Two new quests make their way to Gielinor this week, the perfect update for any animal lovers among you!

Changelog - September 8th

A Ruff Situtation

A Ruff Situation arrives today, bringing twelve new breeds of puppies and dogs to Gielinor!

This Novice, members-only quest will see you lending a hand to Talia and Chase, who've set up a Dog Shelter near Ice Mountain. Unfortunately, things aren't exactly going to plan, and they could use your help.

To start this quest, the only requirement is 15 Crafting, so we're expecting everyone to have this quest sorted on day one, capiche?

Once you've helped get the Shelter back on its paws, you'll be able to adopt a puppy of your very own. And as you explore Gielinor, you'll discover more breeds to bring back to the Shelter. Amazing!

Your puppy will gradually grow into a fully-fledged dog as you care for it. Unlike kittens, they won't run away if you forget to feed them, so you can simply stop feeding them to keep them in puppy form. Please don't replicate that in real life, though. Once fully grown, dogs will be able to help you while you're out clue hunting by digging for Treasure Trail steps, saving you the trouble of carrying a spade.

There are 12 breeds coming to the game, and coincidentally you can have up to 12 dogs living in your Player-Owned House Menagerie.

• Chihuahua

• Collie

• Corgi

• Greyhound

• Husky

• Labrador

• Pug

• Samoyed

• Spaniel

• Bernese

• Shiba

• Yorkie

Crab Quest

Now onto another quest making its way from our latest Game Jam to a Gielinor near you!

Not only can you help our four-legged friends with this update, but if you've got 40 Sailing and 30 Fishing, you'll be able to drink from a mysterious bottle on Dognose Island. If you choose to take a drink, you may find yourself talking to crabs. It's okay, we won't tell anybody that you've gone raving mad.

Completing this quest will award you a small amount of XP, an urge to collect seashells, and memories of conversations with crustaceans that nobody can ever take away from you.

Supporting Alveus Sanctuary

We're delighted to be teaming up with Alveus Sanctuary again for a special charity stream during the launch of A Ruff Situation!

On September 11th, members of the Old School team will go live on Twitch to raise money for Alveus Sanctuary and the amazing work they do caring for animals around the world.

During the stream, we'll play through A Ruff Situation and Crab Quest, finishing off with a wholesome community dog walk on W317. We're also pledging a £10,000 GBP donation to the cause.

We'll also have milestones for certain donation goals, with J-Mods taking on certain dog-themed activities if we meet our thresholds. It should be lots of fun!

Milestones

• $100 - J-Mod Pet Camera Unlocked!

• $500 - J-Mod Animal Face Painting Challenge and Dog Ears on stream!

• $1000 - We'll release a video of a J-Mod with a Snapchat Dog filter on social media.

• $1500 - We'll make the world we're playing on (317) a "dog-walking" world, officially.

• $1600 - Giveaway unlocked! A giveaway will be unlocked on the OSRS Discord. T&Cs here.

• $2000 - Name an in-game puppy Giveaway unlocked! The first six puppy-naming opportunities will be unlocked! Enter through the official OSRS Discord for a chance to be one of six winners, each of whom will be able to suggest a name for one puppy in the Dog Shelter (subject to Jagex approval). T&Cs here.

• $2500 - Six more puppy names! A second Discord giveaway will open for the remaining six puppy-naming opportunities. Six more winners can suggest a name for one puppy (subject to Jagex approval), bringing the total to twelve. T&Cs here.

To donate, please head to:

https://osrs.game/Alveus

We'd love to see as many of you there as possible. Whether you can donate, tune in for the stream, or simply help spread the word, we'd hugely appreciate your support!

When: Friday, September 11th at 03:00 PM UTC

Where: Twitch

Donation Link: https://osrs.game/Alveus

Jagex Donation Contribution: £10,000 GBP donation (at the end of the stream).

Recent Connectivity Issues

We're aware of connection issues affecting various worlds, as well as issues occurring when world hopping.

We're actively investigating the problem and have been working through the weekend to identify the cause. In the meantime, it would be very helpful if affected players could report their experience in detail to our Player Support team, for as detailed a report as possible you could send us a copy of your traceroute using the instructions found on this page! This will give the team more in-depth information to help with the investigation:

support.runescape.com

You can also check out some troubleshooting steps, which may help resolve some of the issues that you might be experiencing.

Menu Entry Swapper 2.0 Update

Thank you to everyone for your bug reports and feedback surrounding the release of MES 2.0.

The team are currently investigating the issues you've raised as a priority. Although client fixes can take a little longer we'll make sure the most egregious ones are addressed as quickly as possible and the team are attempting to fix as many issues as we can this week.

We're expecting to release a client update soon to combat any issues flagged as a high priority and will look to address other issues in the very near future.

We've also seen reports of players experiencing connection issues particularly across the US and on mobile. The team are currently aware and investigating.

In the meantime, we will continue to collate and review any further bugs & issues and update the MES 2.0 newspost accordingly.

Apologies to anyone experiencing issues and thank you for your patience.

Other Changes

• We fixed a bug that made some boss sounds still play even if area sounds are muted.

• We fixed an issue with the pillars encountered when fighting the Nightmare of Ashihama.

• The mirrorback araxyte no longer duplicates its recoil damage when Araxxor is attacked.

We'd also like to take a quick moment to mention the Gathering Efficiencies changes from our poll in April of this year, including things like stackable Net traps, changes to the creation of Poison dynamite, or allowing the Celestial Signet's chance for multiple ores to apply to Daeyalt essence. Now that we've concluded work on this year's Summer Sweep-Up, we'll be making these a priority and hoping to get them out as soon as possible.

A Quick Word on Elemental Amulets

In case you've been living under a rune altar, we published a blog update last week detailing some of our thoughts on the Elemental Amulets that released with last week's game update, particularly centered around their power relative to their ease of unlocking. At the end of that blog update, we said that 'there's still time for us to change course', needless to say the subsequent storm of feedback has given us pause.

The crux of the discussions we've seen regarding these amulets is that many of you want to see Magic shaken up to feel like more than 'everything is a pipeline to get you to using a powered staff + thralls' and to see the Standard spellbook as well as rare weapons like the Harmonised Nightmare Staff really stand out, similar to how Ranged and Melee tend to call for a wider variety of options even in endgame scenarios. For those of you in this camp, these amulets serving as a slight increase over the Occult Necklace in some scenarios was a welcome improvement and a clear signal that we're willing to start fleshing out the Elemental Weakness system further with meaningful player progression.

To that effect, we're opting to leave the Elemental Amulets as-is for now. This does mean that in the short-term they are a little 'wonky' in terms of progression, since they're so readily obtained and arguably BiS in admittedly a very small number of use-cases, but the same could be said (and has been by many of you) for things like the Dwarven multicannon, Slayer helmet, Salve amulet or Arclight (prior to Emberlight's release) to name a few. In the long-term, future Magic upgrades are likely to supercede these and should result in a landscape where these don't feel out of place.

Before we move on with the rest of the blog, we'd also like to hold our hands up and say that not polling these was a misstep from us. Initially we'd intended for these and the Amulet of Fangs to more-or-less serve as straight upgrades to the Amulet of Magic or Amulet of Accuracy, similar to us giving the Elder Maul its defence-reducing Special Attack in a previous Sweep-Up, but with these shifting to sit more as standalone items that do impact some metas, we should have put them to a vote. Even though last week's conversation means we suspect they would have passed comfortably, we do want to make clear that this was a genuine oversight from us and isn't us trying to be underhanded or sneak things past the poll system - it's what makes Old School so special after all!

For now, wield the elements to your heart's content, just keep an eye out for the Fire Nation...

OSRS Monthly

Last month, we kicked off our OSRS Monthly video series with Mod Ayiza and Mod Kieren covering upcoming content and reflecting on recent releases. You seemed to really enjoy it, so we're back for round two! Take a look at this month's video for a look forward at Runefest, Pete Kayer's PvP Challenges, Grand Exchange improvements, and some reflections on Bronzeman, The Fractured Archive and its rewards, and Wyrmscraig! Plus some special shoutouts for RuneScape's ongoing Equilibrium League and the upcoming full release for RuneScape: Dragonwilds!

If you're lucky enough to be attending Runefest yourself on October 3rd and 4th, then you'll be able to catch the next OSRS monthly live at the Birmingham NEC, so expect our next upload in this series to look a little different from the previous two, especially while we're in the midst of moving studios.

On the topic of Pete Kayer's PvP Challenges...

Coming Soon: Pete Kayer's PvP Challenges + Reward Poll

Next month on October 7th, Pete Kayer will be making his way to Ferox Enclave and challenging any brave souls to a variety of exercises, aimed at building up your confidence with important mechanics for both PvP and PvM content.

You can expect lessons on widely applicable techniques like Prayer switching, Gear switching, Combo eating, and some more PvP-specific skills like Freeze-Escaping or proper Special Attack usage. While these are billed as a set of tutorials to help players up their confidence in PvP scenarios, we cannot stress enough that a lot of these challenges will help you improve your gameplay across the board, and will serve as a great warmup activity if you've got a few minutes to spare before committing to a long raiding session.

Naturally learning the basics is all well and good, but Old School is a difficult game, so many of the challenges should ramp up to feel genuinely tough so that you can really nail your muscle memory and make sure you've got a solid grasp of the lessons that Pete's teaching. Some of the challenges even have 'endless' modes where Pete will ramp up the difficulty and see how many combo eats, Prayer switches or gear switches you can land in a row, meaning you'll be able to track your improvement over time.

The ultimate culmination of these challenges is a simulated smackdown with Pete Kayer himself, which will see you combining all that you've learned to try and outlast an NPC who's willing to switch gear, switch prayers, combo-eat, throw in sneaky special attacks - everything you might expect from another player. In recognition of your academic efforts, Pete has a special cosmetic in store for anybody able to defeat him: an Imbued God cape cosmetic kit bearing the symbol of Zaros. You'll need to have earned the cape yourself via the Mage Arena II miniquest to be able to apply the cosmetic, so perhaps it'll be the perfect excuse for you to test our your new skills!

He's extremely cagey about how exactly it came into possession, but it looks cool enough that we wager most of you won't be asking too many questions.

We'll be opening a poll within the next couple of days to let you determine whether or not you'd like to see this cosmetic Imbued God cape variant in the game - it feels like a fitting reward to be passed down by an unparalleled veteran of the Wilderness! We're not currently planning to add this to the Collection Log, but open to changing our minds if you think it's a good fit.

Beyond the cape appearance, you'll also be able to earn some blighted supplies and a handful of Last Man Standing points (up to a cap) for your first completion of some of the challenges, or repeated fights against Pete Kayer. These aim to set you up to put your newfound skills to the test, but aren't intended to have you repeat these challenges over and over in exchange for monetary reward - the point of these is to give players an avenue to improve at some of the more mechanical aspects of Old School in a way that's fun, challenging, and fully opt-in.

So get those clicking fingers ready, F-keys set up and bring some fighting spirit to show Pete Kayer what you've got on October 7th!

RuneScape: Dragonwilds - Full Release: September 15th

RuneScape: Dragonwilds will official leave early access and launch in full on September 15th, marking a significant milestone in RuneScape history as it'll be the first time you can play on console!

• Wishlist on PlayStation!

• Wishlist on Xbox!

• Wishlist on Epic Games Store!

• Purchase on Steam!

• Join the mailing list for Switch 2 news!

In support of this monumental milestone, you might notice the updated login screen!

The banners that you can see are the ones you'll find across Ashenfall. They tell the story of Bandos' defeat at the hands of the dragons, and the new-found worship the Goblins gave to them in Bandos' absence.

Mark your calendars for September 15th and get ready to throw down the gauntlet, challenge the first Dragon General, and begin your journey from noob to Dragon Slayer... again.

Completely Unnecessary Dog Lore

We sat down with our narrative team to ask the important questions ahead of launch.

Do you have any more questions about dogs in Gielinor? Send them our way and we might be able to answer them for you on our next livestream!

Are all Stray Dogs the same dog or are there multiple ones roaming throughout Gielinor?

There isn't just one legendary Stray Dog endlessly wandering the streets of Varrock. We have multiple! Most seem to have decided Varrock is the place to be, although a few particularly unfortunate pups can also be found in Meiyerditch.

Which NPC has the closest relation to dogs?

Hellhounds might technically count, although we'd probably advise against trying to pet one. Cerberus is presumably an even worse idea. There's also Icthlarin, the jackal-headed demigod who guides souls through the Underworld, for those willing to stretch the definition of 'dog' slightly.

What god alignment do dogs have?

Icthlarin was a dog (not certain if we've specified that in game), now a canine-themed demigod (this is known). So technically the closest alignment would be to the core desert pantheon.

What do the various races/species think of dogs?

Play the quest!

Does the Wise Old Man own a dog?

No. Should he?

PvP World Rota

The PvP rota has moved to Period A:

• 539 - (US) - PvP World

• 318 - (UK) - Bounty Hunter World

• 548 - (Germany) - High-Risk PvP World

• 577 - (US) - Free-to-Play PvP World

• 559 - (US) - LMS Competitive

World 390 (AUS) for LMS Competitive has been activated with this rota.

World 569 (AUS) for Bounty Hunter has been activated with this rota.

The PvP Arena is using '1 Def Pure' loadouts in Ranked Duels and Tournaments this week.

You can also discuss this update on the 2007Scape subreddit, the Steam forums, or the official OSRS Discord. For more information, check the official Old School Wiki. Mods Abe, Abyss, Acorn, Ape, Arcane, Archie, Argo, Ash, Asherz, Ayiza, BigRig, Blighted, Blossom, Boko, Brooksie, Bruno, Bulb, Chilly, Criminal, Curse, Daizong, Default, Doctor, Ed, Elena, Enigma, Entropi, Frogs, Fuzz, Gecko, Ghost, Gizmo, Goblin, Grace, Grub, Halo, Harold, Hend, Hornet, Husky, Ivory, Jalo, Jamesy, Jerv, Keyser, Kieren, Kirby, Kurotou, Leebleh, Lenny, Light, Liron, Lotus, Lykos, Mack, Manked, Markos, Maylea, Mobius, Moogle, Morty, Moz, Necro, Nin, Nixon, Nox, Nylu, Oasis, Ori, Other, Otter, Pheasant, Philomel, Pork, Pumpkin, Puppi, Pyro, Rach, Redfield, Rice, Romy, Roy, Ry, Saiyan, Sarnie, Schmidt, Shogun, Shroom, Sigma, Skylark, Smithy, Sova, Spacebar, Spyro, Squid, Starry, Suharun, Surma, Sween, Tide, Titania, Titus, TJ, Tomb, Tsourorf, Tyran, Veda, Vegard, West, Wolfy, Yozora, Yume & Zaf The Old School Team