Sailing Launches November 19th!
After three years of design, discussion, and community collaboration, we’re thrilled to announce that Sailing, Old School RuneScape’s first new skill, is launching on November 19th at 10:00 UTC! Please note, the exact timing of launch on the day might move and will be explained in further detail in our next Sailing blog.
Sailing unlocks new content found at sea! Own and upgrade your very own boat and as you hone your skills, you’ll reach previously uncharted areas. It’s a historic moment for the team and, of course, our wonderful community. From early skill concepts, throughout refinement, playtesting and polls, this has been a skill shaped directly with you. Let’s talk about what you can expect from Sailing, what’s still on the horizon, and how you can help influence development in 2026 and beyond.
Sailing is a massive update, we call it our ‘project of projects’. It’s bigger and more expansive than any content that’s come before it. As a new skill, it touches almost every aspect of the game, giving you brand new ways to choose to play.
Old School RuneScape has always been about player autonomy and decision-making: build your adventure, your way. Sailing is going to offer you new goals and fresh ways to progress, without taking away what already makes our game so special. We want to reassure you that Sailing won’t change what you already love about Old School RuneScape. It’s here to enhance your experience, not replace it. We’re confident that it will feel like a natural extension of Gielinor, something that could have existed right from the very beginning.
Although we’ve shared lots of details about Sailing throughout its development, there are still so many things to discover when it comes to the game. Throughout our public and NDA playtests, we’ve continued to iterate on what we can do to improve, and we can’t wait to see you all jump in for the very first time. It has been one of the greatest privileges to work on a project like this, from early concepts to Alpha and then Beta. It’s almost time!
We’d like to extend a huge thanks to every single person who has been involved in playtesting or feedback, both publicly and behind the scenes – your work has been invaluable. We’re confident that we’ve created something special here, and it is our sincere hope that when the community tries Sailing on launch day, players will feel like Sailing has always belonged in Gielinor.
Our community is the reason why our game is incredible, and it goes without saying that your feedback will continue to guide how we develop Sailing, especially after launch.
We’ve got some cool ideas in mind for what’s to offer in 2026, and we want you to help shape next year and beyond. But before we dive into that, let’s break down exactly what features you can expect to see when Sailing launches on November 19th.
Warning: If you’ve been reading the blogs and watching our videos on Sailing over the course of development, you might already be well versed in what’s coming with Sailing. You can skip to the next section here.
Sailing Launches November 19th!
After three years of design, discussion, and community collaboration, we’re thrilled to announce that Sailing, Old School RuneScape’s first new skill, is launching on November 19th at 10:00 UTC! Please note, the exact timing of launch on the day might move and will be explained in further detail in our next Sailing blog.
Sailing unlocks new content found at sea! Own and upgrade your very own boat and as you hone your skills, you’ll reach previously uncharted areas. It’s a historic moment for the team and, of course, our wonderful community. From early skill concepts, throughout refinement, playtesting and polls, this has been a skill shaped directly with you. Let’s talk about what you can expect from Sailing, what’s still on the horizon, and how you can help influence development in 2026 and beyond.
Sailing is a massive update, we call it our ‘project of projects’. It’s bigger and more expansive than any content that’s come before it. As a new skill, it touches almost every aspect of the game, giving you brand new ways to choose to play.
Old School RuneScape has always been about player autonomy and decision-making: build your adventure, your way. Sailing is going to offer you new goals and What’s Included in Sailing Old School Runescape’s biggest update of the decade?
Ship-building & Upgrades
With the required Sailing level, you can own up to five boats at any time. Upgrade your boat at the Shipyard with stronger components and powerful facilities that can aid you on your Sailing journey.
There are three sizes of boats available: the raft, small boat and large boat. You can use Construction to build facilities or simply pay a Shipwright, who can build most of the basic facilities.
Crew & Multiplayer
Choose from 10 NPCs across Gielinor and ask them to join your crew. Remember, if your friends are online, they can also join you too!
A maximum of five crewmates (or friends) can join you at any time, helping to manage your facilities and keep things smooth sailing.
Ship Combat
The sea is teeming with new creatures and aquatic wildlife, but unfortunately, most of them won’t greet new faces very kindly. Better be safe than sorry, we say. Why not build yourself a Cannon facility on your boat?
Ship Combat has been designed to work very similarly to how combat works on land, so don’t expect raid-level mechanics just yet. Thankfully, you’ll be able to repair your boat using Repair Kits at a Shipwrights’ Workbench, found near all shipwrights. Go nuts!
Sailing Gameplay
Just like clicking rocks to mine ore or logs to burn a fire, the core gameplay loop for Sailing is nice and simple! Earn Sailing XP by successfully interacting with facilities on your boat. The simplest example of the loop is trimming your sails – you’ll get a burst of XP and a nice little speed boost!
Now, it would be rather sad if that was how you’re expected to train Sailing all the way to 99, so we’ve developed four Sailing training methods, as well as a hybrid Sailing/Fishing training method. Here’s what’s coming:
Port Tasks
Use your boat as a service to NPCs around Gielinor who need your help!
You’ll unlock access to the Port Noticeboards and docks, once you hit their respective required Sailing levels. You can choose to help NPCs deliver Cargo from A to B (Courier Tasks) or take down a threat at Sea, and deliver the proof to an NPC (Bounty Tasks).
Store up to five Port Tasks at any one time with the required Sailing level. We recommend taking and completing them alongside other activities on your Sailing journey!
Shipwreck Salvaging
Turn others’ misfortune into your own benefit. There are many sunken ships out there that still contain valuables. It doesn’t feel like Old School RuneScape without at least one activity you can do with a streaming service on your third monitor, right? To get your AFK gains in, we’ve developed a relaxed training method called Shipwreck Salvaging.
Simply make sure your boat is equipped with a Salvaging Hook, then head to a Shipwreck Salvage point to gather Salvage, which can be stored in your boat’s Cargo hold. You can take your Salvage back to Port to sort them into useful materials, too.
Sea Charting
Using your Captain’s Log, you can document, chart and study areas of the sea that were been previously undiscovered. Spot something cool at sea? Go and chart it!
Explore Gielinor like you’ve never seen it before and interact with the world in a completely new way. This type of activity earns you one-time chunks of XP. When you complete an area, you’ll receive an additional chunk of XP and specific rewards, including some interesting Sailing upgrades!
Barracuda Trials
The Barracudas are a ragtag crew of seafaring adventurers, united by their love of the open ocean. Fiercely competitive and always up for a challenge, they’ve turned their passion into sport – testing their skills against one another in thrilling sea-based time trials to see who truly rules the waves!
At launch, Sailing will feature three Barracuda Trials: The Tempor Tantrum, Jubbly Jive and Gwenith Glide. Each Trial offers you the chance to prove your mettle, rise through the ranks, and earn the respect of the Barracudas themselves.
Conquer their challenges and you could bag yourself a nice chunk of Sailing XP and some very snazzy rewards, indeed! Please note that Barracuda Trials are intended to award high amounts of Sailing XP, provided you can play them mechanically well.
Deep Sea Trawling
When you sail far out at sea, you’ll find fish that you cannot usually find near the shores. Building a Trawling Net facility on your boat allows you to access these Fish, so you can earn a mix of Sailing and Fishing XP. You can look forward to plenty of new and exotic Fish on launch, which can then be transformed into powerful foods or herblore ingredients!
Quests
Sailing launches with brand-new quests! If you took part in the Sailing Alpha or Beta, you may already be familiar with Pandemonium, the introductory quest for Sailing. This is designed to teach you the ropes, no pun intended.
Our most anticipated Sailing quest, ‘Troubled Tortugans’, introduce a new race called the Tortugans. The Tortugans are under threat by the Gryphons, and they need your help. You’ll meet them when you sail over to the Great Conch! A follow-up quest, the Red Reef, is planned to launch sometime later next year. More information on this will be shared below!
New Areas
We’re not going to reveal much about all the new islands you’ll discover with Sailing, since we want to preserve some of the magic on launch. But to give you an idea of scale, there are over 30 new islands being added with the launch of Sailing, some of which come with new dungeons. And it’s all coming at once, with room to expand later!
The team has put a huge amount of work into environmental storytelling, and we can’t wait to see you all jump in. Who will be the first to discover these mysterious places?
New Resources
Perhaps the most exciting of all: many, many new resources are being added to Sailing. Bank space will be increased, and you’ll be able to gather new items like logs, ores, rocks, fish, seeds, fabric and more. Check out the skilling and resources blog, for more details, as all of them will be available with the launch of Sailing, except for Incendiary and Chainshot Cannonballs, both planned later.
New Training Methods
When you unlock access to new islands, you might stumble upon an awesome new way of training another skill. We’ve carefully designed these new training methods to fill current gaps in progression. All new training methods listed in the skilling and resources blog and the slayer blog will be included at launch!
Some notable new training methods include Crab Hunting, Lantern Fishing, Blowpipe Fletching and Pirate Thieving!
Unique Items
Your boat opens the door to countless quality-of-life improvements both on and off the water, if you’ve built the right facilities. You can upgrade and customise up to five boats, each tailored to your playstyle, and add unique cosmetics to show off your achievements to other players out at sea.
Unlock new dock teleport locations using the ‘Teleport me to Boat’ spell or simply set sail directly to your destination. We completely acknowledge that many players will continue to prefer using traditional teleports for fast travel, and that’s okay. Sailing (either directly or via teleports unlocked via the skill) can offer an ideal option for certain situations. If not, it will still offer plenty of rewards outside of traversal.
The Gleaming Rapier, now called Belle’s Folly, is a brand-new, 5-tick powerful stab weapon, providing an alternative to the Zamorakian Hasta without completely eclipsing it.
The Horn of Plenty is another powerful account upgrade, allowing you to gather resources at an improved rate and providing a boost to your Hunter level.
More rewards were mentioned as part of our latest blog so go check that out as they will all be available on launch!
What Could 2026 Sailing Updates Look Like?
2026 is set to be a very exciting year. We’re not going to reveal details in this blog, since we typically do so via the Winter or Summer Summit livestream reveals. However, we get lots of questions and suggestions about how Sailing will expand after launch, so we’d like to share a quick preview of our current thoughts. All of this may change – you may all have very different wishes once you’ve got to grips with Sailing, after all, so please don’t see any of it as being set in stone.
Early 2026
- The Red Reef (Second Tortugan Quest)
- A new type of Port Task
The Red Reef is a second quest in the Tortugan storyline, which is planned to be added to Sailing in early 2026. We’ve also got ideas in mind for a third and final quest as part of this series, however, plans around this are much more vague due to that quest being further away from release.
Summer 2026
- Small-Scale Boss at sea
- Player-Designed Island
As Sailing is such a community-driven project, we initially planned for a Player-Designed Island to be part of the launch package. However, as we got further into the project, we realized that players need to have a good idea of what Sailing is and several existing island reference points to be able to design something within our specifications.
The player designed island competition should kick off shortly after launch, when you’ve all had a chance to get your hands on the content. This will allow you to explore the area and see what already exists before adding your own ideas! We cannot wait to see what amazing ideas you all come up with!
Autumn 2026
- New Barracuda Trial
- Sequel Quest (existing storyline)
Late 2026
- Sea Expansion
The updates we’ve suggested for early 2026 would be relatively quick for us to implement, which is why we could offer them so soon after the skill’s launch. Anything else like the Player-Designed Island or a new sea boss will need more time for its unique code and graphics, so we’ll offer those later on. Also, we think a new type of Port Task would be welcomed as variety after Christmas.
What Could Further Sailing Updates Include?
Now that we’ve covered generally what’s included in Sailing, we wanted to take a moment to acknowledge any content or feature that was discussed by the team during development or refinement, that might be missing.
Some features might have been cut, moved, or simply not selected for the initial Sailing launch for specific reasons. Some might be too large in scope, or others may require further design discussions or community input. We won’t go into too many details here, but here’s a quick note on where we’re at:
Ship PvP
We absolutely love the idea of PvP battles with Ships at Sea. Thematically, it hits the spot and it’s something that could really bring the sea to life.
This was a feature mentioned during pre-production of the skill, and isn’t something that was ever planned for launch, considering it would be such a huge undertaking. However, the technical work to make it viable someday has been done and we’re confident that it could happen from a technical perspective.
We intend to investigate Ship PvP at some point in the future, depending on player interest, desirability and other things the game needs. There is a section later in this blog detailing how we’ll analyse player feedback, so keep reading to find out more!
Colossal Boats
Colossal Boats were a massive “party-sized” boat, initially planned for the launch of Sailing. Unfortunately, their sheer size were too large for fluid navigation, and we didn’t see a clear gameplay use for it other than it being social-friendly. While we love this aspect, we wanted to focus on the core of the skill before expanding into ‘extra content’ territory.
That’s not to say we can’t introduce them in the future, perhaps even without changing the movement system, it just means they would take a smaller role in gameplay, being more of a ‘nice to have’ feature.
We’re happy with the current sizes of boats, and we’d like to allow players to get used to their navigation until we look to add anything larger. So, this feature is currently not in development.
Hybrid Training Methods
Sea Monster Hunting (Sailing/Slayer) and Mineral Dredging (Sailing/Mining) were hybrid training methods discussed during the pre-production phase of Sailing in this blog.
When it came to creating the core Sailing feature-set, we decided to pick one hybrid training method, Deep Sea Trawling (Sailing/Fishing) and flesh it out completely to ensure it met our standards. There was another hybrid training method, Coral Farming mentioned during pre-production which was a Sailing/Farming hybrid method. Since then, we’ve changed it to be a Farming only activity which will be part of the launch.
Further Quests
Throughout development, we’ve had many requests from players to continue the popular and iconic Pirate and Penguin storylines. They could have very close ties into Sailing, and we love the idea. In fact, Mod Ed has already started plans on where these stories could be taken! However, we didn’t want to go overboard on quests at this stage as it’s important to focus on the skill itself. Additionally, we want feedback from players on what you want us to prioritise next year.
Sailing Guild
We mentioned a Sailing Guild concept in our early pre-production phase for Sailing; however, we have since determined that a Guild is not needed for launch. Once players get their hands on the skill we will likely have more of an idea of what such a place should unlock!
There are no set plans for a Sailing Guild, but our early conversations have the team leaning towards making it Barracuda HQ, where you’ll meet the leader of the Barracudas, an NPC called Mako.
Interactive NPC Ships
NPC Ships have been added to Sailing, however, in the future we would like to make them have interactions with your ship, for example, to be plunderable or vice versa! No set plans have been made for this yet, as it will depend on feedback after launch.
How We’ll Gather Feedback
We’ve been looking at how player feedback will help to shape Sailing, even after its launch. Recently, we published a list of polling improvements, including ranked choice voting, the ability to use free text and more.
Around a week before Sailing launches into the game, we will be sunsetting our dedicated Sailing Server and asking players to send feedback via our Official OSRS Discord. We’d like to thank everyone within the Sailing Discord Server for their continued support and feedback throughout development, however, as the content will be officially live by then it makes sense to consolidate feedback in one single Discord Server, so we can monitor it better. When Sailing launches, we’re firstly going to focus on bugs, issues and quality of life changes that we can add to the roadmap. Afterwards, we’ll start looking at larger features and how your feedback will shape our overarching roadmap. We’ll let you know about any changes to our roadmap during our regular Summit reveal livestreams.
Developer Testimonials
Mod Elena, Senior Game Designer
Most excited for players to try:
I can’t wait to see players do the Troubled Tortugans quest and the surrounding content! The quest is the first one in the new tortugan storyline, and it does a great job of showing how Sailing can further the game. Firstly narratively, by providing you access to a new storyline that you previously couldn’t reach without Sailing, but also in its reward space. You get to meet a brand new people, fight new creatures, farm corals, trap crabs. To me, it’s the perfect example of how I’d like to see Sailing expand Gielinor.
Favourite piece of work:
I’m incredibly proud of the team’s hard work across the whole project. The highlights would probably be the Customisation system and Barracuda Trials. The customisation system is a solid system built to handle lots of customisation options. It’s easy to add to and I can see us wanting to use it for plenty of future reward space! The Barracuda Trials have incredibly fun gameplay and they all feel unique. Each trial is in a new place where the objective is strongly linked to the thematic of the area. It’s really satisfying to push your limits and increase your own sailing skill – not just the in-game number but how accurate you click and how good you are at judging turning circles, speed and distance.
Launch tips:
As tempting as it is to get into Sailing as fast as possible, don’t spacebar the introductory quest! The Pandemonium quest teaches you the basics of Sailing and contains a lot of useful information that you don’t want to miss. Other than that, keep an eye on the skillguide and levelup messages to see when you unlock new upgrades to your boat. These are super important – similar to upgrading your gear. They change anything from resistances allowing you to go to new seas, defences to let you tank more damage and even boat speed. Additionally, be up to date with quests. The Corsair Curse, Song of the Elves and Children of the Sun can provide access to specific ports. Dragon Slayer can help you get a new crewmate. There’s bound to be more, these are just a few that will help.
Mains: Decide whether you wanna make money or spend money on release. There’s going to be a lot of new resources coming into the game with Sailing. If you want to rush to 99 you should expect it to be costly until the new resource prices settle. If you want to make money, consider getting your Sailing level up to a point where you can farm these resources that the people rushing are going to use! They will never be as valuable as they are on launch day.
Iron: Expect to do a lot more than just Sailing. Upgrading your boat is key, but to do that you’ll need new resources. Grab your axe and get ready to chop some trees!
Hardcore: Let others go first. The sea is dangerous! If you want to explore places no one’s been yet, don’t do it in this game mode.
UIM: Enjoy the cargo hold!
Small but helpful detail:
Crewmates unlock at level 40. Don’t forget to recruit them!
Mod Husky, Senior Game Designer
Most excited for players to try:
Selfishly I think I’m going to say Barracuda Trials since that’s where most of my energy has been put into. That said, I really do hope that most players take time to enjoy charting to it’s fullest, I’ve had the heartiest chuckles reading through Mod Abe’s code reviews and all the good old OSRS wit and humour he’s included with that side of the skill. I’m sure absolutely none of our players are going to deprive themselves of that experience clicking blue and holding spacebar *stare*.
Favourite piece of work:
Barracuda Trials being non-instanced is high up there. It’s really cool seeing others sail around the place making it feel alive! This also made tutorialisation a pain since most cutscenes teleport the player around and we can’t do that outside of instances nicely but thanks to some cool new engine tech we’ve managed to include a nice fly over all barracuda areas which should make learning the ropes much easier. I’d also like to shout out the cool idea I had with deep sea trawling, the shoals themselves are actually using boat tech! With lots of smaller fish NPCs all moving around independently but all moving together cohesively, it was such a cool moment so share that implementation with the team and it’s our first example of that tech being used for something other than boats. I’m excited to hear what the players think! Finally, thanks to some awesome work from Mod Lenny, the shipyard is now a real place in the world and not an instance like in the Alpha and Beta. It’s going to be so cool seeing other players going around all at once fixing up their boats side by side. You won’t see other players boats of course, but I always like when the game feels more like an MMO.
Launch tips:
It’s really important to read what the Pandemonium quest is telling you about boat movement. A good foundation makes for smooth sailing later on.
A tip I’d give to anyone is: take your time. I know that launch day has many people rushing to train as high as they can as fast as they can and to finish the skill but as a maxed iron myself I really do miss skilling grinds and the feeling of levelling up. OSRS is the game that truly embodies that message of “it’s about the journey not the destination”. I’m sure those who want to will get to 99 eventually, so take your time, explore the new content, try out different kinds of training methods. There’s so much here to enjoy beyond just sitting at one training method until you’re done!
Mains: The boat building aspects of Sailing are not intended to be cheap, we have new planks coming out more expensive than Mahogany so make sure you’ve got some cash lying around although you may want to wait for prices to settle and go for the second or third best options until they do.
Irons: Don’t think you’re off the hook with not needing GP, either. You may not be buying from other players but if you haven’t trained your construction I’d get moving with that and make sure you’ve got money to convert new logs to planks. I’d also perhaps look at some of the Forestry rewards like the Sawmill voucher or Ritual Mulch (to make Nature’s offerings). Both of these can help you get more mileage out of your time spent Woodcutting. Farming to plant new Hardwood trees and Crafting to make new fabrics are also beneficial skills to keep in mind!
UIM: Be careful dying on islands which you don’t have an easy way back to, you may have an hour but having to get a boat together from scratch might not be the quickest thing especially if it’s surrounded by dangerous waters! Make sure you have a good money maker to pay the retrieval costs for your boat or have a second boat prepared.
Small but helpful detail:
You can trim your sails to go faster! You get the opportunity every 30 seconds or so. This sounds really really obvious but the amount of streamers or content creators I watched who were just staring at their screen not doing it was really surprising to me!
Mod Abe, Game Designer
Most excited for players to try:
Very selfish as I made it, but Sea Charting. Particularly some of the weirder drinks and harder mermaid puzzles, just to see the reaction from players.
Favourite piece of work:
The core boat movement just feeling as good and polished as it does. Honestly, it is a feat of dark sorcery that the boat tech works at all, I’d hate to think how many innocent souls were sacrificed to get it to work this well…
Launch tips:
Get yourself out on the sea and familiarise yourself with how the boat moves. If you can pair this with a bit of Charting, a Port Task or both, this will help ease you into the new mechanics. Also, a tip for any player: Construction will be your biggest friend for Sailing, so anything you can do to improve that before launch will help you. One also for Hardcores: Let other people taste the drinks first… some of them are quite potent.
Hidden gems:
A lot of the islands with mooring points on them have plenty of small details and hidden features, so I’d encourage players to spend a little time on all of them to see what they offer.
Mod Nin, Senior Game Systems Engineer
Most excited for players to try:
I’m very proud of the movement system that we’ve created for the boats, and the best place to master it is at a Barracuda Trial!
Favourite piece of work:
What an impossible question! For me, it’s seeing the design team piece together all the different bits of engine tech that we made for Sailing. You can build a boat from scratch, sail it around, park it at a port, and then it stays there even when you walk away. That persistence is a small detail, but really makes your boat feel real.
Launch tips:
Bring your cargo! It won’t deliver itself! As the resident UIM, I must warn my bankless brothers that building a better boat is a bit hard on the ol’ inventory. Perfectly doable, but might warrant a deathbank or deathpile whenever you want to upgrade. And if you have a problem with that, you can always downgrade!
Hidden gem:
You can reverse your boat to get yourself out of almost any situation via the side panel. As long as you know this, you shouldn’t be able to get stuck anywhere!
Mod Curse, Principal QA Analyst
Most excited for players to try:
Usually with something as grand as a new skill I’d be pointing people in the direction of a specific training method, however when it comes to Sailing I am more excited for people to just begin their journey exploring the ocean. This is a huge area of the game that’s existed from the very beginning but we’ve never had access to it, so enjoy the exploration, it isn’t too often that we get to feel a breath of fresh air in something we’ve seen for such a long time.
Favourite piece of work:
The highlight of the skill has been having the boat movement itself feel very ‘Old School’. An initial concern when playing around with the movement system was that we didn’t want it to feel like you were jumping into a different game every time you boarded and disembarked from your boat, so when the current iteration of the boat movement and the direction system was implemented, it felt like it belonged in the game because we still have that click-to-move tile based system. The engine team did an absolutely fantastic job with this and I hope people can enjoy how smooth it feels on launch day.
Launch tips:
If you’re a main account: enjoy the ride. Ironman: Get working on those boat construction supplies when you can… Hardcore: Be careful when drinking random finds at sea.. they can be… lethal. And Ultimate? …. Get a Bank!
Mod Leebleh, QA Analyst
Most excited for players to try:
Salvaging, partly because I suspect nobody else will say salvaging, partly because I’m simple man who enjoys simple things. Smack tree… Get wood. Smack shipwreck… Get salvage. Rejoice.
Favourite piece of work:
Honestly, the core movement. We went through so many iterations of this long ago and given how important that core movement feel is to many pieces of Sailing I’m glad we settled with this.
Launch tips:
Mains & Irons: Prepare some general construction supplies. Hardcores: Watch out for the Sea Drinks, the expired ones especially. UIM: Sorry, no tips for you – you’ve chosen suffering, you already know what’s coming.
