The proud Kingdom of Kourend has seen no end of troubles lately. It’s no wonder that some of its citizens have sought help from some more… esoteric allies.
Hello, us again!
We've been reading over everything that you've shared since our last update and have a few more clarifications to make on a couple of common themes. We've included them in the table from last week's blog update, where any new information is marked by an asterisk (*).
It's mentioned in the table, but you'll be pleased (or dismayed) to know that we've landed on a better name for the Cosmic Soul rune: the Aether rune. This was a popular suggestion among players and we reckon it encapsulates the essence of this combination well! You've been flexing your creative juices and come up with loads of potential names for future Catalytic combination runes, so we might just have to make more of them down the line! Additionally, we've renamed Abyssal Worms to Diabolic Worms.
Also on the naming front, we'll be giving Soul Armour a cooler name - Oathplate Armour, which is much better than 'Soul' and more befitting of its 'Demonic Knight' vibe. Speaking of, you can see some Oathplate armour concept art for the very first time below, including a look at the upgraded cosmetic variant. These sets see us injecting a bit more of that classic medieval flair into endgame gear, which we've been lacking a little as of late!
Looks like somebody made a deal to look fiercely foreboding... Shoutout to Mod Grub for the wonderful Concept Art
Having said all of that, we'd like to poll these rewards as-is starting today!. If you're reading this, the poll is likely already open or will be opening imminently - get those voting fingers ready!
We're confident that they're in a good place and want to bring Yama to you as soon as we can, so we'd love to lock things in and get cooking. We are aware that the likes of the Soulflame Horn and Surge Potion could prove to be powerful in ways that aren't immediately obvious on paper, so we're entering this polling in the knowledge that we may have to make adjustments down the line. For the time being, we think we're offering a suitably powerful set of rewards from a tough boss (with potential for even tougher encounters via Contracts) and want to see where you're at.
Remember to check the table below for new information, we'll see you at the polls!
We're back with an updated blog! Amidst all the hustle and bustle of RuneFest it hasn't been the easiest job seeing all of your thoughts on Yama in one place, so we're back to give you a refresher and make a handful of tweaks based on some of the questions and misconceptions we've seen, or were asked about at RuneFest.
We'll aim to keep things quick and come back with more significant tweaks soon if they're warranted - though your initial reaction has given us a lot of confidence! In no particular order, here's some clarifications.
| Point Raised | Our Response |
| *Players had concerns about waiting for Surge Potion cooldowns if they were using it for new speedrunning methods. | The Surge Potion cooldown will reset in all of the same places as the Imbued Heart's, including: using a pool in your POH or at the Ferox Enclave, entering and leaving a raid, entering and leaving the white portal at Clan Wars, or good old fashioned dying! |
| *Group Iron players wondered how the restrictions on the Soulflame Horn would impact them. | If you're in a Group Iron, other members of your Group can grant you the Horn's buff. For all intents and purposes, you're treated as a regular 'Main' account when within your group. |
| *Players felt that the requirement on Irons to have obtained their own Horn was a good start, but still pointed out potentials for intrusive alt usage that's further from the spirit of the gamemode than we'd like. | We've adjusted the restriction from our previous 'Collection Log' requirement and will instead allow the Horn to function on Irons within designated 'Group Content' on a case-by-case. This includes the likes of Nex, Raids, Royal Titans and Yama himself. |
| *A handful of you had questions around how strong the Diabolic Worms would be. | We don't have specific numbers in place yet, but we'll be looking to improve both the rate at which you catch Anglerfish (meaning more frequent 'rolls' for catches) and the success of those rolls (meaning you're more likely to succeed whenever you have a chance to catch a fish). It's important to us that these feel strong enough that you'd want to use them, otherwise they're not really worth us making! |
| Some players expressed concerns that Contracts sounded similar to Invocations at Tombs of Amascut. | We've made no secrets about not being over the moon with Invocations in hindsight, and want to provide some reassurance that Contracts should fundamentally change the feel of the fight, or the way that you approach it, rather than feeling like a small change with buffed numbers. It's not the case that you stack a bunch of different Contracts, instead you sign one and take on that particular fight rather than mix-and-matching or customising too heavily. |
| Players sought clarity on a handful of points regarding the Soulflame Horn |
Here's a couple of clarifications that we reckon should tackle a good chunk of common questions:
|
| "Is there a quest requirement?" | You'll need to have completed A Kingdom Divided to be able to take on Yama and interact with the new Mining activity. |
| "Can we solo it?" | You can! Yama won't go easier on you though, good luck! In all seriousness, we want Yama to be most efficient/worthwhile to take on in a duo, but we're not going to force you to duo. Enjoy the added challenge! |
| Players pointed out some of the numbers being off for the Oathplate Armour Set's stats/table | We've fixed these up and can only apologise for the initial error. Statlines were undergoing a lot of tweaking in the run-up to RuneFest and some errors slipped through the cracks. The numbers/images in the blog now are correct! |
| Some players wanted Diabolic Worms to come from elsewhere. |
We'd like to keep them where they're at. PvM and Skilling have become intertwined in many aspects, and we'd like for Yama to have some supply drops too. Having said that, we want to try steering away from 'boss drops a lot of food' and instead experiment with 'boss drops thing that makes it more worthwhile for you to go and get that food for yourself'.
This isn't a hill that we're willing to die on, but we're not sold on moving these just yet. |
| "Cosmic Soul rune isn't a very good name" | Fair enough, keep your suggestions coming! We went with this name just to keep things simple, a clear description of what the rune's doing and easy to talk about with your pals, while also making it obvious that it's a catalytic combination rune - something like 'Divine rune' sounds like it could be a different rune entirely. Having said all of that, we're open to changing it if we see the right suggestion so keep those brains whirring and let's see what you've got! Try to keep in mind the drop is coming from a demon and could make sense for future demon-coded enemies, so the likes of 'Divine' or 'Celestial' etc. feel a little off from the source. We've seen the likes of 'Mystic' or 'Occult' flying around and we're definitely more in favour of these, so show us what you've got! |
No doubt you'll have more to say, now's your time to say it! Let us know your thoughts in all of the usual places and we'll come back with an updated blog in the near future. If it doesn't look as though an updated blog is necessary, then expect to see these rewards making their way to a Poll Booth near you very soon!
That's a wrap on RuneFest and on our 13th Annual Golden Gnomes! We'd like to take a moment to say a huge thank you to everybody in the Old School RuneScape community who takes the time to create content that brightens our days and makes the grind fly by. We'd also like to thank everybody at home who took the time to nominate their favourite creators and vote for the nominees - helping us celebrate the best of what our Creator Community has to offer!
Without further ado, let's recap all of this year's winners!
As you may have gathered from the opening exposition, Yama is not for the faint of heart. Challenging a demon this powerful is a task for only the most cunning among you, which means this boss is geared towards endgame players.
Down here, Yama makes the rules, and because he knows the deal is in his favour, he'll even let you bring a friend to help out!
Since this is an endgame piece of content, we’re going to let you discover most of the mechanics for yourself. You can expect Yama to pull out every trick he’s learned in his long existence: powerful magic, bloodthirsty minions, manic cultists, good old-fashioned fireballs - you get the gist! While difficulty comparisons are always a struggle, the baseline experience will be a step beyond the Desert Treasure II bosses, and you’ll have the ability to change up the fight by engaging with one of Yama’s favourite pastimes: signing contracts.
Yama loves a good binding agreement, and he’s more than willing to lay some extra goodies on the dotted line. The contract mechanic could go in a number of directions, but the gist is that you’ll be able to trade a harder fight for different rewards. We’ve discussed a few options below, but right now, everything is on the table. We expect that Contracts will go far beyond the original fight and prove to be seriously tough, similar to Awakened bosses from Desert Treasure II.
If you’d like to welcome Yama into your life (and he really, really thinks you should), simply vote ‘yes’ to the following poll question:
Poll Question #1: Should we add Yama, a new duo-focused endgame boss, to Old School? Rewards will be locked in via poll at a later date.
Excellent… now, let’s talk rewards. If you could just sign here…
In the interest of building suspense, we’ll save the real heavy hitters for last and kick things off with a simple upgrade.
Death Charge Upgrade
For Yama, the Arceuus spellbook contains little more than party tricks. He's taken it upon himself to elevate some spells to new heights. If you're lucky, you could snag a page out of his gargantuan grimoire and put some of his forbidden knowledge to use...
For the average Magic user, converting a slain foe into Special Attack Energy is as draining as it is morbid. With the right technique though, there's always room for more juice! This upgrade would permanently buff your Death Charge, allowing you to gain Special Attack Energy from two enemies per cast, rather than just one.
Surge Potion
If there’s one thing demons love, it’s consumption. You adventuring types are just as gluttonous, so a consumable reward is the perfect fit.
Like all good demons these days, Yama drops a strange piece of himself – some Demonic Tallow to be exact. These tradeable organs can be used to make a brand-new potion boasting an effect never before seen in Old School.
These potions have a hefty Herblore requirement, but they should be more than worth the effort. Once every five minutes, you can sip from an Surge Potion to restore 25% of your Special Attack Energy. We imagine this will come in handy during enrage phases, clutch moments on low Hitpoints, and speedrunning – or you can simply use it to give yourself a Defence-reducing Special Attack at the start of every kill.
You’ll need Level 81 Herblore, some Demonic Tallow and a Torstol (or an Unfinished Torstol Potion) to make a Surge Potion for yourself. Oh, and you’ll also need a drop of your own blood to make the magic happen. This sanguine secondary means you’re making a brew tailored to you, so these potions are untradeable, though all of the ingredients except for your blood are tradeable!
Cosmic Catalyst
If you've ever spent minutes staring at the bank figuring out which runes to take out to cast everything you need from the Arceuus spellbook, then you'll love this one!
Cosmic Catalysts are tradeable, stackable drops from Yama that will allow you to make a new combination rune.
So long as you have 90 Runecraft, you'll be able to combine Cosmic and Soul Runes into an Aether rune, saving precious inventory space!
Diabolic Worms
Now for the one you've all been waiting for: it's worms!
Being the Master of Pacts isn't all brimstone and bureaucracy, it's hungry work and occasionally indulging in a hobby or two.
Should you prove successful in your battle with Yama, you might earn yourself a handful of Diabolic Worms. These worms will increase the rate at which you catch Anglerfish - handy for topping up those supplies for another day of duelling demons!
Equipment Rewards
Since Yama is an endgame duo boss, we have two unique rewards: a brand-new armour set and a unique team-oriented Special Attack weapon!
Slash Armour Set: Oathplate Armour
This new set of armour is something of a ‘sidegrade’ to Torva. As a full set it boasts +38 Slash Accuracy over Torva, at the cost of 6 Melee Strength.
Effectively, when paired with a Scythe of Vitur this armour outcompetes Torva against enemies with high Defence, but loses out in situations where Accuracy is less important.
Compared to Torva, this new set is a bit weaker to Stab, Crush and Ranged, but slightly better against Magic damage and significantly tougher against Slash damage.Here’s a quick table to show you how the two sets compare:
| Stat | Full Soul vs. Full Torva |
| Stab Attack | 0 |
| Slash Attack | +38 |
| Crush Attack | 0 |
| Magic Attack | +17 |
| Ranged Attack | -9 |
| Melee Strength | -6 |
| Stab Defence | -33 |
| Slash Defence | +51 |
| Crush Defence | -40 |
| Magic Defence | +13 |
| Ranged Defence | -58 |
We’re sure some of you are dismayed to hear you’ll have fewer opportunities to flex your Sanguine Torva, but you’ll be pleased to learn that the Oathplate Armour will also have its own cosmetic variant. This flashier version will be obtained through a Contract which takes your fight with Yama to a level truly deserving of its own cosmetic, but that’s all the detail you’ll get from us for now.
We like where the stats are for now, but we’re open to adjustments. We can’t wait to hear what you think of the Slash-focused set that makes your Scythe swinging shine!
Soulflame Horn
While some bits of group content do a great job of giving players roles to perform, most of it devolves into you and your friends doing the same thing you always do – together!
But do you hear that? It’s the booming blow of the Soulflame Horn, here to spice up how you tackle group combat.
Now to be clear, this is not something that will be required for every group fight from now until the end of time. In the right group scenarios, this is a very powerful addition to your team’s kit – but we don’t want anyone thinking they can’t hang out with their friends because they don’t have it yet.
Its stats ain’t much, but the Soulflame Horn boasts a unique Special Attack:
When we said 'unique', we meant it!
A horn's no good if you don't get to blow on it!
The Soulflame Horn's rousing bellow will provide an additional 100% Accuracy to allies within two tiles of you, guaranteeing that their next Melee hit (meaning first hitsplat) within 6 seconds is successful against NPCs. This costs 25% per player affected, so you’re limited to four allies, but it will also grant you the same buff if it affects an ally. This Accuracy-enhancing effect also applies to Special Attacks, so it should be easy to understand the potential of a Soulflame Horn into Defence-reducing Special Attacks combo. Sotetseg won’t know what hit him!
This is something we’ve never tried before, so we’re sure you’ll have lots to say about it. Let the discussion commence!
In just a moment! First, Yama would like to offer you an exclusive tour of his beautiful home.
Right now, the Chasm of Fire is just sort of… there. Demons in the Catacombs of Kourend already offer Dark Totem pieces and Ancient Shards, and demonic Slayer Tasks are usually aimed at K’ril Tsu’tsaroth, Demonic Gorillas, or Tormented Demons. As your charming host, Yama would be remiss not to offer a few more amenities for his guests.
We're not going to get into all of the specifics just yet, there's time for that in future blogs, but we've got a couple of things we'd like to add that give the Chasm of Fire a little more life, even for those of you who aren't looking to take on Yama. We won't dive into everything we're looking to do with the Chasm just yet, so expect more detail in the near future.
Mining
As a sneak peek though, we've got a brand new Mining method that will get you some rare and exciting new ore.
In exchange for a bit of physical labour, you’ll earn a new ore which can be combined with Armour Shards dropped by Yama to forge a chunk of Oathplate Armour for yourself. Armour Shards are a common drop, so you can choose to save them up for a piece that you're missing or you could sell them for a tidy profit if you’ve been lucky enough to get the whole set as a drop already. This system sits alongside conventional drop mechanics for the individual Oathplate Armour pieces, we expect that you'd likely have obtained a number of pieces organically before obtaining enough Shards to make one for yourself.
It's our hope that the relationship between entire Oathplate armour pieces dropping, the armour shards, and the ore from this activity will self regulate.
What we mean by this is that if loads of people do the mining activity for the ore, then they will go down in price and more of the value will sit with the armour shards from Yama, driving the GP/hr of Yama up.
If people stop doing the mining activity, then the armour shards will lose value, and the ore will go up, driving the GP/hr of the mining activity up.
We think this sounds solid on paper, and could be an interesting way to make skilling more profitable for those who are so-inclined, without hurting other aspects of the game. It will be interesting to see it play out in practice, if you agree!
We’ll have more to say about both of these activities in the coming weeks, but for now, we want to know your thoughts on the boss, the rewards, and the improvements to the Chasm of Fire. Let us know what you think on the usual channels and remember – always read the fine print!
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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