Glitch/Player and NPC



A Player or NPC Glitch is a fault in the game programming that changes the normal actions of either a player or an NPC during the game. Many Player and NPC glitches are listed below.

'''Note: All glitches listed on this page have been fixed by Jagex. Please do not list any glitches that have not been fixed yet.'''

Woodcutting glitch
When wielding the correct items a player is able to woodcut with any weapon on any type of tree. This became possible after the staff of light became lend-able on 16 February 2010.

Toy Horsey Glitch
After toy horses were released, players could "teleport" using the animation of playing with the horse. The player would click on their minimap to run away and then spam click the toy horse to cause the animation to appear, causing the animations to stack up. The player would then be running away while appearing to other players as if he was still playing with the horse. After the animations stopped, the player would "disappear" (because he had moved of screen while running) and thus it would appear as if the player could short distance teleport.

Nulled familiar glitch
This glitch was discovered on 24 October 2009, the nulled familiar glitch allows players to walk around with a familiar that is allowed to go anywhere the player goes without the player having to dismiss it. Another familiar can be summoned on top of the one that has gone "walkabout". When a player attempts to interact with this familiar a message appears stating "This is not your familiar".

"Drunken" keg glitch
In the beginning of the Warrior's Guild, if a player did Jimmy's Challenge, and double-clicked the door to leave while kegs were still balanced on his head, the kegs would disappear, but the character would keep the movement animation from balancing kegs. Because it looked like the player was moving around drunkenly, it was dubbed the drunk glitch. Any action such as fighting, teleporting, or logging out would cancel the glitch. Surprisingly enough, running simply made the character move faster without changing the animation.

Air cutting/Mining/Cooking
Sometimes when a player is standing a distance away from a Tree/Rock/Fire or Range and Lag occurs, the player appears to start mining/woodcutting/Cooking before they reach their destination. The player will do one full cycle of the mining/cutting/Cooking action, before continuing to run to the rock/tree/Fire/Range.

Bank null
If a player was in his or her bank and he or she used the search feature, then he or she lagged and temporarily lost his or her connection and reloaded it without getting logged out, in the search area it will say "null" and the player would have no items in his or her bank and only two tabs. Exiting the bank and re-entering will restore his or her bank back to normal.

Tiny player glitch
In the Cold War quest if a player went up to Larry at the Ardougne Zoo and said, "It's tuxedo time," right after Larry shrank the player, he or she could Teleport before he or she put on the costume and the character would be smaller. Any armour or clothes put on the character would appear smaller as well. The only way to change back was to have another player teleother the glitched player.

Penguin suit glitch
This glitch could be done by dying on the Penguin Agility Course. To do it, the player had to get his or her lifepoints down to 1 by using the crushers, and then fail on the stepping stones, thus making him or her die in the water. When he or she respawned, he or she would appear to still have his or her penguin suit on, and could use weapons, wear armour, and even talk to NPCs with a penguin chathead. The effect ended when he or she logged out.

Stronghold of Security glitch
This glitch was found when the player is on the third floor of the Stronghold of Security and goes through a door. The door on the speech area is smaller, while the flashing lights on it are the size they're supposed to be.

Also, when certain areas of all doors in the Stronghold are clicked, the door can be passed through without being asked, nor having to answer, a question. This was originally intended to assist lower levelled players so that they did not have to answer a question under the pressure of fighting a higher levelled monster and has been fixed to only work one way in a combat zone (i.e. if players are running from ankous, they can enter the door without answering a question but if they are entering the other side they still have to answer one).

Bank scam glitch
Shortly after the "Quick-bank" feature was released a bug was found in which a player could open up the quick-bank then trade. With the quick bank still open, the players could put their items on the trade screen and accept, then quickly deposit the items right before the transaction was made, thus scamming the other player.

Catherby crate glitch
When the player has used the hide-in option, he or she will find him or herself inside a crate. He or she will have to use the button "Click here to continue." to continue. If he or she performs an emote while in it, a message will say "You're supposed to be hiding. It might help if you didn't make an exhibition of yourself.", and he or she will not have the option "Click here to continue". When he or she uses the climb-out option, he or she will appear with his or her legs in the crate.

Lean glitch
The Lean bug caused players to lean in an unusual way. Players could move around without any walking/running animations as if they were hovering over the ground. This was caused first by leaning on the wall in the Duel Arena to spectate. Players then challenged other players in the Duel Arena while still leaning on the wall, and the player leaning would get stuck in the leaning position.

Magic carpet glitch
A glitch appeared after the server went down. This happened because a player happened to be flying on Ali Morrisane's flying carpet as the server went down, the magic carpet ended up stuck around the player's waist. This was caused by the server rollback (which happened after the server went down) and the game was set to 15 minutes before the server went down.

Ninja glitch


The ninja glitch occurred when a player died when sneaking past the guards in Kennith's Concerns. Normally players could not die during this part of Kennith's Concerns, but some players were able to kill themselves using Nitroglycerin, which allowed them to go anywhere in RuneScape in this position. Though it was originally thought of as harmless to the gameplay of other players, it was quickly discovered that it could be used to safe-guard items that would normally be dropped upon death since dying after using this glitch would return you to the entrance of the Rubium mines with all of your items still intact instead of the normal death sequence. Some dishonest players took advantage of this by using the glitch to safe-guard their items in the Bounty Hunter activity, thereby removing the risk of losing one's items to another player killer. This glitch has been fixed.

Home Teleport circle glitch
This glitch allowed a player to stand up and walk around with the home teleport circle around them for about five seconds after performing the spell. This was done by using the Easter ring to transform into the egg immediately after the circle was drawn, then walking around. This glitch was fixed after the release of RuneScape HD. This stance was removed from the spell completely in 2009, removing all ways of performing the glitch, and therefore fixing it.

Egg run glitch
This Glitch was done by having run on, and do the Explorer emote with an Easter ring in your inventory. When the emote is playing through, click somewhere far on the minimap. If the red flag of where you clicked is still there, then it is still working. Right when you put the Sextant up to your face, click the Easter ring. You should run to that spot you click on the minimap, but as an egg.

Bounty Hunter skull glitch
This glitch allowed players to walk around RuneScape with a "Bounty Skull" on their head, and if they die, they would keep 3 items as normal. This was done by opening quick chat and then talking to Mandrith to view the tutorial. When it got to the part where he showed the skulls, go to any skull and then press the ground and press the "?" sign on Quick chat rapidly. Players could walk around with the Bounty Hunter skull for a limited amount of time. This glitch was fixed before the Summer's End.

Partial invisibility glitch
This Glitch allowed players to make various parts of their body (feet, torso, and legs) invisible. It occurred right after the release of the circus distraction and diversion. It was done by wearing the casual clothes you obtain from the circus and switching gender. Which ever part of your body had some of these clothes on would become invisible. A video of a player who recorded this can be found here.

Lobster fishing glitch
This Glitch occurred during the massive graphical update in 2008. It occurred when a player went to kneel down to fish lobsters and their cape would float through their torso.

Big turkey glitch


On the day the Thanksgiving event was released, when a player attempted to light a fire and clicked the Thanksgiving emote repeatedly, the turkey emote would disfunction, the graphics stretched, and then the player would turn into a large turkey. This part has been fixed so if it is attempted the emote will still be normally performed but the log will remain unlit.

Another way of performing this glitch was to attack a monster and quickly click on the Thanksgiving emote. Yet another way was to perform the emote as usual and right when the turkey flaps its arms to change back, press flap.

This glitch came back with the ability to stay a giant turkey as long as you want and some graphical deformation glitches, but it was fixed shortly.

All glitches concerning the turkey have been fixed. It is no longer possible to become a morphed turkey or move as a turkey.

When in the Duel Arena when a player did the emote the other player could attack with the turkey looking hit with splats.

Another way to have been able to perform this was while doing the emote, click house options in the options tab. This has been fixed to where now you cannot click the house options while performing the emote.

Walking on ice
When walking on ice, if a player uses the Give Thanks emote, they will be able to walk on ice. This glitch was discovered shortly after RuneScape was updated. Finding videos of players performing the glitch is quite easy. Patched as of 16 December 2008, although after this update a player could still reproduce the bug by attempting to walk on the ice then opening an interface, such as reading a book, clicking on a skill, using the snowglobe from the 2007 Christmas event, or burying bones. Following somebody using the glitch (without using it yourself) caused the following player to follow the player as usual, but with the slipping animation. Interestingly, if the lead player walks on ice, then the follower had a different animation from running.

Whilst walking on the ice players are unable to perform emotes, this is because of Jagex's earlier patch to prevent people using the Give Thanks emote to activate the bug. This glitch made it easier for players to complete the 2008 Christmas event because bumping into Jack Frost could be done by simply walking into him. You could also walk around on the ice in the Yeti cavern place, thus eliminating the fact it supposed to be a puzzle. This glitch has been fixed, and no punishments have been handed out to the abusers.

Chicken costume glitch
This Chicken costume glitch was recently discovered after the 2007 Easter event. It involved one standing next to a well in Rimmington using the flap emote with a chicken suit on, then opening a door and attempting to climb a ladder while in mid-air. The player would then be walking on air. Jagex fixed this glitch the next day.

Experience boost glitch
This glitch involved an instantaneous boost of exp of up to 15x, happening after the release of the Increased Logout timer and other miscellaneous updates. A player was given an approximate 14x-15x exp boost when performing any skill. One player confirmed to gain over 40,000+ Cooking experience from simply 28 Tuna. Another player confirmed a whopping 10k experience in Attack from 1 kill of a Guard (monster). This glitch was fixed within 5 minutes of its existence and did not require a System update to be fixed. The players who exploited this glitch were not banned by Jagex.

Monkey glitch
The Monkey glitch is a popular exploitation that, until recently, was thought to have been fixed. It first occurred in June 2006. An unknown player, presumably wielding a gorilla greegree, found a way to teleport to Varrock square without reverting back to human form. Passers-by soon noticed the rogue gorilla, and several topics appeared on fansites with pictures of the player in gorilla form.

A party began in Varrock square, with dozens of players surrounding the gorilla. The party lasted several hours until the greegree wielder decided to call it a night. It is unknown whether or not any discipline was taken against the bug abuser.

This bug apparently was not fixed due to a sighting of a gorilla greegree wielder in Edgeville in October 2006. Additionally there have been sightings of players wielding the gorilla greegree at the Ardougne Market Square in April 2007. The recent sightings in Ardougne are quite possibly due to a different glitch with similar results. In this the player equips any monkey greegree while in the zoo and then repeatedly clicks on either a skill or quest. The game is then busy uploading the skill or quest information window and the player is able to run out of the zoo with the greegree still equipped. If a player clicks fast enough and is able to hit the minimap in between clicks on the skill/quest they can run as far as they wish in monkey form or you can use a sextant and keep clicking on it. When you stop you turn back into your original form.

Until recently, the monkey glitch seemed to have been fixed as part of the update released on 3 July 2007. However, on 6 July 2008, a player was seen in Varrock Square in gorilla form. The method he used to do the glitch was known as a force log; it is a fake logout via having a stackable interface. It has since been fixed. Even more recently, a player did the same glitch but with a skull on top and he was a ninja monkey. He was located in Varrock square on the 27th of July 2008.

This glitch has also been seen a numerous amount of other times:

16 July 2009: A player attending the world 76 riot somehow turned himself into a Large gorilla.

7 August 2009: A player turned into a Gorilla in West Varrock bank, he did not continue the glitch for long and did not attract much attention. Although he appeared a lot like the various stretchy glitches that make various sections of the player to stretch (Even when he just stood there, his neck stretched more than usual). The only hint given about how he did this glitch was that he used a "Item". Because it was similar to the Stretchy glitch, he may have performed it the same way. He also stated that he was going to try to Mix the Hovering Glitch and the Monkey Glitch at the same time but he didn't succeed.

20 August 2009: Another player turned into a gorilla in Varrock he was not the same person who did it on 7 August 2009. The player showed off and asked people to add him and not many people spotted him.

Noclip glitch
Somewhere around July 2008 a glitch was discovered that allowed players to go past almost any barrier in RuneScape. This glitch abused a bug in the Fishing Trawler that let you teleport about 150 spaces east/west anywhere you wanted. Players abusing this glitch could go into areas they shouldn't be in such as behind a bank booth and unfairly gain items they shouldn't have such as a Cape of legends from the Legends' Guild. This glitch was only known by a few individuals until around September where others found out about it. It was patched in early November and players who abused it were banned. Sightings of noclip have been reported after the patch though they do not involve the Trawler and are not nearly as effective.

The PvP Drop Potential glitch
On 11 April 2009, the glitch was discovered. It involved PvP worlds and beast of burden familiars.
 * A member would summon a familiar with beast of burden capabilities and fill it with anything valuable, such as noted unstrung bows, poisoned arrows/poisoned bolts, stacks of coins, and anything that can be stacked.
 * They would log out of a members world, and go to a non-member PvP world where summoning familiars are not allowed. Each time they die, it would count as them losing how much wealth was carried in the familiar despite the familiar no longer being summoned. This would gain millions worth of drop potential.
 * The player who has gained millions worth of drop potential would go to a members PvP world and perform the PvP trick, also known as the 25k trick or now the 75k trick. Due to the game thinking that they lost millions and millions worth of items, most of the time the loot would contain well over 2-3 million coins worth of items, and other times well over 20 million coins worth of items. Items that were easily gained through this method are: Amulets of fury, Dragonfire shields, Dragon halberds, Ancient Warriors' Equipment, Corrupt Ancient Warriors' Equipment, Abyssal Whips.

Imp/sheep/bunny glitch
In 2007, a glitch in Castle Wars allowed players to retain the castle wars animal form (Imp, Sheep or Bunny). The glitch involved logging out as the players were transported into the beginning of the game. The player would then be in the Castle Wars lobby in the animal form. Players were unable to access any menus other than chat related menus, this included teleport and run. To gain access to the menus players needed to walk or be teleothered to the duelling arena to gain full character controls. Characters would revert back to normal form and controls after logging out.

The glitch saw limited abuse and was fixed a few weeks after discovery. The most notorious abuser was the user Spine Soup, who walked around Falador Park in World 2 for two hours, attracting much attention. Others did similarly, while other abusers used the glitch to gain an advantage while player killing, as opponents could not see what equipment was being used.

Swimming glitch
Shortly after the release of RuneScape 2 beta, players found a glitch which allowed their characters to seemingly swim around at the centre of Varrock, although this was corrected before the final release.

Lumbridge General Store walking glitch
A glitch exists in the Lumbridge General Store on the eastern door. If a player stands next to the table, near the east door, one may click on the ground outside the door and will walk forward, but then stop and turn around, and head back to the table. The only way possible to exit the door is to open the door, and run outside.

Infinite prayer glitch
On the 25th of March 2009, a player could use prayers without using prayer points, provided they were paying enough attention to the game. This was done by quickly activating any prayers they wanted to use, and then spamming an un-needed prayer off and on at high speeds. This glitch was removed on the 28th of March without a system update. Jagex reinstated Prayer flashing the next week. Therefore this isn't a glitch.

POH swimming glitch
There is a glitch, where players with a house could swim in the house. It is done by being dropped in the house dungeon on to the sea monster, but without a cage around the monster. Players could then walk around the house by swimming.



Adding yourself as a friend
When Mobilising Armies was released, this glitch came out with it. Players could add themselves to their friend lists and send private messages to themselves. The glitch allowing players to add themselves was fixed in late August, however, players who had themselves added were still able to PM themselves. Players were removed from their own friends lists on 2 September. This glitch reappeared on 1 October when the Display names feature was released. It was achieved by changing your display name, then adding your old account name to your friend/ignore list. Since then the glitch has been removed.



The moonwalk glitch
This glitch was performed by clicking on a bank booth and then quickly click a random spot in the exact opposite direction. By doing this, the player will appear to be "moonwalking". There are videos all over YouTube with people performing the moonwalk glitch. This glitch has been fixed but can still be rarely seen, activated with other methods. When you click on the bank booth, you'll instead walk around the bank to the booth. Although it can still be done.You need a POH, and a servant of some sort. Tell the servant to greet guests and just before they teleport to the portal, right click and hit "Talk" If you are facing the opposite way of the portal, you will moonwalk. This can also be done with some monsters if you have lag. Fist of Guthix also have this glitch where the hunter is trying to kill the hunted person if that person uses the orb to teleport to the centre of the activity the hunter sometimes does a moonwalk in an attempt to follow the person and then run the normal way.

Instant death glitch
The Instant death glitch was a bug discovered in 2006 in which players standing in certain areas (near Tears of Guthix, etc.) would randomly die instantly. Some players lost valuable items, but curious players actually went to the areas in question to see if they would randomly die.

The glitch was caused by a programming error with The Swan Song quest, in which the Wise Old Man is hit for 2460 life points by the Sea Troll Queen. The glitch caused the queen to instead damage a player for no discernible reason. This glitch has since been fixed.

Greegree glitch
The glitch is done in the Ardougne Zoo. It requires completion of Hunt for Red Raktuber and partial completion of Monkey Madness. They would equip a Greegree, and left-click on Chuck. Normally, they would keep walking until out of transformation range. However, if players quickly clicked Click here to continue, they would stop and continue the conversation as if they were a human.

Flickering scenery glitch
This glitch occurs when using a recording program and then switching to fullscreen mode. The effect achieved is the scenery and sometimes parts of players flickering in and out and disappearing for up to a second.



Clan Chat setup menu glitch
In the Clan Setup menu, if you go to a person who's already ranked 'Not in clan', right click their rank and select 'Not in clan', another person's name on the list will change to Not in Clan temporarily.



Fishing glitch
When a player would set up a fire next to a spot where players fish, if you had at least 2 fish, you use the fish on the fire while still fishing and fish though the fire and the floor. This only works if you have the appropriate cooking level and the fire had to be set up NEXT to the player, not on him

Lure fishing glitch
If you are Lure fishing, then click the Blow Kiss Emote, and a heart will appear to come out of your forehead. This also happens with the Idea emote, in which a light bulb appears above your head. You can only do these a few times before you stop fishing and stand still.

Hair glitch
This can only be done if you have the hard hat and have not found the trousers in tower of life with dragon variant hair. your hair gets stuck while looking for the trousers.



Emote glitch
With the correct timing, a player can begin the Zombie Hand or Give Thanks emotes and, when it is about to finish, switch to another emote. As a result, the character does the standing animation whilst the second emote happens. It is most effective with emotes that produce visual effects, since they will still appear while the character stands still. These are Blow Kiss, Idea, Stomp, Air Guitar, Safety First, Explore, Trick, Freeze, Around the World in Eggty Days, and Dramatic Point.

Null familiar glitch
One rare glitch was discovered on 29 September 2008. If a player had a spirit spider pouch and an egg spawn scroll, they could perform this glitch. Whilst in the middle of the spirit spider's special move, if the player cut their internet and then quickly fixed it, they would receive some lag and their summoning interface would say "Null". The picture of the familiar would be a woman with long brown hair. This would disappear after a second. This glitch was fixed on 2 October 2008.

A similar glitch occurred in RuneScape Classic, where several people had their accounts renamed to "Null".

Penguin Hide and Seek glitch


In world 60 (oddly enough being the unofficial penguin hunting world), on 28 January 2009 around the Legends' Guild, a glitched penguin was able to be spotted over and over again, constantly by various players, though a few players were not able to perform this bug.

(The other penguins were glitched too, however they were not as popular for they were not near Ardougne.) This allowed players to get free unlimited experience and coins, with estimates of cash gain at 10M per hour and experience at 1M+/hour.

Hundreds players abusing this bug were threatened with abuse reports, yet they continued without fear of getting banned. Penguin Hide and Seek was then later removed temporarily that day because of the glitch. It was then brought back later the next day.

At the end of week, Jagex temporarily banned players connected to the incident. It then reviewed evidence on the glitch, reverting and extending the bans or making other punishments as necessary.

Jagex finished reviewing all the accounts involved at the 3rd of February. As Paul said on the RuneScape Forums, 159 players have been permanently banned. These players have spotted a penguin at least 250 times and cashed in their points. There was also a number of players who also knowingly abused the bug and deliberately gained extra rewards from it. These players received temporary bans for breaking rule 4.

NPC/Monster death glitch
The death glitch is a commonly observed glitch. It involves the animation on a player or non-player character in the death animation position when it is actually alive, it can also appear to be transparent. The bug is client-side, and as such, has never been fixed. Players are only occasionally subject to this glitch, often in high-mortality locations such as Castle Wars, TzHaar Fight Pit, Falador, Duel Arena, Pest Control, Fist of Guthix, and even during the Monkey Madness quest, if the player gets hit by a jail guard. Often, the "dead" player doesn't know that they are glitched and only one person can see them on the ground. If players engage the "dead" player or monster in combat, they will fight normally but will show no animations (excluding special attacks). Since the dead character won't be able to move, the player will appear to fight them from a distance if they retreat even if both combatants are using melee weapons, though in reality the glitched character/npc is still moving around and following.

The monsters most often observed in the glitch are those who are often under constant attack by players.
 * Barbarians
 * Catablepon
 * Cows
 * Dark Wizards
 * Druids
 * Farmers
 * Goblins
 * Gnomes
 * Guards
 * Hobgoblins
 * Men
 * Monks of Zamorak
 * Terrorbirds
 * Trolls
 * Tzhaar
 * Wizards
 * White Knights
 * Women
 * Unicorns

Other monsters can be affected with this glitch.

Strange chatheads for Grand Exchange bankers/clerks
Shortly after the grand exchange was released, a glitch was discovered where another npc's chat head and name would appear instead of the banker or grand exchange clerk. It could be done if you had your camera positioned in a way that the desk was in front of the other npc. When you click it, the npc's chat head and name appear, saying the banker's usual lines. This could be done with presumably any npc, such as a Cat and even an Evil chicken. When it was the Evil Chicken, it didn't have a chat head, since you cannot normally talk to one.



In-between Border guard glitch
After the new tutorial release on 18 September 2009, Gielinor was split into a safe area for beginners which was protected by border guards. After the release players would be able to run between the barrier made by the guards next to Grand Exchange and run back in its middle where they could either sit on a guard or get stuck in the wall beside the left guard or the Grand Exchange wall beside the right guard. Some people used this glitch to create funny situations like shown in the picture. This glitch was fixed two weeks after the update. This reappeared at an unknown time, and happened if you used a Bull Roarer from the Legend's Quest, and ran in between the guards.

Double death glitch
There is a death glitch for the monks (level 5) in the monastery near Edgeville. Sometimes when they reach 0 health, they do not die and the player is required to inflict another point of damage in order to kill them. If you killed NPCs who respawned fast (e.g. yaks, Shades in the Stronghold of Security, etc.), you could see a red bar above it when it respawned, and if you attacked it immediately, you would hit 0 and the yak would die.

Grand Exchange glitch
After an update on 9 November 2009, the Grand Exchange Clerks and bankers were missing in several servers. This could be fixed by running north of the Grand Exchange desk and then running back south. Once this was done the clerks and bankers would reappear. Along with the clerks and bankers missing, it was also possible to take familiars inside the Grand Exchange.

Equipment stats glitch
Around November 2008 players were able to open the 'Show equipment stats window while running, crawling or anything like that. This was later fixed but can still be done for a split second. You have to time it just right.

Tree fishing glitch
If you are bait fishing with a hatchet in your inventory which you can use in Draynor Village, and you are in the middle of it, you can use your hatchet on a willow tree directly behind you, and you will be "Fishing at the tree" the opposite direction from the water. You will also gain logs the same time you are "fishing at the tree".

Dragith Nurn glitch


You can spawn an infinite amount of Dragith Nurn by simply clicking the statue plinth. This glitch was fixed by Jagex hours after the quest was released.

Zombie Hand glitch
It is possible, while running, if you perform the zombie hand emote, the hand will appear at your destination rather than where you are.

2010 Easter event glitch
Players who summoned a squirrel using their Squirrel Ears can have their squirrel killed by another player. This glitch was quickly patched the same day. No players have been banned.

Black demon shadow glitch


A Glitch where a Black Demon has a red shadow instead of a normal black one. Some places the Red Shadow appears are in Taverley Dungeon where the Black Demons are, one of the black demons in Edgeville dungeon, and one of the Black Demons in Brimhaven Dungeon. This may be a glitch, since it has not been fixed even though it has occurred for a long time. It also may be that, that Jagex hasn't noticed it as a threat glitch.

Name colour glitch


The player-NPC is a glitch where the player's name, in the right-click menu, will turn yellow like that of an NPC. This glitch was first noticed on 23 April 2010. This occurrence is very rare and cannot be purposely replicated.