Yama Contracts SAVED!!! (OSRS)
| Date | 2025-05-29 |
| Type | news-opinion |
| Video | youtu.be/9ugDmmDILoI |
Summary
Gnomonkey reacts to the late-May 2025 OSRS update that reworked Yama contracts, added Yama combat achievements, and doubled the Grand Exchange tax. He is largely positive: the contract HP, chip damage and phase changes fixed most of his complaints, though he strongly dislikes the 100 noted pineapple pizza requirement for the empowered Yama practice fight and thinks the GE tax is carrying a burden that drop-rate changes should share.
Outline
- 0:00 Intro and the new Yama combat achievements
- 2:10 Yama tweaks and bug fixes
- 4:37 Contract changes: HP, bloody blows chip damage, phase thresholds
- 7:41 Void flares, tile ragging removal, demon-bane restriction removed
- 8:38 Pineapple pizza practice fight for empowered Yama
- 10:14 Purifying sigil first completions list
- 11:05 Gnomonkey's recommendation on contracts now
- 11:35 Grand Exchange tax increase from 1% to 2%
- 13:07 Item sink list changes
- 16:31 Final thoughts and praise for Jagex's response to feedback
Topics covered
Update: Yama contracts
- (0:00) Gnomonkey says that apart from one pizza-related change he hates, the late-May 2025 update (Yama contract changes, new combat achievements, GE tax change) is a pretty good update.
- (17:10) Gnomonkey says overall he is really pleased with the update, having dreaded it beforehand; he calls the contract changes really solid and the combat achievements looking pretty nice.
- (17:30) Gnomonkey thanks the Jagex mods for fixing the systems people complained about instead of shying away from the backlash, and says it is nice to feel heard as a high-level player.
- (17:30) Gnomonkey compares this to Awakener's Orbs, where players complained about repeatability and access and felt their complaints fell on deaf ears with no system changes.
- (17:57) Gnomonkey says he is looking forward to the Delve boss coming in a few months and, based on Jagex's response to Yama feedback, has high hopes that it will be improved even if it launches imperfect.
Yama
- (0:38) Gnomonkey says he is happy there is no combat achievement like killing with a salamander; he calls all the new Yama combat achievements reasonable and fair with only minor issues.
- (2:10) The update fixed Yama colouring, which Reddit wanted, and changed the Chasm of Fire teleport scroll so it takes you in front of the Voice of Yama, skipping the agility shortcut.
- (2:10) If you do not receive a contract upon killing a demon, you now get a second message letting you know the eligible style to use so you are killing them correctly.
- (2:10) The update fixed a bug where dragon claws and burning claws were not guaranteeing their second splat from the Soulflame horn.
- (2:37) Gnomonkey notes there was talk of claws being around 5% less accurate than they should be and wonders whether the claw fix also fixed that, saying testing is needed.
- (2:37) The Surge potion now has a six tick delay when used in PvP areas, and its special attack will not restore if a player has moved more than 15 tiles away; Gnomonkey thinks it is still really strong in PvP but more fair.
- (3:05) Crushing infernal shale now guarantees fair returns: you can still get multiple crushed shale per shale chiselled but are guaranteed at least as many as you crush.
- (3:05) The update increased the Yama contract limit from five to fifty.
- (3:05) The Pernix staff spec now counts towards the Contract of Glyphic Attenuation; Gnomonkey says commenters had told him it was not working before.
- (3:05) An empty option was added to the barrel, which Gnomonkey says he asked for as soon as the update dropped.
- (3:34) The update fixed a bug where the screen fading to black had a permanent duration if you entered as your friend left, fixed the Oathplate armour set icon, and made shards appear in the Yama collection log entry.
- (3:34) A hotfix made teleport scrolls less frequent but dropped in higher quantities; Gnomonkey says you get 18 from a dossier.
- (4:04) A hotfix increased the drop rate of radiant contracts and reduced the rate of the horn and Oathplate; Gnomonkey thinks this keeps them as rare as when it was one in 20, since dossiers are now much more common.
Yama
- (0:00) Gnomonkey says the Yama combat achievements follow the typical Araxxor pattern of requiring consistently good performance (an average time over several kills) rather than lucky RNG; he says it takes longer to complete but works better for this boss as a speed achievement.
- (0:33) The Yama Perfectionist-style achievement is to defeat Yama without attacking the Judge with the wrong style and without taking more than one instance of damage, which Gnomonkey describes as doing fairly good style switches and killing him 50 times; he would rather Jagex stop requiring KC counts.
- (0:33) The Yama 'Speed master' type achievement requires defeating Yama without anybody healing using anything other than plain pizza and without anybody drinking potions; Gnomonkey says you can use things like Eldritch or flick well.
- (1:07) One Yama achievement requires defeating him without being hit by shadows and without ever being hit more than one tile away from the centre of a shadow crash attack, which Gnomonkey says refers to the triple meteor attack at the end.
- (1:07) One Yama achievement requires defeating him without being hit by fire and having only killed void flares with special attacks, which Gnomonkey says you will get by default almost every kill.
- (1:07) The Yama speed time achievement requires defeating him in an average time of under 2:34 over your last four kills; Gnomonkey says he would have made it 2:30, and that it needs good gear and knowing the fight.
- (1:37) Gnomonkey calls the new Yama combat achievements pretty inoffensive and not bad at all, with no standout bad ones.
Yama contracts
- (4:37) Yama no longer has increased HP on any contract except Contract of Bloodied Blows and Contract of Glyphic Attenuation, which Gnomonkey calls fair because bloodied blows hits very high and glyphic gives a prayer damage bonus.
- (4:37) On the Contract of Bloodied Blows Yama's HP increase was reduced from 40% to 20%, and on the Contract of Glyphic Attenuation from 25% to 15%.
- (5:11) On the Contract of Bloodied Blows, Yama's prayer penetration on magic and ranged attacks was lowered from 10% to 5%; Gnomonkey infers the chip damage drops from 12 to about 6 and calls it a great change that was really needed.
- (5:40) All Yama contracts now trigger phase transitions at 75% and 50% instead of 66% and 33%, so players spend more time on the hardest phase three.
- (6:09) Gnomonkey explains that with the reduced HP, Yama still phases into the last phase at about 1250 HP as before, so phase three is the same length while phases one and two are much shorter; he calls this a really good change and thinks bloodied blows may be a bit harder with about 1500 HP at the last phase.
- (6:34) For the Contract of Glyphic Attenuation, players with higher prayer bonus gain a damage increase, and the bonus is larger at higher thresholds; Gnomonkey says previously the effect barely felt like it had any impact.
- (7:08) Void flares in duo contracts no longer always spawn with 140 HP, making them easier to solo and occasionally more manageable in a duo.
- (7:08) It is no longer possible to splash on void flares during Bloodied Blows.
- (7:41) The tile ragging mechanic was removed from the Contracts of Catalyst, Worm and Shard Acquisition, but remains on the contracts of Harmony and Oathplate Acquisition.
- (7:41) Gnomonkey thinks the removal of ragging plus lower-HP void flares makes Shard Acquisition feasible, noting Kirby and J-Rays managed at least one completion, and that it gives a lot of shards and is fairly good for profit.
- (8:15) Gnomonkey says the Harmony and Oathplate acquisition contracts remain insanely difficult and cost a ton per attempt; he reads the lack of change as meaning they are not bugged and you are expected to deal with ragging and spec all four void flares.
- (8:42) The demon-bane restriction was removed from all contracts, so Emberlight can be used on every contract except the crush one (Glyphic), since that Yama has 666 slash defence.
- (11:05) Gnomonkey says that with these changes he can probably recommend going for contracts now: they are not super expensive, are fair, and are dramatically less of a slog, and he suggests giving them a shot if the No Monkey video put you off.
- (17:30) Gnomonkey says he does not like the contract system but that Jagex has made it dramatically better, and since it drops a guaranteed contract when you kill the boss, the fairer bosses make it much better.
Yama
- (8:38) The update lets you bring Yama 100 noted pineapple pizzas, his favourite, to persuade him to let you fight his empowered form for practice on the toughest contracts (Worm, Catalyst and Shard Acquisition) while still receiving regular loot.
- (9:11) Gnomonkey says the 100 pineapple pizzas cost about 275k per attempt at the time of the video.
- (9:11) Gnomonkey considers the pineapple pizza requirement the one really stupid thing in the update, noting an ironman wanting to practice would have to go cook pineapple pizzas, and that you would need about 500 KC of picking up pizzas to get that many from the boss.
- (9:41) Gnomonkey argues Jagex should use something like 10 pineapple pizzas, asks whether the game needs a pineapple pizza sink, but says he does not mind having a way to practice and would like a permanent option.
- (9:41) Gnomonkey says Jagex stated on Reddit that the pizza cost is not intended to be per attempt, so a more permanent unlock may be on the way.
Purifying sigil
- (10:14) Jagex published a list of the first players to complete the purifying sigil; Gnomonkey was sixth, having predicted fourth, with J-Ray's ninth, Noob type tenth and Wide number one.
- (10:42) Gnomonkey says he changed the video title before seeing the list because he assumed three other known streamers had it, but two non-streaming players beat him to it.
Grand Exchange
- (11:31) Jagex's stated reason for the change is that GP entering the game has steadily increased while money sinks have not kept pace, so the tax increase is meant to curb inflation.
- (12:11) As of the late-May 2025 update, the Grand Exchange tax rate was increased from 1% to 2%, doubling it.
- (12:11) Items under 50 gp are still not taxed and the Grand Exchange tax cap of 5 million per item remains in place for high-value trades, so it is not 10 million.
- (12:11) Offers existing at the time of the update stay taxed at 1% or untaxed; only newly created offers after the update use the 2% rate.
- (12:43) Jagex explains that most Grand Exchange tax is deleted from the game to remove GP, while a small slice is used by the game to buy certain items from players and permanently delete them (the item sink system).
- (14:55) Low-value and early-game utility items such as low-tier food, energy potions, teleport tablets, early-game ammo and mind runes were made fully exempt from Grand Exchange tax.
Item sink list
- (13:07) Burning claws were added to the Grand Exchange item sink list because a ton of them are dropping from people grinding Yama.
- (13:07) Item sink rates were increased for several high-impact items including Osmumten's fang, Lightbearer, arcane scrolls, dexterous/deck scrolls, Dragon hunter lance and Dragon pickaxe, which Gnomonkey notes is heavily botted.
- (13:36) Gnomonkey says Osmumten's fang was under 10 million and had risen because of the sink, having been at about 9 million, which he calls ridiculous.
- (14:10) Jagex said some items on the sink list seem too cheap to be worth syncing, but the real issue is the sheer volume entering the game, and it believes the GP is better directed to more effective sinks; they remain taxed but are no longer scooped up and deleted.
- (14:36) Gnomonkey says some items like Saradomin-related drops enter the game in such huge volume that the GE tax cannot handle it, and items like Warrior ring and Seers ring have no demand.
Opinion: Drop rates versus Grand Exchange tax
- (13:36) Gnomonkey says he has long said Tombs of Amascut needs a nerf and that Osmumten's fang drop rates should be changed rather than relying on the GE tax.
- (14:05) Gnomonkey argues letting the GE tax do all the work wastes gold that could sink items more effectively, and puts too much burden on taxes that should fall on drop rates of items like these.
- (15:32) Gnomonkey says that if Jagex does not make items less common you pay for it in the long run with a higher GE tax, since something has to take a hit.
- (16:03) Gnomonkey says players cling to very nice drop rates like their baby, which is not great for the game; he says if Jagex cannot change rates, the GE tax is the only fix, so players will complain about it a lot.