Wonderbar Returns

Wonderbar Returns

Pick up some purple prizes week with Wonderbar � only on Treasure Hunter!

Open Treasure Hunter Chests from 00:00 UTC on 3rd May until the 23:59 UTC on 8th May to gain charges and unlock some awesome prizes.

With every chest you open, the Wonderbar meter fills. Once you have reached the prize category you want, activate the Wonderbar and your next prize will be from that category or rarer.

Activating the Wonderbar will also add charges to the purple gem, which, when activated at 100%, will ensure your next prize is from the purple category.

The higher the rarity of the Wonderbar, the more purple items will be added to the ticker, so make sure you fill it up for a chance of receiving the best items.

For the duration of the promotion, this event will also see the return of the original lucky items, which are available from special purple prizes:

Lucky Dragon Full Helm Lucky Dragon Chainbody Lucky Dragon Platebody
Lucky Spectral Spirit Shield Lucky Arcane Spirit Shield Lucky Elysian Spirit Shield
Lucky Divine Spirit Shield Lucky Bandos Boots Lucky Abyssal Whip
Lucky Dragon Claws Lucky Dragon 2h Sword

The RuneScape Team


What is Treasure Hunter?

Treasure Hunter is playable from within RuneScape, allowing players to use Keys to claim in-game items as prizes. These range from useful resources to rare weapons and exclusive gear.

Playing Treasure Hunter is simple - click the treasure chest icon that pops up when you log in. If you've not played before, just follow the on-screen guide.

Everyone gets at least one Key per day, and RuneScape members get two. You can earn more Keys while playing the game, or stock up by redeeming Bonds.

If you'd like more, you can also buy Keys on the website, or by clicking 'Buy Keys' within the Treasure Hunter interface in-game.

The Month Ahead - February 2017

It's double XP time, with even more XP up for grabs than normal. There's a secret new quest, too, and a bunch of new perks for inventors and owners of skillcapes alike!


Double XP Weekend

The big news this month is the Double XP Weekend, which starts at midday on the 17th of February. The normal double XP madness runs until midday on Monday the 20th, but were also adding some further bonuses until the 27th of February, especially for those of you who have other plans that weekend. Every player will get an increased XP return during that following week - up to 1 million XP�s worth. This will be a great time to train those slower skills which tend to get left out over the busy weekend. Look out for a news post with more information, and watch out for the 'Time To Train' event to help you get all the materials you need for those precious gains.


Game Jam

During the Double XP Weekend, we will be running a RuneScape __game Jam in the office and you peeps can get involved as well. We will be working on small, meaningful projects with the aim to release a bunch of them over the following weeks. Most of the ideas will come from suggestions on Reddit and the forums, and over the Saturday and Sunday there will be several live streams where we will update you on our progress and listen to your feedback. We will also have channels set up to chat to Jmods while we aren�t streaming. So why not tune in and get involved while grinding out those levels?


Quest

We always find time for JMods to explore their personal creativity and to work on updates they really want to experience as players. This month were releasing one such project, a secret 5th age quest that�s part of a plotline we haven�t explored for many years. It's a project that Mods Nexus and Helen were so passionate about, and when they told us about their idea we just had to give them the support to get it launched! However, continuing the secrecy theme we talked about earlier in the year, I won�t give you more information than that - I wonder if you can work it out yourselves. Let me know on Twitter what you think it is.


Veteran Cape

Soon, Hans will finally be able to hand out his new veteran cape to our most loyal, long-term players with 15-year old accounts. It comes with a special emote, of course, and we�ve added a new emote to the 10-year cape too to celebrate! It always amazes us how dedicated those long term players are, so now�s your chance to show off your awesomeness.


Invention Tools

Also this month, Firemaking and Smithing will be added to the set of skills supported by invention tools. Look out for new augmented hammers and tinderboxes, including the crystal ones, and 5 new tool perks, like the Prosper perk which allows you to gain clue scrolls while skilling, and the Pyromaniac perk.


Skillcape Perks

Talking of perks, the ninjas have added a perk to every single skillcape, each of which offers a handy advantage when using that skill. There�s all sorts on offer, like the Herblore perk that automatically cleans all your grimy herbs or the Invention perk that slows down your charge drain rate. You�ll be able to choose up to 3 of these perks to use on your Max or Completionist capes, if you own one!

Finally, don�t forget to get involved in this month�s Valentine event. There�s love sprites aplenty as you break down devotion rocks and fix up unity machines with your invention skills. Plenty of rewards await those with room in their hearts, like new walk and rest animations, loved up loot beams and your own love sprite pet. Awwww.

Have fun, and wooters out!


What is a Behind the Scenes article?

Behind the Scenes is a sneak peek at the planned __game updates that we hope to launch in the coming month.

This, however, is only a plan - not a promise - that a particular update will be released in a particular way or at a particular time. To get you the highest quality updates as quickly as possible, we usually keep on tweaking and testing right up until the moment before release, so sometimes things change or take a bit longer than expected. We aren't afraid to change our plan if necessary, as we will never launch an update before it is ready.

Welcome, New Hires!

It's New Blood O'Clock over here at Giant Bomb, which is a really exciting time for us. This time around we're announcing two new additions to the staff. Let's start with the New York office, where Vinny's been looking for a new producer. Here's his dispatch:

No Caption Provided

Give a warm welcome to Abby Russell who will be joining us over at Giant Bomb East next week. First, I’d like to thank all 1,000-plus of you that applied. It was great to see so many people interested, but also extremely difficult to make a choice. Now, I’d also really like to thank Abby, who didn’t run out of the building screaming when she saw our studio. Big plus. While we currently don’t know everything about Abby… yet, here are some things she has revealed:

  • She was raised in both Texas and Virginia, hails from Boston, and currently lives in Brooklyn.
  • Her favorite __game is obviously Mass Effect 2 but she has a weird thing where she pronounces "Mass" as “Kat” and "Effect 2" as “amari Damacy.” Probably a Texas thing.
  • She also really likes Red Dead Redemption.
  • She has a cat named Tater Tot
  • She also has a cat named Dirt Bike

Honestly, we could not be more excited to welcome her into the Giant Bomb family. She’s smart, funny, and again… can’t stress this enough, she didn’t laugh until passing out when we opened the door to our studio.

Welcome Abby! You can follow and welcome Abby on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ybbaaabby

Katamari Damacy is really good, it's true!

No Caption Provided

Out here on the Westside we've also been faced with tough choices as we went through a zillion resumes, listened to podcasts, combed through YouTube videos, and sifted through a lot of samples. After that difficult process, we've made an addition to the team in the form of Ben Pack. Ben starts today and before too long here you'll be seeing him on the podcast, in Quick Looks, and all over the rest of our stuff. We asked Ben to send over some factoids about himself and here's what we got:

  • Ben is 6’10’’. That is above average in height.
  • Found out he got the job here at Giant Bomb the day his house burned down.
  • Ben has lived in the Bay Area his whole life, and one time saw famous San Franciscan Danny Glover at his college.
  • Ben has over 5000 hours logged in Dota 2, but swears that “at least half of that has to be idle time.”
  • Previous jobs for Ben included interning at Whiskey Media, video production for Destructoid, and working clinical trials to pay for his college tuition.

Oh right, that Ben Pack. OK, I remember that guy. Welcome Ben! This'll be a lot of fun. You can find Ben on Twitter at https://twitter.com/PackBenPack

That's all for now, but we're not quite done on this front. So you'll probably see some more news along these lines later on in the year.

Dev Diaries | 120 Slayer

Mods Joe, Daze and Manti discuss our plans for 120 Slayer in the latest edition of Dev Diaries.

Coming with the release of Menaphos in June, it's an update which we think it's fair to say has divided opinion with you guys at home. So please take the time to watch some of our ideas for how we believe it can work, and let us know your feedback.

This episode focuses on the past, present and future of Slayer 120. What did we want to do and achieve with the update? What feedback have we had so far? And how are we going to use that to inform our decisions moving forward?

Watch on � and more so than ever, your input is important. Please head to our forums, Reddit, or send us your thoughts using the #DevDiaries hashtag on Twitter. Enjoy!

The RuneScape Team

Lava Lanterns

Lava Lanterns

Lava lanterns will light your way to XP mastery from 00:00 UTC on 26th April until 23:59 UTC on 1st May � only on Treasure Hunter.

Each lantern gives 75% of the regular XP a lamp of the same size would give, plus the same amount of Bonus XP on top � meaning 150% XP in total!

For example, if a lamp would normally give you 10,000 XP, a lava lantern of equivalent size would give you 7,500 XP and 7,500 Bonus XP � a total of 15,000 XP.

So load up on lanterns and fire up an XP inferno!

The RuneScape Team


What is Treasure Hunter?

Treasure Hunter is playable from within RuneScape, allowing players to use Keys to claim in-game items as prizes. These range from useful resources to rare weapons and exclusive gear.

Playing Treasure Hunter is simple - click the treasure chest icon that pops up when you log in. If you've not played before, just follow the on-screen guide.

Everyone gets at least one Key per day, and RuneScape members get two. You can earn more Keys while playing the game, or stock up by redeeming Bonds.

If you'd like more, you can also buy Keys on the website, or by clicking 'Buy Keys' within the Treasure Hunter interface in-game.