RuneScape – April 2021 Patch Notes | Game-Changing Update Unleashed!

AWESOME APRIL: SKILLING WEEK

As we've said before, we're committed to making things right again after the Login Lockout put our regular update schedule on hold. To that end, we're making April especially awesome - a month-long extravaganza featuring weekly events where you can catch up on skilling, combat, and more! Week one is Skilling Week! From April 12th to midnight on April 19th, regular accounts will get 50% increased XP in all gathering skills, including:

• Divination
• Farming
• Fishing
• Mining
• Hunting
• Woodcutting
• Archaeology*

*Screening and excavating only. You'll also get a nice 50% bonus to precision while working on Archaeology. Please note that Ironmen will not benefit from either bonus. The sharp-eyed among you will have noticed that Skilling Week bears much resemblance to the Celebration of Skilling from the Grand Party event - however, please note that Aubury and his rift have not returned to the Lumbridge Crater. The rest of the event remains the same.

AWESOME APRIL: COMBAT WEEK!

It's week two of Awesome April, a month-long event designed to help make things right following the Login Lockout situation. Each week there's something new to try, and this week, we're focusing on all things Combat. We'll be revisiting the Celebration of Combat event from January's Grand Party - but this time, we're going even bigger! Players with normal accounts will get all the same buffs and boosts they enjoyed the first time around, along with a few new additions including:

• • No reclaim costs on death
  • No Ring of Death charges lost on death
  • Increased luck on the Rare Drop Table
  • Reduced cost of swapping Archaeology relics
  • Reduced Invention drain rate
  • Double Reaper Points
  • Double Slayer Points
  • Double Combat and Slayer XP

In addition, the Elder Overload golems have taken up residence in War's Retreat. Defeat them in glorious battle (by giving them a very light tap on the head) and you'll get an hour-long Elder Overload buff. Of those effects, Ironman accounts will have access to:

• • No reclaim costs on death
  • No Ring of Death charges lost on death
  • Increased luck on the Rare Drop Table
  • Reduced cost of swapping Archaeology relics
  • Reduced Invention drain rate
  • Double Slayer Points
  • Double Reaper Points

Ironman accounts will not have access to:

• • Elder Overload golems
  • Double Combat and Slayer XP

Those bosses won't know what hit 'em! Be sure to tune in next week to see what else Awesome April has in store for you. Combat Week kicks off today at 12:00 Game Time.

UPCOMING RENTED ITEM CHANGES

Solomon's been doing a bit of spring cleaning, and as of April 26th (next week's update), you'll notice a few changes to various items found in his store. Let's take a closer look.

WEALTH EVALUATOR

From next week's update the Wealth Evaluator will become free for all players. You'll be able to access it automatically through the interface. Existing Wealth Evaluator items, which previously unlocked the interface, will be cleaned up on log in. Should one get missed, simply click it to get it cleaned up, along with a reminder that the Wealth Evaluator tool is now free. This is part of our ongoing commitment to making sure you're getting great value in all the right places. Be on the lookout for more changes in this vein as the year goes on.

OTHER ITEMS

Various other items will now be available in both Solomon's General Store and in-game. No more hopping out of the game to get your goodies! Challenge Gems can now be purchased from War in War's Retreat. The Makeover Mage has expanded their stock to include Chameleon Extract, for all your fashionscape needs. Non-Ironman players can purchase Clan Citadel Booster Packs from Quartermaster NPCs in Clan Citadels. As before, Ironman players will not be able to purchase these packs. Lastly, Tasty and Jelly Treats can now both be purchased from the Legendary Pets menu.

MUSIC BOXES

Morytania, Kharidian and Masterwork Music Boxes are now free for all players! If you don't already own them, you can claim yours from Diango's Item Storage. Party on!

DAILIES & DISTRACTIONS & DIVERSIONS WEEK

The third week of Awesome April is about three things: Dailies, Distractions and Diversions! Here's what you can look forward to:

PLAYER OWNED PORT BOOSTS

Set sail for fun with an extra 10 voyages a day, adding up to a total of 25! On top of that, voyages will also return 30% more resources or trade goods, except in cases where the reward is random or unspecified. You'll still get the same amount of XP as you normally would from this activity. Lastly, the Barmaid's special voyage will be available throughout the weekend as well as on Thursday. This boost is available to Ironman accounts.

DOUBLE DAILY VIS WAX

Your daily use of the Rune Goldberg machine will provide double the amount of Vis Wax, to a maximum of 200 units. This boost is available to Ironman accounts.

FREE DAILY CHALLENGE EXTENSIONS

During the event, all Daily Challenges will automatically be extended for free! This includes Challenges that you've re-rerolled. You won't be able to extend the Challenges beyond this point. This boost is available to Ironman accounts.

EXTRA D&D REWARDS AND TICKETS

Several Distractions & Diversions have various extras this week. You may now:

• Fight Bork twice a day
• Enter the Phoenix Lair twice a day
• Explore Sinkholes three times a day
• Play Big Chinchompa three times a day
• Get up to three Fish Flingers tickets per day, to a cap of 10 tickets
• Fight up to three Evil Trees a day
• Plus, the daily Guthixian Cache points cap is now 300

These boosts are not available to Ironman accounts.

PLAYER OWNED FARM BONUSES

For the whole week, timers on the Player Owned Farm will be running twice as quickly - so animals will grow twice as fast and the baby spawn chance will trigger twice as often! You'll also get the following bonuses:

• Double Beans
• Increased animal sale cap
• Healthy animals cannot become diseased
• Animals will consume half as much food
• Double produce for each animal
• Trapper awards double the animals

These bonuses are all available to Ironman Accounts.

DOUBLE SHOP STOCK

For the duration of the week, shop stock will be doubled for all items that are usually restocked at midnight. This includes the following:

• Feathers and Feather Packs from all Fishing shops, Frawd's Gift Shop, the Anachronia General Store and Ava
• Water Jug Packs from the Shantay Pass Shop, Beefy Bill and the Lighthouse
• Yak Hides and Yak Hide Packs from Yak Contraband
• Broad Arrows, Broad Arrow Heads, Unfinished Broad Bolts and Slayer Gem Packs from all Slayer shops
• Plant Pot Packs from all Farm shops
• All Runes from all rune shops
• Erzille, Ugune, Argway, Shengo and Samaden Seeds from Papa Mambo's shop
• Raw Rabbit Pack, Raw Beef Pack, Raw Bird Meat Pack, Raw Rabbit, Raw Beef and Raw Bird Meat from Fresh Meat
• All stock from the Anachronia Gem Shop

This bonus is available to Ironman accounts.

RENTED ITEM CHANGES

After last week's heads up, various changes to rented items are now in effect. Firstly, the Wealth Evaluator tool is now free for all players. Wealth Evaluator objects, which were previously needed to access the tool, will be removed from all inventories on log in - if yours is still there, simply click on it to clean it up. Secondly, the following objects can now be purchased using RuneCoins from NPCs or in-game interfaces:

• Challenge Gems from War in War's Retreat
• Chameleon Extract from the Makeover Mage
• Clan Citadel Booster Packs from Quartermasters in Clan Citadels*
• Tasty and Jelly Treats from the Legendary Pets menu

WHAT IS DIVINATION?

Divination is best described as the skill of the skillers. Through Divination, you'll set out on an adventure to harvest the divine energy pouring out of Gielinor and transform it into a variety of useful portents, boons and signs - all of which help you fight harder, skill more effectively, and gather resources more efficiently. For example, when heading into a tough combat encounter, you might take a Portent of Death - a valuable layer of protection that instantly resurrects you upon death with 15% of your base health, while also removing 15% of your target's base health. If you're the skilling type, you might use a Sign of the Porter to instantly teleport any gathered resources to your Bank - a must for higher level Archaeology spots!

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DESIGN GOALS

Despite its many benefits, the actual experience of training Divination as it is today leaves something to be desired, resulting in it being one of the least trained skills in RuneScape – but all that changes with this update! We set out on a mission to give Divination a clearer identity and ultimately make training it a more engaging experience. Within that goal we had three core objectives:

• • • Reposition Divination as an AFK-friendly skill
    • Add more interesting aspects to the core skill loop
    • Refine some of the skill's rewards

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AN AFK-FRIENDLY SKILL?

We want to bring Divination into the same realm as skills like Mining and Archaeology, with core training that can be AFKd but rewards deeper engagement. While the core of the skill has some fundamentals in place, we felt like the skill needed to really tone down the random parts of the experience and ensure a minimum level of guaranteed gathering per minute to lower the attention span the skill requires. With this goal in mind, we've made the following changes:

• • • Wisps now stay within 5 tiles of a Crater at all times
    • Memory springs now remain for at least 60 seconds
    • Chronicle fragments now spawn next to you and will not move

If you're playing on mobile, these changes also have the added benefit of making the Skill even more fun to play on touch screens!

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IMPROVING THE CORE SKILL LOOP

Part of making Divination more exciting means creating variety, moment-to-moment – but of course, we don’t want to compromise our focus on AFK-friendly training. Instead, we’ve zeroed in on the communal elements at the heart of Divination, which this update will bring to the forefront of the core gameplay loop through valuable benefits.

MEMORY OVERFLOW & CHRONICLES

We’re introducing a new buff known as Memory Overflow which occurs when you and a few other players contribute enough Chronicle Fragments to an energy rift. When the energy rift overflows the buff will be activated and you’ll gain the following effects:

• • • +1 base energy from deposited Memories
    • 5% more XP from deposited Memories
    • 10% higher critical chance when siphoning from nearby springs
    • Spawns an Enriched Wisp which boosts your crit rating by 100%
      • • This mechanic replaces Enriched Wisps spawning every 20 minutes

Chronicles are a key part of this event, and so this update also gives them a bit of love. As well as the simpler spawning mechanics, nabbing a Chronicle within 6 seconds of it appearing will net you an ‘Enriched Chronicle’ worth 1.5x the XP. Enriched Chronicles contribute even more progress towards overloading energy rifts. Of course, you can always hand your Chronicles – Enriched or otherwise – over to May if you prefer.

SPRINGS AND MEMORIES

As of this update, if multiple players begin siphoning from the same spring, the time that spring lasts will increase by 15 seconds per player up to a maximum of 75 extra seconds. So if you’re looking to do some AFK training, grab a mate and head to your nearest spring! We've also reworked crits for Memories to allow you to 'over-crit', which means you can potentially have two or more Enriched Memories appear at once for even more of those sweet XP gains.

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REFINING REWARDS

While the primary focus of this update is to improve the overall Divination experience, we've also taken the opportunity to make a few adjustments to existing rewards and other mechanics.

SIGN OF THE PORTER VII

Those of you who reach the lofty heights of 99 Divination will gain the ability to craft Sign of the Porter VII, which will provide even more Bank-teleporting goodness for your gathering arsenal. This seventh-grade version holds 50 charges and requires 120 Incandescent Energy to craft. “But what about Sign of the Porter VI?” we hear you cry. Not to worry – VII’s little brother has been bumped down to level 94 Divination and will now require 80 Luminous Energy to craft.

TRANSMUTATION

We're adding more tiers for transmuting both Fish and Ores! Fish

• • • Raw Sharks = Lustrous Energy + Raw Monkfish
    • Raw Sea Turtle = Brilliant Energy + Raw Shark
    • Raw Cavefish = Radiant Energy + Raw Seaturtle
    • Raw Mantaray = Luminous Energy + Raw Cavefish
    • Raw Rocktails = Incandescent Energy + Raw Mantaray

Ores

• • • Luminite Ore = Sparkling Energy + Mithril Ore
    • Orichalcite Ore = Vibrant Energy + Runite Ore
    • Drakolith Ore = Vibrant Energy + Runite Ore
    • Necrite Ore = Lustrous Energy + Orichalcite Ore
    • Phasmatite Ore = Lustrous Energy + Drakolith Ore
    • Bane Ore = Radiant Energy + Necrite/Phasmatite Ore
    • Light Animica = Incandescent Energy + Bane Ore
    • Dark Animica = Incandescent Energy + Bane Ore

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CHANGES BASED ON THIS UPDATE

With so many fundamental changes to the core of Divination, a number of existing rewards and items are also seeing changes.

• • • Divination Skill Cape: Boosts a spring's minimum duration by 30 seconds, one time per spring. This effect does not stack with that of Ethereal Connection.
    • Ethereal Connection: Boosts a spring's minimum duration by 30 seconds, one time per spring. This effect does not stack with that of the Divination Skill Cape.
    • Fading Memory: Retains all current effects bar the duration increase. Fading Memory now instead provides 20% Crit Chance.
    • Elite Divination Outfit: 5% chance of granting a 100% crit chance.
    • Elder Divination Outfit: 7% chance of granting a 100% crit chance.
    • Prism of Dowsing: Grants 5% crit chance when nearby.
    • Chronicle Absorption: Instead of absorbing the Chronicle Fragment, the prayer now automatically picks up the Chronicle and provides an Enriched Chronicle.
    • Spirit Attraction Potion: As above!
    • Abyssal Transit: Chronicles can now always be offered from the Backpack, and Abyssal Transit now doubles the progress towards Memory Overflow when dropping off Chronicle Fragments.