Old School Runescape has a very busy year ahead. Jagex is making big moves across its entire landscape of MMORPGs, and as the current star in its lineup, OSRS is no exception. The developer just gave us an in-depth look at all the major additions arriving in the coming months, from its hardest raid ever in October’s Fractured Archive to the launch of hardcore worlds, the long-awaited opening of the golden gates of Menaphos, and the completion of its most-requested storyline. Ahead of the show, I learned about all the highlights we can expect during a presentation from Creative Director Kieren Charles.
“We’re trying to really deliver proper, meaningful, additive, permanent content to the game every single month without leaving a gap,” Charles tells me. “There’s a lot of stuff happening.” The goal is “to deliver for players of all types,” catering to OSRS newcomers and veterans alike, and including options for those who love questing and story, combat content, and skilling content alike. I’ve mentioned some of the biggest points already, but I’ll work through the list in roughly chronological order to lay out exactly what’s coming when.
You can see the full roadmap just below, but first on the list is the Fractured Archive, which releases on Tuesday October 20. This will bring the fourth endgame raid, which Charles calls “the hardest raid we’ve ever released,” and you can expect new BIS rewards alongside that. He adds that Jagex is expecting “a big race to world first completion – we’re not 100% sure how long it’s going to take, we’re quite excited to see players start to take it on.”
OSRS Hardcore arrives on Wednesday November 4, and boasts three core tenets. It will take place on dedicated hardcore worlds, entirely separate from the regular bank. These are basically a fresh branch of Old School Runescape, boasting their own economy. Finally, of course, “it’s hardcore, which means you only have one life, and if you die, that’s it.” He does note that fallen characters can be sent over to the core game if you want, so this is a more traditional experience than the existing Ironman game mode.
“We think the economy is going to be really interesting, because certain items are going to be very difficult to get, and you’ll have to risk a lot to obtain them,” Charles teases. “The core idea is that riches will favor the brave. You’ve got to go out and risk everything if you want to retain the ultimate achievements on these worlds.” He also notes that coming so soon after the Fractured Archive begs the question of who will be first to clear OSRS’s newest, most difficult raid on hardcore mode. “That’s going to be a pretty crazy challenge.”
November has also been dubbed ‘Quest Month,’ which Charles explains represents the release of “more quests in one month than we’ve ever done before,” with multiple coming every single week. He remarks that these aren’t trying to be the “epic, incredible cinematic finales” of some of the updates we’ll be talking about shortly like Fairytale III, but should be “fun, additive quests and stories” that are sprinkled across the progression to “help really bring the game and the world to life.”
Story content is certainly a big focus of the latest roadmap, as seen with The Chosen Commander, the grand conclusion to the Cave Goblin storyline, which will be arriving “early next year.” It’ll take us back to Dorgesh-Kaan to wrap up Zanik’s tale – it’s one that’s already been told in the modern game, but we’ll now see “the Old School version of that story.” There will also be fresh skilling for Firemaking and Crafting via the Dorgeshuun Gasworks.
Next is Dungeons of Gielinor, which is a combination of brand-new dungeons and revisits for old ones, along with extra quests, creatures, and encounters. “It’s going to be the most bosses we’ve ever added in one update before,” Charles says. “Like Quest Month, we’re not going for super endgame, crazy top-tier boss encounters – we’re looking to cover a broad range.” Think everything from a very early-game goblin fight in a similar vein to cow boss Brutus, up to the introduction of gemstone dragon fights in a new encounter under Varlamore, culminating in a diamond dragon boss.
The shining jewel in the OSRS roadmap is Menaphos. The great desert city was added to the map 20 years ago, yet you still can’t access it in Old School Runescape. That changes in spring 2027, when the golden gates finally creak open. We’ll get to tackle a new Master quest called Fool’s Gold, the completion of which will let you dive deeper into Menaphos. The biggest attractions, however, will be the game’s first skilling dungeon, which will require the use of “multiple different skills,” and access to the long-rumored True Soul Altar.
After that comes Mining and Smithing Reforged, which does pretty much exactly what it says. “We have seen demands from players in surveys again and again to give mining and smithing some love,” Charles notes, admitting that “they’ve got a lot of different problems” that both Jagex and the community are well aware of. “The fantasy that you could be a warrior but also a blacksmith in this world – we want to actually make that a reality, because that promise isn’t currently delivered, and we want to fix that.”
Charles refers to this push as “a really community-collaborative project,” one which will start with a big player survey, and then continue through back and forth discussions. “To me, this is one of Old School’s biggest strengths, how player-driven the game is, and that’ll be core to that project. There will be a lot of sensitivities about how we tweak this, how we solve that problem, and so on. So players will come on the journey with us.”
Speaking of player requests, as summer turns towards fall, we reach Fairytale III: Nexus of Power, “the most requested storyline we’ve seen.” This grand conclusion “will see you trying to take on the Fairy Godfather and his Ork mafia army.” Along with it comes a new repeatable boss, the Nexus Guardian, another runecrafting addition in Zanaris, and fresh fairy ring upgrades.
Beyond that lies one more bullet point, the Tower of Xophoros. Charles is keen to keep this as little more than a teaser, but he’s got one big detail to reveal. “We are going to be bringing players the new best-in-slot magic cape to the game.” He compares this to the Infernal Cape from Inferno for melee and Dizana’s Quiver from the Colosseum for ranged: “It will feel like the third piece of a triangle.”
That’s the full roadmap for now, although you might spot a few other smaller touches, including an expansion to Diving that will combine with Sailing to add “about five or six new locations that you can dive from your ship in the world,” with a quest to match. You can expect even more surprises, too: “We’re not revealing everything,” Charles concludes. “There’s more to come, and we’re excited to reveal more months down the line.”
It’s going to be a very busy time ahead for OSRS players, and they’re not alone. Across the rest of Runefest, we also learned about Jagex’s plans for Runescape Reignited and Runescape 4. The first is a modern reimagining of the MMO’s first year as if it started now (in the vein of WoW Classic), and the latter is a new, “fourth pillar” for the studio that transforms the upgraded visuals and world of Dragonwilds into a fully fledged new MMORPG.