FAQ

Shadow Lock is the Yu-Gi-Oh inspired community hub for OSRS TCG players. It is the home for guides, tools, collection tracking, plugin news, and community events. TCG Chaos plays a Bronzeman TCG locked account and documents his journey here as inspiration. You do not need to follow his specific approach to be part of the Shadow Lock community. The Shadow Games are the future competitive pinnacle.

The Shadow Games are the future competitive endgame of the Shadow Lock community. Inspired by the tournaments of Yu-Gi-Oh, they will bring together the strongest OSRS TCG players to compete for the title of Shadow Games Champion. Season 1 has not been announced yet. Build your collection and prepare.

Shadow Lock is for anyone who plays or is curious about OSRS TCG. Whether you just installed the plugin, you are deep into a Bronzeman TCG run, or you want to follow creators like TCG Chaos on YouTube, shadowlock.gg is your resource hub. You do not need to follow any specific rules to be part of the Shadow Lock community.

Cards have scores based on in-game item values. You earn credits by gaining XP, killing NPCs and levelling up, then spend those credits on booster packs. The packs are where cards come from.

Three sources, and they stack:

• 100 credits per 1,000 XP gained in non-combat skills, awarded every 1,000 XP rather than on each XP drop
• NPC kills give credits equal to that monster's combat level
• Level up bonuses that scale with each level gained

Combat XP on its own gives zero credits. Only the kill counts. As of plugin version 0.16.0 this is enforced by the plugin rather than being a rule players follow, so combat skill XP no longer awards credits at all.

As of version 0.17.3 these also give credits: virtual levels, clue scrolls, offline XP and level up credits awarded after login, CoX CM, Gauntlet and Corrupted Gauntlet, Phantom Muspah, Abyssal Sire, and Shellbane Gryphon.

The plugin is actively expanding credit sources with each update, so this list grows over time.

Each pack costs 2,500 credits. Open them from the OSRS TCG plugin sidebar in RuneLite.

No. Cards only come from opening booster packs. Activities earn credits, credits buy packs, and packs give random cards. There is no activity that awards a specific card directly.

Each card's score comes from that item's in-game value relative to other items. It is a rough ordering, not a price. Scores do not reflect real market prices accurately, so do not read them as what an item is worth.

Type !tcg in chat and your collection stats are shared publicly in game.

Type ::tcg-load in game chat to restore your progress after an update.

If you need an earlier backup restored instead, open a ticket in the OSRS TCG Discord.

Yes. Join the friend chat OSRS TCG in game to chat with other players.

No. Cards have no real world or in-game monetary value and should never be bought or sold. Do not pay anyone for cards or collections.

If someone offers to sell you cards, decline and report them.

Both players need the Party plugin installed. Agree a passphrase and both enter the same one so you land in the same party. Open the Collection Album in the OSRS TCG sidebar, find the Party panel at the bottom left, select the recipient, pick the card, then click Send. The How to Trade tab walks through it step by step.

Plugin settings have to match between both players. Keep everything on default and keep debug mode off.

If you change settings later you have to manually reset your collection from the sidebar and start from nothing.

No. The planned force wipe has been cancelled. Beta collections keep their cards and credits and can still open packs.

The catch is trading. After the full release update, beta collections will no longer be tradeable with other players unless you manually reset your collection from the sidebar. A date for that change has not been specified yet.

No date has been announced yet.

Only if you want to start completely fresh. Resetting is permanent and you lose every card and credit. There is no undo and nothing on this site can recover a reset collection.

No. What you see documented on shadowlock.gg is TCG Chaos's personal approach to his Bronzeman TCG account. It is inspiration, not a rulebook. You can follow his approach exactly, adapt it, or create your own. Shadow Lock is the community. How you play is up to you.

Two ways. Open booster packs using credits you earn from gameplay, which is the primary way. Or, rarely, win a card in a Shadow Duel. That is it. No trading, no buying, and no selling, ever.

No. Shadow Duels are rare, optional events, not a core feature of Shadow Lock. Two players who happen to meet in game can agree to put a card on the line and fight for it, but most Shadow Lock accounts never duel at all. The mode is about building your collection through packs.

Not in the core rules. Shadow Lock changes progression, not RuneScape's existing mechanics. An optional death penalty modifier exists for players who want higher stakes.

No. LMS is TCG Chaos's designated practice ground. The Bronzeman TCG Allow Last Man Standing setting lifts all restrictions automatically inside LMS. Deaths in LMS have no consequences. When you leave the match all card restrictions return immediately.

Foils are your rarest, most prestigious pulls, and they get two special properties:

• Hall of Fame. Every foil you pull is permanently yours and shown off as a trophy. They are your achievements.
• Cannot be lost. Foil cards are permanent Hall of Fame trophies. They cannot be lost in any way. If you take on the optional Foil Shadow Duels modifier, foils are the only cards put on the line there.

The Starter Guide tab has a complete route that uses only activities with no card requirements. It covers punching dummies, the Varrock Museum quiz and rooftop agility, and gets you to 102,454 credits, which is about 40 packs. See the Starter Guide tab for the full route breakdown.

TCG Locked by s59 received a major update in July 2026 fixing compatibility with OSRS TCG. It now reads collections directly from the OSRS TCG plugin. A new group play feature was also added where players in the same RuneLite Party share card unlocks. If you run TCG Locked alongside Bronzeman TCG make sure all three plugins are fully updated.

No. Shadow Lock is a fan-made community companion site. It is not affiliated with Jagex or the OSRS TCG plugin team. The official plugin is by Az on the RuneLite Plugin Hub. See the disclaimer.