Hello everyone!



Fight the new Archdemon Har'Lakk, earn three new demon weapons, and take on group bosses solo or as a duo with proper balancing. The beginner quests have been rewritten, and the towns now have new dialogues and more to see. On top of that, there are new interfaces such as boss health bars and a damage meter, the game is now available in seven languages, your account can be protected with 2-step verification, and the render engine runs much smoother.



Archdemon Har'Lakk
Har'Lakk has an Archdemon version, a new and harder fight. Poison runs the whole fight: you need it to break his poison shield, but if his magical drops catch you while you're poisoned, he heals from it. Every phase brings a new shield and new poison pools, and each phase is a sixth of his health.

• Phase 1 - Hands: leaps, minions and magical drops.
  
• Phase 2 - Sniper: he roots himself in the centre and snipes one player after another until his shield breaks. The arrow flies until it hits a wall, knocks back and stuns everyone in its path, and leaves poison pools where it lands. Step out of the line before he fires!
  
• Phase 3 - Rifts: rifts open and spawn minions. Only one player, the "rift seer", can see and close them.
  
• Phase 4 - Crossfire: crossbow volleys of a green venom bolt (ranged) and a blue purge bolt (magic) that always land 3 ticks apart, so flick your prayers. Each volley hits everyone in that direction, so spread out.
  
• Phase 5 - Ricochet: the bolts now bounce into a player standing near the one they hit.
  
• Phase 6 - Final hour: faster, and mixes all the earlier specials.
  

New Demon weapons
You can now get three new demon weapons from our demon bosses:

• Demon staff: its special, Blood Pact, is instant and costs 10% of your health (max 50). Your next 2 Ancient spells (4 with the Archdemon staff) are more accurate, hit harder and have 50% stronger effects (freeze, heal, poison, prayer drain). Only works in combat.
  
• Demon warblade: its special makes your next 4 attacks faster (8 with the Archdemon warblade). Using it again adds more, up to 8 (16).
  
• Demon crossbow (off-hand)
  

Boss Scaling for Small Groups
Group bosses now scale to the size of your group, so you can take them on solo or as a duo. The instance interface shows the boss's health and damage before you start. Once the fight starts, the group size is locked and only players who were there can rejoin.

• Nex, Kal'Ger, Yk'Lagor, Har'Lakk and Vanstrom Klause (all modes)
  Health: 50% solo, 70% duo, 87% trio, 100% for 4 players
  Damage: 70% solo, 80% duo, 90% trio, 100% for 4 players
  
• God Wars, Giant Mole and King Black Dragon hardmodes
  Health: 60% solo, 80% duo, 100% trio
  Damage: 80% solo, 90% duo, 100% trio
  
• Lucien, King of Rot
  Health: 2,500 solo, 3,250 duo, 4,250 trio, 5,000 for 4 players
  
• Nomad (built for duos)
  Health: 2,000 solo, 3,600 duo, 5,200 trio
  

Solo and duo groups also face slightly lower Defence and fewer minions. Minions that bosses summon during a fight no longer drop loot, charms or clues.



Quests & Town Life
The beginner quests have been rewritten with new dialogues and steps. Your progress carries over.

• Barbarian Assistance: Galahad now follows you down Ice Mountain, past the ice fiends, to Hundig and then to his house. If you lose him, he waits on the mountain again.
  
• Desert War: a new story. Carry messages between Ali and Crator, get Captain Siad to vouch for you, and overhear what Ali really plans. Then fight four Zogres side by side with the bandits in your own instance, and finally Slash Bash. After the quest, Crator lets you fight Slash Bash again as often as you like.
  
• Rest in Pieces: wear the ghostspeak amulet from the cupboard in Dr. Fenkenstrain's garden and ask the ghosts of Port Phasmatys for hints. The doctor tells you which body parts are still missing.
  
• Desert mining camp: the gates only open for players wearing a desert shirt, robe and boots. Shantay at the pass now sells them. Captain Siad and the camp workers have something to say too.
  
• Townsfolk: many people in Varrock, Falador, Lumbridge, Draynor, Al-Kharid, Taverley, Seers' Village, Catherby, Camelot, Burthorpe and Barbarian Village have new dialogues, and shopkeepers offer to open their store when you talk to them.
  
• Town criers: in Varrock, Falador, Lumbridge, Draynor and Al-Kharid they call out the latest rare drops and achievements, and any event that's running. Market traders call out their wares, and guards patrol Falador and Al-Kharid.
  
• New shops: a Varrock sword shop, a tea stall, a seed stall, a wine stall and Shantay's desert supplies.
  
• Canifis: at night, the citizens turn into werewolves one by one.
  

New Interfaces

• Settings: a new settings interface with a search bar. Combat and interface settings each have a reset button.
  
• Health bars: new boss health bars with notches for each phase, a damage trail and a flash when the boss heals. You can place the boss, target and your own health frames where you like (or turn them off) and choose between health bar styles.
  
• Damage meter: shows your damage per second, accuracy, max hit and damage taken, for you and your whole team (your group, or everyone in your boss instance). Open it from the DPS text in your combat tab or the health orb.
  
• Danger zones: attacks of Nex, Strykewyrms and Har'Lakk now mark the tiles they're about to hit on the floor.
  
• Bank: can now fill your whole screen. Toggle it with the button in its top-left corner.
  
• World map: can be enlarged like the bank and has a search for places.
  
• Quests: the quest interface has been overhauled.
  
• Monster Examine: now opens over your levels tab and shows the enemy's levels until you close it.
  
• Bug reports: a new "Report bug" button next to Report Abuse takes you to our Discord bug channel.
  

Languages
The game and the website can now be played in other languages. Pick yours with the flag on the login screen or in the website footer. Languages: English, German, Dutch, Estonian, Lithuanian, Hebrew and Arabic. Hebrew and Arabic are written right to left. Missing translations fall back to English.



Account Security - 2-Step Verification
You can now protect your account with 2-step verification: after your password, you enter a code from an authenticator app (Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, Authy, 2FAS...).


How to turn it on

• Open your Account Manager and click + Turn on next to 2-Step Verification.
  
• Enter your password and scan the QR code with your app (or type in the key below it).
• Confirm with the 6-digit code from the app.
• Save your 10 recovery codes somewhere safe. Each one logs you in once if you lose your phone. They are only shown once!
  

How it works

• Website: asks for a code on every login. Game: once per computer or phone, then again after 30 days.
  
• Too many wrong codes pause code logins for a while, and you get a warning e-mail.
• Under Manage you can make new recovery codes or turn 2-step off.
  
• Logged in devices: the Account Manager lists every device that stays logged in ("Remember me" and saved game logins). They skip the password and code, so remove any you don't know, or log them all out at once.
  
• My Characters: "My Accounts" is now My Characters. Pick a main character, turn on 2-step there and link your other characters to it. They then use its password and 2-step code.
  
• Password & e-mail: password recovery also asks for your 2-step code. A password change logs out all other devices and makes older recovery e-mails useless. E-mail links no longer log you in by themselves. Our e-mails also got a new look.
  

Lost your phone and your recovery codes? Ask on the Helpdesk and staff can help you get back in.



Render Engine Performance
Large parts of the render engine have been rewritten for better performance on phones and PCs:

• Map loader: rebuilt from scratch. It loads in the background, only the areas within your view distance, and is up to 2-3x faster on some devices. No more map borders or delays after teleporting, and the game now renders as far as your view distance allows.
  
• Terrain & water: smoother blending between floor tiles. Underwater areas are now dynamic, the water shaders are new, and rivers blend into the sea.
  
• Waterfalls: completely redesigned to flow naturally into the water around them.
  
• Lava: has its own glow, adjustable with the Bloom intensity setting.
  
• Lighting: many more dynamic lights on PC. Phones still have a limit, but higher light quality costs less performance.
  
• Particles & animations: the particle system has been rebuilt, and animations blend more smoothly.
  
• Fonts: sharper small text, smoother shadows and a better contrast slider.
  
• Memory: memory use stays steady while you play, which means much less stuttering on phones and room for larger view distances.
  
• Roofs: only the roof of the building you're looking at is removed. No more roofs cut in half.
  
• Fog: better support for foggy areas.
  
• Audio: sounds from outside your screen are much quieter, so no more hearing every alcher at the Grand Exchange.
  
• Day and night: a shared day and night cycle with a moving sun, moon and stars. Click the sun orb on your minimap to change your own time of day (it doesn't change the server time).
  
• Title bar: the launcher and client have custom title bars with a screenshot button and more options.
  

Many of these improvements were made with the help of AI, which made render optimization and memory profiling a lot easier. I hope you enjoy the smoother gameplay!



Weapon Attack Speeds
Attack speeds have been reworked to match Old School RuneScape more closely. Speeds are in game ticks of 0.5 seconds, so lower is faster.

• Warhammers, battleaxes and greataxes: 8 → 7 ticks
  
• Mauls (granite maul, Tzhaar-ket-om, promethium maul): 8 → 7 ticks
  
• Halberds: 9 → 8 ticks
  
• Longswords, hatchets, pickaxes and melee staves: 7 → 6 ticks
  
• Composite ogre bow: 7 → 6 ticks
  
• Chaotic maul: 6 → 7 ticks, the same as other mauls. Its damage has been raised to make up for it.
  

Slower promethium weapons get extra accuracy and strength. Promethium longswords, hatchets, pickaxes, warhammers and battleaxes now deal about the same damage per second as the promethium rapier, but hit harder per swing. Whips, scimitars, daggers, rapiers, maces, spears, 2h swords, godswords, bows, crossbows and thrown weapons keep their speed.



Changelog:

• Archdemon Yk'Lagor now has 300 Defence, the same as Archdemon Kal'Ger, and the thunder plants have a bit more health, so both fights are about equally hard and long. Yk'Lagor's Hiscores have been reset.
• You can replay Thomy's tutorial tour of the game in Barbarian Village.
• Four new donator ranks: Archdemon, Infernal, Celestial and Eternal Donator.
• Type ::emojis to see the new chat emojis. You can also copy them from chat.
• More armour sets can be packed into set boxes: all d'hide sets (including trimmed and gold-trimmed), studded leather (t/g), mystic, infinity, splitbark, dragon plate, elite black, Dagon'hai, third-age druidic, Torva, Pernix, Virtus and Chalkos.
• Party Room: only items worth at least 100k (per item or stack) can be deposited. Items deposited during a party stay in the chest for the next one.
• In big loot piles, your highlighted items are now shown first.
• Superior void armour has new models.
• Dyeing an item no longer resets its charges.
• The Mutant tarn now counts as a demon, and Akrisae's robe top and the Halloween skeleton items can be deconstructed.
• Fixed: Barrows brothers spawning inside walls, the level 230 Steel titan having 0 health, and boss kill counts in the bosses tab.
• Server performance improvements.
• Magic and Ranged versions of tank armous can now be smithed.

I hope you'll have a lot of fun fighting Archdemon Har'Lakk. The fight is rather unique. This update has been heavily assisted by AI. It allowed me to work on multiple projects simultaneously. This update is about three times as big as a normal patch. So I'm very happy with the results.

All the best,
Thomy