken.
 * Big fish - Grabs the players' equipment in its mouth and spits it nearby onto the riverbank.
 * Whirlpool - Similar to the big fish, your equipment will be sucked up and tossed nearby onto the riverbank.
 * Pickaxe handle/pickaxe head - While mining, this random event will cause the head of your pickaxe to fly off. Pick up the head and reattach it to the handle before it disappears.
 * Spade handle/spade head - While farming this random event will cause the head of the player's spade to fly off. Pick up the head and reattach it to the handle before it disappears.
 * Rake handle/rake head - While farming this random event will cause the head of the player's rake to fly off. Pick up the head and reattach it to the handle before it disappears.

Discontinued
Some random events such as the Tangle Vine were discontinued because many players did not understand how it worked. Walking or running while in the tangle vine would caused very rapid damage to the player and because of this many players died very quickly. Some players also took advantage of this and encouraged players to run away to collect their items after they had died.


 * Dr. Ford
 * Tangle Vine
 * Watchman
 * Axe handle/axe head

Trivia

 * In the feast cut scene of the Recipe for Disaster quest, the Duke gets the strange box random event, and Evil Bob teleports Osman away.
 * If a player moderator gets a random event that makes the player involuntarily say something, their crown won't appear for that one line.
 * When My Arm is farming his hardy goutweed in the quest My Arm's big adventure, he gets a drunken dwarf random event. My Arm will hit the drunken dwarf, making the dwarf fly out of the area and he will land near the entrance of the Troll Stronghold, and continue to be eaten by an un-named troll.
 * It is possible to kill an attacking Strange Plant using Ancient Magicks but it's pointless to do so. There is no drop!
 * Killing an Evil Chicken will always gain you 1 bones, 1 raw chicken and a feathers drop. The number of feathers can be as high as 1,000+ feathers though the range of feathers in the drop is determined by the combat level of the Evil Chicken.
 * If your pickaxe or wood cutting axe is damaged in a random event, you can get it fixed by visiting any NPC in a shop that sells woodcutting axes OR battleaxes. This includes Bob in Lumbridge and Brian in Port Sarim, amongst others. For any item Mithril or better, there will be a charge for the service. All others are repaired free.
 * Black axes can NEVER be player made... but they can be found as a drop if you kill a Tree Spirit (as well as by killing a few other monsters in Runescape). Any NPC that can fix any other type of axe can fix a black axe as well if it's damaged.
 * The strange fruit that you can pick from the Strange Plant (after it appears) heals poison as well as boosts your run energy by 30%. They are best saved for use when both poison control and run energy are anticipated to be needed. A good example of that would be when traversing through the Kalphite lair.
 * The Frog random event yields the froggie princess or the prince. What NPC you get depends on the sex of your character; a boy character always gets the princess, a girl character always gets the prince. Kissing the frog wearing the crown gains you a token which can be used to get a froggie mask or a set of fancy clothes from Thessalia at Thessalia's Fine Clothes at Varrock Square.
 * For the flying pickaxe head random event, after the pickaxe head hits the ground, the player has 30 seconds to pick it up before any other player can see it. After 30 seconds, ALL players can see it and pick it up. After 2 minutes, it disappears forever.
 * If you see Bob the Cat around in Runescape, you can talk to him if you're wearing an Amulet of Catspeak. If you have your cat with you, Bob and your cat will carry on a humorous conversation. Evil Bob however, you can never speak with!
 * The gravedigger's name is "Leo". You will gain parts of the zombie costume for completing his tasks.
 * The Mime random event is where players will receive the Mime costume. If you gain all the parts of the costume, your reward forevermore will be exactly 500 coins.
 * The Freaky Forester random event is where players will receive the Lederhosen costume. If you gain all the parts of the costume, your reward forevermore will be exactly 500 coins.
 * The Drill Demon random event is where players will receive the combat fatigues costume. If you gain all the parts of the costume, your reward forevermore will be exactly 500 coins.
 * The Shade random event is where players MIGHT receive one of the Shade robes. If you kill a Shade after it attacks you, part of the drop might be (or include) either the top or the bottom of the robe.
 * Contrary to popular myth, THERE IS NO SHADE ROBE HOOD! Members players often wear a hood that is confused as being a shade robe hood... that hood is actually part of the Ghostly Robes (which are members only items and have nothing to do with shade robes).
 * Also contrary to popular myth, shade robes DO NOT give any bonus to the Magic skill. They each give a small boost to the Prayer skill instead. Fact: monk's robes are actually better!
 * Shade robes in the past could be bought, sold or traded freely. Jagex recently made them UNTRADEABLE so the only way to get them now is through defeating Shades in combat.
 * Shade robes can also be stored in the costume chest in a POH.
 * Contrary to popular myth... a River Troll does NOT ever drop a bone club although those are an item members players can get via other means.
 * Contrary to popular myth... there is nothing special about the Spinach Roll that you will sometimes get from the Mysterious Old Man. They heal 1-2 hit points, that's it. Members players can actually buy them in some shops!
 * If you're tossed into the Pillory, other players may pelt you mercilessly with rotten tomatoes until you successfully complete your task to escape. The Pillory cages are in Varrock (Southeast of the General Store) and in Yanille (North of the Bank). You may purchase rotten tomatoes from the crates for pelting OR make your own using the farming skilll (members only).
 * If you give Prison Pete all the keys he requires for you to escape the prison... don't wait around. You only have 30 seconds to leave or you will have to fetch him a whole new set of keys!
 * The Evil Twin's sister is named Molly. Nobody knows what the Evil Twin's real name is! The reward for capturing the Evil Twin is always some noted cut gems. The Evil Twin always looks exactly like Molly before you go into the control room where you get two chances to capture her.
 * Some random events, such as the Gravedigger & the Mime, unlock e-motes that each player can use forevermore. Read the popup messages to see what was unlocked and check the control panel for the new e-motes.
 * Articles of clothing that any player may gain from some of the random events may be stored in a POH costume chest (members only).
 * Froggie masks and the accompanying costumes are the only random event clothing that players may gain more than one of. There was one EXCEPTION for the combat fatigues in the past. For a short period of time immediately after the Drill Demon event was released by Jagex, players could buy and sell the combat fatigues costume thus some players may have more than one of each of those items.
 * Costume pieces from random events may NOT be bought, sold or traded. They can also never be picked up by any player other than the player that dropped them.