TzHaar Quest, Minigame and Graphical Rework

The Elder Kiln

The TzHaar City is in crisis. For a reason unknown to the TzHaar-Mej, the eggs in the Birthing Pool are hatching into Ga’al: TzHaar without the inborn memories they need to perform their traditional caste roles.

In our latest Master Level quest, you’ll travel with one of these Ga’al to the forgotten depths of the TzHaar volcano, in search of a way to grant him the memories he needs to become accepted within TzHaar society. You’ll meet the mysterious TokHaar, and unearth secrets surrounding the origin of the TzHaar race – secrets which may change the course of their civilisation forever.

Where to start The Elder Kiln:

Speak to TzHaar-Mej-Jeh by the Birthing Pools in the TzHaar City.

Requirements:

Available to members only.
75 Magic
60 Agility
41 Mining
Must be able to defeat multiple enemies up to combat level 365.
You will need a rune or dragon pickaxe.

Rewards for this quest include great slabs of XP, a ring that increases damage against the inhabitants of the TzHaar City, and a new title.

The Fight Kiln

For combat fans, perhaps the most exciting reward is the opportunity to enter The Fight Kiln, our brutal new combat minigame, upon completion of the quest and the sacrifice of a fire cape. While the wave-based solo combat format will be familiar to veterans of the Fight Caves, this is a whole different beast. Temporary power-up crystals will drop during the course of the battle, and these will be a vital part of your survival strategy. It’ll take every iota of your fighting prowess and tactical cunning to endure the relentless onslaught of the TokHaar, before awakening the final boss from its subterranean slumber.

Should you prevail, you’ll win the right to wear the TokHaar-Kal – the only cape in RuneScape with a +8 strength bonus!

Requirements:

Available to members only.
Completed The Elder Kiln.
The first time you participate in The Fight Kiln, you will need to sacrifice a fire cape. Please note that you will only have to do this once to permanently unlock access.

TzHaar Race and City Rework

Before setting off on your journey to The Elder Kiln, be sure to take a tour of the TzHaar City. With a new quest and combat minigame, we felt that it was high time that this unique race received a facelift. We’ve completely reworked the environment of the city, replacing the bright orange crazing with detailed caverns and rock formations, moodily lit with smouldering glyphs and bubbling pools of lava. We’ve made huge changes to the NPC models, too. Each caste is now highly distinct, from the lumbering TzHaar-Ket to the gaunt TzHaar-Mej, and each has new animations to go along with their updated graphics. What’s more, all inhabitants of the Fight Caves, including the mighty TzTok-Jad, have received a lick of paint, and all player-wielded gear (with the exception of the fire cape) has been updated to bring it in line with the style of the rework. Finally, be sure to listen out for the eerie strains of ambient music fading in and out over the deep rumble of the volcano, as well as some truly tense and brooding battle music, as our audio team have really gone to town.

Mod Edam

In Other News

- The Elder Kiln will feature the first Early Bird Bonus. If you complete the quest within two weeks of release (before the 29th of February) you'll receive twice the quest XP reward you normally would - so, you'll receive a tome that imparts an extra 50,000 Magic and 30,000 Agility XP, and an extra 100,000 XP in your choice of combat skill! In addition, if you reach wave 30 of The Fight Kiln within the same two weeks you will receive an additional 70,000 XP lamp for your choice of skill. See our FAQ for further details.

- The drop rate of ancient effigies is now reduced, and will further decrease in accordance with the number of effigies that you have banked or in your inventory. If you have 5 or more ancient effigies, you will no longer receive them as drops until you possess 4 or fewer. Further details can be found here.

- If you haven’t already, take a look at our latest Lores & Histories story, A Return to Stone, which follows the mage Fulmin as he visits the TzHaar City and meets the first Ga'al.

- For the immediate future, it will not be possible to search for a global match in the Fight Pits. Apologies for any inconvenience – we will bring this feature back as soon as we can.

- For the next two weeks, the Theatrical outfit is available at the discounted price of 1500 loyalty points.

Patch notes for this update: (Click to View)

Graphical:


The "X" that appears when clicking to walk is now more yellow.
Some stretching on the red sandstone mine has been fixed.
Bal'lak's poison pools will hopefully cause less lag and appear in the correct place more consistently.
The Summoning interface now highlights the pouches the player can craft more clearly.
Some NPCs are no longer floating at the Heroes' Guild.
The saxon top no longer has a spike protruding from it when performing certain actions.
Samba legs no longer cause certain portions of the player to become invisible.
The XP hitmark progress bar no longer appears half full incorrectly when tracking multiple skills.
Some tooltips on the Clan Chat interface have been made orange, consistent with other tooltips on that interface.
Chopping ivy with the Dwarven Army Axe no longer makes players clip into a wall.
The Mercenary mage is now using the correct anim set.



Quests & Tasks:


The "Escort Duty" task now works correctly if the player has logged out before completing the task.
The "Hammer the Anvil" task is now a Tutorial mode task, as it is required to see the final cutscene in Troll Warzone.
Trying to give Pikkupstix a certain combination of quest items from Wolf Whistle now works correctly.
Several spelling mistakes around the Troll Warzone area have been fixed.
It is now possible to light pool fires from As A First Resort with a tinderbox in a toolbelt.
A wall in Enahkra's Lament can now be crafted using tools in a toolbelt.
Hint arrows on task hints beyond the 6th hint will now function correctly.
The Drowning Kid section of Troll Warzone no longer automatically completes chapter 6 too early under certain circumstances.
The Mining recommendations teleport for silver and gold ore has been changed.



Other:


The farmer in the Troll Warzone area no longer forgets which Farming patch he's looking after if he wanders too far away.
The initiate tasset now has the same stats as the initiate cuisse.
Secateurs will now gather all branches from farmed willow trees.
Stringing shortbows now gives 5XP instead of 1XP.
The ranger skeletons in Dungeoneering have had their impact sounds quietened.
Blink will now recover if he gets trapped inside a wall.
The wind sound around the Daemonheim peninsula has been quietened.
An erroneous "Can't use ammo" message no longer appears when performing some ranged special attacks.
Clan Vexillums can no longer be placed underneath the Daemonheim Fremennik banker.
Placing a gatestone midway across the Guardian Sphere challenge room in Dungeoneering, then teleporting to it will now cause the sphere to spawn.
The "Wish" farming patch from Lunar Farm now functions correctly.

The new kiln looks a proper challenge, but was quite disappointed with the boss, seems Jad is still a harder fight than the boss of the kiln Was disappointed with the look of the new cape as well, was expecting it to be somewhat similar to the fire cape, or at least have some sort of glow/lava effect.

The effigy nurf im quite happy about, although it would seem now as if its almost pointless as effigies have been in the game for such a long time, its just far too late imo. Its also ruined any chance of anyone catching upto S U O M I, not that that would happen cause Jakes a failboat.

Gave this a 5, love something new to combat. Looks like a challenge as well ^^ I honestly don't mind the look of the new cape, something different and I wasn't ever a big fan of the fire capes look so I'm kind of glad they didn't just use the same thing and change it slightly.

As for the effigies droprate, bit sad I won't be getting them as commonly but I think it was a much needed move by Jagex, which should of done earlier but better late then never
I understand it'll be a bit more of a pain for leveling for lower lvls, since they can't stack them and use them all at once when they're able to. I'm fortunate in the fact I can do them all now anyway.

As for only 5 in the bank, I'm pleased about. I like to compete during my competitions to get to the top of the xp gains during the day and it is usually ruined by someone who has gained 4 times as much in the skill as what is possible using standard methods aka without instant xp gains or effigies.

If the reduced effigy rate means that camping monsters no longer trumps actually training your skills, then I'm all for it. But at the same time, I don't see why the other restrictions were necessary. I'm a little upset that they're forcing my hand like this. I either have to train mining or smithing immediately to gain the levels I need for my banked effigies or give the xp to someone else. And if I don't, I'm penalized with a further reduced drop rate until I get rid of them somehow. If someone wants to hoard effigies and use them all at once, I don't see what the harm is in letting them. They still have to earn those effigies, so the reduced overall drop rate should have been sufficient balancing.

0. Nerfed effigy all together, should have limited uses per day instead of this stupid idea.


Rest of the stuff is dumb until completionist cape anyways.

I was forced to vote 0, I actually think this is a 3 or a 4.
Fight Kilns/new cape, quest, graphics all sound awesome. I agree with Dave, I am all for the decreased effigy rate but not pleased with the limited amount that can be banked, forcing me to use them all now and wasting xp. O well, I just accepted it and moved on.

Was angry earlier tbh, about the effigies, Now im kinda excited to be able to train my other skills one last time. Except for fishing, god I hate that skill.

A max cape is still better than the new Black Rock thing that hangs off your back cape, minus the str bonus, So ill still focus on maxing. Ill get it one day most likely.

Really looking forward to the new quest.

I find the limit placed on effigies intriguing. Is Jagex concerned about the affect banked effigies have on competitions? If so, it seems that Jagex take a great interest in all aspects of the game.

I'm all for this update, it will be easy to do assists since people cant hoard so much, and it is more incentive to get those levels. Not to mention maybe zarfot will return if this is no longer effigyscape

The quest has been fun other than w114 crashing, and I look forward to sacrificing my cape for a new challenge.

Would have been 5 if the new graphics, etc didnt make everything so slow. Seriously, with broadband and gddr5 it is ridiculous how slow RS has gotten. It's now unusable on my laptop.

5/5 for great quest, improved fight caves and nerfing effigies. I never liked effigies due to the fact that I thought getting better xp rates by not training the skill and instead going out and camping mobs for a drop was stupid.