Sailing XP Review & Further Fixes

Update - Wednesday, December 3rd - 20:25 UTC

We're back with a late-in-the-day update!

Understandably, today's update has spawned a lot of chatter. We apologise for the radio silence up until now, but we've needed time to chat back and forth as a team while keeping all of your feedback and valid frustration in mind so that we can best figure out our next steps while delivering on our goal of finetuning Sailing's balance. While we don't have specifics right now, we have a rough direction of what we'd like to explore, which we'll be sharing with you now and providing more specifics on in a blogpost tomorrow. Let's not beat around the bush and get straight into where our heads are at.

We love AFK gameplay and we know that you do too. There was never any intent for extreme 20-30 minute AFK gameplay patterns to become a part of training Sailing, but it's clearly something that's popular with many of you so isn't something we're looking to entirely remove. That said, allowing methods with this level of effort to have a good XP output isn't something that we believe is a healthy precedent to set, so we're not looking to significantly increase the strength of the 'two crewmates salvaging, player sorting' method. Despite that, there's a chance that changes we'd like to make elsewhere will marginally improve XP output here, though we're not specifically making changes to improve the output of this method.

It's clear that the change to sorting XP is a major pain point and that many of you feel sorting is no longer worth it whatsoever, which has lead to players who were salvaging somewhat actively taking a bigger hit to their XP/hr than feels fair. We'll be looking at ways to improve the XP output of this more active 'self-salvage, self-sort' approach so that it feels more worthwhile to do and you don't feel as though you need to drop out of your salvage and miss out on gaining resources.

Additionally, we're planning to give the Gwennith Glide some extra XP to compensate for today's Crystal Extractor nerf, to reduce the feeling that you're putting in just as much effort as before but getting noticeably less out of it.

We currently don't have any specific plans for Port Task tweaks and are keen to see how these develop, but remain open to the possibility of giving them a further boost as needed.

Tomorrow, we'll be releasing a post diving into more detail on all of the above and where we expect them to sit in terms of rates, then if those sound like something that you're on-board with we'll get to work on getting Sailing back into a happier place. While it's been heated today, we genuinely appreciate your passion, all of the discussion, and all of the feedback that you've provided on today's update.

We'll check back in with you tomorrow for more specifics!

Pull up a chair and hold on to your Crystal Extractors because this week's update features a whole host of Sailing tweaks and improvements, alongside some hefty XP balancing changes.

Changelog - December 3rd

Sailing XP Changes

• Made a variety of balancing focused tweaks to Sailing XP. Please see the full blog for more info and full context.

Other Sailing Changes

• XP Rewards like XP Lamps or the Tears of Guthix are now able to be used on Sailing!
• A reminder - you'll need to have completed The Pandemonium quest before you will be able to get XP from these methods!
• We've improved the hitbox of Lost Supplies to better match their model and make them more intuitive to collect. We're almost certain we've got it right this time!
• The size of the Cargo Hold's model and clickbox has been slightly increased to make it easier to click on.
• Players should no longer find themselves logging in at the last port that they visited if they logged out with their boat docked at an island's mooring point.
• Shipwrights can now repair your boat for 50 GP per Hitpoint restored.
• Boats will now heal to full whenever their keel or hull is upgraded.
• Cargo crates from Courier tasks no longer count towards the Cargo Hold storage cap for UIM players. Note that this is a temporary fix until we work with UIM players to settle on a better long-term solution for UIM gripes with Port Tasks.
• Removed some invisible walls in the Fremensund near Meaty Aura Logist.
• Chum Stations now require the same Sailing level to use as is required to build them. Meaning if you can build one, you can use one!
• Default settings have been adjusted so that using the 'Check Materials' button on boat upgrades will display a message in chat by default.
• Diving gear is no longer deleted when deposited into the Cargo Hold.
• A helmet-related Mermaid riddle solution has been updated to incorporate another correct solution.
• We've fixed a bug where players sorting Merchant Salvage were being told that they did not have the Sailing level requirement to sort through it in some scenarios.
• Players can no longer walk onto 'sailable' tiles in Varlamore and Laguna Aurorae and teleport themselves to Port Sarim.
• Planks from the Plank Sack are now useable when building facilities on a boat.
• The Captain's Log no longer suggests that there is any evidence of the Sharhai to the west of Vatrachos Island, because the evidence is actually to the east. Our bad on this one, but well done to any explorer spirits who went out of their way to find this evidence regardless!
• Frost Dragons have had their respawn timer made faster. They'll now respawn every 4.5 seconds down from 18 seconds.
• Frost Dragons can now be fought in a cavern on Grimstone that's only accessible while on a Slayer task.

Z-buffer Graphical Fixes

• Player-owned house constructions and decorations now display correctly, with all textures and details appearing as intended.
• Updated the Shilo Village gem mine entrance so it displays as open rather than blocked when viewed.
• The fireplace on a wall near Orthus Farm no longer clips with the building.
• Fixed the Ancient Mushroom reflection at Fossil Island and the wall near the Fortis Colosseum so they now display correctly without flickering or visual glitches.
• Quetzal tails no longer clip through hay piles.
• The Seed Vault shadow now displays correctly without flickering or overlapping with the floor.
• Ritual circles from the Enchantment of Forestry event now sit correctly on the ground, preventing them from clipping on uneven terrain.

Other Changes

• Fixed a bug where players received their guaranteed Mimic on the 26th casket (or 11th Master) instead of the intended 25th Elite or 10th Master.
• With the exception of PvP and Deadman worlds, players who start to harvest an allotment and in the same tick use the same produce on a compost bin, will once again continue harvesting and composting automatically until the patch empties or the compost bin fills.
• This had stopped working because the code for using items on scenery was breaking binding effects such as the Ice spells. As those effects tend to matter most in PvP, we've restored the ability to use compost bins in that way, but only on non-PvP worlds (also excluding Deadman).
• Corrected interface positioning to remove the gap at the top of the screen when moving the World Map on desktop.
• The water pump site on Vatrachos Island now updates its appearance correctly when you build the pump.
• A trollface has been removed from the Thieving skill guide.

PvP Rota

The PvP rota has moved to Period B:

• 560 - (UK) - PvP World
• 319 - (US) - Bounty Hunter World
• 579 - (US) - High-Risk PvP World
• 561 - (UK) - Free-to-Play PvP World
• 580 - (US) - LMS Competitive

World 390 (AUS) for LMS Competitive has been de-activated with this rota.

World 569 (AUS) for Bounty Hunter has been de-activated with this rota.

The PvP Arena is using 'Max/Med' loadouts in Ranked Duels and Tournaments this week.

Sailing XP Changes

You've read the newspost's title, you've seen the panicked memes about the Crystal Extractor being thrown overboard, and you've undoubtedly got thoughts of your own regarding Sailing's XP balancing. We've been reading all over, watching your journeys, and working with our Data Analysts to get a real sense of how players are progressing through Sailing, where the common pain points are and areas that might harm our ability to expand the skill with further training methods. With all of that combined, we feel like we're ready to make some tweaks to Sailing XP.

As you might expect, balancing an entire skill (especially one as broad as Sailing) is complex, and we were under no illusions that we'd get it absolutely perfect right out of the gate. That means that while there are some buffs in today's update, there are also a handful of nerfs. We need Sailing to make sense long-term, it's not an update for everybody to blitz through in a week or two and never touch again. Over the course of years it's important that Sailing remains relevant, interweaves properly with Old School's complex web of progression, and has space for additions to the skill at all level ranges. So while we appreciate that nobody likes a nerf, we hope that you're able to meet us halfway and appreciate that we need to finetune things with longevity in mind, rather than a rush to the finish line.

It's also important to make clear that we're likely not going to get it perfect with these changes either - Sailing has a lot of room to grow and evolve, and balancing changes are something that we'll keep iterating on by working with the community's feedback, pairing it up with our own analytics and trying to get things just right.

We know that there's a lot we still need to polish up with Sailing, so before the end of the year we'll be putting together an in-game Opinion Survey (using our fancy new polling system) to gather your thoughts on a whole host of hot topics. While we're doing our best to prioritise working on what's important to ensure smooth seas for our new sailors, we know that there's a lot of feedback out there from all of you and more changes that you'd like to see, so we'd like to really drill down into the details and fully develop our understanding of your feedback so that we can make sure we deliver. This list isn't exhaustive, but you can expect to see questions on things like:

• Ship Combat - What are the biggest pain points? Are there quick wins and small fixes that would improve the feel alongside more long-term adjustments? How do resource availability and unique drop rates (more on those below) factor in to your overall enjoyment here?
• Deep Sea Trawling - Is it appropriately rewarding for the effort required? Is the fish output in a good spot? Is the XP output in a good spot?
• XP rates - How is the balance of the skill sitting overall? How do today's changes impact your view of the skill's balance and progression?
• Drop rates - How does the 'time to complete' or 'time to obtain' for various resources feel? How would adjustments to ship combat shift perspectives here?
• Pain Point Prioritisation - Which of the 'tougher' things for us to fix should we get to first?
• Iron/Ultimate Iron concerns - What unique challenges do players of these account types face? What changes could we make to reduce frustration while still respecting the spirit of these game modes?
• And loads more!

With all of that feedback to look forward to in the near future, let's bring your attention back to now. Before we dive into specifics on the changes we're looking to make today, we've got a quick refresher on where we expect each different Sailing activity to sit alongside each other with regards to XP/Hr and viability as training methods.

• Barracuda trials are the most intensive and skill-based training method and should remain at the top so long as you're at an appropriate level (meaning the Tempor Tantrum shouldn't still be dominating your training if you're already level 50 Sailing, for example). Their downside is that the XP gained is fairly static and only really scales up with boat speed and player skill, so it plateaus with player skill and incrementally with boat upgrades. This allows training methods unlocked at later levels to eventually surpass them. You can see this effect across the entire skill where once a new trial is reached every other method starts gaining higher XP to try and keep up.
• Courier Port Tasks are the bread and butter baseline for all Sailing XP and should be relevant for most of the Sailing journey. They are not likely to be the highest XP earners for most level brackets but may have their time to shine in level brackets between trial unlocks.
• Salvaging is primarily an AFK method allowing players to earn loot while gaining XP, it's aimed to be very second monitor friendly with the option to participate in tick manipulation methods for those inclined for even greater returns in XP. Tick manipulation salvaging without sorting the salvage should be a reasonably competitive option, below Marlin rank barracuda trials for those who prefer this method of training, though we'll never balance this method specifically around tick manipulation since we understand it has a reasonably niche appeal.
• Bounty Port Tasks are a way to train Sailing via combat but are intentionally not trying to be a competitive XP provider as we'd like to keep Sailing focused around non-combat training instead of making it a combat skill. These provide a reasonable option for those who wish to seek out rare sea creature drops while gaining some Sailing XP on the side.
• Deep Sea Trawling is a Fishing and Sailing hybrid training method primarily focused around obtaining valuable fish which you cannot get anywhere else in the game. This is not a significant XP driver in order to keep the price of the fish high and should instead be considered as a reasonable way for high level fishers and sailors to earn money as a reward for training their skills.
• Finally, with the core Sailing training methods, we have a philosophy that "Level is king". As a rule of thumb, higher level unlocks should always try to award more XP than lower level unlocks as a baseline before then considering the intensity of the method.

Time for some specifics! Drop anchor and take a seat, there's a lot to cover...

Crystal Extractor

We'll start with arguably the most contentious part of Sailing's XP balancing: the Crystal Extractor. This innocuous unlock has sparked a lot of conversation and has - in a sense - warped the majority of Sailing's progression around it.

For those not in the know, the Crystal Extractor is a boat facility that you can build at 73 Sailing. For your troubles (and roughly two million GP), you gain a facility which generates a wind mote every 60 seconds, granting 600 Sailing XP when harvested. It takes three ticks (1.8 seconds) to harvest - or four ticks if you count the time it takes to interact with the extractor - meaning that for the time you're actually interacting with the extractor, your effective XP per hour (XP/hr) is around 1,200,000. In effect, the single most valuable thing that you could possibly be doing if there's a mote ready to be harvested, is clicking on your Crystal Extractor, which adds up to an additional ~34,000 XP/hr for players paying enough attention to click once per minute.

Our initial expectations for the Extractor were for it to close the gap between lower intensity activities such as Port Tasks or Shipwreck Salvaging and higher intensity activities like the Barracuda Trials. Earlier in development, the interaction time on the Extractor was longer than it is now and it had to be placed further away from the helm, so we'd balanced it expecting that players would be less willing to pull away from the helm in order to harvest wind motes. As you might have guessed from the sheer volume of posts around the Crystal Extractor throughout the community, this isn't quite the case, so we feel changes are needed.

Having said all that, we appreciate that many sailors are enjoying keeping on top of their extractor and weaving their harvests in between actions, so we're not looking to completely gut it or remove emergence from you all.

We'll be reducing the XP per harvest from 600 XP to 250 XP. This means that you can earn roughly 14,000 XP/hr from your Crystal Extractor, rather than ~34,000. This is a sizeable nerf but one that we think is necessary and one that we'd like to compensate with XP boosts at certain points throughout progression (more on that later). We think this still makes harvesting from the extractor worthwhile (with an effective 500,000 XP/hr while interacting with it) but means we have more freedom to balance other activities appropriately since we're not having to account for a flat 34,000 XP per hour on top of everything, which makes scaling things up or down a little tougher.

Alongside this change, we're making an improvement to the Crystal Extractor which will allow it to generate charges even while you're at a port, until you've been disembarked (meaning running around on land) for around 10 seconds or so. This means that if you're quick, you can pick up or deposit cargo and make it back in time to keep the XP flowing without interruption!

Before we dive into specific activities, we'll say that we're not planning on any XP changes to Barracuda Trials since they're already taking a hit as a result of the Crystal Extractor changes. We're happy with where the XP from trials will sit alongside other options without any further adjustments and we're constantly seeing players push the limits here, exploring options like allowing for 'natural' trimming moments and new more optimal routes are always being discovered to push XP even further.

Port Tasks

Everybody's favourite delivery driver simulator!

Port Tasks are supposed to be a medium-intensity method that sits between Shipwreck Salvaging and the Barracuda Trials, offering a comfortable mid-point in XP/hr. While we expect there are still discoveries to be made in order to maximise the efficiency of tasks like this (particularly with so-called A-B-A tasks, which you can learn more about in these videos from Westham and Kriibus), we think there are some points in progression where Courier Tasks in particular could use a little boost to make them a more appealing option.

We'll be increasing the completion XP offered by all Courier tasks from level 40 and above by ~15%. This should help them shine a little brighter in the level ranges between Barracuda Trials where one starts to fall off and you want to progress to the next, particularly at levels 40 to 55 and 60 to 70, as well as make them a more appealing laid-back option for players in the 90s and beyond 99 sporting rosewood upgrades to max out their boat speed.

At this stage we're not planning any changes to the XP offered by Bounty Tasks, for two main reasons! One being that Ship Combat isn't in the best state right now and we need to have a wider review on how best to improve combat before we push it any closer to being the meta at any stage, and the other being that these tasks are supposed to be a nice excuse for you to obtain the Bounty target's unique drops while still getting a little Sailing XP boost on the side.

Deep Sea Trawling

We've not got any specific changes that we're making here this week, but felt it important to at least mention that we're aware of the wider discussions that you're all having regarding Deep Sea Trawling.

Our intent for this method has always been for it to be a lower XP/hr activity with a solid resource output (fish!) so that trawling serves as a solid skilling moneymaker. Though that was our intent, we do understand where many of you are coming from with feelings that the XP offered isn't worth the intensity of the input, especially with the Sailing XP/hr being reduced as a result of the Crystal Extractor changes.

So no changes to trawling this week, but we'll be having conversations around the XP, the output and whether this is more of a Sailing or a Fishing activity, then see what changes we might be able to make that make it a more appealing method, but not making it so appealing that the economy absolutely floods with powerful new fish and Deep Sea Trawling ceases to be a worthwhile moneymaker. Watch this space!

Shipwreck Salvaging

Despite being the 'simple' AFK training method, there's a lot of complexity involved in balancing Shipwreck Salvaging because there are so many ways that players can approach it. Here's a quick rundown of all of the ways that you've been salvaging so far:

• Self Salvage, Self Sort, no crewmates.
• Self Salvage, drop, no crewmates.
• Self Salvage, Self Sort, assign crewmate to Salvage while Sorting.
• One Crewmate Salvage, Self Salvage, Self Sort, assign crewmate to Salvage while Sorting.
• Two Crewmates Salvage, Self Sort.
• One Crewmate Salvage, Self 2-tick Salvage, Self Sort, assign second crewmate to Salvage while Sorting.
• One Crewmate Salvage, Self 2-tick Salvage, drop.
• Self 1.5-tick Salvage, Self Sort.
• Self 1.5-tick Salvage, drop.
• And more! All of these for every single type of Shipwreck too.

Many of these are enabled by the Salvaging Station, which was an addition made late into Sailing's development, which has made "Two Crewmates Salvage, Self Sort" in particular a very strong AFK method that allows almost 30 minutes of downtime with solid XP rates (making it arguably the best AFK method in the game), especially when coupled with the additional XP/hr from the Crystal Extractor. This is compounded by a bug where crewmates are actually salvaging every three ticks, making them faster than players, who salvage every four ticks.

While we love AFK methods just as much as you, and we're no strangers to some second-screen salvaging while at work, we think that the XP/hr on offer from some of these is a little too good for the effort required, which weakens the appeal of Port Tasks and Barracuda Trials and makes it possible to reach 99 Sailing without moving your boat much at all.

We're looking to make some changes here that might not be easy to understand from the numbers, so we'll state our goals clearly:

• Nerf AFK Salvaging across the board so that its top end is slightly above similar AFK methods like Redwood woodcutting. Our rough estimate here is that AFK salvaging methods could top out in the 80-90k XP/hr range.
• Ensure that moderately AFK methods where crewmates salvage and the player sorts still result in more XP than dropping salvage, but tone down the sorting XP so that it isn't significantly better than dropping.
• Reduce some common frustrations and pain points with Salvaging to improve QoL.
• Improve the output of high-intensity Salvaging so that players looking for high-intensity training methods have a viable alternative that competes with Barracuda Trials.

Now let's dive in to how we're looking to realise those goals, starting with all of the ways we'd like to improve your quality of life when salvaging shipwrecks.

• Player Salvaging now runs on a slower 5-tick cycle (down from 4-tick), but with increased success rates across all shipwreck tiers to keep XP roughly the same while boosting AFK time.
• Crewmates will now remember their assigned task over logout, meaning they'll get right back to Salvaging even if you hop worlds.
• Crewmates' 'Salvage range' will be calculated from the hook's position, rather than the boat's position - this should reduce scenarios where crewmates could salvage shipwrecks that you could not, and vice versa.
• Crewmates will now salvage at the same rate as players, rather than outperforming their captain.
• We'll be adding more 'double Salvage spots' to every shipwreck hotspot, while also making these double spots easier to access and orient yourself so that you're not getting stuck repeatedly.
• Jolly Jim's Deckhandiness has been increased to 4, meaning you'll have two crewmates able to use Dragon salvaging hooks.

These tweaks should help improve the social aspect of Salvaging, cut down on annoyance when getting into the right spot or hopping at the same location, and improve the consistency with which crewmates do what you'd expect them to!

You might have noticed that the above list also states that players will salvage on a 5-tick cycle, rather than the current 4-tick cycle. This is slower than before, but we're buffing success chances at all tiers of shipwreck to compensate - this aims to keep the XP/hr of actually Salvaging at a similar or slightly lower level than before, but will also increase your AFK time when actively salvaging. Here's how success rates are changing to compensate for this adjusted speed:

• Small shipwrecks now have an 11% increased success chance
• Fisherman shipwrecks now have a 14% increased success chance
• Barracuda shipwrecks now have a 15% increased success chance
• Large shipwrecks now have a 16% increased success chance
• Pirate shipwrecks now have a 21% increased success chance
• Mercenary shipwrecks now have an 18% increased success chance
• Fremennik shipwrecks now have a 16-21% increased success chance
• Merchant shipwrecks now have a 16-22% increased success chance

On top of this, we're buffing the XP that you get from actually pulling up Salvage for some of the higher-tier shipwrecks as follows:

• Pirate shipwrecks now give 76 XP instead of 63 XP
• Mercenary shipwrecks now give 138 XP instead of 127 XP
• Fremennik shipwrecks now give 162 XP instead of 150 XP
• Merchant shipwrecks now give 200 XP instead of 190 XP

However, we're reducing the XP that you get from sorting Salvage to try and better emphasise getting involved on the hooks yourself and reducing some of the strength of the "Two Crewmates Salvage, Self Sort" method. We love an AFK method, but with Sorting XP being as good as it is, we think relying solely on Sorting and letting your crewmates do all of the Salvaging little too AFK to be healthy long-term.

• Barracuda salvage now gives 13 XP instead of 15.5 XP
• Large salvage now gives 20 XP instead of 24 XP
• Pirate salvage now gives 26 XP instead of 31.5 XP
• Mercenary salvage now gives 30 XP instead of 63.5 XP
• Fremennik salvage now gives 32 XP instead of 75 XP
• Merchant salvage now gives 34 XP instead of 95 XP

It's hard to put all of this together and understand exactly how each of the approaches to Shipwreck Salvaging might be impacted, the oversimplified version is that we estimate these numbers to be a 20-30% nerf for AFK salvaging from level 35 shipwrecks and beyond, and around a 20% buff to more high intensity approaches to salvaging. It's worth noting that majority of the '20-30% nerf' here assumes that you're maintaining good uptime on your Crystal Extractor, so if you've been taking it easy and missing out on harvesting every minute then you'll likely see a smaller reduction in XP. Additionally, shifting more XP onto salvaging rather than sorting means you'll notice more of the benefits from upgrading your hook - the current paradigm with sorting doing so much lifting (coupled with the sheer volume of XP added by the Crystal Extractor) means upgrading your salvaging hook multiple tiers doesn't result in noticeable increases in XP/hr, but these increases should be more noticeable with today's update.

We believe these numbers should help bring them into a healthier spot so that they're still a solid social/AFK offering but not so solid that they lead to many players not engaging with other training methods whatsoever, coupled with a bunch of QoL improvements that should improve consistency (which will boost XP/hr slightly in a way that's tougher to model), and position high-intensity Salvaging methods as something that might be a competitive alternative to Barracuda Trials for endgame sailors looking for a change of pace.

Nobody likes nerfs, or feeling like they missed out on stronger early XP rates because of real life commitments, but we hope that you can appreciate our desire to better position Sailing's core training methods relative to each other now that we're equipped with more data and feedback than we could ever have gathered by ourselves. These changes also create more space for us to add new methods or activities in the gaps to flesh out a varied progression curve with a large breadth of gameplay for players to enjoy for years to come, so we can't wait to see what we come up with together as more and more suggestions for new activities flood in.

Oh and one last thing before we move on, we're fixing the Horizon's Lure so that it correctly applies its +2.5% XP boost to all activities in Sailing, meaning:

• Harvesting from the Crystal Extractor
• Sorting/Salvaging (on a boat)
• Or sorting at a dock with a boat spawned with the keg on
• Handing in Port Tasks
• If a boat is spawned with the keg on it
• Trimming the sails
• Collecting crates in a Barracuda Trial
• Completing a Barracuda Trial

Remember what we said before, these changes aren't set in stone and unchanging forever - this balancing process will be iterative and take time to get right. Let us know your thoughts once you've gotten hands-on in-game and we'll take those on board to see how they might contextualise the data that we get to continue getting things into the right spot.

Thanks for bearing with us, now let's talk about booty!

Sailing Drop Rates & Mechanics

Let's talk drop rates!

As always, the combined forces of the OSRS Wiki and RuneLite mean you should already have a rough idea of what the rates are for any items that you're chasing, but we commit to releasing drop rates in full within two weeks of an update so that you can know for sure and perhaps spot if anything seems awry. There are a lot of items added with Sailing, so we'll be putting them into an 'expand' section to avoid cluttering the blog if you're not interested.

Click here for detailed drop rates

Shellbane Gryphon

• Belle's folly - 1 in 400
• Gull pet - 1 in 3,000
• Jar of feathers - 1 in 2,000
• Elite clue 1 in 200

Gryphon

• Horn of Plenty - 1 in 2,500 off-task; 1 in 1,000 on-task

Aquanites

• Aquanite Tendon - 1 in 3,500 off-task; 1 in 750 on-task

Boat Paints

• Barracuda - Only rolled when achieving the Marlin time for a Trial
• 1 in 240 - Tempor Tantrum
• 1 in 220 - Jubbly Jive
• 1 in 400 - Gwenith Glide
• Shark
• 1 in 36 from completing any Port Task
• Inky
• Pygmy kraken - 1 in 3,000
• Spined kraken - 1 in 2,500
• Armoured kraken - 1 in 2,000
• Vampyre kraken - 1 in 1,500
• Angler's
• Base rate - 1 in 18,000
• Shimmering shoal rate - 1 in 16,200
• Salvor's (Only obtained from martial salvage)
• 1 in 24,000

Dragon Sheet

• Strykewyrm off task - 1 in 400
• Strykewyrm on task - 1 in 100
• Frost dragons off task - 1 in 200
• Frost dragons on task - 1 in 55
• Great white shark and armoured kraken* - See below

Dragon Nails

• Merchant shipwreck - 1 in 2,000
• Frost dragon - 1 in 65
• Narwhal - 1 in 1,024

Dragon Cannonballs

• Pirate shipwreck - 1 in 3,000
• Mercenary shipwreck - 1 in 3,000
• Merchant shipwreck - 10 in 4,240
• Frost dragon - 2 in 130
• Great white shark - 2 in 100
• Vampyre kraken - 2 in 120
• Orca - 2 in 92
• Aquanite - 1 in 128

Broken Dragon Hook

• Great White Shark - 1 in 1,023

Great White Shark Drop Mechanics

Great White Sharks have a 1 in 1,023 chance to roll on their 'Dragon table'. Due to a nasty bug, these haven't been rolling as intended, but we're fixing that as part of today's update. Once rolled, Dragon items have the following weightings:

• Large dragon keel part - 1 in 6
• Dragon keel part - 1 in 6
• Dragon sheet - 4 in 6 (Drops between 1-2 sheets once rolled)

Armoured Kraken Drop Mechanics

Armoured Kraken have a 1 in 256 chance to roll on their 'Dragon table'. Once rolled, Dragon items have the following weightings:

• Large dragon keel part - 1 in 5
• Dragon keel part - 1 in 5
• Dragon sheet - 3 in 5 (Drops between 1-2 sheets once rolled)

Echo Pearl

• Orca - 1 in 512
• Dolphin - 1 in 10,000

Swift Albatross Feather

• Albatross - 1 in 200

Narwhal Horn

• Narwhal - 1 in 100

Squid Beak

• Jumbo squid - 1 in 512
• Swordtip squid - 1 in 1,024

Ray Barbs

• Eagle ray - 1 in 300
• Butterfly ray - 1 in 300
• Sting ray - 1 in 150
• Manta ray - 1 in 100

Bottled Storm

• Armoured kraken - 1 in 1,024
• Vampyre kraken - 1 in 512

Shipwreck Salvaging

• Dragon cannon barrel
• 1 in 20,000 from Opulent salvage
• Boat bottle
• Small - 1 in 750
• Fisherman - 1 in 750
• Barracuda - 1 in 500
• Sailor's amulet (inert)
• Small shipwreck - 1 in 2,000
• Fisherman - 1 in 1,500
• Barracuda - 1 in 1,000
• Large - 1 in 500
• Pirate - 1 in 450
• Mercenary - 1 in 400
• Fremennik - 1 in 350
• Merchant - 1 in 300
• Salvaging uniques (rusty locket etc.)
• All are 1 in 3,000
• Clue Scrolls
• Small shipwreck - 1 in 300 for a Beginner Clue Scroll
• Fisherman shipwreck - 1 in 300 for an Easy Clue Scroll
• Barracuda shipwreck - 1 in 300 for a Medium Clue Scroll
• Mercenary shipwreck - 1 in 500 for a Hard Clue Scroll

Soup (the Sailing pet)

Soup is only obtainable on player rolls, meaning your crew do not roll pet chances for you.

• Barracuda trials
• Tempor Tantrum - 1 in 16,000
• Jubbly Jive - 1 in 11,500
• Gwenith Glide - 1 in 9,000
• To note: Rolls only happens on achieving time
• The rates listed above are correct, but this will increase with your rank:
• Marlin: 3 rolls
• Shark: 2 rolls
• Swordfish: 1 roll
• Unranked: no roll
• Port tasks
• Scales on level required for the task
• Ranges from 1 in 6,000 at level 1 to 1 in 3,150 at 99
• Trimming the sails
• 1 in 120,000
• Charting
• 1 in 30,000 per chart
• Trawling
• 1 in 360,000 per "fishing attempt", e.g. per sailing xp drop
• Salvaging
• Small - 1 in 800,000
• Fisherman - 1 in 500,000
• Barracuda - 1 in 300,000
• Large - 1 in 280,000
• Pirate - 1 in 275,000
• Mercenary - 1 in 260,000
• Fremennik - 1 in 230,000
• Merchant - 1 in 160,000

Giant Fish

• Base rates from respective shoals:
• Giant blue krill - 1 in 2,000
• Golden haddock - 1 in 2,000
• Orangefin - 1 in 4,000
• Huge halibut - 1 in 4,000
• Purplefin - 1 in 6,000
• Swift marlin 1 in 6,000
• Shimmering shoal
• 1 in 1,000 chance to roll rare fish
• Distribution chance:
• Krill - 45 in 100
• Haddock - 40 in 100
• Yellowfin - 10 in 100
• Halibut - 5 in 100
• Glistening shoal
• 1 in 2,000 chance to roll rare fish
• Distribution chance:
• Yellowfin - 45 in 100
• Halibut - 40 in 100
• Bluefin - 10 in 100
• Marlin - 5 in 100
• Vibrant shoal
• 1 in 3,000 chance to roll rare fish
• Distribution chance:
• Bluefin - 50 in 100
• Marlin - 50 in 100

We think we've caught everything here, but let us know if we've missed any or there are other items that you're curious about! Good luck on those grinds!

Other Sailing Changes

So far it's been a pretty information-dense post, full of numbers and balancing changes, but it's time to ease up a little and talk through all of our simple fixes and straightforward improvements this week! There's bound to be something in here that might win a nod of approval from you, so let's dive in:

• XP Rewards like XP Lamps or the Tears of Guthix are now able to be used on Sailing!
• A reminder - you'll need to have completed The Pandemonium quest before you will be able to get XP from these methods!
• We've improved the hitbox of Lost Supplies to better match their model and make them more intuitive to collect. We're almost certain we've got it right this time!
• The size of the Cargo Hold's model and clickbox has been slightly increased to make it easier to click on.
• Players should no longer find themselves logging in at the last port that they visited if they logged out with their boat docked at an island's mooring point.
• Shipwrights can now repair your boat for 50 GP per Hitpoint restored.
• Boats will now heal to full whenever their keel or hull is upgraded.
• Cargo crates from Courier tasks no longer count towards the Cargo Hold storage cap for UIM players. Note that this is a temporary fix until we work with UIM players to settle on a better long-term solution for UIM gripes with Port Tasks.
• Removed some invisible walls in the Fremensund near Meaty Aura Logist.
• Chum Stations now all have their Sailing requirement for use matching their Sailing requirement for building. Meaning if you can build one, you can use one!
• Default settings have been adjusted so that using the 'Check Materials' button on boat upgrades will display a message in chat by default.
• Diving gear is no longer deleted when deposited into the Cargo Hold.
• A helmet-related Mermaid riddle solution has been updated to incorporate another correct solution.
• We've fixed a bug where players sorting Merchant Salvage were being told that they did not have the Sailing level requirement to sort through it in some scenarios.
• Players can no longer walk onto 'sailable' tiles in Varlamore and Laguna Aurorae and teleport themselves to Port Sarim.
• Planks from the Plank Sack are now useable when building facilities on a boat.
• The Captain's Log no longer suggests that there is any evidence of the Sharhai to the west of Vatrachos Island, because the evidence is actually to the east. Our bad on this one, but well done to any explorer spirits who went out of their way to find this evidence regardless!
• Frost Dragons have had their respawn timer made faster. They'll now respawn every 4.5 seconds down from 18 seconds.
• Frost Dragons can now be fought in a cavern on Grimstone that's only accessible while on a Slayer task.

Just in case you missed it, we made a handful of hotfixes after last week's Game Update to fix some issues you might have encountered:

• The Crystal Extractor now resets its progress properly when a new Barracuda Trial is started.
• Fixed a bug where players were able to board other players' boats during the Gwenith Glide, which some players abused to set unbeatable World Record times. We also reset World Record times alongside any illegitimately obtained Personal Bests as a result.

Z-buffer Graphical Fixes

Following our big leap into true 3D depth with our new Z-buffer system, weve been hard at work smoothing out some of the quirks youve spotted. Thanks to your reports, a batch of visual issues has been addressed.

Heres whats been tidied up this week:

• Player-owned house constructions and decorations now display correctly, with all textures and details appearing as intended.
• Updated the Shilo Village gem mine entrance so it displays as open rather than blocked when viewed.
• The fireplace on a wall near Orthus Farm no longer clips with the building.
• Fixed the Ancient Mushroom reflection at Fossil Island and the wall near the Fortis Colosseum so they now display correctly without flickering or visual glitches.
• Quetzal tails no longer clip through hay piles.
• The Seed Vault shadow now displays correctly without flickering or overlapping with the floor.
• Ritual circles from the Enchantment of Forestry event now sit correctly on the ground, preventing them from clipping on uneven terrain.

As always, these fixes are part of our ongoing effort to polish the new depth system, so you may notice subtle improvements rolling out between updates. Keep an eye on the world, and keep sending us your feedback! You can keep track of known issues and updates in the official OSRS Discords #zbuffer-known-issues channel.

Merch Update Merch Store Xmas Lines!

Looking for something festive to collect? Check out this Xmas Pudding Capybara and Baby Mole with Santa Hat from AngelsScapes cute!

The full range of AngelsScapes pins and keyrings are great gifts for any Scaper tell your loved ones what you want now to ensure you find them in your stocking this year!

Holiday Offers

This holiday season, spend a minimum of 50/$55/E60 on the official merch store and receive 15% off your order.

Select lines are also discounted whilst stocks last.

Check out all the deals here or browse the full collection here.

Latest Comic Releases this Week

Issue #4 of the RuneScape: Untold Tales of the God Wars comic series releases 3rd of December globally. Get it from the official merch store, other online retailers or from your local comic store.

There are 3 different cover variants available to collect!

Graphic Novel Coming 2026

If you missed the earlier comic issues, fret not a graphic novel collecting together issues 1-4 of the comic series, plus the Free Comic Book Day 2023 Special releases end of March next year and is already on pre-order.

Untold Tales of the God Wars explore the lore behind the Temple of Lost Ancients, the 4 Generals, and the Godsword!

Delve into the Temple of Lost Ancients during the catastrophic and iconic God Wars, as four warring armies fight for control of the Godsword: the only weapon capable of killing a deity. Trapped in the centre of the conflict is the undead Maro, who dreams of breaking free of his masters clutches. But escaping from the necromancer leads to a twisting, thrilling journey for Maro when he finds allies and enemies across the front lines. What was once myth becomes legend in this gripping series about gods and mortals.

Dont forget the novels also available now from online and local bookstores, including the latest release, Shadows of Amascut. Available as digital books for your kindle, physical books and also out now or coming soon as audio books!

Other Changes

• Fixed a bug where players received their guaranteed Mimic on the 26th casket (or 11th Master) instead of the intended 25th Elite or 10th Master.
• The Blue Moon Spear special attack how only unfreezes NPCs that are legitimately frozen or bound, working correctly on Yama while preventing unintended unfreezing of other bosses.
• With the exception of PvP and Deadman worlds, players who start to harvest an allotment and in the same tick use the same produce on a compost bin, will once again continue harvesting and composting automatically until the patch empties or the compost bin fills.
• This had stopped working because the code for using items on scenery was breaking binding effects such as the Ice spells. As those effects tend to matter most in PvP, we've restored the ability to use compost bins in that way, but only on non-PvP worlds (also excluding Deadman).
• Corrected interface positioning to remove the gap at the top of the screen when moving the map on desktop.
• The water pump site on Vatrachos Island now updates its appearance correctly when you build the pump.
• A trollface has been removed from the Thieving skill guide.

PvP World Rota

The PvP rota has moved to Period B:

• 560 - (UK) - PvP World
• 319 - (US) - Bounty Hunter World
• 579 - (US) - High-Risk PvP World
• 561 - (UK) - Free-to-Play PvP World
• 580 - (US) - LMS Competitive

World 390 (AUS) for LMS Competitive has been de-activated with this rota.

World 569 (AUS) for Bounty Hunter has been de-activated with this rota.

The PvP Arena is using 'Max/Med' loadouts in Ranked Duels and Tournaments this week.

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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