Necromancy rises this Monday, August 7th at 12:00 Game Time - and with it, a brand new chapter in the history of RuneScape!
The City of Um, once a beacon of light for lost souls, has fallen into darkness. The Well of Souls, once a gathering point for the spirits of the dead, lies empty. The spirits that once congregated there have been enthralled by Rasial, The First Necromancer.
Rasial has taken a special interest in you. He desires an apprentice, someone to mould and manipulate - but there is much to learn from him. He was once a great teacher, but now his true goal is the eradication of all life and the undoing of death itself. To stop him, you will need to master the very same skills that he has been manipulating for his own nefarious ends and free the undead from his grasp.
Getting Started
Necromancy has no requirements to play and takes you up to Level 20 in free-to-play, or 120 for members.
To get started, check your Quests List for Necromancy!. Then head over to Draynor Manor to start investigating a mysterious occurrence. If you've activated the Lodestone at Draynor, you can reach it from there. Alternatively, it's a short walk East from Falador or South-West from Varrock. Crank the sound up and toggle the music on (the keybind is Ctrl+G by default). Give yourself over to Necromancy
You won't need to bring anything in your Inventory with you, but have your wits about you, and be mentally prepared to take on an all-new stand-alone combat style!
If you've never really given combat your full attention in your adventuring, don't worry. Necromancy has been built from the ground up to be accessible but deep, with a rich and rewarding tree of skills and abilities to master as you progress. You'll be able to grow in power as you move through the story naturally, and you'll be guided every step of the way.
Got questions? Weve got you covered with blog posts looking at the Story of Necromancy, Rituals, the City of Um and Combat!
Getting help
All read up on Necromancy, but just need a little extra guidance to get going. Look no further than your fellow 'Scapers!
Over on the Official Discord we have been working with the members to foster a thriving community of helpful players who can help guide you through your time in Um. Drop in and ask your questions and our wonderful Mentors will do their best to get you on the right track.
Or maybe theory crafting and deep diving is more your thing? Then joining the Necromancy Discord is the place for you! The folks here have been pouring over any released information to help understand and get the most out of the upcoming skill and have a wealth of knowledge to share with other players, join up and help grow that knowledge.
Want to get into the combat side of the skill and unsure how you could do that? PvME has you covered! They are a community of dedicated combat enthusiasts who practice and investigate the best ways to tackle any and all combat challenges in RuneScape and can teach you how to improve your combat skills.
Last but by no mean least, The RS Wiki has been your encyclopedia of the ins and outs of quests, monsters & mechanics. If it exists in the realm of RuneScape these folks know about it and have an article (or 5) about it and all you need to know. Check them out right now to get a heads-up on the changes to monsters and combat experience coming with Necromancy.
Useful Levels
If you're looking to be best prepared for Necromancy, there's some useful levels you may want to have to support your adventure - though none are required to get playing.If you're reading this before release, you can make use of Double XP until August 7th at 12:00 Game Time - right when Necromancy launches - to help close in on these levels!
As we closed out development on Necromancy, we also have a couple of additional requirements not shown above if you want to be truly Ready For Everything:
- 86 Archeology (for a Quest at 75 Necromancy)
- Small quantities (less than 150 of each) of the following archeology Materials ( Ancient Vis, Blood of Orcus & Imperial Steel)
- 66 Magic (for a Quest at 75 Necromancy)
- 77 Dungeoneering (for a Quest at 85 Necromancy)
Start Out In Style
Step into the new skill with a fresh apprentice-of-the-dark-arts look with the Necromancy Founder Pack!
This new cosmetic pack, directly purchased through the Marketplace, will be your optional way to get your Necromantic Fashionscape on. Designed to look great with the core Necromancy gear, this pack offers the following:
- Death Shroud Cosmetic Cape Override
- Solace Sword Pet
- River of Souls Aura
- 3 Titles: Citizen of Um, Herald of Harold and Friend of the Dead
This pack will be available from the 7th of August alongside the Necromancy Launch. For more information check out our website on August 7th.
Just the Beginning
Necromancy marks the start of a brand new Season of RuneScape content. As Necromancy approaches its time on centre stage, we also wanted to give you a first look at some of the Necromancy Season content to come in the next three months:
Necromancy & Post-Launch Support
Following the release of Necromancy, we'll focus on your feedback and suggestions as our priority.
We've set a whole month's worth of content development aside to put the focus firmly on working with you to make Necromancy even better. From launch through to September, we'll be providing weekly update blogs to keep you informed of any feedback we're reviewing, any bugs that we're working on fixing or any other changes coming to the skill - and we'll have plenty of deeper discussions through our Livestreams too.
September won't mark the end of our efforts to continually evolve Necromancy, but this will be where we are most timely in responding to your feedback.
New Quest And Boss
Necromancy is about to bring two new bosses to RuneScape - and later this year, you'll get a third one!
Our upcoming Quest and Boss pick up from where the Fort Forinthry storyline left us with Dead & Buried. Beyond that, we'll leave you to speculate!
TBA Update
Mysterious, we know. We've been working on a new feature update for RuneScape - unrelated to Necromancy - that we're excited to introduce you closer to the time.
New Halloween Event
We know there are a lot of fans out there of our Seasonal Events, which have been iterated on over the past few years. That said, we know you've been looking for something a bit fresher from these events - so we're working on how we can make this year's Halloween Event more unique than past years. Look for more info in October.
Community Hitlist Strike
As development shifts away from a huge amount of focus on the behemoth that is Necromancy, we're going to have the opportunity to get back to your Community Hitlist submissions. Expect the next strike in November.
Final Insights into Necromancy
Earlier this week, we invited a variety of content creators to get hands-on with Necromancy. With our desire to work closely with players on Necromancy - started with our playtests earlier this year - we wanted to give you one final look at the Skill, see how much Necromancy has evolved over the past few months based on feedback and provide the opportunity for other players give you their authentic take on where we are today.
Just like with the playtest, we've balanced this preview by maintaining certain restrictions to keep things fair. Over the three-hour session, attendees were limited to only playing whatever they could show you in their content. Check out their videos and you'll gain any last insights they discovered in their own experiences.
Check out all these creator videos!
Check out all these creator videos!
The end of this blog only means one thing - were only days away from Necromancy, the new skill - Rising August 7th. Ready to begin your journey, apprentice? Download the Jagex Launcher here to get started!
