96 Fun Facts About RuneScape

The earliest RuneScape servers ran out of the Gower family home in which English city?

Nottingham. Andrew Gower ran the whole game from a bedroom in his parents' house there for most of its first year, until a company was formed to run the business side.

What is the name of the fantasy world in which RuneScape is set?

Gielinor. Paul Gower gave the world its medieval-fantasy theme, drawing on the tabletop games he and his brother Andrew had grown up playing.

Andrew Gower's earlier game, the direct predecessor of RuneScape, was called what?

DeviousMUD. Gower began it as a student in 1998 and, by his own count, started again from scratch three or four times before a version finally launched as RuneScape.

After RuneScape 2 arrived, the original game stayed online under what one-word suffix?

Classic. It outlived the relaunch by fourteen years, until Jagex shut it down in August 2018 because its bugs could no longer be fixed with the company's modern tools.

Old School RuneScape was copied from an August 2007 backup, so it launched without which feature, added that November?

The Grand Exchange. Jagex chose 2007 by accident, having stumbled on an old save file that still booted, and Old School players then went without the marketplace until February 2015.

Which Old School RuneScape venue did Jagex shut down in 2022 after years of trouble with betting and scams there?

The Duel Arena. Jagex first capped stakes at 10 million coins per fight in November 2021, then replaced the arena outright the following year with a tournament-style PvP Arena.

RuneScape 3 was originally developed as a version built on which web technology?

HTML5 was the web technology behind the planned client, which never left beta; at RuneFest 2014 the company announced a replacement standalone client instead.

The October 2011 anti-bot update nicknamed the 'Bot Nuke' had what official code name?

ClusterFlutterer was the code name; Jagex estimated it wiped out 98 percent of bot accounts and celebrated with a week of bonus in-game events.

The release of which skill triggered the infamous Falador Massacre?

Construction's player-owned houses held the bug: players ejected from a house party kept player-versus-player rights and killed others across Falador.

Which player behind the Falador Massacre returned as a boss in its 10th anniversary event?

Durial321. During the anniversary event players were randomly possessed by his ghost and set loose on bystanders, before a giant version of him appeared for everyone to fight.

The original coloured partyhats came out of which item during RuneScape's first Christmas event?

Crackers. Jagex scattered them across the world for players to pick up, and pulling one with another player gave the paper hat inside to just one of the pair.

To mark its 20th anniversary in 2021, RuneScape added a seventh partyhat, pieced together from shards, in which colour?

Gold. It was the first new partyhat since the six originals of Christmas 2001, and Jagex let each account make only one before the hunt closed for good.

In the Draynor Bank Robbery, the Wise Old Man telegrabs and puts on a partyhat of which colour?

Blue. The hat had just been dropped by a bank customer he killed during the raid, and he smashed the security camera on his way out, too late to hide what it had filmed.

In which quest do players wield the sword Silverlight to banish Delrith?

Demon Slayer. In the original quest the sword is locked in a case that needs three keys, and one of them has to be flushed out of a palace drain with a bucket of water.

Lumbridge's cook needs a bucket of milk, an egg and which third ingredient for his cake?

A pot of flour. Players make it the long way: pick wheat in a nearby field, carry it up the windmill, tip it into the hopper and pull the lever, then collect the flour in a pot.

The Lumbridge cook is baking a birthday cake for which noble?

Duke Horacio. The cook has left it too late to gather the ingredients himself, so the player runs the errand in what was the first quest RuneScape ever released.

In the free-to-play quest Dragon Slayer, what is the name of the dragon players must kill?

Elvarg. Years before the quest she laid waste to an entire island, and only three wizards escaped to split up the map that leads back to her lair.

The Dragon Slayer quest sends players by ship to which island to face the dragon?

Crandor is reached aboard the ship Lady Lumbridge, using a map torn into three pieces by the surviving mages Melzar, Thalzar and Lozar.

In Old School RuneScape, completing Dragon Slayer lets free-to-play players finally equip which piece of armour?

Rune platebody. Its maker, Oziach, sets the dragon hunt as the test that would-be champions must pass before he will sell them one.

What is the capital city of the kingdom of Misthalin, ruled by King Roald from his palace?

Varrock. In the game's lore it grew out of Avarrocka, a forest settlement of once-nomadic tribes that the boy hero Arrav defended against goblin raids.

Which god of RuneScape's pantheon is the god of balance?

Guthix. He slept deep underground for most of history, waking once to end the God Wars by banishing the other gods from the world.

The White Knights of Falador fight in the name of which RuneScape god?

Saradomin. When Asgarnia's old king fell ill, the order seized its chance, took control of the kingdom and stripped the rival Black Knights of all political power.

Which god began as a Mahjarrat, became the Zarosian Empire's top general, and dethroned Zaros?

Zamorak. His coup against Zaros ended the Second Age and set off the God Wars, thousands of years of fighting between rival gods that fill the game's Third Age.

A player referendum carried with 91% of the vote restored RuneScape's old Wilderness player-killing in 2011, along with which other feature?

Free trade. Jagex had capped trades and stopped Wilderness player-killing in 2007 to choke off the real-money market in coins and items, then restored both on 1 February 2011.

As its own currency collapsed, players in which country turned to earning Old School RuneScape coins for a living?

Venezuela. With hyperinflation making local wages nearly worthless, players spent hours hunting dragons for in-game coins that could be sold abroad for real money.

What did Jagex introduce in February 2002 after the dot-com crash cut RuneScape's advertising income?

A monthly membership. Around 5,000 players signed up in the first week, enough to make the new company profitable at once and pay for its first staff.

Which skill, released in April 2010, sends players through the floors of Daemonheim?

Dungeoneering. Almost nothing can be carried in or out of Daemonheim, so every dungeon starts players from scratch, making and finding their gear as they go.

Which combat style, added to RuneScape in 2023, sits outside the traditional combat triangle?

Necromancy. Jagex built it to be neither stronger nor weaker than melee, ranged or magic, and its fighters go into battle beside the undead they conjure.

RuneScape 3's Invention skill requires level 80 Smithing, Crafting and which other skill?

Divination. The energy it gathers is what Invention runs on: the augmentors and divine charges that power upgraded gear are both woven from it.

Which Old School RuneScape skill starts at level 10 instead of level 1?

Hitpoints. A new character starts with 1,154 experience already banked in it, the only skill with a head start, which is why fresh accounts begin at combat level 3.

The Chambers of Xeric, Old School RuneScape's first raid, lies beneath which mountain?

Mount Quidamortem. Teams restock inside the raid itself, growing herbs in its caves and brewing their own potions before they face the final boss.

Which boss must be defeated at the end of the TzHaar Fight Cave to earn the fire cape?

TzTok-Jad. It appears only on the 63rd and final wave, so players reach it worn down by 62 solo fights with no chance to restock.

Zulrah, a solo-only boss in Old School RuneScape, is what kind of creature?

A snake. Its arrival in 2015 brought venom into the game, a poison that grows stronger each time it strikes until it is cured.

What was the name of Old School RuneScape's first League, which began in November 2019?

Twisted. Players began again with fresh stats, locked inside one continent, and when the league closed two months later only the rewards they had earned carried over to the main game.

Which Old School RuneScape variant, whose 2016 tournament paid out $10,000, lets players attack each other almost anywhere?

Deadman Mode. Experience comes many times faster there, but anyone killed by another player loses everything they were carrying; its June 2016 final drew some 90,000 viewers on Twitch.

Jagex is headquartered on a science park in which English city?

Cambridge. Andrew Gower built the game as a computer science student there, and the company's first office in the city was barely bigger than a broom cupboard.

From 2016 to 2020, RuneScape's studio Jagex was owned by investors from which country?

China. Its owner there, Fukong Interactive, sold the studio on to an American asset manager for $530 million in April 2020.

RuneScape began in 2001 as a browser game written in which programming language?

Java. Jagex was said to stand for 'Java Gaming Experts' until 2010, when the studio published its first game written in another language and gave the letters a new meaning.

Which system replaced the Squeal of Fortune prize wheel in February 2014?

Treasure Hunter. Its key-opened chests kept the real-money model going for another twelve years, until Jagex scrapped it in January 2026 after a community vote drew more than 120,000 votes for its removal.

As of 2017, Guinness World Records listed RuneScape as the MMO with the most what?

Player accounts. Guinness counted almost 255 million of them by July 2017, while noting that two Asian rivals were reported to have more but had published no official figures.

Old School RuneScape won a BAFTA Games Award in 2019, months after launching on which platforms?

iOS and Android. The mobile version arrived on 30 October 2018 and passed a million installs within two weeks; the award it won, Mobile Game of the Year, was decided by public vote.

What genre is RuneScape: Dragonwilds, the spin-off that entered Steam Early Access in April 2025?

Open-world survival crafting. Jagex revealed the game and then, barely two weeks later, released it into early access without warning.

Old School RuneScape's Ultimate Ironman mode bars players from trading and from doing what else?

Use banks. The mode also raises the stakes of dying: unlike other players, an Ultimate Ironman keeps none of their items on death.

Which became Old School RuneScape's first new skill in 2025, after its poll cleared the 70% needed to pass?

Sailing. It beat two rival pitches, Taming and Shamanism, in a 2023 vote, and gave the game its first new skill since Hunter joined the original RuneScape in 2006.

Which RuneScape feature of 2012 put cheating accounts on trial and let other players vote on their punishment?

Botany Bay. Onlookers could pelt the accused bot with rotten fruit before voting on how it should be finished off, with a blast of light from the gods among the choices.

Solomon's General Store, the cosmetic shop RuneScape opened in July 2012, launched with which new currency?

RuneCoins. Jagex created the currency purely for the shop and sold it for real money, three months after it had first put extra prize-wheel spins on sale.

At RuneScape's Draynor Manor, Professor Oddenstein's machine has turned the missing Ernest into which animal?

A chicken is what the professor's 'pouletmorph' machine made of Ernest. Poltergeists then hid the parts needed to change him back, so players must hunt down a pressure gauge, a rubber tube and an oil can.

Burying the bones that slain monsters drop earns RuneScape players experience in which skill?

Prayer grows by a modest 4.5 experience for each ordinary set of bones buried. Offering the same bones at a gilded altar with both burners lit earns more than three times as much.

Evil Bob, who snatches Old School RuneScape players away to his island in ScapeRune, is what kind of animal?

A cat with back-to-front tastes, Evil Bob makes his captives catch cooked fish and uncook them in a pot. Only when he has eaten the right one does he fall asleep and let them slip away.

A stack of RuneScape coins tops out at 2,147,483,647 because the game stores such values as what?

Signed 32-bit integers cannot count past that figure, so the limit is a quirk of computing rather than a design choice. Players call a stack that reaches it max cash.

Which three-headed RuneScape boss waits in a lair reached by pulling a lever deep in the Wilderness?

The King Black Dragon is reached through the Wilderness, yet his lair lies outside it. Once the lever is pulled, players can no longer attack one another and may teleport away at will.

Which fish, needing level 80 Cooking in Old School RuneScape, restores 20 health with every bite?

Shark is easy to ruin, because even practised cooks go on burning it. A Cooking cape stops the waste entirely, as do cooking gauntlets worn at level 94.

Which Old School RuneScape music track, unlocked in Port Sarim, ranks among the game's most iconic tunes?

Sea Shanty 2 is familiar enough to be a joke inside the game. During the Tower of Life quest players can whistle a tune resembling it, and Bonafido orders them out of his sight.

Which Old School RuneScape boss, held behind the Doors of Dinh, is fought with Firemaking instead of weapons?

The Wintertodt is subdued by keeping braziers lit and pyromancers alive. Nobody at its camp agrees on what it is: Ignisia calls it an evil spirit, Undor a powerful fire spirit.

Which fantasy MMORPG did RuneScape creator Andrew Gower launch in 2024 through his studio Fen Research?

Brighter Shores reunited the brothers behind RuneScape: Paul Gower is its narrative designer. Andrew had started work on it in 2016, six years after leaving Jagex.

RuneScape's later orchestral soundtrack was recorded with live musicians in which central European capital?

Bratislava, Slovakia, hosted the orchestral sessions for RuneScape 3. It was a leap for a game whose early music was made almost entirely with MIDI software.

Which type of rune powers RuneScape transmutation spells such as High Level Alchemy and Superheat Item?

Nature runes are among the most traded in the game. Casting High Level Alchemy on shop-bought items is a popular way to train Magic, and careful players even turn a profit doing it.

The TzHaar of the Karamja volcano pay for goods with which obsidian currency instead of coins?

TokKul has a grim origin. A letter in the Postbag from the Hedge series reveals that it is made out of the corpses of the TzHaar themselves, which is why players cannot create it.

Monks search travellers at Port Sarim to keep weapons and armour off which holy RuneScape island?

Entrana enforces its ban from every direction. Players who arrive through the rift to the island's law altar instead of by ship are turned back just the same if they carry prohibited gear.

Old School RuneScape processes every action on a 0.6-second server cycle that players know by what name?

A tick is the reason timing matters so much to skilled players. An action only begins at the start of the next cycle, and in theory exactly 100 of them pass every minute.

Which RuneScape minigame sends players out on landers to defend a Void Knight and destroy portals?

Pest Control pays out in commendation points, which players spend on the prized Void Knight equipment. Games run at Novice, Intermediate and Veteran difficulty, each with its own lander.

Finishing the Stronghold of Security earns RuneScape players 10,000 coins and a pair of fancy or fighting what?

Boots are handed out by the Cradle of Life in the final room, along with the 'Stamp' emote. The coins are paid in three instalments on the floors above, and every one of the four floors teaches a new emote.

Which RuneScape skill, introduced by the quest Wolf Whistle, is trained by making pouches at obelisks?

Summoning calls familiars from the Spirit Plane, and they do far more than fight. Some carry items for their owner, while others quietly boost the player's other skills.

Which RuneScape skill, the game's 28th, launched with a six-month embargo on experience lamps and other boosts?

Archaeology was unveiled at RuneFest 2019 with a playable demo. On release, every player was handed 50 extra storage spaces to hold the artefacts they were about to dig up.

Which RuneScape 3 travel network, used through the Home Teleport spell, links hubs a player has activated?

Lodestones proved so convenient that they largely removed the need for teleport spells across all three spellbooks. Portal chambers in players' own houses lost much of their purpose too.

Which tradeable RuneScape item, bought from Jagex with real money, can be redeemed for paid membership?

A bond lets one player fund another's subscription with in-game wealth. Jagex presented the item as a legitimate alternative to illicit real-world trading.

Which 2012 RuneScape update brought abilities and dual wielding after months of beta testing on separate worlds?

The Evolution of Combat lifted the maximum combat level from 138 to 200, a change that was undone in July 2014. Many players protested, fearing the game would lose its culture and tradition.

Which RuneScape variant, released in 2015 with open player-killing and no safe zones, closed six months later?

DarkScape shut for lack of interest, and Jagex softened the blow. Anyone who had played more than ten hours was sent a month of membership in the main game as compensation.

Which fairy city, entered through a shed in Lumbridge Swamp, turns out to be the moon of RuneScape's world?

Zanaris is the lost city of the quest that unlocks it. Getting in means carving a staff from a Dramen tree, and it is a leprechaun hiding in another tree who gives the secret away.

Which RuneScape quest, the 100th that Jagex released, builds to a showdown with the Culinaromancer?

Recipe for Disaster is a sequel to the humble Cook's Assistant, stretched into an introduction, eight subquests and a finale. It is best known for unlocking the right to buy Barrows gloves.

Freeing Azzanadra from his pyramid prison rewards Old School RuneScape players with which spellbook?

Ancient Magicks made the quest a rite of passage for player killers, who commonly complete it for those spells alone. Its bosses each have their own tricks, including immunity to certain spells.

In RuneScape's Romeo & Juliet quest, which ingredient goes into the potion that fakes Juliet's death?

Cadava berries make a potion that works on the messenger too. A player who drinks it instead of delivering it blacks out for a short time.

In RuneScape's quest The Knight's Sword, which food wins over Thurgo, the dwarf who can forge the blade?

Redberry pie is only the opening bribe. Thurgo also wants a picture of the lost sword to work from, so players lift a portrait from Sir Vyvin's cupboard while the knight isn't watching.

RuneScape's Cooks' Guild, housed in a windmill, admits players with level 32 Cooking who wear which item?

A chef's hat only has to be worn at the door. Once inside the three-storey windmill, players may take it off without being thrown out.

Which Old School RuneScape boss, whose claws and skin Wyson trades for bird nests, lives beneath Falador Park?

The Giant Mole puts out candles and torches whenever she burrows away at close range. Hunters carry a tinderbox to relight them, because the dark tunnels deal damage of their own.

RuneScape's NXT game client, teased at RuneFest 2014 and released in April 2016, is written in which language?

C++ powers a client built to outperform its predecessor and to load a larger area of the map, preloading more of it in the background.

RuneScape's first translated edition, launched by Jagex in 2007, served players speaking which language?

German came first, and the other big European languages had to wait. A French version followed a year later, Brazilian Portuguese the year after that, and Latin American Spanish only four years after that.

Which open-source third-party client for Old School RuneScape runs the fan-made 117 HD graphics plugin?

RuneLite offers a Plugin Hub of add-ons written by outside developers and checked by its own team for malice. Popular ones include a quest helper and a guide to Zulrah's rotations.

The first RuneFest, RuneScape's fan convention, was held in 2010 in the Dungeons of Vinopolis in which city?

London hosted an event that ended up costing its guests nothing. After the tickets sold out, Jagex refunded every buyer in full and paid for the day out of its marketing budget instead.

Which servant, forever walking circles around Lumbridge Castle, tells RuneScape players how old their accounts are?

Hans is, by Jagex's own claim, the first character it ever created for the game. In the 2018 Christmas event he was at last given a chair, after years of circling the castle without a rest.

Prifddinas, RuneScape's crystal city of the elves, is named with the word for capital city in which language?

Welsh was a personal choice. The city was named by Mod Dylan, a Jagex developer who is Welsh himself, although the studio's official pronunciation does not follow the language's own rules.

Which animal joined RuneScape as a pet in 2014 as part of a campaign against illegal poaching?

Rhinoceros pets arrived together with quiz questions about the animals, which players answered in the game itself. Jagex ran the campaign in partnership with United for Wildlife.

Which investment firm bought a majority stake in RuneScape's maker Jagex in January 2021, then sold it in 2024?

The Carlyle Group passed the studio on in February 2024 to CVC Capital Partners and Haveli Investments for £910 million.

Which casual gaming site, opened in 2008, was the first major release by Jagex after RuneScape itself?

FunOrb was aimed at what Jagex called time-pressured gamers, and it hosted a tie-in title set in RuneScape's own universe. Jagex shut the site for good in August 2018.

Which browser-based sci-fi MMORPG, first known as MechScape, did RuneScape's maker Jagex shelve in 2012?

Stellar Dawn had already been scrapped and renamed once, after the finished project fell short of its design brief. It was slated to launch in 2011, but Jagex paused development the following March.

In experience points, which RuneScape skill level famously marks the halfway point on the road to 99?

92 is so famously half of 99 that players quote it as a rule. Experience roughly doubles every seven levels, so a skill at level 85 has earned only about a quarter of what it needs.

The dancing knights in Falador's Party Room pay homage to a film scene by which comedy troupe?

Monty Python and the Holy Grail supplies the joke, and Party Pete keeps it running. He says the knights of Camelot got it into their heads that his tabletop dancers were making fun of them.

Completing Prince Ali Rescue waives the 10-coin toll on the gate between Lumbridge and which desert town?

Al Kharid can be reached without paying or questing at all. Members with level 8 Agility are able to grapple across from Lumbridge Swamp instead of using the gate.

Which undead dragon boss, first met in Old School RuneScape's Dragon Slayer II, lairs on the island of Ungael?

Vorkath has a name that roughly means pathetic failure or runt in the dragonkin tongue. His creator Zorgoth abandoned him on the island for showing too little aggression.

What does a RuneScape player's first skillcape gain, irreversibly, once a second skill reaches level 99?

A coloured trim marks its wearer as the master of more than one skill. It is a costly badge to earn, since every skillcape is sold for 99,000 coins by the master of its skill.

Which northern RuneScape people, who object to the making of runes, give players a new name after a set of trials?

The Fremennik feel so strongly about rune-making that they feud with a neighbouring clan of mages over it. They hold that humans should use only the runes the gods gave them.

Which gigantic rock boss in RuneScape 3, billed on release as the toughest group fight, lives near Falador?

Vorago was created by the Anima Mundi, which he calls the earth soul. His hard mode unlocks only for players who land the finishing blow with the maul of omens in all six of his weekly rotations.

Which ore, mined only in the Asgarnian Ice Dungeon, goes into the blade Thurgo forges in The Knight's Sword?

Blurite is close to useless outside that quest for anyone without a subscription. Non-members are allowed to mine the ore, but only members can smith it, into crossbow bolts and limbs.

Which RuneScape-inspired incremental game by solo developer Brendan Malcolm did Jagex begin publishing in 2021?

Melvor Idle left early access in November 2021, a month after the deal was announced. Malcolm, who had built it alone, carried on developing the game in partnership with the studio.

In Falador's Party Room, pulling the 1,000-coin lever sends donated items floating down inside what?

Balloons are what turn a donation into a drop party. Up to 216 items can wait in the chest beforehand, and nobody, the donor included, is able to take them back out.

Experience in any single Old School RuneScape skill stops being counted once it reaches which total?

200 million is only a cap on the counting. A player who gets there can carry on training the skill for as long as they like, but no further experience is received.