Due to the hacker on the forums we had a couple weeks ago having a list of passwords and login names and the fact that several thousand people have not updated their passwords, we had no choice but to do a MASS password update. You will have to do password recovery to get your account password reset! We are sorry we had to do this, but it is the only way to verify 100% that the hacker does not have anyones current forum passwords and also for us to be 100% sure he has not hacked into IPB 2.2 like he claims he/she has. They keep telling us to downgrade back to 2.1.7 like we are stupid enough to do that. Some people need to get half a brain and realize we are not that stupid. He obviously wants us to go back to 2.1.7 so he can hack in again since 2.2 is preventing him from doing what he wants.

In response to today's announcement by Jagex concerning real world trading we just want to say that we do not condone real world trading. We block the ads when they are advertised on our site. The people who are advertising real world trading create new sites as soon as we block the old one so we are constantly updating that list. The sites that are blocked from advertising with us are also reported to Jagex so that they can follow up with it. We do not now and never have condoned real world trading or any other form of Jagex rule breaking. You can help by not clicking on those ads and by reporting them to the administrators on this site so they can be removed.

We have contacted Google adsense about the Site Ad Filters not working and they are looking in to it. A lot of the ads you are seeing have been added to the filter list but for some reason it is not excluding these from being displayed. We do apologize for all these ads that are violating the rules. They are NOT intentional. Google assures us they are looking into getting this fixed.

We work very hard to maintain a high quality site. Providing this site to you costs lots of money and without Goodle Adsense and other advertisers there would be no RuneHQ., so the ads are a necessary evil. We will work on making sure the ads are appropriate and do not violate the rules as best we can but we have no control over when new ads are placed on Google, so from time to time, even with the ad filters working you will see these ads.. It is still YOUR responsibility to know the rules and to follow them. Violating Jagex's rules just because the ad is on our site is NOT an acceptable excuse to us or to Jagex.

Quotations taken directly from Runescape.com

30 April 2007 - 24 Carat Update

Among the things that we regularly see on the forums are possible uses for some of the jewellery that can't be enchanted yet. So this week's update is to give all those neglected necklaces a purpose. There were so many good suggestions, though, that we had to create an entirely new type of jewellery in order to use even a fraction of the great ideas! So that we could use more of these ideas, we've made bracelets with new magical effects which we hope will keep you enchanted.

We've added jewellery that lets you mine soft clay, some that have new teleport destinations, some that will help you in your Runecrafting, and, of course, some that will help you in combat, to mention just a few. The TzHaar have even got a necklace that will make their obsidian weapons more powerful! For more details have a look in the Knowledge Base.

Summary

In other news...

Castle Wars fans may be glad to hear that we've fixed the bug whereby players could pass through barricades if the dragon spear's special attack was used on them.

The gauntlets of goldsmithing now give you their usual Smithing Xp bonus when you use the Blast Furnace to smelt your gold ore.

After the dust rune's graphic was mysteriously shrunk last week, we've had it reinflated.

The splitbark greaves (available from the Draynor Wizards' Tower) have been renamed because they aren't greaves. They're now called splitbark boots.

Finally, after last week's update to goblins, we've seen a few of them sliding across the floor during combat. The makeover mage has been recalled to fix their legs (fortunately they're still under warranty) so there should be no more problems with skiddy goblins.

Discuss this update on the forums.

30 April 2007 - Postbag from the Hedge

Postie Pete's back from his travels once again, bringing you replies from some very odd and some very clever NPCs. Evil Bob explains what ScapeRune is really like, the H.A.M. leader defends his fashion choice and Melzar rambles in a suitably mad way. On top of this, the Wise Old Folk have gone a bit creative, and have a selection of short haiku (poems) for you.

The artwork that Reldo has uncovered showing one of the ancient foes of Varrock is also available for download as a wallpaper. It's a bit creepy and very dark; but what else can you expect from one of RuneScape's ancient villains?

Discuss this update on the forums.

The quest guide for Another Slice of H.A.M. has been added to the site. Thanks Brenden and budmash for the guide.

~ [Im4eversmart] ~

Quotation taken directly from Runescape.com

24 April 2007 - Password security

We would like to remind everyone to NEVER enter their password into the RuneScape chat. Not for ANY reason.

In an attempt to better protect our players' passwords, we've updated the game to prevent you from saying any sentence which contains your exact password. This is only a basic check, however, and it's still extremely unsafe to type your password into the chat, so please DON'T try it out to see! That would be foolish and extremely dangerous. For instance, you could still accidentally give away your password if you mistyped it, or if you typed it somewhere we don't filter yet (such as the forums). So please, please DON'T test this out - it's not worth the risk!

From now on, if you enter your exact password into the chat, the entire sentence will be blocked and you will receive the message:

"You appear to be telling someone your password - please don't!
If you are not, please change your password to something more obscure!"

(We block the entire sentence to avoid giving hints about your password from the context.)

Also, please remember it's still a very serious offence to ask/try to persuade another player to give you their password. This is a direct breach of Rule 3 and will not be tolerated.

RuneScape Customer Support

Discuss this update on the forums.

24 April 2007 - Another Slice of H.A.M.

The Dorgeshuun were hesitant about the outside world at first, but now they are embracing contact with other cultures and are even building a long-distance rail link between Dorgesh-Kaan and the dwarf city of Keldagrim. But work is being held up by archaeological finds that date back to the early days of the city, including an ancient weapon connected with the goblins' mysterious god.

If you're an experienced archaeologist, you can help the cave goblins learn about their history and accompany Zanik on another trip to the surface. It should be a simple mission - unless the dastardly Sigmund makes an appearance...

In this new quest we've tried to recreate some of the elements that made Death to the Dorgeshuun popular. You can take Zanik to another part of the surface, gain new goblin companions, and have another showdown with the villainous Sigmund. It also advances the cave goblin storyline and sheds a little more light on Zanik's destiny - while leaving more for future instalments...

In order to look their best compared to their cousins underground, we've also updated the surface goblins. Now they look like warriors, and just as mean as you'd expect.

Summary

In other news...

Down in murky Morytania, the rewards for the Temple Trekking / Burgh de Rott Ramble minigame have had a bit of a boost. The grateful travellers will now reward players with watermelon seeds instead of wildbloods.

The locals are so impressed by the flow of travellers into Burgh de Rott and Paterdomus that they've erected a signpost at each end of the journey to record how many treks have successfully been completed.

Besides these Morytanian tweaks, we're fixing a handful of unrelated bugs in today's update...

• 
  Our skilled tailors have solved a minor bug with the Skillcape of Prayer that made men's and women's capes have different coloured lining.
  


• 
  Gilded thrones in players' houses used to be made of oak planks. They now require mahogany, as befits such grand items.
  


• 
  In sunny Mos Le'Harmless, we've patched a problem in the Trouble Brewing minigame that was preventing players from entering the game if they stood in certain places in the waiting rooms.
  


• 
  The Agility short-cuts up Trollheim Mountain have had their level requirements adjusted to match the skill guides.
  


• 
  Finally, Australian players may be glad to hear that we're uncensoring "G'day".
  

Discuss this update on the forums.

Quotes taken directly from Runescape.com

18 April 2007 - Wilderness Ditch

Up at the border to the Wilderness you will notice a small change this week. Far too easily have people mistakenly entered the dangerous lands of the north and so, with spades-united, a ditch has been dug!

You will now find that to enter and exit the wilderness you have to hop over a small ditch (no Agility level required). There's a safe zone just north of the ditch, so you needn't worry about getting over the ditch quickly.

Careful you don't trip!

In other news...

Easter has come and gone, and with it the Easter Bunny has gone back to his mysterious home to prepare for next year's (hopefully) mishap-free chocolate festival. As a result, we've taken down the Easter Event. Don't worry if you missed out on it, there will be another holiday event for Halloween!

Discuss this update on the forums.

Quotes taken directly from Runescape.com

16 April 2007 - New Knowledge Base

In our unending quest to make the website easier for you to use and prettier to look at, we've just updated the system that runs the Knowledge Base. You probably won't see most of the changes as they're behind the scenes, making sure that everything works properly. What you will see is the new KB homepage, and in the future we'll be able to do much more with the articles to make it all that much simpler to find what you need.

The KB homepage now features an Article of the Week (an article that we think will interest you, or just a part of the KB that doesn't get as much attention as we think it should), FAQs (commonly asked questions and their answers, as well as a link to find out more) and Recent Articles (so you can make sure you keep up to date with all the latest KB additions).

On top of this, the search tool is now much, much better at finding the right information. With all this in place, we hope you'll find getting to the right information much simpler and enjoyable.

Happy 'Scaping!

Discuss this update on the forums.

We are proud to announce the official launch of Global Gaming HQ!

GGHQ is a series of websites dedicated to improving your gaming experiences. Currently, GGHQ sites include RuneHQ, TORC, and PwnHQ. More sites are coming soon, even a media/graphics site!

~ [Im4eversmart] ~

11 April 2007 - Olaf's Quest Slippery Bridge

The slippery bridge in Olaf's Quest wasn't quite working how we intended, which resulted in a lot of frustration. We never like our content to be frustrating - we prefer it to be challenging (there's a big difference!) - so we've tweaked the calculations that sort out whether you succeed.

Originally, the bridge was designed so that you had a reasonable chance of passing each individual step, which seemed right to us... Unfortunately, with 12 steps in a row this all added up to a very annoying part of the quest. We're really sorry for this, and would like to thank all of you for persevering in the face of this mistake and trying to finish the quest anyway. It's a testament to your dedication to the game!

What we've done now is to make your character learn every time he or she slips, so the more times you fall the more likely you are to get past it. We haven't 'nerfed' the quest - high level Agility is still a big advantage and will still really help you cross the bridge much more quickly than players with low level Agility. It's still pretty challenging to get across, but hopefully a lot less frustrating because at least now each time you fail you know you've got a better chance next time you try.

As stated on the original quest page high agility is supposed to be an advantage for this quest (not an outright necessity). That was always what we intended, and so that is now how it works. Hopefully, this will make the quest much less irritating so you can focus on the story and get to the rewards!

Discuss this update on the forums.

The guide for Olaf's Quest has been added to the site. Thanks Budmash and theundeadgod for writing it.

~ [Im4eversmart] ~

10 April 2007 - Players' Gallery and New Wallpaper

This month's gallery sees some great renders of Ardougne Marketplace and some gold trimmed rune armour, along with some other interesting art styles.

Over in the Downloads section of the website, you'll also find a new wallpaper of one very bulky Void Knight, mace in hand. He means business.

We hope you like it!

Discuss this update on the forums.

10 April 2007 - Olaf's Quest

Olaf Hradson is a bit down on his luck and a little bit soggy too. He's crashed his boat while in search of treasure and needs your help to find his feet again. Maybe you can find the treasure for yourself as a reward...

You'll also now be able to get hold of the brine sabre - with its nifty underwater special attack - by killing the new brine rat Slayer monster.

Summary

In other news...

Some people may have found that sometimes their Protect From prayers showed up in their prayer list as being on when they were actually off, such as when they didn't have enough prayer points. This has now been fixed.

Discuss this update on the forums.

Happy Easter to all of RuneHQ!

Are you tired of sitting around for Spring Break? Crazy weather got you down?

Hop along to the
Official April GMT - event or the Official April GMT + event! Note: If you don't already have an account you will need to register on the forums =-)

Hope to see you there!

~The RuneHQ Events Team~

Quotes taken directly from Runescape.com

2 April 2007 - Behind the Scenes - April

Last year the Easter Bunny brought us confused children, transmogrifying eggs and even the odd hypnotised rabbit. Although the Easter Bunny himself wasn't too displeased with the results, he did agree that it was not the most efficient way of doing things. But do not fear! This year he has an even better idea... to get the chocolate treats to deliver themselves. Fortunately, he is absolutely certain that it won't go wrong, and he definitely won't need your help to sort it all out. Well, unless some kind of terrible mix-up happens and he ends up being delivered chocolate kebbits! I mean, what would he do with them? No doubt more Easter rewards will be on offer if the unthinkable happens.

Our first quest this month will be a brief trip out to the northern coast of the Fremennik Province. Olaf the Illiterate takes great pride in his family history, but sadly he hasn't inherited their abilities as excellent navigators and competent sailors. Fortune has smiled upon him, though, and saved him from the watery graves that claimed most of the others who have gone out searching for the secret treasure. Oops! Did we say treasure? Later this month you'll be able to find out for yourself in this short but fun quest, featuring the new brine rat and a rather nifty underwater weapon. Perhaps it will be of some use in the distant future...

The generals of the Goblin Village have heard about the cave goblins' makeover and they don't want to be outdone. They haven't summoned the Makeover Mage yet, though, because they're still busy arguing over every feature. Big noses or small noses? Beady eyes or bulging ones? Not since the armour colour debacle has there been this much disagreement in the generals' hut. If they haven't made a decision by the end of the month, the Makeover Mage will create a new appearance for them and they'll just have to put up with it.

Some of the more inquisitive among you may have already noticed the Dwarven engineer in the new goblin city. Some of you may have even spoken to him about planned trade routes between Keldagrim and Dorgesh-Kaan... something that Sigmund and his evil H.A.M. brotherhood are keen to take advantage of. Our second quest of the month is the next fascinating chapter of the plight of the cave goblins. Digging new tunnels in areas of historical interest is likely to need some professional expertise - the kind you may have gathered from the Dig Site quest. With any luck you'll get to learn about more goblin history while creating a link between two of RuneScape's greatest cities. Who knows what antiquities might be unearthed, and when the dastardly Sigmund is likely to play his next despicable trick? You'll have to wait to find out what Another Slice of HAM might taste like.

Finally this month, we will be bringing you a large jewellery update, featuring several new uses for your gems and gold across a wide range of Crafting levels, all the way up to level 84 and the onyx bracelet. These new bracelets, equipped in the "hand" slot, and new necklaces offer a wide variety of new functions including:

• "Castle Wars" specific jewellery


• Emergency aid effects


• Ability to mine soft clay


• Slayer jewellery


• Protection from disease


• And much more...

Of course, our website has a few updates coming, too. Aside from the usual Postbag favourites, QuestHelp and the Knowledge Base all getting new content, the Lores and Histories will also get a look in towards the end of the month. We'll be bringing in our finest designers to make it look fabulous, and pestering Reldo to find the last few parts of the Legend of Arrav. From there, we'll be adding new stories regularly, and hopefully bring back Tales from the Tavern as well!

The polls module should be getting a bit of a makeover, too, and will let us gather more useful information about what you want from RuneScape.

Discuss this update on the forums.

2 April 2007 - Easter Antics

Happy Easter, everyone!

This week we bring you our annual Easter Event, and with all the chocolate and bunny-themed mayhem, we're sure you'll love it. You'll have to catch chocolate kebbits, go bowling with massive eggs, and evade a particularly angry farmer to get your rewards, which certainly look fowl.

The Easter Event will run for the next two weeks and it's your only chance to get a new festive costume, so you'd best head over to the Easter Bunny to help him out.

To start the Easter Event, head south of Falador and speak to the Easter Bunny.

In other news...

The QuestHelp systems gets another batch of quests added today. Now you can get assistance with Druidic Ritual, Fremennik Trials, Rat Catchers and Roving Elves.

Discuss this update on the forums.

2 April 2007 - New Poll System

The poll system has received a few necessary changes this week.

For one, we can ask several questions at any one time. This means we can get more detailed responses instead of trying to get a comprehensive result from just one question!

Additionally, we can propose many more answers than we could before, which means we can ask you about your favourite skill, quest or minigame without having to limit your answers to the usual ten.

There are other changes - too many to cram into Postie Pete's postbag - but you'll soon find out that we can add images, thank you messages, the possibility of selecting several answer options, and feedback about how we have used your answers. This last one is very important to us - we want you to know just how important the polls are to us, and how much they can affect future content.

Which brings us onto the final additions that have arrived with the shiny new poll system: Guaranteed Content polls and Player-submitted poll week.

Every so often, we will release a poll that leads directly to content being added to the game; whether that be the reward for an upcoming quest or which minigame deserves an update. This does not mean that other polls will not lead to content changes - far from it - but it does mean that we can guarantee that the winning choice will make its way into the game. Keep your eyes peeled for these Guaranteed Content polls - they will be preceded by a news post, much like this one!

Finally, the Player-submitted poll week is your opportunity to ask the entire RuneScape community a question that has been niggling you. So, we would like you to send any poll ideas you have to and we will handpick the most interesting of them. These will then be published, once a month, in Player-submitted poll week!

Please take the time to vote in the polls. As they always have been, they are an essential means of finding out what you want from us!

Discuss this update on the forums.

Quotes taken directly from Runescape.com

1 April 2007 - April Fools

Ok, I think it's past mid-day for most our players now, so I'd better come clean. This post was of course (as most of you guessed) a joke for April 1st. I hope you enjoyed it. The real behind the scenes for April will be posted first thing tomorrow on Monday 2nd April.

Original joke post below:

With Easter comes spring. Spring brings us new plants, so we asked ourselves, "What's everyone's favourite plant?" Of course, the answer is obviously the cabbage.

So this year's Easter update will be Cabbagey Easter, featuring cabbages for everyone! And if that doesn't whet your appetite enough, these aren't just ordinary cabbages. Easter is traditionally about foods (such as eggs) being strange colours, so we've come up with what we think is a completely unique idea: red cabbage!

Next up, Fred the farmer has a severe problem. His cabbages are not growing as big as he'd like! In the first quest of the month, Cabbage Ritual, you'll get the chance to explore some of the most exciting and dangerous places in RuneScape, from the bustling city of Rimmington to the shadowy remote town of Lumbridge, searching for pieces for a fantastic new weapon: the hallowed cabbage-grow-a-bit-bigger laser!

After the quest you'll even be able to use the laser on your own cabbage patches, so that your cabbages grow into big cabbages which will heal 2 hitpoints! (If you do the maths you'll find that's twice as many hitpoints as an ordinary cabbage heals.)

Deep under the Melzar's Maze vegetable patch, darkness lies. Actually it's always been a bit dark under there, what with it being underground and never getting any sun, but soon there will be a new, more dangerous, metaphorical sort of darkness. The secret tunnels which run under the patch are about to be invaded by a new deadly enemy: killer cabbages!

Get your spades ready, for the 3rd update of the month, will feature one and a half levels of increasingly dangerous enemies. First you'll meet the level 2 cabbage spawn, but soon the challenges will ramp up as you confront the level 5 cabbage knights. Finally, at the end of the dungeon, prepare to face our new high-level boss monster, the deadly level 11 Brassica Prime, king of the cabbages!

Of course, we'll be adding some special new item drops for anyone with the strength and stamina to defeat these terrifying new monsters. So watch out for the cabbage armour! With legs, helmet and body to collect, you can make yourself look a complete cabbage!

A couple of notes:

• 
  Beware of rabbits. This armour won't protect you from them, since they actually like eating cabbage.
  



• 
  Please note that we felt it necessary to set level 3 Defence and level 5 Cooking requirements for wielding this armour. We suspect the 'no Cooking level' pures may not be happy, but in the interests of good game balance we will definitely not be backing down on this.
  

The penultimate update of the month will be a new rune, the cabbage rune, which will be sold in the Varrock rune shop. We plan to add this to the Runecrafting skill soon (planned for 2014).

With a new rune, you'll be needing some new spells, so we're releasing four!

• 
  Cabbage-speak will cause filtered words you say to become cabbages instead of asterisks (stars).
  



• 
  Locate Cabbage will bring up a yellow flashing arrow on your screen to point you in the direction of the nearest cabbage.
  



• 
  Bones to Cabbages is a daring new spell concept that will turn all the bones in your inventory into cabbages.
  



• 
  We will also be adding the Share Cabbage spell to the Lunar magicks spellbook so you'll be able to give all your friends cabbages too!
  

In the final update of the month, on April 31st we will turn everyone into a cabbage.

Muahahahaha!

Discuss this update on the forums.

Thanks to Cedros_Man we now have a new Draynor Village and Draynor Manor Map. And of course thanks to everyone else that helped!

Darkblitz has also been busy and has remade the Draynor Sewer and Barbarian Village maps. Thanks again to Darkblitz and everyone else that helped!

Thanks to Maonzhi we now also have a Sorceress's Garden Map online.

Apart from all those new maps we now have a Creature Creation Guide. Thanks to Jakesterwars for taking the time to write this great guide!

- Alk12 -

Quotes taken directly from Runescape.com

29 March 2007 - Rule 2 Update

In our continuing efforts to make RuneScape a nicer place to be, we've just made a slight modification to Rule 2. It hasn't changed much at all, it's more of a clarification, and there are no changes to the meat of the rule itself. If you look at the bottom of the rule, here, you'll see a brief list of example scams. We've now expanded this to state that luring someone into the Wilderness under false pretences is definitely a scam.

The majority of you all are good players who stick to the rules, so this shouldn't affect you, but rule breakers beware!

Note: This is a reversal of what was posted on the forums a while back. We realised the earlier decision was a bad idea, and that luring really isn't very nice.

Discuss this update on the forums.

The What Lies Below quest guide has been uploaded to the site. Thank you to Scorchy_Devil and all those who helped!

~(Sheep01)~

Quotes taken directly from Runescape.com

27 March 2007 - Postbag from the Hedge

This month is the Chaos Elemental's birthday, and we've arranged for him to take over from the Wise Old Man this month, so the Wise Old Tips section is looking very chaotic.

Pete's also bringing replies back from the Void Knights, the TzHaar, Port Phasmatys and Shanty Claws's ship. At this rate, I don't think Postie Pete is at any risk of putting on weight...

Click here to read the Postbag from the Hedge.

Discuss this update on the forums.

What Lies Below

Rat Burgiss is in trouble! His cart has broken down outside of Varrock and he needs your help with an important task. The quest isn't so simple, though, as you'll discover when you get inducted into the Varrock Palace Secret Guard!

There are conspiracies everywhere and some very dark secrets in Varrock's past, and you'll need to unravel all of them to get to the truth. What Lies Below Varrock?

You won't go unrewarded, getting some help with your chaos Runecrafting.

Summary

In other news...

Down in Dorgesh-Kaan, we've made a handful of minor tweaks to improve some of the features. For a start, Barlak is now paying higher prices than before for the special shells people bring him. Secondly, Miltog the lamp merchant has expanded her shop to allow players to sell a variety of fuelled lamps to her (i.e. lamps that have been completed and are ready to be lit). Finally, the weight of the heavier power plant items has been drastically reduced, so they won't drain your run energy so severely when you're carrying them around the Agility course.

Discuss this update on the forums.

Quotes taken directly from Runescape.com

26 March 2007 - New Payment Option: PayByPhone in Germany

We are pleased to announce the launch of payment by phone in Germany!
This service allows a quick and easy way to get our optional "members game" for those without a credit card.

Payment by phone in Germany costs EUR6.99 for one month of membership. The higher cost of this payment method covers the additional costs we incur running the convenience of this service. Please note: Our other existing payment methods are still the same price as before. e.g. subscription via credit-card in Germany is still only EUR4.60 a month

All customers from Germany who wish to subscribe using PayByPhone can now do so by clicking the 'Start a new subscription' link from our front page.

We are constantly looking to make our PayByPhone and PayBySMS/Text Message payment option available for more countries. If these payment options are not yet available in your country, be sure to check the latest news regularly for announcements.

Discuss this update on the forums.

Thanks to Cedros_Man the White Wolf Mountain Map and the Al Kharid Map have been added to the site. Thanks to him and all those who helped!

~(Sheep01)~