Varlamore Activities & Kourend Changes

Today we’re talking about the final parts of Varlamore: Part One and some upcoming changes to Kourend...

Welcome to the final part of our consultation on Part One of Varlamore! Today’s blog will take you through some smaller activities in the first release for our shiny (and Shining) new region. We’ll be looking at Agility, Mining, Prayer and Thieving activities and giving you a sense of how you’ll be regularly interacting with this exciting new environment. This is just a taster, of course - rest assured, there’ll be plenty of surprises left for you to discover in Part One and across the rest of Varlamore’s releases. And remember, this is your consultation, so make sure you let us know what you think ahead of the Thursday livestream - more details at the end!

Today’s post doesn’t only cover Varlamore. We'll be filling you in on improvements elsewhere on the continent too! In the second part of the blog we’ll head for Kourend, where the Favour system has been much-discussed since its release. The short version? We want to remove that system completely. However, we don’t want you to lose the content you unlocked through it. That’s why nearly everything has been re-assigned to work in conjunction with other features across Kourend and Kebos! Keep reading and we’ll explain how.

For now, though, let's take you across the Shining Kingdom and see what you’ll be getting up to when Part One releases next year!

The rich new environments we’re creating will offer plenty of opportunities to skill, and today we’re going to discuss Agility, Mining, Prayer and Thieving activities.

Please note that none of these new activities will bring in the best XP/HR within the game, but they will be competitive against current methods elsewhere. Plus, they’ll offer you some variety for your training and generally bring Varlamore alive as you interact with the alluring environments and colourful characters of this exciting new region. First up, Agility…

Agility Course

When we debuted the Varlamore map at this year’s Summer Summit, a few eagle-eyed players wondered what the giant skeleton down the bottom-right corner was all about. Well, it's known to Varlamorians as the Colossal Wyrm, and it’s a boastworthy landmark for sure! Sadly, though, the underside is now absolutely crawling with termites, jeopardising the integrity and structure of the mighty beast. The Grand Museum has appointed Worm Tongue to tackle the infestation and preserve the majestic Wyrm from further harm, but age is creeping up on him and he needs your assistance.

Aimed at players between 55-70 Agility (with 55 as the minimum requirement) this course will see you exploring the caves underneath the skeleton, gathering up those pesky termites. Worm Tongue will be on hand to instruct you on how the course works, and provide you with an empty jar to collect your critters. Catch the termites and then trade them in for rewards at Worm Tongue's Store, namely:

• Bone Shards: a stackable item used in Prayer training.
• Basic Teleport Crystals: allow you to teleport out of the Agility Dungeon and back to your Agility guide once.
• Advanced Teleport Crystal: allows you to teleport out of the Agility Dungeon and back to your Agility guide multiple times.
• Graceful Sewing Kit: can be used to recolour an item of Graceful Kit to the Varlamore Graceful Kit.

Alternatively, you can opt to rescue the termites and gift them to the Hunter Guild, in exchange for Hunter XP!

We want the new Agility Course to feel like a successor to the Shayzien Agility Course and allow you to naturally progress, if you so choose, across Kourend, Kebos and Varlamore. We're looking over the current Agility methods throughout the game and aiming to take inspiration from the strongest parts of the skill, for a course that feels good to tackle on repeat.

Mining Activity

Even before all the conversations around Mining started, we’d already spoken about including a new method for you to mine to your heart's content in Varlamore! Here’s what we're planning.

Requiring 40 Mining, the new method will be low intensity, a bit like a combination of Camdozaal Mining and Tears of Guthix. With the veins, you'll be able to mine Bone Shards, which, as we’ve previously mentioned, are items used across Varlamore for worship - and a stackable resource! Every so often, water will trickle down one of the veins, and mining those veins doubles the mining success rate.

Occasionally, players will receive Calcified Deposits. These can be smashed with a hammer at an anvil for either a stack of Bone Shards, Cobalt that can be traded into someone at Civitas Illa Fortis for GP, and a one time use, tradeable Cam-Torum teleport.

Much like the alternative use for Termites, you'll be able to take the Bone Shards to our next activity in exchange for Prayer XP. For those of you who are curious about Mining as a whole, we've got some other plans for current Mining activities that we'll talk more about very soon. Stay tuned!

Prayer Activity

Head on over to Ralos' Rise and get ready to pray to the God of the Sun in our next activity! You'll need a minimum of 30 Prayer to participate in this worship, but it offers a very simple gameplay loop:

The only thing you'll need to bring other than bones is a Jug of Wine, which will be used to fill the Libation Pool for a successful offering. Bone Shards can be crafted from most existing bones, and each shard, no matter what bone they are made from, will give the same amount of experience when offered. The tier of bone determines the amount of Bone shards you receive (with higher being better), and some bones also offer a chance for bonus shards!

Wine can be used for up to 1,000 Shards and you'll be able to use Sunfire Dust found at the Fortis Colosseum to change your wine into Libation Wine, which results in a little bit more experience for each Bone Shard offered. However, it also reduces your maximum Shards - we’re currently thinking to between 500 and 750.

We'll also be offering you a way to un-note your bones so that you won't have to spend loads of time going to and from a Bank and can instead commit to uninterrupted worship. Amen!

Overall, we're looking to set the XP of each bone slightly higher than the Gilded Altar, but be aware that XP per hour will be lower if you’re not bringing Bone Shards gathered from elsewhere.

Thieving Activity

Our final activity requires a little sneakery and trickery! Within the walls of Civitas Illa Fortis, a dodgy character lurks around the more affluent households of the city. Chat to them and they’ll instruct you to rob houses in the area and hand over the stolen valuables to their associate waiting nearby. Probably best not to ask questions - just focus on all the lovely the riches and experience to be gained…

Once you've reached 50 Thieving, you’ll have to enter the houses without being detected - and each house has a different entry method. Once inside, stand next to a shelf to search it, much like you do with Fishing. Rummaging around the shelves will give a small amount of XP, but handing items to the fence will earn you a bigger hit.

Talking of a bigger hit… at any one time, a single house in the district will be marked with a chalked symbol. This indicates a high-value target! These will be different for each player, so keep an eye out for your unique opportunity. The high-value household will have a chance for double loot drops, and you might even find a Handkerchief or Ivory Figurines. We'll touch on the use of Handkerchiefs in a second, but Ivory is actually banned in the kingdom, so you should take these Figurines to the Hunter's Guild for a reward pack, or just chip them into Bone Shards for use at Ralos' Rise.

On top of your, er, ‘house calls’, you can also pickpocket wealthy citizens in the Bazaar as long as you have 50 Thieving, but this has extremely high failure rates under normal conditions. This is where those Handkerchiefs come in! If you trade the Street Urchins a Handkerchief, they’ll temporarily distract your mark, giving you a 100% success rate for the duration. This will be the main source of GP/HR, and you can use multiple Handkerchiefs for a longer pickpocketing session. We also want players to be able to leech off other player’s Urchin sessions for social fun!

We're looking to have rates lower than Stealing Artefacts, but you should get a decent amount of GP/HR, which slightly increases with higher levels.

Alright, those are your activities - hopefully this has you even more excited to explore Varlamore on launch! Now let’s head for another part of the continent and talk Kourend improvements.

With the release of a whole new area, we’ve decided to throw some changes to Kourend in the mix, especially since there are two contentious issues there that we’ve been discussing for a long time: Favour and Transport.

Kourend Favour

First of all, let’s talk about the Favour system - or more accurately, herald its demise! Kourend is now in a much healthier place than it was on first release, and the Favour system just doesn't add much anymore. Prior to the release of Varlamore - early 2024 if all goes well - we want to completely remove it.

As we mentioned further up, content that was previously unlocked through the Favour system will be mostly redistributed to fit around existing quests, the Achievement Diary and so on. So, if you’re wondering what goes where - well, here’s your answer!

Transport Changes

We also think it's time to change some of the ways you access Kourend and its environments - here’s what we’re thinking.

Minecarts will no longer need unlocking, and will no longer have any requirements. Players will simply be able to take a minecart for a cost of 20 Coins (down from 50). You can still unlock the ability to use the minecarts for free, but this will now be locked behind The Forsaken Tower, and any players who previously purchased the unlock will be refunded. In addition, new minecart stations will be added to Kingstown, the Farming Guild, Kourend Woodland, the Wintertodt Camp, the Shayzien Wall and near the Tithe Farm.

Various changes will be made to the Kourend Castle Teleport:

• The teleport will be unlocked by completing Client of Kourend rather than being unlocked in the library.
• The Magic requirement of the spell will be reduced from 69 to 48.
• The runes needed for the spell will be changed from 5 fire, 4 water, 2 law and 2 soul to 2 law, 1 fire and 1 water.
• Teleport Tablets for the spell will be added - they can be made in your Player-Owned House and will work like other Teleport Tablets.

Various changes will be made to Kharedst's Memoirs:

• The maximum number of charges will be increased from 8 per page to 20 per page (for 100 in total).
• Completing A Kingdom Divided and obtaining the Book of the Dead will grant an extra 150 charges rather than an extra 20 (for 250 in total).

Additionally, Charter ships will be added to Port Piscarilius/Land's End and you’ll no longer need to fix the Fairy Ring in Arceuus to use it (we'll also be refunding players who have already fixed it). Oh, and we’ll add an extra Fairy Ring near the Hosidius Vinery!

Ok, that's a wrap on our proposal for the Varlamore: Part One Activities and Kourend Changes. Make sure to let us know what you think about these changes before our livestream on Thursday 9th, where we'll be going over everything listed here. We’ll be live at 17:00 GMT on Twitch - see you there?

You can also discuss this update on our official forums, on the 2007Scape subreddit, the Steam forums, or the community-led OSRS Discord in the #gameupdate channel. For more info on the above content, check out the official Old School Wiki.

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