0
So, without further ado:
2013
Spoiler
January
1. The God Statues released as the latest Distraction and Diversion, offering players monthly experience in Construction and Prayer/Slayer.
2. The Queen Black Dragon is dethroned as the strongest NPC boss monster in RuneScape by the Kalphite King. Drygore equipment, his main drops, similarly replace Chaotics as the game's highest-tier (melee) weaponry. The KK can be found in the Exiled Kalphite Hive.
3. Hourly incursions by the Demon Flash Mobs in 14 locations across Gielinor are notified to players over 120 combat. When the demon boss of these is defeated the player has a chance of obtaining special demon slaying armour and the demon slayer crossbow. Using any of these increases the damage dealt and experience gained whilst fighting demons.
February
1. The Sinkholes Dungeoneering D&D is introduced, taking place outside of Daemonheim in various resource dungeons. Rewards range from Dungeoneering xp lamps (in small, medium, large, and huge sizes) including an amount of tokens equivalent to the awarded experience /20, tokens equal to your score in the activity itself, and pieces of the Hoardstalker cosmetic outfit.
2. 50 additional bank slots for members redeemable via Solomon's General Store.
3. Due to popular demand, Jagex releases archived servers of RuneScape exactly as it was in 2007. As long as you're a member you'll have access, and whilst you'll start afresh on the 2007 servers, it won't affect your progress in the main game. For your convinience Zybez has developed another market price guide and item exchange hub, and the site's guides from that era can for the time being be accessed here. More 07-specific information can be found tagged across the forums.
March
1. Release of the latest grandmaster quest, The World Wakes. It has been labelled by Mod Mark as "the most important one to date."
January
1. The God Statues released as the latest Distraction and Diversion, offering players monthly experience in Construction and Prayer/Slayer.
2. The Queen Black Dragon is dethroned as the strongest NPC boss monster in RuneScape by the Kalphite King. Drygore equipment, his main drops, similarly replace Chaotics as the game's highest-tier (melee) weaponry. The KK can be found in the Exiled Kalphite Hive.
3. Hourly incursions by the Demon Flash Mobs in 14 locations across Gielinor are notified to players over 120 combat. When the demon boss of these is defeated the player has a chance of obtaining special demon slaying armour and the demon slayer crossbow. Using any of these increases the damage dealt and experience gained whilst fighting demons.
February
1. The Sinkholes Dungeoneering D&D is introduced, taking place outside of Daemonheim in various resource dungeons. Rewards range from Dungeoneering xp lamps (in small, medium, large, and huge sizes) including an amount of tokens equivalent to the awarded experience /20, tokens equal to your score in the activity itself, and pieces of the Hoardstalker cosmetic outfit.
2. 50 additional bank slots for members redeemable via Solomon's General Store.
3. Due to popular demand, Jagex releases archived servers of RuneScape exactly as it was in 2007. As long as you're a member you'll have access, and whilst you'll start afresh on the 2007 servers, it won't affect your progress in the main game. For your convinience Zybez has developed another market price guide and item exchange hub, and the site's guides from that era can for the time being be accessed here. More 07-specific information can be found tagged across the forums.
March
1. Release of the latest grandmaster quest, The World Wakes. It has been labelled by Mod Mark as "the most important one to date."
2012:
Spoiler
January
1. The Firemaker's Curse (quest). Provides you with the Book of Char that upon activation automatically lights any log the user walks over. Also lets you enter the training cave every week where you can at least collect one of the four fire creatures to serve as a pet.
February
1. Potion flasks which hold 6 doses vs. the regular 4.
2. The Fight Kiln, a big step-up from the regular Caves. Check out its awesome new cape too!
2b. An accompanying quest lets you bag the TokKul-Zo ring which gives a 10% boost to all damage dealt against TzHaar and Tokhaar creatures. Also it makes the Warrior, Seers', and Archer's Fremennik counterparts obsolete thanks to a +4 bonus in all attack and defence styles (save for Summoning and strength).
3. The Squeal of Fortune. Free players get to use it once a day and members twice (resets at midnight GMT, though +1 during BST hours). You can win a whole array of items leading up to 'lucky' godswords and sigil shields (untradeable versions which are destroyed upon death if not selected on the 'keep items' popup). The Achievment's forum hosts a log where you can view other peoples' rewards and/or post your own.
March
1. A range of graphical upgrades made to all sorts of armour sets (a chart cataloguing the transformations can be found here) and the gnome world. Changes were also made to the workings of Citadels with the release of 'clan fealty' to improve rewards.
2. The Lodestone Network. Upon activating these ancient devices, which are scattered across Gielinor, one can travel to from a variety PtP and FtP places such as Port Sarim, Yanille, and Taverley all via the Home Teleport spell. A helpful thread started by Nommy gives examples as to how these can improve your daily ingame activities.
3. Barkriminel Bolts released to add a new spin to [Ranged] PvP. They can only be fletched from the logs of Bloodwood trees which are located in an array of spots in the Wilderness and safe areas (the latter of which require high-level quests to access such as Nomad's Requiem), and tipped with bolt tips bought from Mami Rimba. The trees respawn roughly every 6 hours for each player after being cut. Instead of attack styles you can toggle between aiming for an opponent's head, torso, and legs - all with unique special effects such as slowing down magic casts for 30 seconds or draining run energy.
4. Morytania Tasks unveiled. Rewards range from the usual XP lamps, reduced prayer drain whilst on Barrows runs, to Morytania legs that can double the number of runes gained from the chest and so on.
April
1. Ways to get extra spins for the SoF are introduced. Tickets for another two can be obtained by killing monsters, participating in certain D&Ds (such as the Circus) that week, general skilling, and you can even buy more generous packages for real-life cash.
2. Dungeoneering revamp. Jagex add a toolbelt which serves the same purpose as the one used outside Daemonheim, starting off with a Novite pickaxe and hatchet that can be replaced by counterparts made from more valuable metals such as Primal should you find them later on. Even if you find a pickaxe or hatchet that you don’t have the levels for just yet, upon adding them to the belt – they'll still act like the highest level equivalent you can use until you’ve attained the necessary level(s). Furthermore, another aspect of the TB holds any keys picked up by yourself or members of your party. As long as someone in your party’s picked up a key, all members of the party can access it. Finally - gathered resources obtained in dungeons (including ore, logs and raw food) will now stack, leaving you yet more space for your gear. All stacks, including coins, can now be split with a new “Drop-X” option while Dungeoneering.
2b. Release of another two Fremennik Sagas, Thok Your Block Off and Nadir (which seeks to expand upon the Mahjarrat storyline).
3. For every quest completed, regardless of whether it is free or members-only, you now get 2 more SoF spins on top of their regular rewards. However this only applies to those that the player has either not started (displayed in red) or completed (yellow) yet - including finishing the newer versions of replaced ones (Gunnar’s Ground, Wolf Whistle, Druidic Ritual, and Death Plateau). Note that you won’t get spins for unlisted mini-quests (such as Alfred Grimhand’s Bar Crawl), claiming post-quest rewards (such as Tears of Guthix), or completing Fremennik Sagas.
4. [The training of] Runecrafting is completely revolutionised with the alternate new dimension of Runespan! Through siphoning runes from the environment (via 'node hunting' in particular), RS offers much faster experience than the traditional methods - albeit with no profits. However, there is a system that keeps track of the runes you have made and awards you points accordingly for them, which can be spent on a variety of interesting rewards. Further guides to maximising your exp/hr rates are linked here: 1, 2, 3, and 4.
May
1. Introduction of bonfires to serve as a new way to train the Firemaking skill. Though the xp/hr rates for using them are slightly lower than making traditional trails with equivalent logs, bonfires have the advantage of being AFK'able. Furthermore - one can get bonus xp by adding logs to a fire that others are already using (up to a maximum of 4% for 5 or more players), whilst contributing at least 5 logs to one fire in succession earns a temporary boost to your maximum life points (up to 10% depending on your FM level), and finally; those who cook on bonfires receive their own 10% xp bonus. A popular place to make/participate with one is in the Shantay Pass on world 100.
2. Release of the quest 'Song from the Depths', which serves as a prelude to the Queen Black Dragon - who surpasses Nex as the most powerful and difficult-to-conquer NPC - and serves as the resident boss of the Grotworm Lair. With her comes the Royal Dragonhide set, whose stats are favourably comparable with Armadyl (importantly: lacking the latter's negative offensive melee bonuses), and the long-awaited Dragon kiteshield.
June
1. Complete overhauls of the SoF's reward list and the Fish Flingers D&D.
2. Release of The Crucible, Jagex's attempt to reincarnate the old Bounty Hunter minigame. Inside the arena you will be matched up with another player and assigned as each others' targets. If you successfully locate and kill your opponent, you can loot all of their equipment.
July
1. Release of 'Social Slayer', which allows players to pair up on tasks. Use your enchanted gem or slayer ring on the player you wish to invite, or use the gem or ring's new 'co-op' right-click option and enter their name when prompted. As long as neither of you are on an active slayer task, or if you're on the same slayer task, you'll invite them to join your group. Further information on the likes of rewards can be found here.
2. Pendants of Skill, along with Prized counterparts, added to the SoF. The former double XP earned in their associated skills up to an amount equivalent to a Large XP lamp, whilst the latter will triple the rate for as much XP as you'd get from a Huge XP lamp. The amount of bonus XP each pendant contains is dependent on the levels of your relevant skills when you claim them. Once these pendants are exhausted, they will degrade and can be kept as a nice cosmetic keepsake.
August
1. Solomon's General Store unveiled as Jagex's newest foray into the the microtransaction market. The genie offers interested players a variety of cosmetic goods and even additional bank space.
2. Release of 'Some Like it Cold', the latest instalment of the penguins quest line. Rewards include the ability to spy on an extra penguin for the weekly Distraction and Diversion (which is worth 3 points and can only be seen with the Ring of Visibility worn), and access to a Thieving expansion for Balthazar Beauregard's Big Top Bonanza.
3. Clan avatars introduced for Jagex's official clan system. These can be customised with buffs that help in a variety of tasks from collecting skilling resources, providing xp boosts, absorbing combat damage, and so on for clan members who are within range or on the same world.
4. Big chinchompas added as the latest Distraction and Diversion for the Hunter skill.
September
1. Complete remastering of the God Wars Dungeon from its graphics (covering the environment, NPCs, and related items), strength of the bosses themselves, and loot players can hope to get (eg. the robes of subjugation).
2. Similar modernisation of Al Kharid, accompanied by two new quests (replacing Prince Ali Rescue) centred around the signature hero Ozan: Stolen Hearts (an updated version of Prince Ali Rescue) and Diamond in the Rough (PtP only).
3. Existing skill gear sets (for Woodcutting, Mining, Fishing, Construction, Runecrafting, and Thieving) have their boosts doubled from 2.5% to 5%, whilst degradable counterparts for Cooking, Crafting, Smithing, and Herblore are added to the Squeal of Fortune.
October
1, Picking up where September left off - the KBD, Brimhaven, Taverley, and Fremennik Slayer dungeons, including the Chaos Tunnels, have been revamped as well. Jagex have added a teleport option that takes players from Edgeville direct to the KBD's lair, though accessing via the Wilderness will give a 10% damage boost. Additions to his drop list include dragon rider gloves and boots (which offer the highest Prayer bonuses for their respective slots), plus two ornamental kits for the Dragon kiteshield.
2. Jagex continue their remastering of basic quests with Doric's, which has been rechristened 'What's Mine is Yours'. After the quest, members can talk to Doric and Boric to receive more tasks that increase charges in the Gofannon amulet to up to 183,500 experience, as well as 13,000 mining and 48,000 smithing experience. The tasks can be found here.
November
1. Release of D&D tokens on the Squeal of Fortune that allow players to have another go at various activities before their original cooldown timers expire. This coincides with an xp boost and graphical update for the Tears of Guthix minigame.
2. Jagex goes live on the biggest and most controversial update since the release of RuneScape 2, the Evolution of Combat (their goals and rationale can be found in a series of Og blogs here, as well as broader information on the subject). Main points of interest include the removal of special attacks, the reduction in effectiveness of potions, familiars, and prayers in combat, rebalancing of the wider triangle through new item stats, overhaul of combat level calculation itself, dual-wielding of weapons, and so on. You can help Zybez keep on top of the content changes here.
3. Increase of Dungeoneering xp for those exploring Daemonheim in smaller groups, including allowing everyone regardless of their level to bind ten items. You won’t get to carry all ten at a time, of course; they’ll go into a remotely-held pool of bound items, from which you'll be able to select loadouts by speaking to the Smuggler. You can return to the Smuggler at any time to switch your bound items, and he'll remember up to three presets for ease of use. The number of your bound items that can be included in a loadout varies according to your Dungeoneering level.
4. Regarding gravestones, it is now possible to click the gravestone timer while nearby to take you straight to the point of your demise - useful if there's more than one stone about. There are also 'take all' and 're-equip all' buttons, so you'll be up and back into the fray before you know it.
5. Signature hero Ariane receives her own headline of double-quests to update Rune Mysteries and introduce Rune Memories, on top of a generic rework of the Wizards' Tower and Runecrafting Guild.
December
1. The TzHaar-TokHaar storylines are concluded with a fresh grandmaster quest, The Brink of Extinction. Rewards include earning the ability to smith and wear obsidian armour, and gaining access to an all-new solo combat area: the Fight Cauldron.
2. After the EoC, Player Owned Ports stand as the most high-profile update of 2012. A high-requirement minigame - it allows you to manage a fleet of ships, staffed by recruited crew members, to explore the Eastern Lands on your behalf with and return with exotic items and supplies that are otherwise unavailable in accessible Gielinor. These include degradable level 85 armours for all corners of the combat triangle: Testu (melee), Death Lotus (range), and Sea Singer (mage). These require 90 Smithing, Crafting, and Runecrafting to make respectively. Players can choose between making tradeable versions that can not be repaired, or stronger untradeable originals that can be.
1. The Firemaker's Curse (quest). Provides you with the Book of Char that upon activation automatically lights any log the user walks over. Also lets you enter the training cave every week where you can at least collect one of the four fire creatures to serve as a pet.
February
1. Potion flasks which hold 6 doses vs. the regular 4.
2. The Fight Kiln, a big step-up from the regular Caves. Check out its awesome new cape too!
2b. An accompanying quest lets you bag the TokKul-Zo ring which gives a 10% boost to all damage dealt against TzHaar and Tokhaar creatures. Also it makes the Warrior, Seers', and Archer's Fremennik counterparts obsolete thanks to a +4 bonus in all attack and defence styles (save for Summoning and strength).
3. The Squeal of Fortune. Free players get to use it once a day and members twice (resets at midnight GMT, though +1 during BST hours). You can win a whole array of items leading up to 'lucky' godswords and sigil shields (untradeable versions which are destroyed upon death if not selected on the 'keep items' popup). The Achievment's forum hosts a log where you can view other peoples' rewards and/or post your own.
March
1. A range of graphical upgrades made to all sorts of armour sets (a chart cataloguing the transformations can be found here) and the gnome world. Changes were also made to the workings of Citadels with the release of 'clan fealty' to improve rewards.
2. The Lodestone Network. Upon activating these ancient devices, which are scattered across Gielinor, one can travel to from a variety PtP and FtP places such as Port Sarim, Yanille, and Taverley all via the Home Teleport spell. A helpful thread started by Nommy gives examples as to how these can improve your daily ingame activities.
3. Barkriminel Bolts released to add a new spin to [Ranged] PvP. They can only be fletched from the logs of Bloodwood trees which are located in an array of spots in the Wilderness and safe areas (the latter of which require high-level quests to access such as Nomad's Requiem), and tipped with bolt tips bought from Mami Rimba. The trees respawn roughly every 6 hours for each player after being cut. Instead of attack styles you can toggle between aiming for an opponent's head, torso, and legs - all with unique special effects such as slowing down magic casts for 30 seconds or draining run energy.
4. Morytania Tasks unveiled. Rewards range from the usual XP lamps, reduced prayer drain whilst on Barrows runs, to Morytania legs that can double the number of runes gained from the chest and so on.
April
1. Ways to get extra spins for the SoF are introduced. Tickets for another two can be obtained by killing monsters, participating in certain D&Ds (such as the Circus) that week, general skilling, and you can even buy more generous packages for real-life cash.
2. Dungeoneering revamp. Jagex add a toolbelt which serves the same purpose as the one used outside Daemonheim, starting off with a Novite pickaxe and hatchet that can be replaced by counterparts made from more valuable metals such as Primal should you find them later on. Even if you find a pickaxe or hatchet that you don’t have the levels for just yet, upon adding them to the belt – they'll still act like the highest level equivalent you can use until you’ve attained the necessary level(s). Furthermore, another aspect of the TB holds any keys picked up by yourself or members of your party. As long as someone in your party’s picked up a key, all members of the party can access it. Finally - gathered resources obtained in dungeons (including ore, logs and raw food) will now stack, leaving you yet more space for your gear. All stacks, including coins, can now be split with a new “Drop-X” option while Dungeoneering.
2b. Release of another two Fremennik Sagas, Thok Your Block Off and Nadir (which seeks to expand upon the Mahjarrat storyline).
3. For every quest completed, regardless of whether it is free or members-only, you now get 2 more SoF spins on top of their regular rewards. However this only applies to those that the player has either not started (displayed in red) or completed (yellow) yet - including finishing the newer versions of replaced ones (Gunnar’s Ground, Wolf Whistle, Druidic Ritual, and Death Plateau). Note that you won’t get spins for unlisted mini-quests (such as Alfred Grimhand’s Bar Crawl), claiming post-quest rewards (such as Tears of Guthix), or completing Fremennik Sagas.
4. [The training of] Runecrafting is completely revolutionised with the alternate new dimension of Runespan! Through siphoning runes from the environment (via 'node hunting' in particular), RS offers much faster experience than the traditional methods - albeit with no profits. However, there is a system that keeps track of the runes you have made and awards you points accordingly for them, which can be spent on a variety of interesting rewards. Further guides to maximising your exp/hr rates are linked here: 1, 2, 3, and 4.
May
1. Introduction of bonfires to serve as a new way to train the Firemaking skill. Though the xp/hr rates for using them are slightly lower than making traditional trails with equivalent logs, bonfires have the advantage of being AFK'able. Furthermore - one can get bonus xp by adding logs to a fire that others are already using (up to a maximum of 4% for 5 or more players), whilst contributing at least 5 logs to one fire in succession earns a temporary boost to your maximum life points (up to 10% depending on your FM level), and finally; those who cook on bonfires receive their own 10% xp bonus. A popular place to make/participate with one is in the Shantay Pass on world 100.
2. Release of the quest 'Song from the Depths', which serves as a prelude to the Queen Black Dragon - who surpasses Nex as the most powerful and difficult-to-conquer NPC - and serves as the resident boss of the Grotworm Lair. With her comes the Royal Dragonhide set, whose stats are favourably comparable with Armadyl (importantly: lacking the latter's negative offensive melee bonuses), and the long-awaited Dragon kiteshield.
June
1. Complete overhauls of the SoF's reward list and the Fish Flingers D&D.
2. Release of The Crucible, Jagex's attempt to reincarnate the old Bounty Hunter minigame. Inside the arena you will be matched up with another player and assigned as each others' targets. If you successfully locate and kill your opponent, you can loot all of their equipment.
July
1. Release of 'Social Slayer', which allows players to pair up on tasks. Use your enchanted gem or slayer ring on the player you wish to invite, or use the gem or ring's new 'co-op' right-click option and enter their name when prompted. As long as neither of you are on an active slayer task, or if you're on the same slayer task, you'll invite them to join your group. Further information on the likes of rewards can be found here.
2. Pendants of Skill, along with Prized counterparts, added to the SoF. The former double XP earned in their associated skills up to an amount equivalent to a Large XP lamp, whilst the latter will triple the rate for as much XP as you'd get from a Huge XP lamp. The amount of bonus XP each pendant contains is dependent on the levels of your relevant skills when you claim them. Once these pendants are exhausted, they will degrade and can be kept as a nice cosmetic keepsake.
August
1. Solomon's General Store unveiled as Jagex's newest foray into the the microtransaction market. The genie offers interested players a variety of cosmetic goods and even additional bank space.
2. Release of 'Some Like it Cold', the latest instalment of the penguins quest line. Rewards include the ability to spy on an extra penguin for the weekly Distraction and Diversion (which is worth 3 points and can only be seen with the Ring of Visibility worn), and access to a Thieving expansion for Balthazar Beauregard's Big Top Bonanza.
3. Clan avatars introduced for Jagex's official clan system. These can be customised with buffs that help in a variety of tasks from collecting skilling resources, providing xp boosts, absorbing combat damage, and so on for clan members who are within range or on the same world.
4. Big chinchompas added as the latest Distraction and Diversion for the Hunter skill.
September
1. Complete remastering of the God Wars Dungeon from its graphics (covering the environment, NPCs, and related items), strength of the bosses themselves, and loot players can hope to get (eg. the robes of subjugation).
2. Similar modernisation of Al Kharid, accompanied by two new quests (replacing Prince Ali Rescue) centred around the signature hero Ozan: Stolen Hearts (an updated version of Prince Ali Rescue) and Diamond in the Rough (PtP only).
3. Existing skill gear sets (for Woodcutting, Mining, Fishing, Construction, Runecrafting, and Thieving) have their boosts doubled from 2.5% to 5%, whilst degradable counterparts for Cooking, Crafting, Smithing, and Herblore are added to the Squeal of Fortune.
October
1, Picking up where September left off - the KBD, Brimhaven, Taverley, and Fremennik Slayer dungeons, including the Chaos Tunnels, have been revamped as well. Jagex have added a teleport option that takes players from Edgeville direct to the KBD's lair, though accessing via the Wilderness will give a 10% damage boost. Additions to his drop list include dragon rider gloves and boots (which offer the highest Prayer bonuses for their respective slots), plus two ornamental kits for the Dragon kiteshield.
2. Jagex continue their remastering of basic quests with Doric's, which has been rechristened 'What's Mine is Yours'. After the quest, members can talk to Doric and Boric to receive more tasks that increase charges in the Gofannon amulet to up to 183,500 experience, as well as 13,000 mining and 48,000 smithing experience. The tasks can be found here.
November
1. Release of D&D tokens on the Squeal of Fortune that allow players to have another go at various activities before their original cooldown timers expire. This coincides with an xp boost and graphical update for the Tears of Guthix minigame.
2. Jagex goes live on the biggest and most controversial update since the release of RuneScape 2, the Evolution of Combat (their goals and rationale can be found in a series of Og blogs here, as well as broader information on the subject). Main points of interest include the removal of special attacks, the reduction in effectiveness of potions, familiars, and prayers in combat, rebalancing of the wider triangle through new item stats, overhaul of combat level calculation itself, dual-wielding of weapons, and so on. You can help Zybez keep on top of the content changes here.
3. Increase of Dungeoneering xp for those exploring Daemonheim in smaller groups, including allowing everyone regardless of their level to bind ten items. You won’t get to carry all ten at a time, of course; they’ll go into a remotely-held pool of bound items, from which you'll be able to select loadouts by speaking to the Smuggler. You can return to the Smuggler at any time to switch your bound items, and he'll remember up to three presets for ease of use. The number of your bound items that can be included in a loadout varies according to your Dungeoneering level.
4. Regarding gravestones, it is now possible to click the gravestone timer while nearby to take you straight to the point of your demise - useful if there's more than one stone about. There are also 'take all' and 're-equip all' buttons, so you'll be up and back into the fray before you know it.
5. Signature hero Ariane receives her own headline of double-quests to update Rune Mysteries and introduce Rune Memories, on top of a generic rework of the Wizards' Tower and Runecrafting Guild.
December
1. The TzHaar-TokHaar storylines are concluded with a fresh grandmaster quest, The Brink of Extinction. Rewards include earning the ability to smith and wear obsidian armour, and gaining access to an all-new solo combat area: the Fight Cauldron.
2. After the EoC, Player Owned Ports stand as the most high-profile update of 2012. A high-requirement minigame - it allows you to manage a fleet of ships, staffed by recruited crew members, to explore the Eastern Lands on your behalf with and return with exotic items and supplies that are otherwise unavailable in accessible Gielinor. These include degradable level 85 armours for all corners of the combat triangle: Testu (melee), Death Lotus (range), and Sea Singer (mage). These require 90 Smithing, Crafting, and Runecrafting to make respectively. Players can choose between making tradeable versions that can not be repaired, or stronger untradeable originals that can be.
2011:
Spoiler
January
1. Release of Nex as the newest God Wars Dungeon boss and excellent sets of armour + the odd weapon unique to her drop list.
February
1. Return of the old wilderness and free trade.
2. Urns which you can make to give extra exp on the side whilst training any one of 6 particular skills. A video guide can be found here.
April
1. Livid Farm which unlocks a host of new Lunar spells.
May
1. Capes of Distinction: most importantly the Max (for those of you with 99 in all skills) and Completionist (including a trimmed version which requires an additional set of chores) subsets.
2. The Lava Flow Mine, which is the best way to level Mining now before the Living Rock Caverns. Unlocked by King of the Dwarves, and is the source of the golden mining suit - which gives a2.5 5% exp boost when training the skill.
June
1. Troll Invasion, an excellent Distraction and Diversion which is one of the best ways to train melee now (<200k exp/hr if one has a high strength bonus, Overloads/Extremes, and Turmoil). You can get a reward book from it once a month too.
2. The Members' Loyalty Programme is unveiled.
July
1. The Jadinko Lair. Brilliant place to train Firemaking and Fletching, completely free too! Also handy for the odd Slayer task.
1b. Also released was the whip vine, which requires 80 Slayer and 85 Attack to use. Upon attaching it to an Abyssal whip it gives an extra +4 bonus to slash and attack, as well as +2 to strength along with also providing a chance to do poison damage starting at 48. On top of all this it also provides the whip with an alternate special attack. If you don't have a Chaotic rapier yet this would be a decent substitute so long as cash isn't a problem (not that you can't sell it back anyway).
2. Clan Citadels introduced, where you can have even more fun with your clan mates. If you would like to join Zybez's - please look here.
August
1. Introduction of the Refer a Friend scheme which gives a temporary exp boost to both players.
2. Top end quest 1: Branches of Darkmeyer. The 5th instalment of the Myreque franchise - BoD allows players to create Blisterwood weapons that are essential for making the most of Vyrewatch training, use of Drakan's medallion which serves as a teleport to various places around Morytania such as the Barrows minigame area, and so on.
September
1. Top end quest 2: Ritual of the Mahjarrat. Incredibly useful in a variety of ways. Glacors for example, which can be accessed after it, drop combat boots for each of the three classes (Steadfast, Ragefire, and Glaiven) that sell from 7.2m to 35.3m. A guide which best explains the ways to kill them can be found here. Likewise the new Storm of Armadyl spell is a major addition to Magic's arsenal.
October
1. The bot-nuke. Another one's being planned for the near future too.
November
1. Dominion Tower. Dreadnips and the acclaimed Goliath gloves are rewards of note.
2. The Polypore Dungeon. Ganodermic beasts (need 95 Slayer to kill them) are nice sources of money if camped on correctly, whilst Ganodermic armour + the Polypore staff have majorly shaken up PvM and PvP mechanics (eg. has taken over as the best set-up for Corp thanks to its 53% Magic damage soaking ability, and also makes it is possible to kill Jad without even having to prayer-switch so long as you are protecting against Range the whole time.
1. Release of Nex as the newest God Wars Dungeon boss and excellent sets of armour + the odd weapon unique to her drop list.
February
1. Return of the old wilderness and free trade.
2. Urns which you can make to give extra exp on the side whilst training any one of 6 particular skills. A video guide can be found here.
April
1. Livid Farm which unlocks a host of new Lunar spells.
May
1. Capes of Distinction: most importantly the Max (for those of you with 99 in all skills) and Completionist (including a trimmed version which requires an additional set of chores) subsets.
2. The Lava Flow Mine, which is the best way to level Mining now before the Living Rock Caverns. Unlocked by King of the Dwarves, and is the source of the golden mining suit - which gives a
June
1. Troll Invasion, an excellent Distraction and Diversion which is one of the best ways to train melee now (<200k exp/hr if one has a high strength bonus, Overloads/Extremes, and Turmoil). You can get a reward book from it once a month too.
2. The Members' Loyalty Programme is unveiled.
July
1. The Jadinko Lair. Brilliant place to train Firemaking and Fletching, completely free too! Also handy for the odd Slayer task.
1b. Also released was the whip vine, which requires 80 Slayer and 85 Attack to use. Upon attaching it to an Abyssal whip it gives an extra +4 bonus to slash and attack, as well as +2 to strength along with also providing a chance to do poison damage starting at 48. On top of all this it also provides the whip with an alternate special attack. If you don't have a Chaotic rapier yet this would be a decent substitute so long as cash isn't a problem (not that you can't sell it back anyway).
2. Clan Citadels introduced, where you can have even more fun with your clan mates. If you would like to join Zybez's - please look here.
August
1. Introduction of the Refer a Friend scheme which gives a temporary exp boost to both players.
2. Top end quest 1: Branches of Darkmeyer. The 5th instalment of the Myreque franchise - BoD allows players to create Blisterwood weapons that are essential for making the most of Vyrewatch training, use of Drakan's medallion which serves as a teleport to various places around Morytania such as the Barrows minigame area, and so on.
September
1. Top end quest 2: Ritual of the Mahjarrat. Incredibly useful in a variety of ways. Glacors for example, which can be accessed after it, drop combat boots for each of the three classes (Steadfast, Ragefire, and Glaiven) that sell from 7.2m to 35.3m. A guide which best explains the ways to kill them can be found here. Likewise the new Storm of Armadyl spell is a major addition to Magic's arsenal.
October
1. The bot-nuke. Another one's being planned for the near future too.
November
1. Dominion Tower. Dreadnips and the acclaimed Goliath gloves are rewards of note.
2. The Polypore Dungeon. Ganodermic beasts (need 95 Slayer to kill them) are nice sources of money if camped on correctly, whilst Ganodermic armour + the Polypore staff have majorly shaken up PvM and PvP mechanics (eg. has taken over as the best set-up for Corp thanks to its 53% Magic damage soaking ability, and also makes it is possible to kill Jad without even having to prayer-switch so long as you are protecting against Range the whole time.
2010:
Spoiler
January
1. Nomad's Requiem (Grandmaster quest). Rewards include 70 zeal which can equate to a significant amount of exp if invested in the right skill, and a Soul Wars cape that provides a +12 prayer bonus on top of +8 to all defensive stats which again comes in useful for Slayer (especially if Turmoiling a task) and boss hunting if you do not have access to (for example) a Fire cape.
2. A rework of Barbarian Assault, with the most important change being the release of Penance Horns that doubles exp when training Agility, Firemaking, and Mining.
February
1. Ability to craft double law, death, and blood runes. The chance of doing so increases as you get closer to level 99.
2. Addition of unique Slayer creatures: the Strykewyrms (Jungle, Desert, and Ice). The first two drop special hexcrests and focus sights which can be added to a normal Slayer helmet (making a Full Slayer helmet) so that Mages and Rangers also get a 16.66% damage boost on tasks. Meanwhile Ices can be killed for the Staff of Light. This boasts a 15% damage boost along with a 1/8 chance of saving the runes for whatever spell you're casting (this stacks with combat and battle robes from the Fist of Guthix minigame for a final probability of 1/5 and 1/2 respectively), and even comes with a special attack that halves all received melee damage for a minute.
3. An improvement to the Impetuous Impulses minigame with introduction of new catchable implings in their home plane of Puro-Puro and beyond. These are: the spirits (54 Hunter), zombies (87), and kinglies (91) - the last of which comes with a new Royal set of clothing.
March
1. craptered Heart D&D. Collect pairs of strange rocks from non-combat skilling and use them on the statue of Dahmaroc in Varrock's museum to earn free experience.
April
1. Release of the latest skill - Dungeoneering! In terms of what content it unlocks, this is arguably one of the most important events in RuneScape history. Chaotic equipment, resource dungeons, and a plethora of other rewards have revolutionised how we approach the game.
2. Slayer Challenges every tenth task which may force you to plan ahead regarding which master to go to when.
3. The Thieves' Guild and a quest line to expand it with. Home of many great training methods (example: coshing volunteers).
May
1. Quest - Fairy Tale III: Battle at Ork's Rift. Allows you to use fairy rings without a Draymen/Lunar staff, a magic watering can (unlimited supply of it), have your farming patches automatically weeded, and more.
2. Overhaul of Castle Wars rewards and the addition of an ingame ballista.
June
1. Introduction of Ancient Effigies. Use the 'fast effigy' and 'assistclan' friend chats to find someone to open yours if you don't have the necessary skills, or go to Daemonheim on world 117. However, please note that their drop rates have been significantly nerfed recently following disagreements over whether they were making skills too easy to train.
July
1. Quest: Love Story. Lets you make chipped house teleports which can take you to any settlement players can already move their POHs to with the inclusion of Trollheim as well, reduces servant costs by 25%, can now construct Dungeons, along with other perks.
August
1. Elite treasure trails.
September
1. Elite Achievment Diaries whose rewards such as the Ardougne cloak 4 and aforementioned enhanced Excalibur come in very handy for a whole host of situations.
October
1. Quest: The Void Stares Back. Allows the player to wield Korasi's sword, a popular PK'ing weapon thanks to its magic-based special attack. Also an option for training strength with alongside the traditionally popular Dragon scimitar and Saradomin sword.
November
1. Herblore Habitat - used primarily for Hunter and Farming training, but its unique Juju potions ease up grinding other skills such as Mining elsewhere. Also lets you access an extra fruit tree patch.
December
1. Release of the Dragon defender. Favoured by many players over the Dragonfire shield for Slayer tasks, and is undoubtedly a must-have if serious about maxing melee thanks to its excellent offensive stats.
2. Expansion of the damage soaking feature to encompass most armours, having been previously limited to the three Dungeoneering shields.
1. Nomad's Requiem (Grandmaster quest). Rewards include 70 zeal which can equate to a significant amount of exp if invested in the right skill, and a Soul Wars cape that provides a +12 prayer bonus on top of +8 to all defensive stats which again comes in useful for Slayer (especially if Turmoiling a task) and boss hunting if you do not have access to (for example) a Fire cape.
2. A rework of Barbarian Assault, with the most important change being the release of Penance Horns that doubles exp when training Agility, Firemaking, and Mining.
February
1. Ability to craft double law, death, and blood runes. The chance of doing so increases as you get closer to level 99.
2. Addition of unique Slayer creatures: the Strykewyrms (Jungle, Desert, and Ice). The first two drop special hexcrests and focus sights which can be added to a normal Slayer helmet (making a Full Slayer helmet) so that Mages and Rangers also get a 16.66% damage boost on tasks. Meanwhile Ices can be killed for the Staff of Light. This boasts a 15% damage boost along with a 1/8 chance of saving the runes for whatever spell you're casting (this stacks with combat and battle robes from the Fist of Guthix minigame for a final probability of 1/5 and 1/2 respectively), and even comes with a special attack that halves all received melee damage for a minute.
3. An improvement to the Impetuous Impulses minigame with introduction of new catchable implings in their home plane of Puro-Puro and beyond. These are: the spirits (54 Hunter), zombies (87), and kinglies (91) - the last of which comes with a new Royal set of clothing.
March
1. craptered Heart D&D. Collect pairs of strange rocks from non-combat skilling and use them on the statue of Dahmaroc in Varrock's museum to earn free experience.
April
1. Release of the latest skill - Dungeoneering! In terms of what content it unlocks, this is arguably one of the most important events in RuneScape history. Chaotic equipment, resource dungeons, and a plethora of other rewards have revolutionised how we approach the game.
2. Slayer Challenges every tenth task which may force you to plan ahead regarding which master to go to when.
3. The Thieves' Guild and a quest line to expand it with. Home of many great training methods (example: coshing volunteers).
May
1. Quest - Fairy Tale III: Battle at Ork's Rift. Allows you to use fairy rings without a Draymen/Lunar staff, a magic watering can (unlimited supply of it), have your farming patches automatically weeded, and more.
2. Overhaul of Castle Wars rewards and the addition of an ingame ballista.
June
1. Introduction of Ancient Effigies. Use the 'fast effigy' and 'assistclan' friend chats to find someone to open yours if you don't have the necessary skills, or go to Daemonheim on world 117. However, please note that their drop rates have been significantly nerfed recently following disagreements over whether they were making skills too easy to train.
July
1. Quest: Love Story. Lets you make chipped house teleports which can take you to any settlement players can already move their POHs to with the inclusion of Trollheim as well, reduces servant costs by 25%, can now construct Dungeons, along with other perks.
August
1. Elite treasure trails.
September
1. Elite Achievment Diaries whose rewards such as the Ardougne cloak 4 and aforementioned enhanced Excalibur come in very handy for a whole host of situations.
October
1. Quest: The Void Stares Back. Allows the player to wield Korasi's sword, a popular PK'ing weapon thanks to its magic-based special attack. Also an option for training strength with alongside the traditionally popular Dragon scimitar and Saradomin sword.
November
1. Herblore Habitat - used primarily for Hunter and Farming training, but its unique Juju potions ease up grinding other skills such as Mining elsewhere. Also lets you access an extra fruit tree patch.
December
1. Release of the Dragon defender. Favoured by many players over the Dragonfire shield for Slayer tasks, and is undoubtedly a must-have if serious about maxing melee thanks to its excellent offensive stats.
2. Expansion of the damage soaking feature to encompass most armours, having been previously limited to the three Dungeoneering shields.
2009:
Spoiler
January
1. Release of the In Pyre Need quest which unlocks the Phoenix Lair daily activity which provides a small amount of Slayer, Firemaking, Fletching, and Crafting exp. Also lets you take a Phoenix eggling as a pet.
2. Introduction of the Seers' Diary. On top of the hefty exp lamps you'll be able to enhance Excalibur by completing the Hard tasks to give it a special attack that heals 200 lifepoints. If you go on to finish the Elite set this will be doubled to 400 lifepoints.
February
1. The Soul Wars minigame. If you're bored of grinding out combat on the same NPC for hours on end, definitely give this a go. Win, lose or draw - you still get at least 1 zeal for your troubles which can be cashed in for exp in any of the combat skills (when you hit 90+ in the melee ones particularly the /hr rate actually starts looking pretty decent. Plus it's a lot more fun than killing thousands of armoured zombies or bandits...). For all intents and purposes: a powered-up version of Castle Wars. Remember to join a dedicated clan chat which might be spam-advertised on one of the themed servers to maximise your chances of ending up on the winning side.
2. Evil Tree Distraction and Diversion. Always a fun way to spend maybe 10-15 minutes of your time (depending on how quickly you get to one). When you're able to cut down the higher-levelled types it can actually be better exp than sticking to whatever you were doing originally. Note down the 'EvilTreeFind friends' chat to get alerts as to where the nearest one is.
June
1. The Hunt for Red Raktuber quest - the second instalment in the Penguin series. In fact it's arguably one of the most enjoyable ones in the game yet. Main perk is boosting the number of penguin points you can collect to 16 with the addition of a polar bear agent who's always found in a well.
July
1. Mobilising Armies revealed, a new multiplayer combat minigame. The player controls a battalion of NPCs with four different scenarios to choose from: Conflict, Siege, Hoard and Rescue. Each presents its own set of challenges, such as building catapults, collecting resources, and stealing from your opponents to name just a few. Notable rewards range from the ability to imbue certain rings to increase their stats (those of the Fremennik's are doubled for example) and a way to make extensive profits off jute seeds.
September
1. Introduction of the Living Rock Caverns. Currently the best way to train Mining (via concentrated coal and gold ores), and the also the only area in which you can catch cavefish (level 85 required) and rocktails (90). It's highly recommended that they are your options straight from 85 -> 99 simply due to the significant amounts of money they'll make for you (and the exp isn't that bad either).
October
1. High-level Herblore potions: super antifires (level 84) and Overloads (96). Definitely worth breaking one's bank to get the latter (you can boost to make it from ~92/93 using brown spicy stews) as it is invaluable nowadays for elite boss hunting (ie. Nex and the Corporeal beast).
December
1. The Temple at Senntisten quest. This is what you need to do in order to unlock the all-important Ancient curses prayer book and therefore use the acclaimed Soul Split (level 92) and Turmoil (95). Probably a wiser choice getting these first instead of Overloads considering how Turmoil works in both PvM and PvP environments - obviously making it more versatile, whilst Soul Split can greatly extend Slayer tasks + boss hunting trips through its healing effects on top of serving as an enhanced version of Smite for PK'ing purposes.
2. Kuradal's Dungeon given as a new Slayer environment. Keep an eye out for a ferocious ring in there, too. Those buggers add +40 damage to all your hits in there, as well as having the ability to teleport you out of the dungeon (but destroying itself in the process) if you're very close to dying.
3. Another quest: Blood Runs Deep. Main attractions would be the 3 x 150k exp rewards to any combat skill(s) and the acquisition of Balmung (you actually get it well before the story's over) - which deals increased damage upon dagannoths (<175% of your max hit with an equivalent strength bonus weapon).
1. Release of the In Pyre Need quest which unlocks the Phoenix Lair daily activity which provides a small amount of Slayer, Firemaking, Fletching, and Crafting exp. Also lets you take a Phoenix eggling as a pet.
2. Introduction of the Seers' Diary. On top of the hefty exp lamps you'll be able to enhance Excalibur by completing the Hard tasks to give it a special attack that heals 200 lifepoints. If you go on to finish the Elite set this will be doubled to 400 lifepoints.
February
1. The Soul Wars minigame. If you're bored of grinding out combat on the same NPC for hours on end, definitely give this a go. Win, lose or draw - you still get at least 1 zeal for your troubles which can be cashed in for exp in any of the combat skills (when you hit 90+ in the melee ones particularly the /hr rate actually starts looking pretty decent. Plus it's a lot more fun than killing thousands of armoured zombies or bandits...). For all intents and purposes: a powered-up version of Castle Wars. Remember to join a dedicated clan chat which might be spam-advertised on one of the themed servers to maximise your chances of ending up on the winning side.
2. Evil Tree Distraction and Diversion. Always a fun way to spend maybe 10-15 minutes of your time (depending on how quickly you get to one). When you're able to cut down the higher-levelled types it can actually be better exp than sticking to whatever you were doing originally. Note down the 'EvilTreeFind friends' chat to get alerts as to where the nearest one is.
June
1. The Hunt for Red Raktuber quest - the second instalment in the Penguin series. In fact it's arguably one of the most enjoyable ones in the game yet. Main perk is boosting the number of penguin points you can collect to 16 with the addition of a polar bear agent who's always found in a well.
July
1. Mobilising Armies revealed, a new multiplayer combat minigame. The player controls a battalion of NPCs with four different scenarios to choose from: Conflict, Siege, Hoard and Rescue. Each presents its own set of challenges, such as building catapults, collecting resources, and stealing from your opponents to name just a few. Notable rewards range from the ability to imbue certain rings to increase their stats (those of the Fremennik's are doubled for example) and a way to make extensive profits off jute seeds.
September
1. Introduction of the Living Rock Caverns. Currently the best way to train Mining (via concentrated coal and gold ores), and the also the only area in which you can catch cavefish (level 85 required) and rocktails (90). It's highly recommended that they are your options straight from 85 -> 99 simply due to the significant amounts of money they'll make for you (and the exp isn't that bad either).
October
1. High-level Herblore potions: super antifires (level 84) and Overloads (96). Definitely worth breaking one's bank to get the latter (you can boost to make it from ~92/93 using brown spicy stews) as it is invaluable nowadays for elite boss hunting (ie. Nex and the Corporeal beast).
December
1. The Temple at Senntisten quest. This is what you need to do in order to unlock the all-important Ancient curses prayer book and therefore use the acclaimed Soul Split (level 92) and Turmoil (95). Probably a wiser choice getting these first instead of Overloads considering how Turmoil works in both PvM and PvP environments - obviously making it more versatile, whilst Soul Split can greatly extend Slayer tasks + boss hunting trips through its healing effects on top of serving as an enhanced version of Smite for PK'ing purposes.
2. Kuradal's Dungeon given as a new Slayer environment. Keep an eye out for a ferocious ring in there, too. Those buggers add +40 damage to all your hits in there, as well as having the ability to teleport you out of the dungeon (but destroying itself in the process) if you're very close to dying.
3. Another quest: Blood Runs Deep. Main attractions would be the 3 x 150k exp rewards to any combat skill(s) and the acquisition of Balmung (you actually get it well before the story's over) - which deals increased damage upon dagannoths (<175% of your max hit with an equivalent strength bonus weapon).
Recurring experience-related events
Spoiler
Bonus Xp Weekend
The initial series of BXWs were held during every March and September from 2010 to March 2012, running between a Friday through to the next Monday. Everyone started with a 2.7x multiplier which slowly decreased over time to 1.1x. However Jagex since announced that this format was to be discontinued.
The replacement so it seems was unveiled as a 'Scary Halloween' treat in October 2012, with all players receiving a continuous x2 boost for the entire duration of the event.
Hati and Skoll
This seasonal bash seems to now run from every January on through to February (although Skoll only made its first appearance in 2012). Get yourselves some paws that double all exp earned for any combat skill you train with them on, plus a pair of boots that do the same for Woodcutting and Agility, and use them up before they expire sometime during May.
The initial series of BXWs were held during every March and September from 2010 to March 2012, running between a Friday through to the next Monday. Everyone started with a 2.7x multiplier which slowly decreased over time to 1.1x. However Jagex since announced that this format was to be discontinued.
The replacement so it seems was unveiled as a 'Scary Halloween' treat in October 2012, with all players receiving a continuous x2 boost for the entire duration of the event.
Hati and Skoll
This seasonal bash seems to now run from every January on through to February (although Skoll only made its first appearance in 2012). Get yourselves some paws that double all exp earned for any combat skill you train with them on, plus a pair of boots that do the same for Woodcutting and Agility, and use them up before they expire sometime during May.
RuneFest
Spoiler
An annual real-world meet organised and hosted by Jagex staff for the playing community. The first two (2010 + 2011) were held in London, but a recent poll to garner popular opinion has shown that most people would prefer the next to be staged in America. Further details will be released as we get closer to when it's been scheduled for.
Don't be shy to give feedback!
Merci for the good faith though lads, and don't worry Jim I'm on it. 
Crazy looking back on some of the updates and seeing just how long ago they really were.
