54 Fun Facts About RuneScape

In what year did RuneScape first go live as a public beta?

2001 saw the public beta go live on 4 January, and by December that year the Gower brothers had set up a company to run the business side of the game.

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

Nottingham was home to the Gower family, and the game ran from their parents' house before the company moved to proper offices in another city.

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

Gielinor is the world, explored beyond the game in tie-in novels such as Betrayal at Falador and Return to Canifis.

Which businessman joined Andrew and Paul Gower as the third founder of Jagex and served as its first CEO?

Constant Tedder was later replaced as CEO by a former European CEO of PayPal, and all three founders left the board of directors in December 2010.

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

DeviousMUD was a Java game with 2D isometric graphics; its second version was briefly released as a public beta in 1999 before the rewrite that became RuneScape.

In which year was RuneScape 2, with its fully three-dimensional engine, officially released?

2004 brought the official launch on 29 March, after paying members had tested a beta from December 2003.

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

Classic was the name the original game kept; it lingered on a handful of servers for another fourteen years before finally being shut down.

Old School RuneScape was built from a backup of the game dating from which month?

August 2007 was the date of the backup found in the company's archives; Old School launched as an exact copy of it and has since diverged with its own updates.

How many votes did the 2013 poll need before Jagex would open Old School RuneScape servers?

50,000 votes was the lowest reward tier, enough to open the servers; the final tally fell just short of a bigger tier that would have promised extra incentives.

What was the final vote count of the 2013 poll that created Old School RuneScape?

449,351 votes missed the 500,000 reward tier, but Jagex granted several of that tier's promises anyway.

RuneScape 3 launched in which month?

July 2013 brought RuneScape 3 on the 22nd, a few months after Old School RuneScape opened, giving the franchise two live versions that ran side by side.

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.

On what date did the Falador Massacre take place?

6 June 2006, written 6/6/06, gave the event its '666' nickname; it happened on world 111 during a house party thrown by the first player to reach level 99 in the new skill.

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

Durial321 was the player most associated with the killings, and his ghost returned as a boss in the 2016 tenth-anniversary event.

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

Crackers were handed out in the first Christmas event; pulling one with another player produced a partyhat, nearly worthless at the time.

How many different colours of partyhat were handed out in the original Christmas event?

Six colours were handed out in the first event; a golden one was added as a tradeable reward in the 2021 Christmas event.

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

Blue is the partyhat he wears from then on; he confesses to the whole crime during the Love Story quest, and players can watch the bank's security recording for 50 coins.

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

Demon Slayer has players gather three keys for Sir Prysin's sword Silverlight, then recite an incantation to banish the demon Delrith at a stone circle.

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

A pot of flour is made by grinding wheat at the mill north of the castle, unless players simply buy the ingredients and finish the quest in seconds.

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

Duke Horacio of Lumbridge wants the cake for his birthday; the same duke hands out the anti-dragon shield during Dragon Slayer.

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

Elvarg is a green dragon far tougher than her kin, and her dragonfire hits hard on anyone without an anti-dragon shield.

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.

Completing Dragon Slayer lets free-to-play players finally equip which piece of armour?

Rune platebody also needs 40 Defence, and it can be smithed from five runite bars by anyone with level 99 Smithing.

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

Varrock was originally known as Avarrocka and is the largest city available to free players.

Which god of RuneScape's pantheon is the god of balance, and the last of the Naragi race?

Guthix slept beneath the world for millennia after ending the God Wars, and his symbol is usually shown in green.

Which god's symbol is a four-pointed star, usually coloured gold or silver?

Saradomin's four-pointed star marks his followers; he was born a human and is thought to be the most widely worshipped god in the game world.

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

Zamorak's coup against Zaros ended the Second Age and set off the God Wars, which lasted roughly four thousand years.

In RuneScape's December 2010 referendum, what share of voters wanted free trade and Wilderness PvP back?

91% said yes from around 1.2 million votes cast, and both features returned on 1 February 2011.

Old School RuneScape's Grand Exchange narrowly passed its 2015 poll with what percentage of yes votes?

76.3% yes cleared the 75 percent threshold in force at the time, so it squeaked through by barely more than a point.

Jagex first introduced paid membership in which month?

February 2002 brought the first paid membership, introduced when advertising revenue proved too thin to cover hosting and development costs.

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

Dungeoneering arrived in April 2010 and is trained by exploring the randomly generated floors of the Daemonheim castle, solo or in teams of up to five.

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

Necromancy arrived in August 2023 as the game's 29th skill, with its own combat style levelled all the way to 120.

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

Divination, alongside Smithing and Crafting, must reach level 80 before Invention unlocks; the skill arrived in January 2016 as the game's first elite skill.

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

Hitpoints begins at level 10 so new characters can survive early fights; the main game renamed the same skill Constitution in 2010.

How much experience is needed to reach level 99 in a regular RuneScape skill?

13,034,431 experience takes a skill to level 99, which sets off a fireworks animation and unlocks a skillcape bought for 99,000 coins.

What Attack level is needed to wield the abyssal whip in Old School RuneScape?

70 Attack is the requirement; it attacks as fast as a dagger, and its Energy Drain special can siphon run energy from another player.

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

Mount Quidamortem, reached from the west of Great Kourend, hides the chambers, home to the coveted bow whose damage scales with a target's Magic level.

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

TzTok-Jad is level 702 with a max hit of 97 across its melee, Ranged and Magic attacks, each of which must be blocked with the right prayer.

Zulrah, the level 725 solo boss of Old School RuneScape, is what kind of creature?

A snake is what Zulrah is: a giant serpent fought from a platform in a poisonous swamp, reached by boat from Zul-Andra.

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

Twisted League confined players to Great Kourend and the Kebos Lowlands with five times the normal experience rate.

Old School RuneScape won which award at the 2019 British Academy Games Awards?

EE Mobile Game of the Year was decided by public vote, and Old School's mobile port had launched only months earlier.

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

Cambridge is the company's home, on the city's science park, after it outgrew the family home where the game was first run.

CVC Capital Partners and Haveli Investments bought Jagex from the Carlyle Group in 2024 for how much?

£910 million was the price put on the deal; four years earlier the studio had changed hands for $530 million, and Carlyle took its stake in January 2021.

After Jagex's first non-Java release in 2010, what was its name said to stand for instead of 'Java Gaming Experts'?

Just About the Game Experience became the official gloss after War of Legends, a Flash-based strategy title, became the company's first non-Java release.

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

Treasure Hunter replaced the wheel with key-opened chests in February 2014, keeping the same real-money promotional model.

At which 2008 event did Jagex receive a Guinness certificate for the world's most popular free MMORPG?

Leipzig Games Convention hosted the presentation in August 2008; the following year the show was effectively replaced when Germany's big games fair moved to a new host city.

In which year did Old School RuneScape arrive on iOS and Android?

2018 saw the cross-play mobile port released on 30 October after a preview at that spring's Game Developers Conference; the main game followed on mobile in 2021.

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

Open-world survival crafting is its genre: players gather resources, build bases and fight dragons in a new corner of the RuneScape world rather than the original game's map.

Besides being unable to trade, what can Ultimate Ironman accounts in Old School RuneScape not do?

Use banks is exactly what Ultimate Ironmen cannot do, so they carry everything they own; Ironman modes arrived on 13 October 2014 to make progression self-sufficient.

What share of yes votes does an Old School RuneScape feature poll need to pass?

More than 70% yes has been required since the threshold was lowered from 75%; bug fixes, integrity changes and some balancing changes are exempt from polling altogether.

What was Botany Bay, an anti-cheating feature Jagex introduced in 2012?

A penal area where players voted on botters' punishment, Botany Bay let players watch detected bots meet a humiliating end; it followed the 2011 'Bot Nuke'.

Solomon's General Store, RuneScape's cosmetic shop launched in July 2012, uses which currency?

RuneCoins are bought with real money; the store opened three months after Jagex began selling extra Squeal of Fortune spins for real money in April 2012.