More Gathering Efficiencies

OSRS Grand Exchange market analysis · Oct 14, 2026 · 7 items affected

Market analysis

More Gathering Efficiencies raises Runite Golem ore yields and loosens infernal tools. The 14 October 2026 update, released the week before The Fractured Archive raid, is a small gathering patch with one change that adds tradeable supply. Runite Golems now give a more reliable chance of at least one runite ore before the golem respawns. Each successful mine also has a chance of extra ore, scaled by Wilderness Diary tier: up to 2 ore total for Medium, 3 for Hard and 4 for Elite. Expert mining gloves now apply their chance to prevent ore depletion to golem rocks. The OSRS Wiki says they previously had no effect there. The article gives no drop rates or per-tier probabilities, so the size of the yield increase is unknown. Some mechanics are unchanged. The head becomes a rock that lasts one minute, the golem still respawns regardless of the gloves, there are two golems per world, and mining needs 85 Mining.

The market logic is simple on the supply side. The golem is a Wilderness Resource Area fight that needs an entry fee and exposes players to PKers, and the Wilderness Diary lowers that fee at higher tiers. More ore per kill and per mine improves the return on that trip, so more runite should enter the game if enough players farm it. Several things limit this. The 4-ore ceiling is chance-based, so average yields will be well below it. Only two golems exist per world and they respawn on a fixed timer. The Wilderness risk and the Diary requirements keep participation selective. Demand for runite is not changed by the article, and it still goes into runite bars (smelted with 8 coal each) and then rune-tier smithing. So the direction for runite ore is plausibly down, but the net move depends on how many players actually take up the farm and on how much existing stock the market already holds. At the 14 October 10:16 UTC snapshot, runite ore traded at 10,200 GP against a 14-day typical range of roughly 10,068 to 10,159. That is no visible reaction yet, which fits the update only just being released. Runite bars were 12,171 to 12,179 GP, and coal about 137 to 138 GP each, so eight coal is about 1,100 GP. The ore plus coal input cost is therefore about 11,300 GP against a bar near 12,200, and a lower ore price would widen that spread.

The infernal tool changes mostly affect gatherers who already own the tools. The infernal pickaxe, harpoon and axe each burn roughly a third of what they gather, and players can now toggle that auto-burning off. The setting persists between sessions and does not change the charge count. Tools can also be recharged without being fully depleted first. For profit gathering, this removes the need to carry a second plain dragon tool, and it stops an infernal pickaxe from smelting away a third of the runite ore taken from a golem. The wiki lists several rocks where the infernal pickaxe does not consume ore, and golem rocks are not among them, so the toggle matters directly here. The effect on raw fish, logs and ore supply is real but modest, because the people affected already had a workaround. The recharge change is a convenience for training. The article does not say whether an early recharge adds charges or resets to 5,000. That is the open question that decides whether topping up early wastes charges. The wiki only describes restoring 5,000 charges on a fully degraded axe.

The recharge economics are worth working out from the snapshot prices. A smouldering stone at about 3.0 to 3.16 million GP across 5,000 charges is roughly 600 to 630 GP per charge, which matches the wiki's cost analysis of about 604 per charge. A dragon axe at about 88,000 to 90,000 GP works out to under 20 GP per charge, a dragon pickaxe at about 660,000 to 680,000 GP to roughly 135 GP, and a dragon harpoon at about 1.93 to 1.97 million GP to roughly 390 GP. Dragon tools are therefore the cheaper recharge source, particularly the axe. The stone's demand could rise if more people build infernal tools because the toggle makes them better, but burn-off farmers who stop burning also use fewer charges. The net effect on tool and stone demand is unclear.

Most of the rest has no clear market link. Miscellania's bonus resource rounding now gives more bonus resources, but the article gives no figures and the wiki text available here does not list the outputs, so no item is tied to it. The tackle box can now hold a knife and a hammer, which saves inventory space for fishing activities and is not a supply or demand shift. Fossil storage, Roe's left-click option, farm patch icons, Barbarian Assault arrow checks, the Daeyalt essence visibility change, pets, fences, dogs and the PvP rota are quality-of-life or bug fixes. The Colossal pouch change is a message correction, and the pouch is not a tradeable item. Pete Kayer's Challenges received nerfs to the Final Challenge: reduced attack range, fewer mithril seed plants, lower HP, Combat level 126 and a longer post-heal delay. The article reports that just over half of participants had never done PvP, and more of them than expected went on to Wilderness PvP or Last Man Standing. That might nudge PvP supply demand slightly, but no participation numbers or item usage are given, so no call is made. The Imbued ancient cape and Ancient fabric ideas are explicitly not finalised, and the Mining & Smithing survey is only a survey with no decided changes. None of these should be priced as announced content.

Empty butterfly jar buy limit now matches empty vials and impling jars. At the snapshot, the jar showed a limit of 40 while vials showed 13,000, so the live exchange data may not yet reflect the change, or it may be stale. It only affects how fast traders can accumulate jars, not what the jar is worth in use. The recent-movers list is a list of unusual movers, and none of them has a mechanism connecting it to this update. Examples are the large moves in mithril crossbow (u), adamant boots, granite and raw cave eel, which come from thin or illiquid markets. The raid launching on 20 October is a separate source of demand noise that could swamp any small gathering signal.

What to watch: the wiki's updated golem page for actual drop rates and per-tier ore chances, runite ore's 24-hour volume and spread against its 14-day typical range, the runite bar to ore spread, whether early infernal recharge adds or resets charges, and the dragon tool and smouldering stone prices for any pull from the toggle.

Impacted items

• Runite ore · falling. The update confirms a higher chance of at least one ore per golem kill, extra ore chances scaled by Wilderness Diary tier (2, 3 or 4 total), and Expert mining gloves now working on golem rocks. That raises the ore available per trip, and the update changes no demand sink. The conditional pressure is downward if enough Diary-completed players farm the golems. Offsetting factors are the Wilderness risk and entry fee, only two golems per world, a chance-based multi-ore system that averages well below 4, and the lack of published drop rates. At the 14 October 10:16 UTC snapshot, ore was 10,200 GP against a 14-day typical range of roughly 10,068 to 10,159, with no visible reaction. Watch ore volume, the price against that range and published yield data before treating this as a trend.
• Runite bar · neutral. Bars are smelted from one runite ore plus 8 coal, so cheaper ore would lower the input cost. At the snapshot, the bar traded at about 12,171 to 12,179 GP while ore plus 8 coal (about 137 to 138 GP each) was around 11,300 GP. Whether bars fall depends on how much the ore price falls, how much extra ore is smelted rather than sold raw, and how much demand there is for smithed rune items. The article changes nothing about bar demand, so no direction is justified yet. Watch the ore-to-bar spread.
• Dragon pickaxe · neutral. Infernal tools can now be recharged before they are fully depleted, and a dragon pickaxe is a valid recharge source. At about 680,000 GP over 5,000 charges, it is roughly 135 GP per charge, much cheaper than a smouldering stone. It is also the base for building a new infernal pickaxe. Demand could rise if more players top up or build infernal tools, but the burn toggle also lets owners skip a second pickaxe. The article does not say whether early recharge adds or resets charges, so no direction is called.
• Dragon harpoon · neutral. A dragon harpoon is a recharge source for the infernal harpoon and its build base. At the snapshot it was about 1.93 to 1.97 million GP, roughly 390 GP per charge over 5,000 charges, cheaper than a stone but far dearer than a dragon axe per charge. The new auto-cook toggle and the removal of the full-depletion requirement could make owning an infernal harpoon more attractive. However, owners who turn burning off consume fewer charges, which reduces recharge demand. The net effect on the harpoon is unclear, and it depends on whether early recharge adds charges.
• Dragon axe · neutral. The dragon axe is the cheapest recharge for an infernal axe, at about 88,000 to 90,000 GP, or under 20 GP per charge over 5,000 charges, in line with the wiki's cost analysis. Letting players recharge before depletion and turn off log burning could increase use of the infernal axe. Players who stop burning logs also use fewer charges, which reduces recharge demand. No net direction is established. The open point is whether early recharge adds to or resets the 5,000 charges.
• Smouldering stone · neutral. A stone builds an infernal tool or recharges one, at about 3.0 to 3.16 million GP at the snapshot (roughly 600 to 630 GP per charge over 5,000 charges). Easier recharging and the toggle could draw more players toward infernal tools, which adds stone demand for new builds. Against that, burn-off gatherers use fewer charges, and dragon tools are the cheaper recharge, so stone demand for top-ups could weaken. The article does not settle the net, and the early recharge rule is unconfirmed.
• Butterfly jar · neutral. The article says the buy limit on empty butterfly jars now matches empty vials and impling jars, which only changes how many players can buy per window. At the snapshot, the listed butterfly jar limit was 40 against 13,000 for vials and 18,000 for impling jars, so the exchange data may not yet show the new limit. A bigger limit could ease stockpiling for Hunter, but it does not change the jar's use or supply, so no direction is justified. Check the limit before relying on this.

Source: official Old School RuneScape update. The analysis above is our own.

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