Jagex is set to host their OSRS Deadman tournament next month. The Old School Runescape developers have taken some feedback based on a similar event last year and have made some suitable changes this time around.
In this article, we will go over the things that you can expect in this year’s Deadman tournament. So without further ado, this is everything you need to know about the upcoming OSRS Deadman: Armageddon event!
OSRS Deadman: Armageddon Start Date
So, when will Deadman: Armageddon commence? Well, the annual PvP affair starts on July 19 and will end on August 3.
Unlike last year’s event, OSRS Deadman: Armageddon only lasts for two weeks. For this reason, the developers have made some changes to account for this shortened period. These will be discussed in greater detail later on.
OSRS Deadman: Armageddon – Basics
If you have not participated in this event last year, then we will give you the lowdown. Deadman Mode (sometimes referred to as Deadman Tournament) is a yearly event where every player starts from scratch.
It is essentially a race to get as many points as possible until the event period ends. Of course, you have to do anything you can to survive because almost every zone in the game is not safe from player-killing or PK.
Why should you do everything in your power to stay alive, you ask? Well, every time you are defeated by another player, the 10 most valuable items in your bank will be given to them in the form of a Bank Key.
Certain stacks of items will also be given to the opposing player. They are going to receive about 80%, while you are only left with 20%. That is why it is crucial that you survive in PK areas because getting killed will not result in a good time.
Now, points can be earned by doing just about anything in Old School Runescape, such as engaging in combat, training your skills, and killing Breach monsters, among many others. If you do not want to engage in PK, you can gain points by leveling your skills in safe zones. Perhaps you can drop your sword and pick an axe to chop down trees to raise your Woodcutting Skill, for example.
With all of that said, the premise is the same for the upcoming Deadman: Armageddon. However, there are certain changes that will be implemented to make this year’s event more enjoyable than the last.
Combat Brackets
When you are going to participate in the upcoming Deadman Tournament, there is something that you need to know.
There are five different combat brackets separated by their own dedicated worlds. As you enter each world, you will be given an hour of protection from PvP. This means that you cannot be killed by other players for 60 minutes. This holds true for you because you can’t deal damage to others as well.
As you reach the third bracket at level 71, you will gain 15 times more combat EXP than you normally would have in the regular worlds. At the fifth bracket, your drop rate is increased to four times!
You can refer to this table for the different brackets for the Deadman Tournament in July:
Level Bracket | Combat EXP | Skilling EXP | Drop Rate |
Lvl 3 to 50 | 10x | 10x | 1x |
Lvl 51 to 70 | 10x | 10x | 2x |
Lvl 71 to 90 | 15x | 10x | 3x |
Lvl 91 to 110 | 15x | 10x | 3x |
Lvl 111 to 126 | 15x | 10x | 4x |
What Are Points For?
When the Deadman: Armageddon event begins, every player will have a chance to rank high on the leaderboards. Points that you have accrued during the event period will influence where you are placed in the rankings.
On top of that, you can use some of the points you have earned to purchase scrolls for animation overrides. This time around, there is an animation override you can buy (via a scroll) for the Home Teleport, which will be discussed a bit later.
The Ultimate Prize
On the last day of Deadman: Armageddon, players will be transferred to five specific worlds for the finale. In that world, damaging fog will surround Gielinor and players are forced to head to the multi-combat area north of Falador.
Unlike last year, players will be teleported to a world based on Combat Levels rather than being open to everyone. This is so that players can compete with others with almost similar builds and stats.
Since the finale will be featured on live stream, the Deadman fog will roll out on individual worlds instead of all at once. This is to ensure that those who are going to watch the culminating event will not miss any of the action.
The infamous fog will begin spreading in the Level 3 to 50 World bracket first. Then, the fog is going to affect the 51 to 70 World bracket next, and so on.
As if things couldn’t get worse, the world is going to be riddled with bosses and other people who will kill the very first player they see. The developers are also looking to improve certain things to ensure that the monsters will become an integral part of the finale.
Having said that, the participants must do everything they can to survive. That’s because the last player standing will be declared the winner!
In this year’s Deadman event, Jagex will still be giving away a total of $25,000, but the way it is doled out is different. There is now more incentive to be the last player standing. Why? Because this is how the company intends to distribute the cash prize:
Each of the five finale winners (one from each world) will receive $3,000 (up from $1,000 last year), for a total of $15,000
The player with the most amount of points from the top five will win $1,000
Two players from the top 25 who score the most amount of points will win $1,000 each
Three of the top 1% of players, based on points, will each receive $1,000
Two of the top 5% of players, based on points, will win $1,000 each
Two of the top 20% of players, again based on points, will win $1,000 each
It is important to note that more people will win cash prizes in Deadman: Armageddon because no player will receive money twice. So, if you win $3,000, for example, you are no longer eligible to receive the other prizes.
If you are not the competitive type, you can still win prizes via a raffle. We’ve heard that Jagex will be giving away cosmetic rewards as a consolation. However, as to what these are, they have not been disclosed yet at the time of writing.
OSRS Deadman: Armageddon – Changes to the Points System
This year, the developers will implement some noteworthy adjustments to address the issues that were found in the previous Deadman tournament. One of those changes pertains to the points system of the event.
For starters, there are a few new ways to obtain points. This includes killing Scurrius in the Varrock Sewers (5 points per kill), opening the Lunar Chests in Moons of Peril (15 points per opened chest), and fighting Sol Heredit (100 points per kill).
Slaying Bosses
The developers have also reorganized the amount of points that you get from killing other bosses. Basically, you can acquire more points by defeating the harder bosses, and fewer points when slaying the easier ones.
Here is a rundown:
Giant Mole: 12 Points (down from 18)
Scorpia: 5 Points (down from 20)
King Black Dragon: 5 Points (down from 20)
Vorkath: 10 Points (up from 5)
Grotesque Guardians: 10 Points (up from 8)
Sarachnis: 10 Points (up from 6)
Barrows: 10 Points per chest (down from 15, assuming you've killed all six Barrows Brothers on your run)
Thermonuclear Smoke Devil: 10 Points (down from 15)
Dagannoth Kings: 15 Points each (up from 10)
Tempoross: 20 Points (up from 5)
Wintertodt: 20 Points (up from 10)
Zulrah: 20 Points (up from 12)
Skotizo: 25 Points (up from 10)
Theatre of Blood (Entry): 100 Points (up from 25)
Tombs of Amascut (Entry): 100 Points (up from 50)
TzTok-Jad: 100 Points (up from 75)
TzKal-Zuk: 200 Points (up from 175)
Now, the developers from Jagex found that, in the previous Deadman Tournament, players only killed one or two different bosses indefinitely because there was no incentive to branch out and fight the others.
To prevent that from happening in Deadman: Armageddon, the developers intend to implement a change where killing the same boss 75 times will significantly reduce the amount of points that you get from them thereafter.
More specifically, you will only gain 10% of the usual points if you still fight the same target. For example, if you plan on slaying only Vorkath and no one else, you get a measly point for your efforts after defeating it for the 75th time.
The developers are hoping that this change would encourage more people to move out, especially if they have killed the same boss multiple times already.
Clue Scrolls
As previously mentioned, defeating the OSRS bosses is not the only means of accruing points for the event. You can do other things outside of combat as well.
For every quest point that you receive, you get 25 event points. Additionally, training your skill allows you to earn 10 points per level. So, if you love doing Slayer Tasks, for example, you can get a ton of event points if you manage to level your Slayer Skill from 1-99.
Another way to gain event points is by solving Clue Scrolls. In case you are new to OSRS, Clue Scrolls allow you to gain items by solving clues that will lead you to reward caskets. That said, the amount of points that you gain from Clue Scrolls has also been reorganized. Essentially, you gain more points by doing the harder scrolls than the easier ones. You can find the adjustments below:
Beginner: 3 points per Casket (down from 5)
Easy: 5 points per Casket (down from 7)
Medium: 15 points per Casket (up from 11)
Hard: 20 points per Casket (up from 17)
Elite: 30 points per Casket (up from 23)
Master: 55 points per Casket (up from 30)
Achievement Diaries
In Old School Runescape, there are things called Achievement Diaries that, when completed, allow you to earn certain benefits, including free teleports, discounts, and items. You can accomplish the Achievement Diaries by doing a specific set of tasks like crafting Cosmic Runes or imbuing a Salve Amulet at the Nightmare Zone.
Having said that, there are 12 different Achievement Diaries in OSRS, with each one having tasks that are ranked by difficulty. Unlike the changes mentioned above, you can now gain more event points for Deadman: Armageddon no matter if the tasks are easy or difficult to complete. Here are the new point values:
Easy Task: 10 points per task (up from 4)
Medium Task: 20 points per task (up from 12)
Hard Task: 40 points per task (up from 28)
Elite Task: 80 points per task (up from 64)
Combat Achievements
For the uninitiated, combat achievements are a set of combat-based challenges in OSRS that include anywhere from completing endurance tasks to killing monsters and bosses under specific conditions.
Just like Achievement Diaries, combat achievements are separated by ranks ranging from Easy all the way to the Grandmaster. As you can tell, achievements under the “Grandmaster” rank are incredibly tough to accomplish, but they do give out a ton of points if you’re able to do them successfully.
The developers of Old School Runescape understand how difficult combat achievements can be. So, to encourage you to do them anyway, they have upped the number of points that you get from doing most of the tasks toward your combat achievements, except for Master and Grandmaster.
Here is a rundown:
Easy: 15 points per task (up from 4)
Medium: 30 points per task (up from 12)
Hard: 50 points per task (up from 28)
Elite: 80 points per task (up from 64)
Master and Grandmaster: Unchanged
Breach Changes
Breaches are a huge part of OSRS Deadman tournaments simply because they are a great source of points in the annual event.
If you are new to the game, you are probably wondering what they are. Well, breaches are tears in Gielinor where various bosses pop out for you to kill. Slaying the bosses allows you to not only earn points, but also get your hands on some amazing gear, including Sigils and Corrupted Weaponry.
Breaches spawn at specific times during the day, specifically at 3:00 AM, 11:00 AM, and 8:00 PM. They appear simultaneously for all worlds that host Deadman tournaments. You will know if a breach is coming because a notification will be broadcast when they spawn.
There are two types of breaches: single-way and multi-combat. The former is a breach where only a single player can attack a certain boss. The latter, on the other hand, is a breach that lets multiple players attack a single boss at once.
This feature was first implemented in Deadman: Apocalypse last year and the developers have found that a lot of players actually love it. Hence, they are going to include it in this year’s Deadman: Armageddon as well, with some needed changes, of course.
In terms of rewards, a player is declared the MVP if they were able to deal the most amount of damage to the boss during the Breach encounter. Additionally, the top 15 players who dealt huge amounts of damage to the boss are considered non-MVPs. Now, why is this important?
The MVP system for breaches is vital because it signifies who has a chance of getting a unique drop. Only the MVPs can get the most lucrative items, while the Non-MVPs will receive loot from the regular drop pool as a reward for their efforts.
Region Breaches
This is a new thing that the developers from Jagex intend to implement once Deadman: Armageddon starts on July 19.
A Region Breach is akin to a regular breach, albeit it spawns boss monsters across an entire region rather than in specific breach hotspots only.
According to the OSRS dev team, there are about 30 spawn points in a region, which means that you and other players should spread your numbers evenly across the area to maximize gains.
When a Region Breach is active, you can expect about 10 breach monsters roaming around the region. They will only stay there for a total of 15 minutes, so make sure to kill them immediately.
Every time you and a group of other players kill a boss successfully, another one will spawn to take its place. This happens until the Region Breach is closed.
Changes to Loot Mechanics
Although the main reason why players do breaches is to accrue as many points as possible, there is another incentive to engage with them and that is by acquiring some unique loot.
That said, a couple of changes have been made to address the issues from the previous Deadman tournament. These affect the non-MVPs only. Anyway, the tweaks are as follows:
Non-MVPs will receive Chitin, which is a Deadman-secondary item that is used to create Blighted Overloads
Non-MVPs will now only get 1 regular drop from the table as opposed to two. This is to discourage players from only doing breaches and not engaging with the other things found in Gielinor.
New Breach Locations
The developers will add new breach locations in Deadman: Armageddon. This includes a few new places in the Kingdom of Varlamore. Here is the full list:
Northwest of Ortus’ Farm in Varlamore
Southeast of Outer Fortis in Varlamore
East of the Hunter Guild in Varlamore
Northwest of the Al-Kharid Mine.
Northeast of the Sorcerer's Tower.
Southeast of Castle Wars.
Southwest of the Combat Training Camp.
North of the Colossal Wyrm Remains in Varlamore. This one is set to be a multi-combat brawl in the scenic Avium Savannah!
New Rewards
Aside from earning a ton of points, there is another incentive to doing breaches and that is to get your hands on some corrupted weaponry.
Corrupted equipment can be dropped by the breach monsters you have defeated. They are actually just variants of existing weapons that have black and red overrides (or skins) to make them distinct. Besides that, they have lower equipment requirements to use, though this comes at the cost of 20% lower offensive bonuses as well.
In last year’s Deadman: Apocalypse event, the folks over at Jagex have added six Corrupted Weaponry, including:
Corrupted Dragon Claws
Corrupted Tumeken’s Shadow
Corrupted Voidwaker
Corrupted Armadyl Godsword
Corrupted Scythe of Vitur
Corrupted Twisted Bow
Corrupted Weapons (from last year’s Deadman Tournament)
In the upcoming Deadman: Armageddon, there will be a couple of new corrupted weapons that will be introduced: the Corrupted Volatile Staff and the Corrupted Dark Bow.
The Corrupted Vile Staff works much the same way as its base counterpart, albeit the range of its special attack is reduced to six tiles (down from 10).
How about the Corrupted Dark Bow? The damage of this variant is the same as the original. However, just like the staff above, the Corrupted Dark Bow has its range decreased from 10 tiles down to just six.
Corrupted Volatile Staff and Corrupted Dark Bow
Do you like wearing Imbued God Capes in OSRS? If so, you will be ecstatic to find out that Jagex is going to add a Deadman-themed spin on the classic capes. Just take a look at this beauty:
Deadman-themed Imbued God Cape (Zamorak)
One of the safest spaces during Deadman: Armageddon in OSRS is your very own abode. If your player-owned house looks dull and boring, you can spruce it up by putting the Deadman Rug.
Deadman Rug
As mentioned earlier, there is an animation override that you can purchase using the points you have accumulated during the Deadman Tournament.
Casting the Home Teleport is embarrassing, to say the least. However, you can make it a little less so by getting yourself this cool animation instead.
Home Teleport (Animation Override)
Other Notable Changes
New NPCs are going to be introduced in this year’s Deadman Mode. They are meant to shake things up and make the event more exciting
You can no longer attack monsters at multi-combat breaches if you are still under PvP protection. This is an intended design because there should be risks involved when fighting within these areas
Logged in late while a breach is ongoing? Do not worry! The developers will add a new way for you to figure out where a breach is simply by talking to Perdu
Unlike last year’s Deadman Tournament, you will no longer see the name of the player who received a unique drop from breaches (such as the Trinket of Advanced Weaponry). This is to prevent the issue where the other players would aggressively seek this person just to kill them
Breach NPCs are now immune to the effect of Enchanted Ruby Bolts. This means that Blood Forfeit – an effect that deals damage equal to 20% of the target’s current HP, will no longer work on the said enemies
Breach NPCs that have not been killed by the time a breach finishes will still be around, now for a bit longer at 30 minutes (up from 15 minutes). After the specified time, they will despawn
The total amount of points that you can get from breaches has now been increased from 42,000 to 70,000. The cap has been raised to encourage players to spend more time in breaches, though not so much as to ditch any other type of content in the game
Blighted Overloads
There is a new potion that will be introduced in Deadman: Armageddon called Blighted Overloads. Remember the Chitin mentioned earlier? If not, you will receive a Deadman-only secondary item called Chitin from defeating Breach monsters and by being declared as a non-MVP after a Breach encounter.
During the event, Chitin can be combined with a 4-dose Super Combat, Ranging, or Magic Potions to create a Blighted Overload. This process requires you to have a level 83 Herblore Skill. If you need some tips on how to level it up quickly, we have a dedicated Herblore guide for that.
Once you have some Blighted Overloads in your possession, you can consume them to gain some really powerful buffs that last for five minutes. They are:
8 + 15% Attack. At 99 Attack, this is +22.
8 + 15% Strength. At 99 Strength, this is +22.
7 + 10% Ranged. At 99 Ranged, this is +16.
1 + 10% Magic. At 99 Magic, this is +10.
-1 - 10% Defense. At 99 Defense, this is -10.
These buffs are not without their downsides, however. When a Blighted Overload is consumed, you will take five HP damage every 1.2 seconds (or 25 damage over 6 seconds). This lasts for the duration of the Blighted Overload, so do bring some food with you to address this.
It is worth noting that if your defense level is more than 80% of its base value, then the beneficial effects from the Blighted Overload will start to decay. Fortunately, your buffed stats that have decayed will be boosted again every 15 seconds. This is similar to the Overload buffs you get in the NIghtmare Zone or Chambers of Xeric.
After five minutes, all of your boosted stats will go back to their base values, but the HP you have lost while the Blighted Overload was active will not be regained.
The OSRS developers are hoping that this new potion will make PvP battles even more exciting.
Adjustments to Sigils
During the event period, every time you kill a monster, you have a chance of obtaining items called Sigils. When used, you’ll be attuned to these Sigils and, in turn, they provide you with certain buffs depending on the ones you have active.
For example, if you are attuned to the Sigil of Resilience, your hit points will be restored at a much faster rate; about 15x than normal. The attunement process can only be done if you are in the bank.
Sigil of Resilience
The Sigils that you have obtained from slaying monsters can be traded in the Grand Exchange. However, do take note that they can only be traded if they are not attuned.
Now that you know what they are, the Old School Runescape developers will implement certain adjustments to Sigils come Deadman: Armageddon. You can find the tweaks below:
Sigil of the Slaughter: Slayer Task Choice cost increased to 60 (up from 30)
Sigil of Last Recall: Cooldown increased from 3 to 5 minutes (adjusted to be a Tier 2 Sigil)
Sigil of the Abyss: Rune multiplier reduced from 10x to 5x. With this tweak, you can only create five runes at a time instead of 10
Sigil of Enhanced Harvest: Resource multiplier reduced from 5x to 3x
Sigil of the Menacing Mage: Damage increased from 12 to 18
Sigil of the Ruthless Ranger: Damage increased from 5 to 15
Sigil of Formidable Fighter: Proc damage increased from +5 to +10
Sigil of the Porcupine: Effect length reduced to 15 seconds (down from 45 seconds). Cooldown reduced to just 1 minute (down from 2 minutes)
Sigil of Meticulous Mage: Accuracy increased from +20 to +40
Sigil of the Rigorous Ranger: Accuracy increased from +10 to +20
Sigil of the Food Master: Chance to not consume food increased to 40% (up from 20%)
Sigil of the Treasure Hunter: Clue Scroll drop rate multiplier increased to 3x (up from 2x)
Sigil of the Well-Fed: Chance for double healing from food increased to 40% (up from 20%)
Sigil of Specialized Strikes: Cooldown reduced to 20 seconds (down from 30 seconds)
Sigil of Binding: Cooldown reduced to 15 seconds (down from 30 seconds)
Sigil of Faith: Chance to gain double Prayer POints increased to 40% (up from 20%)
Sigil of Pious Protection: Damage reduction increased from 25% to 35%
Sigil of Finality: Cooldown reduced from 60 seconds to 30 seconds
Sigil of Rampage: Maximum Rampage count decreased from 5 to 3. Damage and Accuracy per Rampage stack increased from 2% to 3%. Rampage stacks reset after 6 seconds (down from 12 seconds)
Aside from minor tweaks, the developers have made substantial changes to the mechanics of certain Sigils. For instance, the Sigil of Ninja has now been split into three different Sigils: Swashbuckler (Melee), Gunslinger (Ranged), Arcane Swiftness (Magic).
You can find other mechanical changes to some Sigils below:
Sigil of Freedom has now been re-enabled due to the changes to the PJ timer that will be included in Deadman: Armageddon
Sigil of the Eternal Jeweller now benefits Burning Amulets, essentially giving you free teleports to the Wilderness
Sigil of Barrows has been re-enabled and buffed. This Sigil prevents Barrows Armor Sets from degrading and adds a 40% Accuracy to attacks from Barrows weapons against players and NPCs
Brand New Sigils
To spice things up, the developers will also add new boons that you can use at your disposal. They are:
Tier 1
Sigil of Deception: Automatically pickpocket NPCs again until you are unable to do so. This is effectively a portion of the Trickster Relic from Leagues 4: Trailblazer Reloaded, though you will still have a chance to fail pickpockets this time
Sigil of Lithe: Grants 2x your Agility level as Agility XP while running, approximately every 10 ticks. Does not grant XP while in a safe zone
Tier 2
Sigil of Revoked Limitation: Allows Revenant Weapons +50% Accuracy/Damage buff to apply to NPCs anywhere
Sigil of Adroit: Increases your Accuracy by 1% against players and NPCs for each hit point you’re missing. This means that if your max HP is 99 and you’re sitting at 50 HP, you will gain a 49% increase in Accuracy against enemies
Sigil of Onslaught: Increases the number of targets that Chinchompas and Ancient Magicks can damage from 9 to 11, so long as they are within a 3x3 radius of the initial target
Sigil of Restoration: On a successful hit, restore 10% of the damage dealt (rounded up), to your hit points. This works against both players and NPCs but excludes multi-target attacks (against any targets beyond the first), as well as Special Attacks
Tier 3
Sigil of Meticulousness: Grants +75% Accuracy in all styles against NPCs. This is a higher-tier variant of the Sigil of Deft Strikes
PJ Timer Changes
For those who are new to Old School Runescape, the PJ Timer is a grace period where you cannot be attacked by other players in single-way combat areas while you are engaging with someone (or something) else. This is to prevent players from player-jacking (hence the “PJ” in the term) and ruining the fun for those who are already in active combat.
Anyway, the developers have made impactful changes to this system and they will be active once Deadman: Armageddon commences. Basically, the PJ timer for defending players has increased from eight ticks (4.8 seconds) to 20 ticks (12 seconds).
On the other hand, the grace period for attacking players has been reduced from 24 ticks (14.4 seconds) down to just 20 ticks (12 seconds). So, what do these changes aim to do?
The tweaks to the PJ Timer aim to prevent scenarios where Player A (the “attacking” player) can hide after the first strike and leave Player B vulnerable to attacks from Player C (who just came into the fray) after 4.8 seconds (or eight ticks). As this is happening, Player A is immune from retaliation since they cannot be attacked until 14.4 seconds have passed.
With the new values in place, this makes Player A and Player B on par with each other since their grace periods are now set at 12 seconds each (20 ticks).
As a result of these changes, the developers are now comfortable re-enabling the Sigil of Freedom, which allows you to break free from any binding effects cast on you by other players when used.
Conclusion
The Deadman: Armageddon event in OSRS is fast approaching. You only have a few weeks until the annual tournament begins.
Based on the changes that the developers will implement for this year’s Deadman Mode, it seems that things are going to be a lot more exciting than ever!
The Blighted Overload can potentially turn the tide of battle because the buffs it provides are really helpful. However, can the players handle its negative effect or will they succumb to the sustained damage given its five-minute duration?
Since this is a PvP event, it would be interesting to see how the changes to the PJ timer affect the outcome of certain bouts. Perhaps, players will survive longer because others just can’t join and deal damage as they please.
The changes to how the cash prize will be distributed may entice more and more players to engage and earn plenty of points during the event period.
All in all, it is safe to assume that this year’s Deadman: Armageddon event in Old School Runescape is one for the ages!
