Like any other MMORPG, your character in RuneScape needs the best weapons and armour available in order to successfully smack the monster of your choice. Upgrading your equipment in RuneScape mostly means that you buy a new & better item for your current equipment. Classic scenario: you finally reach the required Defence level to wear Barrows armour and you throw your old armour away or sell it to the Grand Exchange. This has been happening from the moment you did not need to wear your Iron equipment and replaced it with the Steel version. You keep replacing and replacing, and most players end up at the mentioned Barrows armour. But your Defence level keeps rising, and soon you have the requirements to wear the expensive Torva armour. But you do not have money for that, so you stick with your old gear, spending hours to collect enough money.

But what if we actually start upgrading our gear? We have all had that old and rusty Dragon Square shield, and replaced with our Dragonfire/Elysian/Divine Shields or even the Dragon Defender. But what if there was somehow a way to upgrade that old and rusty shield into something a bit stronger?

Those of you who have played Zelda: Skyward Sword might already know what I am hinting at: an Upgrade System in our very own RuneScape! For those of you who have no even heard of the game featuring the green hero: the game has a workshop where you can upgrade your current equipment to something more useful/stronger/durable by trading in collected rares and goods. For example, you can upgrade your shield so that it is more durable or you can upgrade your bug-catching net so that it becomes a bigger net.

Of course we are not going to upgrade our bug-catching nets in RuneScape, but you get the idea ; you collect various rarities to upgrade your current equipment. The equipment I am thinking of would be the equipment that the average mid-high levelled player is stuck with due to a lack of money: dragon equipment, Barrows equipment and perhaps certain items such as the Granite Shield and an Amulet of Glory. Heck, even Rune equipment could get a small upgrade, so that Free-To-Play accounts finally get some content as well.

So, we are going to upgrade our precious gear. But how are we going to find the items in the world of RuneScape? Luckily Jagex has once added a gear update themselves : the Abyssal Vine Whip. The famous Abyssal Whip can now be upgraded by adding a Whip Vine, currently worth about 4 million gp. The mentioned item can be collected by obtaining it as a monster drop in the new Jadinko Dungeon. In other words, you need to defeat enough monsters for the drop. This one way to obtain the rares for your upgrades. For example, Greater Demons could drop a Monster Claw, a whole new item required for upgrading your Dragon Square shield! The options with monster drops are endless.

Not everything should be obtainable with just monster drops though, that would make it way too ‘’easy’’. I mean, everyone can camp a monster long enough until you have what your heart desires. Therefore we need to add some skill-related items too. For example, you could obtain certain items by training a specific skill. You could compare this to the Strange Rocks activity, only more specific. For example, a certain item can only be obtained from a Bird Nest, or a certain item can only be obtained during Runecrafting a specific rune. Once again, the options are endless!

Finally, about the upgrades themselves. These upgrades should be (relatively) small stat boosts, just like the Abyssal Vine Whip. Nothing that can ‘’break’’ the current game mechanics, but enough to make it worth your time to collect the items. Perhaps an extra special attack too, but I doubt we can make much of that. Although it will make items such as the Dragon Mace & Dragon 2H a lot more interesting if that in fact happens, I think these weapons will not be preferred by many. Still, this is also something worth noting, since upgrades can also affect the special attacks of a weapon.

While this is only a suggestion, I hope Jagex does implant this feature in the current game mechanics. Because really, I think that it would be an excellent addition!