RuneScape has received a mini end-of-the-year quality-of-life update. The update has brought several balances to gameplay elements, special attack adjustments, and general updates. In addition, the team has also announced the upcoming return of the RuneScape Christmas Advent Calendar!
We’ve summarized the update and advent calendar details from the official Steam post and included everything you need to know below. Be sure to check out our Latest News section for more great content!
Quality of Life Update and Advent Calendar
Advent Calendar
For the upcoming advent calendar event, you can get one free gift plus an extra Key each day you log in throughout December.
When you open your rewards for 15 days, you’ll get the new Portable Snowfall Aura cosmetic override! In addition, there will be more festive-themed events coming up, so be on the lookout!
QoL Mini Strike
- Dragon weapons’ special attacks have been rebalanced (see below for more).
- God Books can now be charged for up to 24 hours.
- God Book tooltips have been updated to emphasize their effects better.
- You can no longer gain effects from the Scripture of Bik without using charge.
- Desert, Ice, and Jungle Strykewyrms no longer require a Slayer task to attack.
- Elves and Nihils will now consistently spawn as the captured variant when newly placed in the Player-Owned Slayer Dungeon. NPCs placed before now will continue to spawn a random variant.
- Super Guthix Restores no longer gives adrenaline.
- Runecrafting Talismans have been updated to better reflect their usage.
- Crystal tools’ tooltips now accurately reflect their effects.
Special Attack Adjustments
Since being introduced, many of the RS special attacks have been deemed useless. So, the team has worked hard to reduce weapons clunkiness and addressed their efficiency.
One of the RS team members, Mod Sponge, said, “This is my Game Jam work from back in March, so it’ll be great to finally have it in the game and to see what players make of it. Since special attacks were reintroduced to RuneScape, a lot of them have fallen into the category of ‘useless,’ but being such iconic attacks, I wanted to give them the love they deserved. By reducing the clunkiness of weapons like the Dragon Claws and addressing their adrenaline efficiency, so they match more modern standards, hopefully, we’ll see more players picking them up (or throwing them in their Amulets)!
With the time limitations of the Game Jam, I was only able to rework the Dragon weapons after rewriting the tooltips, but if it’s something players like, I’d be up for doing a second batch!”
Dragon Dagger
- Now deals 85-165% ability damage each hit.
- Is no longer a channeled ability.
Dragon Halberd
- Now deals 50-190% ability damage each hit.
- Is no longer a channeled ability.
- It no longer has a cooldown.
- Fixed an issue that would cause players to change target or not hit some targets twice when casting.
Dragon Mace
- Now deals 150-310% ability damage.
- Adrenaline cost has been reduced to 20.
- Removed the damage roll offset (was previously less likely to roll low than high).
- Dragon 2-Handed Sword
- Now deals 230-350% ability damage.
- Adrenaline cost has been reduced to 50.
- Increased the range of the special attack from 3×3 → 5×5.
Dragon Claws
- Now deals a total of 184-600% ability damage (across 4 hits).
- Removed the stall from the ability animation.
- Is no longer a channeled ability.
- Dragon Longsword
- Now deals 90-410% ability damage.
- The attack now features a raised hit-cap.
Dragon Axe
- Moved the effect to apply on-hit rather than on-cast.
- Adrenaline cost has been reduced to 30.
Dragon Scimitar
- Now deals 50-210% ability damage.
- Adrenaline cost has been reduced to 25.
- Now grants a new buff on-hit:
- Increases hit chance with slash attacks by 25% for 1 minute.
Dragon Battleaxe
- Now has a buff bar icon.
- Armadyl battlestaff
- Now has a channeling buff bar icon.
General
- The ‘What’s New’ interface has been removed from Commander Connad and Captain Cain at Barbarian Assault.
- A new item is available from the Travelling Merchant! The Horn of Honour can be redeemed for Barbarian Assault Honour Points.
- The lighting in the Dungeon of Disorder has been fixed.
- The lighting in the Polypore Dungeon has been improved for better visibility.
- The collection of notes from the Zamorak, Lord of Chaos pre-release event is now obtainable once again from their allocated monsters: Black Knights, Dagon’hai, Greater Demons, and Monks of Zamorak.
- The collection of notes can now be reclaimed from Player-Owned Houses.
- A ‘Collection of Zamorakian Notes’ Achievement has been added and is worth 10 RuneScore for collecting all 5 notes.
- The ‘Madness and Malediction’ Achievement has been fixed and now gives 20 RuneScore as intended.
- Two of the four Skeletal Wyvern variants were affected by dragon modifiers. These have been removed – Skeletal Wyvern aren’t dragons!
- Quest overviews released after the Aftermath quest no longer display Sixth Age text about the Gods of Gielinor and your World Guardian powers.
- Softened the wording of the suggested requirements in the Aftermath quest overview and removed its disclaimer.
- Added a Timeline category in the quest list below World Guardian for quests that take place post-Aftermath.
- Added an Age category in the quest list below Sixth Age for quests that take place post-Aftermath.
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