Upcoming updates

This page is a list of upcoming RuneScape updates.

Augmenting dyed equipment
Mod Ramen has developed an update to make it possible to augment dyed tier 90 armour and weapons. It will be possible to augment items that have already had dye applied to them. Augmented dyed equipment will not feature the cogs associated with most augmented items (they will look identical to non-augmented versions). This update is currently in the Quality Assurance stage and is intended for release some time around the middle of September.

Batch 2
Batch 2 of Invention is planned for second half of 2016. This is planned to include content post level 99, machines, a larger Invention Guild and additional tech trees. Jagex are also looking at adding more augmentable devices for skills which do not involve use of tools e.g. Smithing and Crafting.

Mining and Smithing rework
A rework of Mining and Smithing was planned for September 2016, however the rework has since been postponed to 2017 due to player feedback. The following information about Jagex's plans for the rework were revealed during two livestreams before they made the decision to push back the rework.

On 4 August 2016 Mod Jack made a post on the RuneScape Official Forums and on Reddit to begin discussions about re-evaluating what players wanted to see in the Mining and Smithing rework. From this they hope to reuse acceptable elements of the pre-existing plans for the rework as well as create new designs or take suggestions to fully meet with requirements for the rework.

Initial plans
On 6 May 2016, the first of a series of Mining/Smithing rework polls was released, to gauge player interest and what the community wanted from a rework. From this survey Jagex found that players wanted Mining to remain a mainly AFK skill; for the Mining level cap not to be increased to 120; and for Mining and Smithing to involve keeping and using ores rather than drop training. The main aims of the rework are to bring the Mining and Smithing levels required to use ores in line with the Defence levels required to use the weapons and armours created from them; to add a reward space for future content; and to make Mining more exciting and less competitive. In a livestream on 14 June 2016 Jagex revealed their plans for the rework. It is proposed that the Mining and Smithing levels required for existing ores will be reduced and that new ores will be added in their place at higher levels:

Proposed new ores:

As part of the rework all ore and smithable items will be removed from monsters' drop tables. Attention will be paid to monsters that will lose the most wealth from the removal of adamant and rune drops: their drops will be replaced with materials that help with Mining and Smithing where necessary. Jagex will also be replacing these items in clue scroll, crystal key, crystal triskelion, and boss monster drop tables. The new necrite, invictum and aetherium ores, bars and equipment will not be obtainable as drops.

There will also be changes to some existing training methods. Due to decreases in the tier of mithril, adamant, and runite, Smithing experience gains in Artisans Workshop and Lava Flow Mine will be reduced. Blast Furnace's resource return rate will be rebalanced to take into account changes in coal requirements. Seren stones will remain mostly the same, but smelting corrupted ore may give a lower experience rate. Mining familiars will no longer giving a Mining level boost, but will instead increase the amount of damage done to rocks. There will not be new divine rocks, but the existing ones may be altered.

A rework of the Mining and Smithing 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.

Mining
The mechanics of Mining will be reworked so that rocks have a "capacity" mechanic, similar to life points. When a player mines a rock they will have a chance to either hit or critically hit the rock. A successful hit will deal damage to the rock and award the player Mining experience. A critical hit will deal greater damage to the rock's capacity and award ore and bonus Mining experience. Reducing a rock to zero capacity will reward the player with a bulk amount of Mining experience and at least one ore, if they have passed a sufficient threshold of damage dealt. It is intended that capacity will be per player, though technical investigation of this possibility is still underway.

Rocks will also have a "hardness" value indicating how difficult it is to mine them, with higher level rocks having increased hardness. The speed mechanic of pickaxes will be removed; instead higher tier pickaxes will deal increased damage to rocks' capacity. Pickaxes will have a "penetration" value indicating how easily they can overcome a rock's hardness. Mining a rock with a higher hardness than a pickaxe's penetration value will make critical hits less likely, so the player will receive less ore and have a lower experience rate.

There will be new pickaxes for each of the new types of ore. Additionally there will be a consumable pickaxe giving a greatly increased rate of mining. It will be possible to smith this at level 99 Smithing; it is intended for training post-99 Mining. Crystal pickaxes will be removed and players who own them will be refunded 4,000 harmonic dust and a dragon pickaxe. A dragon pickaxe will instead be required to make the aetherium pickaxe. It will be possible to use harmonic dust to buff the new pickaxes to provide extra of the new Smithing secondaries.

Another potential addition shown in the first Mining and Smithing rework livestream was mining shafts. These are not currently being developed and will not be released with the initial rework. In this content players would explore mine shafts to search for ores. The mine shafts would be procedurally generated limited instances allowing several players to explore a mine shaft simultaneously, though the mine shaft would not appear the same to all of them. Delving deeper into the mines would grant the player higher level ores but also increase the risk involved. Exploring mine shafts could result in non-safe death to the player. The following mining shaft levels were suggested:


 * Basic levels (1-3) - up to adamantite ore available, little danger but little to explore.
 * Early levels (4-6) - increased chance of rare ores, bonus hit chance to gathering ore and small risk.
 * Level 7-9 - increased hit chance to gathering ore; reduced chance to spawn common ores and increased hit chance to gathering ore; greater sense of exploration (no paths already opened) and moderate risk from monsters, environmental danger and tunnel collapse.
 * Level 10+ - superior hit chance to gathering ore and best chance to discover rare ores, greater sense of exploration and high risk from dangers.

In the initial livestream Jagex also suggested that they could add more types of pickaxe. Examples given were two handed pickaxes, with a poor rate of ore but superior experience per hour, and dual wield pickaxes, with a superior rate of ore but poorer experience per hour. However, these are not going to be included in the initial rework; and different plans for new tiers of pickaxes were revealed in the second rework livestream.

Smithing
Smelting will be altered so that more ores are required to make bars. Coal will only be required for lower tier bars; new secondary ingredients will be required for the new bars. It is intended that this will cause Smithing to introduce fewer items into the economy while maintaining the same experience rates. The experience curve for Smithing is intended to make it so that it is always more beneficial to smith the best tier items available to the player. The new bar recipes will be:

As more ores will be required for smelting, players will be able to create storage crates to carry ores. Storage crates will be automatically filled when mining and the ores contained within them will be used directly when smelting and smithing. It will be possible to empty a storage crate into the backpack or bank. There will be a crate for each tier of new ore (orichalcum, necrite, invictum, and aetherium) which will be made from the ore from the tier below.

Smithing will be updated to include masterwork Smithing, which will involve using hard-to-make ingredients to create items with higher levels and stats, as well as the existing standard Smithing. Bars created from standard smithing may be spent on obtaining and completing work orders. These will give the best Smithing experience but no items. Players will unlock new kinds of work order with a maximum of 4 bars being required to complete the tasks. The player will be able to become a master of smithing both particular types of item and particular tiers of item by smithing a number of items of a type/tier, which will unlock benefits when smithing the items.

Masterwork Smithing will involve using untradeable tertiary ingredients, obtained only from Mining, or bars to make standard items. These items can then be broken down to make folded bars which can be smithed into masterwork items. These will include the new 70+ Smithing armours. The proposed new necrite, invictum and aetherium armour sets will include full helmets, platebodys, platelegs, shields, scimitars, gloves and boots. These items will be tank armour but will have lower stats than those obtained from PvM at the equivalent tier and take longer to get, to maintain viability of monster drops. Aetherium armour will also have a life point boost. It will also be possible to smith new pickaxes for each of the tiers. The masterwork combat equipment will be tradeable and augmentable.

By using smithed masterwork items as well items smithed from orichalcum and dragon equipment on the the dragon forge it will be possible to make honed masterwork items which will have additional stat bonuses.

Stats of the new masterwork and honed masterwork armour:

Double XP Weekend
A Double XP Weekend will run from 12:00 UTC on Friday 23 September to 12:00 UTC on Monday 26 September 2016.

Tale of Nomad and Nomad's Elegy additions
A hard mode version of the Nomad fight in Nomad's Elegy will be added in September 2016. The hard mode will be a repeatable alternative to the existing boss fight in the quest. Increased difficulty will be present when the player's character is in combat with Nomad; but not when the player is playing as other characters, such as Death. There are plans to add an improved drop table for the hard mode fight, which the player will be able to claim from once a week. A new Soul Cape will be a potential reward from the fight.

Post quest dialogue will also be added. Some of this will be from talking to Zanik, if the player has chosen to save her during the quest. New dialogue with be unlocked for Zanik every month. A miniquest called Tale of Nomad will also be released in September. This will detail some of Nomad's backstory and its completion will be required for the master quest cape.

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. Nomad's Elegy was released on 15 February, and Kindred Spirits was released on 23 May. The remaining quests are:

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.

15 Year Anniversary Celebrations
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.
 * Creation of a documentary, RuneScape - 15 Years of Adventure, about the history of RuneScape, which was intended for release in Spring 2016.

Bounty Hunter rework
A Bounty Hunter system will be reintroduced on two dedicated worlds.

Deathmatch
Deathmatch is a new safe player vs player minigame that will replace the Crucible.

Shattered Worlds
Shattered Worlds is a competitive minigame involving combat that is planned for release some time after Summer 2016.

Customer Support week
Customer Support week will be run again in the first week of October 2016, in the week beginning 3 October. This will include the return ofThe Drop: Customer Support Edition as well as other in-game activities. Hints about the other activities will be given via Twitter by members of the customer support team.

Permanent ban appeal system
Reinstatement of a system to allow permanently banned players to appeal their bans is planned for early 2017. This system will be available to pay-to-play players.

Live chat
Introduction of the ability to have live text-based conversations about limited customer support related issues with Jagex Moderators in the customer support team is planned, following successful trial of the feature.

New game guide
The Jagex-run RuneScape Wiki will be removed from the website and will be replaced with a smaller game guide section.

This week's patch notes
The following fixes will be released in the week beginning 12 September 2016:


 * Rise of the Six, Dagannoth Kings, Kalphite Queen and Exiled Kalphite Queen, Kalphite King, Vorago, Beastmaster Durzag, Araxxor, Nex, and Corporeal Beast will be changed so that the boss can attack a player who is underneath them.
 * A new cap of 10% increased base hit chance will be added, though debuffs will continue to stack additively. A number of items that modify base hit chance will be made less effective:
 * Statius's warhammer will add 5% to the base hit chance modifier, rather than 10%.
 * Dragon hatchet will add 3% to the base hit chance modifier, rather than 5%.
 * Barrelchest anchor (when debuffing Defence) will add 3% to the base hit chance modifier, rather than 4%.
 * Bone dagger will add 2% to the base hit chance modifier, rather than 5%.
 * Bandos's Book of War's passive effect will add 3% to the base hit chance modifier, rather than 5%. The internal cooldown for the Bandos book will be decreased from 30 to 12 seconds.
 * The 5% adrenaline drain for re-entering combat shortly after leaving it will be removed.
 * Detonate will no longer drop the player out of combat if they take too long.

Other planned fixes and updates

 * Amulets, necklaces, bracelets, and rings will have their graphics and teleport options interfaces updated. This will include rings from gold to onyx, plus rings of slaying; necklaces from gold to dragonstone, plus brass necklaces; bracelets from gold to hydrix; and amulets from gold to dragonstone. Clue reward variants will not be changed. Enchanted jewellery will be distinguished by having brighter gems.
 * Players crystal urchin points will be converted directly into experience at the Prifddinas Waterfall Fishing Shop, rather than experience lamps.


 * Mod Ramen is converting item pets into interface pets in his personal project time. Having converted Vitalis, Mod Ramen is now looking into converting the Slayer pet rewards from Soul Wars. Mod Daze has converted the Barrows bobblehead pets.
 * 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.
 * Mod Doctor is developing some improvements for player-owned houses in his personal project time. These include:
 * Adding a toggle for the "There's no place like home" loading screen which is displayed when entering a house. It was initially planned to remove the loading screen, however this idea was altered due to player feedback.
 * Adding an option to replace door hotspots with walls to increase customisation of room layout.
 * Customisation of furniture hotspot's positions and rotation within a room. Players will still be restricted to placing types of furniture within the corresponding room.
 * Ability to move rooms without losing their contents.
 * Mod Dolan is working on graphically updating blurite weapons.

Dagannoth Kings and dungeons graphical rework
Dagannoth Kings will be graphically reworked; this update will be released in September 2016. Following player feedback, a hard mode will not be added for the bosses. Their boss pets will not be graphically updated with the update, however their cavern will be graphically updated; along with the Lava Maze Dungeon, Deep Wilderness Dungeon, Wilderness Agility Course dungeon, and Forinthry Dungeon.

Currency pouch expansion
Mod Asherz has completed an update to expand the currency pouch, it will be released in September 2016. This will involve making all currency objects variables and adding a new interface to the currency pouch, in which the currencies may be stored. The interface will have Standard, Distraction & Diversion, and Minigame tabs and will have 5 favourite slots.

The following currencies will be stored in the currency pouch: reaper points, Penguin Hide and Seek points, Fish Flingers tokens, morale points, archery tickets, Agility arena tickets, gold and silver Castle Wars tickets, pieces of eight, Gnome Restaurant reward tokens, Runecrafting guild tokens, fist of guthix tokens, trading sticks, Brian points from Flash Powder Factory, honour Points, investment and reward credits from Mobilising Armies, pizazz points, produce points, Stealing Creation points, thaler, Vinesweeper points, Void Knight commendation points, zeal points, Barbarian Assault role points, ecto-tokens, tokkul, teci, rare item tokens, anagogic orts, sliskelion pieces, Dungeoneering tokens, Runespan points, co-op points, Slayer reward points, Jadinko Lair favour points, hanky points, respect from Artisans Workshop, and Warrior guild tokens.

The following currencies will not be stored in the currency pouch: zemomarks and silver pennies, crystal urchins from Prifddinas Waterfall Fishing, renown, and Noumenon Favour. This is due to these currencies not being part of or no longer being part of the game world, or due to them having uses other than as currency.

The Arc
The second half of The Arc will be released in October 2016.

Bank rework
The ninja team will be starting work on an update for banks after they complete the development of Deathmatch and the Bounty Hunter rework, some time around the middle of September. This will include a system to allow placeholders and improved search/filtering functionality. The bank update is aimed for release around the summer of 2017, and will be preceded by beta testing.