Old School RuneScape Boat Combat Fixes Patch Notes (18th March 2026)

Old School RuneScape's 18th March patch is all about Sailing combat, and Jagex has been upfront that this isn't a sweeping content drop. It's a focused round of quality-of-life fixes built around community feedback from the Sailing opinion poll, laying groundwork for bigger boat combat updates to come.

The headline changes hit cannons hard. They fire slower now but deal significantly more damage per shot, and crew cannon damage no longer incorrectly scales off the captain's Sailing level. You can also mount two cannons on the same side of your Sloop, which kills the need to manually wiggle your boat to get both firing at once. The new Ballistic Attractor facility recovers 60% of fired cannonballs, which should take the sting out of what was clearly an unsustainable resource drain. Two extra facility slots have been added to the Sloop so you're not forced to sacrifice existing setups to fit it in. Credit where it's due: that's a clean solution.

There's also a new NPC, the Veiled Kraken, added to the Tangled Kelp with two Bounty Tasks and unique drops including the Dragon Cannon Barrel. Jagex says NPC boats are coming next. Full patch notes below.

Sailing Combat Fixes

• Cannons have been rebalanced. They shoot slower but hit harder.
• You can now build two cannons on the same side of your Sloop.
• Added a new facility to retrieve 60% of the cannonballs used.
• Two extra facility slots have been added to the Sloop (which can be used for cannons or the Ballistic Attractor).
• Traditional combat using player gear now works the same on sea creatures as it does on land. Sea creatures have had their HP adjusted accordingly.
• We've removed the delay in looting sea creatures. You can now use Telekinetic Grab to instantly loot a sea monster corpse with no net animation.
• A 'Fire At Will' Mode has been added to the Sailing side panel, allowing your crew to hit sea creatures in range automatically. There is also a right-click option if you prefer.
• We've buffed the amount of cannonballs that can be received from Cannonball Thieving, Shipwreck Salvaging and various NPCs.
• The pathing for Ancient Furnace has also been improved to remove awkward obstacles.
• A new NPC, the Veiled Kraken, has been added to the Tangled Kelp alongside two new Bounty Tasks to hunt it down. Unique drops include the Dragon Cannon Barrel and Inky Paint.
• Fixed a bug where the invisible +2 Sailing boost for the Keg of Whirlpool Surprise was not applying in certain situations.
• Fixed an animation bug with 1.5 tick shipwreck salvaging.
• Players can now use a filled fish crate on a bank booth, banker, or bank chest to empty the fish into their inventory. This works the same as using the "Empty" option on the crate.
• Fixed an issue where the message shown when attempting to create Adamant keel parts incorrectly stated the required Smithing level.
• Enemy attacks will no longer interrupt most Captain actions, so you can continue to use interfaces or other menus without them forcibly closing.

Other Changes

• The God Wars dungeon to Wilderness shortcut is now correctly shown as being one way on the world map.
• Drops in the Sarachnis instance now last longer on the ground before disappearing.
• Removed the 'Disable Cancel' option from the Minimenu Filtering settings. In certain situations this setting could prevent players from cancelling actions (such as casting spells), leaving them stuck. Any players who previously had this option enabled will have it automatically turned off.
• Fixed an issue where players with Deadman Protection could still attack Breach NPCs in certain situations. Previously, players could bypass protection rules by manually casting spells (such as Wind Strike) on Breach monsters. This allowed players to attack NPCs even while their protection timer was active. Players in Deadman under protection can now no longer attack Breach NPCs anywhere, whether the area is single or multi combat. Once protection expires, Breach NPCs can be attacked normally. In the tournament version of Deadman, players under protection will not be able to attack NPCs in multi-way combat but can in single-way.
• Fixed a graphical issue with Crystal Legs in Deadman worlds.
• A spelling error has been fixed in the new minigame teleport menu, and the alphabetical order of its buttons has been corrected.
• Fixed an issue where 'Sinister Offering' was missing from the Arceuus Spellbook when spell filtering was disabled.
• Fixed an issue with the Wilderness Player-Owned House theme where terrain incorrectly blocked the stairwell opening, preventing the dungeon level from being visible.
• Fixed an issue where attempting to assemble a Dwarf Multicannon without all the required parts could incorrectly display a message stating that your cannon had decayed and should be reclaimed from Nulodion.
• Adjusted the display value of Sun-kissed bones for clan loot broadcasts and similar messages to a more appropriate value.
• Fixed an issue where defeating Demonic Brutus with thrall damage during certain special attacks could cause the fight to stall between phases.
• Fixed an issue where Ultimate Iron players who died during the Abomination fight in A Taste of Hope could lose their items due to their death pile spawning in an inaccessible location.

PvP Rota

The PvP rota has moved to Period B:

• 560 - (UK) - PvP World
• 319 - (US) - Bounty Hunter World
• 579 - (US) - High-Risk PvP World
• 561 - (UK) - Free-to-Play PvP World
• 580 - (US) - LMS Competitive

World 390 (AUS) for LMS Competitive has been de-activated with this rota.

World 569 (AUS) for Bounty Hunter has been de-activated with this rota.

The PvP Arena is using Zerker loadouts in Ranked Duels and Tournaments this week.

Sailing Combat FixesCombat Improvements

We're making a range of improvements to boat combat today to address issues that were highlighted by you during our Sailing opinion poll! Whilst these changes will create a noticeable improvement, it's important to emphasize that this isn't a massive content update. Rather, these are a series of small quality of life boosts that will make the content feel more smooth and fix some of the key problems you've told us about.

Our main goal with this update is to create a stronger foundation to build on in future content. We're almost ready to share plans on how we will further iterate on boat combat by implementing NPC boats - stay tuned! So, you might only feel small differences right now, but these improvements will ensure that future updates to boat combat feel even better.

So, let's see what's changing.

Cannons

Ship Cannons have been rebalanced: they now fire more slowly, but each shot will be more impactful. This means you'll deal significantly more damage per cannonball which will also help to improve cannonball efficiency, which was another area you let us know needs addressing.

Additionally, during testing we found that crew cannon damage was incorrectly scaling with the captain's Sailing level. This has now been fixed and cannon damage scales only with a crewmate's Privateering level."

Check out this table for their updated stats.

We've also added the functionality to be able to build two cannons on the same side of your Sloop, named 'first' and 'second' cannon. This feature removes the need to 'wiggle' your boat in order to get both cannons firing at enemies simultaneously. There are up to four hotspots for cannons, but you will still only be able to have a maximum of two cannons built at any time.

Cannonballs & Ballistic Attractor Facility

Many of you told us that you're using way too many cannonballs, so we've got a few changes lined up to improve that.

If you can’t see the image above, click here!

First of all, check out Sailing's newest facility: the Ballistic Attractor. This recovers 60% of the cannonballs you fire, meaning boat combat will be much less expensive to engage in.

If you can’t see the image above, click here!

Build this facility by speaking to Ava after completing the Animal Magnetism Quest.

Other requirements include:

• 50 Sailing
• 44 Construction

The Ballistic Attractor can be added to a Sloop and Skiff, but not a Raft. To build it, you'll require 10 Mahogany Planks, 5000 Water Runes, 1000 Law Runes, 5 Lead Bars and 5 Steel Bars.

For those of you who were worried about this item being a facility and not just a flat boat upgrade, don't worry. You won't need to remove any facilities on the Sloop, since we've also added two extra facility slots where you can place a cannon or Ballistic Attractor facility.

As we mentioned above, Cannonballs now also hit harder (albeit slower).

You can check out their new stats in this handy table:

Cannonball Resourcing

We've improved the rates at which you can get cannonballs from cannonball thieving, shipwreck salvaging and NPC loot tables.

Cannonball Thieving

Tweaks have been made so that you have a higher chance of getting the more impactful cannonballs, rather than the ones on the lower end.

Salvaging

NPC Loot

We've also fixed a pathing issue with the Ancient Furnace, used for smithing cannonballs. Players travelling from the fairy ring nearby reported some awkward pathing issues, so we've adjusted the placement of the nearby skeleton so that the route is much easier to navigate.

Monsters at Sea

There was a damage cap on combat from player characters on boats which was originally designed to incentivize players to use their cannons instead of gear. However, by doing so we invalidated hard-earned gear progression and this resulted in sluggishly long fights. We've now removed that damage cap, so that player combat from boats against monsters at sea now works exactly like it does on land. Your gear will feel much more impactful, and we hope this change will help Sailing combat feel more naturally integrated with the wider game.

As part of this update, the Dwarf Multicannon will no longer fire at creatures at sea instead of dealing lower damage to them. This prevents unintended effects with Bounty Tasks, which have been balanced around boat-based combat. Allowing the Dwarf Multicannon (used on land) to target sea creatures would be detrimental to that balance.

Additionally, we've improved how you can get loot from sea creatures. The delay for the animation has been removed, so you'll receive loot much faster in general. You can also cancel the action and come back later if you need to deal with something else, and finally we've improved the way that corpses are positioned so that you can more reliably click them. You can also use 'Telekinetic Grab' to loot corpses instantly without needing to pull loot in using a net!

Loot Tables

We expect that the changes to boat combat in this update will significantly increase the amount of kills per hour which will have an impact on the game's overall economy. Rather than tweaking drop rates, we've balanced this around the hitpoints of Sea NPC Monsters so that they will take a similar time to kill, which will keep kills per hour roughly the same. We expect that mid to low level boats will see marginal improvements in their kills per hour, compared to where they are currently. High-level boat setups should remain the same.

Additionally, a previous bug made unique drops more common than intended. While we're not changing that, we are tidying up some of that code. This may have a very small impact on loot tables, but it shouldn't be very noticeable. Do let us know if you encounter anything unusual and we'll be sure to follow up.

The Veiled Kraken & New Bounty Task

A new sea monster has been spotted lurking in the Tangled Kelp. It's a Veiled Kraken!

This creature has a very high Magic defence and it is weak to Heavy Ranged. It also hits with melee, so don't get too close. Its unique drops include the Dragon Cannon Barrel and Inky Paint. We think it's good to add a more active way of getting the Dragon Cannon Barrel especially, as currently the only method of obtaining it is through shipwreck salvaging, which is very AFK.

If you can’t see the image above, click here!

At Level 80 Sailing, you'll also be able to grab a Bounty Task for the Veiled Kraken at Port Tyras and Deepfin Point. Whilst we were creating this new task, we identified and fixed an issue with the task generation system where certain tasks were not showing as intended. As a result of this fix, you may find that some tasks are rarer and more common than previously due to the pool of possible tasks being fixed. Let us know if you have any significant feedback on this bug fix if you decide to try out Bounty Tasks.

Fire at Will

Managing your ship's crew is also getting easier. You can now order your crew to "Fire at Will", allowing them to automatically search for targets and fire cannons whenever enemies at sea are within range. This makes ship combat far more hands-off, letting you focus on sailing, positioning, or other tasks while your crew handles the work!

If you can’t see the image above, click here!

We've added a new toggle onto the Sailing side panel, allowing you to toggle between:

• Follow Captain's Target
• Do Not Follow Captain's Target
• Fire at Will

There is also a right-click option on the toggle, if you prefer to quickly swap between these modes.

If you can’t see the image above, click here!

When this feature is enabled, your crew will search for any enemies in range and remain on them until their target dies or moves beyond double the attack distance. If that happens, the crew will search for another target. There is no target prioritization system - as long as the creature is in range and a sea monster, the crew will attack. However, you can manually reset targetting using the 'cancel target' button if desired. The "Fire at Will" mode lasts for 10-minutes until the crew will decide to go on a break. But if you would like them to get back to work, simply click to turn it back on again. The timer should reset if you need to re-board your boat.

Miscellaneous Quality of Life Changes

• Around the launch of Sailing, we mentioned that the Keg of Whirlpool Surprise gives an invisible +2 Sailing bonus. However, after a brief investigation, this buff was not applying correctly. This has now been fixed.
• Players can now use a filled fish crate on a bank booth, banker, or bank chest to empty the fish into their inventory. This works the same as using the "Empty" option on the crate.
• We've also reduced interruptions while your ship is under attack. Previously, whenever your boat was hit by an enemy, it would interrupt the Captain, closing interfaces like the cargo hold, and disrupting any actions they were performing, such as looting. This is particularly frustrating when you are engaging directly in combat. Now enemy attacks will not interrupt most Captain actions, so you can continue to use interfaces or other menus without them forcibly closing. However, you still won't be able to log out or world hop while your boat is in danger. Attempting to do so will give you a warning message until your boat is in a safer place.
• Last week, we fixed an animation bug with crew which accidentally added an animation delay to the player character hook animation, making 1.5 tick shipwreck salvaging feel sluggish. This has been fixed so that it is possible to 1.5 tick salvage again, and the animations adjusted accordingly.
• We've also fixed an issue where the message shown when attempting to create Adamant keel parts incorrectly stated the required Smithing level.

Other Changes

• The God Wars dungeon to Wilderness shortcut is now correctly shown as being one way on the world map.
• Drops in the Sarachnis instance now last longer on the ground before disappearing.

Mobile

• Removed the 'Disable Cancel' option from the Minimenu Filtering settings. In certain situations this setting could prevent players from cancelling actions (such as casting spells), leaving them stuck. Any players who previously had this option enabled will have it automatically turned off.

Deadman

• Fixed an issue where players with Deadman Protection could still attack Breach NPCs in certain situations. Previously, players could bypass protection rules by manually casting spells (such as Air Strike) on Breach monsters. This allowed players to attack NPCs even while their protection timer was active. Players in Deadman under protection can now no longer attack Breach NPCs anywhere, whether the area is single or multi combat. Once protection expires, Breach NPCs can be attacked normally. In the tournament version of Deadman, players under protection will not be able to attack NPCs in multi-way combat but can in single-way.
• Fixed a graphical issue with Crystal Legs in Deadman worlds.

Other bug fixes

• A spelling error has been fixed in the new minigame teleport menu, and the alphabetical order of its buttons has been corrected.
• Fixed an issue where 'Sinister Offering' was missing from the Arceuus Spellbook when spell filtering was disabled.
• Fixed an issue with the Wilderness Player-Owned House theme where terrain incorrectly blocked the stairwell opening, preventing the dungeon level from being visible.
• Fixed an issue where attempting to assemble a Dwarf Multicannon without all the required parts could incorrectly display a message stating that your cannon had decayed and should be reclaimed from Nulodion.
• Adjusted the display value of Sun-kissed bones for clan loot broadcasts and similar messages to a more appropriate value.
• Fixed an issue where defeating Demonic Brutus with thrall damage during certain special attacks could cause the fight to stall between phases.
• Fixed an issue where Ultimate Iron players who died during the Abomination fight in A Taste of Hope could lose their items due to their death pile spawning in an inaccessible location.

YouTooz Figures - Last Chance!

If you can’t see the video above, click here!

Don’t miss your final chance to grab these limited-edition Youtooz collectibles before they’re gone for good on March 28th!

Pick up Rune or Dragon armour figures for your shelf, or grab a pair of Tim & Crunchy Monitor Buddiez to sit proudly atop your screen!

Browse the full collection here!

If you can’t see the image above, click here!

If you can’t see the image above, click here!

If you can’t see the image above, click here!

Fight Pits Community Event

Mods Rach and Manked are heading back to the TzHaar Fight Pits for some more organised chaos!

If you can’t see the image above, click here!

Think you’ve got what it takes to be the last one standing?

You can fight for your side, fight for yourself, or betray everyone when it suits you. Just remember, only one can wear the crown! Where & When?

• World 520 - TzHaar Fight Pit
• Friday, March 27th - 15:30 UTC/GMT / 11:30 ET / 8:30 PT / 2:30 AET.

How it works:

• We’ll run three official competition rounds.
• The last player standing in each official round wins 3 OSRS Bonds.
• If you die, gear fast and get back in! Rounds restart quickly.

Want to sit back and watch the carnage? Mods Rach & Manked will be sharing their POVs live over on the Official OSRS Discord Stage.

Full T&Cs can be found here: osrs.game/Fight-Pits-Comp-2026.

We'll see you in the pit...

PvP World Rota

The PvP rota has moved to Period B:

• 560 - (UK) - PvP World
• 319 - (US) - Bounty Hunter World
• 579 - (US) - High-Risk PvP World
• 561 - (UK) - Free-to-Play PvP World
• 580 - (US) - LMS Competitive

World 390 (AUS) for LMS Competitive has been de-activated with this rota.

World 569 (AUS) for Bounty Hunter has been de-activated with this rota.

The PvP Arena is using Zerker loadouts in Ranked Duels and Tournaments this week.

You can also discuss this update on the 2007Scape subreddit, the Steam forums, or the community-led OSRS Discord in the #gameupdate channel. For more info on the above content, check out the official Old School Wiki.

Mods Abe, Abyss, Acorn, Ape, Arcane, Archie, Argo, Ash, Asherz, Ayiza, BigRig, Blighted, Blossom, Boko, Brooksie, Bruno, Chilly, Criminal, Curse, Daizong, Default, Ed, Elena, Enigma, Entropi, Freddie, Frogs, Fuzz, Gecko, Gizmo, Goblin, Grace, Grub, Halo, Harold, Hend, Hornet, Husky, Ivory, Jalo, Jamesy, Jerv, Keyser, Kieren, Kirby, Kurotou, Leebleh, Lenny, Light, Liron, Lykos, Lotus, Mack, Manked, Markos, Maylea, Mobius, Moogle, Morty, Moz, Necro, Nin, Nixon, Nox, Nylu, Ori, Other, Otter, Philomel, Pork, Pumpkin, Puppi, Rach, Redfield, Rice, Romy, Roy, Ry, Saiyan, Sarnie, Schmidt, Shogun, Shroom, Sigma, Skylark, Smithy, Sova, Spyro, Squid, Starry, Stilrush, Suharun, Surma, Sween, Tide, Titania, Titus, TJ, Tomb, Tsourorf, Tyran, Veda, Vegard, West, Wolfy, Yozora & Yume

Want to see more? Catch all the latest gaming news, updates, and patch notes right here at XP Gained!