According to internal estimates, up to 44% of active accounts at one point were bots. Nearly half of the game. Even Jagex moderators, including Mod Ash, weighed in publicly on the damage this was causing to the game's ecosystem. The community started buzzing about a "bot nuke" that wiped out large numbers of RuneScape gold these accounts-but anyone paying close attention knew it wasn't a complete victory. Some hotspots were cleaned out, but others remained thriving bot havens.

This article dives into those hot zones, the scale of profits bots are generating, and one player's relentless mission to disrupt, expose, and ultimately propose a way to nuke these money-making machines for good.

The Elves of Prifddinas Under Siege

In the elven capital of Prifddinas, harmony is supposed to reign. After defeating the Fragment of Seren, players are welcomed into a glittering city of opportunity. But recently, reports from elves and nearby adventurers painted a darker picture: rampant thieving by suspicious accounts.

Investigations revealed characters in full Rogue outfits with thieving capes, parked endlessly at stalls. The suspicious part wasn't the activity itself-thieving elves have always been a profitable grind-but the scale.

Campo's Jack, an account with only the bare minimum requirements for Song of the Elves, had amassed 80 million thieving XP.

TheySaggy, another account, pushed past 200 million XP, ranking 715 in the world, and pocketing an estimated 2.8 billion OSRS GP in loot.

World-hopping confirmed it wasn't just one or two outliers-bots were present in almost every other world. Each earned roughly 3 million GP an hour, and none of them responded to player interaction.

Air Orb Bots and the Cosmic Rune Collection

Next stop: the Wilderness Air Obelisk. Here, armies of bots charge air orbs for profit, each hauling stacks of cosmic runes. Their stats reveal a clear pattern: magic, construction, and runecrafting only, tailored to one purpose.

One account, Zilmfix SAS 7, had gained 6.1 million magic XP in three weeks, equating to about 155 hours of non-stop orb charging. That's a 70 million GP haul from just one bot. Multiply that across dozens of worlds, and the numbers balloon.

But unlike the unresponsive thieving bots, these orb runners could be disrupted. Killing them in the Wilderness netted thousands of cosmic runes, sparking the creation of a unique project: a bot-busting bank tab. Each stack of loot-cosmic runes, gear, or coins-serves as a trophy, a reminder of a bot taken down.

In just a short spree, over 10,000 cosmic runes were collected, worth more than 1 million GP. And when the bans finally landed, the satisfaction was doubled: loot in the bank, bots in the graveyard.

The Mage Training Arena Infiltration

The Mage Training Arena (MTA) is a place most players visit reluctantly to grind out their infinity robes. But bots see it differently: an endless, low-effort goldmine.

One account, Gutchers, jumped from 17.5 million to 26.2 million magic XP in OSRS GP for sale just three weeks, with no other stats. Another, Egop, climbed from 16.5 to 24 million. These accounts grind 24/7, slowly converting points into wands and robes, and while profits average only 200k GP an hour, the sheer volume of bots makes the operation lucrative.