Melvor Idle 2 Hits Early Access on November 17: RuneScape's Pocket Rival Grows Up
Twenty-nine skills, a level cap of 120 and offline progress at full speed. The sequel to the idle game inspired by RuneScape arrives next week, published by Jagex itself.
There is a particular kind of RuneScape player who, after years of clicking on trees, wonders whether the clicking is even the fun part. Melvor Idle answered that question by keeping the skills, the grind and the satisfaction of a level-up, and letting the game play itself while you got on with your day. Now the sequel is almost here.
Melvor Idle 2, from developer Games by Malcs and publisher Jagex, launches in Steam Early Access on November 17, 2026. Its Next Fest demo landed in the top 25 most-played demos of October 2026, and the developers expect Early Access to last 12 to 18 months before all planned content is in.
What an idle RPG actually is
An idle game is one that keeps making progress when you are not actively playing. In Melvor Idle 2 you pick a skill, such as woodcutting, fishing or smithing, and your character works away, earning experience and items. You come back to spend them, set new goals and send your hero off again.
The sequel keeps that loop and adds a lot around it:
- 29 skills in total, including five new ones, with more synergies between them.
- Story quests with quest bosses and unique skilling content.
- A dynamic day/night cycle and weather, which you can customise.
- Reworked combat with more strategic choices.
- Mastery Guilds, a rebuilt mastery system that now covers every skill, including combat.
Built for busy people
Melvor Idle 2 is explicitly designed for players with little time. Offline progression runs at the same speed as active play, so the hours you spend at work or school count fully. New quality-of-life tools help too:
- An in-game Codex to look up items, mechanics and where things drop.
- Action tracking that shows hourly rates for experience, items and combat.
- An Event Log that summarises what happened while you were away.
- Better bank and equipment management, with placeholders, tags, named tabs and gear sets.
There is also a mod manager built into the game, and cross-platform cloud saves for PC and, when available, mobile.
The Jagex connection
Melvor Idle has always worn its inspiration openly, and the relationship is now official: Jagex, the British studio behind RuneScape and Old School RuneScape, is publishing the sequel. It's a rare case of a fan-inspired indie game being embraced and backed by the company whose game inspired it.
By the numbers
- November 17, 2026: Early Access launch on Steam.
- 12 to 18 months: expected Early Access period.
- 29: skills; 5 of them new.
- 120: level cap.
- 0: microtransactions.
One note for Korean players: the Steam page currently lists English only as a supported language.
Why it matters
Idle games are often dismissed as time-wasters, but the best ones are elegant planning games: you decide what matters, set up a system and enjoy watching it pay off. Melvor Idle proved that a small developer could take the core appeal of one of the world's longest-running online games and repackage it for people who don't have four hours a night to grind. Having Jagex as publisher gives the sequel a reach the original never had.
WGC's take: a fixed price, no microtransactions and offline progress at full speed are exactly the promises idle fans want to hear. The test will be whether the five new skills feel like genuinely new systems rather than just more bars to fill.
Where to play
Melvor Idle 2 enters Early Access on Steam on November 17. For more games that broke out at October's Next Fest, see our round-up.