Jagex Announces Multiple Things For RuneScape And Old School RuneScape During Runefest, Including An Expansion

Over the weekend, Jagex hosted the celebration of all things RuneScape related, Runefest, for the first time in six years. During the event, the company made several announcements, not just for the original RuneScape MMORPG, but also for Old School RuneScape. Effectively, the team has been busy.

Among the major announcements from the show are a new skill for Old School RuneScape, a new game mode for regular RuneScape, and a RuneScape expansion. Don’t get too excited about that last one just yet. It’s not hitting until 2026.

The new OSRS skill is sailing. The skill will be available to everyone in alpha later this month and will allow players to sail the seas. Of course, they’ll have to start out small – with a “teeny tiny raft” – and hone their skills in order to take command of a ship with a crew.

Old School RuneScape players can also look forward to some new bosses arriving throughout the year. This includes Yama and a new Delve boss, the Doom of Makhaiotl, in the Spring. During the summer, new quests will also be introduced as part of Varlamore: The Final Dawn. There’s more good OSRS news, as well. That HD Mode you’ve all been waiting on will arrive this summer, too.

Actually, we’re not done with OSRS news from the event yet. In addition to everything else, the company announced that it has opened playtest signups for “Project Zanaris,” a community world program that will allow players to modify their own worlds. This means being able to set rules and create new ways to experience the game.

Moving on to RuneScape, Jagex announced a new expansion and the introduction of the RuneScape Leagues to the game. The Leagues were already a popular mode in Old School RuneScape, and is a limited-time mode that allows players to start the game from the beginning with accelerated XP and drop rates. The mode includes overpowered new items and passives that will change the game experience.

Finally, a new expansion is coming to RuneScape in early 2026. Titled Havenhythe, the expansion will introduce a new area with all the content you’d expect from that. Havenhythe is located East of Morytania and is described as “a mysterious and isolated land, filled with lost history, bountiful resources, and multiple biomes”. Following that, players can expect to explore the “most dangerous place in the RuneScape universe” in 2027. That would be Vampyrium.