This week's headline update is the F2P release of Castle Wars. That isn't all for F2P, as Castle Wars arrives alongside a couple of other content improvements. For members there's another new set of mining gloves, and the Desert Elite achievement diary reward becomes that little bit more useful. Plus our usual array of patches and fixes.

F2P Castle Wars

Originally released in 2004, Castle Wars is held in high regard among players old and new. Runere dedicated to the continued support of the mini-game community and so we elected to poll making Castle Wars available to the F2P community. The question was met with a resounding yes, and today we're delighted to release F2P Castle Wars.

For those unfamiliar with Castle Wars, it's a capture the flag based mini-game played on a grand scale. There are two opposing castles, each representing two gods of RuneScape: Saradomin and Zamorak. The standard of your opposing team must be captured and returned to your base in order to score points. The fray will see you battle atop castle defenses, or in tunnels underground.

How to get there

Castle Wars is nestled in the south-western corner of Kandarin, a long way White Wolf Mountain. Naturally the lands in-between Castle Wars and the Taverley gate are inaccessible to non-members, and inaccessible they remain. To ensure ease of access to Castle Wars we've added a portal to Clan Wars. The portal will teleport you to the Castle Wars lobby.

Upon reaching Castle Wars it might alarm you upon seeing the castle doors shut tight. This is to ensure that the more exploration-driven among you stay to fight in Castle Wars rather than go wandering off. Clicking the doors will offer a teleport back to Clan Wars.

The rewards on offer

Completion of Castle Wars in F2P will continue to offer the same number of tickets as with the members variant. The rewards offered in Lanthus' shop do differ, however. You will be able to purchase the decorative melee armours, hoods, and capes. Halos, decorative ranged sets, and decorative magic sets are not offered because of the accompanying stat increases.

Mod Stone v Mod Sween

To herald the arrival of F2P Castle Wars, Mods Stone and Sween will be competing against one another, and it's going to be on you to determine who will reign supreme! Gear up and head to Castle Wars in World 383! Swear your allegiance to either Mod Stone, Hero of Saradomin, or Mod Sween, Champion for Zamorak.

Join Mod Stone and Mod Sween in-game and on twitch.tv/runescape on Friday 21st 3pm BST/2pm UTC/10am EST.

Other F2P content

Zamorak robes

Monks of Zamorak now drop Zamorak robes (top and bottom). This change applies to all Monks of Zamorak, and notably it allows F2P access to the robes. You can find Monks of Zamorak in free areas in the Asgarnian chaos temple, or a single captured monk held in Varrock Palace.

The robes themselves offer the best magic bonuses in F2P. The top and bottom each arrive with a +2 Magic attack, +3 Magic defence, and +3 Prayer bonus.

Amulet of Accuracy

The mighty Amulet of Accuracy is received upon completion of the challenging Imp Catcher quest. Prior to today the amulet could only be received once per account. Wizard Mizgog must have just stumbled across a hoard of them, because he now offers new amulets in return for complete set of beads (black, red, white, and yellow).

Expert Mining gloves

Belona, found within the Mining Guild, will now combine your Mining gloves and Superior mining gloves in exchange for Expert mining gloves. The Expert mining gloves have the effect of both the ordinary Mining gloves and the Superior mining gloves.

Expert mining gloves require 70 Mining to equip, and are offered by Belona at a cost of 60 minerals. To obtain Expert mining gloves scratch will require 240 unidentified minerals (the cost of all three gloves).

Elite Desert amulet

Since the introduction of pools within Player-Owned-Houses we've noticed that Nardah isn't quite the attractive destination it once was. To ensure completion of the Elite Desert achievement diary remains suitably rewarding, we've now added the option to teleport to the task-only Kalphite cave. This is a new option in addition to the existing teleport to Nardah.

Patches & fixes

we make the literally unplayable, playable.

The helm of Raedwald’s examine has been updated to display the name of the first person that discovered it. Congratulations to Pikachu Yip!.

The empty Master Scroll book can now be traded on the Grand Exchange.

The Summer Special offer no longer appears to be available in the Bond interface.

The Midsummer Event has been removed. Everybody wave farewell to Hotpheex. See you next year, old friend.

Black Demons and Lesser Demons have been added to the Catacombs world map.

A spelling error in 'In Search of the Myreque' has been fixed.

The spelling of Sorcerer has been fixed in numerous occasions through numerous quests.

A typo with the Dark essence examine has been fixed.