MMO dev says it's the "perfect time to grab a shower" after tearing servers down over economy-destroying potion dupe found in Old School RuneScape

Old School RuneScape faced another economy-compromising dupe bug this week following the release of new content on September 25. Players found a way to generate countless valuable potions from thin air, forcing developer Jagex to disable all trade, yank the MMO's servers offline, and ultimately roll them back to resolve related issues. 

A loose timeline of events starts at 1:10am ET today, October 1, with a prominent Reddit post from user FactFetishist. "Potion storage has a dupe bug," the player declared. "Good job, Jagex." This bug was obviously discovered before this point, but this is the earliest public acknowledgment I can find. 

FactFetishist shared a screenshot showing billions of gold worth of potions, including the newly released prayer regeneration potion, stored on one account which is notably a subtype of Ironman that can't trade with other players. (Another user who seemingly owns the pictured account later shared the same screenshot, but without usernames redacted, likely signing the whole group up for at least a temporary ban despite their pleas otherwise.) 

While mega-wealthy OSRS players may well have thousands of premium potions lying around, a restricted Ironman realistically wouldn't be able to (or, really, wouldn't choose to) amass a stockpile like this the old-fashioned way, and certainly couldn't get so many new potions this quickly. Something was indeed up. 

Potion storage has a dupe bug. Good job, Jagex. from r/2007scape

Two hours later, the official Jagex Support account confirmed that "all OSRS worlds are offline," adding that it is the "perfect time to grab a shower in the meantime." As OSRS YouTuber WildMudkip documented, this server shutdown was preceded by in-game limitations that disabled trading as well as alchemy spells that convert items into gold and even the ability to collect naturally spawning items. Somewhere at Jagex, a developer shattered a case reading "in case of emergency, break glass," grabbed a shotgun loaded with economy-saving measures, and started shooting from the hip. 

This dupe was seemingly connected to a new potion storage feature tied to the Mastering Mixology minigame recently added to Aldarin, a section of the Varlamore region that got a big expansion in the September 25 update. Potion storage is meant to add a potion-specific alternative that tidies up your bank, but it apparently became a money printer. 

Jagex confirmed the existence of a dupe and specified that it was "investigating an issue with potion storage," adding that "no additional potions were added to the wider game economy, and any additional potions that were created have been removed from individual accounts." The developer did not, however, confirm the exact duping method. 

Once the servers were taken down and no harm could come from sharing it, FactFetishist released what they claim to be the dupe. The short version is: you'd favorite a potion in potion storage, transfer all but one of that potion to your normal bank, open the separate Mixology reward pre-pot device, withdraw any desired quantity of that same potion from the device and then close it, and you should end up with a zillion potions that are now fully tradeable. You'd tank your potion inventory into the negatives, but that's a small price to pay for effectively unlimited money. 

At 9:55am ET today, the Old School RuneScape Twitter account confirmed that "game worlds are now back online and any lost items have been restored." Some players reported losing items, including valuable untradeable ones, due to unintended death and transfer errors evidently caused by the scattershot of emergency responses mentioned earlier. 

With the dupe resolved, Jagex says it will be "taking action against the most serious offenders," so after having their potion vault raided, a few bug abusers will likely be getting a vacation from OSRS pretty soon. 

Last year, one Old School RuneScape player reportedly made $100,000 selling gold from a different loot exploit.