Today, a milestone event in the history of RuneScape is upon us: the Evolution of Combat Beta. Those of you who applied and were selected will, by now, have received an email letting you know that you’ve been chosen.

If you haven’t received an email confirming your participation, then don’t despair: all members will have access to the beta for weekends from 7th July.

For an in-depth guide on participating in the beta program, please check out our dedicated FAQ so that you’ll have a good idea of the specifics before commencing combat!

To set you on the right track, here is a quick summary of the key points:

Who can access the beta worlds?

Everyone who signed up for the beta, who has a confirmation email from us, can access the beta right away. You will also need to have current, active membership to be able to log into the beta.

For detailed information on who has access and when, please refer to the FAQ.

How do beta servers work?

There are a few key differences from normal RuneScape worlds:

The beta worlds are separate from our main game worlds. You can only access the combat beta worlds via the Combat HQ. You will not be able to use the world select option to change to a beta world from the main game.
There are 9 beta worlds in total. If the worlds are full you will be automatically added to the lobby queue. If the lobby queue is full you will still be able to play the normal RuneScape game in the meantime.
We have deliberately restricted the number of beta worlds to ensure a high level of player density, which will help us stress-test the system and gather a high volume of concentrated data.
You should import your character save before playing the beta; once in the beta lobby, you will see a new Import Character button in the bottom-left of your screen. Nothing you do on the beta worlds will affect your normal game save – there’s no interaction with the normal game aside from importing your character from the normal game to the beta game. You cannot export anything from the beta game back to the normal game.
On combat beta worlds, you can submit bug reports directly from the game, via the report button below the chat interface.
There are a number of item trader NPCs in front of Lumbridge Castle who carry a selection of free equipment to help you test out the newly restatted weapons and armour plus off-hand weaponry.
We’ll be using your feedback to make tweaks and changes where necessary to ensure everything functions smoothly on final release. If you think something needs looking at, please tell us – we are eager to hear about it!

All that remains is for us to thank all our dedicated beta testers for their participation, and to offer a massive 'thank you' to the rest of our community for their continued interest and support.

One last thing - make sure you check out our dedicated combat beta events forum for details on how you can meet the combat developers in-game in order to challenge them to a friendly battle to the death! There’s also an exclusive costume set waiting to be earned for regular participants in our weekend beta events. All the details are in the FAQ and the wiki page.

Good luck and enjoy!

The RuneScape Team

Will put a rating when I've been on the Beta a bit more and some of the lag issues are solved.

Initial thoughts are that there's a few good ideas - such as dual wielding, though it's still a bit messy and not as simple as it should be. But the changes to food consumption/constitution, the loss of specials on weapons and that really stupid adrenaline system. Plus the 200 level - is really a fundamental change to the game that even at the outset I can say I just don't like. I was really disappointed on logging in yesterday. and yes, it's Beta, but are they really going to not implement this having spent so much time and hype (and no doubt future planned hype) on this.