The sailing skill has entered the refinement stage, split into four big topics so that Jagex and the players can focus their energy on one part of the skill at a time. The sailing rewards made their very own category since any skill in OSRS needs to feel rewarding to the community further than XP gains or OSRS GP gains.
Jagex further split the rewards into two big categories: internal rewards and external rewards and has discussed many rewards suggestions in each category together with selected community members on the official discord server dedicated to the new skill.
Internal Rewards
Internal rewards represent a category of rewards you can obtain and use within the sailing skill. They will directly impact certain aspects of the skill, such as potential training methods, quality of life improvements for when you’re sailing, or even how much profit you can make, so some might even further dictate or influence the OSRS gold price in the future. However, remember that nothing is fully decided yet, and all these and potentially other rewards must be polled.
Hulls
One of the significant rewards you’ll get from leveling your sailing skill is hulls, equivalent to your vessel’s HP. You will need to repair your ship between your trips at sea or while at sea, and you’ll need to use various tiers of planks and bars according to your sailing level.
Doubloons
This is the new sailing-specific currency that you’ll be able to obtain through various sailing activities. You could use it for certain activities or on certain islands, unlocking new ship stations and styles or new sails. You could also use doubloons to unlock a new sailing repeatable boss or content that provides competitive XP rates.
Figureheads
Figureheads have always been used on ships IRL, and they were thought to have magical benefits and were linked to gods. One exciting suggestion is that one of the sailing rewards could involve using figureheads to customize your ship and get small sailing bonuses from them.
Skill Cape
Even though the perks of the cape are not established yet, when you master the skill and get to level 99 Sailing, you’ll be able to purchase your Sailing cape and hood set, probably for the same 99k gp price you’re used to from the other skill capes. As with any other skill cape, the sailing cape will give you certain perks, and current suggestions are: teleports to major ports, the ability to search for Cannonballs, able to be used as a “tiny” boat, useable as an enhanced sail, sails never luff while worn.
External Rewards
External rewards are rewards that are tied to other skills as well as the sailing skill. They are meant to impact more than the sailing skill and are relevant to other skills and pieces of content in the game. They still relate to sailing but will impact the game more.
New Materials
One suggestion is adding new materials to the game, such as new wood types, new ores, and new alloys that can be used to upgrade and repair your ship, but they could also be extended to crafting or smithing new weapons or items or even existing ones. You’d also be able to obtain them through different skills such as mining and woodcutting.
New Cannonballs
A popular idea is adding different types of cannonballs with different max hits than regular cannonballs. You can use these new cannonballs everywhere, but you’ll need a certain smithing and sailing level to make and use them. This would also represent an excellent item sink for bars of different kinds.
New Fish
Sailing could also bring you new exotic types of fish, which you could use as a way to make GP by selling them to specific vendors interested in purchasing these rare open sea creatures, offer them for XP at Camdozaal, or even have a similar effect as the already existing types of fish in-game when used as food. They could also represent potion ingredients or place them in an aquarium.
Other Rewards
Other external rewards refer to various other items such as the shield of the Agronauts, which would make sure that you keep the agro of creatures, the Ancient polish, an item which could stop degradable gear from degrading, spices, coral, lighthouses, planks, new cures, mineral dredging, islands or ship salvaged treasure chests, or even abyssal essence.
