RuneScape's Early-Game Rebalance Is Here, With Faster, Smoother Progression and Player Choice
•February 16, 2026
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Why It Matters
By accelerating early progression, Jagex hopes to improve player retention and lower the barrier for new and returning players, strengthening RuneScape’s competitive position in the MMO market.
Key Takeaways
- •Agility XP curve smoothed for faster early levels
- •Hunter XP boosted; catch rates more consistent
- •Thieving pickpocket success set at 75% base
- •Prayer XP +50% when offering bones at altars
- •Early mobs drop low‑level herb seeds, gear, ores
Pulse Analysis
RuneScape’s early‑game rebalancing is the first tangible step in Jagex’s broader Road to Restoration roadmap, a multi‑year plan to address long‑standing pain points across the game’s ecosystem. Historically, new players have faced a steep learning curve and a perceived grind, especially in skills like Agility and Hunter where XP gains were uneven. By smoothing XP curves and standardising success rates, the patch directly tackles these friction points, offering a more intuitive progression path that aligns with modern MMO onboarding standards.
The patch introduces concrete adjustments across several core skills. Agility now offers a steadier XP ramp, while Hunter’s early methods such as bird trapping receive a noticeable boost, reducing failure rates and encouraging experimentation. Thieving’s pickpocketing base success has been set at 75%, providing a reliable foundation for skill development. Prayer training becomes more rewarding with a 50% XP bonus for offering bones and ashes at altars, and Farming and Herblore see smoothed XP gains alongside tiered honeycomb unlocks. Additionally, early‑game mobs now drop low‑level herb seeds, gear, and ores, restoring valuable loot loops that were previously diminished.
From a business perspective, these quality‑of‑life improvements are designed to enhance player satisfaction and longevity. Faster, more meaningful early progression reduces churn risk for both newcomers and lapsed veterans, potentially increasing subscription renewals and microtransaction revenue. Moreover, the emphasis on player choice—allowing multiple viable pathways without forced playstyles—positions RuneScape as a flexible, player‑centric platform in a crowded MMO landscape. As Jagex continues to iterate, the early‑game overhaul sets a precedent for future content updates that balance depth with accessibility, reinforcing the brand’s reputation for responsive, community‑driven development.
RuneScape's Early-Game Rebalance is Here, With Faster, Smoother Progression and Player Choice
RuneScape Early‑Game Rebalancing Patch Details
The RuneScape team has released its early game rebalancing patch, implementing a number of changes intended to make things smoother, more consistent, and to improve progression and the overall player experience.
Jagex recently laid out details of its Road to Restoration plans and how the early‑game rebalance would be one of the first to roll out. Some of the intentions they expanded upon in a recent devblog were that they wanted the game to be easy to understand but also have deep and meaningful choices, to be fun and to not feel like you have to play any certain way, and also to be meaningful from the start.
Today’s patch includes a wide range of changes, including smoother progression for Agility, addressing uneven XP gain and an early‑game slog. Similarly, Hunter gets improved progression by boosting XP on early methods like bird trapping, and making catch rates more consistent. This way it will not be as slow, you’ll fail less, and overall, some reworks are intended to add variety. Thieving improvements attempt to bridge prior rough patches, with a 75 % base success rate for Pickpocketing that you can continue to build upon, in addition to tweaks to mid‑ and higher‑level content to take into account the early‑game changes.
Prayer changes speed up the early‑game training, and will let you offer bones and ashes at normal overworld altars for XP. This change is designed to be more rewarding but also to guide players to other methods of making progress. So instead of burying or scattering the bones or ashes, you can now get a + 50 % prayer XP when you offer them.
Farming and Herblore, like other professions, get some smoothed‑out XP gain, as well as adding some level requirements to honeycombs instead of unlocking them all at once at level 17. So there will be XP rewards to aim for as you progress. Early‑game mobs will also now drop low‑level herb seeds to let you start collecting seeds naturally as you play.
Progression in Divination is also getting faster, with boosted XP gains.
Some early‑game mobs are going to start dropping armor, weapons, ores, and bars to increase the usefulness of these drops, and reversing some of the losses that happened when the team reworked Mining and smithing and that became the primary source for gear and materials.
The RuneScape team is also tweaking the mobs that you may encounter if you take the swamp path out of Lumbridge. The rats, spiders, and frogs are standard early‑game enemies, but their combat power gets tuned down just a little bit to make them more manageable.
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