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This Castle Wars update was originally scheduled to come out next week, but we've decided to release it a few days earlier than planned. We’ve released two updates this week to give everyone the opportunity to play the new, improved Castle Wars over the bank holiday weekend (Spring Bank Holiday in the UK; Memorial Day in the USA).

Castle Wars has been in the game for a fair few years now and, although still very popular, was in need of some improvements to bring it up to the standard of some of RuneScape’s newer activities. From your feedback, it was quite clear that our main focus should be on updating the rewards, but we’ve also had a look at some small aspects inside the arena.

Our goal has been to retain the main gameplay elements of Castle Wars, since many of you already enjoy it as it stands. We hope the new rewards you can use inside the arena will enhance your experience! The main additions are:

• All decorative armour sets (including the new fourth set) give you a set effect when worn during a Castle Wars match.
  
• Improvements to the catapults – teammates can deploy flares to mark targets, plus the catapult has a more useful interface.
  
• A new ballista siege weapon you can deploy in the arena at key tactical locations (bought from the reward shop).
  
• Halos of the gods – these fashionable pieces of headgear reduce the rate at which certain prayers drain your Prayer points (which prayers depend on which halo you wear).
  
• A new faithful shield – a particularly attractive shield with a nice Prayer bonus.
  
• New combat potion sets that can be bought with tickets and used within the arena.
  
• Castle Wars prestige capes – new capes for those who have captured the most flags or killed the most players in a match, or who’ve played a LOT of Castle Wars.
  
• Take-5 added to the equipment tables, to make it quicker to get going once a match begins.
  
• Castle Wars added to the website's Hiscores section, tracking number of matches played.
  

If that all sounds worthwhile, check out the new rewards in Lanthus’s shop, then jump into a Castle Wars match. You might also wish to use this as an opportunity to get in some Castle Wars practice, as we will soon be running a Castle Wars tournament as part of the Triumvirate community game. In anticipation of the tournament, you can join one of the three Triumvirate factions by heading to the main Triumvirate forum thread.

Mod Tim
Lead RuneScape Content Developer[/list]