Winkin the gnome has taken his crops to market, so Farmer Blinkin has been left in charge. Simple instructions have been left: harvest the Farming patches while Winkin is away. Unfortunately, a family of hungry rabbits have moved into the neighbourhood and they are eating the seeds before Winkin can say,"Get off my land"! As if this wasn't nuisance enough, the hired farmhands have had one too many blurberry specials and forgotten where they planted their seeds. It has all become a bit too much for poor Blinkin, so he has opened the farm's doors to any adventurer who is willing to help.

It's not all bad news, however. Everyone knows that gnomes are magical creatures and industrious, to say the least; so, the farmyard has been imbued with magic that will let you know when you are close to a seed. So grab a spade, start digging and improve your Farming levels while helping out poor Blinkin! Oh, and be sure to pay a visit to Mrs Winkin's Farming Emporium. Here you can trade in your hard-earned points for prizes, like seeds and chunks of Farming XP!

- Speak to one of the Farming patch leprechauns across RuneScape to start Vinesweeper
- A Farming Level of 10 is required to visit Winkin's Farm
- Ability to win Farming XP and high-level seeds

Farming Amulets

The magical amulet of nature has been revised by the clever druids of Taverley to provide budding farmers with even more assistance! Not only will it retain it's previous functions - updating it's owner on the state of their Farming patch - it will also offer you two welcome additions and the ability to talk! You will now be able to contact a farmer that is near your patch, and you can use the amulet to teleport to your diseased plant. These changes will certainly allow you to manage your patches much more effectively. But that's not all! The druids have been able to put some of the original amulet's magic into a new amulet of Farming, which can be bought from Farming stores throughout Runescape. These lesser amulets have only a limited number of uses and will only work with vegetable or flower patches. These will inform your of the state of your chosen Farming patch, much as the amulet of nature did previously.

Bounty Hunter

When we introduced Bounty Hunter in December 2007, we intended it, alongside Clan Wars, to be the first of a series of enjoyable PvP minigames. Three months on, we have had a chance to look at your Bounty Hunter feedback and comments, and have come up with changes that will really improve it! For information on future PvP content and minigames, keep your eyes peeled. We have news for you in the coming weeks!

First on our critical ticklist was the multiway aspect of Bounty Hunter. Occasionally, solo players would walk into Bounty Hunter and be ambushed by huge clans who they didn't stand a chance against. This was not what we intended to happen, therefore, we have tweaked the rules so multiway combat can only be used in certain circumstances. The aim is that going in with some friends or a clan does, of course, still give an advantage, but not to such a ridiculous extent. As such, a skilled solo player has a fighting chance as well. So, this week, we have made Bounty Hunter single-way combat, meaning that only one player may attack another player at any time. There are two exceptions to this rule:

- You are able to attack someone who is in combat if they are your Bounty Hunter target
- You can be attacked when in combat if you are the Bounty Hunter target of your opponent

Cash Rewards

We have introduced another reason for being a bounty hunter: cash rewards for defeating your bounties. Mandrith loves to reward bravery, so players who kill 10 or more bounty targets will earn cash rewards based on the market value of their combat items. This cash amount is worked out by taking only the second, third, fourth and fifth most expensive combat items you are carrying and giving you access to an amount of coins based on their value. You will have to defeat at least 10 bounty targets to receive your reward, which you can do by speaking to Mandrith. There is a limit to the amount you can receive per 10 kills, according to the crater you entered:

- Low-level crater: You may receive a reward up to a limit of 40,000gp for 10 kills
- Medium-level crater: You may receive a reward up to a limit of 80,000gp for 10 kills
- High-level crater: You may receive a reward up to a limit of 120,000gp for 10 kills

A summary of your kills will be given when you exit each crater. You do not have to kill all 10 players in one go - Mandrith will remember how many more kills you need for your next visit.

Bounty Hunter Locate

Some of you felt that the Bounty Locate spell was only available to members and was slightly too high-level, giving the advantage to more experienced players. Well, we have made tweaks that should make the Bounty Locate spell more accessible and affordable! Firstly, we have reduced the Magic level required to cast Bounty Locate to 32, and reduced its cost to 1 law rune, 1 air rune and 1 fire rune. We have made the spell available to F2P, and once you have made 10 Bounty Hunter target kills, you will receive a prize of 15 law runes, 15 air runes and 15 fire runes - the number of runes required to cast 15 Bounty Locate spells! To get a running total of how many targets you need to kill, or to receive your rune rewards, visit Mandrith outside of the Bounty Hunter volcano. You do not have to kill all 10 players in one go - Mandrith will remember how many more kills you need for your next visit.

In Other News

Mandrith has decided to make some amendments to his tutorial, so you may visit him at any point to read more about the Bounty Hunter changes. Due to the recent improvements to Bounty Hunter, it will no longer be possible for you to take Summoning scrolls, pouches or summoned familiars into the dangerous minigame. This is because familiars cannot help you fight in single-way combat areas. Players who return to their own gravestone in time can now pick up their Recipe For Disaster gloves if they died with them. We've had a few words with Ordan at the Blast Furnace about his maths skills. He was getting a bit confused but he should now quote you the correct price for the amount of ore you wish to uncert. The bank scrolling issue has been fixed so that it will now jump to the row of your bank that you were looking at when you last opened the bank interface.