Pest Queen

The Pest queen is the final monster encountered in the quest The Void Stares Back, and is featured as the boss. At level 599, it is the second highest combat level quest monster, between the Decaying avatar and Nomad.

Background
The Pest Queen is the leader of all pests. She decides what strategy pests use during one of their assaults, and she is again controlled by the evil Wizard Grayzag. Due to her, pests always attack the same. E.g. ravagers are the front line and clear the battlefield, while leeches stay back and heal wounded pests. She is summoned by Grayzag through a portal in the Void. Usually, she would be instantly defeated by Valluta, but he cannot fight due to being under the effect of "foodgoo". Therefore, the player has to kill her.

Goal
The main goal in this battle is to prevent the Queen from using her special attack while keeping your rangers alive. The rangers are important because they kill the drones, which heal the Queen. However, the Pest Queen will summon elite defilers to kill the rangers. Therefore, it is your job to distract the defilers.

There can be a maximum of eight rangers present in the battle (two at each corner of the battlefield). When this is achieved, the drones will be killed off rather quickly.

Defense
The Pest Queen uses magic and melee attacks, using magic attacks when the player is out of melee range. When the player is in melee range, the Pest Queen will use both attack styles, although she will use melee attacks more. Pray Protect from Melee with Piety or Turmoil when next to the Pest Queen, and switch to Protect from Magic when at least one step away from the Pest Queen (for example, when you're going to attack the Elite Defilers). However, neither protection prayer will fully block all damage. Therefore, it is recommended to wear armour with good magic and melee defense. A combination of dragonhide armour/Karil's and Verac's works well.

Intially, the Queen will constantly be healed by the drones because there will not be enough rangers to kill the drones quickly. This is why it is important to distract the elite defilers (more details in the Offense section), because they are responsible for killing the rangers. As soon as the defilers are distracted, the rangers will accumulate and begin taking down the drones.

Offense
Korasi's sword is a must in this battle. You must use the sword's special attack to prevent the Queen from her own special attack, or else she will hit you and most of the NPCs assisting you for about 500 lifepoints. You do not want to let this happen, because she can also kill the Void rangers, who are extremely valuable in the battle because they are the only ones who can kill the drones (which heal the Queen). You can tell when the Queen will use her special attack when she stops attacking and rears up.

For this battle only, the sword's special attack will drain 15% of the bar (normally, it drains 60%). Therefore, you should not have to worry about running out of special attack power. However, if the battle rages on for too long, you may be forced to take some of the Queen's special attacks (and have some of your reinforcements killed) while waiting for the bar to refill. Do not try to avoid her special attack, or she will heal. Try not to use the special attack with any other weapon (unless you have restore special potions) as you need the special attack to stop the queen powering up (or you will get hit 500+ lifepoints). A Ring of Vigour (requires 62 Dungeoneering) will keep your special attack bar from draining as fast, which may also be useful for this battle.

The Queen is weak to Korasi's sword, which is convenient. An abyssal whip or a chaotic weapon also work well (especially against the Elite defilers), but you will lose an inventory space.

Distract the two defilers as soon as they spawn. The defilers will kill your rangers, who must remain alive. When starting the battle, wait for a ranger to run into the battle, because a defiler will soon appear to attack it. As soon as the defiler spawns, attack it once to get its attention. When the second defiler appears, distract it as well. Afterward, you can trap the defilers behind the Queen to prevent them from attacking you or the rangers, and you will be able to concentrate on killing the Queen.

Piety or Turmoil is recommended in this battle. Be sure to bring prayer potions. Soul Split is counterproductive, as the damage caused by the inability to use protection prayers far exceed the amount of health Soul Split heals.

Summoning
Players are advised to use war tortoises, spirit terrorbirds, or any other beast of burden to store healing supplies. Another option for players with the required Summoning level is to use the Spirit kyatt familiar the whole entire fight, along with over 100 ambush scrolls. Casting its special repeatedly depletes the queen's health very fast. However, you will have less room for potions or food.

Healing

 * Use a full inventory of Saradomin brews and super restores. Use a beast of burden for extra supplies.
 * Use high-healing food, stat-boosting potions (super attack and strength potions, overloads, etc.), and prayer potions (3 should be enough for the fight).
 * Use a unicorn stallion familiar if you feel confident, but be sure to have good food, stat-boosting potions, and prayer potions.

Although many players recommend using Saradomin brews and super restores for this fight, it can be done perfectly well with a war tortoise, sharks or rocktails, a super set, and 2-3 prayer potions if you do not fancy spending much money. A player with 120 combat can defeat the Pest Queen on the first try with this method with more than 10 sharks left over. Simple fighting skills (alternating between killing elite defilers with a normal weapon and stopping the Queen's special attack with Korasi's sword's special attack as needed) are recommended though.



Trivia

 * You cannot use the Dwarf Multi-Cannon here; you won't even get a message that you can't.
 * The Pest Queen uses particle effects throughout the battle.
 * After being killed, the carcass is called "Ex-Pest Queen" with an examine of "That's going to hurt in the morning.". (This might be a reference to the first Hellboy movie.)
 * Pest queens death is currently the goriest death in whole Runescape, as half of its body explodes and what looks like intestines can be seen inside its body.