Darlene ChaniMaya Postma

Gains. Everyone wants them. Are you gamer enough to get them?

This article is part of a series on Double XP Live May 2023.

Double XP Live is a semi-annual bonus XP event in the video game RuneScape. During the event, your sweet XP gains are, well, doubled.

There’s no one right way to play an MMO, and so Double XP Live’s exact rules have changed over the years to offer more flexibility to players. Players are given 50 hours of DXP-enhanced play time to use over a 14-day period. Players can pause and unpause the bonus XP with a timer during this period.

Double XP Live has happened nearly once a quarter, for many years. Throughout this 14-day period, lapsed players, and old clan members and friends may log back into the game to catch the bonus XP. If that sounds like you, I’ve got good and bad news:

The bad news is the preppers have been at it for weeks beforehand, driving up prices for skilling resources on the Grand Exchange The good news is there’s a sea of resources (wikis, guides, videos) to set you up for Double XP Live success even if you did not prep, and if item prices are prohibitive. Plus, the game has been releasing new game-changing content all year, including Seaonal Content like Fort Forinthry and a first look at an upcoming new skill, Necromancy.

During the event, game worlds are packed. Thousands of payers flood common training areas like the Grand Exchange, or the Combat Academy in a bewildering mess of avatars and colors. At its core a community event, players can equip and share additional XP boosts like Cinder or Pulse Cores. Some players will level new accounts, grind through troublesome skills, or invent other challenges.

In the years of my RuneScape nomadship (no, not actual Nomad) — I would log in during DXP, click around in my bank, then log out again.

In recent memory, this was the first Double XP Live that I knew well in advance. I bought some supplies and got some pesky 99s, redeemed my bank from inventory hell (why do I have 2081 buckets?), and regained an appreciation for how slow some skills can be. And then got distracted by Stardew Valley with 8 hours of Double XP Live left.

Overall, Double XP Live is a low-stakes way to come back to a game like RuneScape. It’s all about the gains, baby.

Tasogaryn