Welcome one and all to Season 5!

Wow, what year is it again? It sure has been a while since our last update, but we're finally back with one of our biggest updates so far!

The Update

Get ready, because this new Season will be focusing on expanding the network and increasing the overall player engagement.
We are completely changing the way we do updates into a more dynamic approach. Smaller updates will be released from time to time. Larger updates will be reserved for Seasonal updates. Our primary goals with Season 5 are to perfect Minescape and expand the network by creating new games and tournaments.
You guessed it, we're starting off the Season with Minescape! We're excited to announce that we have been working on a new system to provide a new way to play games on the network. So stay tuned for that!
Here is a brief summary of the new changes for Minescape in Season 5:
1. Skill balances
2. New resources, spells, prayers
3. New items
4. New points of interest/dungeons
5. New bosses
6. 12 new quests
7. New agility courses
8. QoL changes
9. New Minescape Leagues (released in about 2 weeks)
10. Bug fixes

Store

But before we get into the real juicy bits, let's kick off this Season with an interesting addition to our store!

BABANZA Rank

The ritual is complete!

As overused as this piece of Minescape lore is, it makes for a surprisingly fresh addition to the shop!

The bang for your buck:

Skins That's right, custom skins are here! Players purchasing the Babanza rank will be granted the ability to use one custom skin (Currently handled through discord tickets). The rank also comes with the Weirdo Guy Skin!
Balloons Don't want to be the Weirdo? Rejoice! The Babanza rank comes with a chicken balloon. You might still be a weirdo though.
Pets Behold, a new friend! Babanza ranked players will also receive a baby chick pet. So cute!
Rank Color The color of the rank is Rainbow and can be changed to lower rank colours.
Sounds Enjoy the suffering of others? We got you! The rank also comes with several sound effects. A chicken clucking SFX and a BABANZA SFX. Babanza players enabling DXP will trigger a new unique SFX.
Join Messages Babanza ranked players are also bestowed a wide variety of new join messages plucked straight from the Weirdo quest:
Zon't mention anyzing... [playername] is here…
The strange ritual is complete, [playername] is here!
Hide your chickens, [playername] is here!
[playername] is here to watch from the windows…
Go away now [playername]. You're a monster.
minescape_quest_weirdo_join([playername])
Profiles The Babanza rank also comes with a nice little bonus of 2 additional Profiles.
Price We expect this rank to be quite rare among players. They can get this rank for 135EU on our online store.

Minescape Changes

Now, on to the main event! We've made a lot of changes in a vast variety of skills and features.

Skill Balances

Let's start of with skill balance changes.

Magic

We've heard you! We have added two new Magic runes: Blood and Wrath runes.
They are obtainable by killing monsters and in the slayer shop. We plan on adding their Runecrafting altars in a future update as we expand the world of Minescape.
All of the end-game Magic spells now require these runes. This change makes Magic more competitive for end-game players.

We have increased the amount of XP given when casting Superheat (From 10XP to 18XP) and Alchemy (Low alc from 4XP to 11XP and high alc from 8XP to 22XP).

We have also increased the Alchemy prices of dragon hide items and teak/pine bows.

The Apocalypse Wand is now unlocked at level 70.

The Magic Cape has a new ability: Small chance of not spending any runes (~10% of the time).

Smithing

In order to lower the stress of acquiring Coal ore for Smithing, we are releasing a new ore that replaces Thick Coal: Graphite (unlocked at level 65 mining).

Players can now smelt Adamant and Rune bars by using one Graphite ore instead of several Coal ores.

Prayer

Burying bones in the Wilderness will now provide 10% more experience.

We've also added a new Ranged Prayer. The Rigour Prayer provides 15% Ranged buffer and is unlocked at level 65.

Barrows

Ahrim's Staff base damage has been changed to 50.

Karil's Crossbow has been nerfed from 1s timeout to 1.5s timeout.

Defence, Item Balances, and New Items

We have also change several items to make the game more balanced:
1. Blessed armor has been buffed to have the same stats as black dragon hide (armor point wise). They are now unlocked at level 70.
2. God dhide shields have been buffed and are now unlocked at level 70
3. The Robinhood Hat now has Ranged stats and provide a 2% Ranged buffer.
4. Strength Amulets now provide +12% max hit
5. Defence Amulets now provide 5% Ranged buffer
6. Warrior Helmets now provide no Prayer reduction but +1% buffer in all styles
7. Ranger Boots now provide 2% Ranged buffer
8. Magic Boots now provide 2% Magic buffer
9. Holy books now provide -10% Prayer reduction and 25% Prayer buffer but no Defence points
10. Balance books now provide 5% Prayer reduction
11. The Upgraded Bonecrusher now requires the Bonecrusher to be purchased (changed to 900 points to compensate for the change)
12. +Mud staff providing free Water and Earth runes

Upgraded bonecrusher in the Minescape slayer shop

Waterbirth Dungeon

A new island! The Waterbirth island has been completely built and contains a very large dungeon!

To access this new island, players will have to complete the Fremennik Trials quest. The new dungeon is located west of the island and contains four new monsters:
1. Wallasalki
2. Dagannoths
3. Rock lobsters
4. Giant rock crabs

In order to access the second part of the dungeon, players will need to either co-op to open the doors by stepping on the pressure plates or use a pet rock on one of the pressure plates.

This dungeon contains various Agility Shortcuts, allowing faster dungeon traveling.

This dungeon is the home of the Dagannoth Kings.
Each King has a unique combat style and can only be damaged by their weaker style.
This is our most advanced boss fight so far. The Kings have special attacks that can be avoided. The fighting arena contains different Area of Effect (AoE) circles. There are two types of circles:
1. Buffer circles that apply the target attack style and applies it to your different styles. For instance, stepping in a Magic buffer circle, your Ranged and Melee buffers will be set like your current Magic buffer.
2. Combat style circles that sets your combat style to the targetted one. For instance, stepping in a Magic combat style circle changes your attack style to Magic, meaning you would do Magic damage with a bow or a sword.
Only one of the King is active at once. They rotate every now and then, same as the AoE circles.

The Dagannoth Kings drop 4 new jewelry pieces:
1. Archer's ring. +10% Ranged damage
2. Berserker's ring. +10% Melee damage
3. Seer's ring. +10% Magic damage
4. Warrior's ring. +5% damage in all styles

These rings will be able to be imbued in a future update through a mini-game!

Varrock Sewers

We have revamped Varrock's Sewers. This is a beginner dungeon and will be the home of a new incoming boss!

Goblin Village

It was long due... The Goblin Village has been completely revamped and will soon host a new quest!

Agility Courses

What's a seasonal update without new Agility courses?!

We've added four new Agility courses.

Mort'ton Agility Training Facility

A new Agility training facility has been built. It's located right next to Mort'ton and contains three agility courses:
1. Easy course Level 20, +350xp
2. Medium course Level 20, +550xp
3. Hard course Level 20, +2400xp

Varrock's Rooftop Agility Course

Several players have been spotted on the rooftops of Varrock! Join them to earn Agility XP in this new course. Completing the course will reward you with 1750 Agility XP.

New Quests

We've added a lot of new quests! They're done with the same level of details than our last ones, featuring unique quest items, cinematics, unique mechanics, and much more!

The Questing UI now shows the total amount of Quest Points (QP) a player can get and the amount of quests currently in-game!

Witch's Potion

This quest provides 1QP and 325 Magic XP.
This is a beginner quest that can be started in Rimmington. Help a witch brew a potion, be rewarded with enough Magic XP to breeze through those early levels! Win-win?$

Vampyre Slayer

This quest provides 3QP and 4,800 attack XP.
We're really piling on the beginner quests this Season! This one provides players with a good amount of Attack experience. It contains a boss that requires the player to use a combination of items to kill. Ooh, fancy.
A vampyre is roaming in the undergrounds of Draynor Manor, terrorizing its citizens. Talk to the citizens in Draynor and help them get rid of him!

The Restless Ghost

This quest provides 1QP and 1,000 prayer XP. It also grants the player the Ghostspeak amulet that can be used to talk to ghosts.
A ghost has been spotted in the Lumbridge Graveyard and requires your help to be set free!

Sheep Shearer

This quest provides 1QP, 150 crafting XP, 60 coins and the ball of wool to string recipe! (Ball of wool replaces string in the amulet and necklace recipes)
Fred needs your help to shear his sheep in Lumbridge. Help him to unlock a fundamental crafting recipe. Balls of wool can be transformed to string, bringing a new way to craft strings for skillers!

Rune Mysteries

This quest provides 1QP, unlocks the Runecrafting skill and the Rune Essence Mine.
This quest was previously on Minescape a year ago but has been revamped to match our new level of detail!
Players will need to do this quest to craft magic runes.
Talk to Duke Horacio in Lumbridge Castle to get started!

Romeo & Juliet

This quest provides 5QP.
Here we go again, a tale as old as time! Romeo & Juliet need your help in Varrock. Will you be able to help them live their impossible love?

Priest in Peril

This quest provides 1QP, 1200 prayer XP, Wolfbane, and access to Canifis and Morytania.
You're in the big leagues now, time to Help King Roald rescue a priest! Players will be rewarded with Wolfbane, a dagger requiring level 30 attack to wear and providing +60% against canines.

Pirate's Treasure

This quest provides 2QP and Hector's treasure chest.
Will you be able to smuggle Karamjan Rum to the main land?
Talk to Redbeard Frank in Port-Sarim to begin this quest!

Imp Catcher

This quest provides 1QP, 875 Magic XP, and the amulet of Accuracy.
This is also a new beginner quest and rewards the player with the Accuracy amulet that provides +4% in all combat styles!

Fishing Contest

This quest provides 1QP, access to Hemenster, access to the White wolf mountain tunnel, and 2500 Fishing XP.
Will you be able to win the contest? Talk to Vestri, north of Catherby, to start this quest!

Druidic Ritual

This quest provides 4QP, unlocks the Herblore skill, and 250 herblore XP.
Talk to Kaqemeex to start this quest. He can be found near Taverley's stone circle!

Demon Slayer

This quest provides 3QP and Silverlight, the magical sword.
Talk to the fortune teller in Varrock's square. She will read your future and inform you about a black magic ritual. Will you be able to save Varrock from what seems to be its inevitable future?
Silverlight is unlocked at Attack level 15 and provides +60% damage against demons.

Quality of Life

Time for some QoL changes.

Gravestones

Gravestones have been changed so that untradable items no longer go to the bank but directly to the player's inventory. This makes new players less confused about where their items went. Yes Billy, you still have your items.

Favorite Cosmetics

Look, a feature nobody asked for! We hope you enjoy it anyway. Most of our cosmetics can now be flagged as a favorite cosmetic. A random favorite cosmetic option has been added. Enabling it will randomly select a favorited cosmetic when you join a server/game!

/exploration <name>

Players can now type /exploration <name> to look for a certain beacon to teleport to (whilst using the Exploration Cape's special).

Monster List

Mobs now have their combat level and type shown in the monster list! What change to the Monster List will we make next? Find out next time on-

Island Reset

Construction islands can now be fully reset for 5m coins. Make sure you write down the recovery code in case you reset your island by accident.

Tab List

We have revamped the player listing tab to show your various buffers.
All your potion timers are now shown on the tab list. Your slayer tasks and the active DXP booster is also shown.
Players can now show their dominance as the list is also now sorted by rank level!

Bug Fixes

As always, there are plenty of home improvements to make. This time we've recruited Tim "The Toolman" Taylor to help!

Whoops, all bugs! While we won't list all the bugs that have been fixed, we've spent a considerable amount of time to fix all the pesky bugs that have been reported!

Thanks Tim!

What to expect in future updates!

Buckle up! While this update marks the new Season, we have a lot of content that is already being worked on for incoming updates!
We will be testing a new release cycle during Season 5.
Another one. We plan on releasing features as soon as they're ready to go live, instead of packing them into bigger patches. We will keep bigger patches for new games, or bigger features.
Two weeks after the release of this new Season, Minescape Leagues will be released. Minescape Leagues will contain new tasks and tier unlocks!

We also plan on hosting our second Minescape tournament based on a new system we're working on. This system will then be expanded to host more tournaments and new games.

We are also currently working on several new quests and mini-games which will be released during Season 5.
We already have three new minigames planned:
1. Castle Wars
2. Nightmare zone
3. Goblin Invasion (a Minescape exclusive minigame)

Cubed! (17-19 September)

It's official, Cubed! is back for it's 10th event! The GamesLabs Network is proud to sponsor this year's event by providing our cross instance player visibility technology!

Cubed! 2021 - The In-Game Minecraft Convention Featuring booths, games, special guests, panels and more!

Raising money for SpecialEffect (UK-based charity that's levelling the playing field for gamers with physical disabilities around the world)

Claim your FREE ticket @ https://cubedcon.com/tickets

The End

That's all folks! We tried to keep the patch notes quite small this time! See you next time Bug Fixes.

We hope to see you online on the server! Make sure to join our Discord if you haven't already!
We would like to thank all the members of our staff team for their amazing work. Special thanks to Boobtit, Derp Spirit, ETK2000, Joey, Kev The Gamer, GreasyPiggy, Leedly, Lord JellyBeanz, Mats, MrGare, Nerd Josh, RockTheFlag, Twisted Darky, and our OG testers oketrasH, Maugrim, LithiumSoul and someguyisraging.

Thank you for your constant support.
Stay tuned for more patch notes!