Pest Control/Strategies

This is a safe activity in an instanced area. If you die here, you will not lose any of your items, including those stored inside an Item Retrieval Service (deathbank). However, any items you drop manually on the ground will be lost. Warning: It is still dangerous for Hardcore group iron players.

Pest Control is a cooperative minigame set on the Void Knights' Outpost, where players work together to protect the Void Knight and destroy four enemy portals. The objective is simple: defeat the pests, destroy the portals, and keep the Void Knight alive.

The game features various types of pests, each with unique abilities and behaviours. Players must manage their roles, whether attacking the portals, defending the Void Knight, or preventing pests from healing the portals.

The only hard requirement to participate in a game of Pest Control is to have a combat level of 40 or above.

• 60+
• 60+
• 60+
• 75+
• 60+
• 60+

During a round of pest control, the players must organise themselves to balance between attacking the portals and defending the void knight.

Some players should focus on the platform, walls, and area within attack range of the Void Knight. Shifters, Defilers, Ravagers and Torchers often make it into range of the Void Knight, and if he is allowed to die, the round will end prematurely.

Other players should focus on destroying the four portals spread around the island and a majority of the enemies that spawn from them. Portals have an initial immunity period which attackers should use to kill the Spinners, Brawlers, and Splatters; in addition to other pests as necessary. As soon as the portal's immunity period is up, players should focus on killing all remaining Spinners as they heal the portal, and then kill the portal as quickly as possible.

To be eligible for rewards, players must actively participate in the game by damaging portals and pests, or repairing barricades and gates.

• Attacking enemies grants moderate activity increases. Defenders primarily will focus on defending the Void Knight from the attacking pests by either pulling aggression off them or by flat out killing the pests.
• Attacking Portals and Spinners provides a higher activity boost. Portal Killers should have high damage output as the damage amount can easily be healed by a rogue Spinner.
• Repairing barricades and gates also grants high activity increases and provides a small amount of Crafting experience (5 XP per repair).
  • Players who prefer non-combat roles can stay active by focusing on repairs. Note: a hammer is required to repair barricades.
  • Completing the Easy Kandarin Diary is recommended, as the Kandarin headgear doubles log output from normal trees, which do not respawn on the island. These logs can be used to repair barricades.

Pests are the monsters that spawn out of portals to kill players and the Void Knight.

Brawlers are the largest and most resilient creatures in the Pest Control activity.

Brawlers block the player and other monsters from pathing through them. Defilers and Torchers cannot shoot over brawlers, and Shifters are unable to teleport through them. Brawlers will never attack the Void Knight.

Their combat levels can be 51, 76, 101, 111 or 129, and their colouring is based on their level.

Defilers can throw ranged spikes over long distances, which can inflict a large amount of damage to the Void Knight or players. They can launch their barbs over the walls, although they are unable to fire over the gates.

Their combat levels vary from 33, 50, 66, 80, or 93, and their colouring is based on these levels.

Ravagers are non-aggressive and attack gates and barricades initially, compromising the structures protecting the Void Knight. When attacked, a ravager will often continue destroying its target (if any) before engaging in combat with the attacking player.

Their combat levels can be 36, 53, 71, 89, or 106 and their colouring is based on these levels.

Shifters can teleport short distances over walls. They constantly appear next to, and attack, the Void Knight. Shifters are one of the few monsters that can attack at a diagonal. They also seem to hit from a distance while teleporting.

Although they have the ability to teleport other monsters, such as ravagers and torchers (and up on to towers), they can only teleport others a very short distance.

Their combat levels can be 36, 57, 76, 90, or 104 and their colouring is based on these levels.

Spinners repair nearby portals at a rapid speed. Since they often prevent players from destroying the portals quickly (and thus extend the length of the mini-game) they are the first priority to kill, even if the portal they surround is still protected.

If the players manage to destroy the portal before any spinners healing it are killed, the spinners will spin around violently and then explode, hitting all players within a few squares with poison that deals 5 hit points of damage instantaneously and then poisons for 1 hit point afterwards.

Their combat levels can be 37, 55, 74, 88, or 92.

Splatters will go towards the nearest standing barricades or fort doors and detonate, causing 5-24 Typeless damage (cannot be mitigated by prayers) to all players and monsters within a 3x3 radius, as well as weakening the structures they were targeting. This will also happen if they are killed, which is easy since they are often low level and weak defensively. When a splatter "detonates" near another splatter, if the secondary splatters' health is low enough, the damage may cause a chain reaction.

By making several or many splatters follow a player, they can position this chain reaction of detonations ontop of portals or other players, likely killing everything/everyone surrounding them. Hardcore group ironman should be very careful of this interaction.

Their combat levels can be 22, 33, 44, 54, or 65 and their colouring is based on these levels. Killing them is a higher priority the closer they get to the gates, as their explosions can damage the gates. Splatters will never attack the Void Knight, and do not inflict damage to them if killed nearby.

Torchers have a long distance magic attack which can harm both players and the Void Knight, whom they primarily focus. They can even launch this attack over walls, though if they are in the spaces right in front of one of the three gates, they cannot shoot over it, so keeping them closed will block those directly in front of it. They have relatively low Hitpoints and Defence, so they are dispatched easily.

Their combat levels can be 33, 49, 67, 79, 91 or 92 and their colouring is based on these levels.

Portals are the key mechanic in Pest Control. A portal will continually spawn pests until it is destroyed. At the start of each game, all four portals are shielded, rendering them invulnerable to damage. Players must wait for the Void Knight to disable the shields before they can begin attacking. The first shield will drop 15 seconds into the game, and subsequent shields will fall in 30-second intervals. The portals will be announced as their shields drop, and all shields will be down by 1 minute and 45 seconds into the game.

The best approach is for players to follow the portals as they open. Initially, focus on killing or luring away the Spinners as they spawn. Multiple Spinners will stack their repair effects, rendering a portal effectively invulnerable. Once the Spinners are dealt with, players can proceed to destroy the portal. Players should always close gates as they pass through them to help protect the Void Knight.

Once a portal is destroyed, the Void Knight will recover 50 health. The game will end once all four portals are destroyed.

Each portal begins with 200 Hitpoints in the novice lander, or 250 in the intermediate and veteran landers. The portals also have a defence level of 120 and +100 defensive bonuses for each attack style, except for their specific weaknesses. Players cannot cast the Curse spell on any of the portals, though Vulnerability and Defence-draining special attacks (e.g. Bandos godsword) can be used to lower the portals' Defence level.^[1] Players attacking the portal should either exploit its weakness or have high accuracy. The specific weaknesses of each portal are listed in the table below:

Colour		Location	Attack weakness	Extra info
	Purple	West		The purple portal is weakest to ranged attacks.
	Blue	East		The blue portal is weakest to magic attacks.
	Yellow	South-East		The yellow portal is weakest to slash and stab attacks. The yellow portal is often the easiest to kill through special attacks such as that of the Dragon dagger.
	Red	South-West		The red portal is weakest to crush attacks. The red portal will never be the first shield to drop.

The following table shows the order in which portals shields will drop. In general, Portal 1 and Portal 2 will predict which portal shields will drop as Portal 3 and Portal 4. The red portal shield will never drop first.

Portal 1	Portal 2	Portal 3	Portal 4

Defence is a crucial aspect of Pest Control, as the knight's health directly impacts the success of the game. Since there is no formal organisation for attacking or defending, it is important for players to stay aware and assist where needed. Regularly monitor the walls and the central platform to assess whether the Void Knight is under attack. If the knight’s health begins to drop or pests start swarming the area, take action to defend. Defending isn’t just about staying near the knight; it also involves proactively clearing pests before they reach him.

Focus on disrupting enemy attacks, especially from Torchers and Defilers, as these enemies are the most dangerous to the Void Knight. They will actively target him with ranged attacks. If you can get in front of them and attack before they fire, you’ll draw their aggression, preventing them from damaging the knight.

Closing the gates can reduce the number of threats reaching the Void Knight.

Splatters and Ravagers can destroy the barricades and gates around the island. If these gates are breached, pests will be able to reach the Void Knight freely. Focus on eliminating these monsters before they can damage the gates. However, defending the gates becomes increasingly difficult due to the speed at which Splatters and Ravagers can destroy them.

Repairing barricades is also an option if the gates are destroyed, as it can slow down the pests’ approach to the Void Knight. However, this often becomes a losing battle due to the high damage potential of Ravagers and Splatters. Instead, prioritise eliminating the pests causing the damage and only repair barricades when absolutely necessary.

Melee weapons are generally the most effective choice in Pest Control, especially due to their low or non existent cost of use.

Some players find Dharok the Wretched's equipment to be both fun and effective, but weapons such as an abyssal whip or dragon scimitar will suffice.

• Players using the Dharok's set can use a locator orb to reduce themselves to 1 HP to maximise damage output.
• Lower levelled players can position themselves behind portals to reduce the amount of incoming damage.
• Closing the doors after passing through them will help mitigate some of the aggression towards the Void Knight in the middle.

Some players need to ensure that the Void Knight survives long enough for the other players to destroy all four portals. Two high levelled players are more than enough to keep the knight alive on the platform itself.

Most monsters attacking the Void Knight will be shifters but defilers and torchers deal more damage per hit and also attack from a distance. If there are only a few shifters and a few defilers or torchers, your attacking priority should be moved to the latter two monsters.

At each corner of the fortress is a tower players can climb for a superior vantage point. Towers can play a powerful role in Pest Control, allowing ranged players to provide consistent damage output while maintaining a safe distance from enemy pests. This is particularly effective with weapons that have a high attack range, such as the Bow of Faerdhinen, Dark bow, Karils crossbow, and Crystal bow, which allow players to engage enemies from farther distances while avoiding unnecessary damage.

• Brawler is one of only five creatures that you cannot run through (the others being Monkey Guards on Ape Atoll, and the monsters fought in the quest Dream Mentor) - they block your path in a similar manner to the barricades in the Castle Wars activity.
• A common misconception is that special attacks or prayers will cause Spinners to spawn, but this is a myth.

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