Wilderness newbies and veterans alike should definitely take a walk on the wild side this week. From stealable Slayer contracts and new skilling spots to Task Sets for players of levels, there are more reasons than ever to lose yourself in the wild and earn great rewards in the process.

Be sure to check out all the improvements and features, along with the usual patch notes and other news.

Wilderness Task Set

The Wilderness can be a really intimidating place for a new RuneScape player to start but thanks to the new Task Set, there is a now a structured way to make your first steps into these dangerous but fruitful lands.

Experienced players will also have loads to gain from playing through the Tasks, not least the powerful Wilderness sword detailed in the Rewards section below.

For convenience, Tasks can be done in any order, but you can’t claim a set's rewards until you've completed it and all the tasks in the previous ones.

Requirements RuneScape members only The Easy Set has no requirements at all. Later Task Sets have increasingly high requirements, full details of which can be found in the Adventures interface, under the Achievements tab.

Rewards

As well as an XP lamp, completing the Easy set of Tasks will earn you the Wilderness Sword.

This weapon upgrades as you complete each harder set of tasks and its bonuses stack as follows:

Tier 1 (Easy Tasks)

Free teleports to the Wilderness herb patch & Edgeville

Locates the Wildywyrm

Tier 2 (Medium Tasks)

+5% XP at Wilderness Agility Course (the sword must be equipped)

Improved pickpocket rates at rogues

Teleports to Forinthry Dungeon

Tier 3 (Hard Tasks)

Provides air obelisk shortcut

Quick teleports to Wilderness lodestone

Access to item un-noter at the Chaos Altar

No disease at the Wilderness herb patch

Choice of destination at the Wilderness Obelisk

Chance to teleport to centre of the Abyss (the sword must be equipped)

Tier 4 (Elite Tasks)

1 free daily teleport to the Warbands camp of your choice

Lava strykewyrms drop noted ashes (sword must be equipped or in your inventory)

Free teleports to Wilderness Agility Course

Improved drop rate for ancient warrior equipment in Forinthry dungeon

Team capes give the effects of Ava’s devices

Claim your rewards from the following taskmasters:

Easy Tasks – Mr Ex, Edgeville.

Medium Tasks – Mandrith, Edgeville bank.

Hard Tasks – Quercus, on the Wilderness wall between Edgeville and the Grand Exchange.

Elite Tasks – Kolodion in the Mage Arena.

Enjoy getting out there, completing those Tasks and earning this stunning new weapon!

Wilderness Improvements

Be aware that we’ve reverted the way stackable objects are considered when protecting items on death in the Wilderness. Stackable objects are once again considered to be separate objects, rather than an individual stack. Please keep this in mind when exploring the new skilling and features of the Wilderness, as detailed below.

Improved Wilderness Skilling

The revitalised Wilderness is now full of new and improved skilling spots, each offering excellent XP and even the unique new bloodweed herb.

Cursed Divination Wisps

Visit the Sword of Edicts and catch the cursed wisps. The wisps in this location are highly variable meaning anyone can train at them. They offer differing XP rates in a similar manner to the Ourania Runecrafting altar. Once memories caught here are converted to energy, they can be weaved into any of the standard energies, provided you have the Divination level to harvest them.

Chaos Altar Prayer Training

The Chaos Altar in level 12 Wilderness now functions as an equivalent to the gilded altar (+350% XP) in a player-owned house without the need to light burners.

Also, after completing the Hard tier of the Wilderness Task set (details in the section below), a friendly NPC un-noter becomes available in this location.

Rogue’s Castle Pickpocketing

Rogues in the Rogues’ Castle now can be pickpocketed for bloodweed seeds (see the bloodweed section below for more details). Pickpocketing them also works the same way as pickpocketing in Prifddinas except that when you are caught you can’t pickpocket rogues on that level of the castle for 30 seconds, oh and you’re in the Wilderness too, so watch your back!

Wilderness Slayer Contracts

New Wilderness Slayer contracts work like ones from the Slayer Tower except that if you are killed whilst in possession of one, the player who kills you can take it, work it and cash it out! Other than that, they offer the same additional +20% of the Slayer XP you would get from killing a Slayer creature on assignment.

Additionally, the Wilderness Slayer contracts will stack with the Demonic Skill improvements. See section below for more detail.

Charming Moths

Charming moths can only be caught barehanded, but rewards players with the four standard summoning charms. Requires level 88 Hunter and level 83 Agility.

Bloodweed and New Potions

A new herb patch has been placed near the canoe exit. Any herb can be grown here but more importantly this is the only place in Gielinor where the brand new bloodweed can grow. Bloodweed requires level 57 Farming to grow.

Thanks to bloodweed, three new potions can now be made, each giving amazing effects wherever you use them:

Luck potion: Bloodweed + crushed dragonstone. Ring of wealth effect for 60 mins. Requires level 57 Herblore. Tradeable.

Camouflage potion: Bloodweed + black salamander. Hides your dot on the minimap for 60 seconds to aid in sneak attacks. Requires level 65 Herblore. Untradeable. Aggression potion: Bloodweed + searing ashes. Makes all attackable NPC’s aggressive to you for 6 mins. Requires level 82 Herblore. Tradeable.

Other Wilderness Improvements

Wilderness Banks

All of the Wilderness team cape sellers now act as bankers! Note that the banks cannot be opened in combat, and are closed if attacked.

Please note – Richard in Edgeville and Larry at the Gamers’ Grotto do not have the option to bank.

Skulled Vendor & Better Bandits

Noterazzo in the Bandit Camp, now has a stock of highly desirable items. The catch is, he'll only trade with you if you’re skulled! Be aware that the bandits in the Bandit Camp have also had their combat stats improved and have been given more powerful weapons. They won't hesitate to annihilate you if you aren't skulled already.

Noterazzo sells fifty of various general store tools but his more interesting stock includes 3000 Broad arrowheads. Vial pack and water vial packs are available at 90% their usual store price. Gold leaf, marble block, algarum thread, reinforcing plate and stone of binding also appearing at 90% price. Bloodweed seeds are also sold by him but he only has 5, costing 50,000 coins each. Noterazzo restocks at midnight.

Wilderness Switches

A pair of switches has been added to the forest in the south-eastern edge of the Wilderness. Rack up the highest score you can by pressing one after the other as many times as possible without dying. Your exploits will be broadcast at the following press milestones 10, 100, 1000, 10,000 and so on. The chain of presses ends when you are killed or log out.

Muddy Chest

The muddy chest in the lava maze had an updated drop table. Bloodweed seeds may be acquired here along with random chances of getting items like the dragon longsword, limpwurt root, the crystal key and blood runes. Free-to-play players may still open the chest but won't receive any members’ objects. The chest will always drop 5000 coins.

Magic Axe Hut

Similarly, the chest in the magic axe hut has been rebalanced to offer better rewards whilst maintain its low-level (level 23 Thieving and a lockpick). Refreshed random drops include the rune battleaxe, mithril axe, muddy key and anchovy pizza.

Demonic Skull

Purchasing and wearing the demonic skull from the Mage of Zamorak in the Wilderness now also gives improved Agility XP at the Wilderness course. Starting at level 50, this will scale up, leading to double XP at level 75 and eventually triple XP at level 99.

Slayer XP in the Wilderness, Farming XP for collecting produce, Hunter XP at charming moths & Divination XP gained at the cursed crater are all boosted by 20% while wearing it too!

Whether you’re new to the Wilderness or an old hand at surviving and thriving, we hope you enjoy this bumper update to its content!

The RuneScape Team

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 the streams and find a full streaming schedule on the Twitch channel. Check the YouTube channel for videos you may have missed.

It’s time to get those trunks out this week – we’re going to The Beach!

Tuesday, August 9th| 16:00 Game Time | The Beach Q&A

Slap on that sunscreen, get mixing those cocktails, and park those towels on the sun loungers – we’re heading to the Lumbridge Crater this week to check out the much-awaited return of The Beach!

Watch from 16:00 Game Time to find out more about what we have planned for the only place to be this August. Ask your questions on our forums, Reddit, or by using #RSQA on Twitter!

Sunday, August 7th| 19:00 Game Time | PvM with Mod Lee!

Mod Lee will be hosting some Community PvM goodness live on Twitch.