Stride into the Abyss for madcap battles in Shattered Worlds: the new combat minigame.

Slaughter your way through procedurally generated maps packed with a mash-up of RuneScape environments, enemies and mutator effects, surviving ever-increasing difficulty for as long as you possibly can.

Push your limits in this test of skill, adaptability and endurance and claim some amazing new rewards, including sigils: new gear that grants powerful temporary effects.

Read on to find out more!

How to Start Speak to the Abyssal Knight Commander in Lumbridge Swamp. Requirements RuneScape Membership There are no level requirements, but level 40 in at least one combat skill is recommended.

Reality as we know it teeters on the edge of a seething mass of chaos: the Abyss. Once kept at bay by powerful magical seals, it now threatens to boil over into Gielinor.

In aid of the Abyssal Knights, you'll enter Shattered Worlds alone, and fight through bizarre maps filled with strange creatures. You may bring your own gear and consumables, or be provided with some gear to use while you're there. Note that should you bring your own gear, it will still degrade as applicable, and consumables will be used as normal.

As you progress through the worlds, not only will the difficulty increase, but mutators will be applied – persistent effects which change how you and/or your enemies behave for the duration of your run.

You might find yourself vampyric – able to leech the life force of your foes…or you might find that enemies explode into hordes of zombie chickens when you kill them. These – and many stranger things – await you when you step through the portal.

Eventually, you will fail – but fear not. Shattered Worlds is safe death, and the challenge lies in defeating your personal best score – and those of your friends.

You'll find three weekly challenges to test your mettle, and earn you bonus rewards. Try the gold challenge for a real test of your combat skill!

Rewards

Brave Shattered Worlds and the rewards will be rich. You'll receive reward currency (and a rare chance at a pet) in a chest at the end of your run. Speak to the Quartermaster outside the Shattered Worlds entrance to spend your reward points.

Sigils

These new pieces of gear give powerful benefits when activated – either from the hotbar or the Worn interface itself. They have no passive benefits – it's all about the active effects. They sit in an all-new equipment slot.

Activating a sigil puts it on cooldown, along with all other sigils. No swapping out to stack effects – you'll need to choose what you want to use carefully.

Sigils have charges, and can be recharged at the entrance to Shattered Worlds. We may introduce sigils in the future that degrade to dust.

As for the sigils released today, there are three:

Sigil of Slaying - Increases earned Slayer XP by 10% for 30 seconds. Sigil slot cooldown for 60 seconds.

Ferocious Sigil – Kuradal's slayer dungeon NPCs will instantly respawn on death for 30 seconds. Sigil slot cooldown for 60 seconds.

Aggression Sigil - Immediately forces nearby monsters to attack you. Sigil slot cooldown for 20 seconds.

Abilities

There are two new combat techniques to be learned, too:

Bladed Dive | Basic Ability, 65 Attack, Dual Wielding

Leap towards the target location or enemy. If an enemy is targeted, you'll deal damage to it and all adjacent enemies upon arrival. If enemies hit by Bladed Dive die within 3 seconds, Bladed Dive's cooldown is reset. Note that Bladed Dive does not share a cooldown with Barge, Escape or Surge.

Salt the Wound | Threshold Ability, 60 Ranged

Deals 188% weapon damage to the target, plus an additional 18% weapon damage per stack of Punctured on the target. This also refreshes the duration of Punctured.

When purchased, also upgrades your existing Dazing Shot to apply the Punctured status effect. Punctured stacks up to 10 times and deals a small amount of damage over time.

Slayer Masks

All previously released slayer masks are available for purchase at the Shattered Worlds reward store.

Note that it is not possible to acquire additional copies of masks from the store, nor are spirits of battle available.

Pets

The Abyssal Hound is a rare drop from Shattered Worlds reward chests (which can be opened after completing a run of worlds or after completing a weekly challenge).

The evolving Anima Creature can be purchased from the Shattered Worlds reward store. The pet has nine tiers which can be purchased, each of which changes its appearance.

And More!

That's not all – there's also cosmetic Abyssal Knight armour overrides, Slayer XP lamps, and Slayer contracts to be completed within Shattered Worlds.

Enjoy!

Whew! That's a lot to take in – but Shattered Worlds is one heck of an update. You've never experienced RuneScape combat like this before, so buckle up and have fun.

See you in-game!

The RuneScape Team

In Other News

See the patch notes for further details of today's updates.

Live Streams this Week

Each week we livestream Q&As, in-game events and more. Watch our streams and find a full streaming schedule over on our Twitch channel.

Check our YouTube channel, too, for all of our previous streams, including last week's stream on the story so far.

Skilling will be an essential part of Menaphos, so it's time we told you some more about it!

Sunday May 7th | 18:00 Game Time | PvM with Mod Lee!

Get your weekly dose of PvM goodness with Mod Lee – don't miss it!

'What Desert Character are you?' Quiz

Menaphos will see the return of some familiar Desert faces, and some all-new characters you'll be getting to know rather well over the coming months. But which one matches your personality?

Try out the new quiz on our Facebook page to find out. Will you be the honourable Ozan, or the devious Jabari? Take the quiz now!

Become a Menaphos Insider - Find out the secrets of Menaphos first

How'd you like to get a first look at some incredible Menaphos teasers? Concept art, Lore, and loads more – before everyone else!

We're setting up a secret Discord server of Menaphos Insiders – and we'd love you to be there. We'll be selecting a small group of hardened ‘Scapers to join us for special sneak-peeks and Menaphos good-stuff – before anyone else.

Want to sign up? Please head here for more details and a sign-up form. We'll be letting you know from next Thursday (4th May) if you're one of the lucky Menaphos Insiders! Hurry – entries close soon!