At the risk of dredging up bad feelings about a certain 8th Season, we’d like to remind you all that winter is coming. Yes, those halcyon summer days are coming to a close, and there’s no better way to acclimatise yourself to the encroaching chill than to shut yourself indoors and snuggle up with your favourite MMO. Right? This week, learn how you can make your Summer Escape, find out the results of the Spectacular Summer Skill Off, and check out a few small changes we’ve made to Anachronia.

Summer Escape

Make your summer escape (read: ‘your escape from summer’) with this 4-part series of weeklong skilling buffs! It works just like Winter Weekends, only bigger, better, and uh – buff-ier? Here’s the deets on the weeks:

Week 1: Summer Skilling Bonanza

After the game update on August 5th to 23:59 on August 11th, every non-combat skill will receive a variety of boosts and buffs:

Woodcutting:

Trees replenish twice as quickly.

Mining:

Mining has a 10% chance to give you an extra ore.

Agility:

Higher chance of activating The Pit

Construction:

Chance to retain a plank with Scroll of proficiency increased by 10% (Ironmen excluded)

Cooking:

5% reduced chance to burn food. (Ironmen excluded)

Crafting:

10% chance to produce an extra urn when adding runes to them. (Ironmen excluded)

Divination:

Springs last for twice as long once a wisp is activated.

Enriched divination nodes spawn every 10 minutes.

Fishing:

Spots move around half as frequently as before.

Fletching:

25% increased Fletching experience. (Ironmen excluded)

Herblore:

Extra 2.5% chance to save a secondary ingredient when mixing potions. (Ironmen excluded)

Hunter:

10% chance to get an extra reward

Runecrafting:

Increased node spawns and double reward points at Runespan.

Smithing:

Double the effect of luminite injectors and double respect at the artisans workshop

Thieving:

Pharaoh's Sceptre and Black Ibis outfit drops are twice as likely at Pyramid Plunder.

25% chance not to deplete uncharted isles resources while harvesting.

Week 2: Combat and Slayer

Week two, which runs from 00:00 on August 12th to 23:59 on August 18th, focuses on Combat and Slayer. The following boosts will be in effect across the gameworld for the entire week:

Increased chance of rare drops and enhanced lucky items

All charm drops give one more charm than normal

Shattered Worlds grants 100% extra shattered anima

Ability to loot from Mazcab Raids once per day

25% increased drop rate of torn grimoire pages from Solak

All Slayer assignments are treated as using a Slayer VIP ticket

25% increased Slayer experience (includes reaper assignments)

Choice of boss slayer assignments

10% increased ushabti catch chance

Week 3: Elite Dungeons and Dungeoneering

Week 3 runs from 00:00 on August 19th to 23:59 on August 25th. This time around, Dungeoneering is in the spotlight, and for the more adventurous among you, the three Elite Dungeons will have their own set of bonuses:

Elite Dungeons

Lore book drop rate doubled

25% increased Slayer experience from dungeon monsters

1 extra ancient scale or draconic energy whenever the drop is hit

1 automatic resurrection to full life points upon death per run, whether in normal or story mode

Double dungeoneering tokens

Dungeoneering

No experience penalty upon death

Double dungeoneering tokens

Week 4: Anachronia Week

Finally, between 00:00 on August 26th to 23:59 on September 1st, everyone’s favourite dinosaur-infested landmass will be receiving buffs across the board. Various Anachronian activities will receive the following buffs:

50% Chance for an extra Hunter mark to drop while Hunting on the island

50% More XP in Herby Werby

10% Increased chance of receiving codex pages while traversing the Agility course

10% increased Agility XP from the Anachronia course

0% Chance to fail obstacles on the Agility course

10% Increased Hunter XP while taking part in Big Game Hunter

10% Increased drop rate for rare items from Slayer creatures on Anachronia

Summer Escape Weekends & Ongoing Boosts

In addition to the above buffs, there will be further bonuses on weekends from 12:00 On friday to 11:59 on Monday:

Double reroll clue scrolls

Double skill outfit fragments

Double Menaphos rep

Double thaler

Double slayer points

Half boss instance cost

Chance of mystery boxes when skilling/killing

You can look forward to a number of exciting occurrences throughout the event period, including balloon drops at selected lodestones throughout the world. These balloons contain a multitude of items, including Silverhawk feathers, summery snacks, and medium prismatic lamps.

Last but not least, the keen ranchers among you will be pleased to hear that Player Owned Farms are getting the following bonuses all throughout the event:

10% increased chance of breeding animals

5% increased chance of shiny animals

10% happiness and health increase from feeding

Double item yield from harvested animals

10% more beans from selling animals

10% Increased drop rate of animals from combat

Honeycombs are 50% more effective when used on animals

Anachronia Changes

We’re still keeping tabs on Anachronia and making small changes to improve your island experience. For example, this week we’ve adjusted the flags throughout Anachronia so that they wiggle in the wind. Lovely.

The lodestone has also received an upgrade: the ‘join friend’ lodestone teleport will now work in Anachronia.

The amount of traps being destroyed is now consistent when choosing to skip or watch the cutscene in multi-spawn encounters.

You can find all the Anachronia changes in the patch notes.

Skill off Roundup

Gielinor’s first ever summer skill-off has come to a close. The snack yaks are packed, the accursed swords have been distributed, and your fabulous host has returned to the dank pit from which he came. But there’s still one question left to answer… which skill won?!

*ahem* drumroll please! We can now announce that the winning skill of the inaugural Spectacular Summer Skill Off is…!

DUNGEONEERING! We’re hole-y surprised by this one. When we first got the PITch for the dungeoneering booth, we really thought it’d be a bit too deep for you guys. But hey – we’re glad we caved in in the end!

Are we done? We’re done. Congratulations, Dungeoneers! Hopefully none of you left anything too important down there.

Oddments Wednesday

All Players, excluding Ironmen, will receive Double Daily Oddments on Treasure Hunter Rewards every Wednesday in the Month of August! Enjoy!

RuneFest 2019

RuneFest 2019 will be a blast from the very distant past as visitors take a dangerous journey into The Land Out of Time. Expect dinosaurs! And carnivorous player-eating plants! As you’re travelling around a real-life slice of the island you can look forward to hands-on time with new content, talks and meetups with the JMods, loads of panels, a dedicated LAN area, an art area for meeting the creative teams and of course some very big surprise announcements on the main stage. We’re also bringing back skill chips!

The Official RuneFest 2019 Tees and Hoodies are also available for pre-order (until Sunday August 18th 23:59 UK Time)!

This year’s explosive design is inspired by the majestic volcano that can be found on both Fossil Island and the Land Out of Time. It’s the perfect thing to wear while you’re roaming the prehistoric jungle and excavating fossils at RuneFest– or while you’re hacking through the weeds in your own back garden. We don’t judge.

If you’ve already bought your ticket for RuneFest 2019, we’ve sent you an email with further instructions. Check your mailbox! If you haven’t bought your RuneFest ticket yet, just head to Eventbrite and you’ll be able to add your precious loot to your order before checkout.

Pre-ordering saves you money on non-personalised tees (£2 off event RRP) and hoodies (£5 off event RRP). It's also the only way to get your tee personalised and guarantee a tee or hoodie in your size. XXS, S and XXL and XXXL non-personalised tees are only available to pre-order.

Runefest Merch

We can't wait to see you at RuneFest 2019 in October!

As you get ready for the big weekend, check out the Official RuneFest 2019 tees and hoodies now available to pre-order on Eventbrite! This year’s explosive design is inspired by the majestic volcano that can be found on both Fossil Island and The Land Out of Time.

Pre-orders close at midnight on Sunday August 18th (GMT). People who purchase a ticket to RuneFest after this date will not be able to pre-order merch.

Competition

We just want to give you a quick heads up on the Player Gallery competition that we’ve run in the past weeks to celebrate the launch of the Land Out of Time. First, we would like to thank all of you who entered the competition. We have never seen such amazing entries and choosing winners has never been so difficult!

This is why, even though we first thought that we would announce the winners on… well, today; sorting all entries and picking our favourites is quite tricky and we will need a few extra days to do so. We’re sure you understand this is not a decision we want to rush. Therefore, we will announce all winners on Monday 12th August!

Facebook Companion

Our Facebook fans can now enjoy a whole new RuneScape experience: the RS Companion! Whether you want to get the best out of the Land Out of Time with some quick info, explore helpful Guides displayed in the Grand Library, never miss future announcements around RS Mobile or RuneFest 2019, grab exclusive Membership offers (even free stuff!) or need Support, the RuneScape Companion has your back!

The RuneScape Companion is still young and we want to make it the best experience possible with your help! Don’t hesitate to share your feedback on Facebook and other channels.

LOoTScape

Our live streams are always a great opportunity to grab some awesome in-game prizes. And as our first adventurers set foot on Land Out of Time (or as we call it “LOoT”), we thought you’d like an update of the LootScape. Ok, roll the drums and behold… our LOoTScape!

This month, each and every RuneScape stream watched will give you a random drop from one of the following:

Guaranteed:

1 - 2 hunter marks

250 resources in a random Base Camp resource

Guaranteed drop from Basic Drop Table (see below)

View counter goes up on Orb

Chance based:

A random skilling outfit piece (if unowned)

Either Nature’s Balance or Loots Cape (if unowned)

Basic Drop Table: Prismatic small fallen star, Prismatic medium fallen star, Prismatic small lamp, Prismatic medium lamp, Spirit Ruby, Spirit Diamond, Advanced Pulse Core, Spring, Silverhawk down, Medium DG Token Box, Small DG Token Box, Uncut Dragonstone, Large Cash Bag, Medium Cash Bag or Small Cash Bag.

Tuesday, August 6th – 16:00 UTC (Game Time) – Month Ahead Q&A and RuneScape Quiz

It’s a full-packed month of August we just entered in Gielinor!! With the Bank Improvements & Weapon Diversity beta happening as we write these lines, the fresh launch of our Summer Escapes skilling frenzy, the Anachronian Clan Cup on the horizon, Mod Osborne’s Dev Blogs and the annual survey winging its way to you – this Month Ahead Q&A is going to be quite epic!

Oh also, your sharp eye might have noticed this “RuneScape Quiz” hanging in the title, right? Well, our CM team has cooked something quite exciting just for you. The very first interactive RS Quiz! You think you know everything about RuneScape? EVERYTHING? Let’s test your skills, and you better study the RS Wiki. Rewards? Jeez, talk about loot hunters. Hum ok, there will be prizes (in-game and IRL), but for the very best!

LootScape will be enabled (see all details above).

Saturday, August 10th – 14:00 UTC (Game Time) – Cryo Featured Stream

This week, our featured streamer is Cryo! Join him for a good ol’ PvM session of Boss Massing!

This featured stream is also an opportunity to grab a LootScape! That’s right, you can now receive in-game loot when you watch a RuneScape streamer. It works exactly the same way as our official streams, just watch Cryo’s stream on (his Twitch channel) and you’ll receive the LootScape the following day.

LootScape will be enabled (see all details above).

Sunday, August 11th – 18:00 UTC (Game Time) – PvM with Mod Lee

Our resident PvM expert Mod Lee knows no fear and he’s ready to take you all on another round of boss mass. From Vorago to the Kalphite King, the Corporeal Beast, the Angel of Death, if you’ve got a set to complete, an achievement to unlock, or simply want to hang out with friends and slay some, this is the place and time!

LootScape will be enabled (see all details above).