Player-owned port

The Player-owned port is a high-level members minigame that was released on 11 December 2012, as announced in the December 2012 Behind the Scenes news post. Borrowing elements from Managing Miscellania and player-owned houses, the minigame involves players building their own port in order to manage a fleet of ships, staffed by recruited crew members. These ships explore the Eastern Lands on the player's behalf and return with exotic items and supplies that are otherwise unavailable.

Level requirements
Access to player-owned ports requires level 90+ in at least one of the following skills: Fishing, Slayer, Runecrafting, Herblore, Prayer, or Thieving. More content is available for each of the requirements met.

Location
Players can start by heading to Port Sarim. South west of the pub is a portal that players can use to enter their port.

Tutorial
Starting the tutorial requires level 90+ in either Fishing, Slayer, Runecrafting, Herblore, Prayer, or Thieving. Upon entering the port for the first time you will see a cut-scene followed by a brief interactive tutorial. It is recommended to play through the tutorial, since it teaches you all the mechanics of hiring crew, equipping your ships, sending them out on voyages, upgrading your port, and collecting rewards.

Buildings
Buildings and decorations can be built or upgraded to offer bonuses to different areas of the port's operations.

Interfaces
The Player-owned port interfaces can be seen at the top of the screen while at the port.

The Partner
The Partner started it all, and now leaves it all to the Player

The Navigator
The The Navigator assists the player in administering the port.

Surula (The Barmaid)
Surula is the barmaid in the Port's only pub.

Felix (The Black Marketeer)
The warehouse is home to Felix The Black Marketeer, who allows players to spend regular gold coins on items such as Bamboo. He can also repair ships instantly, negating the normal waiting period. A lightly damaged ship may take approximately 20,000 gold coins, a more heavily damaged one can take 40,000 or more. However, if a player is finished with the port for the day or is going to be away for the repair time, it is less expensive to allow the normal repair time to progress, which may be anywhere from one hour to five or more hours of real time, depending on the amount of damage.

Meg (The Adventurer)
Meg is a young girl and aspiring adventurer who can be found in your Player-owned port in the south west corner. Once each week (the week resets on Wednesday) she will ask for your advice on how to deal with several situations that she has encountered on her adventures. After advising her, she will teleport out to her adventures. At the end of a day she will give you a Treasure chest, with a reward that depends on the quality of the advice she was given. See the main article for strategies and reward information.

Ninja Assassins
After a successful voyage you may get to play a minigame that has you search for ninjas in 5 barrels around the dock then search out their targets through a series of clues. If you guess wrong you get another clue, finding all 5 targets will gain you a few small rewards. You can just guess the convict because there are no penalties for it.This random guessing can be made faster if you look for the gender hint, this will tell you if you are identifying the wrong gender target. Also if you don't find a Ninja there will be an arrow pointing to one.

Surula's bar
After a successful voyage, the player may get to play a minigame where they will control Surula and will have to serve beer to 20 clients in the bar area in 10 minutes. Surula can hold only 2 beer glasses and over the time she serves the clients, she will have to keep getting more from her bar in order to continue, as there are twenty clients to be served. It is quite simple seeing that you can serve all of them in about two minutes unhurriedly. The reward shares the same simplicity, it is not impressive but it is worth the time of the random event.

Random event rewards

 * Effects (one-time boosts for the ship/crew, which can be applied before the voyage):


 * Port resources
 * Rerolls

The Name
The player may customise each ship's name by bringing up an interface by clicking on the pencil icon next to that ship's icon. Ths can be done whether the ship is in port or at sea - but remember the old sea tale that it's considered bad luck to change a ship's name! Each name has three parts that can be changed individually, either manually or randomly. The list of available names is shown on the main article page above.

Upgrades
Once unlocked, ships are already built for the player. Using resources, players can upgrade their ships using five customizable hotspots: Clicking on the hotspot gives players a list of possible upgrades. Each option shows its specific stats, its resource costs to buy, and either a grey or gold padlock if the upgrade has not been purchased, or a green check-mark if it has been purchased and is currently in use on that ship (purchased, currently unequipped upgrades will show neither padlock or checkmark). The stats displayed are coloured green if the upgrade would improve that stat from the current equipment, white if there would be no change in that stat, or red if it would cause a degradation in a particular stat.
 * Rams/Figureheads
 * Deck Items 1
 * Deck Items 2
 * Rudders
 * Hulls

Once an upgrade is purchased, players can use them on any ship, even at the same time. Upgrades do not have to be purchased in the order displayed in the interface. If the player has the resources to purchase an upgrade, the padlock symbol will be gold. If the player has insufficient resources, then the padlock symbol will be grey. The upgrade options for the two deck hotspots are identical, and upgrades unlocked in one hotspot are automatically unlocked in the other.

The costs and stats of each upgrade are listed in the tables below:

Captains
Every crew must have one and only one captain. In addition to their standard stats, each captain has a given "personality" listed under their trait. These do not seem to affect game play, but they do affect the appearance and dialogue of the captain. They are listed below:
 * Abrasive
 * Calm
 * Cowardly
 * Eccentric
 * Exuberant
 * Vicious
 * Plucky

Crew
Each crew member has statistics in Morale, Combat, Seafaring, and Speed. These are determined by three factors: The statistics and costs of each possible crew member are listed in the table below:
 * The base stats of the particular type of unit, which are given in the table under "Other crew members".
 * Random bonuses specific to an individual unit. These do not appear in the crew roster until the unit is recruited.
 * Any traits that the unit has.

Level
Each crew member has a level, which starts at 0 and can be increased by sending them on voyages. When a crew member gains a level, their stats are increased by 10% of their base stats. This does not take into account any increases due to previous level-ups, individual bonuses, or traits. Therefore, for example, a Smuggler will always gain 7 Seafaring and only 7 Seafaring per level, no matter what her current stats are.

Traits
Crew members may have a "trait" which provides extra bonuses to the ships when the crew member is part of a crew on a voyage. These traits are attached to the crew member when recruited and thus cannot be changed. Captains and first mates have a high chance of having these traits. Explanations of the traits can be seen when hovering over the trait. The possible traits are listed below:
 * No trait - No bonuses
 * Cowardly - Reduced Combat
 * Eager - Improved morale
 * Eagle-Eyed - Improved seafaring
 * Good fortune - Increases the chance of gaining a random event on completing a voyage (does not stack)
 * Merchant - Improve the goods retrieved from a mission by 10% (does not stack)
 * Misery guts - Negative morale bonus
 * Plucky - Improved combat
 * Rallying Cry - All exp gains for this crew member's boat are increased by 10% (does not stack)
 * Short Sighted - Reduced Seafaring
 * Solidarity - Gives +25 or +50 to all stats per unique crew member aboard (does not stack)
 * Staunch - Will give its own life to save a crewman in distress

Voyages
After equipping and crewing a ship, players send it out into the Eastern seas to attempt to accomplish a voyage. The length of a voyage varies depending on the distance traveled, difficulty of the voyage, and the combined speed statistics of the ship and crew. The estimated time of arrival (ETA) for each ship on a voyage can be seen by clicking on the vessel or by checking the logbook item while outside the port. With the proper setup, some voyages only take 15 minutes while others last over an hour.

Once a ship has returned, players receive a notification in their chatbox. Players must return to their port to check on the success of the voyage. Voyages can be successful or unsuccessful. Some successful voyages bring back resources such as Chimes, Bamboo, Black Slate, and Jade. Other successful voyages bring adventurers to the port, unlock new islands, or bring back parts of elusive scrolls for high level armour and food or scrimshaws. A failed voyage does not bring back any reward. In addition, failed voyages may result in damage to the ship, loss of a crew member, or both.

Standard voyages
A list of the names of standard voyages and type of reward:
 * Howdy Pilgrims -
 * Cyclosis - New island
 * Troubled Waters -
 * Supply and Demand -
 * X Marks the Spot - Chimes and Bamboo
 * Explore the Seas -
 * A Daring Raid -
 * The Arc Beckons -
 * First Contact -
 * A Friend Indeed -
 * A Cracked Skull -

Special voyages
A list of the names of the special voyages and type of reward:

Rewards
Among the range of rewards available from player-owned ports are degradable level 85 armours: Tetsu armour, which is melee class, Death Lotus armour, which is ranged class, and Seasinger's robes, which are magic class. These items can be created by players with 90 Smithing, Crafting, and Runecrafting respectively (non-assistable and the materials are untradeable). Players can create two versions of this armour: tradeable versions with slightly lower stats that crumble to dust when fully degraded, and untradeable versions with slightly higher stats that can be repaired either with coins or port resources. Other available rewards include the high level food rocktail soup and scrimshaws, items for the new pocket slot.

Tetsu armour

 * Helm
 * Body
 * Legs

Sea singer's robes

 * Headband
 * Robe top
 * Robe bottom

Death Lotus armour

 * Hood
 * Chestplate
 * Chaps

Scrimshaws

 * Log-splitting Scrimshaw
 * Rock-crushing Scrimshaw
 * Tree-shaking Scrimshaw
 * Gem-finding Scrimshaw
 * Scrimshaw of Vampyrism
 * Scrimshaw of Strength
 * Scrimshaw of the Elements
 * Scrimshaw of Magic
 * Scrimshaw of Cruelty
 * Scrimshaw of Ranging

Other

 * Rocktail soup
 * Experience

Playing the game
The main idea is for players to send their ships with the correct crew members and ship upgrades so that the success of the trip is maximized. This is done by filling each of the green indicator bars as high as possible. Each voyage may have one, two, or three of the following indicators: Morale, Combat, Seafaring. There is no difference in the effects that these stats have on the success of a voyage. All "daily" items (such as new voyages, new crew availability, Black Marketeer tradeables, etc.) within the Player Owned Ports mini game reset at 00:00 UTC.

For the best chance of success, players should choose their crew members and ship components so that all of the requirement indicators are filled as fully as possible with the available crew members, remembering that the overall success potential of the voyage is equal to the least filled indicator. Thus, it will be more likely to be a successful mission if all indicators were showing 75% of necessary requirements than if two were showing 100% and one was showing 56%. Only indicators which affect the outcome of the voyage are shown. For example, if a voyage requires only 800 combat, morale and seafaring stats are irrelevant to the success and thus are not shown.

Speed is a fourth stat which is different from the other three. The speed does not affect the success of a voyage, but does affect the amount of time that it takes for each voyage to complete.

Strategies
In the early stages, focus on completing every voyage successfully. Because there are a limited amount of standard and special voyages per day, it's more important to complete the voyages that pose the least risk first, before attempting higher risk voyages later in the day. In other words, maximize your success rates for the voyages you can manage (90% or more success rate) and leave others until more upgrades are acquired or until crew members level up from easier voyages. One voyage failed means one less voyage's worth of progress for your port, which is important since there are a limited amount of daily voyages that you can take. In some cases, a failed voyage could also mean the death of a potentially skilled and valuable crew member. As of this time, rerolling voyages is never a good idea as it will take away from your total voyages for the day. It is better to just complete easy voyages for the experiences, and harder ones should be attempted if success rates can be raised to reasonable levels (60% or higher).

Increasing voyage success rate means using the right combination of crew member and ship upgrades. Voyages may require 1 or more of the following stats: Morale, Seafaring, or Combat. Using crew member, ship upgrades, or items that effect those stats will increase the success rate.

Crew members are particularly important for the success of a voyage. Early crew member can be identified easily for their skills by looking at the color of their bandana. Red bandanas indicate a crewman with high combat stats, blue for seafaring, and green for morale. (This heuristic doesn't apply for many later crew members.) Using a Brimhaven Pirate with only 150 Combat won't increase the success rate of a voyage which requires Morale. However, if success rate is adequate, even without a full crew, it still may be beneficial to include additional crew member to fill the voyage. Any crew member that is part of a successful voyage gains experience and can level up, increasing their stats. Those bolstered stats can improve the success rate on future voyages, so it's useful to try to level up your crew members whenever possible. In order to maximize crew experience it is best to try and focus on better crew members quickly, it is more effective to have a level 3 catherby fisherman with 200 seafaring than a level 3 smuggler with 100.

Ship upgrades are also particularly important for the success of a voyage, especially because any upgrade unlocked can be used on any ship you own on all future voyages. Five upgrades can be applied to the ship, but only one (the rudder) doesn't particularly aid in success rate. Deck items are likely the most important investment in ship upgrades, since they can be used twice on any ship you own, so therefore have a larger value to the success rate of your voyages. Rudder upgrades can be delayed since they don't particularly add to the success rate of your voyages.

Voyages to further portions of the east may take more time, but in time you'll be able to manage 3 or 4 ships to speed up the rate you complete your daily voyages. Rudder upgrades and some varieties of crewmen may also improve voyage speed. Speed decreases base voyage time more the longer the voyage is.

Certain effects can also bolster ship stats on a voyage temporarily. These can be earned through random events in the port, which can occur after checking the status of a returning voyage.

Music Unlocked

 * Sea Folk - When you enter the port for the first time.
 * Sea Hear - When you enter the port for the first time.
 * Sea You Late Oar - When you enter the port for the first time.
 * Shanty Instrumental - When you enter the port for the first time.
 * Stick Your Oar In - When you enter the port for the first time.
 * Stick Your Ale In - Walk north from the portal entrace and go near the bar.

Trivia

 * Before the release players received an in-game message saying "Avast mateys, the next Runescape game update will be in approximately 30 minutes".
 * The Chinese word in the top left of the Archipelago map is "端口" (duānkǒu) which is the wrong translation of port. Duānkǒu refers to a computer port or interface. The correct translation should be "港口" (gǎngkǒu), this may be one of Jagex's notorious plays on words.
 * In the Captain's log players can see the current 'Runedate', possibly a reference to the popular TV series Star Trek.
 * The Chinese word in the bottom left of the Archipelago map is "指南針" (zhǐnánzhēn), meaning compass.
 * When attempting to drop something at the port, players receive an in-game message saying "The Port Sarim Private Docks Authority thanks you for not littering."
 * A player can name their ship "The Black Pearl", a reference to Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean. You can also call it "Lady Lumbridge", a reference to the quest Dragon Slayer (ironically, a ship you owned).
 * Against popular beliefs, this activity doesn't put boundaries to Eastern Land related quests, because JaGeX said they would make them accessible after they're done updating the mainland.