Please note that this is a “The Year Ahead: 2018” article that the author would like Jagex to publish. Updates revealed here may or may not happen or the author may be completely wrong.

What lies ahead is a preview of updates that are actively being built and worked on. We can guarantee that everything on this list will arrive in 2018. We also can guarantee that you will see at least one headlining update a month and some of them aren’t even listed here! Along with that we’ll also continue our rigorous pace of ninja fixes and bug fixes which so many of you love. Let’s have a look at 2018!

Mining and Smithing rework

The mining and smithing rework has been being worked on for a long time and has seen many iterations. We are going to get it right. Your feedback over the past couple months has been invaluable. In early 2018 we look forward to running a technical beta to nail down gameplay characteristics, how you play, how you progress, and how fun it is will be the focus of our testing.

RuneScape Mobile

Our technical tests so far have proven themselves to show that mobile is reality. In 2018 we will be refining the user interface and focusing on user experience. RuneScape itself is a proven game and mobile will not be released until it provides a smooth experience.

Deep Sea Fishing

As part of our efforts to diversify Skilling we are putting a huge emphasis on updates like deep sea fishing. Deep sea fishing is an opportunity for us to bring the game into 2018 and modernize it while still maintaining the core of RuneScape. Deep sea fishing is shaping up to be amazing and once it arrives we want to hear your reactions!

Clue scroll rework

Clue scrolls are something we aim to deliver in the first months of 2018. The theme of 2018 may not be immediately apparent but the clue scroll rework shows us what 2018 is all about. Expect this update to bring new items and rewards while bringing in needed quality of life fixes to a community staple.

Pieces of Hate

Pieces of Hate will be our first quest released in 2018. With Pieces of Hate we’re wrapping up the Pirate quest line and moving forward. We’ve already consulted you on rewards so you can look forward to some of those appearing in game. 2018 will also mark a return to regular questing, with a focus on bottle quests and quests that are just plain old fun (i.e. Evil Dave, Enlightened Journey, etc.)

Skilling offhands

We showed these off at RuneFest and the response was phenomenal. Work is progressing on Skilling offhands and they’re more than just an Invention update. This update will add much needed diversity to skilling and has the potential to change many skills in a somewhat covert way. If this update is successful you can look at this as a model for skilling updates of the future.

Safe cracking

Safe cracking is another adventure of ours that’s similar to Deep Sea Fishing. The difference though this time is that we’re expanding the Thieving skill and adding reason to the Thieves’ guild for those who have mid to high level Thieving. Safe cracking while just a mockup when shown earlier last year is once again another template to one of the ways we can make skilling more modern.

Solak

And of course, we couldn’t forget The Lost Grove. The Lost Grove is one of our most beautiful areas visually. Solak is what we hope to be a radical departure in terms of PvM encounters. We would love for everyone to try Solak and that’s why it’s a mechanic fest rather than a slug as you go boss fight. With Solak we aim to add specialization to PvM fights and bring forward a much needed support role. Solak will be eating.

In case it’s not clear, we are shooting above the rafters for 2018. 2018 will focus on bringing forward updates that are in active development and will arrive within the first half of the year. We want our updates to be meaningful and we have learnt a lot over the last year and a half. This is only a small fraction of what’s going on behind the scenes and you can bet that there will be some surprises along the way. Our goal for 2018 is to bring RuneScape to an area that’s more social, has more dynamic gameplay, and revitalizes content that is old or looking perhaps a bit dull. We also want this to be a stepping stone to the RuneScape of the next 5 years. A question that we’ll be asking throughout a lot of our content choices this year and we want you to be thinking about is, what happens after 99?

We hope to confer with you again in May and look at the second half of the year and maybe answer this question in more detail and provide insight onto updates for the second half of the year. For now though, thank you for being apart of this adventure and see you in game!