Partyhats

For other uses, see Partyhat (disambiguation).

Partyhats are iconic items within RuneScape. The blue, green, purple, red, yellow, and white partyhats were originally obtained by opening a Christmas cracker during the 2001 Christmas event, which was the second ever holiday event to occur in the early days of RuneScape Classic. They were the first tradeable discontinued items that could be equipped and have gone onto become some of the rarest and most valuable items in the game, being recognised as a symbol of wealth by players. Their value far exceeds the maximum cash value. Before the update to Grand Exchange and the money pouch, they were traded almost exclusively outside the Grand Exchange. They have played a significant role in the game's economy, having been used as investments and stores of wealth by players due to their perceived stability against inflation.

A new tradeable permanently discontinued golden partyhat was introduced as part of the Golden Partyhat Hunt in 2021. This was obtained through collecting and combining golden partyhat shards during the event. The black partyhat was added to the game as part of the 2023 Christmas event. Every week players had a chance to deliver three letters a day for one nice point (total of seven a week). Santa would pick out a few lucky players based off nice points on every Sunday to receive the black partyhat. The black partyhat is slated to return in future Christmas events.

List of partyhats

Item		GE Price
	Red partyhat	55,653,953,245
	Yellow partyhat	38,288,124,772
	White partyhat	75,792,259,461
	Green partyhat	39,653,127,029
	Blue partyhat	88,937,389,789
	Purple partyhat	48,550,696,632
	Golden partyhat	196,858,094
	Black partyhat	14,576,918,904

History of the first six partyhats

Partyhats were introduced on 31 December 2001 as a possible reward from pulling Christmas crackers, which were dropped throughout Gielinor on this day, by using them on other players. When pulled, the player who had the cracker and the player it was used on each had a 50/50 chance to receive a randomly coloured party hat. The odds of receiving each party hat are:

	Item	Quantity	Rarity	GE price	High Alch
	Red partyhat	1	32/128	55,653,953,245	1
	Yellow partyhat	1	28/128	38,288,124,772	1
	White partyhat	1	23/128	75,792,259,461	1
	Green partyhat	1	20/128	39,653,127,029	1
	Blue partyhat	1	15/128	88,937,389,789	1
	Purple partyhat	1	10/128	48,550,696,632	1

The original partyhats were only obtainable during this one day event. At that time the playerbase of the game was small and partyhats were worth few coins; because of this not many players bothered to keep them. This meant that only a limited volume of partyhats entered the game. Over time, the volume of partyhats in the game continued to diminish as accounts which had obtained them were banned or became inactive.

In RuneScape Classic all partyhats were simply named "Party Hat" and had the examine text "Party!!!". They were only distinguishable by the colour of the item. They had no stats upon their release. Purple partyhats were more magenta coloured in RuneScape Classic, and were referred to as "pink partyhats" by some players.

The price of partyhats drastically changed on 7 November 2003 after players abused the partyhat duplication glitch to spawn partyhats. This particularly affected the purple partyhat, which was the rarest and most expensive of the partyhats prior to the glitch and which subsequently became the least valuable of the partyhats due the perception of it being targeted by players abusing the glitch.

Some time after the release of RuneScape 2 partyhats were renamed from the generic item name of "Party Hat" to their current naming format. Jagex also made a slight colour change to the purple partyhat, and it was then named "purple partyhat".

During the 15 Days of Christmas event in 2013 party hats, along with other Christmas-themed equipment, were given the hybrid style of combat, and stats that scaled with the player's levels. This was so players could use these items in combat to assist in hunting for festive crackers during the event.

Comments from Mod Lorenzo about Jagex's stance on adding more tradeable discontinued items in 2009

Due to the playerbase's reaction to partyhats and other tradeable holiday event rewards Jagex made items obtained from these events untradeable and limited to one item per account as of the 2003 Easter event onwards. Jagex wanted to avoid upset caused by some players hoarding the tradeable holiday items and later reselling them for "massively unfair prices". No further tradeable discontinued items were added to the game until the fish mask was released in 2012.

Mod Ash confirmed that when the trade limit was introduced in 2 January 2008 the way in which Christmas crackers worked was altered so that the player with the cracker always got the party hat to prevent a possible method of real world trading. When free trade was reintroduced on 1 February 2011 on this was changed back to a 50/50 chance for each player pulling the cracker to receive a party hat. However since then it has been changed again so that the player owning the cracker always gets the hat and any other items from the cracker.

In-game references

Events

• During 2012 April Fools Jagex released an update post claiming that "green p-hats are lying strewn throughout the streets of Lumbridge, Varrock and Falador". This actually referred to the release of equipable peahats, which have since been available from Diango.
• Garish-pink and off-white partyhats were possible drops from JMod clones which were first seen during the Battle of Lumbridge event in 2013. Trying to pick up one of the hats gave the message Oh...it vanished.
• During the 2014 April Fools event JMod accounts were seen in game transmogrified into black partyhats. Players were also transformed into sepia, off-white, teal, orange and garish-pink partyhats if they attempted to telegrab a transmogrified JMod. The default animation for using a bonfire was also changed from throwing logs into the fire to the player throwing a random coloured party hat into the fire. The Partyhat Firemaking animation override was later made unlockable through the RuneScape Road Trip tasks in May 2014.
• During the 15 Year Anniversary Celebrations in 2016 players could create an equippable 15th anniversary party hat that can be reobtained from Diango if it was obtained during the event.
• In the 2016 Christmas event there is dialogue with Diango where he claims to have been the original creator of partyhats.
• The 2018 April Fools event saw blue, green, purple, red, white, and yellow partyhats spawned on the ground across Gielinor. Trying to pick one up would yield the message You cast the partyhat aside and pick up a precious ring you find underneath it instead. A ring of rares would then appear in the player's inventory, which players could use to transmogrify into any colour party hat, as well as a number of other rare items. After the event was over all of the rings were removed from the game.

Permanent content

• When the Fancy Clothes Store was first released on 23 October 2002 it sold red partyhats, though players could not buy them since the stock was always 0. This was removed 3 weeks later on 13 November 2002.
• In the Wise Old Man quest series, which began with the release of the Swan Song quest in 2006, the Wise Old Man is shown to be an owner of a blue partyhat. He obtained the partyhat during the Draynor Bank Robbery.
• A possible quote that Uri, released in 2006, will say upon a player completing part of a Treasure Trail is "Once, I was a poor man, but then I found a party hat.".
• An equippable chromatic partyhat can be bought in New Varrock. This area was released with the Dimension of Disaster quest in 2015.
• Pink partyhats feature in Gower Quest, released in 2016. They have a wear option, but cannot actually be equipped. Attempting to do so gives a message You start to put the partyhat on and then you imagine the sad faces of the 4 cabbages in the field. With a sudden wave of guilt, you lower it from your head.
• Relomia's party hat override can be unlocked by completing the Once Upon a Time in Gielinor: Foreshadowing miniquest which was released in 2021.

• 

  Peahat

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  JMod transmogrified into a black partyhat

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  Partyhat firemaking animation override

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  Chromatic partyhat

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  15th anniversary party hat

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  Relomia's party hat

Update history

This information has been compiled as part of the update history project. Some updates may not be included – see here for how to help out!

• patch 9 February 2011 (Update):
  • Party hat variants will now change in price by up to 5% per day, dependent on demand.

• patch 24 June 2010 (Update):
  • Resolved a long-standing issue when wearing party hats with a particular female haircut.

• patch 20 January 2009 (Update):
  • Players without hair will no longer spontaneously gain hair while wearing party hats.

Trivia

• White partyhats were the most sought after colour of partyhat in a poll of players' colour preferences conducted in 2009, with 24% of the votes. This was followed by red (23%), blue (22%), green (12%), purple (7%), yellow (6%) and 6% of players saying that they would not like to own a partyhat.
• The blue and red partyhats were the first items to pass the 1 billion coins price mark on the Grand Exchange on 3 March 2011.
• On 5 June 2011 the white partyhat was the first item ever on the Grand Exchange to hit a price of 2,147,483,647 coins.