Upcoming updates

This page is a list of upcoming RuneScape updates.

Mining and Smithing rework
A rework of Mining and Smithing is planned for September 2016. 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 current 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:

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. Jagex are also looking into adding more types of pickaxe, though these would likely not be introduced with the initial rework. 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.

Another potential addition could be mining shafts, though these are not currently being developed. 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.

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. Standard Smithing will be changed so that the rate of smithing items is decreased but the experience gained from smithing them is increased, resulting in similar experience rates to those obtainable currently. Smelting will be altered so that more ores and less coal are required to create bars. The new tiers of bar will require new secondary ingredients. Jagex are also looking into the possibilty of making ores stackable for smithing. 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.

Masterwork Smithing will affect the planned new 70+ Smithing armours. The proposed new necrite, invictum and aetherium armour sets will include at least full helmets, platebodys, platelegs, shields and scimitars. These items will have lower stats than those obtained from PvM at the equivalent tier, to maintain viability of monster drops. Masterwork items will be created by reusing standard smithed items of the that tier. The items created will have primary bonuses of stat changes, such as increased Prayer or Defence bonus, as well as secondary bonuses, for example higher Slayer experience or chances to reduce or defend damage. Masterwork items will be augmentable, but standard items will not be.

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.

Bonus experience
The current restriction of players being unable to grant direct or bonus experience in Invention from sources such as experience lamps, stars and books, the Jack of trades aura and Distractions and Diversions will be lifted on 25 July 2016. However, players will only be able to gain 50% of the experience from these sources for Invention that they would in other skills. Additionally, experience from disassembling or siphoning augmented items will not be affected by bonus experience. In future Bonus XP Weekends Invention's experience bonus will be 1.5x, or 2.5x with bonus experience for actions affected by bonus experience. Tears of Guthix and Guthixian butterflies will only grant the player Invention experience if Invention is their lowest skill and they meet the skill requirements to train it. Daily challenges involving Invention will not be added at this time. Ancient effigies will not gain an Invention skill requirement to open them, but it will be possible to use a Dragonkin lamp on Invention, at the 50% experience rate.

Augmentable skilling tools
Jagex are looking at adding more augmentable devices for skills which do not involve use of tools e.g. Smithing and Crafting. The addition of augmentable pickaxes for Mining, which was dropped and replaced by augmentable Fishing tools during the initial release of Invention content for non-combat skills, is planned to be released alongside the Mining and Smithing rework.

Batch 2
Batch 2 of Invention was planned for second half of 2016. This is planned to include content post level 99, machines, a larger Invention Guild and additional tech trees. This is likely postponed until 2017, based on announcements and scheduling for 2016.

Skilling pets
Pets to represent players' prestige/ability in skills are planned for release in August 2016. Obtaining skilling pets have a similar pattern as boss pets, luck is also involved. If you have 200,000,000 experience in a skill you are still able to get the pet in that skill. This update is being developed as it was rated the 3rd most desired update in the RuneScape 2017 survey of potential future content.

15 Year Anniversary Celebrations and Gower Quest
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.

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.

Summer Beach Party
An event similar to the Summer Beach Party will run in August 2016. It will include some new events as well as some of the popular events from the beach party in 2015, like Clawdia. New events will include terrorbird racing, which will give Agility experience, and hook-a-duck Fishing. New rewards will include a striped beach towel cape. Players will once again be able to gain titles previously available from the beach and use Distraction and Diversion portals. There will be a new portal to The Arc region.

The event was originally planned to incorporate some content from the 2012 Gielinor Games to celebrate the and, however Jagex later decided against this as it was felt that the content now looked too dated.

Telos (solo boss)
A new solo boss, Telos, aimed at high combat level players will be added to the Heart of Gielinor in the week beginning 27 June 2016. He will be fought in the actual Heart of Gielinor itself.

Bounty Hunter rework and Death Match (player killing)
During the Summer Summit livestreams Jagex revealed plans for more content to include player killing. A form of the Bounty Hunter system will be reintroduced; where players in the Wilderness will be given a target to hunt down and kill. The likelihood of being assigned a target will increase the longer a player spends in the Wilderness. The Bounty Hunter system will be dangerous, with players losing their items on death. Death Match will be a safe player vs player minigame which will take place in the Crucible area. In it players will fight against opponents in an arena. When killing opponents in Bounty Hunter or gaining kills or assists in Death Match players will earn reward points which will be used to buy gear relevant to player killing.

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

This week's patch notes
The following fixes will be released in the week beginning 27 June 2016:



Boss pet improvements
Araxyte pets will show the player's Araxxi kills on their examine. Mod Ramen is looking into converting item pets into interface pets in his personal project time. An override for the Vitalis pet will be added when this conversion happens.

Make-x
A make-x option will be added for creating flatpacks in a Player-owned house and for enchanting spells.

Catherby house door
The door of house containing a range, just east of the bank in Catherby, will be made permanently open.

God books overrides
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.

Player-owned house fixes
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.

The Arc
The Arc region of the Eastern Lands, currently the first region that players may send voyages to in player-owned port, will be added as an in-game area that players will be able to visit themselves in July 2016. The second half of The Arc will be released in October 2016.

Port Sarim graphical rework and Raid on Port Sarim
A Port Sarim graphical rework is being worked on by the Guardians team and is planned for release in July 2016, ahead the release of The Arc. The graphical rework will be accompanied by an event, similar to the Invasion of Falador event that was released with the Falador graphical rework. The event will be called Raid on Port Sarim and will introduce Impressing the Locals, the first of the Tales of the Arc. Impressing the Locals will become permanent content after Raid on Port Sarim is over, and its completion will be required to access The Arc. A graphical rework for the area was first mentioned in the GameBlast livestream in 2014, however Mod Kelpie later clarified that further work was required before the rework would be ready for release.

Ships graphical rework
A graphical update for ships, including the Fishing Trawler and Trader ships, has been completed and is ready for release. It may be released alongside The Arc.