Can you believe it's our last This Week In RuneScape of the year? And what a year it's been! From War's Retreat to Raksha, with a quick detour through Archaeology, we've had loads of great updates - with many more to come in 2021. But first, let's take a look at what's happening this week, shall we?
Game News
It's Chriiiiiiistmaaaaaas! The snow is falling, the lights are twinkling, and we've got a few suitably festive updates for you! Read on to see how you can rejoin Violet in the Land of Snow, search Diango's storage on mobile, and get started on a wintery new Yak Track.
Violet is Blue Too
Last time you met Violet, you helped her find the way to Yeti Town and make some new friends. Now everyone's favourite ragamuffin is back, and she needs your help once again!
It's almost Christmas, and Yeti Town should be festooned with tinsel, lights, and baubles - but the whole place has remained dismally undecorated! It's up to you to help Violet get to the bottom of this merry mystery and save the day.
And if you're too busy delivering presents and scoffing mince pies this holiday season, no worries - like the first quest in the series, Violet is Blue Too will be available to play all year, every year from now on.
How to Start
To start Violet is Blue Too, you’ll need to have completed Violet is Blue. There are no other requirements.
Speak to Postie Pete outside the portal on White Wolf Mountain to begin the quest.
Yak Track: The Knight Before Christmas
'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring... apart from those bloody great yaks tracking all over the place!
Yes, there's a new Yak Track for the festive season, and it's running from December 14th to January 24th. New here? No worries: to get yak tracking, head to Burthorpe and have a word with Robin, the Reindeer Yak. He'll set you up with a list of tasks to complete, which range from the silly to the skilful. There are two tasks to choose from at each tier, so you choose whichever suits your playstyle best. For each task you check off the list you'll receive a festive reward!
Speaking of rewards, for completing your very first task you'll get the Permafrost Knight outfit, a super-cool suit of armour that'll let you give Gielinor's toughest baddies a frosty reception. Carry on along the track and you'll get weapons to match, along with Robin the Reindeer Yak in pet form, a Chimney Teleport and much more.
Treat yourself to a Premier Pass for just 2 Bonds and you'll unlock even more cosmetics, boosts, pets and animations: including the Tundral Stalker outfit and Snowflake, the winter fairy pet at Tier 50.
Don't forget - if you've joined the Premier Club, you'll have free access to the Premium Track, and you'll get a cheeky bonus Task Skip for any that aren't to your liking.
This time around, you'll be asked to complete a special holiday task: the present hunt! It seems that yaks aren't very good sleigh animals, and somehow Robin's lost some of the presents he was supposed to deliver. Thankfully, he's got a set of Magical Jingle Bells that will help you detect the presents he's lost - just give them a shake and they'll let you know how close you are to the nearest lost present. Easy peasy!
Lastly, our developer elves have received your wishlists and have been busy making a whole bunch of Quality of Life changes to the Yak Track. For more information, have a look at the Patch Notes!
Ninja Strike 16: Diango
You can find Diango in Draynor Market, tirelessly handing out rewards from holiday events past - but this year, he's the one getting the gifts! The Ninja Team has paid him a visit and spruced up his UI. Plus, while they were in the area, they paid a little visit to Death's Office and arranged for him to award a new title...
Diango Improvements
First off, Diango's messaging has been improved in order to clear up any confusion players may have had about the whereabouts of items they already own. In addition, his UI has been given a bit of polish on both mobile and desktop, with bigger icons and a more accessible Search Bar.
Speaking of Search Bars, the one in the Bank will now display items you've got stored with Diango, provided you can withdraw them to your Backpack. There's also a new keybind which will activate the search while in Diango's interface; the key is 'S' in English and German, 'B' in Portuguese and 'R' in French.
Golden Reaper
The Ninjas teamed up with Mods Ryan and Iago, and Death is now ready to award boss loot collectors who go the extra mile with a shiny new title. Completing all boss collection logs will now earn you a prestigious golden variant of 'the Reaper' title. Nice!
Quality of Life Changes
In addition, the Ninjas have swept through the following small updates:
- A new log in message tells players when their Invention machines have completed processing inputs or run out of charges.
- Auto Disassembler machines will now display the correct processing time when disassembling batches of items.
- The 'Deposit all' options for the Deep Sea Fishing Hub and the Menaphos VIP and Port Banks and Deposit Boxes have been consolidated into a single option.
RS@20
Upon logging in after this update, you'll receive a mysterious invitation. An invitation to what, you ask? Why, to RuneScape's 20th Anniversary Party!
That's right, we've had this show on the road for 20 whole years. From the good old days of baking cakes for the Duke of Lumbridge, to facing the Elder Gods themselves, you've stuck with us through thick and thin - and since we couldn't do any of this without the support of our wonderful community, it's only fair that we invite you along to our Grand Party!
Once the event begins, you can use your invitation to teleport straight to the party. Show your invitation to the host and you'll get a special reward - and of course, if you've lost your invite between now and then, they'll be able to give you a spare, too.
So don't be alarmed by that unusual envelope in your Backpack - just hold onto it, and look forward to some official party business in the new year!
Prime Gaming
From tomorrow, December 15th, you can claim new goodies from our friends at Prime Gaming! This time, we're offering two Umbral Chests and a Yak Track Care Package, which contains an assortment of useful items that'll help you along the Yak Track.
To get your rewards, all you need to do is link your RuneScape and Prime Gaming accounts. You can find full instructions right here.
Premier Club
If you're part of the Premier Club, you can look forward to a new monthly drop on January 1st! This time, you'll get:
- A Variety Pack filled with useful stuff
- Two Pulse Cores
- 1,000 Oddments
Feeling jealous? There's still time for you to pick up a Premier Club package and get access to monthly drops like this one for the duration - and don't forget, you'll save a bundle on membership at the same time.
Find out more here.
New Year's Sales
Here in the United Kingdom we take our January sales very seriously, so of course we're bringing the thrill of finding those elusive savings to Solomon's General Store!
There are discounts on all kinds of cosmetics, pets, packs and animations - including Rory the Reindeer, the Pegasus Teleport and the Assassin Pack.
The sale goes live on January 1st - but don't worry, we'll remind you closer to the time.
Patch Notes
Hmm, what's this under the tree? Oh! It's a big ol' pile of Patch Notes, and they're addressed to all of you! Go on, have a read...
Ninja Strike Notes
Diango and Costume Room
- Using the Search function in the Bank will now also display any results from Diango's storage, as long as the items in question can be withdrawn to the Backpack.
- Fixed some inconsistent tooltip styling between Bank and Diango items.
- Increased the size of icons in Diango's storage on mobile.
- Fixed a live bug where Diango's interface would sometimes prevent players from seeing all search results.
- Moved Diango's Search Bar to the top of the interface on mobile for ease of use.
- Replaced the word 'Inventory' with 'Backpack' in Diango's messaging.
- The 'Cancel Search' button is no longer present on Diango's Search Bar when there is no active search.
- Improved messaging when trying to withdraw items from Diango that are already owned and stored elsewhere.
- A new keybind has been added to activate Search from within Diango's interface:
- In English and German, the key is 'S'
- In French, the key is 'R'
- In Portuguese, the key is 'B'
- A new right-click/long press option has been added to the item slots in the Costume Room interface, which allows you to deposit or withdraw all items in a set at the same time.
Golden Reaper
- Completing all boss collection logs will now award the 'Golden Reaper' title.
- This is a hidden title with an accompanying achievement.
- Those who achieve this feat will receive a global broadcast.
- You are not required to complete the 'Insane Fallen Angel' Achievement, which involves obtaining all Intricate Chests from Nex: Angel of Death, to acquire the title.
General Quality of Life
- Players will now receive log in and update messages whenever their Invention machines have finished processing their inputs, run out of secondary inputs, or run out of charges.
- These messages can be toggled in the Login Messages or Notification Messages option menus.
- Auto Disassembler machines will now display the correct processing time for items disassembled in batches, such as ammunition.
- The charge used to process such items will now be correctly calculated and consumed.
- The Mechanised Siphon interface has been updated to have more space and better readability.
- The 'Add/Remove all' right-click/long press options are now their own buttons.
- Players can now select an input box to enter how many of each Siphon they'd like to store.
- Replaced the word 'Inventory' with 'Backpack' in various messaging.
- Reduced message spam when adding or removing Siphons.
- To account for the 'Bait and Switch' Relic's effect, the separate 'Deposit all' options for different fish have been consolidated to one option in the Deep Sea Fishing Hub and the Menaphos VIP and Port Banks and Deposit Boxes.
- The Fishing Hub now also has these options on the Bank boat and rowboat, as well as the magical nets.
- The NPC who combines your jellyfish at the Deep Sea Fishing Hub has been given a name, a backstory, and a minimap icon. It's still gross, though.
Raksha
Improvements
- Decreased Raksha’s base damage values for attacks that scale with shadow energy.
- To compensate, we've changed Raksha’s shadow infused power buff, which now scales from 0.5% to 1% per shadow energy, resulting in 100% increased damage at 100% energy, up from 50%.
- The maximum damage remains unchanged; this simply means that the minimum damage is now less punishing.
- Decreased Raksha’s rockfall damage.energy, resulting in 100% increased damage at 100% energy, up from 50%.
Fixes
- Raksha's tail chain no longer blocks player movement.
- Fixed an issue where a black screen appeared if the player died while transitioning to Phase 4 of a Raksha encounter.
- Enhanced Fleeting, Laceration and Blast Diffusion Boots will no longer repair into their non-upgraded forms.
- Raksha will no longer get stuck in an animation cycle if you die with Immortality active during the shadow bombard attack cycle.
- Mutated barge bleeds are no longer incorrectly halved after the first hit.
- Fixed an issue that caused players to get stuck under Raksha both during and after the final phase of the encounter.
- Increased the base hit chance (affinity) from 45 to 55 when using Melee against Raksha.
- Raksha will no longer override his Melee attack animation with a walk animation if the player moves out of Melee range.
- Raksha will no longer change target randomly in duo mode, and will instead focus one target until provoked.
Yak Track Improvements
We're always paying close attention to your feedback to determine how we can make our content better, and Yak Track is no exception! Here's a few of the changes and fixes we've made this time:
Task Scaling Adjustments
- Agility tasks will now allow players to complete any Agility course they meet the level requirement to use, instead of being scaled to the player's level.
- Similarly, Dungeoneering tasks now allow you to complete any floor you have the level requirement for.
- The quantity of items required for Herblore and Crafting tasks no longer scale based on your level - all players must now carry out the same number of actions.
- Quantities required for Herblore tasks have been significantly reduced, bringing down the cost of completing them.
- Summoning tasks are now less restrictive and allow you to create a wider range of pouches.
Gain XP Tasks
- Construction tasks have been replaced with a 'Gain Construction XP' task, allowing players to progress as they choose.
- Archaeology restoration tasks have been replaced with a generic 'Gain Archaeology XP' task.
- Smithing tasks have been replaced by a 'Gain Smithing XP' task, allowing players to smith efficiently while making progress.
New Tasks
Present Hunt (This Track Only)
A new kind of task where you're asked to track down presents all over Gielinor using a set of Magical Jingle Bells.
Earn Marks of War
A new type of combat task that'll see you killing bosses and collecting Marks of War.
Miscellaneous Task Improvements
- Batch Overload recipes now advance Herblore tasks by 5 instead of 1 - because you're making 5 potions!
- The Divine Conversion Relic now correctly advances Divination tasks.
- One progress point is now awarded per segment of the Anachronia Agility Course, since it's so massive compared to the others.
- Two new courses have been added to Agility tasks:
- Ape Atoll
- Agility Pyramid
- Corrupted magic logs now count towards Firemaking tasks.
- Wobbegongs now count towards Fishing tasks.
- Wobbegong oil now counts towards Cooking tasks.
- The Cremation ability now counts towards Prayer tasks.
- Great White Shark now count for both Fishing and Cooking tasks.
Known Issue
There is a known issue with the Snuffles pet unlock that will cause his animation to appear deformed. We're working on a fix that requires an engine update, currently targeted for January. We'll share more news as soon as we can.
Other
Improvements
- The Desert Pantheon aura can now be reused once a Double XP event has concluded.
Fixes
- Players can once again choose the colour of their beards and hairstyles in the Appearance interface.
Community
We're feeling particularly merry in the Community Tab this week, with a Festive Bumper Stream, an epic LootScape weekend event, and more goodies than we can possibly fit in our stockings - so here they are in newspost form, instead.
Livestreams
J-Mod Livestreams
Tuesday December 15th | 17:00 Game Time | Christmas Special
Welcome one and all to this absolutely massive end of year livestream! Our J-Mods will be playing through Violet is Blue Too, making Christmas cards, and getting up to all kinds of holiday shenanigans. Don't miss out!
Catch our final livestream of the year on our Twitch channel, here.
LootScape Weekend Event
It's a LootScape extravaganza this weekend as content creators from all over the stratosphere join forces to bring you three whole days of streaming fun!
This'll be your last chance to join a LootScape stream for some time, as we're working with Twitch to improve LootScape in the new year.
From Friday 18th through to Sunday 20th, you'll be able to claim loot from the following streams. You'll get one piece of loot for every stream you watch - so be sure to tune in as often as you can!
Friday December 18th
Ravlar | 10:00 Game Time
Wazzy | 14:00 Game Time
Sarahdominist | 15:00 Game Time
Scardyginge | 16:00 Game Time
OhItsDylan | 16:00 Game Time
Zilandraa | 19:00 Game Time
Tusoroxo | 22:00 Game Time
Saturday December 19th
Dakota | 02:00 Game Time
Tea_Resa | 08:00 Game Time
Hanannie | 10:00 Game Time
Spidermash | 11:00 Game Time
MarMar182 | 11:00 Game Time
Maikeru | 19:00 Game Time
VaselineFairy | 20:00 Game Time
Tuck_Shop | 22:00 Game Time
Sunday December 20th
brillymister | 11:00 Game Time
Proficy | 17:00 Game Time
Agita & Plum | 19:30 Game Time
Creative Corner
Steam Screenshots
by Thainá Bloodwell
By LesYeuxPlusGrosQueLeMonde
By Freerider-Dave
Awesome Art
Yikes! We're having a nightmare before Christmas thanks to Nina_Ray and this terrifying piece of artwork, titled 'Monster of Draynor Village'. Brr... it'll take more than a few eggnogs to get over this one. Keep up the good work!
RuneScape Reads
In our reading corner this week we're really into Spirited Away, a fanfic where you choose the ending! Chaos_Elemental and fennfics have really outdone themselves with this one! We'd love to tell you how great the endings are - but we keep getting bested in a highly inadvisable duel. Still worth a read!
#RSCosplay Competition
Thanks to everyone who took part in the in-game cosplay competition we launched two weeks ago - and thanks to the mysterious 'Mage Simpson' who inspired us to make it TV and movie themed!
There's been some truly fantastic entries, but here are some of our favourites: can you name the characters they're dressed as?
By @RS_Zorander
By @rs_drfloof
By @SaiyanGamez
Community
SupportScape
The holiday season isn't always easy - and this year, we know that for some of us it will be tougher than ever. If you need some help, or just someone to chat to, why not reach out to the SupportScape community?
Founded in 2019, SupportScape is a Discord server dedicated to mental health support for 'Scapers everywhere. They offer support, advice, and a friendly face to those who need it. There's even a channel specifically for venting.
Whether you've got general worries or are struggling with more complex problems, SupportScape can be there for you. Their volunteers are available 24/7 - and they're here to help.
You can join the community via this link.
Clan Quest: Advent Calendar
We love when a community pulls together for an event, and we're thrilled to see Clan Quest's Advent Calendar. Each day there's new fun titbits and activities to be unlocked - and what's more, it's for a good cause! They're raising money for Direct Relief, an international charity that helps people in all kinds of situations.
Find out more here, on the Clan Quest wiki.
Pink Skirts Events
You know what, since it's the holidays, we'll show off two Pink Skirts events this week!
First up, we've got free-to-play Fist of Guthix... Christmas Edition! Join Doctor Brian on World 81 this Sunday December 20th from 18:00 - 19:00 Game Time to join in the festivities.
Alternatively, Doctor Brian's also leading the charge in Happy New Year Barrows, for the first Bossing Sunday of the new year. Join the fun in World 10 at the Barrows Graveyard on Sunday, January 3rd from 18:00 - 19:00 Game Time.
As always, you can see the full Pink Skirts calendar right here on their website - and don't forget, their 12 Days of Christmas event is still ongoing!
The RuneScape Team