Behind the Scenes – July

Clan Citadels are floating over the horizon this month. Perform a portal ritual to gain a huge, customisable and personalised area for your clan, equipped with a Battlefield Editor to design your own battles and minigames! Before that, two queens await you in July: the Slug Queen’s after your mind (with a side order of world domination), while the Jadinko Queen seems more interested in your help.

Salt in the Wound (Members Quest):

The slug storyline comes to a swift and bloody end this month, forcing you and Mother Mallum, the Slug Queen, to settle your differences, adventurer-to-mollusc. You won’t be alone, as Sir Tiffy has given you a squad to lead: Kennith, who has ‘decided’ to grow up ; Ezekial, who’s been putting on the pounds; and Eva, a close relative of Sir Tiffy, who’s eager to show her worth. The Slug Queen won’t be alone, mind you, since she has an arsenal of slime-covered obstacles and mind-controlled thralls to toss in your way.

While the odds sound in her favour, you and your team will have access to a new weapon: a serum that disrupts the Mother’s mind control. The problem is it sits within Daemonheim, where the Fremennik are reluctant to let anyone leave with tainted items. Time for a Daemonheist!

Through a short Daemonheim foray and, later, when you infiltrate the Slug Citadel, you will have the opportunity to command each of the three accompanying heroes. They have different strengths, and you will need to cooperate with them to complete puzzles and battle slug thralls, in this experienced level quest that has the following requirements:

60 Defence
50 Constitution
47 Herblore
45 Summoning
35 Dungeoneering

Jadinko Lair (Members Skilling Area):

The Herblore Habitat, and the origin of its mysterious jadinkos, has long puzzled druids. Later this month, one of the druids reveals the truth, as you enter a newly-discovered living cave featuring a mixture of high-level skilling and combat, similar to the Living Rock Caverns.

It turns out that Papa Mambo’s wondrous enchanted Jade Vine isn’t as harmless as previously thought, and some of its ever-moving roots are causing corruption among the brood of the Jadinko Queen. You are called upon to cull the mutated strain. Corrupted jadinko babies, guards and males can be freely killed or given as a Slayer target (level 80, 86 and 91); protect or guard from their attacks, however, and you will find that the environment retaliates, with nearby roots giving you a light whipping. Those who work in cooperation with woodcutters, or chop down the roots themselves, will find their mission more relaxed, but by no means safe.

Cutting down the jade roots (level 83 Woodcutting) will yield a variety of logs. Curly roots are to be burnt in firepits (level 83 Firemaking) whereas straight roots can be fletched using a primitive process to make sagaies (sar-gay) , javelin-like weapons that are particularly strong against the jadinkos, especially if you stand at a distance (level 83 Fletching). The collection of material from defeated jadinkos will allow level 87 fletchers to create bolas, which can stun the jadinkos and most other targets.

For conscientious helpers, there will be buffing fruit and ecosystem seeds. For the persistent slayers, there is a chance of coming across the mysterious whip vine, which may sound incongruous but does wonders when attached to an abyssal whip (requiring 80 Slayer and 85 Attack to wield). It raises the whip’s stats, has the chance of delivering a small amount of poison damage to your targets and gives the old whip a brand-whipping-new special attack. Find that elusive vine and you’ll be able to vine-tune your abyssal vine whip to perfection!

Clan Citadels (Members Clan Areas):

Clan members may have hiscore tables, capes, insignia and clan chat channels, but they haven’t had a place to call their own. That is about to change, as clan citadels, floating castles in the sky, can be seen on the horizon!

Gather five clanmates who have membership and you will be able to complete the portal ritual, gaining entry to your clan’s very own citadel. Choose from four different layouts before deciding whether you want your citadel to be in glorious sunshine or perpetual night. Banners and flags fly the colours of your clan, and there are dozens of hotspots for you and your clan to make your own.

Of these hotspots, a maximum of seven are skill-related, allowing you and your clan to train skills together. Although the XP you receive is slightly lower than you would receive on the surface of RuneScape, skilling here will contribute to the maintenance of the citadel, allowing you to upgrade it from tier 1 to tier 7. As your citadel gets upgraded, you’ll gain access to better customisation options and even more hotspots. Contribute enough to the weekly upkeep of the citadel and you’ll find you have access to a clan ring, which gives you a temporary 1.5x multiplier in certain skill tasks about RuneScape.

Your clan can gather in many areas of your clan citadel – in meeting rooms, a senate, a party room – but the centrepiece is the clan battlefield. This offers you and your clan a large area to battle together or face-off against other clans, and a full-blown Battlefield Editor to create your own combat situations or minigames. We’ve had endless amounts of fun concocting clan wars between departments, elaborate mazes, obstacle courses, and twists on the traditional ‘capture the flag’ format, but we expect you to blow our ideas clear out of the sky. Get to grips with the locations, obstacles, enemies, enemy behaviours, win conditions and other tools, and then share your creation with your clan mates or other clans. The limits of what you create will only really be defined by your imagination.

Our graphics department have been busy adding over 4,000 new models and over 20,000 new animation frames to the game for Clan Citadels, making an environment that we are particularly proud of. More information about Clan Citadels will be revealed over the course of the month, with a clan blog on the 7th which will answer many of the questions you may have.

So, start growing your clans in anticipation of the Clan Citadels release!

In Other News:

July means the release of the Cryptic Cluefest! Follow clues in the forums and be directed to places in-game. Successful sleuths will gain insights into a future game update, as well as an exclusive item.

Members will have the opportunity to obtain a new item this month, with the introduction of the Dwarven Army Axe. This tool, aimed at lower-level players, will be useful as a weapon, hatchet, pickaxe, needle, chisel, tinderbox and toothpick*. Details of how to obtain this will be given upon logging in.

*Now removed, following note from Seers' Courthouse.

Mod Mark
RuneScape Lead Designer

I'm exited about citadels!

I want that whip update badly.

Looks like a decent month.
I am excited about the quest, though having DG worries me a bit. :s
Clan Citadels look fricking sweet too, I don't mind if I get lower exp, I will be in there with you lovely peoples. Working towards an awesome tier 7 castle and clan ring!

Look's like July is going to be an awesome month for Updates. Can't wait for the new Clan area. It sounds like its going to be kick ass!

Can't Wait Seems liek this will actually be an awesome update

Cant wait for citadels!

I think the update is gonna be great! I find it quite funny that within a few hours of this update, whips have already gone up roughly 2m in value

I'm looking forward to the Jadinko skilling area, however as many people think that whips will become the equal of chaotics I myself am against this. It doesn't make logical sense.

The clan citadels could be interesting, providing they are executed in the correct way. Unlike the first clan oriented game update.

They really are getting short for quests, doing one for herblore habitat.