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GiantWasp
Please read the RuneScape Wiki's glitch policy before editing this page.
Do not post still-existing glitches that allow players to gain an unfair advantage.
Glitch werewolf

A werewolf experiencing a graphical glitch.

Report interface
Report a Bug interface

The interface used to report game glitches. The report feature on the website is used instead to report website errors such as broken links and typos.

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. The most common glitch is the recurring graphical stretching glitch, which causes models to stretch, but has no impact on the gameplay. More severe glitches include the infamous Falador Massacre, where a player was able to attack other players outside of a player-versus-player area.

Abuse of glitches is a direct breach of the "bug abuse" rule under the honour section 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 (such as what occurred in the partyhat duplication glitch), may result in a permanent ban.

Jagex has recommended that players who find a glitch in RuneScape should report it to Jagex immediately via the "Submit a Bug Report" interface accessed by clicking on the RA Button2 button located on the chat box.

Noteworthy glitches[]

Falador Massacre[]

Main article: Falador Massacre

The Falador Massacre was an infamous glitch where a player was able to attack other players after a glitch involving player-owned houses was discovered, and proceeded to attack many players in the Falador area until he was stopped.

Noclip glitch[]

Main article: Noclip glitch

The noclip glitch allowed a pair of bug abusers to walk through barriers in RuneScape, nearly entirely unrestricted.

25 February 2009 crash[]

In February 2009, there was a bug where if your chat was on, seeing the "µ" character in the chatbox made the game crash. It was abused during player-versus-player combat.

Partyhat duplication glitch[]

The partyhat duplication glitch is one of the most famous glitches in RuneScape, where a third-party program was used to manipulate the game engine, allowing the creation of items.

9 June 2009 game engine update glitch[]

The game engine was significantly rewritten on 9 June 2009, causing a multitude of bugs to crop up all across RuneScape. Glitches ranged from nonoperational bank booths to ranged attacks only working when standing right next to a foe.

Penguin Hide and Seek glitch[]

The Penguin Hide and Seek glitch allowed players to spy the same penguin multiple times, allowing them to get unlimited penguin points, which could be exchanged for experience.

PvP drop potential glitch[]

When RuneScape had PvP worlds, a glitch allowed them to be manipulated, by using a beast of burden on a free to play, then dying multiple times, fooling the game with the wealth you have carried, before returning to a members world for kills with high drop potential.

Bolt duplication glitch[]

The bolt duplication glitch was a glitch where the player could enchant multiple bolts out of only a single bolt, vastly multiplying their profit.

Equipable knife glitch[]

A glitch in RuneScape Classic allowed multiple knives to be equipped, allowing massive damage to be dealt.

Runecrafting experience in Dungeoneering glitch[]

Upon release of the Dungeoneering skill, a bug in the Runecrafting formulas caused experience gained to be increased exponentially, prompting a quick rollback.

Guthix rest tea glitch[]

The Guthix rest tea glitch caused the drink to heal the player entirely, as well as remove poisoning, and restore run energy.

Ring of wealth glitch[]

Main article: Ring of wealth glitch

Following an update to the ring of wealth, a glitch caused LootShared kills to utilise all players' rings, which greatly increased the chances of getting rare drops.

Dropping destroy-only items and pets glitch[]

A feature that allowed items to be dropped while banking caused a glitch, allowing items that normally could only be destroyed, as well as pets, to be dropped instead.

TzHaar massacre[]

Main article: TzHaar massacre

The TzHaar massacre was a glitch that allowed players in the waiting lobby of the Fight Pits minigame to be attacked, causing them to lose their items on death.

Rat Pits Massacre[]

Main article: Rat Pits Massacre

A bug allowed a player to manipulate the rat pits into letting his cat kill followers. Items dropped by a beast of burden follower were visible for the bug abuser.

Mindspike glitch[]

Main article: Mindspike glitch

Upon release of the updated graphics for Burthorpe, the mindspike reward from the Troll Warzone tutorial was able to kill almost any normally unattackable NPC instantly, although they only dropped bones.

Kennith's Concerns death glitch[]

The Kennith's Concerns death glitch occurred when a player died when sneaking past the guards in Kennith's Concerns. Normally, players could not die during this part of Kennith's Concerns, but some players were able to kill themselves using Nitroglycerin, which allowed them to go anywhere in RuneScape in this position. Upon death outside of the mines however, the player would simply end up back in the mines, their items intact.

Invisible items glitch[]

After the release of Z-buffering, items would occasionally be rendered underneath the floor. The items could still be clicked and picked up, but were effectively invisible. When the release of Social Slayer came out some items in your inventory or bank were invisible.

Smuggling Dungeoneering items glitch[]

Several similar glitches have allowed items normally restricted to the dungeons of Daemonheim to be smuggled outside, using either teleports or a beast of burden. Currently all dungeoneering weapons disintegrate if equipped outside of Daemonheim.

Attacking players in the Tower of Life glitch[]

Upon release of the Tower of Life, the basement's placement directly below the wilderness allowed players to attack each other.

Crucible Money Making Glitch[]

When the Crucible was first released, a glitch with the bank PIN on the money pouch let players quickly enter and leave the Crucible to double their money. This was patched the day after release.

The bug caused Jagex to do a complete shutdown of the game, making all worlds offline. A large number of players were banned for abusing this glitch.

Money Pouch Glitch[]

Main article: Money pouch glitch

When the Crucible Money Making Glitch referenced earlier, above, was fixed, a glitch with the bank PIN on the money pouch let players quickly enter the Crucible Arena, paying their fee, and exit, going to the bank to refill their money pouch to maximum capacity, and getting their fee back. What resulted was two stacks of their fee repaid dropping to the floor, duplicating what they were to normally be paid out only once. This could be done repeatedly. This glitch also was able to be performed in the duel arena using a similar method and was patched on the same day. This is also one of the few glitches in which Jagex publicly posted the names of the abusers on main newsfeed. Estimates on the amount of gold duplicated vary from 800 billion to 7 trillion gold. Prior to being virally leaked, people were known to have multiple scripts repeating the glitch since at least 20 June. It was patched on 5 August, 2012, and all accounts were rolled back to 3 August 2012.

Rogue Botwatch Bans Glitch[]

While updating their Botwatch macro detection systems on 27 September 2012, a heuristic used during its testing phase had been accidentally enabled. This resulted in unappealable permanent bans being placed over 40,000 players. Some of these players also reported receiving (in some cases multiple) false macroing warnings in-game, as well as dropped items vanishing instantly. Less than an hour after the Botwatch issue was discovered, Jagex fixed it and released an apology to the affected players. Every single ban and offence directly related to the glitch was then manually removed and those affected by the glitch were also given 20 free spins on the Squeal of Fortune as a gesture of goodwill, although no items that were lost due to people dropping them were refunded.

Scrimshaw of Cruelty massacre[]

Around midnight 20 January 2013, players discovered that using the Scrimshaw of cruelty in PvP minigames would let the poison effect stick after the minigame ended. This resulted players in minigames such as Soul Wars and Castle Wars becoming poisoned and eventually dying.

Many forum posts were created to warn about the glitch, as well as people demanding a rollback after losing high valued items due to being killed.

Jagex patched the glitch within two hours after it gained attention from the community, but there have been sightings of bots and players getting killed by poison in minigames prior to this event.

Can't loot BoB familiars[]

After the 20 November 2013 update, including changing the interface for BoB, using a pack pig familiar to store items would not allow for items to be manually withdrawn after the first 4 items. The items could be still be withdrawn by using the 'Take BoB' option, but only if enough inventory was free to withdraw it all. Items would also not move to the front of the BoB inventory as they previously had, but would remain in the same position.

Royal Rhino Glitch[]

If a player uses the Royal Rhino's storage facility and dismisses the rhino, when summoning the next BoB players will be notified that their familiar is about to vanish in 30 seconds. After 30 seconds, any items in the BoB will drop onto the ground, although the familiar will not vanish yet.

Persistent glitches[]

Blackscreen glitch[]

Blackscreen glitches, where all but the users HUD is black. The player is still able to move around.

Graphical stretching glitch[]

Graphical stretching glitches, where a part of a model stretches in a way not intended, are one of the most common types of glitches in RuneScape.

Minimap glitches[]

Main article: Minimap glitches

Minimap glitches are common in RuneScape, including black or white backgrounds on the minimap, black sections, or failure to display the minimap all together.

Trivia[]

  • Typing "Fr33 st00f pl0x!" in the bug reporting interface changes it to "Have you tried picking up ashes?"
  • Every so often bugs walk across the bug reporting interface.
    • Clicking 500 of them gives the chat message: "Thanks for helping us squish all those bugs!"
  • Typing in "3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971" in the bug reporting interface changes it to "I'm hungry gimme that pie!"
  • Typing "Zodalia" in the bug reporting interface changes it to "By the axe of the emperor!"
  • Typing "Fox Mulder" in the bug reporting interface changes it to "Keep searching for the Truth."
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