Boat Combat Fixes in OSRS 2026

Old School RuneScape has always been a game that listens. And in 2026, Jagex did exactly that. The community spoke loud and clear after the Sailing skill launched, and the response from the team has been a focused, meaningful update targeting one of the most discussed pain points in the game right now. BOAT COMBAT.

This patch, released on the 18th of March 2026, was framed by Jagex as a series of quality of life improvements rather then a massive content overhaul. The goal was simple: address the major issues, make things feel smoother, and build a stronger foundation for bigger updates down the line.

So what exactly changed? Let’s break it all down.

Why Was Boat Combat A Problem?

Before we talk about fixes, we need to understand WHY things needed fixing in the first place. Is that important? Yes, it really is, because the context makes the changes make more sense.

The community had made it very clear that DPS was low, boat movement and cannon placement felt awkward, and the cost of cannonballs was simply too high for the activity to feel sustainable.Players were essentially burning through resources faster then they could earn them back, and fighting sea creatures just did not feel rewarding.

Jagex acknowledged this and made changes to their schedule to prioritise fixes to Boat Combat before launching any larger updates for Sailing. That is a big deal. Delaying other content just to fix something the community asked about shows a level of respect for the player base that OSRS fans have come to appreciate over the years.

The CANNON Rebalance

This is the biggest change in the update. The CANNONS have been completely rebalanced and it is a significant shift in how they perform.

Ship cannons now fire more slowly, but each shot is more impactful. This means players deal significantly more damage per cannonball, which also helps improve cannonball efficiency overall. So you are spending fewer cannonballs to do the same or more damage. That is a massive improvement.

But there is something else. During testing, Jagex found that crew cannon damage was incorrectly scaling with the captain’s Sailing level. This has now been fixed, and cannon damage now scales only with a crewmate’s Privateering level. This was a bug that probably went unnoticed by many casual players, but for those who were optimizing their setups, it was definitely causing some confusion.

Here is a simple comparison to understand the cannon change:

Players can now also build two cannons on the same side of their Sloop, labeled as ‘first’ and ‘second’ cannon. This removes the need to manually wiggle your boat just to get both cannons firing at enemies at the same time.

Was the “wiggling” annoying? Absolutely. That kind of mechanical awkwardness breaks immersion and makes content feel unpolished. Getting rid of it is a welcome change.

The BALLISTIC ATTRACTOR: A Game Changer For Efficiency

This is the new facility that many players are probably most excited about. CANNONBALL costs were one of the loudest complaints from the community, and Jagex has directly responded.

The Ballistic Attractor recovers 60% of the cannonballs you fire, meaning boat combat will be much less expensive to engage in.

Sixty percent. That is a dramatic reduction in the ongoing cost of using cannons at sea. For players who were avoiding sea combat purely because of the resource drain, this changes things completely.

How do you get it? You build the Ballistic Attractor by speaking to Ava after completing the Animal Magnetism quest. It requires 10 Mahogany Planks, 5000 Water Runes, 1000 Law Runes, 5 Lead Bars and 5 Steel Bars.

Here are the key points about the Ballistic Attractor:

• Recovers 60% of all fired cannonballs automatically
• Can be added to a Sloop or Skiff, but NOT a Raft
• Requires Animal Magnetism quest completion to unlock
• Built through Ava, who players will already be familiar with from the quest

Players who were worried about this item taking up an existing facility slot can relax. Jagex also added two extra facility slots to the Sloop, meaning you can place a cannon or Ballistic Attractor without having to remove anything you already had set up.

That is thoughtful design. Fixing one problem without creating another.

TRADITIONAL COMBAT and Sea Creatures

One of the more significant mechanical fixes in this update involves how traditional combat works against sea creatures.

Traditional combat using player gear now works the same on sea creatures as it does on land. Sea creatures have had their HP adjusted accordingly. This is big for players who prefer melee, magic, or ranged setups over pure cannon combat. Before this, there was an inconsistency that made using your actual gear feel less effective on the water.

The update also removed a gear-related damage cap for sea monster fights and adjusted some sea monster loot tables to account for a presumed faster kill count.

So not only can you fight better, but the rewards were adjusted to reflect that. Jagex understood that if killing sea creatures gets faster, the loot needs to scale accordingly, otherwise the content becomes too profitable or not profitable enough.

LOOTING Sea Creatures: No More Delays

Was the looting delay frustrating? Yes, it really was. Jagex has now removed the delay in looting sea creatures entirely. Players can also use Telekinetic Grab to instantly loot a sea monster corpse with no net animation.

This might sound like a small change. But in practice, these little delays add up over a long session. Removing friction from the looting process makes the whole activity feel much more fluid and enjoyable.

FIRE AT WILL Mode: Let Your Crew Do The Work

For players who found the manual targeting of sea creatures slightly tedious, there is now an elegant solution.

A ‘Fire At Will’ Mode has been added to the Sailing side panel, allowing your crew to automatically hit sea creatures that come within range. There is also a right-click option available for those who prefer that method.

This mode is perfect for players who want a more relaxed experience, or for those who are focused on navigation and positioning rather than micromanaging every cannon shot.

More CANNONBALLS In The Game Economy

Getting cannonballs was already a sore point before this update, so Jagex addressed it from multiple angles.

The amount of cannonballs that can be received from Cannonball Thieving, Shipwreck Salvaging and various NPCs has been buffed.This means the supply of cannonballs across the game has been meaningfully increased, not just through the Ballistic Attractor but through the broader in-game economy. Here is a quick summary of where you can now expect better cannonball yields:

What This Update Is NOT

It is worth addressing this directly. Jagex was very clear that whilst these changes create a noticeable improvement, this is not a massive content update. It is a series of small quality of life boosts designed to make the content feel more smooth and fix the key problems the community highlighted.

There are bigger things coming. Jagex stated they are almost ready to share plans on how they will further iterate on boat combat by implementing NPC boats. That is something the community has wanted to see, and it sounds like it is well on its way.

A Foundation For The Future

The update lays groundwork for bigger boat combat updates to come. The headline changes hit cannons hard, and the Ballistic Attractor should take the sting out of what was clearly an unsustainable resource drain.

Here is a full summary of every major change in this update:

Final Thoughts

This is the kind of update that OSRS does really well. It is not flashy. It does not add a massive new questline or a new boss. But it takes something that was genuinely frustrating, something that the COMMUNITY flagged repeatedly, and it fixes it in a thoughtful and well-considered way.

The BALLISTIC ATTRACTOR alone changes the economy of sea combat significantly. The CANNON rebalance makes fights feel more impactful. The removal of the loot delay and the introduction of FIRE AT WILL mode reduces unnecessary friction. And fixing the way traditional gear works against sea creatures opens up the content to players who were previously feeling left out.

Is boat combat now perfect? Probably not. There is still more work to be done, and Jagex has basically said as much. But this update moves the needle in the right direction, and with NPC boats on the horizon, the future of Sailing in OSRS is looking more exciting then ever.