46 Fun Facts About RuneScape

The earliest RuneScape servers ran out of the Gower family home in which English city?

Nottingham. Andrew Gower ran the whole game from a bedroom in his parents' house there for most of its first year, until a company was formed to run the business side.

What is the name of the fantasy world in which RuneScape is set?

Gielinor. Paul Gower gave the world its medieval-fantasy theme, drawing on the tabletop games he and his brother Andrew had grown up playing.

Andrew Gower's earlier game, the direct predecessor of RuneScape, was called what?

DeviousMUD. Gower began it as a student in 1998 and, by his own count, started again from scratch three or four times before a version finally launched as RuneScape.

After RuneScape 2 arrived, the original game stayed online under what one-word suffix?

Classic. It outlived the relaunch by fourteen years, until Jagex shut it down in August 2018 because its bugs could no longer be fixed with the company's modern tools.

Old School RuneScape was copied from an August 2007 backup, so it launched without which feature, added that November?

The Grand Exchange. Jagex chose 2007 by accident, having stumbled on an old save file that still booted, and Old School players then went without the marketplace until February 2015.

Which Old School RuneScape venue did Jagex shut down in 2022 after years of trouble with betting and scams there?

The Duel Arena. Jagex first capped stakes at 10 million coins per fight in November 2021, then replaced the arena outright the following year with a tournament-style PvP Arena.

RuneScape 3 was originally developed as a version built on which web technology?

HTML5 was the web technology behind the planned client, which never left beta; at RuneFest 2014 the company announced a replacement standalone client instead.

The October 2011 anti-bot update nicknamed the 'Bot Nuke' had what official code name?

ClusterFlutterer was the code name; Jagex estimated it wiped out 98 percent of bot accounts and celebrated with a week of bonus in-game events.

The release of which skill triggered the infamous Falador Massacre?

Construction's player-owned houses held the bug: players ejected from a house party kept player-versus-player rights and killed others across Falador.

Which player behind the Falador Massacre returned as a boss in its 10th anniversary event?

Durial321. During the anniversary event players were randomly possessed by his ghost and set loose on bystanders, before a giant version of him appeared for everyone to fight.

The original coloured partyhats came out of which item during RuneScape's first Christmas event?

Crackers. Jagex scattered them across the world for players to pick up, and pulling one with another player gave the paper hat inside to just one of the pair.

To mark its 20th anniversary in 2021, RuneScape added a seventh partyhat, pieced together from shards, in which colour?

Gold. It was the first new partyhat since the six originals of Christmas 2001, and Jagex let each account make only one before the hunt closed for good.

In the Draynor Bank Robbery, the Wise Old Man telegrabs and puts on a partyhat of which colour?

Blue. The hat had just been dropped by a bank customer he killed during the raid, and he smashed the security camera on his way out, too late to hide what it had filmed.

In which quest do players wield the sword Silverlight to banish Delrith?

Demon Slayer. In the original quest the sword is locked in a case that needs three keys, and one of them has to be flushed out of a palace drain with a bucket of water.

Lumbridge's cook needs a bucket of milk, an egg and which third ingredient for his cake?

A pot of flour. Players make it the long way: pick wheat in a nearby field, carry it up the windmill, tip it into the hopper and pull the lever, then collect the flour in a pot.

The Lumbridge cook is baking a birthday cake for which noble?

Duke Horacio. The cook has left it too late to gather the ingredients himself, so the player runs the errand in what was the first quest RuneScape ever released.

In the free-to-play quest Dragon Slayer, what is the name of the dragon players must kill?

Elvarg. Years before the quest she laid waste to an entire island, and only three wizards escaped to split up the map that leads back to her lair.

The Dragon Slayer quest sends players by ship to which island to face the dragon?

Crandor is reached aboard the ship Lady Lumbridge, using a map torn into three pieces by the surviving mages Melzar, Thalzar and Lozar.

In Old School RuneScape, completing Dragon Slayer lets free-to-play players finally equip which piece of armour?

Rune platebody. Its maker, Oziach, sets the dragon hunt as the test that would-be champions must pass before he will sell them one.

What is the capital city of the kingdom of Misthalin, ruled by King Roald from his palace?

Varrock. In the game's lore it grew out of Avarrocka, a forest settlement of once-nomadic tribes that the boy hero Arrav defended against goblin raids.

Which god of RuneScape's pantheon is the god of balance?

Guthix. He slept deep underground for most of history, waking once to end the God Wars by banishing the other gods from the world.

The White Knights of Falador fight in the name of which RuneScape god?

Saradomin. When Asgarnia's old king fell ill, the order seized its chance, took control of the kingdom and stripped the rival Black Knights of all political power.

Which god began as a Mahjarrat, became the Zarosian Empire's top general, and dethroned Zaros?

Zamorak. His coup against Zaros ended the Second Age and set off the God Wars, thousands of years of fighting between rival gods that fill the game's Third Age.

A player referendum carried with 91% of the vote restored RuneScape's old Wilderness player-killing in 2011, along with which other feature?

Free trade. Jagex had capped trades and stopped Wilderness player-killing in 2007 to choke off the real-money market in coins and items, then restored both on 1 February 2011.

As its own currency collapsed, players in which country turned to earning Old School RuneScape coins for a living?

Venezuela. With hyperinflation making local wages nearly worthless, players spent hours hunting dragons for in-game coins that could be sold abroad for real money.

What did Jagex introduce in February 2002 after the dot-com crash cut RuneScape's advertising income?

A monthly membership. Around 5,000 players signed up in the first week, enough to make the new company profitable at once and pay for its first staff.

Which skill, released in April 2010, sends players through the floors of Daemonheim?

Dungeoneering. Almost nothing can be carried in or out of Daemonheim, so every dungeon starts players from scratch, making and finding their gear as they go.

Which combat style, added to RuneScape in 2023, sits outside the traditional combat triangle?

Necromancy. Jagex built it to be neither stronger nor weaker than melee, ranged or magic, and its fighters go into battle beside the undead they conjure.

RuneScape 3's Invention skill requires level 80 Smithing, Crafting and which other skill?

Divination. The energy it gathers is what Invention runs on: the augmentors and divine charges that power upgraded gear are both woven from it.

Which Old School RuneScape skill starts at level 10 instead of level 1?

Hitpoints. A new character starts with 1,154 experience already banked in it, the only skill with a head start, which is why fresh accounts begin at combat level 3.

The Chambers of Xeric, Old School RuneScape's first raid, lies beneath which mountain?

Mount Quidamortem. Teams restock inside the raid itself, growing herbs in its caves and brewing their own potions before they face the final boss.

Which boss must be defeated at the end of the TzHaar Fight Cave to earn the fire cape?

TzTok-Jad. It appears only on the 63rd and final wave, so players reach it worn down by 62 solo fights with no chance to restock.

Zulrah, a solo-only boss in Old School RuneScape, is what kind of creature?

A snake. Its arrival in 2015 brought venom into the game, a poison that grows stronger each time it strikes until it is cured.

What was the name of Old School RuneScape's first League, which began in November 2019?

Twisted. Players began again with fresh stats, locked inside one continent, and when the league closed two months later only the rewards they had earned carried over to the main game.

Which Old School RuneScape variant, whose 2016 tournament paid out $10,000, lets players attack each other almost anywhere?

Deadman Mode. Experience comes many times faster there, but anyone killed by another player loses everything they were carrying; its June 2016 final drew some 90,000 viewers on Twitch.

Jagex is headquartered on a science park in which English city?

Cambridge. Andrew Gower built the game as a computer science student there, and the company's first office in the city was barely bigger than a broom cupboard.

From 2016 to 2020, RuneScape's studio Jagex was owned by investors from which country?

China. Its owner there, Fukong Interactive, sold the studio on to an American asset manager for $530 million in April 2020.

RuneScape began in 2001 as a browser game written in which programming language?

Java. Jagex was said to stand for 'Java Gaming Experts' until 2010, when the studio published its first game written in another language and gave the letters a new meaning.

Which system replaced the Squeal of Fortune prize wheel in February 2014?

Treasure Hunter. Its key-opened chests kept the real-money model going for another twelve years, until Jagex scrapped it in January 2026 after a community vote drew more than 120,000 votes for its removal.

As of 2017, Guinness World Records listed RuneScape as the MMO with the most what?

Player accounts. Guinness counted almost 255 million of them by July 2017, while noting that two Asian rivals were reported to have more but had published no official figures.

Old School RuneScape won a BAFTA Games Award in 2019, months after launching on which platforms?

iOS and Android. The mobile version arrived on 30 October 2018 and passed a million installs within two weeks; the award it won, Mobile Game of the Year, was decided by public vote.

What genre is RuneScape: Dragonwilds, the spin-off that entered Steam Early Access in April 2025?

Open-world survival crafting. Jagex revealed the game and then, barely two weeks later, released it into early access without warning.

Old School RuneScape's Ultimate Ironman mode bars players from trading and from doing what else?

Use banks. The mode also raises the stakes of dying: unlike other players, an Ultimate Ironman keeps none of their items on death.

Which became Old School RuneScape's first new skill in 2025, after its poll cleared the 70% needed to pass?

Sailing. It beat two rival pitches, Taming and Shamanism, in a 2023 vote, and gave the game its first new skill since Hunter joined the original RuneScape in 2006.

Which RuneScape feature of 2012 put cheating accounts on trial and let other players vote on their punishment?

Botany Bay. Onlookers could pelt the accused bot with rotten fruit before voting on how it should be finished off, with a blast of light from the gods among the choices.

Solomon's General Store, the cosmetic shop RuneScape opened in July 2012, launched with which new currency?

RuneCoins. Jagex created the currency purely for the shop and sold it for real money, three months after it had first put extra prize-wheel spins on sale.