NEW DUO BOSS YAMA - RUNEFEST BLOG (OSRS)


Date	2025-03-01
Type	news-opinion
Video	youtu.be/GcMlWY-2-v4

Summary

Gnomonkey reacts positively to the RuneFest-announced Yama blog: a new endgame duo boss in the Chasm of Fire releasing in spring 2025, with a death charge upgrade, an adrenaline potion, cosmic soul runes, soul armour, and the team-oriented Soulflame horn. He says the rewards are powerful but not broken and far better than the Doom of Mokhaiotl blogs, and thanks viewers for his Golden Gnome win.

Outline

0:00 Intro: Golden Gnome win and the Yama reveal at RuneFest
0:32 Yama's lore, difficulty relative to Desert Treasure 2 bosses, and the contract mechanic
2:09 Death charge upgrade
3:01 Adrenaline (surge) potion made from demonic tallow
5:03 Cosmic catalyst and cosmic soul rune
6:30 Abyssal worms
7:31 Soul armour compared to Torva
9:34 Soulflame horn mechanics
11:00 Soulflame horn uses: hammer, BGS, duo Nex scythe, Soul reaper, Verzik
14:32 Chasm of Fire improvements and slayer dungeon
15:34 New mining method and armour shards for soul armour
17:30 Summary and thanks: release date before the delve boss and channel update

Topics covered

Yama

(0:00) Yama, an endgame duo boss, was the big reveal at RuneFest and is due to release in spring 2025, before the delve boss.
(0:32) Jagex described Yama as a demon who has taken control from other demons, with disciples and political influence, and the fight is in the Chasm of Fire where you can bring one friend.
(0:59) Jagex said the baseline experience will be a step beyond the Desert Treasure 2 bosses, and Yama uses blood magic, bloodthirsty minions, cultists and fireballs, with mechanics left for players to discover.
(0:59) Gnomonkey says Yama gives him the vibe of duo Nex or Fasani and that it is a step above some of the hardest single bosses.
(1:30) Yama has a contract mechanic where you can trade a harder fight for different rewards, which Jagex expects to be seriously tough like the Awakened bosses from Desert Treasure 2.
(1:30) Gnomonkey is wary of the contract system, worrying it may resemble Tombs of Amascut or Colosseum invocations, but notes the dev Kieran said multiple times he is unhappy with those and so is confident Jagex will not go that direction.
(17:30) Gnomonkey says the Yama rewards are cool and powerful without being broken, and loves that it is a duo boss, calling it a breath of fresh air after the Doom of Mokhaiotl rewards.
(17:30) Gnomonkey says he has wanted more group content for a long time and that Yama follows the Titans, a great boss aimed at lower levels, with a high-level version of that group boss.
(17:30) Gnomonkey says the Yama gear drops blow the Doom of Mokhaiotl blog out of the water, which had tiny upgrades like a small magic bonus.

Death Charge

(2:09) A Yama drop upgrades Death Charge permanently, letting it grant spec energy from two enemies killed per cast rather than one.
(2:09) Gnomonkey thinks the Death Charge upgrade is a creative way of upgrading it, doubling its value only where minions are available, such as the monkey room, Maiden's crabs, or other minion rooms, but no help against a boss like Vardorvis.
(5:03) Yama's cosmic catalyst is a tradable, stackable drop that lets players with 90 Runecrafting combine cosmic and soul runes into a cosmic soul rune.
(5:33) Gnomonkey says the cosmic soul rune means you no longer need loose runes for Death Charge, which together with the spec energy buffs and saved inventory space is a giant buff, especially for using thralls.
(5:59) Gnomonkey says the Ring of shadows already holds soul runes, so the cosmic soul rune is not a big buff for spellbook swapping, but is for thralls and Death Charge generally.

Adrenaline potion

(3:01) Yama drops demonic tallow, a tradable organ used to make a new potion that can be sipped once every five minutes to restore 25% of your special attack energy.
(3:32) Gnomonkey is concerned about the five-minute cooldown being annoying in speedruns if you sip and then reset, and hopes leaving an instance resets it like the heart does after leaving a raid.
(4:02) Gnomonkey says the potion is not broken because five minutes is a long time, and that you would likely bring it into raids to get an extra full 100% spec bar, with timing its use requiring thought.
(4:30) The new potion requires level 81 Herblore, mnemonic tallow, a torstol and a drop of the player's own blood, and since the blood makes it tailored to the player the potions are untradeable.
(5:00) Gnomonkey says irons will find it irrelevant since level 81 Herblore is the same as Bruise (as transcribed), and he thinks it may make herbs more expensive long term, though it is not a high level compared to overloads at 95.
(6:30) Gnomonkey says buffing spec energy lets Jagex design more interesting spec weapons and a wider variety of options, and that the game is better when you get to spec more.

Soul armour

(7:31) Per the blog, the new Yama slash armour set (soul armour) is a side grade to Torva: as a full set it gives +38 slash accuracy over Torva at the cost of seven melee strength, with no prayer bonus.
(7:58) Gnomonkey says the soul armour's defence is weaker than Torva's except for slash defence, which is much higher; he says the only boss where this matters is Vardorvis, who slashes you and is very tanky against slash.
(8:30) Compared to Torva, soul armour is a bit weaker to stab, crush and ranged, slightly better against magic and significantly tougher against slash.
(8:30) Jagex said the soul armour will have its own cosmetic obtained through a Yama contract, and Gnomonkey says he wants to go for a world first on stream.
(9:04) Gnomonkey says soul armour will be incredibly strong in Challenge Mode Chambers of Xeric, where a scythe is used almost constantly, and is a solid alternative to Torva for ironmen who do not want to grind Nex.
(9:04) Gnomonkey thinks players in the Theatre of Blood will likely wear only partial pieces of soul armour, since draining enemies to zero defence makes accuracy less valuable.
(15:34) Jagex said a new mining method in the Chasm of Fire gives a new ore that can be combined with armour shards dropped by Yama to forge a soul armour piece, alongside the normal drops for each piece.
(16:00) Gnomonkey likes the armour shard and ore system as luck mitigation, preferring it to Perilous Moons (where you receive pieces in a set order) and Desert Treasure 2, since it is an addition to drops that lets players fill gaps at the end of the grind.
(16:10) Jagex said the shard and ore system should self-regulate: if many people mine, ore goes down in price and Yama's GP/hr goes up, and if few mine, shards lose value and mining's GP/hr goes up.

Soulflame horn

(9:34) The Soulflame horn is a team-oriented spec weapon from Yama whose special attack boosts the accuracy of allies' next melee attack, including special attacks, within six seconds by 100%.
(10:02) The Soulflame horn spec affects allies within two tiles; if the target is an NPC the boosted attack always hits, applying the effect to an ally also applies it to you, and it costs 25% spec per player affected, for up to four allies.
(10:29) Gnomonkey compares the horn to a pot-share-style spec effect, sharing your spec energy over a five-by-five area, and says in a five-man Theatre of Blood team the whole spec bar would be used.
(11:00) Gnomonkey says the obvious use of the Soulflame horn is guaranteeing defence-reducing specs such as the Dragon warhammer and Bandos godsword, since landing them is annoying in PvM.
(11:29) Gnomonkey thinks the horn might make a Scythe of vitur on Nex competitive with the Zaryte crossbow, since a guaranteed scythe rolls accuracy on all three hits and Nex has very high defence.
(12:15) Gnomonkey suggests in team Tombs of Amascut everyone could bring a Soul reaper axe, charge it during skulls and then pop the horn so everyone specs the Warden for free damage.
(12:30) Gnomonkey suggests standing in the middle of Verzik at P2 (three by three) with proper timing to pop the horn, and for a team to skip reds by giving everyone spec on the last hit and using their halberd specs together to dump the health bar.
(13:32) Gnomonkey says the horn encourages team play, increases the skill cap, and gives team Tombs of Amascut a reason to be explored since it stacks with the red keris (as he says it), and that it is equally good in any group content.

Chasm of Fire

(7:04) Gnomonkey says abyssal worms from Yama (which increase the angler fish catch rate) are the least exciting drop, nice for ironmen but irrelevant to mains, and thinks they thematically belong to Sailing.
(14:32) Jagex said it plans to improve the Chasm of Fire with more amenities beyond Yama, with demons in the Catacombs already offering dark totem pieces and ancient shards and demonic slayer tasks aiming at K'ril Tsutsaroth, demonic gorillas or Tormented demons.
(15:02) Gnomonkey interprets the blog as saying the Chasm of Fire will be an update to the Slayer dungeon with more options and better drops, with details in future blogs.
(15:02) Jagex gave a sneak peek of a new mining method in the Chasm of Fire that gives a new ore, which is combined with Yama's armour shards to make soul armour.

Gnomonkey

(0:00) Gnomonkey won a Golden Gnome award for best guide maker, which he thanks viewers for voting for.
(18:01) Gnomonkey says Hedron actually makes all of his guides alongside him while he records them, and thanks the mod team for helping.
(18:31) Gnomonkey says making guides for a wider audience has made him more well-rounded, and that teaching is one of the best ways to learn.