Greetings! As you will very likely be aware, to ease your social-distancing frustrations we're laying on an additional XP event next month. Plus, it's got a brand new name - Double XP LIVE!

WHEN IS DOUBLE XP LIVE?

There's not long to wait. Double XP LIVE kicks off at midday (12:00 GMT) on Friday May 8th!

WHY THE NEW NAME?

Double XP has been changing in RuneScape. For a long time you were all very accustomed to our typical Double XP Weekends. This evolved last year with the introduction of Double XP Weekend: Extended, which initially offered 36 hours of doubled XP gain over 10 days, but then grew to 48 hours.

But there was an obvious problem with Double XP Weekend: Extended - 10 days is an awfully long time for a weekend. Although thinking about it, we like the idea!

Double XP LIVE is the next phase of RuneScape's special event growth.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Double XP LIVE will use the same format as our last XP event. Players get a full 48 hours of Double XP time to use over a full 10 day period (in this case, until 12:00 GMT on Monday May 18th). By giving you the flexibility to use your XP time as you wish, there's no need to worry about pulling an all-nighter or compromising any of your plans. Take your time, relax and enjoy those lovely skill gains!

Any time you log into RuneScape over that period, your XP timer will start ticking, and your remaining time can be checked in the menu whenever you like.

WHAT ABOUT ARCHAEOLOGY?

Please don't forget that our brand new and very exciting skill Archaeology is exempt from any XP benefits for its first six months, so you won't get any extra XP when training that skill. This is so players who love the race to 99 and 120 can do so on a level playing field.

The Future of Double XP in RuneScape

We spoke to Mod MIC, Product Director for Runescape, about the feedback we've received to the Double XP changes:

Why are you running another Double XP event so soon?

We wanted to try something new this year with more frequent events like this running in a quarterly pattern between other regular events like 'Yak Track'. We've had very positive feedback about the new format, which provides a healthier gameplay experience with less emphasis on playing for long periods of time. Also, we are aware that there are lots of players who have recently returned to RuneScape and might not have had the opportunity to participate in recent Double XP events, so this will be a great boost to anyone playing catch up. As ever, we welcome feedback from all kinds of players on this topic, so please let us know what you think.

Doesn't this inject too much XP in the game?

We've looked closely at the data from the last two Double XP events. We saw that most players used about half of the total Double XP quota, and approximately 10% went on to use the whole 48 hours. This is consistent with the data we saw in the past with the old 72 hour Double XP Weekends, so it's actually a pretty similar amount of XP (possibly slightly lower), so it is not detrimental to the overall balancing of the game.

Why do this so close to the launch of Archaeology?

Double XP LIVE will start on May 8th, which is almost six weeks from the launch of the new Archaeology skill. Lots of players are still really enjoying training Archaeology, and as the new skill is not affected by Double XP, they can carry on training without any impact on their progress. However, those players who want to put some time into other skills can take a break from the excavations and enjoy progress elsewhere in the game.

Doesn't increasing the frequency take away some of the prestige of a Double XP event?

We know that Double XP events are a big deal for a lot of players, and many like to plan in advance for them. Unfortunately, that comes with the disadvantage of some players feeling pressured - they don't want to miss it because of the long wait until the next one. We want players to have more freedom to choose how and when they play without intruding on personal commitments or family time. This is again why we have changed to the new Double XP LIVE format, which we believe is more flexible and will suit more players in the long term.

Mod MIC, Mod Warden and Mod JD will be taking more questions on this topic during the livestream on Tuesday May 5th, so please come along if you have any further questions.

The RuneScape Team