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The Giant Mole's been besieging begonias since 2006, and it's high time she got an overhaul!

We've applied the full power of Malignius Mortifer's magic to bring her up to date with modern boss mechanics, two difficulty modes and a more accessible, instanced lair for solo or group runs.

Her drops include some grand new rewards: a clingy mole who can improve your anti-dragon shield, potions that'll speed up growth in your tree patches, and more.

There's no better or more rewarding way for mid-level combat fans to get into boss fighting. Read on for further details, or play now!

Meet the Mole

The Giant Mole's one of RuneScape's most venerable boss monsters. The result of an accident featuring a slightly suspicious plant-growth potion, the mole lives under Falador Park, terrorising gardener Wyson.

The first change you'll notice is an altogether more obvious entrance to the mole's lair. There's no longer any need to dig through molehills to enter, or to bring a light source - the mole's old light-extinguishing mechanics are gone.

The lair is now instanced, so when you click on the entrance you'll be prompted to choose how to do so:

Start a new session : This allows you to create a new instance in which to fight the Giant Mole at normal difficulty. You can set the maximum number of people allowed, a minimum combat level allowed, and a numeric entry key to ensure privacy for you and your friends.

: This allows you to create a new instance in which to fight the Giant Mole at normal difficulty. You can set the maximum number of people allowed, a minimum combat level allowed, and a numeric entry key to ensure privacy for you and your friends. Start a new session (hard mode) : This creates a new instance where you can fight a more difficult version of the Giant Mole. You can also adjust the instance's entry settings, as described above.

: This creates a new instance where you can fight a more difficult version of the Giant Mole. You can also adjust the instance's entry settings, as described above. Join an existing fight : This allows you to join an existing instance in progress on your world. Simply enter the name of the player who created the instance, and - if necessary - the entry key.

: This allows you to join an existing instance in progress on your world. Simply enter the name of the player who created the instance, and - if necessary - the entry key. Rejoin my previous battle: This allows you to rejoin an ongoing instance which you left, be it voluntarily, through logging out or through dying. Note that an instance will collapse when the last player remaining in it leaves.

While there are no entry requirements, the normal mode fight is balanced for a solo player of around combat level 110. Hard mode is aimed at a solo player of combat level 140, or a group of three players at combat level 110.

The mole's been updated to use the sort of attacks you'd see in higher-levelled boss fights. The fight progresses in difficulty over three phases, where she'll drop rocks from the ceiling, summon mole minions to aid her, burrow underground to attack from below, and burst into a damage-boosting rage. You'll need to be on your toes to prevail, ready to react to whatever the mole throws your way.

The fight's a fantastic way for mid-level players to get a taste of the high-end game. During normal mode, you'll see some handy tips at the top of the screen, which will help you counter the mole's attacks and survive the encounter. Then, once you've mastered the normal fight, gather some friends and tackle hard mode!

Rewards

The Giant Mole's possible drops include a new clingy mole: a cute critter who's oddly attracted to the surface of the anti-dragon shield.

With 45 Crafting, use him on the shield and he'll grip tightly onto its front, boosting its stats to those of a level 55 hybrid shield. The mole also gives the shield a chance to reduce up to 150 dragonfire or Giant Mole hits by 75%, but to deal that damage gradually as a damage-over-time effect.

After those 150 hits, the mole will drop off and skulk away, and the shield will revert to its original form and stats.

Also new are numbing roots. These handy consumables remove any damage-over-time effects that can be cleared by the Freedom ability - including the DoT from the shield!

Exclusive to hard mode are vials of ultra-growth potion. Yes, Malignius Mortifer's more snappily named prototype is yours to use - each dose will skip a healthy tree farming patch ahead by two stages of growth! Please note that this potion is untradeable.

As before, the mole will always drop mole skin, a mole claw and a mole nose which can be given to Wyson in exchange for valuable bird nests and - with an appropriately upgraded Falador shield - lily seeds. Falador gardeners will now exchange up to 50 lily seeds a day for 100 Farming XP each, if you've completed the Falador Elite Task Set.

We hope you enjoy the updated Giant Mole. As always, discuss this and give your feedback over on the forums!

Mod Deg and the RuneScape Team

How to fight the Giant Mole :

Enter the mole hole in Falador Park. Speak to Wyson if you're looking for advice.

Requirements:

You must be a RuneScape member.

Combat level 110 is recommended for normal mode.

Combat level 140, or a group of three with level 110, is recommended for hard mode.

In Other News

We've made some improvements to the Falador Shield 4 :

: It now has the same damage-reduction ability that the anti-dragon shield (mole) does, with the added advantage that it doesn't degrade.



When wielded, the shield gives +5% XP and respect in the Artisans' Workshop.



The confirmation message previously displayed when using the shield's prayer restoration ability has been removed.



It is no longer possible to use the shield to find the Giant Mole. There are visual cues to replace this function during the fight.

We've added to the auras available on Solomon's Store:

available on Solomon's Store: Added the Enrichment aura for the Divination skill, which comes in five tiers, giving up to a 15% additional chance to harvest enriched memories.



Added tier 5 versions of the Call of the Sea, Lumberjack, Five-Finger Discount, Quarrymaster, Tracker and Greenfingers auras, each giving a 15% boost to their respective skill actions.



Added two new tiers for the Jack of Trades aura. Tier 2 requires 15 skills within 3 hours, giving 1.5x the XP that the tier 1 aura does, and tier 3 requires 20 skills for 2x the XP given by tier 1.

The Oddball aura has become a toggle, and its graphical effect has been made persistent.

In light of your feedback, we have made some changes to the Recruit a Friend system:

system: The free membership for recruiters has been reduced to 7 days, and the XP bonus for the recruiter has been reduced to 5% of the recruit's XP, or 10% in close proximity.



Both recruiter and recruit get an additional +10% XP for 7 days, as per the earlier version of the system. These changes make the system more immediately useful, but less open to exploitation.

Take a look at the patch notes for other updates released today.