Old School RuneScape — Sailing XP Review & Further Fixes release notes

_Pull up a chair and hold on to your Crystal Extractors because this week's update features a whole host of Sailing tweaks and improvements, alongside some hefty XP balancing changes. _

Changelog - December 3rd

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Sailing XP Changes

Made a variety of balancing focused tweaks to Sailing XP. Please see the full blog for more info and full context.

Other Sailing Changes

XP Rewards like XP Lamps or the Tears of Guthix are now able to be used on Sailing!
We've improved the hitbox of Lost Supplies to better match their model and make them more intuitive to collect. We're almost certain we've got it right this time!
The size of the Cargo Hold's model and clickbox has been slightly increased to make it easier to click on.
Players should no longer find themselves logging in at the last port that they visited if they logged out with their boat docked at an island's mooring point.
Shipwrights can now repair your boat for 50 GP per Hitpoint restored.
Boats will now heal to full whenever their keel or hull is upgraded.
Cargo crates from Courier tasks no longer count towards the Cargo Hold storage cap for UIM players. Note that this is a temporary fix until we work with UIM players to settle on a better long-term solution for UIM gripes with Port Tasks.
Removed some invisible walls in the Fremensund near Meaty Aura Logist.
Chum Stations now require the same Sailing level to use as is required to build them. Meaning if you can build one, you can use one!
Default settings have been adjusted so that using the 'Check Materials' button on boat upgrades will display a message in chat by default.
Diving gear is no longer deleted when deposited into the Cargo Hold.
A helmet-related Mermaid riddle solution has been updated to incorporate another correct solution.
We've fixed a bug where players sorting Merchant Salvage were being told that they did not have the Sailing level requirement to sort through it in some scenarios.
Players can no longer walk onto 'sailable' tiles in Varlamore and Laguna Aurorae and teleport themselves to Port Sarim.
Planks from the Plank Sack are now useable when building facilities on a boat.
The Captain's Log no longer suggests that there is any evidence of the Sharhai to the west of Vatrachos Island, because the evidence is actually to the east. Our bad on this one, but well done to any explorer spirits who went out of their way to find this evidence regardless!
Frost Dragons have had their respawn timer made faster. They'll now respawn every 15 ticks (9 seconds) down from 60 ticks (36 seconds).

Z-buffer Graphical Fixes

Player-owned house constructions and decorations now display correctly, with all textures and details appearing as intended.
Updated the Shilo Village gem mine entrance so it displays as open rather than blocked when viewed.
The fireplace on a wall near Orthus Farm no longer clips with the building.
Fixed the Ancient Mushroom reflection at Fossil Island and the wall near the Fortis Colosseum so they now display correctly without flickering or visual glitches.
Quetzal tails no longer clip through hay piles.
The Seed Vault shadow now displays correctly without flickering or overlapping with the floor.
Ritual circles from the Enchantment of Forestry event now sit correctly on the ground, preventing them from clipping on uneven terrain.

Other Changes

Fixed a bug where players received their guaranteed Mimic on the 26th casket (or 11th Master) instead of the intended 25th Elite or 10th Master.
With the exception of PvP and Deadman worlds, players who start to harvest an allotment and in the same tick use the same produce on a compost bin, will once again continue harvesting and composting automatically until the patch empties or the compost bin fills.
This had stopped working because the code for using items on scenery was breaking binding effects such as the Ice spells. As those effects tend to matter most in PvP, we've restored the ability to use compost bins in that way, but only on non-PvP worlds (also excluding Deadman).
Corrected interface positioning to remove the gap at the top of the screen when moving the World Map on desktop.
The water pump site on Vatrachos Island now updates its appearance correctly when you build the pump.
A trollface has been removed from the Thieving skill guide.

PvP Rota

The PvP rota has moved to Period B:

560 - (UK) - PvP World
319 - (US) - Bounty Hunter World
579 - (US) - High-Risk PvP World
561 - (UK) - Free-to-Play PvP World
580 - (US) - LMS Competitive

World 390 (AUS) for LMS Competitive has been de-activated with this rota.

World 569 (AUS) for Bounty Hunter has been de-activated with this rota.

The PvP Arena is using 'Max/Med' loadouts in Ranked Duels and Tournaments this week. \

Sailing XP Changes

You've read the newspost's title, you've seen the panicked memes about the Crystal Extractor being thrown overboard, and you've undoubtedly got thoughts of your own regarding Sailing's XP balancing. We've been reading all over, watching your journeys, and working with our Data Analysts to get a real sense of how players are progressing through Sailing, where the common pain points are and areas that might harm our ability to expand the skill with further training methods. With all of that combined, we feel like we're ready to make some tweaks to Sailing XP.

As you might expect, balancing an entire skill (especially one as broad as Sailing) is complex, and we were under no illusions that we'd get it absolutely perfect right out of the gate. That means that while there are some buffs in today's update, there are also a handful of nerfs. We need Sailing to make sense long-term, it's not an update for everybody to blitz through in a week or two and never touch again. Over the course of years it's important that Sailing remains relevant, interweaves properly with Old School's complex web of progression, and has space for additions to the skill at _all _level ranges. So while we appreciate that nobody likes a nerf, we hope that you're able to meet us halfway and appreciate that we need to finetune things with longevity in mind, rather than a rush to the finish line.

It's also important to make clear that we're likely not going to get it perfect with these changes either - Sailing has a lot of room to grow and evolve, and balancing changes are something that we'll keep iterating on by working with the community's feedback, pairing it up with our own analytics and trying to get things just right.

We know that there's a lot we still need to polish up with Sailing, so before the end of the year we'll be putting together an in-game Opinion Survey (using our fancy new polling system) to gather your thoughts on a whole host of hot topics. While we're doing our best to prioritise working on what's important to ensure smooth seas for our new sailors, we know that there's a _lot _of feedback out there from all of you and more changes that you'd like to see, so we'd like to really drill down into the details and fully develop our understanding of your feedback so that we can make sure we deliver. This list isn't exhaustive, but you can expect to see questions on things like:

Ship Combat - What are the biggest pain points? Are there quick wins and small fixes that would improve the feel alongside more long-term adjustments? How do resource availability and unique drop rates (more on those below) factor in to your overall enjoyment here?
Deep Sea Trawling - Is it appropriately rewarding for the effort required? Is the fish output in a good spot? Is the XP output in a good spot?
XP rates - How is the balance of the skill sitting overall? How do today's changes impact your view of the skill's balance and progression?
Drop rates - How does the 'time to complete' or 'time to obtain' for various resources feel? How would adjustments to ship combat shift perspectives here?
Pain Point Prioritisation - Which of the 'tougher' things for us to fix should we get to first?
Iron/Ultimate Iron concerns - What unique challenges do players of these account types face? What changes could we make to reduce frustration while still respecting the spirit of these game modes?
And loads more!

With all of that feedback to look forward to in the near future, let's bring your attention back to now. Before we dive into specifics on the changes we're looking to make today, we've got a quick refresher on where we expect each different Sailing activity to sit alongside each other with regards to XP/Hr and viability as training methods.

Barracuda trials are the most intensive and skill-based training method and should remain at the top so long as you're at an appropriate level (meaning the Tempor Tantrum shouldn't still be dominating your training if you're already level 50 Sailing, for example). Their downside is that the XP gained is fairly static and only really scales up with boat speed and player skill, so it plateaus with player skill and incrementally with boat upgrades. This allows training methods unlocked at later levels to eventually surpass them. You can see this effect across the entire skill where once a new trial is reached every other method starts gaining higher XP to try and keep up.
Courier Port Tasks are the bread and butter baseline for all Sailing XP and should be relevant for most of the Sailing journey. They are not likely to be the highest XP earners for most level brackets but may have their time to shine in level brackets between trial unlocks.
Salvaging is primarily an AFK method allowing players to earn loot while gaining XP, it's aimed to be very second monitor friendly with the option to participate in tick manipulation methods for those inclined for even greater returns in XP. Tick manipulation salvaging without sorting the salvage should be a reasonably competitive option, below Marlin rank barracuda trials for those who prefer this method of training, though we'll never balance this method specifically around tick manipulation since we understand it has a reasonably niche appeal.
Bounty Port Tasks are a way to train Sailing via combat but are intentionally not trying to be a competitive XP provider as we'd like to keep Sailing focused around non-combat training instead of making it a combat skill. These provide a reasonable option for those who wish to seek out rare sea creature drops while gaining some Sailing XP on the side.
Deep Sea Trawling is a Fishing and Sailing hybrid training method primarily focused around obtaining valuable fish which you cannot get anywhere else in the game. This is not a significant XP driver in order to keep the price of the fish high and should instead be considered as a reasonable way for high level fishers and sailors to earn money as a reward for training their skills.
Finally, with the core Sailing training methods, we have a philosophy that "Level is king". As a rule of thumb, higher level unlocks should always try to award more XP than lower level unlocks as a baseline before then considering the intensity of the method.

Time for some specifics! Drop anchor and take a seat, there's a lot to cover...

Crystal Extractor

If you can’t see the image above, click (https://cdn.runescape.com/assets/img/external/oldschool/2025/newsposts/2025-12-02/crystal.png)!

We'll start with arguably the most contentious part of Sailing's XP balancing: the Crystal Extractor. This innocuous unlock has sparked a lot of conversation and has - in a sense - warped the majority of Sailing's progression around it.

For those not in the know, the Crystal Extractor is a boat facility that you can build at 73 Sailing. For your troubles (and roughly two million GP), you gain a facility which generates a wind mote every 60 seconds, granting 600 Sailing XP when harvested. It takes three ticks (1.8 seconds) to harvest - or four ticks if you count the time it takes to interact with the extractor - meaning that for the time you're actually interacting with the extractor, your effective XP per hour (XP/hr) is around 1,200,000. In effect, the single most valuable thing that you could _possibly _be doing if there's a mote ready to be harvested, is clicking on your Crystal Extractor, which adds up to an additional ~34,000 XP/hr for players paying enough attention to click once per minute.

Our initial expectations for the Extractor were for it to close the gap between lower intensity activities such as Port Tasks or Shipwreck Salvaging and higher intensity activities like the Barracuda Trials. Earlier in development, the interaction time on the Extractor was longer than it is now _and _it had to be placed further away from the helm, so we'd balanced it expecting that players would be less willing to pull away from the helm in order to harvest wind motes. As you might have guessed from the sheer volume of posts around the Crystal Extractor throughout the community, this isn't quite the case, so we feel changes are needed.

Having said all that, we appreciate that many sailors are enjoying keeping on top of their extractor and weaving their harvests in between actions, so we're not looking to completely gut it or remove emergence from you all.

We'll be reducing the XP per harvest from 600 XP to 250 XP. This means that you can earn roughly 14,000 XP/hr from your Crystal Extractor, rather than ~34,000. This _is _a sizeable nerf but one that we think is necessary and one that we'd like to compensate with XP boosts at certain points throughout progression (more on that later). We think this still makes harvesting from the extractor worthwhile (with an effective 500,000 XP/hr while interacting with it) but means we have more freedom to balance other activities appropriately since we're not having to account for a flat 34,000 XP per hour on top of everything, which makes scaling things up or down a little tougher.

Alongside this change, we're making an improvement to the Crystal Extractor which will allow it to generate charges even while you're at a port, until you've been disembarked (meaning running around on land) for around 10 seconds or so. This means that if you're quick, you can pick up or deposit cargo and make it back in time to keep the XP flowing without interruption!

Before we dive into specific activities, we'll say that we're not planning on any XP changes to Barracuda Trials since they're already taking a hit as a result of the Crystal Extractor changes. We're happy with where the XP from trials will sit alongside other options without any further adjustments and we're constantly seeing players push the limits here, exploring options like allowing for 'natural' trimming moments and new more optimal routes are always being discovered to push XP even further.

Port Tasks

If you can’t see the image above, click (https://cdn.runescape.com/assets/img/external/oldschool/2025/newsposts/2025-12-02/courier.png)!

Everybody's favourite delivery driver simulator!

Port Tasks are supposed to be a medium-intensity method that sits between Shipwreck Salvaging and the Barracuda Trials, offering a comfortable mid-point in XP/hr. While we expect there are still discoveries to be made in order to maximise the efficiency of tasks like this (particularly with so-called A-B-A tasks, which you can learn more about in these videos from (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfYPcOv-Dws&t=286s&pp=ygUPd2VzdGhhbSBzYWlsaW5n) and (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uei9PxbwmIw&pp=ygUHa3JpaWJ1cw%3D%3D)), we think there are some points in progression where Courier Tasks in particular could use a little boost to make them a more appealing option.

We'll be increasing the completion XP offered by all Courier tasks from level 40 and above by ~15%. This should help them shine a little brighter in the level ranges between Barracuda Trials where one starts to fall off and you want to progress to the next, particularly at levels 40 to 55 and 60 to 70, as well as make them a more appealing laid-back option for players in the 90s and beyond 99 sporting rosewood upgrades to max out their boat speed.

At this stage we're not planning any changes to the XP offered by Bounty Tasks, for two main reasons! One being that Ship Combat isn't in the best state right now and we need to have a wider review on how best to improve combat before we push it any closer to being the meta at any stage, and the other being that these tasks are supposed to be a nice excuse for you to obtain the Bounty target's unique drops while still getting a little Sailing XP boost on the side. Deep Sea Trawling We've not got any specific changes that we're making here this week, but felt it important to at least mention that we're aware of the wider discussions that you're all having regarding Deep Sea Trawling.

Our intent for this method has always been for it to be a lower XP/hr activity with a solid resource output (fish!) so that trawling serves as a solid skilling moneymaker. Though that was our intent, we do understand where many of you are coming from with feelings that the XP offered isn't worth the intensity of the input, especially with the Sailing XP/hr being reduced as a result of the Crystal Extractor changes.

So no changes to trawling this week, but we'll be having conversations around the XP, the output and whether this is more of a Sailing or a Fishing activity, then see what changes we might be able to make that make it a more appealing method, but not making it _so _appealing that the economy absolutely floods with powerful new fish and Deep Sea Trawling ceases to be a worthwhile moneymaker. Watch this space!

Shipwreck Salvaging

Despite being the 'simple' AFK training method, there's a lot of complexity involved in balancing Shipwreck Salvaging because there are so many ways that players can approach it. Here's a quick rundown of all of the ways that you've been salvaging so far:

Self Salvage, Self Sort, no crewmates.
Self Salvage, drop, no crewmates.
Self Salvage, Self Sort, assign crewmate to Salvage while Sorting.
One Crewmate Salvage, Self Salvage, Self Sort, assign crewmate to Salvage while Sorting.
Two Crewmates Salvage, Self Sort.
One Crewmate Salvage, Self 2-tick Salvage, Self Sort, assign second crewmate to Salvage while Sorting.
One Crewmate Salvage, Self 2-tick Salvage, drop.
Self 1.5-tick Salvage, Self Sort.
Self 1.5-tick Salvage, drop.
And more! All of these for every single type of Shipwreck too.

Many of these are enabled by the Salvaging Station, which was an addition made late into