OSRS Fractured Archive Raid Launch Guide: Requirements, Bosses, Team Scaling and Rewards (Oct 20)

The Fractured Archive, Old School RuneScape's fourth raid, is open. Jagex's Out Today post set the unlock for 11:00 UTC on Tuesday, October 20, 2026, which is 6:00 AM CT, and the official @OldSchoolRS account confirmed "The Fractured Archive is OUT NOW!" two minutes later. Game worlds came back from the weekly update first, the lobby opened to players, and the raid itself was switched on by a hotfix once Jagex finished its last-minute tests.

This is the launch-day guide: what you need to get in, where the entrance is, how the lobby works, how many people to bring, what the room choices are, how deaths and wipes are handled, what Jagex has and has not said about gear, and which rewards you can sell versus which stay on your account. It is written against Jagex's own posts: today's Out Today notes, the October 6 Everything You Need To Know blog, the January First Look, and the July Rewards Poll Blog. Where the OSRS Wiki adds detail Jagex has not printed, I say so.

If you followed the run-up, our earlier Fractured Archive and RuneFest roadmap preview covered the announcement, the polled rewards and Hardcore Worlds. This piece replaces the "what was promised" view with "what is live".

Launch Timing on October 20

Jagex's schedule for the day, converted to Central Time:

• Weekly update: game worlds went offline for the usual Tuesday update. The raid lobby was accessible as soon as worlds came back online.
• 5:45 AM CT (10:45 UTC): Jagex planned its all-day Twitch watch party with Mod Ayiza and Mod Kieren. The @OldSchoolRS "We're LIVE" post went out at 5:42 AM CT.
• 6:00 AM CT (11:00 UTC): target opening time for the raid itself, delivered through a hotfix after final tests.
• 6:02 AM CT: @OldSchoolRS posted that the raid was out.

Jagex said it would post any delay on the Out Today article and the Game Status page. Neither page carried a delay notice at the time of writing. Jagex also noted that if you were already logged in when the hotfix landed, you do not need to wait for the messenger NPC; you can walk straight to the entrance.

One world is excluded on release. Players on world 345 (permanent Deadman) cannot access the raid.

For anyone hunting first clears, Jagex is giving bronze, silver and gold medals to all members of the first three teams to clear the Archive, plus exclusive pin sets for every medallist. The watch party also runs giveaways for three prints of the Enkoro launch artwork and twenty-six pin sets, entered through the official OSRS Discord.

Requirements: While Guthix Sleeps

The single stated access requirement is completion of While Guthix Sleeps. Jagex has repeated that in every post since the January First Look, and today's notes add a blunt reminder: "If you've not already got While Guthix Sleeps completed, then you better get to it ASAP!"

Jagex does not list any skill requirement for entry in its posts, and it does not list any Sailing requirement. The OSRS Wiki currently shows a short unlock miniquest, also called The Fractured Archive, with While Guthix Sleeps as its only listed requirement. That page is marked as under construction, so treat any extra detail there as provisional.

Who is locked out at launch:

• Restricted builds that cannot finish While Guthix Sleeps. In the Everything You Need To Know blog, Jagex said it had planned proposals to let limited builds in, such as revisiting older quests on the While Guthix Sleeps unlock path, but was not comfortable delivering them before launch. It apologised and said it wants to revisit the topic later, with no date.
• Ultimate Ironmen with items stored at Pete Kayer. The known issues table says these players cannot enter the raid until they reclaim their stored items. There is an in-game message explaining this.
• Anyone on world 345, as noted above.

If your main is short of the quest chain and you would rather start raiding than grind the prerequisites this week, AccountShark lists OSRS accounts where quest progress is shown on the listing, so you can check for While Guthix Sleeps before you commit.

How to Reach the Entrance

Jagex's lore setup: during While Guthix Sleeps, the Mahjarrat Lucien's meddling with the Stone of Jas opened an ancient entrance to a cache of Guthix's most prized possessions. Other gods noticed, sent agents to plunder it, and you are tasked with defending the archive alongside the Alliance you assembled during the quest.

After the hotfix, players who have While Guthix Sleeps complete are greeted on login by a messenger with a note pointing them toward the action. Jagex's directions are: make your way to where Lucien showed his hand, and look for the archive's entrance on a cliff face near the entrance to the Guthixian Temple. The Summit overview and Everything You Need To Know blog both place the archive in the caverns deep beneath Lumbridge.

The OSRS Wiki fills in the route. It places the entrance in the Chasm of Tears, reached by teleporting to Tears of Guthix (Minigame Teleport or a Games necklace), then attracting a light creature into the chasm, which requires a sapphire lantern in your inventory. From there you crawl through an opening to the south-west to reach the lobby. That route comes from the Wiki rather than Jagex's posts.

Return trips get easier quickly. The Archivist's Folio, an untradeable raid reward, is a teleport item for quick returns to the archive, charged with Ascension shards "at a very generous rate", according to Jagex.

The Lobby: Grouping, Spectating and Ascension Rocks

The Alliance has cleared the area in front of the entrance into a staging base. Here is what Jagex says you will find:

• East side: a bank chest, the Grouping Board, and the Record Keeper. The Grouping Board works like the party boards at Theatre of Blood and Tombs of Amascut. An eye icon at the top lets the party leader allow or block spectators.
• West side: the Strategy Board, overseen by General Montoya, who explains the Alliance's plan. At the Strategy Board you can look up specific or recent parties and spectate them, if they left spectating on.
• South-west: the Ascension rocks. You can mine these slowly for Ascension shards between runs. Roots wrapped around the rocks retreat and resurface, so you need to keep an eye on them, and occasional sprites appear that turn into Ascension shards when you interact with them.

Spectating has had a full overhaul. Whether you are watching another group or you died and your team is still fighting, you can click the HP or party orbs to see a teammate's point of view, including their inventory. If you are in the same party, you can ping inventory slots for them. Jagex's example in the launch post was a cheerful "click fish!"

Jagex also asked players to turn sound and music on, crediting the audio team's work on the raid.

Team Size: Scaling From 2 to 8 Players

The Fractured Archive scales between 2 and 8 players. Jagex recommends 3 to 5, saying those scales "tend to feel the best" in its own testing.

The fuller picture from the Everything You Need To Know blog:

• Duos are "tough but manageable once you know what you're doing".
• Solo entry is possible, but the minimum scaling is set to 2 players, so a solo runs a duo-scaled raid alone. Jagex says that is more lenient than Theatre of Blood (which scales solo to 3), but calls solo clears "very challenging" and compares the experience to soloing Theatre of Blood rather than Chambers of Xeric.
• Larger teams are supported, but Jagex warns that with too many players you "might find yourself wanting to feel more consequential".

Jagex explained that it deliberately avoided designing around solo players, because solo-friendly mechanics tend to collapse into everyone doing the same thing, or one player handling the key mechanic while others hit the boss. Many rooms instead give different players distinct jobs. Its closing advice was simple: play at the scale you enjoy.

Raid Layout and Boss Choices

The Archive has eight encounters, and you fight five per run. Every raid starts with the Archive Guardian and ends with the final boss. Between them, a central chamber has rows of doors on the left and right. On each row you pick one door, so the middle three encounters are your choice.

Jagex was explicit that this is not random and there is no scouting. The same pairs are offered every time:

The Archive Guardian

Jagex describes the Archive Guardian as a sentinel "who will stop at nothing to defend its master's archive". The First Look adds that it had lain dormant for thousands of years and is not pleased to have been woken. Concept art showed it towering over the player, with Jagex joking about getting past "the Archive's bouncer".

Stage two: Bork and the Smorks, or Ezekiel

Your first choice is between "the ferocious Bork (and the notably less ferocious Smorks)" and Ezekiel, "a justiciar of Saradomin who believes his ends always justify the means". The First Look framed Ezekiel as a Saradominist agent hunting artefacts worthy of Saradomin and meting out justice "the old-fashioned way".

Stage three: Dreadnoth the Jellied, or the necromancer

Next is Dreadnoth the Jellied, "the abominable result of a demonic ritual gone wrong", or "a mysterious necromancer with a mastery over undeath". Jagex's posts do not name the necromancer.

Stage four: Xarth, or the Dagon'hai Trio

The last choice is Xarth, "a Tormented Demon unlike any you've seen before", or "the highly co-ordinated Dagon'hai Trio". The OSRS Wiki notes that a Quartermaster arrives before this stage, which lines up with the mid-raid resupply covered below.

The final boss

Jagex is keeping the final boss vague on purpose: "a mysterious hooded figure... for now." The launch-day X post hints at the stakes, telling players to "prevent a terrible foe's ascension to godhood". Spoiler note: the OSRS Wiki's raid page, updated after launch, lists the necromancer as Moia and the final boss as Ocellus. Jagex has not used either name in its posts.

Does your route matter for loot?

No. Jagex balanced each pairing to be "similar in intensity" and to award the same total contribution points, so no path improves your unique chance on a single completion. The choice comes down to preference, your party's gear, and which option your team finds faster. Jagex expects a meta route to form and says that is fine, but notes the best route may change with team size, new gear, and your group's comfort with each boss. Every boss will eventually get its own Combat Achievements, so completionists will need to learn all eight.

Contribution from adds is counted too. Damage you deal to minions counts toward your room contribution, but each room has a finite pool of points, so stalling a fight to farm adds does not work.

Supplies, Deaths and the Wipe Rule

Three supply rules matter for day one:

• No Overload or equivalent inside the raid.
• No banking or depositing supplies during the raid.
• A points-based resupply partway through, similar to the Helpful Spirit in Tombs of Amascut or the supplies chest in Theatre of Blood. Your performance up to that point affects what you can get.

Deaths are where the Archive is strict:

• Deaths are not safe. Jagex repeated it in today's notes: Hardcore Ironmen and Hardcore Group Ironmen lose their status if they die inside the Archive.
• A team wipe ends the raid. You are removed and a gravestone is placed outside. Jagex says this works like Theatre of Blood, but with normal gravestones instead of a death storage.
• Gravestone fees are reduced by 75% until you have at least five completions. The OSRS Wiki adds that reclaiming items otherwise costs up to the usual 500,000 coins.

The January First Look said the raid would move to a Tombs of Amascut-style system with infinite tries weeks after launch. The Everything You Need To Know blog walked that back. Jagex now says it would like to keep the Theatre of Blood-style wipe, because Practice Mode is a better low-stakes learning tool. It does have backup plans ready if the wipe rule hurts the raid for its target audience, which would allow wipes but with "severe penalties for unique chances" and harsher supply loss.

Jagex's warning in today's post is blunt: "if you are going in blind on release without knowledge of all mechanics, then you will die."

Practice Mode

Practice Mode is not available on release. Jagex is holding it back so everyone pushes for early clears on equal terms, citing Tombs of Amascut's launch, where players could see mechanics on easier settings first.

When it arrives, Practice Mode lets you attempt any boss, and any phase of a boss, at the intended difficulty, as long as you have already reached that boss or phase in a real raid. Supplies are fully refunded and you can bring friends. You cannot use it to learn the final boss before you have ever reached it. Jagex has not given a date and said it will share a full rundown when it switches the mode on.

Recommended Setups and Prep

Jagex has not published recommended gear, boss weaknesses, inventory setups or combat level guidance for the raid. Its Everything You Need To Know blog said up front that it would cover systems, not specific bosses or mechanics. Any precise "best setup" you see today comes from players learning the raid live, not from Jagex.

What Jagex has said that shapes your setup:

• Route choice depends on gear. Jagex lists "the gear available to you and your party" as a valid reason to pick one door over another, so your setups should influence your route.
• Supplies have to last. With no Overloads and no banking mid-raid, and a resupply tied to performance, your inventory needs to carry you through the first encounters.
• The raid spans many enemy types. Mod Jerv described the raid as an emotional journey through goblins, dark mages, knights, demons and beings of greater power, and the boss list matches that range.

General raid practice that fits those rules (our advice, not Jagex's):

• Bring setups covering melee, ranged and magic, as you would for Chambers of Xeric, Theatre of Blood or Tombs of Amascut.
• Agree on a route and a dead-player plan in the lobby before you enter, since a wipe ends the run.
• Hardcore accounts should think hard before day-one attempts, given the unsafe death rule.
• Pack a regular chisel if you want to work with Ascension shards, because the Jeweller's chisel does not work on them yet (see known issues).
• RuneLite users who see Mystic Vigour or Deadeye looking inactive should try turning off the Instant Inventory plugin, per Jagex's known issues table.

Rewards: Tradeable and Untradeable

Jagex has not published drop rates or unique weightings. What it has confirmed is the full list of uniques and their trade status. Here is the breakdown from today's Out Today post:

The untradeables

Elemental Fragments each add +2 to your base max hit for one element. Because it is base damage, it benefits from Magic damage bonuses and is multiplied by elemental weaknesses. Jagex says dupe protection means you should not end up with a pile of fragments for one element. The Archivist's Folio is your teleport back, and Jagex promises upkeep "won't be a pain".

Zeal

Zeal upgrades Piety with an extra +5% Attack and Strength. The unlock item is tradeable, but Jagex says you will have to do something "a little more interesting than just reading a piece of paper at a bank", hinting that the Record Keeper in the lobby is involved. Zeal is unlocked automatically in Last Man Standing and Pete Kayer's challenges. The July Rewards Poll Blog listed the unlock requirements as Piety unlocked plus 84 Prayer, 75 Attack and 75 Strength; today's notes do not restate them, so confirm in game.

Rondache

The Rondache cuts incoming melee, ranged and magic damage by 2 and stores the mitigated damage as charges, which you spend on an instant Shield Bash. Today's post explains how its special works:

• With a mainhand weapon that has no special attack, the Rondache adds a special attack bar to the Combat Styles tab and takes over the special attack orb by the minimap.
• With a mainhand that has a special attack (Jagex's example is the Abyssal dagger), both bars appear in the Combat Styles tab. The orb keeps your mainhand special, and right-clicking it fires the Rondache's. A small bar under the orb shows the Rondache's charge.
• Shield Bash gives XP in your current attack style, so Aggressive gives Strength XP and Shared gives shared XP.

Jagex says that if the setup works well, it may add the same system to the Dragonfire Shield later. The July poll blog gave the charge cap as 20, which today's notes do not restate.

Zorya's Tome and the Ascension crossbows

Zorya's Tome is a two-handed book that casts every three ticks, but Jagex says it is mainly about its special attack, which "imbues you with arcane energy to fire off rapid hits with increased damage and accuracy". The Ascension crossbows are dual-wield crossbows that fire Ascension bolts made from shards, pitched as "a raid-tier upgrade to the Toxic Blowpipe".

The Obligator

The Obligator is the Crush megarare, the weapon polled as "the Breaker". Jagex says it rolls damage up to four times depending on how weak the target is to Crush compared with other melee styles, then takes the best result, so it hits consistently hard. It gains 20% bonus damage against 2x2 targets and 40% against 3x3 or larger, can slam through several enemies in a line, or can give up the re-rolls and multi-target hits in exchange for faster attacks. Jagex held back its in-game preview so the first player to get one can show it off.

To make room for it, today's update also drops Nex's Crush Defence from +60 to +35, so the Obligator "will shine against Zaros' most-feared general".

The OSRS Wiki also lists a boss pet named Orion. Jagex's posts do not mention a pet, so treat that as Wiki-sourced for now.

Regular loot and the economy

Jagex said it is aiming for regular loot "just below Theatre of Blood", but admits it cannot predict where Ascension shard prices will settle, and will adjust if regular loot misses that target. It also said it is being more cautious after Tombs of Amascut, whose generous regular loot hit some resource markets hard.

For your account, the split is clear. Tradeable uniques will move on the Grand Exchange as supply comes in. Elemental Fragments, the Folio and Zeal stay with the account permanently. If you are thinking about the value of a raid-ready account with these unlocks over the coming months, our OSRS account selling page explains how listings and valuations work.

Known Issues on Launch Day

Jagex's Out Today post opens with a known issues table. As of this writing:

• Araxxor stepunder: a problem with "stepunder" mechanics in Araxxor's final phase means players need to adjust their movement for now. Jagex is unlikely to fix it until next week, because rushing changes could affect some NPCs inside The Fractured Archive.
• Mystic Vigour and Deadeye: some players report these not activating. Jagex suggests turning off RuneLite's Instant Inventory plugin, which the RuneLite team thinks may be causing a visual bug where active prayers look inactive.
• Jeweller's chisel: does not work on Ascension shards. Use a regular chisel until a fix ships.
• Ultimate Ironmen with items at Pete Kayer: cannot enter until those items are reclaimed.
• Mobile and C++ clients: some graphical issues reported; Jagex is investigating.
• Lobby scoreboard: some global stat counters are wrong. Personal stats and global times appear correct, and a fix is targeted for next week.

Jagex also set expectations on balance. It does not plan quick balance passes or big tweaks this week, so it can watch how players learn the content before acting on feedback. Bug fixes are the priority.

Other Changes in Today's Update

The raid is the headline, but the same game update includes a few smaller changes:

• The free-for-all Clan Wars arena on F2P worlds now requires 100 total level.
• Nex's Crush Defence drops from +60 to +35, as covered above.
• The PvP world rota moved to Period A: 539 (US) PvP World, 318 (UK) Bounty Hunter, 548 (Germany) High-Risk PvP, 577 (US) F2P PvP, and 559 (UK) LMS Competitive. World 390 (AUS) LMS Competitive and world 569 (AUS) Bounty Hunter are now active.
• The PvP Arena uses 1 Def Pure loadouts for Ranked Duels and Tournaments this week.

Jagex also asked players to vote for Old School in the Golden Joystick Awards, where it is nominated for Best Still Playing (Mobile).

Launch-Day Priority List

If you are logging in today, here is the order that matches what Jagex has published:

• Confirm While Guthix Sleeps is complete, and get off world 345 if you play there.
• If you are an Ultimate Ironman, reclaim anything stored at Pete Kayer before you go.
• Travel to the entrance near the Guthixian Temple and look around the lobby: Grouping Board and Record Keeper to the east, General Montoya's Strategy Board to the west, Ascension rocks to the south-west.
• Build a team of 3 to 5 if you can, and agree on your three door choices before you enter.
• Plan supplies around no Overloads, no mid-raid banking, and a performance-based resupply.
• Hardcore accounts: remember deaths here are unsafe.
• Waiting on teammates? Mine Ascension rocks, or spectate a group from the Strategy Board to see mechanics before your first attempt.
• If you cannot play today, Jagex says a highlights video made with the Behemeth crew goes up on its YouTube channel tomorrow, October 21.

Frequently Asked Questions

What time did The Fractured Archive release?

Jagex targeted 11:00 UTC on October 20, 2026, which is 6:00 AM CT. The raid opened through a hotfix after the weekly update, and @OldSchoolRS posted that it was out at 6:02 AM CT.

Was The Fractured Archive delayed?

No. Jagex said it would announce any delay on the Out Today post and the Game Status page. No delay was posted, and the official X account confirmed the raid was live on schedule.

What are the requirements for The Fractured Archive?

You need While Guthix Sleeps completed. Jagex's posts list no skill requirement and no Sailing requirement for entry. Restricted builds that cannot finish the quest are locked out at launch, and Ultimate Ironmen with items stored at Pete Kayer must reclaim them first.

How many players can do The Fractured Archive?

The raid scales from 2 to 8 players, and Jagex recommends 3 to 5. Solo entry is possible, but it uses 2-player scaling, and Jagex calls solo clears very challenging.

Where is the entrance to The Fractured Archive?

Jagex says to go where Lucien showed his hand during While Guthix Sleeps and look for a cliff face entrance near the Guthixian Temple, in the caverns beneath Lumbridge. The OSRS Wiki places it in the Chasm of Tears, reached from Tears of Guthix with a sapphire lantern and a light creature.

Which bosses are in The Fractured Archive?

Every run starts with the Archive Guardian and ends with a final boss Jagex describes as a mysterious hooded figure. In between you choose Bork and the Smorks or Ezekiel, then Dreadnoth the Jellied or a necromancer, then Xarth or the Dagon'hai Trio. Each pair awards the same contribution points.

What happens if my team wipes?

You are removed from the raid and a gravestone is placed outside. Gravestone fees are 75% lower until you have five completions. Deaths are unsafe, so Hardcore Ironmen and Hardcore Group Ironmen lose their status.

Is Practice Mode available on release?

No. Jagex will enable it some time after launch. It will let you practise any boss or phase you have already reached, at full difficulty, with supplies refunded.

Which Fractured Archive rewards are tradeable?

The Rondache, Zorya's Tome, the Ascension crossbows, the Obligator and the item that unlocks Zeal are tradeable. Elemental Fragments and the Archivist's Folio are untradeable. Ascension shards are a stackable resource.

What are the Fractured Archive drop rates?

Jagex has not published drop rates or unique weightings. It has only said that each boss pairing gives the same contribution points and that regular loot is aimed just below Theatre of Blood.

Can you bring Overloads into The Fractured Archive?

Jagex says there is no Overload or equivalent in this raid, and you cannot bank or deposit supplies during a run. A points-based resupply partway through depends on your performance.

Final Take

The Fractured Archive arrived on schedule this morning with the rules Jagex promised in October: While Guthix Sleeps to enter, 2 to 8 player scaling with 3 to 5 recommended, a fixed five-encounter route with three paired choices, unsafe deaths, a Theatre of Blood-style wipe, and no Practice Mode yet. The tradeable uniques will shape the PvM market over the next few weeks, and the untradeable upgrades become something most end-game accounts will want. Jagex has deliberately left a lot unsaid, including the final boss, drop rates and gear advice, so treat the next few days as discovery and expect wipes on your first runs.