As we enter 2026, this year’s Winter Summit feels particularly special for Sailing. It was on our Winter Summit, back in 2022, that we asked the community whether you wanted to see a new skill come to the game. Thousands of you voted. All of your passion helping to fuel and guide our development. And now three years on, it’s a reality. Sailing is in-game right now, and we couldn’t have done it without you!
The volume, quality, and passion of your feedback has been nothing short of incredible. Because of you, we've refined the skill into something we are proud of. You’ve helped shape Sailing since the beginning, and we’re not stopping there.
Looking forward, we’ve got lots planned for Sailing. This year, we want to build upon the strong foundation we’ve made together, taking learnings from what went well and importantly what could have been done better. Grab your sea legs, because here’s a closer look at the Sailing Roadmap for 2026.
An important note: Everything outlined in our roadmap is subject to change. Development progress and most importantly, your feedback will continue to shape how and when these updates release. The timelines given below are just a guideline and not set in stone. Additionally, at the end of the blog you'll find out how the ‘Sailing Opinion Poll’ has shaped this roadmap and how we will continue to work with the community on the changes you want to see.
After reviewing your feedback, it’s clear that we need to spend more time on Boat Combat to make it feel better for players. The results from the 'Sailing Opinion Poll' showed a clear picture that improvements needed to be made here as a priority. We can see that players don’t currently feel that Boat Combat is a worthwhile activity for various reasons. Cannons feel expensive, slow and unimpactful, plus a range of other smaller issues.
We're taking this feedback very seriously, and as a result of this data we're prioritising Boat Combat as our first major launch for Sailing in 2026. For the last few weeks, we’ve been looking into pain points, frustrations, and suggestions on what we can do to improve this area.
We've come up with some changes which should help to address the major issues. Here's what we'd like to do:
We recognise that getting Cannonballs in sufficient quantities has been a pain point since launch. We added the Ancient Forge to speed up the smithing of cannonballs, but you've told us that the real problem is the amount of cannonballs per metal bar. Therefore we would like to separate the cannonballs used for the Dwarven Multicannon away from the cannonballs used for Sailing. The existing steel and granite cannonballs would be renamed to Dwarven cannonballs and Dwarven granite cannonballs respectively.
A new cannonball mould will be sold in various accessible locations that when used, allows you to smith 8 Sailing cannonballs per metal bar. Notably, this would not require completion of the Dwarf Cannon quest.
We know that many of you have already converted your bars into cannonballs and wish we would have updated this sooner. If this goes ahead, we would not be able to reimburse any cannonballs, however, we do believe that this will create a better long-term cannonball economy.
Additionally we are going to increase the number of cannonballs that drop from various sources within Sailing, such as from drop tables and from cannonball stall thieving. We will also ensure that cannonball shops restock faster.
We have seen your suggestions for ammo saving mechanics on the boat. This is not something we are looking to explore at this time as we believe separating cannonball types will help their economy sufficiently.
When Sailing launched we wanted cannons to be the best way to fight sea monsters in any scenario. That fantasy is so cool! However, in order to achieve that, we ended up in a position where traditional combat feels sluggish, and your gear upgrades don't matter. We've seen your feedback that Sailing feels disconnected from the rest of the game. All these issues have caused Sailing combat to feel like an unofficial fourth combat skill.
Sailing isn't a Combat skill, and we would like to bring it more in line with what you expect from the rest of the game. Cannons should be thought of as just another Ranged weapon, slotted in a similar place to existing ranged combat (though slightly better in most cases, given the niche area it can be used in). As a result we'll be adjusting cannons and cannonball stats to better suit the ranged weapon progression. On a similar note, we would like to open up the floor to allow ranged gear to count towards your ranged accuracy and strength when using Sailing cannons, truly making the cannons feel like the ranged weapons they are and rewarding the gear you grinded for hours and hours. If not leaning into ranged gear, we may want to look at Sailing-specific combat armour, although we have concerns about this making Sailing feel more like a combat skill. We would love to hear how the community feels about this.
The fantasy of a slow, hard-hitting cannon hasn't quite been satiated. Therefore we are proposing slowing down the cannon's attack rate, but in turn improving its strength to make up for it. In seclusion, this change would result in no change to dps, but would be a thematically cool and more economic option as you would get more damage per cannonball. Not only will bigger hits feel more satisfying, but it will also make your cannonball stack last a lot longer.
We want you to engage with cannon combat because you want to, not because the alternative is bad. We are confident that the above changes will make cannon combat more appealing. That said, alternatives are always good. Traditional combat from boats has felt sluggish and bad for too long - so we're proposing removing this restriction, making traditional combat from boats act the same way as it does in the rest of the game. However, Combat from boat to land will remain disabled due to the possibility of bypassing intentional mechanics.
We envision your progression through the game to weave between using cannons and traditional weapons. When these changes go live, the meta will likely settle on using traditional combat at the top end, with your crew acting as super-charged thralls... For now. Remember, cannons are only going up to dragon tier. Dragon shouldn't compete with megarares, like Tumeken's Shadow. But the future may hold more interesting boat weapon upgrades such as variants of cannonballs, improved cannons, different combat style weapons (magic cannon, anyone?) or even a boat mega-rare! For now we are committing to fixing the foundations of boat combat such that we have the space to introduce these exiting upgrades in the future.
On land, combat can be relatively AFK due to auto-retaliate, but at sea there is no such thing. Additionally you might be constantly having to bark orders at your crew if you want them to attack different targets. For this reason, we are introducing a ‘Fire at Will’ mode for Crewmates to allow you engage in Combat in a similar, laidback way. When toggled via the side panel, the crewmates would fire at any attackable creature they can find within range. We would also look to update their range such that they find targets the same way that a player would.
We have also seen your feedback on crewmates combat capabilities feeling underwhelming. We would like to improve how their ranged level relate to their privateering level so that Jittery Jim stops wasting your precious cannonballs.
The Dragon Cannon Barrel can be difficult to obtain, especially as most players will try to get two of them for their boat, rather than just one. Currently, the only way you can obtain it is via Shipwreck Salvaging, with few options to speed up this grind. Given its rarity, going dry on this feels terrible.
We would like to add an alternative, more engaging way to obtain the Dragon Cannon Barrel. Hidden amongst the Tangled Kelp lurks the Veiled Kraken - a new, high level sea monster. Not for the faint of heart, the Veiled Kraken will certainly fight back, similar to the Vampyre Kraken. However, for your trouble, they might decide to drop you a Dragon Cannon Barrel. Of course, being a kraken, the veiled kraken would also be able to drop the 'Inky Paint'.
There is a certain 'wiggle technique' that players have become accustomed to in order to maximise their DPS at sea, rotating their boats to ensure both cannons can fire at the given target. Generally, this feels bad for most players. We would like to introduce 2 new weapon hotspots on the sloop and expand the gun port in the hull such that it can fit two cannons on either side of the boat. Before you get your hopes up - you would still be limited to two cannons per boat. However, this gives you the option to place the cannons where you want them! Only ever want to fight from starboard side? No problem. Perfectly align your cannons to fire the same direction every time. Please note that by the time this launches, you will already have the option to move facilities around on the boat.
Lastly, we'll reduce the delays in looting sea creatures. This is currently clunky and takes you out of the combat flow. We will prototype some options and show you our favourite soon enough!
Would you like to see Cannonballs separated into Dwarven and Sailing-specific cannonballs?
Would you like us to explore improvements to the sources of Cannonballs as described above (Increasing them from skilling and cannonball shop stocks)?
Should we add a Veiled Kraken, a new NPC found in the Tangled Kelp area of the sea? Notable drops include the Dragon Cannon Barrel and Inky Paint.
Once we’ve ran all the numbers, we'll review where things sit in terms of XP and GP from boat combat. We expect the kills per hour to increase significantly, and therefore may review some creature stats and drop tables as a result. We'll keep an eye on Bounty Tasks in particular. A key learning for us is that we should have emphasized earlier on to players that Sailing XP is not the main reward for doing Bounty Tasks. Sailing isn't a Combat skill, and we don't want Sailing to feel like one. When creating training methods, there are several 'levers' we can pull (XP, GP, and loot). Bounty Tasks are intentionally balanced around their loot being their primary reward rather than XP, so that we can give players an engaging experience at sea. Whilst we're open to tweaks and changes to make it feel better for players, this principle will remain the same even after the Combat changes and review.
So, what do you think? Are you happy about these changes, or would you like us to consider anything else?
If the feedback is positive enough for us to proceed, we would like to release these changes as soon as possible. Let us know what you think by voting in the poll, and sharing your feedback on our usual channels.
This year, you’ll continue the Troubled Tortugans questline with The Red Reef. This is a brand-new quest that sees you going undercover to investigate a suspicious trading company. You can expect twists, turns and a lot of laughs along the way, too.
Since this was polled back in 2025, we don’t need to poll anything right now. We’re releasing this content when we’re fully satisfied with the state of Ship Combat, since naturally during the quest you can expect things to get a little messy when protecting the Tortugans!
Naturally, this will mean a later release than what was originally planned, which might mean late Spring 2026, or later.
Rewards
- This is an Experienced level quest.
- Quest requirement: Troubled Tortugans.
- Skill requirements: 52 Sailing and 48 Smithing.
- Rewards: 2 Quest Points, 15,000 Sailing XP, 5,000 Smithing XP, and access to the ‘Sacred Grove’, containing Camphor tree resources, an invisible woodcutting boost (+7), and a deposit box.
Are you tired of fighting sea monsters? Are you looking for a real fight? Soon, you can play through your naval combat fantasy of going sloop-to-sloop with another boat!
Alongside the Red Reef quest, we would like to introduce the ability to fight boats at sea. These aren't just NPCs like you're used to - these are boats that can hold NPCs inside it, just like your boat. This could lead to interesting encounters where you might be attacking a ship and the pirates on that boat at the same time!
While we are committed to improving basic boat combat first, we think this could be a great way to expand the sea combat system further. Closer to the time we'll reveal more information about what encounters you can expect and what interesting booty these ships may be carrying.
Would you like to see us introduce boat enemies at sea?
One of the most exciting parts of Sailing has been how much you’ve helped shape it. When we first started with Sailing, we were committed to making it one of the most community driven updates we've ever created. With that in mind, we asked ourselves, "what if we just let players design their own island?" and here we are!
This is next-level community involvement and we're so unbelievably amazed by how incredible the talent that has been shown from the community. The competition has now closed, and we’d like to thank absolutely everyone who took part.
We received over 1,400 entries to this competition, and we were absolutely blown away by your ideas. We were truly honoured to read through each and every submission. We were especially touched by some of the personal messages you shared about the game in your e-mails.
A panel of J-Mods from the Sailing team have had the incredibly difficult task of selecting four finalists. Today, you’ll get to vote for your favourite using a ranked-choice vote. Before we get into each potential island, it's important to remember that details can and will likely change throughout development. We're presenting each design to you as it has been submitted, however, there are certain aspects of each entry that we would need to tweak, adapt or cut to better suit the needs of the game, our scope for the project, and most importantly, our community. When you cast your vote, please keep in mind that details such as level requirements might change and certain features might need to be cut or adapted where we see fit.
We've separated the shortlisted entries out in this blog. Please take a read for further details!
Which of the following Player Designed Island pitches would you like to see refined further by the team?
Barracuda Trials are fast-paced time trials that test your skills as a Sailor by racing in time trials. We’re pleased to see from the Opinion Poll results that generally, players seem to love doing these – the data suggests enjoyment is right up there with Shipwreck Salvaging!
You’ll be pleased to hear that a brand-new Barracuda Trial is on the way, and it’s shaping up to be the toughest one yet.
While we can’t share all the details just yet (some of them don’t exist yet!), here’s what we can say:
This trial will push your Sailing skills further than ever. We’re taking all of the lessons we’ve learned from previous trials, and we’re keen to work with you.
It’ll be challenging, it’ll be intense, and yes… it will be fast. You’ve been warned.
Would you like a new Barracuda Trial? Details on the design will be shared once development starts.
Autumn also brings a brand-new sequel quest continuing one of Gielinor's existing storylines.
Even before Sailing launched, you gave us so many exciting ideas for stories built upon that already exist in-game. We don’t want to spoil what we’re working on just yet. So for now, hold your breath... The seas may get quite strange.
Would you like us to introduce a sequel quest to an existing storyline? Details on the design and potential rewards will be shared once development starts.
Now, for something we'd like to work on towards the end of the year: A Sea Expansion!
When Sailing launched, we deliberately focused on more curated ocean regions, meaning there are still vast areas of Gielinor’s seas waiting for content, including:
- The Eastern Ocean
- The Untamed Ocean
- The Forgotten Ocean
There are also existing regions, like the Sunset Ocean, that could benefit from more content or points of interest.
This expansion may tie into other updates revealed above, such as the Sequel Quest, another area update, or new Barracuda Trial but we’re still exploring options and we’re not ready at this early stage to commit yet.
Got ideas? We’d love to hear them. For now, we’re just greenlighting whether this is something you would like us to do.
Would you like us to explore adding a Sea Expansion? This could include new content within the Eastern, Untamed, Forgotten or Sunset Ocean. Please note that this update may be tied to other updates, such as the Sequel Quest, another area update, or a Barracuda Trial. Further details would be shared once the designs are written.
At the end of 2025, we ran our first Sailing Opinion Poll in-game. We got valuable insights from the community on just that! We want you to know that we take your feedback incredibly seriously. So, broadly, here’s what we learned.
Firstly, we’re pleased to note that the results of the poll paint a largely positive picture. Core Sailing systems like boat movement, ship upgrades and most training methods are enjoyed, but Ship Combat stands out as the biggest pain point, as mentioned above.
To address this, we’ve shifted the focus of the roadmap to focus on Ship Combat and explained our approach to what we’re changing earlier in this blog post. If you would like further changes, do let us know by sharing your thoughts on our usual social media channels.
Players generally expressed that early-game Sailing (1–30) felt the weakest but generally noted that it becomes more enjoyable the longer you stick with it. Interestingly, however, most players want development focus on the high-level experience (72–90). We’re exploring how we can adapt content plans to fit that bracket, but it’s always important to remember that our content needs to appeal to a wide cohort of players, so that everyone has reasons to play and enjoy Sailing.
Generally, it looks like players are seeking training methods that provide better GP/hr, stronger rewards, and reasons to continue beyond just simply getting 99. Roughly 80% of players believe Sailing needs buffs, but it’s not conclusive of how or where. So far, the main areas where players seem to want buffs are around Courier Tasks, Deep Sea Trawling, and certain Ship Upgrades. There is also a strong appetite for high value unique items, Bosses, cosmetics, and generally deeper integration with other skills. Now, we don’t have any news to share on buffs just yet, but rest assured, these areas are something we will be discussing as a team, so you might see us resurface this in a future blog post.
Encouragingly, it looks like most of the 2026 roadmap received a lot of support, particularly for Ship Combat being reworked. Phew! Naturally, some updates were stronger than others, but broadly speaking, it looks like players approve of the content in the works. Well, everything except one: Protection Tasks.
Since the launch of Sailing, we’ve had lots of feedback around Port Tasks. Whilst some players worked out optimal routes for Courier Tasks and managed to rack up XP, the general community consensus has been that they don’t feel worthwhile for the time invested. On top of that, we already know that Ship Combat hasn’t been in the best place, which naturally impacts Bounty Tasks, making them not feel worthwhile.
Our intention behind Courier Tasks has always been that they should be stacked together and completed alongside other gameplay within Sailing. However, players have expressed that this can end up leaving them feeling a bit more like an ‘Uber Eats’ driver rather than a Sailor!
Port Tasks should evoke the core thematic of Sailing: using your boat as a tool to help NPCs across Gielinor. It’s not the most exciting way to train Sailing, but not every gameplay method will be exciting to everyone. However, it is increasingly clear from feedback that changes could be made.
Early last year, we brainstormed new ways to make Port Tasks feel more exciting. This is where we wanted to propose a new kind of Port Task: Protection Tasks. Instead of hauling deliveries from Port A to B, you’d be tasked with escorting other NPC ships safely to their destination. Even better, there’s no crates for you to have to pick up, and you’ll need to focus on what’s going on at sea.
Our idea behind this was to shake up your gameplay and ensuring that trips feel a lot more dynamic, co-operative and generally a little more interesting. Additionally, we wanted to help make the sea feel more alive with a bunch of NPC boats out there with you.
However, after reviewing the results of the Opinion Poll, it’s clear that this type of content isn’t what players are asking for right now. Only 45% of players said they liked this kind of update when asked. Instead, the data is telling us that players would generally prefer our time to be spent on fixing some of the pain points with existing content. We hear you loud and clear. So, as a result, we’ve paused any further development here and we will not be polling Protection Tasks until further notice.
So, now that we’ve covered the big beats in 2026, let’s talk about how we’re handling smaller gripes, issues and pain points. Sometimes, a small change can make the world of difference for players, and we know how important these updates are for how it feels when investing your time into the skill.
Alongside these updates, we will also launch quality of life changes to Sailing as part of our ongoing development work with Sailing. The team is smaller than where we were at launch, so we need to prioritize these changes in terms of resource, scope and impact.
Here are some of the changes that we’re ready to poll, however please note that we don’t have a release date for them yet.
Good news, Barracuda Trial outfits are now storable within the Player Owned House. We had this on our radar for feedback, and thanks to all of the data we got from the Opinion Poll, it got bumped up in our priority list.
Now, for the question on every UIMs mind: the Cargo Hold restrictions. We’ll cut right to the chase - over 80% of UIM want changes to the Cargo Hold. From the data we got, the most popular solution amongst UIM in the Opinion Poll was to simply remove all UIM restrictions on the Cargo Hold, so that they are effectively treated as 'main' acccounts for this feature.
Poll Question: (UIM only) Would you like us to remove all UIM restrictions on the Cargo Hold?
Many UIM also wanted us to change how they handle the materials for building facilities on their boats. We're certainly open to it, though the survey's results were less clear about the level of support for this change. For now, we'll start with just the Cargo Hold change for UIM; that'll let us spend more of our development time on changes that would benefit the whole Sailing community. We'll keep an eye on your feedback and consider if we should revisit this in the future.
The following quality of life changes from the Opinion Poll received a lot of support from players:
- Moveable facilities
- Rapids travel system
- Port Task filtering to only show tasks you can do
- Facilities being upgraded at a reduced cost
- Hide locations that have been charted already
- Allow the medallion of the deep to be used at Fossil Island
- Use the spec button for Wind Motes
- Spyglass cutscene skip
- That’s not to mention the thousands of helpful suggestions we got when we directly asked for your ideas.
Now, the team needs to prioritise the improvements to Ship Combat, which were so strongly supported in the survey results, so other work will have to wait a little. But we hope to fit in some small fixes despite this, so we're polling a few changes that we believe we can release relatively soon, with a view to offering more when the more urgent work is complete. In fact, we're pleased to confirm that moveable facilities, the most requested quality of life change from the Opinion Poll, should be releasing as an unpolled change coming next week!
You've told us that Gryphon tasks are too rare, making the Belle's Folly sit in an odd spot where it can feel harder to obtain than a Zombie Axe. As a result, this makes the weapon feel too niche, and we generally recognise that players aren't going to go out of their way to obtain it.
Gryphon tasks can't be manually extended, so if you want more kills for uniques, you have to get assigned the task again instead of extending the current one. As we pitched this item as the 'stab' equivalent of a Zombie Axe, we think it should sit at around the same level of difficulty to obtain.
We're proposing to increase the weighting of Gryphon tasks on Vannaka and Chaeldar, plus add an optional task extension, which will help to address this frustration for players by making Gryphon tasks a bit more impactful for mid-level progression.
| Slayer Master | Weighting | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Vannaka | 7 | 30–80 |
| Chaeldar | 5 | 60–100 |
| Nieve | 7 | 110–170 |
| Duradel | 7 | 100–210 |
| Slayer Master | Weighting | Base Amount | Amount with Extension |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chaeldar | 10 | 60–100 | 140–180 |
| Duradel | 7 | 100–210 | 180–290 |
| Nieve | 7 | 110–170 | 190–250 |
| Vannaka | 10 | 30–80 | 110–160 |
As mentioned, we'll also add a task extension (which adds a flat +80), so that tasks will be more impactful once you get them. You can choose to pay to extend the task for a cost of 50 slayer points, which is same as unlocking the task.
Would you like us to change Gryphon Task weightings and add an optional task extension as described?
If successful, this update will launch at the same time as Combat Achievements for Gryphons - ideally in the next few weeks!
There is also a change that we’re working on to make the sea feel a bit more immersive and alive.
We would like to add existing Fishing spots in various locations at sea, so that if you would like to engage in regular Fishing from your boat, you can do so. Let us know what you think!
Would you like us to add Fishing spots to areas in the Sea to allow players to do regular Fishing from their boat?
Finally, we'll be making an unpolled change to the Medallion of the Deep so that it works at the Farming area of Fossil Island, following player feedback. Right now, the Medallion doesn't work in Fossil Island’s various zones, which feels inconsistent, especially since its use is to promote underwater exploration. We're still not going to allow the full benefit of it to be used within the underwater agility and thieving training area, since that would trivialise the breathing mechanic entirely, but we're open to feedback on how the medallion may still improve your experience in the area. Do let us know your thoughts!
From quests and trials to islands and sea expansions, 2026 is shaping up to be a huge year for Sailing. It wouldn’t be possible without your continued feedback and passion.
Please remember, this roadmap is not set in stone. Timings and details may change depending on various factors, including player feedback and development realities.
Don’t like something featured today? Let us know in the comments. Your thoughts and feedback will genuinely influence what we build next, so do let us know what you’re excited for, what you’re unsure about, and what you’d like to see more of. We'll see you soon!
You can also discuss this update on the 2007Scape subreddit, the Steam forums, or the community-led OSRS Discord in the #gameupdate channel. For more info on the above content, check out the official Old School Wiki.
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