Tombs of Amascut: Raid Rewards

The Summer Summit saw us share information about Deadman: Reborn, Group Ironman, Leagues III - and the announcement of Old School's third raid, the Tombs of Amascut. With Thursday's game update you'll get your hands on the new Raid rewards in a beta!

PSA: This week's game update will go live on Thursday instead of the usual Wednesday release.

In this blog we wanted to briefly recap what was announced at the Summit and, most importantly, begin the discussion about potential rewards before it goes to the polls!

Click the above video to watch the Summer Summit Raids announcement!

The Tombs of Amascut

Long ago, the citizens of the Kharidian Desert lived prosperous and luxurious lives thanks to the benevolence of the Gods of the Menaphite Pantheon. However, that all changed when Amascut, the Goddess of Rebirth, was corrupted. Warped into the Devourer, she became intent on devouring every soul in existence.

Her brother, Icthlarin, along with her former High Priestesses have since been fighting tirelessly against Amascut, in a bid to negate her destructive efforts.

After years of plotting, Amascut has finally find a way to overcome the efforts of Icthalarin and his allies.

Deep within the desert, an ancient pharaoh called Osmumten lies buried. His tomb has long hidden a great power. It is this great power that Amascut seeks, and if she can lay her hands on it she will become unstoppable.

You must take the fight to Amascut before it's too late.

Sketches and references for the Tombs of Amascut. Click to see it in more detail. This is concept art and may not be representative of the final appearance of the Tombs!

The Raid

Let's dig in to what you need to know about the Tombs of Amascut:

• Groups of up to eight participants.
• Four initial challenges, followed by two final bosses to be fought in a twin boss encounter.

Invocations will allow for customisable difficulty, which will also impact your loot potential!

• Invocations will replace standard difficulty systems, like the ones used in other raids.
• Each Invocation will affect the raid or your group in different ways.
• Some Invocations can affect the health, defence, or damage modifiers for the enemies within the Raid.
• Other Invocations might impose group restrictions, like reducing the amount you can heal or prohibiting certain spells.
• We intend to be quite creative with these modifiers. The above examples are fairly simple and safe, with the intention to provide early insight into their impact for this blog, but we'd like to experiment with different ideas that might drastically change things.

On entering the Tombs of Amascut you will encounter four paths:

• The upper level of the Tombs will consist of four paths, each ending in a boss.
• Each path is comprised of its own series of challenges to be overcome.
• These challenges are more akin to puzzles rather than killing a single entity, like a boss.
• These can range from things like traps with Sepulchre-like dodging, or defeating new foes in unconventional ways.
• Once you reach the end of a path, you'll then fight the boss of that path in a more conventional combat encounter.
• The raid will be altered in some way with the death of each boss, changing the remaining boss encounters.
• This means that the path order you choose will matter!

Defeat the four bosses to descend to the lower levels:

• Once you defeat the first four bosses you'll unlock the lower level.
• You'll enter a chamber containing the two ancient guardians of the Tombs.
• These guardians need to be fought at the same time.
• Defeat the guardians to drive Amascut from the tomb and claim your rewards!

We'll discuss the rewards a bit later, but first let's talk about how you might access the Tombs of Amascut.

Beneath Cursed Sands

The Tombs of Amascut will be our most narratively-driven Raid yet, and no narrative is complete without a quest!

When Sophanem was beset by a series of plagues, the gates to the golden city of Menaphos quickly closed. The city has been locked down ever since, with no one allowed to leave or enter. However, rumours have escaped of strange happenings inside Menaphos and there are stories of citizens mysteriously disappearing.

These odd happenings need to be investigated, but few are willing to do so. Maisa, a spy from Al Kharid, has grown tired of inaction. She is determined to solve this mystery herself, but she won't be able to do it alone...

• Beneath Cursed Sands is a Master-level quest which will advance the desert storyline.
• In this sequel to Contact! You'll find yourself investigating mysterious disappearances from Menaphos, the city of gold. Note: Menaphos will not be opening its gates just yet, and will instead be coming at a later date.
• Solving this mystery will grant you access to the Raid itself.
• We're aiming to release the quest before the Raid to give you ample time to ready yourself!

Requirements & Rewards (SPOILER WARNING!)

Tombs of Amascut: Rewards

Here's where we'd love to get your feedback. As with any rewards proposals, it should go without saying that nothing here is set in stone. Your feedback is going to be key in shaping what we're offering, and we really want to see what suggestions you have too! To make sure we see what you have to say, we'd invite you to do one of the following:

• Join the Official Old School RuneScape Discord server and head to the #tombs-of-amascut channel in the Summer Summit area.
• Use the #OSRSRaids hashtag on Twitter.
• Reply to the Tombs of Amascut Reddit thread or make your own threads with '(Raids)' in the title.

Masori Equipment

The Masori were a clan of powerful ranged users active during an ancient war which embroiled much of the Kharidian forces. They focused primarily on defending ordinary people from the violent thieves and murderers who sought to take advantage of the chaos caused by the war. The group has been long since disbanded, but their equipment can still be found amongst the palaces of wealthy Menaphites or among the treasures of long dead Pharaohs.

Before we discuss the Masori equipment, we'd like to introduce a new status effect, Low Life. A player is considered to be Low Life when below 40% of their maximum health.

The Masori equipment consists of a chestpiece, legs, and amulet. Equipping the Masori items requires 80 Ranged and 20 Defence. The armour set will be the very first pieces of equipment in the game to utilise Low Life. When the player is in a state of Low Life and has the chestpiece and legs equipped, the equipment set will gain additional stats. This set effect provides additional accuracy and ranged strength for as long as you remain in Low Life (whenever you remain below 40% of your maximum health). The amulet shares this effect and it also has an additional passive effect. When equipped, and not influenced by Low Life, you'll take damage equivalent to 15% of your current health at a rate of every three game cycles.

Let's take a look at the stats:

The Masori equipment. A potential reward from the Tombs of Amascut, introducing 'Low Life' to Old School.
And for how that compares to other existing equipment and what the set effects mean:

• When Low Life is active, the accuracy and strength bonus surpasses Armadyl (Chestplate and Chainskirt) by 11 and 6 respectively.
• The amulet base offensive stats are similar to the Amulet of Fury, with it slightly surpassing its Zenyte equivalents when Low Life is active.

We think this new equipment could lead to the emergence of innovative and interesting playstyles. The set effect offers a way to balance the introduction of new, powerful equipment without devaluing existing equipment which boasts defensive bonuses. Its Low Life effect will mean that it is extremely useful in some cases, but will fall short in other areas because of the need to maintain specific Hitpoints. Let's use Vorkath as an example. If you're 99 Hitpoints, you'd need to stay below 40 Hitpoints to keep its effect active. Whilst Vorkath's unavoidable damage doesn't hit as high as 40, you'll need to eat fairly often to keep above the highest possible hit to ensure you stay alive, making it both extremely difficult to maintain the Low Life effect.

Heka of Tumeken and the Ward of Elidinis

Tumeken was the God of Sun and Elidinis was the Goddess of Fertility. As husband and wife, they led the Menaphite Pantheon. Whilst Tumeken and Elidinis steered the people of the Kharidian Desert spiritually, it was the responsibility of the human Pharoah to rule the Desert. Osmumten was the last Pharoah to rule before the end of the ancient war. Osmumten fought alongside Tumeken against enemy forces. Tumeken sacrificed himself to end the war, and before Elidinis disappeared to mourn the loss of her family she gifted Osmumten with Tumeken's Heka and her own broken Ward.

The Heka of Tumeken is a wand-like magical weapon. Equipping the Heka will require 84 Magic. It has a built-in spell with charges which will need to be replenished, using one Soul Rune and three Chaos Runes per charge. The Heka has an attack rate of two ticks. Every fourth hit the Heka will fire a stronger attack which deals significantly more damage, albeit with a longer delay after the attack. We know that weapons with fast attack speeds scale harder with additional bonuses, like the Toxic Blowpipe. To offset this and to help make the Heka scale more similarly to other magic weapons, the standard faster attacks will only benefit from 50% of your Magic strength. The slower fourth hit will be much stronger, benefitting from 150% of your Magic strength bonus. Its attack range will be shorter than other staves too, with it being six rather than seven (casting with the long range setting will boost it to eight).

For the min-max savvy players out there who like calculations, the following formulas should help with any theorycrafting you'd like to put together:

• Standard fast attacks scale based on '(Magic Level / 6) + 1' for the base max hit.
• The slower fourth attack scales based on '(Magic Level - 25) / 2' for the base max hit.
• After this is calculated, any Magic strength from other sources is then applied.

Let's take a look at the stats:

The Heka of Tumeken, a wand-like magical weapon.

The Ward of Elidinis will be the new best-in-slot magical shield. Players will get the broken Ward as a rare reward from the Tombs of Amascut. With 90 Prayer and 90 Smithing you'll be able to combine the broken ward with an Arcane Sigil and 10,000 Soul Runes to repair the Ward. Players without those stats will be able to pay Abbot Langley 20,000,000 GP to create it for them.

Equipping the Ward will require 80 Magic, 80 Defence, and 80 Prayer. The broken Ward will be tradeable, whilst the fixed Ward will be untradeable. Players can dismantle the Ward to recover the Sigil and the Ward, but the runes will be lost. Dying in PvP will result in the Sigil and the broken Ward being dropped.

Let's take a look at the stats:

The Ward of Elidinis, a new best-in-slot magical shield.

Lightbearer

Ahmek was a powerful warrior who sought to capitalise on the chaos caused by the end of the ancient war. Ahmek crafted a powerful ring which he imbued with the unstable energy left behind from Tumekin's sacrifice. He hoped to use this ring to emerge as a new power in the region. By forcibly uniting thieves and mercenaries under his command, he planned to overthrow Osmumten. His plans proved fruitless, however, when the ring was stolen and he was murdered in his sleep. The Menaphite Guards claimed the ring from the body of the murderous thief, and dutifully presented it to the Pharoah.

The Lightbearer is a ring with no Attack, Defence, or Other bonuses. It does, however, have a very unique effect. When equipped, your special attack energy will regenerate 100% faster (approximately 15 seconds per 10%/150 seconds per 100%). Unequipping the ring will cause the timer to reset.

We think that for the most part, you'll want to continue using rings like the Berserker ring. But there'll be some situations where the additional special attack rate will warrants its use. We think this ring will shine in places where kill times are longer, or where you'll want to use a special attack per kill (like Graardor, K'ril, Abyssal Sire etc) - or maybe even use it whilst Woodcutting or Fishing!

Osmumten's Khopesh

Known to his people as Osmumten the Hunter, he was renowned for bringing down many of the land's deadliest beasts. During his hunts he wore armour and weapons crafted by the region's finest artisans. One such weapon was his Khopesh. Though based on a traditional Kharidian design, Osmumten's Khopesh was modified to give it a long and sharp end to make it more versatile than other weapons of its kind. The Khopesh would eventually be buried with Osmumten.

Osmumten's Khopesh is primarily a Stab melee weapon which boasts accuracy comparable to the Elder Maul, and an Attack Speed of five. Equipping the Khopesh will require 82 Attack. We expect its damage-per-second output to be comparable to Rapier-tier weapons on opponents with low Defence, with much greater damage-per-second output on opponents with higher Defence.

We'd like to introduce a new unique mechanic for the Khopesh. Other weapons will roll '0 - max hit'. The Khopesh will roll '(max hit * 0.15) - (max hit - (max hit * 0.15))'. This means that if the max hit is 60, its attack would roll between 9-51. This makes it a very consistent weapon which excels against high Defence targets.

The Khopesh would also have a special attack which increases its max hit to its true max hit for one attack, as well as boosting its accuracy by an additional 50%. This means that if its max hit was 60, it would roll 9-60. This special attack will cost 50% special attack energy to use.

Let's take a look at the stats:

Osmumten's Khopesh, a Stab melee weapon which boasts accuracy comparable to the Elder Maul.

Keris Partisan

Upon helping to [redacted] during the Beneath Cursed Sands quest, [redacted] will reluctantly reward you with an enhanced version of Keris, the spear-like Keris Partisan.

In addition to its Stab attack styles, the Partisan will have a Crush attack style, which should prove useful during the Tombs of Amascut and against other beetle-like enemies, like the Kalphite Queen. Equipping the Partisan will require 80 Attack.

We'd like to try something slightly different with this weapon. The Partisan has a socket in which players can insert special jewels. These jewels are obtained as rare rewards from the Tombs of Amascut, and inserting these jewels into the Partisan will bestow different effects onto the weapon. You'll only be able to use on jewel at a time. These jewels will not be tradeable.

We're still considering how we'd like to reward players with these jewels. They could be unlocked as a random drop, or given upon a certain number of Raid completions, or as a reward for killing bosses using specific methods. We're also considering whether they should be permanent one-time unlocks, or whether they should have charges. Naturally this would effect the rarity of the drop. We'd love to hear your thoughts on how they should be implemented!

Let's take a look at the stats:

Keris Partisan, a spear-like enhanced version of Keris.
And here's a look at a few jewel buffs we're considering. Note that the effects apply only during the Tombs of Amascut.

• The Eye of the Corrupter adds a damage-over-time effect to attacked enemies. You won't be able to stack this effect multiple times onto a single NPC but you will be able to apply it to multiple NPCs at any one time.
• The Jewel of the Sun applies a debuff to attacked NPCs which causes them to take higher damage for a sustained period of time.

In addition to effects that only apply within the Tombs, we're also considering how jewels can provide benefits throughout the whole of Geilinor. For example:

• The Breach of the Scarab adds a 33% accuracy buff against Kalphites, Scarabs and Beetles.

We think that the Partisan's upgrade system will allow for a strong sense of progression within the Raid itself, making it very useful in that encounter without encroaching on other gear elsewhere.

Concept Art

During the Summer Summit announcement (scroll to the top of this blog to watch it!) our artists discussed their approach to designing this content, and also teased you with sketches and concept art. Here are some of those sketches, helpfully unlabelled to keep you all guessing. And again, please note that this is concept art and may not be representative of the final appearance of the Tombs, anything within, or its rewards!

Click here to see the sketches.

Show details

Concept art for Tombs of Amascut. These images may not be representative of the final appearance of the Tombs, anything within, or its rewards!

That's everything for this blog. We'd love to hear your feedback so please do...

• Join the Official Old School RuneScape Discord server and head to the #tombs-of-amascut channel in the Summer Summit area.
• Use the #OSRSRaids hashtag on Twitter.
• Reply to the Tombs of Amascut Reddit thread or make your own threads with '(Raids)' in the title.

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