Demonic Spade and WHY it was NERFED (OSRS)


Date	2025-03-26
Type	news-opinion
Video	youtu.be/uDhGFEjrpyc

Summary

Gnomonkey argues that Jagex was right to nerf the proposed Demonic Spade, a spade that would instantly dig up a whole farming patch, because it would make allotment runs (Snape grass, watermelon) out-XP tree runs, hurt the herb and seed economy, and add more hourly chores. He uses RS3's daily/weekly/monthly systems as a cautionary tale and says he will vote no on any time-gated content.

Outline

0:00 The Demonic Spade controversy and Jagex's stated reasons for the nerf
0:28 Snape grass allotment XP numbers per patch and per visit
2:01 Farming balance: allotments versus tree runs, seed prices
4:20 Birdhouses, watermelons and encouraging daily chores
6:08 Reddit's feedback on the nerf
8:03 Optimizing the fun out of a game; buffs the community always votes for
11:16 Engagement versus efficiency; Sepulchre as an example of added engagement
12:25 RS3 dailies, weeklies, monthlies and Wilderness Flash Events
15:31 The dangers of time gating; Gnomonkey will vote no to time-gated content
20:40 OSRS respects player time
23:59 Economic impact on herbs and herb seeds (Torstol)
29:45 Why Jagex's balancing decision was right
32:51 Hopes for future interactive skill improvements

Topics covered

Update: Demonic Spade

(0:00) Reddit and Twitter reacted angrily to the Demonic Spade nerf, with posts getting thousands of upvotes.
(0:00) Gnomonkey takes a different view from nearly everyone else and argues the Demonic Spade nerf was necessary.
(0:27) The Demonic Spade was a proposed reward (from the Doom of Mokhaiotl / Delve boss drops) that instantly digs up an entire farming patch and works on anything that uses a spade.
(0:27) Jagex nerfed the Demonic Spade after feedback and another review pass, saying it might disrupt Farming's balance by making crops such as snape grass and watermelons more XP-efficient than trees, effectively killing tree runs and causing big changes to the Farming economy.
(6:45) Gnomonkey says players wanted to instantly harvest every patch, and the item was taken away before they even had it, which is why the Reddit vibe was angry.
(24:00) Gnomonkey says the planned nerf gives two harvests per action with the spade rather than instant digging, which he says would mean nobody does allotment runs because harvesting allotments would still take too long.
(30:16) Gnomonkey says the spade's problem is not that XP-focused players' rates would change, but that it encourages doing hourly chores, which nobody likes.
(31:04) Gnomonkey says he is surprised Jagex caught the issue, as he had only thought about harvesting snape grass quickly on an ironman, not how much XP it would give.
(31:31) Gnomonkey considers it important for Jagex as developers to sometimes be the bad guy and remove things that add surface-level fun but harm the game.
(31:54) Gnomonkey says the spade is not quality of life because it has drastic implications beyond faster herb runs: it harms the economy and adds an unfun method everyone would be encouraged to do.

Snape grass

(0:54) Snape grass gives 82 Farming XP per plant, the highest-XP allotment in the game by a lot.
(0:54) With Magic secateurs, level 99 Farming and Attas planted, Gnomonkey says snape grass averages almost 50 yield per patch (49.5).
(1:26) At 49.5 snape grass per patch times 82 XP, Gnomonkey calculates about 4,063 XP per patch, slightly better than a maple tree.
(1:26) Gnomonkey timed it: manually digging up a snape grass plant takes about 60 seconds, which the Demonic Spade would reduce to eight game ticks.
(2:01) There are 16 allotment patches, which Gnomonkey describes as roughly eight locations with two patches each (except Harmony Island).
(2:22) Per visit to an allotment location with two snape grass patches, Gnomonkey calculates about 8k XP, slightly more than a yew sapling's 7k XP, plus about 100 snape grass.
(2:49) Doing all eight allotment locations with snape grass would give about 65k XP and roughly 800 snape grass (50 per patch across 16 patches), by Gnomonkey's math.
(2:49) Snape grass takes 70 minutes to grow versus 400 minutes for trees, which Gnomonkey says is where his concern comes from.
(3:18) Snape grass seeds cost about 11k each, so about 33k per patch; Gnomonkey says the Amulet of Bounty gives a 25% chance to use only one seed when planting, which offsets seed cost.
(3:46) Snape grass seed price rose from about 8k to almost 11.5k in hype for the spade, and Gnomonkey thinks it was still rising because people expected a revert.
(24:00) Gnomonkey argues the spade would have injected mass quantities of snape grass into the Grand Exchange and sent seed prices (tree and herb) plummeting.

Farming

(2:49) Gnomonkey notes trees are excellent XP and only need a brief visit, but take a very long time to grow, whereas snape grass would be far faster to regrow.
(5:16) Gnomonkey says he does not think players should be encouraged to farm allotment patches and that it would not improve the Farming skill, even though it would be great for XP.
(9:45) Gnomonkey says Farming is his least favorite skill and that he would skip training it if he could, because he dislikes breaking up content to do runs.
(9:45) Gnomonkey believes players mostly either love Farming or hate it, with very little in between.
(10:50) Gnomonkey says trees are currently both the lowest-engagement and highest-XP way to train Farming, and he would like a more interactive method like Tithe Farm.
(24:08) Gnomonkey says he would prefer more methods like Tithe Farm that give options to players who do not want to do daily chores.
(24:18) Gnomonkey considers adding an hourly bonus method to Farming a net negative even if it raises XP rates, because it will feel worse to train.
(24:18) Gnomonkey says he wishes Jagex had invested time in skills that need love, such as Farming, instead of spending all that time making Sailing.
(32:51) Gnomonkey wants Jagex to add Farming methods like Tithe Farm that are actually fun, such as a plant-based skilling boss or group boss, not just waiting for a plant to grow, clicking once and logging out.

Watermelon

(4:45) Watermelon gives 54.5 Farming XP per harvest with at best a yield of 32, which Gnomonkey calculates as about 1.7k XP per patch.
(4:45) Because two watermelon patches sit next to each other, Gnomonkey calculates watermelons give 3,488 XP per visit, slightly better than a maple sapling's 3,400 XP.
(4:45) Gnomonkey says pretending watermelons do not step on tree seeds' toes is disingenuous.
(5:16) Gnomonkey notes watermelons are useful for making supercompost, which mains do not care about but is good for ironmen.

Tree run

(2:22) Gnomonkey compares a yew sapling at 7k XP to roughly 8k XP per allotment visit with snape grass.
(2:49) Gnomonkey says tree runs are brief to visit but trees take about 400 minutes to grow, versus 70 minutes for snape grass.
(24:00) Gnomonkey says the spade would have effectively killed tree runs by making snape grass and watermelons better XP.

Birdhouse run

(4:20) Gnomonkey says he hates birdhouses and considers them the worst skilling content ever added, because they are hourly, very good training for Hunter, and encourage you to stop what you are doing every hour.
(5:45) Gnomonkey says watermelon and birdhouse runs sit on the same timer, so players would be encouraged to do a long hourly task of both.
(6:45) Gnomonkey says birdhouse runs are the XP meta for Hunter until about level 91, when high-level contracts overtake them.
(6:45) Gnomonkey says he believes Mod Kieran has stated birdhouses were a mistake because they break up content and make you train Hunter through hourly runs.
(6:45) Gnomonkey considers a sarcastic Reddit post proposing that birdhouses should be slowed down to be on the money: they should have been a high-profit, slower-XP method for bird nests rather than an XP meta.
(25:14) Gnomonkey says early Hunter is a terrible experience and players just skip it with birdhouses; early creatures and tracking need cleanup.

Opinion: Time-gated content and dailies

(12:24) Gnomonkey says that if he had his way there would be no time-gated content in OSRS: no daily herb boxes, no daily battlestaves, no daily charges on the Explorer's ring or Phosani's / Phalador shield, no daily spellbook swaps; instead items would be recharged or bought.
(12:24) Gnomonkey says he comes from RS3 and has seen what dailies do to a game.
(20:19) Gnomonkey says he will vote no to anything time-gated on hourly, daily, weekly or monthly timers, regardless of whether it is good, bad or dead content.
(20:50) Gnomonkey says time gating is what keeps him from playing WoW or any other MMO, which time-gate raids and add dailies to make you log in.
(21:22) Gnomonkey notes even FPS games such as Apex Legends, Overwatch and Escape from Tarkov use daily challenges and bonuses to inflate player numbers.
(21:54) Gnomonkey says OSRS avoids these pitfalls because it has no microtransactions and only very minor dailies, and nothing in OSRS makes him feel guilty for not logging in.
(21:54) Gnomonkey says he has over 30,000 hours in OSRS, more than 10 times his time in any other game, yet it respects his time more than any other game.
(22:22) Gnomonkey says OSRS lets you grind a boss as long as you like (for example 100,000 kill count) with no daily kill cap, and lets you switch to any skill when you are not enjoying something.
(23:18) Gnomonkey says the OSRS grind is impossibly long but fair because players have many options and nothing forces them to three-tick fish or 1.5-tick woodcut; they can AFK redwoods, anglerfish or Karambwans.
(24:00) Gnomonkey says he does not want any more hourly content added to the game.

RuneScape 3

(13:04) Gnomonkey shows the Daily Scape website, a checklist for RS3 players with reset timers for all dailies.
(13:16) Gnomonkey says RS3 has roughly 100 times the dailies of OSRS, including daily Treasure Hunter spins, a traveling merchant with a daily random stock, daily challenges, Jack of Trades, Soul Reaper, player-owned ports and farm, and more.
(13:48) Gnomonkey says doing all RS3 dailies would take about four to six hours, with weeklies, monthlies and tokens to repeat them on top.
(13:48) Gnomonkey says all shops in RS3 are on a daily reset timer and that buying out the rune shops is the main way an RS3 ironman gets runes.
(15:41) Gnomonkey says RS3 removed the Wilderness, replacing it with Wilderness Flash Events that happen every hour on the hour and have almost no requirements (90% can be done at combat level 3).
(16:12) Gnomonkey says each Wilderness Flash Event gives an XP chunk and a sack of wild rewards worth an average of 170k.
(16:43) Gnomonkey says the Infernal Star and Evil Tree events have three stages and give a sack of very wild rewards worth an average of 300k.
(17:15) Gnomonkey says brawling gloves are a rare reward that give very powerful tier 87 weapons, which he compares to ripping a twisted bow out of a sack, along with a very rare Dark Onyx core.
(17:44) Gnomonkey says RS3 ironmen must repeat Wilderness Flash Events constantly to get three of a rare item that has two rolls at 2 in 830 odds.
(17:44) Gnomonkey says Gethixian caches in RS3 let you do Divination twice a day for about 30k XP in five to ten minutes, in a skill whose base rate is about 10k XP an hour at level 10 and peaks around 80k XP an hour, so people train it just by doing the caches.
(18:47) Gnomonkey says Evolution of Combat has improved since launch and RS3's high-tier PvMers are impressive, but the time-gated dailies ruined RS3 for him.
(19:21) Gnomonkey says time-gated content in RS3 ruins it more than microtransactions, because an RS3 ironman can avoid microtransactions but cannot avoid dailies; he says Jagex will never remove dailies.

Herblore

(27:43) Gnomonkey calculates the highest-level herb Torstol gives about 9.42 yield at maximum yield times 224.5 harvest XP, an extra roughly 2,000 XP per patch next to each allotment.
(28:10) Across eight allotment runs, the herb patches next to them would give an extra 16k to 17k Farming XP by Gnomonkey's math.
(28:10) Gnomonkey says the spade would devalue Torstol seeds and Torstols, which are already low in value and dropped by many bosses.
(28:38) Gnomonkey says protecting herb seed and herb value is important; much of the profit at Tombs of Amascut comes from ranarr and snapdragon seeds, and much of the value from Chambers of Xeric comes from grimy herbs.
(29:06) Gnomonkey says herb runs are consistently the best early-game moneymaker and he tells people to do herb runs until they reach mid-level bosses, so devaluing them would ruin early moneymaking.
(29:32) Gnomonkey notes nobody was discussing Torstols, which would be harvested at the same time as snape grass or watermelons, causing a cascading problem for the economy.

Opinion: Buffs and community voting

(8:14) Gnomonkey says game communities always vie for whatever benefits them, citing posts asking for the Shadow to be buffed with large power creep.
(8:15) Gnomonkey recommends a long Reddit post about optimizing the fun out of a game by removing pain points and the death of gathering skills.
(8:47) Gnomonkey says sometimes a buff is not good for the game, but players psychologically want buffs, so any buff proposal tends to pass.
(9:18) Gnomonkey says players often campaign for changes that make content clunkier or worse, just because it takes less time or makes them feel more powerful.
(10:51) Gnomonkey says taking away training from a skill is worse than adding to it, and says adding engagement to a skill, like Sepulchre did for Agility, is the better design direction.

Hallowed Sepulchre

(10:17) Gnomonkey says his favorite skill besides combat is Agility, but only because of Hallowed Sepulchre, which he calls interactive and engaging.
(11:29) Gnomonkey says Hallowed Sepulchre added engagement to Agility by requiring dodging traps and careful clicking for better XP rates and loot, and considers it one of his favorite skilling updates ever.
(26:14) Gnomonkey says Agility is just rooftops until level 52 and then Hallowed Sepulchre all the way to 99, and he would like some mini Sepulchre-style activities earlier and more methods at higher levels.

Opinion: Skills most in need of updates

(24:48) Gnomonkey says Firemaking has nothing to it until Wintertodt at 50 to 99, with no other real options.
(24:48) Gnomonkey appreciates that Jagex's summer cleanup includes cleaning up Slayer points and the way tasks are obtained, but wishes more time went into skills that do not feel fun to train.
(25:14) Gnomonkey says Mining is a huge pain point for many players, awful early with only okay methods later, and needs interesting methods and more AFK options.
(26:14) Gnomonkey says the Slayer points system is a slog, with many things costing many points for no reason, made tedious on purpose.
(32:51) Gnomonkey hopes Jagex adds more interactive methods like Sepulchre across a majority of skills, as cleanup has value for the game's longevity.