Random events

A player interacting with the Mysterious Old Man.

Random events, anti-macro events, or simply randoms refers to a variety of NPCs and their associated areas that appear throughout RuneScape to interact with players. They will appear either to provide an item to a player or to ask the player to play a short minigame to earn a prize. When random events appear, they specify one player with whom they will interact, and only that player will be able to interact with them, besides basic dismissive dialogue. If the player does not wish to interact with the random event, they can right-click and dismiss the event, or just ignore the event which disappears after a minute.

Random events can be limited or otherwise removed if the player enters specific areas. For example, any random event that takes players into an instance will never appear in the Wilderness (as it could allow a fleeing player to escape and remain there until it is safe). Random events will also not appear in banks and the Abyssal Sire's chambers; if one is following the player in the latter, then it automatically despawns as soon as they are inside.

A poll on 28 August 2014 asked players if they wanted a number of changes to random events that would essentially make them harmless and optional to interact with. This change was polled because it was discovered that random events were no longer effective at combatting modern macro technology, but instead only provided hindrance and annoyance to legitimate players. The poll passed with 86.6% of the vote and the change was implemented on 11 September 2014. This update removed several random events from the game.

History

Random events were originally implemented as an anti-macro technology alongside RuneScape 2, which eliminated RuneScape Classic's fatigue system. With the fatigue system, players were required to sleep in a bed or a sleeping bag for a few seconds after gaining a certain amount of experience. In order to wake up from sleeping, the player would need to answer a captcha to resume playing. Players could continue to train skills or combat if their fatigue was at 100%, but they would not gain any more experience until they slept.

The Evil Chicken attacks!

Random events were designed to simultaneously prevent macros from operating properly and to reward legitimate players with small rewards. Some random events, such as the Rock golem, Tree spirit, or Evil Chicken, would attack and eventually kill players that did not run away from them. Events like the Exploding rock would damage players' equipment if they did not stop mining that rock until the smoke went away. This would require players to repair their equipment for a small fee before they could resume using it. Some events, such as the Genie, provided a small reward to players for simply talking to them, and would teleport players away from their current location if they were ignored.

These events were eventually phased out in RuneScape 3 as better anti-macro software was developed. After the release of Old School RuneScape, players and developers realized that modern macro clients were able to solve random events relatively easily and that a more comprehensive anti-macro solution needed to be implemented in the rebooted game. Many players complained that random events were harming gameplay; for example, players fighting aggressive monsters in the Abyss or Ape Atoll Dungeon would likely be confronted by a random event such as the Sandwich lady, who would teleport players away if they could not solve her puzzle. Players would be unable to solve the puzzle interface because they were surrounded by aggressive monsters and would end up being teleported away, even though they were playing entirely within the rules.

The developers were able to implement RuneScape 3's anti-macro software into Old School RuneScape, after which they polled for the removal of aggressive random events and the conversion of other mandatory events to be optional. The poll was met with a positive 86.6% of the vote, and the changes were implemented shortly thereafter. This update allowed players to decide whether or not to partake in these events, without a risk of dying.

List of random events

Traditionally, most random events would be assigned to a skill or a specific task - for example, the Beekeeper random event would only appear to players who were picking flax, or the Gravedigger would only appear while burying bones. Since the Optional Randoms update all events can happen at anytime in any place, with the exception of certain excluded areas.

The following random events can appear in RuneScape:

Random event	Associated NPCs	Reward	GE Value
Beekeeper	Bee keeper	Either some Coins, one piece of the beekeeper's outfit or 8 - 19 noted flax	Unique outfit or 40 to 90
Capt' Arnav's Chest	Capt' Arnav	Either a Gold ring, Gold necklace, Gold bar, Gold ore or some Coins.	84 to 244
Certers	Niles, Miles, or Giles	Either some Coins, a Gem (cut or uncut, up to diamond), Cosmic talisman, Nature talisman, Half key, Spinach roll or Kebab.	45 to 9,821
Drill Demon	Sergeant Damien	One piece of the Camouflage outfit (or all of the Drill Demon Emotes if the player already has the full set, or 500 coins if the player also has the emotes).	Unique outfit, emotes or 500
Drunken Dwarf	Drunken dwarf	A beer and a kebab.	160
Evil Bob	Evil Bob, Servant	Either 650 fishing or (if the player's magic level is over 50), a 50% chance of instead receiving 650 magic experience.	Not sold
Evil twin	Postie Pete, Molly	2-5 noted gems (uncut, up to diamond).	706 to 14,060
Freaky Forester	Freaky Forester	One piece of the Lederhosen outfit (or 500 coins if the player already has the full set).	Unique outfit or 500
Genie	Genie	One Lamp, which grants experience in a skill of your choice.	Not sold
Gravedigger	Leo	Either two pieces of the Zombie outfit or a Zombie emote (or 500 coins if the player has all of these). It can also serve as a "portable deposit box", since the Mausoleum in the random event can be used as such to skip having a trip to the bank, after which the event can be completed or forfeited.	Unique outfit, emotes or 500.
Jekyll and Hyde(m)	Jekyll and Hyde	One 4-dose potion based on the herb provided (or a 2-dose Strength potion if no herb was provided).	10 to 15,412
Kiss the frog	Frogs, Prince/Princess	One Frog token, which can be exchanged for a Frog mask or either the Prince outfit or Princess outfit (depending on gender).	Not sold
Maze	Mysterious Old Man	Rewards varying from some Coins, Iron arrows, Steel arrows, Chaos runes, Death runes, Nature runes, Coal, Mithril ore, Feathers, and whatever is found inside the Maze.	Possibly up to ~ 156,240
Mime	Mysterious Old Man	Either one piece of the Mime outfit or a Mime emote (or 500 coins if the player has all of these).	Unique outfit, emotes or 500
Mysterious Old Man	Mysterious Old Man	Either some Coins, 1 Gem (cut or uncut, up to diamond), Cosmic talisman, Nature talisman, Half key, Spinach roll, Kebab.	45 to 9,821
Pillory	Pillory Guard	Either Some Coins or a Gem (uncut, up to diamond), Cosmic talisman or a Half key.	160 to 9,821
Pinball	Flippa or Tilt	2-5 noted gems (cut, up to diamond).	916 to 9,200
Prison Pete	Evil Bob, Prison Pete	Either some coins, 2-5 noted gems (cut or uncut, up to diamond), 6 grimy toadflax, or 4 Grimy snapdragons, 6-10 Law runes or 15-25 Chaos runes.	916 to 48,452
Quiz Master	Quiz Master	Depending on your choice, either 1000 Coins or a Mystery box.	0 to 1,616,447
Rick Turpentine	Rick Turpentine	Either some Coins, 1 Gem (cut or uncut, up to diamond), Cosmic talisman, Nature talisman, Half key, Spinach roll, Kebab.	45 to 9,821
Sandwich lady	Sandwich lady	The selected food item from her tray.	20 to 462
Strange plant(m)	Strange plant	One Strange fruit.	264
Surprise Exam	Dunce, Mr. Mordaut	One Book of knowledge, which grants experience in a skill of your choice.	Not sold

Strategy

While most random events offer relatively small rewards for the effort required to complete them, like the Capt' Arnav's Chest, some rewards can be very fortunate.

Valuable random events

It is recommended to always do the following random events:

• Maze: The maze takes less than two minutes to complete at the fastest speed, with rewards possibly including hundreds of Chaos and Death runes.
• Quiz Master: Choose the Mystery box for the highest possible reward, with a chance for Clue scrolls (up to hard) or a Stale Baguette worth 1,616,447 on the Grand Exchange.
• Genie: Gives a lamp (up to 990 experience) for simply talking to him.
• Surprise Exam: Although it takes about a minute to complete, the Book of knowledge (up to 1485 experience) can be valuable for pures and new players wishing to level a skill fast.

Useful random events for Ironman players

In addition to the above, if playing on Ironman Mode it is also recommended to do the following events, due to the difficulty to obtain certain rewards:

• Certer and Rick Turpentine: Short events which can reward a Cosmic or Nature talisman and even a small chance for a half of a key.
• Prison Pete: Rewards can include 6 Grimy toadflaxes or 4 Grimy snapdragons which respectively would require farming level 38 and 62 to grow.
• Dr Jekyll can reward players with a Stamina potion (4) if the player is carrying a Torstol, which some Ironmen use as Stamina potions are needed for the Revitalisation pool.

Random events with unique rewards

The following random events offer unique outfits or emotes:

• Kiss the Frog: Grants a frog token which can be used to buy an untradeable frog mask or prince/princess outfit. If the player already has these, the event has seemingly no use, apart from using it on a Costume box.
• Five random events reward clothing or emotes. If the player already has these, they are only awarded a mere 500 coins:
  • Drill Demon: Needs to be completed 4 times to unlock all three Camouflage outfit pieces and unique emotes.
  • Freaky Forester: Needs to be completed 3 times to unlock all three Lederhosen outfit pieces.
  • Gravedigger: Needs to be completed 5 times to unlock all five Zombie outfit pieces and unique emotes.
  • Mime: Needs to be completed 5 times to unlock all Mime outfit pieces and unique emotes.
  • Beekeeper: Needs to be completed 5 times to unlock all Beekeeper's outfit pieces. You will receive Flax or Coins if you already have all the pieces of the outfit.

2018 Random Event Update

As part of the Portal Nexus update, random events received another series of updates. According to Jagex, they believed many random events had outlived their practical use and were looking for a way to leave the nostalgia intact without disrupting the gameplay of both new players and those uninterested in the events. As such, certain events can now be left before completion. However, leaving an event early will not reward the player.

Furthermore, this update added additional changes:

• Players will now automatically leave the Maze event when the timer runs out.
• The walls of the Maze event no longer have options to click on, only the gates do.
• The Beekeeper event is removed from mobile. Players who were in the Beekeeper event on mobile when the update was released still had to finish it. The event returned to mobile at a later date, following a rework.
• The pheasants in the Freaky Forester event can still be attacked even if the player has their attack options hidden.
  • This update may have also changed Freaky Forester to now accept any pheasant for a reward, while still requesting a specific pheasant.
• The camera no longer sways in the Pinball event.
• The player can use any door to leave the Surprise Exam event.

Discontinued random events

Many random events were discontinued after the update that made them optional. Some of the random event NPCs were relocated to various locations around RuneScape to preserve them in the game. The discontinued random events will be recorded here for historical purposes.

Equipment-damaging randoms

These random events would result in some sort of equipment malfunction while the player was training a skill. In these randoms, the graphic of the tree, rock, or fishing spot would change to indicate that the player should not continue to use that resource. If the player did not stop using the resource within about 30 seconds, their equipment would be damaged and players would have to fix it or find a replacement in order to continue skilling. The damaging event would stop after a few seconds, rendering the resource safe to harvest again.

A player with the Exploding Rock random event.

• Ent - The tree would grow an evil face and move slightly. If players did not stop cutting the tree, their axe would break, and they would need to take it to Bob in Lumbridge in order to have it repaired (for a small fee).
• Exploding Rock - The rock would begin to smoke. If players did not stop mining that rock, their pickaxe would break, and they would need to take it to Nurmof in the Dwarven Mines in order to have it repaired (for a small fee).
• Whirlpool - A whirlpool would appear on top of the fishing spot. If players did not stop fishing from that spot, their net/harpoon/etc. would be swallowed by the whirlpool and could not be retrieved. Players would need to find another fishing implement before they could fish again.

The following random events would displace, but not destroy, your equipment. These events were immediate and could not be avoided. Players could pick up the part that was thrown off of their equipment, reattach it in their inventory, and resume skilling. If players did not pick up their equipment quickly, though, they would risk other players picking up the piece once it was visible to them, or the piece would despawn after a short amount of time, leaving the player without the proper tool for their task.

• Big fish - A large fish would appear and eat your fishing gear, then would spit it out a few tiles away.
• Pickaxe handle/Pickaxe head - While mining, this random event would cause the head of your pickaxe to fly off. Pick up the head and reattach it to the handle before it disappears.
• Axe handle/Axe head - While woodcutting, this random event would cause the head of your axe to fly off. Pick up the head and reattach it to the handle before it disappears.
• Spade handle/Spade head - While farming, this random event would cause the head of your spade to fly off. Pick up the head and reattach it to the handle before it disappears.
• Rake handle/Rake head - While farming, this random event would cause the head of your rake to fly off. Pick up the head and reattach it to the handle before it disappears.

Guardians

Aggressive random events, known as guardians, used to appear when players were training gather skills, which included Mining, Fishing, Woodcutting, and Prayer (burying bones). Players could fight these monsters for reduced combat experience but also for a chance at an item drop based upon the skill they were training. The level and max hit of the guardian that appeared was dependent upon the level of the player which they would attack, as follows:

Player level	Guardian level	Maximum hit
3-10	14	2
11-20	29	3
21-40	49	5
41-60	79	7
61-90	120	12
91+	159	14

The guardians were all removed from the game in the random event update, as their primary function was to kill players. However, for historical purposes the guardians were relocated to areas across RuneScape. Players may still kill them for their drops, but they are no longer considered aggressive. Their new locations are as follows:

Guardian	Associated Skill	New location
Rock golem	Mining	Enchanted Valley (Fairy ring code BKQ)
Tree spirit	Woodcutting	Enchanted Valley (Fairy ring code BKQ)
River troll	Fishing	Enchanted Valley (Fairy ring code BKQ)
Shade	Prayer	Stronghold of Security (bottom floor) (Level 159 only)
Zombie	Prayer	Stronghold of Security (bottom floor) (Level 159 only)
Evil Chicken	Any skill	Champions' Guild (Level 159 only)

A player in the abyss random event.

Other dangerous or aggressive randoms

• Candlelight - The player was teleported to a chapel with a strange monk wandering around. The player had to talk to the monk, Pious Pete, and ask him what was wrong. Pious Pete responded that his candles always go out when he lit them, so he needed the player's help to light them. He would then give the player a lighter. Once the player had the lighter, Pete told the player to light only the candles that are left standing, not the ones that are burnt down (he'd take care of those). There would be a screen with arrows to the left and the right, and a button in the middle. Once pressed, the player would light the candle (if it was an unlit candle). After all the candles were lit, the player would talk to Pious Pete and be teleported back to where they were with a small reward.
• Lost and Found (also known as the Abyssal network) - Triggered by players teleporting using a Magic spell. Players would be required to pull the "odd lever out" in order to continue with their teleport, after which they received one law rune and three air runes to compensate them for their time.
• Lost Pirate - Cap'n Hand would mistake the player for one of his shipmates and talk to the player. If the player ignored him, he would attack the player with a crossbow. He would usually keep shooting the player until death. He was very accurate and hit almost every time even if the player was wearing high level armour. If a player tried to talk to him while he was in the process of attacking that player, he would stop attacking them and they would receive the reward from him
• Poison Gas - A random event from Thieving chests. Occasionally, while looting a chest, gas would come out and damage nearby players. Despite the fact it had a green hit splat, the event would not inflict poison.
• Strange box - Required the player to answer a question about the box to receive a reward before it replicated in their inventory. The Mysterious Old Man can now be found in a house in eastern Falador, forever trying to solve a strange box.
• Swarm - A very weak random that could not be hit; the only solution was to run away until it despawned. A harmless version of it can now be found on the docks of Port Piscarilius.

Previously discontinued randoms

Some random events few people know about because they only ran for a short time, were very buggy, were taken out for balance reasons, or were unfinished and never released. These randoms were discontinued well before the 2014 update.

• Dr. Ford
• Tangle Vine
• Watchman
• Axe handle/Axe head

Scrapped random events

Duke of Bridgelum

Main article: Duke of Bridgelum

The Duke of Bridgelum standing next to a pile of dismembered cows.

The Duke of Bridgelum was an unreleased random event that involved going to ScapeRune to help the Duke of Bridgelum reassemble dead cows from their component parts. The random event was scrapped because the testers at the time pointed out that the dismembered cow parts looked grotesque.

The reward would have been pieces of the cow outfit, which are now given to players as a reward from birthday events.

Speedy Gnome

Main article: Speedy Gnome

The area in which the random event takes place.

The Speedy Gnome, Sebastian Gno, was mentioned in a Behind the Scenes article as being the "fastest gnome in the world", and was to be released alongside several other random events such as the Sandwich lady. Judging by the statement in the article ("Don't ignore them!"), Sebastian Gno would have been one of those random events where an NPC appeared and tried to get the player's attention, like the Drunken Dwarf.

However, Sebastian Gno was not added to RuneScape along with the rest of the random events named, due to the race track in the random event being static and thus not an effective anti-bot feature at the time.

Locations without random events

Certain zones throughout Gielinor are designed so that players do not receive random events while in them. Traditionally, these zones were popular with players who wanted to train skills uninterrupted, such as players training Magic with High Level Alchemy. However, this also made these areas susceptible to bots. These zones lost some of their advantage with the 2014 update that made random events optional.

The following zones are currently known to be free of random events:

• The Golem workshop section of the Ruins of Camdozaal
• Grand Exchange, on the area with stone ground
• Inside any bank with a bank booth and in front of most bank chests
• Player-owned houses in building mode
• Lake Molch
• Most minigames, such as:
  • Blast Furnace on the worlds with workers
  • Pest Control (while in bank or during the activity and waiting in the boats)
  • Tithe Farm, in the farming area
  • TzHaar Fight Cave
  • Pyramid Plunder
  • Volcanic Mine, inside the mine
• Most bosses and combat areas, such as:
  • Abyssal Nexus, near the Abyssal Sire's chambers
  • Ancient Cavern
  • Ape Atoll (with greegree equipped, without the greegree on, you can still get randoms)
  • Crash Site Cavern
  • God Wars Dungeon
  • PvP worlds
  • Waterbirth Island Dungeon
  • Wintertodt, inside the prison

Locations with fewer random events

Some random events are unable to spawn in some parts of Gielinor.

The following zones are currently known to have reduced random events:

• Underwater, Only the Certers, Genie, Dr Jekyll, Mysterious Old Man, and Rick Turpentine can spawn.

Bank locations with random events

Certain banks allow for random events to spawn while the player is stood in-front of them. This can be useful for players wishing to utilise their bank to train skills such as Magic or Fletching, while still getting random events.

The following locations have banks that are currently known to allow random events:

• Rogues' Den in Burthorpe, which also has a nearby fire that can be used to train Cooking.
• Ver Sinhaza bank right next to the Theatre of Blood.
• The bank chest in the Myths' Guild.
• The bank chest by the charcoal furnaces in Hosidius.
• Ferox Enclave bank chest.
• The bank chest at Fossil Island.

Changes

Date	Changes
9 September 2021 (update)	When completing random events, a message will tell you what rewards you received.
8 November 2018 (update)	Many events can be left early. The Beekeeper event was removed from mobile. Additional changes are described in § 2018 Random Event Update.
27 February 2015 (update)	Random events no longer appear at the GE.
18 September 2014 (update)	A dismiss option is now available on random events.
11 September 2014 (update | poll)	Random events are now optional. Players may ignore random event until they disappear without the risk of being teleported or interrupted.
8 May 2014 (update)	Random events that take you to another location should no longer occur in building mode, this doesn't include those that teleport you away for failing to complete the event.

Trivia

• In the feast cutscene of the Recipe for Disaster quest, the Duke gets the Strange box random event, and Evil Bob teleports Osman away, which is probably a reference to how players find them annoying and interrupting.
• Some random events can appear underwater on Fossil Island and in the Mogre Camp; they will also wear a diving apparatus and fishbowl helmet as well as disappear with a surge of bubbles rather than the standard puff of smoke.
• When receiving a random event reward with a full inventory, the reward is dropped to the floor. It stays there for much longer than normal dropped items (up to three hours) before despawning.