A new minigame, reworked demon drops and our first quest of the year. Bring on February!

One of a Kind

Grandmaster quest, members only

Research carried out by Mr Mordaut - the most knowledgeable of dragons - suggests that Hannibus the dragon rider could well be alive, locked in stone and hidden beneath the earth. Adventurers who seek him out will uncover the library of Robert the Strong - the world's most feared dragon killer - in a globe -trotting quest of discovery.

Finding out that he is the last of his kind will no doubt be an intimidating prospect for this noble creature, but the path he takes will depend entirely on how you choose to guide him.

With requirements of 79 Magic, 74 Summoning, 67 Dungeoneering (some of the highest ever required) and a bunch of quests to complete, this is a true Grandmaster quest, aimed at the most intrepid and experienced of adventurers. It's a lore-rich romp across the world, revealing much about the dragons' as-yet unknown history, and its rewards include dragon rider armour a dragon rider amulet, and a new training area featuring the recent poll-winning celestial dragons.

Demon Drop Table Improvements

Free players and members

Fighting demons will be a more rewarding experience after this update, as we’ve reworked the drop tables of imps, and lesser, greater, black, abyssal and tormented demons. You’ll find lots less junk and more valuable drops, themed around each specific type of demon. Slayers on an assignment in the Abyss will now be able to loot the brand-new abyssal orb and wand, which fill the currently vacant dual-wield slots at level 75 Magic. Both the wand and the orb allow the casting of Slayer Dart spells and also act like a staff of light, thus saving runes.

Heist

New minigame, members only

Heist is a new minigame focused on deception and deduction. Players take on the role of master thieves or stalwart investigators, and compete on randomly generated town maps styled after iconic Gielinor locations.

As a robber, your goal is to disguise yourself as one of the town's NPC inhabitants, and to remain undetected until you’ve stolen the town’s loot. As a guard, you’re looking to make the robbers give themselves away so you can arrest them, bringing their crime spree to an early end. As a guard, you’ll have access to the latest in investigative tools, while as a robber you'll be able to plan daring escapes and blend into the crowds. It’ll take nerves of steel, a keen eye, precise timing and sharp wits to get the better of the other team.

Each map style contains unique gameplay, ranging from rooftop escapes, camel disguises, werewolf infestations and hidden tasks, so every game you play will be different.

Performing well will award you points to buy additional abilities to use in the game or generous amounts of bonus XP in Hunter and Thieving.

And So Much More…

Our smaller updates this month include two brand new seasonal hiscores, focused around healing and the Slayer Tower. We’ve made some cool new in-game props and pets for the winners of last year’s Golden Gnome awards, and there’s also a graphical reworks to the challenge master area in Burthorpe, and low level abilities.

Solomon’s General Store hasn’t been left out with some new circus style teleport animations and a new item, known as the wicked pouch. There’s also plenty of Valentine's shenanigans across the world, so look out for special Valentine love notes as you’re playing the game.

Polls

All of the major updates listed above have already been shaped by you via the Power to the Players poll system. Here are the full results from each of those polls we've run this month, some of the highlights of February's planned polls:

Finished:

Drop Table Improvement - Demons won (56%)

Decide on Maps for a New Minigame - Canifis won (27%)

Which New Dragon Would You Like? - Celestial dragons won (38%)

Invention Skill vs Elf City - Elf City won (54%)

Decide on a Spring Holiday Event - Marimbo vs Brassica Prime won (66%)

Should We Reduce the Number of Worlds? - 'Keep them as they are' won (62%)

February Polls:

Legacy Combat Mode - Dragonstone

Bonus XP or Double Drops? - Diamond

Elf City Skill Focuses - Diamond

Holiday Items for Loyalty Points? - Diamond

Ultimate Combat Abilities - Ruby

Choose Yelps's Fate - Ruby

Divination Familiar - Ruby

Please keep voting! RuneScape's at its best when you’ve helped craft the content you play, and we really want to know what you want! The votes on the Legacy combat mode are particularly important, so do make sure you check out all the information available on that.

Have fun!

Mod Mark

What is a Behind the Scenes article?

Behind the Scenes is a sneak peek at the planned game updates that we hope to launch in the coming month.

This, however, is only a plan - not a promise - that a particular update will be released in a particular way or at a particular time. To get you the highest quality updates as quickly as possible, we usually keep on tweaking and testing right up until the moment before release, so sometimes things change or take a bit longer than expected. We aren't afraid to change our plan if necessary, as we will never launch an update before it is ready.