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. 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 and 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, or they may press it again at any moment to instantly stop the wheel and produce a prize. The speed toggle switch up to below the green button offers the choice of spinning once at a time (1x) or using 10 spins at once (10x). 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 coins) discard. 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. In the case of coins, these will be deposited directly into their coin pouch. If a lamp or pendant is won and one's inventory is full, or another prize is won and one's bank is full, exiting the Squeal of Fortune interface and clearing an item will allow a player to claim the prize later by entering the Squeal of Fortune interface again.

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.

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.

''Note: when buying spins, it is important to remember that they expire in 6 months time. Spins that are obtained by other means do NOT expire.''

Monster drops
Nearly every monster in RuneScape, barring those in minigames or Dungeoneering, has a chance of dropping a spin ticket.

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 include:
 * Circus — start one of the events
 * 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

This week's D&D, January 23-29 GMT

 * Circus (Taverley)

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 you can now earn a free spin from completing the daily challenge adding an extra 28 - 31 spins per a month if you were to do them all. See the Challenge System page for more information.

Advertisements
When on the claim screen a free spin button may appear which, when clicked on, will make 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.



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 can be spent a day when buying spins and bought spins will expire after 6 months. There is also a second cap of $500 a week so you can't spend $1400 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

Coin convert
Every item on the Squeal of Fortune (except for double spin tickets) 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.

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

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.