OSRS Quest Month Week Two: The Birds and the Wasps, A Shell of a Friend, Lumbridge Castle Revert and Fractured Archive Loot Scaling Changes

Week two of Quest Month is live in Old School RuneScape. The November 11 update adds two more surprise quests, The Birds and the Wasps and A Shell of a Friend, and restores Lumbridge Castle to its classic layout after players pushed back on last week's redesign. It also brings the first real balance pass on The Fractured Archive (TFA). The raid's loot scaling has been rebuilt around fixed unique rates for each group size, solo and duo bosses get more HP, and Ascension Shards, Obligator charges and Elemental Fragments all become easier to come by. Practice Mode, planned for this week, has been pushed back.

Patch details come from the official Quest Month: Week Two & TFA Changes news post from November 11, 2026, with quest requirements, start locations and creature levels taken from the Old School Wiki pages for Quest Month, The Birds and the Wasps and A Shell of a Friend. Last week's opening update, including the original TFA loot mechanics, the Amulet of Sight and the name release, is covered in the AccountShark Quest Month kick-off guide.

What Is in the November 11 Update

The changelog is long, but it breaks into a handful of clear sections:

• Quest Month Week Two: two new surprise quests, plus fixes for last week's quests
• Quest Month misc tweaks: the old training shield, sword and bow return as Painted gear in Diango's store
• Lumbridge Tidy-Up tweaks: Lumbridge Castle's upper floor is back to its classic layout
• TFA balance changes: stat and mechanic changes for six of the raid's encounters
• TFA loot scaling: new hard-coded unique rates by group size and more HP for solos and duos
• Other TFA tweaks: contribution changes, bug fixes and better rates on Ascension Shards and Elemental Fragments
• Last batch of Gathering Efficiencies: coconut processing, Drift Net banking and Law Altar changes
• Other changes: a revised fix for Obligator piercing at the Doom of Mokhaiotl, interface fixes and Zulrah's return to the Boss Kill Log
• PvP World rota: Period B is now active

The Two New Quest Month Quests

Quest Month runs through November 2026 with at least one new quest each week. According to the wiki's Quest Month page, most of these quests are no higher than Experienced difficulty and tell self-contained stories that sit outside the game's larger storylines. Week one brought Mudfoot's Big Adventure and The Writing's on the Wall. Week two adds the 188th and 189th quests in the game. Two more Quest Month slots are still listed as unreleased, and The Graveyard, a Master quest, has no date yet.

The news post keeps the descriptions light so the surprise holds. The first quest "introduces budding 'Scapers to the Hunter skill." The second is "short and sweet" and has you helping "an unlikely friend in need." The details below stop at what you need to plan your run: where each quest starts, what it requires and what it pays.

The Birds and the Wasps

The Birds and the Wasps is a Novice, Short members' quest built to teach the basics of Hunter and Fletching. It has no skill or quest requirements, which makes it one of the easiest Quest Points to pick up this month.

• Start: talk to Farmer Bea at the Digsite, on the ridge just east of the south-east Varrock mine
• Requirements: none
• Items: insect repellent, a beekeeper's hat or bee hunter's hat, an insect net or magic insect net and bird snares, all obtainable during the quest
• Helpful travel: a Digsite teleport option (Digsite pendant, Digsite Teleport, gnome glider, Senntisten Teleport or Varrock Teleport) and a way to reach the Grand Exchange, such as a Ring of wealth
• Combat: none

Since every quest item can be picked up along the way, you can walk in with an empty inventory. Extra bird snares help with the trapping portion, so bringing a few of your own speeds things up. The wiki also warns that one stage can deal damage, enough to kill a very low-level character, so bring a little food on a fresh account.

Rewards:

• 1 Quest Point
• 1,000 Hunter XP
• 250 Fletching XP
• Access to four new low-level Hunter creatures
• The ability to trade the items you make for supply bags

The four creatures live at Bea's farm and cover the very bottom of the Hunter curve:

Wasp swarms are caught every game tick while they are calm, giving one sting per catch. Once the swarm becomes enraged, a spray of insect repellent calms it down again. Without a beekeeper's hat or bee hunter's hat, you get stung instead. The buzzards use standard bird snares, so the usual trap limits apply: two traps at level 1, rising to three at 40, four at 60 and five at 80 Hunter.

Stings and feathers become wasp darts and killer wasp darts through Fletching. A wasp dart takes a wasp sting and a feather and gives 5 Fletching XP. The darts cannot be wielded. Their purpose is trade: Farmer Bea swaps 35 wasp darts or 20 killer wasp darts for one bag of Bea's supplies. The news post describes that bag as coins and low-level loot like darts, arrowheads, headless arrows and leather, all useful for early adventurers. Wiki drop logs list headless arrows, 150 to 300 coins, bronze, iron and steel arrowtips and darts, plus leather and hard leather. The bags themselves cannot be traded.

For a new or low-level account, this is a genuinely useful starting loop. It gives Hunter XP from level 1, Fletching XP and a steady trickle of ammunition and coins without any combat. It will not compete with established Hunter methods at higher levels, and it is not meant to.

A Shell of a Friend

A Shell of a Friend is an Intermediate, Very Short members' quest set in the Haunted Woods. It asks a little more of your account than Bea's quest does.

• Start: talk to the Juvenile Snail on a small island in the eastern Haunted Woods, close to fairy ring ALQ
• Quest requirement: Priest in Peril
• Skill requirements: 16 Herblore and 15 Construction
• Items: any woodcutting axe (one can be found during the quest)
• Recommended: 40 Combat
• Combat: two short fights, against a level 39 Leech and a level 50 opponent

Priest in Peril is the gate that matters here, since it is required to enter Morytania at all. Feral vampyres near the starting island are aggressive, so lower-level characters should bring food and expect a few hits on the way in. Fairy ring ALQ is the fastest route if you have fairy rings unlocked.

Rewards:

• 1 Quest Point
• 2,500 Herblore XP
• 2,500 Construction XP
• A mystery cosmetic reward

That is 5,000 XP across two slower skills for a very short quest, an easy win for accounts that have just finished Priest in Peril. Herblore at 16 is reachable early through Druidic Ritual and a few potions, and 15 Construction takes very little building.

The cosmetic is a deliberate surprise in the official post. Players who want to know in advance can find it on the quest's wiki page. It is a once-per-account reward, so do not plan around getting a second one.

Quest Month Fixes and Painted Training Gear

Two tweaks touch last week's quests. Mudfoot's Big Adventure now auto-completes on Speedrunning worlds whenever you set up any of these quests, so speedrunners can claim the free weapons from Captain Harlan:

• Vampyre Slayer
• Black Knights' Fortress
• Demon Slayer
• Prince Ali Rescue
• Below Ice Mountain
• Dragon Slayer I

The cipher symbol used in The Writing's on the Wall puzzle has also been corrected. It had been showing the wrong symbol.

The training shield, sword and bow, which had recently been removed from the game, are back in Diango's store in the Draynor Village Market under new names: the Painted shield, sword and bow. They carry the same stats as a Bronze Kiteshield, Bronze Shortsword and Shortbow. The painted shortsword is free-to-play and tradeable, making the set an easy nostalgia pick for anyone who misses the old tutorial look.

Lumbridge Castle Is Back to Its Classic Layout

Last week's Lumbridge Tidy-Up rearranged the upper floor of Lumbridge Castle to make it more thematically coherent and easier for new players to navigate. Players strongly preferred the original. The team acknowledged it should have explained its intentions more clearly and has reverted the change, putting the castle back to its previous layout.

The Fractured Archive Balance Changes

The Fractured Archive has been live for three weeks, long enough for Jagex to gather data and feedback, and the team says it is broadly happy with the raid's pacing and feel. That means this is a tuning pass rather than a rework. The goals are better room balance, more options for players outside best-in-slot gear and more payoff for groups who engage with each room's harder mechanics. Throughout the notes, "base HP" means an NPC's HP in a solo or duo raid.

Archive Guardian

The first boss gets lower defences for slightly weaker setups:

• Flying form: Light Ranged Defence reduced from 75 to 55
• Grounded form: Magic Defence reduced to 50, Fire Weakness increased to 80%
• Inert Guardian: base HP reduced by 30

The grounded form change is aimed at the "Standard spellbook" role many groups have adopted. An 80% fire weakness and 50 Magic Defence make fire spells a real option for players without top-tier gear in other styles.

The bigger change fixes a bug that defined the current meta. Groups had been triggering the finale, getting the shield just under 40%, then letting the boss's beam destroy an Inert Guardian crystal. A bug made that 40% shield damage hit the Guardian's HP too. Jagex did not want the best strategy to be everyone clicking the floor and waiting for the boss to destroy itself, so the bug is fixed and replaced with this behaviour:

• In phase one, destroying an Inert Guardian still deals 40% of the Archive Guardian's shield as damage.
• In phase two, if there is no shield, destroying an Inert Guardian deals 15% of the Archive Guardian's HP as damage.
• In phase two, if the 40% would overkill the shield, the excess carries over to HP, capped at 15% of its HP.

Expect this fight to take a little longer. Timing crystal destruction still pays off, but the boss now needs to be attacked directly instead of melting on its own.

Ezekiel

Ezekiel has been gaining popularity, and the changes reward groups who fully engage with its mechanics:

• Dodging swords restores 5% Special Attack Energy, up from 3%
• Swords can be charged up to 50% more
• Sword Air Weakness increased from 100% to 125%
• Standard spell projectiles (air spells in practice) take at most three ticks to reach swords
• Maximum sword damage to players is capped at about 70

The lower damage cap makes mistakes here less punishing, and faster air spell projectiles and a bigger weakness make the standard spellbook role stronger in this room too.

Bork and the Smorks

As the simpler of the two route options, this room was clearing too fast compared with an all-in Ezekiel run, and it had frustrating randomness for small groups.

• Bork's base HP increased by 150, and Smorks' base HP increased by 50
• Bork now remembers the previous four tanks before overloading and forgetting, so small groups should never have one player tanking repeatedly

Dreadnoth and Moia

No changes this week.

Xarth

The design intent for Xarth was a calm before the storm, but the fight had become too calm and too slow. Melee barely felt worthwhile in phase two without an Obligator, and Water spells lost out to freezes.

• Base HP reduced by 150
• Stab Defence reduced from 115 to 60
• Splashing on a corpse no longer refunds action delay, so whoever handles corpses may need a heavier switch
• Standard spell projectiles (water spells) take at most three ticks to reach corpses and stun them for an extra eight ticks
• Phase two fire can now spread onto tiles occupied by players

The Stab Defence cut is the headline for melee. Dropping from 115 to 60 makes stab weapons much more viable here.

Dagon'Hai Trio

More groups have been taking the Dagon'Hai Trio over the past two weeks, and these tweaks speed the room up for teams that use its mechanics:

• The damage buff from killing imps rises from 25% to 33%
• Successfully counterspelling a Dagon'Hai channelling an elemental spell now always max hits, which helps the interrupt role's contribution and slightly speeds up the fight
• Standard spell projectiles take at most three ticks to reach a member of the trio

A fix is also in progress, targeted for next week, so that Venator Bow shots consume only one buffed attack instead of three.

Ocellus

The final boss gets one change, which the team calls bold: phase two is shorter by one portal per quadrant. The phase was felt to outstay its welcome, and trimming it should improve the fight's pacing.

Smaller TFA Tweaks and Fixes

• Defence-reducing special attacks now grant 50% of the Defence reduced as contribution for the room
• Freezing or stunning zombies at Xarth grants extra contribution
• Ocellus's 10% backstab bonus no longer applies while he spins during his Untether attack
• Obligator attacks are no longer treated as Area Sounds
• Interrupting the Dagon'Hai ritual with the damage counterspell now correctly stuns the target
• The Dagon'Hai Trio's Defence can now be reduced to 0 instead of capping at 60%
• Clicking an opening door right after the Archive Guardian no longer freezes your character at the door

The contribution changes matter for loot. Uniques are assigned by contribution share, so players who handle defence reduction and zombie control now get more credit for that work.

TFA Loot Scaling: The New Rates by Group Size

This is the biggest change in the update. Last week's loot reveal used a base unique rate of 1 in 14 for solos and duos, with each extra player beyond two adding a 4% step to the team's chance. Players pushed back hard. Duos felt out of line, a player's personal odds dropped sharply as soon as a third player joined, and large groups felt not worth running.

Jagex's own numbers explain the reasoning. Duos are the toughest scale after solos, with roughly a 31% completion rate before last week's update, and they made up about 15% of clears before loot mechanics were published. Trios were the most popular scale at about 32% of clears. Eight-player raids are safer and less interactive, so a flat Tombs of Amascut-style curve was ruled out, but taking almost four times as long to see a unique was judged too harsh. The team also stressed that TFA is already generous on time to complete and time to the chase megarare, so overall unique inflow should not climb sharply.

The new system:

• The base unique rate moves from 1 in 14 to 1 in 16
• Solo and duo base HP increases by 10%, which should lengthen those raids by roughly 5% to 8% before this week's room changes
• The 4% per-player step is replaced with fixed rates for each group size

The table compares old and new team rates. The per-person column assumes equal contribution and no deaths. Each death still costs 10% of your expected contribution, and actual odds depend on your share of contribution.

What the New Numbers Mean

Duos are still the best scale, just slightly less so. With an even split, a duo member's chance per raid drops from about 1 in 28 to 1 in 32, and the 10% HP increase makes each raid a bit longer. Jagex estimates this adds a little over two hours on average before a unique lands in your name. Experienced duo partners who rarely die still come out ahead per hour.

Trios are the big winners in value for effort. The per-person chance improves from about 1 in 40 to 1 in 37.5, while the gap to a duo shrinks considerably. Factor in a third player's safety margin and the lower risk of a failed run, and trios are now the sensible default for most groups. That matches what the playerbase naturally preferred before loot mechanics were public.

Four and five players gain the most. Four-player odds improve from about 1 in 52 to 1 in 42, and five-player odds from 1 in 62.5 to 1 in 47.5. These scales were the hardest hit by the old curve and are where Jagex hopes players spread back out, specifically mentioning 3 to 5 player groups.

Large groups are slower but no longer a waste of time. An eight-player raid goes from about 1 in 90 per person to 1 in 60. Jagex puts the expected time per unique in an eight-player raid at a little under twice the duo figure, down from almost four times. Clan runs and casual groups of friends can now raid without feeling they are throwing time away.

Solos take a small hit. The solo rate drops from 1 in 14 to 1 in 16 and boss HP rises 10%, but a solo raider still keeps every unique for themselves.

Who Should Run TFA in What Group Size

• Strong duo partners with good gear: keep duoing. It still offers the best personal rate, but deaths cost 10% of expected contribution each, so consistency matters more than raw speed.
• Most regular players: trios are now the best balance of loot rate, safety and room flexibility. A trio can cover a standard spellbook role, a Defence-reduction role and main damage without stretching anyone thin.
• Learners and mid-gear accounts: four or five players. The Archive Guardian and Xarth defence cuts help weaker setups, the per-person rates are now competitive, and extra bodies make mistakes cheaper.
• Clans and friend groups: six to eight players is a reasonable way to raid together. It is the slowest path to a personal unique, but the gap to smaller teams has nearly halved.

Whatever the size, the new contribution credit for Defence-reducing special attacks and zombie control means support roles now count toward loot. Remember that the 1 in X figures are team rates. Your personal chance depends on your share of each room's contribution and on staying alive.

Ascension Shards, Obligator Charges and Elemental Fragments

The supporting economy gets several buffs:

• Ascension Shards received from the raid increased by 20%
• Chance of an Ascension Shard from a successful Mining action increased from 1/3 to 1/2
• Obligator charges per Ascension Shard tripled, and players with charged Obligators should be refunded the difference in shards
• Elemental Fragment drop rate increased from 1/20 to 1/14

Running the Obligator just became much cheaper. Three times the charges per shard, on top of 20% more shards from the raid and better mining odds, should make it far more practical outside of top-end setups. Anyone who charged an Obligator before the update should see refunded shards.

The Elemental Fragment change shortens the grind for fragment-based upgrades. Under the duplicate protection outlined on November 3, the effective rate starts lower and improves as you collect fragments. The November 11 notes list only the new 1/14 base rate, and a better base rate means fewer raids for each fragment.

Practice Mode Postponed

Practice Mode for The Fractured Archive was due this week. During testing, the team hit several critical bugs, bad enough that large parts of the mode need rewriting. Practice Mode remains a top priority, but Jagex has not given a new release date.

Last Batch of Gathering Efficiencies

This update completes the Gathering Efficiencies project:

• Coconut processing: Wesley now crushes Coconuts into Half Coconuts for his usual 50 GP fee. Zahur will decant Half Coconuts and Empty Vials into Coconut Milk and Coconut Shells, free if you bring the vials or for the cost of a vial if you do not. Coconuts and vials can be noted or unnoted.
• Drift Net banking: a "Don't warn me again" option now appears when paying the 5 Numulite fee to bank Drift Nets. The warning can be turned back on in Settings.
• Law Altar: the exit portal has been moved closer to the altar to match other Runecraft altars, and you can now enter the Law Altar through the Abyss with weapons and armour equipped.

The Abyss change is a nice quality-of-life improvement for Law runecrafters, who no longer need to strip gear for that route.

Doom of Mokhaiotl and Other Fixes

Since the Obligator's release, players have been using it at the Doom of Mokhaiotl to pierce through grubs at 1-tick speed, producing more DPS than intended. The first fix changed how attacking a grub with a style it was praying against affected action delay. That also broke established methods like the 3-tick Twisted Bow approach, so it was reverted after player feedback. The replacement fix stops the Obligator from dealing piercing damage through a target that has Protect from Melee active.

Other fixes in the update:

• Opening menus like the bank while typing in the Display Name menu no longer blocks keyboard input
• Keyboard input is no longer blocked after closing Settings by opening other interfaces
• Zulrah is back in the Boss Kill Log
• The help button on the Managing Miscellania interface works again
• The Hat of the Eye's description now correctly calls it a hat

Reaper's Raffle and PvP Rota

The Reaper's Raffle for Hardcore Worlds is still running. Completing Death's tasks earns raffle entries for prizes including a custom Statue of Death, OSRS merchandise and a Starforge OSRS PC bundle, and simply logging into Hardcore Worlds earns an entry. Players have completed nearly all of the World Goals, adding £7,000 and a second Starforge PC bundle to the prize pool. Winners will be announced live on December 8.

The PvP rota has moved to Period B:

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

World 390 (AUS, LMS Competitive) and World 569 (AUS, Bounty Hunter) have been deactivated with this rota. The PvP Arena uses "1 Def Pure" loadouts in Ranked Duels and Tournaments this week.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the new OSRS Quest Month quests for week two?

The second week of Quest Month, released on November 11, 2026, added The Birds and the Wasps, a Novice and Short Hunter introduction quest that starts with Farmer Bea at the Digsite, and A Shell of a Friend, an Intermediate and Very Short quest that starts with a Juvenile Snail in the Haunted Woods. Both are members' quests worth 1 Quest Point each.

What are the requirements for A Shell of a Friend?

A Shell of a Friend requires Priest in Peril, 16 Herblore and 15 Construction, plus any woodcutting axe, which can also be found during the quest. 40 Combat is recommended for two short fights. It rewards 2,500 Herblore XP, 2,500 Construction XP, 1 Quest Point and a once-per-account cosmetic.

Does The Birds and the Wasps have any requirements?

No. The Birds and the Wasps has no skill or quest requirements, and every item it needs can be obtained during the quest. It rewards 1,000 Hunter XP, 250 Fletching XP and 1 Quest Point, and unlocks wasps, killer wasps, honey buzzards and black honey buzzards as Hunter creatures, plus supply bags from Farmer Bea in exchange for 35 wasp darts or 20 killer wasp darts.

What is the best group size for The Fractured Archive after the November 11 update?

Duos still have the best personal unique rate, about 1 in 32 per raid with an even contribution split, but trios are now the strongest all-round choice at about 1 in 37.5 per person with much lower risk. Four and five player groups improved the most, and an eight-player raid now takes a little under twice as long as a duo to produce a personal unique instead of almost four times.

What are the new Fractured Archive unique rates?

The base unique rate is now 1 in 16, with fixed team rates by group size: 1 in 16 for one or two players, 1 in 12.5 for three, 1 in 10.5 for four, 1 in 9.5 for five, 1 in 8.5 for six, 1 in 8 for seven and 1 in 7.5 for eight. The unique goes to one player based on contribution share, and solo and duo raids also have 10% more base HP.

When is Fractured Archive Practice Mode coming out?

Practice Mode was planned for the November 11 update but was delayed after testing uncovered critical bugs that require rewriting large parts of the mode. Jagex calls it a top priority but has not given a new release date.

Was Lumbridge Castle changed back in OSRS?

Yes. The November 3 Lumbridge Tidy-Up redesigned the upper floor of Lumbridge Castle, and after strong player feedback the November 11 update reverted it to the classic layout.