Players jumping for joy at their awesome new armour!

A group of players fighting the Muttadile in CoX

GIM can only do this with fellow group members.

Players partying hard in a Player Owned House

Talk to the Iron tutors on Tutorial Island to select the GIM game mode, then run South to jump on the boat after completing the tutorial. Once you get to the Node, another tutor is on-hand to explain GIM in more detail. Once you’ve figured out what you’re doing, it’s time to talk to other players! Communication will be key for succeeding in this game mode, so find teammates you really click with. Once your group is formed, you can always come back to the island to recruit fresh players (although you can’t return to Tutorial Island). If you can’t find the right group, or wish to go ahead as a regular player instead, you can leave the Node without a group. At this point you will choose between any of the other game modes before being teleported to the mainland. Remember, GIM isn’t like Clans – you can’t recruit for your group any place other than the Node. You’ll have to come back here to add more players. To return from the mainland either speak to the Iron tutors in Lumbridge or teleport using the GIM Helmet. This can only be done if you're a GIM player. Before you head to the mainland, you might want to try out combat in your group. There are a few low-level NPCs on the island and you can practice bashing them about together before you leave. If you've not left the Node before, your player inventory will be wiped and you’ll receive the standard items you normally get from Tutorial Island. Forming a group Time to find a group! You will be able to apply to any groups you like the look of, simply by using the ‘apply’ option. If you want to start your own group, this is what the process looks like:

1. Click "Create Group" to start forming a group.
   
2. Right-click players to invite them.
   
3. Choose a group name (this will only be saved once your group has sucessfully formed).
   
4. Select "Confirm" once you have enough players in your group and a chosen name. You'll then be presented by the following confirmation boxes:
   
   • Are there enough people in the group?
     
   • Are you sure you want to create this group?
5. Congratultions, you've created your team for Group Ironman!

Recruiting into existing groups If you are the leader of your group, you will see an ‘Invite’ option next to the players you meet around the Node. Clicking this option will check if they are part of a group. If they are not, they’ll receive your invitation. All new group members must be fresh accounts. The second they leave the Node, players can no longer join a group. This is to ensure that no groups or accounts get an unfair advantage or headstart by bringing in experienced players. If a player chooses to leave their group or is kicked out (see Hot Topics), this will leave a gap. For example: what used to be a group of four will still be considered a four-player group in HiScores, but in reality will only have the three remaining members and an open gap. This group can go to the Node to pick up a new group member.

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Abdication of the leader Every group will have a leader – by default this will be the player who created the group (see Recruitment). However, this person may wish to quit the game, play another account or focus on other activities for a bit. At that point, you wouldn't want the group to be fully dependent on this individual because it might ruin the fun for everyone else! An absent leader can be really bad for morale and potentially lead to more people quitting. So, we’ve made it possible for the leader to abdicate. Stepping down This works exactly like stepping down in Clans. The leader can choose to step down from their position at any time. There is a seven day grace period before their decision takes effect. This is to prevent hijackers taking over accounts and maliciously making players step down as leader of their groups. When a leader steps down, another player must take their place. The abdicator chooses the new leader, and they will not be able to step down until a successor has been chosen. If the leader has been inactive for 30 days, leadership will be assigned to the group member who has been in the group the longest. If more than one member joined the same day, leadership will go to whichever member joined the group first. Oh, and don’t worry - the leader is not removed from the group, just demoted. If there's no one else in the group, the leader can't step down. Instead, the group will be disbanded only when they themselves leave. Leaving a group Starting GIM with your friends, you may think you’re in it for the long run, but you never know what might happen! Sometimes life gets in the way or priorities change. You can always leave a group by speaking to the Iron tutor on the Node. Leaders can also remove members of the group. There are grace periods for members leaving or being removed, so let’s look at that next… The Grace Period If you choose to leave, you have seven days to cancel the request. This serves several purposes:

• It allows time to change your mind.
  
• Safety. In the case you may mis-click or their account is hijacked, a grace period will hopefully give time to get back in control.

A player who is kicked from a group will also have a short grace period of seven days. This is so that they can settle things with the group. They can still trade freely within the group in this period. Account status If you decide to leave a group, you must pick one of two options. You can choose to:

• Keep GIM status – if you choose this, you will be placed in a new group where you are the leader. Their group size remains the same. You'll keep your levels, stats, quests, variables and untradable items. However, tradable items are deleted.
  
• Become a regular account. You will lose GIM status and will also be removed from the GIM group and HiScores. You will also keep all levels, stats, quests, variables and untradeable items. You also get to keep your tradable items.

Boosting We want to avoid GIM boosting being meta and prevent a situation where experienced players come in and artificially boost new groups. We certainly don't want new groups being tricked into paying anybody to get a good start! However, assisting your friends and long-term group members is not against the rules, and we want to allow for that. The following systems are therefore in place to prevent boosting: Prestige groups and highscores Groups that remain the same after formation have ‘Prestige’ status. This means they are distinguished from other groups that have changed over time. This will encourage groups to stick together, and is our way of recognising the loyalty of a group and the progress they’ve made together. Prestige status is ON by default for every group, and is lost upon inviting anyone else into your group after it has been formed. The gradual wealth transfer system When a member joins a new group, there are hard caps on how much wealth that player can receive from the existing members of the group, and from the shared storage. This prevents existing groups transferring all their wealth to new members before leaving. By prolonging the transfer, this should deter boosters while not being too much of an inconvenience for legitimate players. The caps start off very restrictive but quickly become more lenient, increasing weekly as follows:

• Week 1: Wealth caps at 1m.
  
• Week 2: Wealth caps at 20m.
  
• Week 3: Wealth caps at 50m.
  
• Week 4: Wealth caps at 100m.
  
• Week 5: Cap is lifted.

Content restricted items To ensure that the players using certain items are deserving of them, we will restrict the use of them until that new player has successfully completed the relevant quests at least once. For example, if a player wishes to use the Ghrazi rapier they must first complete Theatre of Blood. They would then be able to use all the weapons from that Raid. Similarly they must complete at least one Chambers of Xeric to use any of the items from there. All boss uniques would require at least one boss kill of the relevant boss.

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We know that not everyone likes to take things easy. Perhaps you and your friends like to be seriously challenged – and can rely on each other to pull through every time. This is where Hardcore Group Ironman comes into play! A Hardcore Iron group begins with a number of lives equal to the number of players in the group at the time of formation. Any death, from any member, will result in one life being subtracted from the group’s total lives – this will be broadcast to the group members who are online at the time. Offline players will get the message once they log-in. If a group’s total lives hit zero, the whole gang has their Hardcore status revoked. The group will remain together but will be considered to be regular Group Irons. All items and stats remain. Hardcore groups cannot accept anyone else into their group. This means that by default, a Hardcore group is Prestige. If they wish to invite anyone else, they must first lose their Hardcore status.If anyone leaves or is kicked, the group keeps its Hardcore status – but loses one of its lives, unless it's their last life. Normally, Hardcore Iron Players are able to die in certain areas of the game without losing their Hardcore status. These are termed ‘safe deaths’. In PvM, there are safe deaths within places such as the Chambers of Xeric, the Fight Caves, Inferno and Pest Control. On the PvP side of things, there are minigames where Hardcore status is not affected – e.g. Last Man Standing, Soul Wars, and Castle Wars. We reckon that’s way too easy for Hardcore Group Ironman! For a Hardcore Group, we want to remove all safe deaths across the entirety of PvM. Any PvM deaths will be unsafe and result in a group life lost. Existing PvP safe deaths within minigames would remain the same as normal, and this change does not affect regular Hardcore Iron players - in fact, none of these changes will impact regular Hardcore Iron Players. Our aim is to maintain prestige within the HCGIM community – and provide some of the most challenging content in the whole game. Naturally, Hardcore Group Irons will want to show off their astonishing achievements in this merciless new mode. Although we can’t provide HCGIM HiScores on release, it is something we’re working towards including within the year. We’ll let you know when things are confirmed.

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That's everything for this blog. Questions? We'll be holding our regular Twitch Q&A Livestream on Thursday at 17:00 BST, so go ahead and submit your questions for us and we'll answer them when we're live! We'd love to hear your feedback so please do... Join the Official Old School RuneScape Discord server and head to the #group-ironman channel in the Summer Summit area. Use the #GroupIronman hashtag on Twitter. Reply to this Reddit Thread or make your own thread with #GroupIronman in the title. Mods Arcane, Archie, Argo, Ash, Ayiza, Banjo, Boko, Bonsai, Brow, Bruno, Curse, Daizong, Deagle, Dibber, Ditto, Dylan, Ed, Elena, Errol, Fed, Flippy, Gecko, Grub, Halo, Havik, Husky, Jndr, John C, Kandosii, Katies, Kieren, Kirby, Lenny, Light, Lottie, Mack, Maylea, Morty, Nasty, Nin, Oasis, Roq, Ry, Sarnie, Skylark, Sova, Squid, Steve W, Sween, Tide, Vegard, West, Wolfy & Zuko The Old School Team