MMO community jazzed as "useless" 22-year-old item becomes key to an impossibly complex loot riddle

Part of getting a highly sought-after armour piece in an Old School Runescape community riddle requires an item that's been useless for 22 years, and fans of the MMO are pretty jazzed by the fact.

To get you up to speed, Old School Runescape hosts events called Crack the Clue that challenge the community to crack tough riddles in hopes of getting a swish new armour set. The most recent, Crack the Clue 3, was announced on September 21, 2022, and fans have been chipping away at it ever since. There's even a whole Discord you can check out to see how everyone is getting on.

Those Runescape fans have now discovered how to get the bottom half of the Robe of Ruin. Putting aside the steps it took for them to figure it out, you essentially need to collect seven items and then head to a location with only those collectables in your inventory. The items are pretty standard, including a potato, a tiara, and a tile. It's the latter, though, that has amused fans, as it's been useless since Jagex added it to the game in 2001.

"I think it's funny that the tile object has never been given a use until now," one fan says. "22 years of being completely useless."

Back when the tiles were introduced, some thought they would be part of something greater, like player-owned housing. Those houses then arrived, and tiles were made none the more useful for it.

"Back before the [Grand Exchange], me and my cousin would stand on opposite sides of Varrock west bank on the trade server, one selling tiles 50k, the other buying for 80k," one enterprising player says. "Nobody knew what tiles were or how to get them, and people would actually cough up cash thinking they would make a quick 30k."

Recently, the Runescape community poured one out for a hacked player whose lost 20,000-hour account was renamed to "Same Password Everywhere."