News

Feel like you’ve been waiting an ice age for The Land Out of Time? Well that’s nothing compared to how long the dinosaurs have awaited their return. But their fallen kingdom will be reborn with the arrival of a brand new island filled with fresh danger (dinosaurs!), new activities (Big Game Hunter!) and a skill revamp (Agility Course!), and loads, loads more. Did we mention the dinosaurs? We guarantee you it’s going to be a right Jurassic Lark.

Tyrannosaurial tomfoolery aside, in July you can also look forward to summer XP game show, a new month of freebies via Twitch Prime, a 3-for-2 membership offer and the chance to grab yourself a bargain in the Solomon’s General Store July Sale. And, surprise, there’s also a Double XP Weekend to look forward to!

THE LAND OUT OF TIME

As you’ll have seen in the Desperate Times quest (definitely skip this paragraph if you haven’t played it yet), Kerapac has stolen the Needle and raced off into a mysterious cloudbank on the ocean. He intends to kill the Elder Gods by sacrificing Gielinor, and as part of this plan he’s clawed back through the strands of time to an age of prehistoric portent populated by the most fearsome monsters RuneScape has ever seen.

The Land Out of Time is emerging from the storm. Here’s a look at what you’ll be doing there:

Big Game Hunter

It’s time for Hunter to get supersized. The Land Out of Time brings a new training method for the Hunter skill that spans Hunter level 75-96 and Slayer level 55-76. It all focuses around nine towering and terrifying dinosaurs. Squaring off these hulking monstrosities is out of the question, and if you hope to get the better of them you’ll need to think on your feet. Your only hope is to collect resources and set treacherous traps – if you stay out of sight and they remain unaware, you might just get lucky. You’ll have to be a very clever girl indeed to outwit your no-longer-quite-so-extinct opponents.

The aim is to take boss fight mechanics and entwine them with the DNA of combat to make the overall fighting experience more varied and exciting. Stealth, patience and holding your nerve are the keys to huge XP drops and loot that works in exactly the way you’d expect from a boss drop table. Once you’ve bested a beastie you’ll have to skin it, giving you the chance to gain essential resources such as a new level 75 ranged armour set and new melee weapon that does extra damage to ranged creatures, much like the hexhunter bow.

Remember that alongside this new content we’re also revamping the entire Hunter skill, and making the Hunter outfit earnable in-game. You can read more about that here.

Agility Course

As part of the ongoing theme of revisiting and improving existing RuneScape mechanics, The Land Out of Time offers a more dynamic take on Agility than we’ve previously seen. There’s now more reason than ever to train it, and you’ll have a better time doing so than ever before.

The island is encircled by an expansive Agility Course that is not only the quickest way of traversing it, but can also be joined or left at regular intervals – think of it as an agility shuttle bus. You can head around in either direction, too. A complete circuit will take roughly seven minutes, although there are also plenty of smaller sub-circuits to enjoy. Taking advantage will also put you in the running for loot grabbing, including new ability codex pages that can unlock two charges for two new abilities – Mutated Surge and Mutated Escape abilities.

To access the first section of the Agility Course you’ll need Agility level 30, but for the full course you’ll need to be level 85.

Slayer

Ever since Slayer was upped to 120 alongside Menaphos, players have been calling out for more high-level monsters that make the most of it. All of which is about to change! The Land Out of Time will add a whopping eight new Slayer creatures that span level 90-114. But while Big Game Hunter focuses on dinosaurs, Slayer leans just as much into Little Shop of Horrors, with four dinosaurs and a fearsome range of four carnivorous plant-themed nasties.

Players will also be able to employ their Farming skills to grow and cultivate their own Slayer mobs, too.

Also new is the Cluster task type. This is designed to give you more freedom to shape your Slayer tasks as you see fit by offering more generalised goals that include broader categories of enemies. So for example, rather than being told that you need to fight celestial dragons, you may instead simply be told to fight simply dragons – the choice of which dragons, including even bosses if you like, is up to you.

Assigning these new tasks is new high-level Slayer Master, Laniakea. Said to be dark, twisted and mysterious, Laniakea regularly drinks poisons to build her resistances. While she does little in the way of fighting these days, she continues to crave greater strength. It is the lure of undiscovered power that has drawn her to the island. She’ll also have a range of more conventional tasks to offer similar to Morvran’s, but with a high-level focus. Players will need level 90 Slayer and level 120 Combat to access her.

Base Camp

The island and its numerous dinosaurs can, unsurprisingly, prove quite perilous. So one of the first things you’ll want to do is establish a Base Camp. This ruined temple may be your safe haven of colonisation, but is in dire need of some TLC. Players will have the chance to maintain and upgrade it in much the same way as they would a port or farm.

Players can assign workers to build and upgrade seven different buildings, such as a Town Hall and Slayer Lodge, each of with can be progressed through three tiers. Doing so produces perks that can make your island adventure a little easier. For example, upgrading the Slayer Lodge will increase the damage you can deal across the whole island. Indeed, upgrading the basecamp will even help in your journey across the rest of Gielinor.

Totems

As you explore the island and take part in its various activities, you’ll find fragments which can be used to build Totems. These tribal statues offer game-wide benefits and effects themed around timesaving. For example, one reduces all aura cooldowns by 15%. There are a total of eight Totems to build, and you can have up to three active at any one time. With great power comes great responsibility, however, so expect to spend a little time looking after your Totems if you want to keep enjoying these benefits – you’ll get a little Divination XP for your efforts, too.

Expect to see further Totem developments a little later down the road…

Herby Werby

On top of everything else there’s also a new activity offering herblore XP that the developers have chosen to call Herby Werby. Yes, really. Perhaps they were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should? Herby Werby can be completed once a week and offers assorted rewards such as a herb bag which stores grimy herbs.

There’s so much to see

There are plenty of nooks, crannies and secrets to discover across The Land Out of Time, and among them you’ll find two new overgrown idols for woodcutting, some mining sites, additional traditional hunter spots and fishing locations.

We can’t wait for you to visit The Land Out of Time, which will be available to RuneScape members this month. Speaking of which…

DOUBLE XP WEEKEND

There’s never a better time to be a member than Double XP Weekend, and we’re delighted to confirm there’s one on the way this month. The fun will run from July 26th to July 29th. While non-members can still enjoy a 20% XP boosts, members can take full advantage of doubled XP rates across the whole game and The Land Out of Time, with just a handful of restrictions – click here for details on those.

And if you’re not currently a member (or even if you are) we have yet more good news…

SUMMER SPECIAL

You have until August 4th to grab 3 months of RuneScape membership for the price of 2, guaranteeing your ticket to The Land Out of Time in the process! This stacks with any existing membership you already have. As well as full access to an exciting summer of content, buyers will also get a brand-new outfit for their troubles – the Dragonkin armour! Hold onto your butts and head over here to claim your cut-price membership!

BANK IMPROVEMENTS

We've been working hard on getting you a playable beta of the Bank changes to test, and we're excited to announce that we aim to have it for you towards the back end of this month. Featuring a new interface, placeholders, six additional bank tabs, filters, and much more, it will be ideal to store all of your new Land Out of Time riches. If you've not seen our May dev blog, or watched our live stream, featuring all of the new updates you can expect in action, check them out now!

SPECTACULAR SUMMER SKILL-OFF

On the presumption that Gielinor survives Kerapac’s apocalyptic plot, the summer holidays will play host to a skill-focused game show event! The Summer Skill-Off takes place in the crater and will concentrate on six skills – Hunter, Cooking, Runecrafting, Agility, Dungeoneering and Herblore.

Players will throughout the time limited event be able to gather tokens by skilling throughout the game world. These can then be deposited at the station corresponding to one of the skills. This has two purposes: players will receive boosted XP in the associated skill, but it also serves as a vote. At the end of each voting period, the skill station with the fewest votes is deactivated. The last skill standing will be declared the winner!

The gathering will be home to some familiar faces seen in previous events. Also keep your eyes peeled for a new NPC who’s described as “mysterious and just a little insane”.

Rewards include the Snack Yak (which is exactly what it sounds like – a pack yak completely covered in food) and a really sinister looking sword, about which we shall remain tight-lipped...

DINO WEAPON PACKS

What are the main questions you should ask yourself before you embark on a mission to fight a resurrected island of menacing dinosaurs? Number one is probably “Why on earth am I doing this?” but right behind it is “And how good am I going to look while I’m doing it?”

Fortunately the answer is “You can look entirely fabulous” thanks to a new range of Land Out of Time themed weapon overrides. There are three weapon packs spread across Melee (two handed sword, scimitar, mace, dagger and spear), Magic (staff, wand, orb and book) and Ranged (shield bow, two handed crossbow, one handed crossbow, throwing axe, short bow and throwing knife).

The set will be available to buy in Solomon’s General Store from July 15th.

REI TI RONIN SET

Many years ago a group of elemental warriors from the Wushanko Isles banded together to form a fearsome fighting force. And in July players will have the chance to grab the armour that once adorned the fire warriors known as the Rei Ti Ronin.

The Rei Ti Ronin set will be winnable in a new Treasure Hunter event called Flames of Rei Ti, arriving this month. Players can choose which part of the armour they’d like next. After the gloves to complete the outfit? Or really like the look of the headpiece? No problem – just select the button corresponding to that armour piece and the chances of it rolling are increased.

Oh, and an extra button is included for those whose hunger is only for XP items.

Which ancient elemental warrior will be the next to visit the Forge, do you think?

TWITCH PRIME

Have you claimed your two free Umbral Chests yet? Month 2 of RuneScape’s latest Twitch Prime offer is rapidly drawing to a close and with it the chance to grab two guaranteed super rare prizes.

Claiming your loot is very easy. If you’re a Twitch Prime member (which is included with Amazon Prime, incidentally) then simply log into Twitch, click on the crown icon in the top right and hit the button for the RuneScape rewards to link your RuneScape and Twitch accounts.

And remember – if you already redeemed your free membership for Month 1 then you need to redeem again each month to get the new rewards.

Month 3 kicks off on July 16th, offering the Umbral Waraxe, Umbral Wingset and the super-cool Umbral Salawa Akh pet. It also includes all the previous Umbral cosmetics offered in last year’s Twitch Prime deal.

JULY SALE

Make sure to check out Solomon’s General Store throughout July for a full month of sumptuous summer discounts!

There’s a bit of everything available including packs, pets, services, animations and hairstyles, with some limited edition items such as the Legendary Blazehound making a return. Bank Presets are also available for the first time ever! Note that these presets are not accessed from the store but can instead be found via the in-game bank interface.

MAHJARRAT AURA

A reminder that from July 29th the Mahjarrat Aura will be obtainable by all players!

Players will be able to grab the best-in-slot aura for 1,000 Reaper points, or in exchange for 3 Bonds. Obviously if you signed up for Premier Club in 2016, the Mahjarrat Aura is already unlocked on your account and available to use.

Check out our recent blog post on the subject for all the details.

Until next time!

The RuneScape team.