Jagex's Controversial Decision: Bot Detection Disabled?

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Is Jagex Turning Off or Turning Down Bot Detection?
3. The Impact of False Bans
4. Discord Rumors and Speculations
   • Bot Detection System Shut Down
   • Testing Bot Detection System
5. Decrease in Bot Bans
   • Previous Ban Rates
   • Recent Ban Rates
6. Possible Connection with Trident
7. The State of the Wilderness
   • Profitable Monsters in the Wilderness
   • Excessive Bot Presence in the Wilderness
8. Targeting the Bots
   • Killing Bots Efficiently
   • Rewards from Killing Bots
   • Challenges Faced with Bot Killing
9. Bot Farming for Collectible Items
   • Spooky Cauldron Farming
   • Selling Items to Collectors
10. The Role of the RS Burnt Discord
    • Identifying and Reporting Botters
    • Impact on the Collectible Item Marketplace
11. Unorthodox Bot Farms
    • Attention-Seeking Bot Farms
    • The Role of Matching Outfits and Trolling
12. The Rise of Item Farming Bots
    • Exploiting Items that Can't Be Traded
    • Examples of Item Farming Strategies
13. Hidden Bots in Varrock
    • Encountering a Suspicious Player
    • Indications of Bot Activity
14. Forestry Bots Exploiting the Game
    • Initial Discovery of Forestry Bots
    • Increasing Number of Forestry Bots
    • Potential Earnings of Forestry Bots
15. Conclusion

Is Jagex Turning Off Bot Detection System?

Recently, there have been speculations and rumors circulating in the RuneScape community about Jagex, the developer of the game, turning off or significantly dialing down their bot detection system. These rumors stemmed from the numerous false bans that occurred last month, which led to suspicions among players, including bot farmers. One particular claim came to light when a player received a random Discord friend request, followed by a concerning message suggesting that Jagex had indeed disabled their bot detection. According to the messenger, they had purchased and tested the system with a group of 30 accounts engaging in highly bot-like activities. Normally, about 20 or more accounts from a batch of 30 would be swiftly banned within a day or two. However, this recent test batch of 30 accounts remained unbanned for 14 days, despite running 24 hours a day.

This suspicion about Jagex's bot detection system being turned off gained further Momentum when examining the statistics provided by the bot detector plugin. The plugin had previously been tweeting the number of bots detected and banned in the last 24 hours, ranging from 1,000 to 6,000 bans per day until July 3rd. However, in the last five days, the number of banned bots dropped significantly, ranging from just 3 to 70. These numbers raised questions about whether there was indeed a change in the bot detection system or another factor at play.

Possible Connection with Trident

One possible explanation for the perceived decrease in bot bans could be the alleged firing of Trident, a tool commonly used by Jagex to detect bots. If Trident is no longer operational or its effectiveness has been compromised, it would make Sense that the number of bot bans would decrease. This speculation gains further weight when considering the Current state of the Wilderness.

The State of the Wilderness

The Wilderness, an area in RuneScape known for its challenges and player-versus-player combat, is currently plagued by an overwhelming presence of bots. The monsters in the Wilderness are some of the most profitable to kill, especially for players with low requirements. Consequently, the entire area has become overrun with thousands of bots, particularly in the Revenant caves, where there is, on average, one bot per world. The abundance of bots poses a considerable risk for these farmers, as other players actively target and attempt to eliminate them.

Targeting the Bots

In an attempt to combat the bot infestation, players have devised strategies to efficiently kill these bots in one hit. By eliminating them quickly, loot worth around 500,000 to 1 million GP can be obtained from each kill. This method proves to be relatively effortless, as bots do not react or attempt to flee, allowing players to stand next to them as they lower their health. Once the bot reaches full health, players execute their attack, securing the loot. Some bots even exhibit poor scripting, such as attempting to pick up loot while standing in hazardous areas, resulting in their own demise. These encounters often yield substantial rewards, like a one-million-GP loot.

However, it is disheartening to see that many of these accounts engaged in bot farming activities already have several hundred to several thousand Wilderness kills, which indicates the Scale and persistence of these operations. Unfortunately, if Jagex's bot detection system is indeed slowing down, such efforts made by individual players barely scratch the surface of these massive bot farms.

Bot Farming for Collectible Items

One peculiar aspect that emerged from investigating bot farms is the discovery of a subset of bots engaged in farming rare and non-tradeable items. The existence of these bots was revealed through the RS Burnt Discord, a dedicated Discord server for The Collector Community within RuneScape. This community specializes in trading and collecting rare items in the game.

Spooky Cauldron Farming

The focus of these bots appeared to be the farming of items from the Spooky Cauldron, which were originally sold in the collector's market for 500 to 1000 GP each. However, due to the influx of bots farming these items, the prices have significantly dropped to a range of 50 to 200 GP each. Although the prices have decreased, they still remain high enough to incentivize bot farmers to collect and attempt to sell these items in bulk to collectors.

According to the administrators of the RS Burnt Discord, botters have identified a lucrative opportunity in setting up quick bot farms for items that cannot be traded on the Grand Exchange. By doing so, they can target the collector community and attempt to sell these items for significant profits. As evidence, they shared an example wherein a suspected botter attempted to sell over 1 million random useless Potions from the Apothecary in Varrock for 1.5k GP each. If successful, this endeavor would have netted the botter approximately 1.5 billion GP, and to amass such a large quantity of these potions would undoubtedly require running a massive bot farm for an extended period.

The RS Burnt Discord community has been actively working to identify and report botters in order to prevent these farming activities from flooding the collectible item marketplace. So far, their efforts have been relatively successful in keeping the market clean. They provided over 40 usernames of suspected bots that were farming the spooky cauldron, illustrating the scale of this particular farm.

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