Wyrmscraig - Activities & Lock In Poll

Wyrmscraig is a rough and rugged island hidden deep within the Unquiet Ocean. It requires 62 Sailing to access. Within the island, you'll explore the village of Auchrie, a remote settlement whose inhabitants have carved out a life on this island, despite their harsh circumstances. They rarely meet outsiders, so your arrival will be met with curiosity and suspicion. If you can’t see the image above, click here! Some of the amenities on the island will be accessible straight away, however, completing the introductory quest, Fallen From Grace, will grant access to all of the content found on the island. We'll also ensure that the island has its own teleport, so you won't need to repeatedly sail back and forth, however, this will be discussed later in development. Poll Question: Would you like us to introduce a new island, Wyrmscraig, as described in the blog, requiring 62 Sailing to access? If this question passes, Wyrmscraig will be coming to the game, however, details like activities can be refined later.

If you can’t see the image above, click here! Fallen From Grace is a short, Experienced-level Quest designed to introduce you to Wyrmscraig. It has a proposed Combat level requirement of 85-90 since you'll need to defeat a dangerous foe on the island. We won't spoil too much here, since discovering the island's secrets for yourself is all part of the adventure. We've been working closely with Gnome to ensure the Quest stays true to his original vision, while expanding certain areas that connect with the wider story. Those of you who are familiar with the ongoing Vampyre storyline may notice a few intriguing links within this quest, and we're excited for you to uncover more later this year! Requirements

• •Completion of Pandemonium
• •62 Sailing
• •60 Crafting
• •47 Runecraft
• •53 Mining

If you can’t see the image above, click here! Rewards

• •10,000 Crafting XP
• •12,500 Sailing XP
• •5,000 Mining XP
• •5,000 Runecraft XP
• •Access to the repeatable boss
• •Access to Golem Crafting

Poll Question: Would you like to see a new Experienced-level quest, Fallen from Grace, introduced as part of Wyrmscraig?

If you can’t see the image above, click here! After completing Fallen From Grace, players will unlock access to a repeatable boss encounter - the very same foe faced during the Quest itself. While Gnome originally pitched this encounter as more of a 'mini' boss, our prototypes have quickly proved otherwise. We're pleased to say there's nothing mini about it, with the fight shaping up to be suitable for players who've achieved a Fire Cape. The repeatable version of the boss will remain mechanically identical to its Quest counterpart. However, it's important to note that securing a single KC for Quest completion will require lower stats than if you wanted to efficiently farm the boss. To illustrate:

• •At roughly 75 Combat Level, a kill may require most or all of your supplies which means that 1 KC is possible but it's unlikely you'll want to repeatedly farm it.
• •At roughly 80-95 Combat Level, it will be much more practical to farm the boss efficiently.

Notable rewards from this boss include an updated sword design, which we'll discuss later in development, a way to teleport back to the island, and of course, a new pet. Although we're not looking to discuss rewards from this boss in detail until our next blog, we do want to clarify one thing: the 'Angelic Heart' reward proposal in Gnome's original design is not something we're currently planning to move forward with. The main reason is that the proposed boss, and its requirements, don't feel like the right place for such a powerful reward. Additionally, the team also have a few more reasons based on balancing:

• •If the Angelic Heart were weaker than Forgotten or Ancient Brews, it likely wouldn’t feel particularly satisfying to use.
• •Current rewards (Forgotten/Ancient Brews) from Muspah and Nex also sit behind significantly higher-level content, so we don't think it would be appropriate for this boss to creep into that reward space.
• •If it were stronger than them, then it would sit too close to the Imbued Heart and make the Heart feel like a less meaningful upgrade.

We explored the idea of using charges to limit the Angelic Heart's power, but this didn't feel like the right fit either. We're very inspired by Gnome's suggestion of a "mini Heart", but generally we feel it would be better placed behind higher-level Slayer content, perhaps as part of a future addition to the game. So, instead, we've decided to re-think Gnome's idea of a new Slayer Master: Mortimer. We kept Gnome's original design in mind during Mortimer's design and we intend that players slaying for him will be able to stay on high-value heart tasks more frequently than they can with Turael skipping. We also believe it'll be a much more interesting and exciting way to engage with Slayer as a whole which should make the heart grind more enjoyable! You can find out more about this new Slayer Master in the next section of the blog. As for the Heart, we hope this reasoning makes sense with you, but as always we'd like to hear your feedback. Once we're ready to share details about the updated sword, we hope you'll agree that this boss will fit better with one strong unique, rather than two. Poll Question: Would you like a new, repeatable boss encounter, introduced as part of the Fallen from Grace quest? Rewards from this encounter will be polled at a later date.

Mortimer is a new, high-level Slayer Master built around player choice. Instead of assigning you a single task, Mortimer will offer you a choice between two assignments, eventually increasing to three as you progress further with him. Do you want a fast task? A more profitable one? Or perhaps a specific Superior creature? If so, Mortimer may be the Slayer Master for you! Rather than endlessly skipping tasks until you find the perfect assignment, Mortimer encourages you to commit to the choices you make. Tasks assigned by Mortimer are significantly more expensive to skip (costing 100 points), and cannot be reset through Turael. As you continue completing tasks for Mortimer, you'll begin unlocking additional bonuses called Modifiers. These are powerful effects that may occasionally appear alongside your task choices, offering extra rewards or benefits depending on the assignment you choose. Once you have accessed Wyrmscraig, you can unlock Mortimer at 100 Combat and 70 Slayer, or 99 Slayer respectively.

In Gnome's original design, Mortimer would have allowed players to directly choose any Slayer task in exchange for a large number of Slayer Points. While we understand the appeal of this idea, particularly for those of you who want to see an alternative to established methods like Turael skipping, we felt that implementing this exact design would be difficult to balance appropriately. Additionally, we feel the original design may also have negatively impacted the core identity of Slayer as a RNG-based task system and would have resulted in Turael boosting being even more meta than it is currently. So, the pitch above has been adapted and we hope you'll love the new direction. We're keeping the following design goals in mind:

• •Better support for players targeting specific Slayer creatures or boss grinds
• •Reduced reliance on Turael skipping
• •More meaningful decision-making within Slayer
• •A new alternative to existing Slayer Masters without directly replacing them

If you can’t see the image above, click here!

Mortimer uses his own progression system. Instead of offering Slayer Points for completing his tasks, Mortimer offers powerful bonuses to his tasks called modifiers. Once you've completed enough tasks with him, modifiers will start appearing on your tasks to make them feel even more exciting and different each time. Our goal here is to ensure that tasks feel interesting and have the opportunity for exciting moments, where you see your best task with an insanely good modifier! You'll also be able to choose between tasks that offer different benefits. For example, would you rather have a Smoke Devil task, or a more lucrative Abyssal Demon task? At least one task on the list will have a modifier and there will be a 10% chance that each other task will receive one too. In both cases, Mortimer assigns the modifiers randomly, so it should be pretty varied and interesting each time. Example Modifiers

• •Modifier 1 - Task awards X Slayer Points on completion.
• •Modifier 2 - Task quantity modified by X%
• •Modifier 3 - Clue scroll drop-rates are increased by X%
• •Modifier 4 - Slayer creatures award X% more slayer XP
• •Modifier 5 - Slayer creatures spawn superiors X% more often

Exact numbers pending balancing. Task Completion Unlocks Tasks completed Unlock 0 Modifier 1 0 Modifier 2 25 Modifier 3 50 Modifier 4 75 Modifier 5 100 Third choice unlock

Mortimer is intended to fill a gap for those of you who want to target specific tasks, creatures, or bosses. He will also provide a new and more engaging way to hunt valuable Slayer uniques such as the Imbued Heart, since all of his assignments feature creatures with Superior variants. Existing Slayer Masters will still have their place within Slayer:

• •Duradel will remain the most efficient option for general Slayer XP/hr.
• •To ensure that Duradel still remains the strongest "general" boss Slayer Master, we're also disabling the 'Like a Boss' Slayer perk for Mortimer.
• •Turael and Konar will continue to be the strongest options for Slayer Point boosting.
• •Turael skipping will still remain a valid method for players who prefer it.

Slayer Master Slayer Points per Task Blocks Block Cost Cancel Task Cost Combat Level Req Duradel 15 7 100 30 100 and 50 Slayer(or 99 Slayer) Konar 18 (20 with diary) 7 80 30 75 Mortimer 0 2 120 100 100 and 70 Slayer(or 99 Slayer) Nieve/Steve 12 (15 with diary) 7 90 30 85

Mortimer's task list includes every Slayer creature with a Superior variant. Our goal is to help tackle longer Slayer grinds, particularly for uniques like the Imbued Heart, while making the grind towards them feel more fun and engaging. Assignments will continue to respect all existing Quest and skill requirements, so you'll only receive tasks you're eligible to complete. At present, we would like to aim for every task to have an equal weighting, meaning every assignment would have an equal chance of showing up. However, this may change later during balancing and playtesting.

• •Smoke Devils
• •Araxyte
• •Abyssal Demons
• •Nechryaels
• •Dust Devils
• •Hydras
• •Dark Beasts
• •Gargoyles
• •Wyrms
• •Bloodvelds
• •Jellies
• •Basilisks
• •Custodian Stalkers
• •Gryphons
• •Aquanites
• •Kurasks
• •Aberrant Spectres
• •Cave Horrors
• •Drakes
• •Crawling Hands
• •Cave Crawlers
• •Banshees
• •Rock Slugs
• •Cockatrice
• •Pyrefiends
• •Infernal Mages
• •Turoth
• •Warped Creatures (Terrorbird + Tortoise)

You may have noticed that there are lower-level creatures included in the list. This is intentional, as we want to avoid creating a system where you might only receive the most desirable tasks. For the same reason, Mortimer offers just two block slots at a higher cost of 120 Slayer Points each. Since we're offering more control in your task choice, we need to limit block slots to ensure there's enough variety within the system. As mentioned, our goal will be to provide a genuine alternative to Turael skipping for players who want a more targetted grind. We'll be paying close attention to how lower-level tasks and limited block slots affect overall engagement with Mortimer, and will continue refining the balance throughout development and playtesting. Will task storage work? Yes, task storage will let you store the task and modifiers selected. Will the Slayer Cape perk also work? Yes, you can still get a 10% chance to be re-assigned the same task, with the same task length and modifiers. Poll Question: Would you like us to introduce a new high-level Slayer Master, Mortimer, as described in the blog? Mortimer requires 70 Slayer and 100 Combat, or 99 Slayer.

A long time ago, the people of Auchrie discovered a strange mineral on the island called Sunstone. They discovered that Sunstone could be harvested and used to power Golem constructs to protect them from harm. Once you have completed Fallen From Grace, you'll learn about Golem Crafting, a new training method. This is intended to be a viable alternative to Glassblowing, especially at higher levels. During the activity, you will mine an inventory of Sunstone, sculpt Golems and clothe them with furs from Hunter. This means you'll get Crafting and Mining XP! We're offering both a relaxed and more intense way of training by introducing a new mechanic called momentum. If you can’t see the image above, click here!

Sunstone rocks are like any other rocks you'll find in-game. You can click them, mine them, get the resource, and then it depletes. However, they respond well to rhythm. After successfully mining a Sunstone rock, your next roll within 5 ticks will have a higher chance to succeed, scaling from 75% success rate at Level 50 Mining to 100% success rate at Level 92 Mining. This mechanic is called momentum! While you have momentum, you will also benefit from a 20% chance to mine an additional Sunstone chunk when you mine the rock. You will also benefit from any upgrades that enhance Mining, such as Expert Mining Gloves. If you prefer a more relaxed approach, you can click a Sunstone Monolith to gather Sunstone instead. This will be slower, but in a much more relaxed fashion.

First, you'll create a Golem base using four sunstone blocks. Simply click on a crafting spot, which will automatically set up the base. To shape the Golem, you'll need to carve it on each side: North, East, West and South. This will take 15 ticks per side, so 60 total plus movement time. This will be possible to accelerate faster by clicking at the correct tick. Once you've got all the sides prepared, it's time to insert a Golem Core. This can be created by using your Chisel on the Sunstone to create a Golem Core. These can also be shaped without needing a Golem crafted, so you can craft them ahead to save time. Once you've got your Golem shaped, insert the core in the spot directly in front of the Golem. If you learn the process and plan your movement, you'll shave a few ticks off this activity by finishing the shaping part of the activity at the perfect spot before you insert the core. The intention behind this is to give a little bonus reward to players who plan and path efficiently!

Once you've given life to your new Golem, it's time to keep them warm and cosy! You can do this by using Hunter furs on the Golem. The higher-quality of fur you use, the more Crafting XP you'll receive. In Gnome's original design, this step was optional, however, we have decided that we're comfortable moving it as a required step in order to get the Crafting XP from this activity. Here's why. Over the years, we've seen plenty of feedback that many furs from Hunter simply don't have enough practical use within the game. Many of you voted for this island because of the idea that Hunter furs would finally receive a stronger purpose within the game. We want to take the opportunity here to do something about that. Since Crafting is fundamentally a Production skill, this activity needs to have meaningful resource inputs, rather than be a completely self-contained loop. We've seen feedback on training methods that feel too isolated from the rest of the game. Anyone who's spent enough time at Wintertodt knows that eventually the real challenge becomes your ability to keep the chatbox set to public! By tying this activity strongly into Hunter, we want to create stronger links between skills and give Hunter furs a stronger purpose. Importantly, lower-tier furs (including ones found on the island) will still allow you to participate in this activity, with rarer furs from across the wider game providing better XP rates.

This is primarily an XP-focused method which is intended to be a competitive alternative to glassblowing in the current meta. We'll discuss more rewards from this activity in a separate blog. At the moment, we're leaning towards this activity offering uniques such as a mainhand glassblowing pipe, new teleport and unlockable second station (to improve the activity). Poll Question: Would you like us to introduce Golem Crafting, a new Crafting training method on Wyrmscraig as explained in the blog? This includes Sunstone Mining and the ability to clothe Golems using Furs from Hunter.

Goat Hunting is a brand-new Hunter training activity found on Wyrmscraig. You'll herd the island's concerning goat population into a deadly pit! Unlocked at 60 Hunter, this activity offers an active and engaging alternative to Red and Black Salamanders. To access Goat Hunting, you'll need:

• •60 Hunter
• •Completion of Sheep Herder

If you can’t see the image above, click here!

Those of you who have completed Sheep Herder might find this activity suspiciously familiar... We promise that we'll make this a little less traumatic. The activity itself is really simple, following Gnome's original design. A pit can be armed with spike sets found on the island. Goats can be encouraged into the deadly pit using a cattleprod, granting Hunter XP once inside. You can also choose to use Telekinetic Grab or Dark Lure if preferred, giving Magic a little bit of extra utility! Naturally, things won’t always go as planned. As with most Hunter activities, there is a chance of failure when attempting to guide goats into the pit. However, we intend for this failure rate to remain intentionally low, sitting at roughly 15% at Level 60 Hunter. For each goat successfully herded into the pit, players will receive a small amount of Hunter XP immediately. However, the majority of the XP comes afterwards when interacting with the pit itself and processing the goats collected inside. The number of goats required to fill the pit scales based on your Hunter level. Once the pit is full, you'll be able to, erm, process its contents. During this unfortunate stage, goats are processed one at a time, rewarding the majority of XP, plus materials. This means the activity looks like this:

• •Herd goats
• •Make sure the pit is full
• •Process XP and materials
• •Re-arm the pit with a new spike set
• •Repeat

Goat Hunting is primarily designed as an XP-focused activity rather than a profitable one. In the campfire video, we mentioned that it is aimed to sit just under Red/Black salamanders. We're projecting just under 80k Hunter XP/hr at 60 Hunter, scaling up to around 140k XP/hr at 80 Hunter.

Whilst we'll discuss and poll rewards separately, we're intending for this activity to drop a mix of Goat Fur (to be used within Golem Crafting if desired), Goat Horns, and of course, a pet. How could we not include Mr McGroot? Poll Question: Would you like us to introduce Goat Hunting, a new Hunter training method on Wyrmscraig as explained in the blog?