Runescape Pest Control Guide Guide by King of Inland Version 1.1 1. Table of Contents -------------------- 1. Table of Contents 2. Introduction 3. Information 4. Monsters 5. Rewards 6. Strategies and Tips 6a. Defense Strategies 6b. Offense Strategies 7. Version Updates 8. Copyright Stuff 9. Credits 2. Introduction -------------------- Pest Control is a mini-game in which the player helps the Void Knights, a military group that serves Guthix. It's their job to protect the constant balance of good and evil in Gielnor. They need the assistance of players to exterminate some nasty monsters on the island south of their outpost. Will you step up to the challenge? 3. Information -------------------- To get to the Void Knight Outpost, you must go to Port Sarim and follow the docks south. Before the very last dock, you'll see a wharf with void knights on it. Talk to one of them to get transported to the island. Once on the island, you'll notice that there are a few buildings. A bank, magic store, anvil, archery store, and general store. To actually start the mini-game, you'll need to go into one of three boats. Here are the boats and their level requirements: Novice: Level 40 or higher Intermediate: Level 70 or higher Veteran: Level 100 or higher Each boat rewards two, three, and four points, respectively, per successful game; as well as a certain number of coins. The coins you get per game won is determined by adding a 0 next to your combat level. For example, if you're 73 combat, you'll get 730 coins as a reward. For a game to immediately start, you'll need at least 25 people on your boat. If there are more than 25 people, some people will be left behind and given a "Priority Level". This increases their chance of not getting left behind the next time the boat goes over the 25-person limit. Once the game starts, you'll notice that there's a void knight on a platform in the middle of the area. Your team's job is to protect this void knight from enemy attack while simultaneously attempting to destroy the four portals that release monsters. At the top left of your screen are two icons. The upper icon is the void knight's HP, which is 200 at its peak. Just below the knight's HP is a sword icon. This tells you how much damage you have inflicted on various monsters during the game. You must have at least fifty points of damage to get the reward if your team wins the game. At the top right area of your screen are four portal icons. They each tell the HP of the portal they represent. If you're killing portals, you'll definitely want to keep an eye on this. The HP of the portal varies per level. The area around the knight is surrounded by wooden fences. Each fence has a set of two large gates. The fences will block the enemies that can't range, mage, or directly teleport to the void knight. However, the gates on the fences can be damaged and eventually destroyed by certain monsters. Also, at the corners of the fence intersections are tower perches for rangers and mages. Be wary, though, one can still be hit by the enemies that mage and range. As well as the Shifters, who can teleport. Fortunately, outside the fences are some barricades that the enemies will have to penetrate before even getting to the gates. If you want to repair gates or barricades, you'll need an axe(for chopping logs) and a hammer. Very few people ever repair, though. It's really a waste of time, as the gates will soon be damaged and destroyed again anyway. Most people focus on defending and/or portal attacking. Before you can even attack the portals, you'll have to wait for the shield around them to go down. The order in which portals become vulnerable is completely random. You'll know when a portal loses its shield by looking at its icon. A portal with an active shield will have a gray semicircle under its icon. When this semicircle vanishes, the portal will be ripe for assailment. If a portal is destroyed, the knight will heal 50 HP. If you somehow die, you will respawn back at the boat and you can continue playing. You won't have to worry about losing your items, as this is a "safe" minigame. Also, if you die, your prayer, special attack bar, and obviously, HP, gets replenished. If a void knight dies before all the portals are destroyed, your team will lose the game and you will recieve nothing. 4. Monsters -------------------- In Pest Control, there are some highly evil monsters that come out of portals. In this section, I will give some information about them. The levels of the monsters vary per difficulty. Brawler Style of attack: Melee Effects: Brawlers CANNOT be walked through, maged over, or ranged over. Notes: Brawlers usually target one person and follow them around. If one happens to be bothering you, just walk around it. You can kill it if you want, but it's usually not that big of a deal unless you're trying to kill Spinners near a portal. Be aware that a Brawler takes up more than one square. Defiler Style of attack: Ranged Effects: None Notes: Defilers aren't really too much of a problem. However, when one is attacking the knight, kill it immediately! Ravager Style of attack: Melee Effects: Barricade and gate destruction. Notes: If you see one, it's advised you kill it before it decides to start destroying gates. Shifter Style of attack: Melee Effect: Teleportation. Notes: If a Shifter decides to attack you, it will teleport and follow you until it is killed. Some Shifters will actually teleport to the void knight and start meleeing him or her. This shouldn't be a problem if your team has people at the knight. Spinner Style of attack: Melee Effects: Portal repairing and poisoning. Notes: If you see a Spinner, kill it at once! It can continually repair a portal that loses HP. They usually aren't far from the portal they originated from, so they're easy to find. If a spinner is still alive when a portal is destroyed, it will explode and poison all players in the vicinity. Splatter Style of attack: Melee Effects: Explosion. Notes: Ah... My personal favorite of the monsters. When a Splatter comes out of a portal, it might head toward a barricade and explode. Their explosion can damage any barricade or gate, which is why you must be wary of them. Killing a Splatter will also cause it to explode. If a monster or player is hit by the explosion, each can lose up to 24 HP. The explosion is of short ranged and only affects the squares around the Splatter. For some fun and monster death, one can also attack and lure Splatters(see Tips and Strategies section) to set them up for a huge suicidal explosion that can effectively eliminate enemies in an area. Torcher Style of attack: Magic Effects: None Note: Like Defilers, Torchers aren't much of a problem. However, if you see one attacking a knight, kill it. 5. Rewards -------------------- Now, it's time to discuss the spoils. The reward you get from the void knights range from exp in your combat skills to void knight armor. The maximum amount of points you can hold is 250. If you use the 100-point option to get exp, you will recieve a 10% bonus. If you use the 10-point option, you will get a 1% bonus. The amount of exp you get for a skill is determined by a formula. Attack/Strength/Defense: ((Level squared)/600=X(rounded))*35 Magic/Ranged: ((Level squared)/600=X(rounded))*32 Prayer: ((Level squared)/600=X(rounded))*18 Herb packet: 30 points Mineral packet: 15 points Seed packet: 15 points Void Knight Mace: 250 points Void Knight Robe: 250 points Void Knight Top: 250 points Void Knight Mage Helmet: 200 points Void Knight Range Helmet: 200 points Void Knight Melee Helmet: 200 points Void Knight Gloves: 150 points Void Seal: 10 points The full Void Knight set with a helm gives certain bonuses. Wearing the set with the melee helmet will give 10% more attack and strength; with the range helmet 10% more ranged power; and with the mage helmet 30% more magic accuracy. Other interesting items include the void seal, which has eight charges and can be worn as an amulet. Activating it around enemies will damage them. In addition, the void mace, which is one of the best items for mages in the game, adds 10% of full power to all offensive magic spells. Requirements to buy all void items are 42 in each of attack, strength, defense, magic, and ranged, and 22 in prayer. Void Knight Mace Attack bonuses Stab: +22 Slash: +2 Crush: +41 Magic: +8 Range: +2 Defense bonuses Stab: +2 Slash: +2 Crush: +2 Magic: +2 Range: +2 Other bonuses Strength: +38 Prayer +6 Void Knight Robe Attack bonuses Stab: +0 Slash: +0 Crush: +0 Magic: +0 Range: +0 Defense bonuses Stab: +30 Slash: +30 Crush: +30 Magic: +30 Range: +30 Other bonuses Strength: +0 Prayer: +0 Void Knight Top Attack bonuses Stab: +0 Slash: +0 Crush: +0 Magic: +0 Range: +0 Defense bonuses Stab: +45 Slash: +45 Crush: +45 Magic: +45 Range: +45 Other bonuses Strength: +0 Prayer: +0 Void Knight Mage Helmet Attack bonuses Stab: +0 Slash: +0 Crush: +0 Magic: +0 Range: +0 Defense bonuses Stab: +6 Slash: +6 Crush: +6 Magic: +6 Range: +6 Other bonuses Strength: +0 Prayer: +0 Void Knight Range Helmet Attack bonuses Stab: +0 Slash: +0 Crush: +0 Magic: +0 Range: +0 Defense bonuses Stab: +6 Slash: +6 Crush: +6 Magic: +6 Range: +6 Other bonuses Strength: +0 Prayer: +0 Void Knight Melee Helmet Attack bonuses Stab: +0 Slash: +0 Crush: +0 Magic: +0 Range: +0 Defense bonuses Stab: +6 Slash: +6 Crush: +6 Magic: +6 Range: +6 Other bonuses Strength: +0 Prayer: +0 Void Knight Gloves Attack bonuses Stab: +0 Slash: +0 Crush: +0 Magic: +0 Range: +0 Defense bonuses Stab: +6 Slash: +6 Crush: +6 Magic: +4 Range: +6 Other bonuses Strength: +0 Prayer: +0 Void Seal Attack bonuses Stab: +0 Slash: +0 Crush: +0 Magic: +0 Range: +0 Defense bonuses Stab: +1 Slash: +1 Crush: +1 Magic: +1 Range: +1 Other bonuses Strength: +0 Prayer: +0 6. Strategies and Tips ---------------------- In this section, some stretegy will be discussed on both offense and defense; both of which are very important to the game. Personally, I find defense more crucial because a team that defends the knight well will have a much longer game than a team obsessed with only portal destruction. 6a. Defense Strategies ---------------------- 1. First off, the main (and most important) form of defense for most players is Shifter killing. Once the game starts, some people will go to the central platform where the knight is standing. They stand there because of the fact that Shifters will teleport to the Void Knight and start attacking him or her. A suitable amount of players for "platform guarding" would be about five or more. Once the two southern portals are destroyed, the number of Shifters that appear at the knight will drastically decrease. Be wary to ignore the Shifters attacking other players. Only the ones attacking the knight require attention. 2. The next form of defense I will talk about is "gate guarding". This is when people go to the gates and tarry there. Eventually, torchers and defilers will come to attack the knight from a distance. Obviously, the job of the guards is to kill any of the torchers and defilers that are attacking the knight. The southern gate will need about four people since there are two portals. The eastern and western gate will only need one person each. Why only one person? To put it simply, the eastern gate will always be destroyed quickly. If a person were to stand in front of a torcher or defiler, that enemy would attack the knight. However, the monsters in the line behind the attacking enemy cannot attack. This makes it easy to pick off the threats one-by-one. If you have another person, the enemies are going to be killed fairly quickly. This concept applies to the western gate. That particular gate, however, isn't destroyed as quickly as the eastern gate. 3. There is a golden rule that every defender (or player for that matter) must abide. Never leave any gates open! Leaving gates open is an invitation for attack by the enemy. Usually, the people who leave gates open are new to the game and do not know what they are doing, or are just flat-out morons. If you see a gate open, close it. 6b. Offense Strategies ---------------------- 1. The most important aspect of offense is the art of attacking portals. Of course, portal attacking isn't as easy as it used to be. Ever since Jagex has added shields to the portals, the pace of the game has changed. Firstly, a mobile group of people should attack ONE portal at a time. There's no point in splitting up and attacking multiple portals. The single group of portal attackers should have atleast ten people for a quick extermination. Since a portal can be attacked from multiple spots. The best thing would be for some attackers to stand at the front as a precauation against Spinners, which heal the portal. Sometimes, more than one Spinner will come out for repairs. Therefore, it is essential that there are atleast three people at the front. Spinners may sometimes be covert, so be sure to right click when attacking. The main job of people at the side of or behind the portals is to attack the portal itself. The people at the front should presumably be taking care of the Spinners. This make for an efficient portal-destroying machine. 2. Now, I will discuss one of my favorite things to do during a game of Pest Control. The art of Splatter luring. There will always be people that aren't in a specific group. They can either join and assist another group or just leech and get hits for the reward. What fun would that be? The primary purpose of Splatter luring is to kill off or weaken a group of enemies, but a secondary purpose could be simple exhilaration. To start Splatter luring, attack a Splatter and weaken it a bit. Do NOT kill it or you will defeat the purpose of luring. Once you have weakened a Splatter, proceed to find another one to weaken and lure. The recommended number of Splatters to lure is seven, but the mininum is five. When luring, be wary of people who pointlessly attack Splatters, as they will interfere with your luring. Also, Splatters that are following another player cannot be lured. Sometimes, a Splatter that is following you may depare to an barricade that hasn't been completely destroyed and damage it via explosion. Simply avoid any gates or barriers if possible. Once you have enough Splatters, go to a spot where there is a mass of enemies. Usually, enemy-populated areas spots are in front of portals or outside of gates. Once you have your Splatters in position (presumably on squares around enemies and lured Splatters), attack one of your Splatters until it explodes. The damage from the explosion will hit enemies and kill another Splatter (assuming you've weakened it enough), which in turn will cause another explosion. The process keeps repeating until all the Splatters you lured have blown up. After this barrage of explosions, you, the orchestrator of the bomb barrage, as well as a large portion of the enemy mass, is killed or weakened severely. Don't try to escape the explosion, as the Splatters may follow you, thus causing less explosions or even an ineffective lure. If you have Splatters near a portal, be aware of any Brawlers (which easily impede) or players. Any players caught in the explosions may also die. 7. Version Updates ------------------ Version 1.0-November 17, 2007: The initial version of the guide is finally finished. Updates will occur when necessary. Version 1.1-November 25, 2007: Some grammatical errors have been corrected. Version 2.1-February 15, 2010: Years after making this guide, I thought that I should update and improve the writing. Therefore, I will release a new version of the guide with some additions and corrections. 8. Copyright Stuff ------------------ This guide can not be copied or reproduced in any way, shape, or form. The only website that can host this FAQ is GameFAQs.com. This FAQ is property of King of Inland and can not be hosted on any site without permission. If you see any site hosting this FAQ without permission, please e-mail me at blues0619@yahoo.com. 9. Credits ---------- Thanks to CJayC for making this site. Thanks to tip.it for the experience formulas. Thanks to Andrew Gower and the rest of Jagex. Copyright 2010 Jamall T.