Glitch/Environment


 * This page pertains to Environment glitches, a specific type of glitch. For glitches in general, see Glitch.

An Environment Glitch is a fault in the game programming that changes the normal actions of the environment in which the player is located. Many environment glitches are listed below.

Disappearing double door glitch
In early 2001, lighting fires in front of closed double doors would cause them to disappear. Players would not be able to pass through and had to wait until the fires extinguished.

Skywalking in Gnome Stronghold
After the initial release of RuneScape 2, if a player used a certain ladder in the Gnome Stronghold from a particular side, they would ascend the ladder and they would appear floating in the air on the level above. The player could move around for a short distance, but if no teleport runes were brought there was no way to leave the area. If players dropped an item it would show as a red dot on the minimap, but would not show up on the main game screen and could not be reobtained. After its discovery, this glitch was quickly fixed.

POH: Disappearing Chair Glitch
This glitch happens when you sit in a chair, drop an item, sit back down, pick it up, and log out to the lobby. Not much additional information is known at this time.

Chaos Temple Glitch
After the release of Burthorpe and the Death Plateau quest, a player could go to the Chaos Temple north of the Goblin Villiage and, due to lack of a clipping barrier, continue north onto a ridge along the western edge of the Wilderness. While heading north, the player would be mostly out of the Wilderness zones and could not be attacked by other players. However, it was possible to attack other players from this unfair vantage point - as the eastern-most side of this ridge was a Wilderness area.

A player could continue north along this ridge all the way to the northern end of the wilderness. There was a large, sharp embankment leading to the water. A player could "slide" down this embankment and continue onto parts of the water at the very end of the wilderness. There was also a black area along the western side of the ridge where the map was not yet built. The effects of this area were simlar to the Skywalking in Gnome Stronghold glitch, but the player could just walk out of the area.

Shortly after its discovery and subsequent bug report on the forums, Jagex Moderators posted to guard the glitched area from curious adventurers warning them to "Turn back." This bug was fixed within a few hours due to its implications on the wilderness.

Second Floor Walk on Air Glitch
In mid-2004 a glitch developed on RuneScape Classic. Players could ascend to the second floor outside of Falador castle by standing in certain spots outside the castle and clicking on a ladder inside the castle. The player would then be standing on the empty blackness outside the walls of the second floor of the castle, and could not come down. Players could walk to outside most of the areas of the free world from this point, although there were all kinds of invisible obstructions to movement in the empty space. Eventually a ladder was placed in the empty space above Varrock which allowed a player to choose to climb down to the normal play area. It is unknown if there were other areas to affect the glitch allowing to go to the "second floor" in the member's area. Many players lost accounts by moving their character to the "second floor" without knowledge of how to get down.

The glitch to access the "upper area" was fixed after about a week, and all characters were teleported to Lumbridge on the release of RuneScape 2.

Varrock Bank Glitch
The evening before the Grand Exchange was released, a player casting alchemy on items in Varrock's west bank received the mime random event. Rather than complete it, the player logged out. Between the time he logged out and the time he next logged in, the Grand Exchange was added. Along with this change, Varrock's western bank underwent a major upgrade, where it was expanded, given bank booths on both sides and having its parameters shifted considerably. When the player next logged and finished the random event and was returned to the exact same spot he was before, behind the bank counter.

Walk In Air Glitch
This glitch can sometimes occur when in the upper floors of a building. The player would walk into the wall of a building and continue moving. They would remain in the same game space as the upstairs of the building and could see the lower areas but with no NPC's or players in view. There are also some cases of 'levitation' on the ground floor. It is unknown if this has been fixed.

Rabbit Hole Glitch
When a player was playing Clan Wars, he went to the north-western part of the arena and stood in a certain area that made the player appear invisible. While standing in this spot other players would not be able to see the player, but the "invisible" player would still appear as a white dot on the mini map.

Massive Graphics Glitch
There is a glitch that distorts the graphics of an area, making the ground, walls, and even the player invisible, yet the armour and weapon you are wielding is still visible. This glitch can occur anywhere in Runescape and can make it difficult for some players.

Fist of Guthix Activity Glitch
This glitch occurred on the day of release for the Fist of Guthix activity. There were many people in the same location which caused the engine to lag and players to appear outside the entry hall's walls.

Falador West Bank Glitch
This glitch occurred from approximately 10 April to 15 April 2008. Players could see three gaps in the roof line and the floor inside the bank was significantly lowered.

Full Screen Glitch
On occasion when a player entered full screen in RuneScape High Detail, RuneScape would distort colours and shapes. This glitch could happen anywhere, and could also include models being spread everywhere in the game play window. The glitch could usually be resolved simply by clearing the cookies, temporary internet files, and browsing history, then re-opening the internet browser and going back to RuneScape.

Tower of Life Glitch
Upon the release of Tower of Life it was possible to attack other players with spells in the basement of the Tower of Life. Few people died, and the glitch was promptly fixed. Jagex commented, saying that it was caused due to the Tower of Life's basement being located directly below the Wilderness.

Spellbook Gap Glitch
This glitch appeared to be a graphical glitch in all graphic types. The glitch could not be triggered; it was a graphical glitch in the normal spellbook that causes it to appear to have an empty spell slot in between the spells Earth strike and Weaken. It is unknown as to if this was an unintended side effect of the 15 October updates or if this may have been a hint of a future add-on to the modern spellbook. This glitch was fixed on 16 October 2008.

Following an update to Spell icons, a new image of the normal Spell Book was uploaded to the Knowledge Base. Though not visible in game, the spell-book was formatted as it was in the spell-book gap glitch, except that the gap was filled in with an unknown teleport spell (which resembled a Castle, or a rook chess piece). Many players have assumed this to be related to the activity Mobilising Armies, which has had its release date repeatedly pushed back since an original release date of December 2008. This theory has been confirmed on 8 July 2009 with the release of Mobilising Armies teleport.

Stealing Creation Glitch


If a player happened to be climbing over the stile into the waiting pen just as a game began, the player would appear in the game floating off the map to the side of the base. Players could not move if they were glitched off the map, and had to log out, or if there was another player, they could click to follow them, or talk to the mystic that is near. They would be teleported back to the arena.

Weapon Change Glitch
There was a way to change other weapon's damage or style into another weapon by first pressing F1 to show attack styles, then right clicking an attack style, pressing F4 and clicking the style text and any weapon twice quickly in the inventory. This was further tested by people with full Void Knight Ranged gear, which boosted Ranged damage to the already high melee damage. When changed from Rune Crossbow with the best bolt equipped (enchanted onyx bolt) and void Ranged on player, and then doing the weapon change (for example, to Dragon Dagger(p++) the Ranged damage boost added to the weapon. The maximum hit for the Dragon Dagger(p++) was 430-430 in the Duel Arena, but 530-530 was hit with this glitch. The difference between both hits is 100 life points, which is what full range void added to the enchanted onyx bolt hit with 99 Ranged, ranging potion and the Eagle Eye prayer. Several players used this for a few hours in Bounty Hunter on the fourth day of its discovery. This Glitch resurfaced again in October 2009 when it was re-discovered by a few players who have abused it in the new Bounty Hunter Worlds.

Hairstyle Glitch
This glitch occurred when a female character would get the regular pigtails hairstyle, after the new hairstyles had been released on 9 December 2008. The player's head would then start moving back and forth when she was wearing a skillcape (if the player was NOT wearing an item in the helmet slot, otherwise the glitch would pause until that item was unequipped). This also happens with male characters with the side-part spike hairstyle and the tattered waistcoat torso while wearing skill capes, but any body armour, or helmets/hats, cannot be worn.

The hairstyle glitch also occurred when Item Lending got released, a player would lend another player a hat, or helmet, and if they were to put it on, they would go bald. This glitch was fixed by Jagex.

When Stealing Creation was released there was a glitch that if you changed the helmet to another type while wearing it, you would go bald.

Open and Closed Door Glitch


Sometimes when the player opens or closes a door both will appear at the same time. The player will have both options and both doors there. Sometimes opening the door fixed it and on other times closing it would. This was easily achieved by closing the door, opening the world map and getting someone to open the doors.

Building mode, and Dragon Plate
This glitch happened when Construction was released. If you clicked "building mode" not in a house and clicked a space or a few away you would teleport to that clicked spot. A long time ago this also worked with a Dragon Plate. Click it, spin it, if it works you would teleport to where you clicked.

TzHaar massacre
The TzHaar massacre was an event that occurred on the 13 May 2008, and was the result of a glitch. It happened in the TzHaar Fight Pit, which is supposed to be a safe activity. However, some players discovered that they could attack and kill other players who were in the waiting room. Anyone who died lost all their items.

Jagex fixed the problem the same day. They also issued lengthy bans to players who had killed other players by abusing the glitch, under rule 4 of the Rules of RuneScape, which states: "You must not use or attempt to use any cheats or errors which you find in our software."

Walk on water
It is not yet known exactly what conditions allowed a player to perform this glitch but while in the saltwater energy pool in Oo'glog the players character would suddenly be on top of the water, where they could move around normally. Players in this situation on 2009 April Fools would be unable to throw a cabbage at another player, instead receiving a message referring to the ground as being too muddy to allow the player to perform that action. Another version of this glitch was earlier performed soon after the quest As a First Resort was released. A player would light one of the plants used in the quest, such as lavender, equip it into the weapon slot, then get into one of the hot springs. When the plant burnt out and was no longer equipped, the player was standing on top of the hot spring rather than in it. This method of the glitch was fixed about a month after the release of the quest.

Fire cape glitches
In various parts of the game, the graphics for various flowing animations would be mixed up, allowing for trees, fountains, and the cape itself to look weird. This glitch has been fixed by Jagex, However it can still appear on PC's with outdated graphics cards.

Invisibility
Not too long ago, there was a glitch which enabled a player to become invisible. It occurred when a player was wearing a circus item and then became the opposite gender (male/female). Whilst the player was invisible; when they moved or did an emote their body parts would move away further than they should.

In the Unknown
When the Explorer emote was released, some people went to Varrock castle and went up the stairs and did the Explorers emote, then quickly went downstairs. They would then be inside the Monk's Cage. One could have also done it another way: go down, do the Explorers emote, go up. If one did it correctly, the player would find themselves in the Unknown. One could have also done it on other staircases, too.

Another case of standing in the Unknown is found in whilst running into the Whirlpool. If one were to lag during the time the screen goes black, after running in, they'd find themselves stuck between Layer 1 and Layer 2 of the Ancient Cavern. Although extremely rare, this issue has not been fixed.

Rat Pits Massacre
Shortly after Summoning was released, a player who had gone to Varrock or Port Sarim Rat Pits would challenge a player then disconnect or log out quickly after the cat would attack another player's cat or a rat. Then, they would quickly log back in and spawn outside that area's Rat Pits and then their cat would attack any other player's cat that was in its vicinity. It would also attack Summoning Familiars and whatever that familiar was carrying, the player could pick it up after it was killed. It went on from Port Sarim, to Falador, to Taverley, then the player teleported to Varrock, met his friends, and then finally ended in Canifis when a Jagex Mod disconnected the players and a system update followed. The players were not banned for this, they just got a rollback on their accounts. This was also dubbed the World 97 Massacre.

Stairs Glitch
If a player went in the house next to Jerico's in East Ardougne, the player could go upstairs and then downstairs, and then while he/she went downstairs, they would click outside the house to go outside then inside. It is unknown if this has been fixed.

Tree Shadow Glitch
On High Detail near Catherby in the Yew Tree area, some trees that were cut down left their shadow behind, causing somewhat of a glitch. Another example of graphics failing to load, possibly due to overload on the server. This graphic failure is quite similar to the graphics load failure but consists of mainly object shadows, some of which fail to load or change. This feature may have been the cause of some undiscovered bugs left by the Runetek 5 engine.

The evergreen tree north of Falador also experienced this problem. When cut, its shadow will not disappear - It will look like the stub of the tree has a very large shadow.

Graphics Glitch
On a rare occasion, if you quickly switch between windows and/or close your laptop lid and open it back up, the graphics will stretch out or objects will turn different colours. This glitch while will sometimes correct itself when moving to a new area of the game, will also remain in some cases. The glitch appears to mostly affect ground textures and primarily paths, roads etc. But has also been seen to affect players as well.

Minimap Glitch
A glitch often occurs where, shortly after logging in or reopening the window, the mini-map turns black. Player/item dots and store icons will still be there. This glitch can be fixed by opening and closing the world map. This is not caused by logging in, rather by your java not processing all the information, this occurs most often at log-in or when changing areas (going upstairs, or passing a "lag line").

Varrock fence glitch
The Varrock fence glitch was a bug that caused players to be stuck when walking behind a fence in Varrock in 2002. It was in the south-east corner next to the Dancing Donkey Inn. Players could escape by clicking the attack button on a NPC on the other side of the wall. The fence and bug were removed in early November 2002.

Jagex has stated that players trying to trick others into getting stuck would be punished for bug abuse.

Wilderness teleport glitch
The Wilderness teleport glitch was a bug in the early history of the game that allowed players to teleport from the wilderness dungeon. It was fixed in July 2002. When Jagex had originally scripted this area, it was far east of Lumbridge co-ordinate wise, thus the teleport exclusion (which was done by co-ordinates back then) did not include the wilderness dungeon.

The Wilderness teleport glitch was seen again as a result of the Legends Quest. Players could cast Telekinetic Grab on the hat to add it to their inventory, then it could be dropped anywhere (most likely the Wilderness) and when picked up, it would instantly teleport the player to the dungeon in Legends Quest. This was fixed shortly after its discovery.

Wilderness ditch glitch
The Wilderness Ditch Glitch was a graphical glitch that simply allowed you to 'walk' over the ditch. If you wanted to perform this glitch, you had to jump over the ditch first, then as soon as you land, you should have clicked the same ditch you jumped over quickly and it will appear that you are 'walking' across the ditch. Note that you could have had to click on the same ditch several times before you 'walked' over the ditch. This glitch could also be executed by activating Lumbridge home teleport near the ditch and, while the spell is running, click at the part of the ditch directly in front of you. This glitch couldn't be used to take advantage against other players. However, it has been noticed that if you were attacked by an NPC, and you click on the ditch before it attacks you, you would not take any damage, nor would you receive a damage splat. Jagex has said that they couldn't fix this glitch, but because it does no harm, they refer to it as a "feature" rather than a bug. However, the glitch appeared to have been fixed as of 10 December 2007, though some players have reported it happening. This glitch may not be available anymore due to the 15 September 2010 updates.

Crumblywall2 glitch
Shortly after RuneScape 2 was released, Many pieces of wall were examinable as crumblywall2. This may be the name differentiating normal walls from crumbling walls, but that have the same right click info.

Catherby Fishing Shop Glitch
This glitch was caused by a graphical update in which smoothing textures were introduced to Standard Definition. It is not known why it caused this glitch in High Definition. The glitch lasted from 9 September 2009 to 7 October 2009. The glitch made it appear so that there was a deep ditch the player could walk down into. It moved both fish tanks downwards with it, and the sink in the corner leans over the edge of the ditch, as well as a few misplaced walls, creating gaps that a player could see through. A swordfish on the wall was split in 2. This appears to be a height mapping fault.

Kneeling and gliding glitch
A rare glitch was when a character would kneel inside the crate at Catherby, and use a teleport. That player would then be in the same kneeling position outside the box, and if the person tried to move, they would be standing straight up and gliding across the ground. This glitch was fixed within a week of discovery.

Landscape Glitch
There was a short glitch, shortly after the RuneTek engine update, that caused most figures, excluding NPCs, players, and paths, to show in a strange fashion. They would be striped as if they were in the middle of construction, one line being the solid colour of the item, the next being nearly translucent, and so on. The glitch's cause is unknown, but is now fixed.



Disappearing Scenery Glitch
Sometimes while walking the camera may collide with another building or piece of scenery. This may cause some scenery to disappear, or in some instances all players to disappear. Sometimes, the glitch can be reproduced without the camera colliding.

Falador Trapped
There used to be a glitch where you would be walking across some grass in Falador and you would get stuck. To get out, you had to log out and log back in.

Invalid Teleport Glitch
An extremely rare glitch that occurred after the Menagerie Update on the 18th August 2009. There were severe glitches involving player owned houses, the most common of which resulted in "Invalid Teleport!" appearing four times in the chat window when the person attempted to enter their house, and denying them entry. There were other strange occurrences, including being warped to the wrong house (and on one occasion, this was in building mode, leading to much confusion from both parties).

This was used by bug abusers to take items, such as the Anger Weapons (Anger Mace being the most common), into areas where they otherwise would not have been able to be.

Time Travel Glitch
When time-traveling in the Quest, Meeting History, you can get stuck in objects that weren't there in the previous time-period. To get out, simply walk out of the scenery or time-travel back.

Clan wars underground glitch
In this glitch, by going to the Classic Map of Clan wars, one of the edges of the map where the ground sticks out over lava, allowed the player to click to walk there. The player would then sink into the ground and become invisible. The player(s) were still able to be attacked and were still visible on the Minimap but this could cause some confusion for people playing the game. If the player viewed themselves in standard detail they would be invisible, however if they changed the graphics to high detail they would see themselves sitting (or standing) on the air above the lava. This glitch has been fixed.

Nothing
Nothing is something that can be examined while in the skill hall of a player-owned house when in building mode, or out of it, so it can only be seen by members. When examined, it states, "There's nothing there," or, "An eye-wrenching nexus of utter negation!" It is most likely there due to technical reasons which cannot be removed.

Ape Atoll Glitch
After the Fairy Tale III - Battle at Orks Rift update, a player teleported to Ape Atoll using the Fairy Ring, then quickly equipped a Karamjan monkey greegree. The player looked like as if they had a copy of themself sitting on them.

PvP Free Trading
When Bounty +1 worlds were first released, it was possible to trade any amount of money to another player. To do this, a player must get a random event and log out during the event. After logging out, the player would log into a bounty +1 world on a different account, and then log out. Without refreshing the page, the player would then log into the same bounty +1 world on the original account. Logging into the other account allowed this to happen. Otherwise, the player would be unable to login to a bounty world while in a random event. After logging into the random event in a bounty +1 world, the server was tricked into thinking the player was no longer in the random event, so the player was able to teleport out. If the player teleported to an area outside of Edgeville, they would find themselves unable to move. However, if a second person performed the glitch and the two players were standing next to each other after teleporting, they could trade with each other. (Which means a rune or tab teleport much be used, this results in multiple spawn spots.) Once the two players were trading it was possible to trade any item, and any amount of wealth. In other words, all trading barriers were removed. Players were also able to attack each other. Upon killing another player here, a player would receive there normal bounty hunter loot. However, after 60 seconds the items the victim lost would become visible to the killer. This lead to many players luring others into these areas and killing them with ranged or magic attacks. Because the players are unable to move, telegrab is needed to pick up the loot.

Vanishing Items On The Ground
With the update of Z-Buffering on 9/15/10, when the game camera is moved all the way up all the items on the ground will disappear but will still be there.

Often, The ground will show above items that should be on the floor, and so the item will be effectively invisible. Similarly, the ground may sometimes make your feet disappear. This occurs when the graphical representation of the floor is higher than the actual functioning floor. This is a common occurrence on hills and slopes.

Mahjarrat Massacre
Players used the Armadyl battlestaff along with the spell Storm of Armadyl to attack players with a group within the 1v1 area in the Wilderness, resulting in numerous amount of players being killed innocently. Some players were even killed outside of Wilderness areas, although gravestones appeared as normal. This glitch occured during the release of Ritual of the Mahjarrat and was fixed within a few hours.

Graphics Options and 'Take Item' Changes
Prior to the 25 November Graphic update changes, RuneScape encountered many glitches that consisted of a black markings throughout RuneScape, and some animations not working correctly.