Glitch
A glitch (also known as a bug) is a fault in a program that causes it to function improperly. The severity of glitches can vary. Glitches can be reported directly to Jagex using the Bug Report Form, by right-clicking the Report Abuse button and selecting "Report Game Bug". This form also contains a listing of known issues to prevent duplicate reports, refer to Transcript:Bug News for contents.
In rare cases, a major glitch might cause Jagex to do a complete shutdown of the game making all worlds offline, followed by banning the players who abused such a glitch or rolling back the game state to a previous point.
Jagex view on glitches
Prior to 24 April 2018, Jagex upheld a strict policy of no items returned that were lost from glitches; however, after the World 347 glitch, they provided compensation for items that were lost due to the glitch in the form of bonds, and also restored the experience that was lost. Untradeable items, including pets, were not returned.
On 7 June 2018, Jagex stated that they previously set a precedent with the handling of the World 347 glitch and aimed to restore players' accounts when losing items or experience to glitches if Jagex were completely to blame.[1]
Rules on bug abuse
Abuse of glitches is a direct breach of the "bug abuse" rule as stated under rule 4 of the Rules of RuneScape. The punishment for guilty parties varies depending on the particular glitch and the degree to which it was abused. Minor graphical glitches generally go unpunished while major abuse may result in a permanent ban.
Jagex has recommended that players who discover glitches in RuneScape should report it to Jagex immediately either in-game or via the "Submit a Bug Report" option on the RuneScape website.
It should be noted that some non-gamebreaking glitches that have been deemed acceptable by the community such as prayer flicking and tick eating are not bannable.
Noteworthy glitches
World 347 glitch
After switching servers for scheduled maintenance on 24 April 2018, the world 347 was given Deadman Mode status without forcing players to log out first. This resulted in players losing items and stat reductions, as well as accounts with game-breaking attributes.
Coin pouch glitch
On 12 July 2018, a game update added coin pouches to Old School RuneScape. A short time after the update, a major bug was discovered where stackable items would convert to a max cash stack (2,147,483,647) on death.[2] The game was taken offline and was rolled back to a previous state.[3]
Twisted bow glitch
After an update on 28 February 2019, a spawn for the twisted bow was added outside of the Farming Guild accidentally. A hotfix was deployed 32 minutes after the game update, causing the bow to be deleted when players pick it up.[4] Despite originally not intending to rollback the game,[5] Jagex decided to do so at 13:56, two hours after the update.[6] At 15:30, the rollback had finished and the game was made online.[7] A post on the Old School RuneScape website was made to inform players of the rollback's progress.
Server crash glitch
On 26 November 2019, an Old School RuneScape content creator disclosed information about a glitch which allowed players to duplicate items including coins by abusing server save states and crashes.[8]
Sins of the Father glitch
On 4 June 2020, with the release of Sins of the Father, a problem occurred with player save states, resulting in a rollback of the game servers.[9][10]
Skilling interaction glitch
On 9 December 2021, with the release of the Grand Exchange Tax and Item Sink, a game engine change had an adverse effect where players were able to perform certain actions much quicker than normal.[11] Within an hour the game was taken offline to rectify the issue.[12]
Shattered Relics League glitch
On 19 January 2022 with the release of Shattered Relics League, there were problems with player profiles. Some players lost their Ironman Mode status upon logging back into the main game after logging into a Shattered Relics world, among other things. Jagex turned the game offline around three hours after the update to perform a rollback.[13][14]
Untradeable items glitch
On 23 March 2022 with the release of Guardians of the Rift, there were issues when dropping untradeable items. Regardless of where they were dropped, they instantly appeared for other players, enabling them to pick them up. Jagex turned the game offline about an hour after the update to perform a rollback.[15][16]
Display name glitch
After scheduled maintenance took place on 27 February 2024 and the servers were brought back online, an issue was identified with player display names. Players were able to change their display name to display names already in use by other players. Jagex took the game and some other systems (including the ability to change display names)[17] offline, and worked on reverting the name changes back to their state at 9:30AM GMT.[18]
Potion storage glitch
On 1 October 2024, it was discovered that it was possible to duplicate potions via usage of potion storage and the chugging barrel. Shortly after the discovery, Jagex took the game offline.[19] In the 15 minutes before the servers were offline, players could not pick up items off the ground, resulting in lost items and a server rollback at 9:45AM GMT to restore said items. The servers were reinstated at 01:00PM GMT with all lost items restored and the bug patched.[20]
References
![[1]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D0gL_r3WsAAyfVf.png){kind=link}
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