Behind the Scenes – May

Go with the flow in May with flowing capes of distinction and mining at the Lava Flow Mine; then behold players 'walking tall' with hats that morph depending on your Wilderness and Duel Arena kills, and hear even taller tales in the form of the Fremennik Sagas. Finally, round off May with some general upgrades taken from player suggestions on the forums.

Capes of Distinction

Kicking off the merry merry month of May will be some snazzy new capes, as first revealed in the Capes of Distinction blog, and which was soon followed by a Guaranteed Content Poll to let players decide the look of one of these capes – the veteran cape.

That winning veteran cape design will soon be available to all players who have had a RuneScape account for at least five years. Joining it is the Classic cape, for all of those who have at some point logged into RuneScape Classic on their account.

Alongside these two will be a series of nine player-crafted capes that can be woven (on a loom) once you’ve trained ALL of your skills up to a multiple of ten. For example, the milestone cape (20) can be made when all of your skills have reached level 20. The first of these capes will be the milestone cape (10) (all skills at level 10) going up to the milestone cape (90) (all skills at level 90).

So, the natural question to follow that is: ‘What happens when you’ve trained all your skills to level 99?’ It’s not like you can wear all your skillcapes at the same time – for a start, the colours would clash, and you’d get a bit hot with so many layers. In which case, you’ll probably want to track down Max in Varrock and buy a max cape from him. Don’t think that a max cape is Max’s cape, though, as you can make it very much your own by customising its colours how you wish, much like with clan cloaks.

Even the max cape is not the end of it, for there is at least one more cape to be claimed only by those deemed worthy of it – it’s on display on the top floor of Varrock Museum. What will it take to prove you are its rightful owner? The only way to find out is to try to take it!

Finally, the veteran, Classic, max and ‘Varrock Museum’ capes all come with emotes and ever more fancy designs.

Dwarf Lava Flow Mine

Those of you who have played the King of the Dwarves quest should already be aware of the Lava Flow Mine, a striking example of dwarven ingenuity that supplies power to the whole of the underground city of Keldagrim. And if you’ve helped the dwarves with that little regal issue, the mine will soon become a new mid- to high-level (68+) area in which you can train the Mining skill.

You’ll need to dash around the mine to stop too much crust from forming and to keep the lava flowing. Doing so will provide you with a decent amount of Mining XP, but you should also keep an eye out for other things going on nearby, including boiler breakdowns, a lava monster and TzHaar hero, haunted pickaxes, and the elusive liquid gold nymph who, once appeased, will reward you with parts of a golden mining suit, the full version of which grants a 2.5% Mining XP boost. (Think of it as the Mining equivalent of the lumberjack outfit.)

Death Hats

Who doesn’t like hats? Hats are great! They keep the sun out of your eyes, warm your head in cold weather, can be worn at a jaunty angle, thrown in the air and left to just simply exude general hat-ish qualities. Come mid-May, they’ll also be able to show off to the rest of RuneScape just how many players you’ve PKed in the Wilderness and defeated in the Duel Arena.

The wildstalker helmet will track your Wilderness kills and the duellist’s cap your victorious duels, each morphing into ever more terrifying styles as you reach certain milestones. Both hats will give you the ability to transmogrify into a commemorative statue, upon which other players can behold your various PvP stats, and they’ll also let you perform a suitably fear-inducing emote. Don’t fear the reaper; fear the owner of a fully morphed death hat!

Upgrades Week

One of the weeks in May will see a variety of minor updates, fixes and improvements, which have been compiled from some of players' most discussed issues on the forums. For example, there will be: an optional filter for the Summoning pouch/scroll creation interface, so you can choose to view either all pouches/scrolls or just those you’re currently able to make; the herbalist at the Grand Exchange will decant potions into two or three doses; an ‘open all’ option will be added when using a hammer on a coconut; and the message when a bird’s nest drops while Woodcutting will be made more noticeable.

Graphical Improvements

Two more areas of RuneScape are set for some visual overhauls in May. Draynor Village will be the first to be given a new lick of paint, and Rellekka will be jumping on the bandwagon towards the end of the month.

Fremennik Sagas

Rounding off May will be the Fremennik Sagas. These will be a slightly new type of content – a mix of Dungeoneering and quests. They’re presented as a series of three replayable stories, as told by a cursed Fremennik going by the name of Skaldrun...and you’ll get to relive them! You’ll take control of and experience first-hand the lives of some of Daemonheim’s denizens and those who have struggled to uncover the secrets of its depths.

Step into the giant boots of Dungeoneering’s mighty Fremennik skill master and Thok It to ‘Em, by bashing everyone and everything on the head! Become the last of a group of forgotten warriors and take Vengeance on a party of ‘heroic’ dungeoneers! Finally, prove that Three’s Company, by leading Ariane, Ozan and Sir Owen on the hunt for a notorious bandit hiding out in Daemonheim, marking these characters’ first in-game appearance! (Keep an eye out for these three wandering around elsewhere too...)

If you don’t have the level requirements to play a complete saga, you’ll still be able to play an abridged version of it, from which you’ll get only a small part of both the reward and the story...but you can always return to play through them again when you do have the levels required to play the unabridged versions. Three’s Company (30 Attack, Magic and Ranged) will be completely available to free-players, with Vengeance (55 Agility and Thieving) and Thok It to ‘Em (70 Strength) being for members.