Pest Control

Pest Control (PC) is a co-operative members-only combat-based activity. Players must defend an NPC known as the Void Knight from an onslaught of monsters, while at the same time destroying the portals from which the monsters spawn. It is advisable to have some players stay at the Void Knight and some at each portal.

The activity is played in the name of Guthix to retain balance in the world, which may be disrupted by an influx of monsters invading islands in the south of the world. It is run by an order of Guthix known as the Void Knights. Players board landers, which transport them to islands under invasion. The activity is divided into three landers; access to each lander is determined by combat level. The official worlds for this activity are 53, 69, 115, and 144. Having played at least one game of Pest Control is a requirement to complete the quest Quiet Before the Swarm.

This is a 'safe' activity. Players who die keep their items, respawn on the lander, and can rejoin combat immediately. In addition, Life points, Prayer points, the Special Attack bar, and run Energy are fully restored at the end of each game (Note: arrows and runes are NOT returned to you at the end of the game). All stats are restored to their normal levels at the end of each game. This means that stats boosts of various Potions like Super sets do not carry over from game to game. This makes using these potions somewhat expensive, as each game will require a new dose from each potion.

Skills
The only requirement to participate in a game of Pest Control is to have a combat level of 40 or above. A minimum level of 40 is required to use the novice lander. To use the intermediate lander, a player must have a combat level of 70 or higher, and to use the veteran lander, a player must have a combat level of 100 or higher.

Some players attempt to recruit Pest Control players into their clans, in the hopes that high level players will join the clan and help to win a higher percentage of games in a short amount of time. These players state the clan name to join. Although any level players can join such a clan, the clan may kick out players who are lower level than the clan wants or who do not perform well in the Pest Control games.

Other players try to get high level players to switch to a world where a clan of high level players plays Pest Control, again in the hopes that high level players will help to win a higher percentage of games in a short amount of time. These players announce their intentions by saying things like, 'Trade for a 100 plus world'. By opening the trading interface (no items need be exchanged), the advertising player can verify the trading player's combat level and, if it is high enough, will then disclose the world that the clan is playing Pest Control on. The world is disclosed by the number of items (usually coins) the advertising player places in the trading interface. For example, if the advertising player places 150 coins in the interface, then the clan is on World 150. This procedure keeps the world number private and thus prevents its disclosure to anyone below the clan's desired combat levels.

Participation
In order to receive commendations, a player must inflict 500 points of damage before the end of the game. Repairing a barricade or gate on the island acts as 50 points of damage on a monster, allowing players who may not be able to get the required points in the time allotted or players who do not want to train a combat-related skill to receive points. Therefore, if a player did no combat at all during a game of Pest Control, he/she would have to repair 10 barricades or gates. You can get 50 points of damage from repairing gates on any level boat.

Experience-wise, in-game, you earn half of your normal experience, which is 1/5th experience per hit to your attack style. However in a hidden update the experience for portals was doubled to 1/2.5 experience per hit.

Players
A game of Pest Control can be played by 5 to 25 players. Multiple games may be played at once by many groups of 25 players. Anyone who wishes to play must board the lander. If the lander fills with 25 players, the game will begin automatically. Otherwise, players must wait 5 minutes for the game to begin.

Restrictions
Pets are not allowed on the island. Dwarven Multicannons and Familiars may not be used during the activity. A message similar to,"You feel it's best to keep your Familiar away during this game" will appear if you try to summon your familiar during the game.

Location
To start playing Pest Control, you must go to the docks of Port Sarim south of the Lady Lumbridge (ship), north of the carter ship. Speak with the Squire and she will ask if you want to go to the Void Knights' Outpost. Alternatively, you can right-click the squire and select 'Travel'.

To get to Port Sarim you can use the explorer's ring 3 to teleport to the cabbage patch north of Port Sarim, use fairy ring code A-I-Q to Mudskipper Point, use the Amulet of Glory's teleport to Draynor Village then go around the fence, or walk from Falador or Lumbridge. The Call to Arms scroll special brings you directly to the Void Knights' Outpost.

Players with Level 83 Farming can grow a Spirit Tree in Port Sarim, allowing quick access from the Grand Exchange or Mobilising Armies.

Another quick way to get to Port Sarim is to teleport to Ardougne, take the boat to Brimhaven and then take the Charter Ship to Port Sarim. The Charter Ship is located right next to the Squire's ship.

For players that have completed the Ghosts Ahoy quest, and have an ectophial in their possession, a quick teleport to the Ectofuntus is possible. Players can then enter Port Phasmatys and charter a ship at the docks to sail to Port Sarim for the cost of 1300 gp.

Another quick way to get to Port Sarim starts in Al Kharid. Talk to Shantay at Shantay Pass, ask him about the place, tell him you are an outlaw, ask to be deported to Port Sarim jail, picklock the jail door, and its a quick stroll to the dock.

The Outpost
The Outpost is an island, with various utilities, including:
 * Bank
 * General store - Sells unique item - Field ration
 * Anvil - Squire is a smith who can repair Barrows armour
 * Void Knight Archery Store
 * Void Knight Magic Store - Which stocks body, air, water, earth, fire, mind, chaos, and death runes

Harboured at the docks in the south-west corner of the island are three, LCVP-style ships, called "landers", which a player must board to participate in the activity. The landers carry a combat level requirement of 40, 70 or 100 to board. The lander must have 5 users on board before the activity may begin. Packed worlds such as world 2 are difficult to enter, so players often avoid these worlds for activities, hence the lack of players on the lander. Some worlds are more popular than others, particularly Worlds 53, 69, 115 and 144, which Jagex has designated as Pest Control worlds. In busy Pest Control worlds, the landers, particularly the level 40 novice one, can fill up quickly. A lander leaves soon after it has 25 players on board. Sometimes, far more than 25 players attempt to get on a lander. A player not taken in the first load of 25 players is assigned a priority number for the lander, starting at 1 and rising by 1 with each load that leaves without the player. The higher the priority number, the more likely the player will be taken in the next load. Priority numbers as high as 3 have occasionally been seen and it is rumoured that higher ones have occurred. After priority level 4 has been reached, the game will simply repeat "You have been given priority level 4 over other players in joining the next game."

On slow Pest Control worlds, a lander with a minimum of 5 but fewer than 25 players will leave after a 5 minute wait. Some players bring items to cast the High Level Alchemy spell on while they wait for the landers to fill up.

Inside and around the bank (primarily on World 144), many players lend weapons such as Saradomin swords and Godswords for a small price.

Winning
The rules for pest control are simple. There are two ways to win the game:
 * 1) Keep the Void Knight alive for 20 minutes (very difficult and rarely done due to the fact it is much faster to just destroy the portals).
 * 2) Destroy all 4 portals before the Void Knight is killed (very commonly done). Many games are won in 2 minutes with this strategy. However, the Void Knight can easily be killed even in two minutes if left undefended, so a small number of players should defend the knight. Since players rarely organise themselves, it can be worth checking the knight's status after each portal kill and switch to defence for a while if the knight is being swarmed or has less than 1/2 health.

Readouts
When in the game, three readouts appear at the top left corner of the screen:
 * The upper readout is the Void Knight's current health. This starts at 2000, and the knight dies when it reaches 0. This is perhaps the most important piece of information in the game, as players can use it to know when to come to the knight's aid. As a rough rule of thumb, if the readout is below 1000 and there are two or more portals yet to be destroyed, the knight needs rescuing as the knight may die before the portals are taken down.
 * The middle readout is the number of points the player has received for fighting pests and the portals. This starts at 0, and a player must achieve at least 500 points to be able to win commendation points.
 * The bottom readout is the time left remaining in the game. It starts at 20 minutes and is updated every 30 seconds.

Monsters
Monsters are the beasts that spawn out of portals to kill players or the Void Knight. It's mentioned that they have a hive mind in Quiet Before the Swarm.

Brawler
Brawlers are the largest and most powerful creatures in the Pest Control activity, and they defend the portals. They resemble a gorilla or a small elephant with spikes sprouting from their backs and a pointed, very slightly transparent, snout. When you see one of these creatures, ignore them, for they are the lowest priority to kill unless they are in your way. The only exception to this is if multiple Brawlers are preventing allies from attacking portals, or some are blocking your allies form defeating Spinners repairing the portals.

Normally they will not attack the fort, though they are still a match for any attempting to destroy the portal. Their combat levels can be 51, 76, 101, 111 or 129 and their colouring is based on their level. Brawlers are one of only six creatures that you cannot run through (the others being bearded Monkey Guards on Ape Atoll, Skeletons summoned by the Necrolord and the monsters fought in the quest Dream Mentor) - they block your path in a similar manner to the barricades in the Castle Wars and Soul Wars activities.

Brawlers block other monsters too. This can be used to the team's advantage by 'luring' a brawler to the steps where the Void knight is. Defilers and Torchers cannot shoot over brawlers, and Shifters are unable to teleport through them. Brawlers will never attack the Void knight. Thus, 'luring' can be an effective tactic to protect the Void Knight from potential damage by monsters behind the lured brawler. Be aware, players run by bots will usually automatically attack these lured Brawlers, and new players may need to be told not to attack.

Defiler
Defilers are fast, agile creatures in the Pest Control activity. They have the appearance of the lower half of a snake, a humanoid top half and a face resembling that of a cat. They can throw flying spikes over long distances, can inflict a large amount of Range type damage with the missiles, and will actively attack the Void Knight. They can even launch their barbs 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. Their combat levels range can be 33, 50, 66, 80, or 97 and their colouring is based on these levels.

Ravager
Ravagers are short, humanoid creatures with large claws in the Pest Control activity. Their appearance is closely related to that of a mole with over sized claws and red eyes. Although they do not attack the Void Knight directly, they are capable of tearing down the gates and barricades with just a few swipes of their claws, giving Torchers and Defilers a clearer shot at the Void Knight. As such, they must be killed as quickly as possible to protect the void knight from the torchers and defilers. Ravagers are non-aggressive, and have low defence and attack, but they have high strength and can hit fairly hard for their levels. Their combat levels can be 36, 53, 71, 89, or 106 and their colouring is based on these levels. When attacked, a ravager will often continue destroying its target (if any) before engaging in combat with the attacking player, and may also destroy anything nearby that gets repaired, and are the second priority to kill. However, if their damage is done and gates are destroyed, priority should then go to protecting the Void Knight or attacking the Portals to prevent pests from using the opening.

Shifter
Shifters are creatures that excel in melee combat and can teleport across the island and even past walls. For this reason, they are very dangerous for those on defence since they can teleport right next to the Void Knight and attack him. They have the bottom half of a spider with the scythes of a praying mantis (similar to the Abyssal demon). Their combat levels can be 36, 57, 76, 90, or 104 and their colouring is based on these levels. Although it has 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.

For some reason shifters are some of the few monsters that can attack at a diagonal, other than ranged monsters, most single squared beasts will align with the player to attack. They also seem to hit the knight from a distance while teleporting around him/her.

Spinner
Spinners are creatures that appear as spinning tops or jellyfish, and float above the ground. They repair the Portal on the island and must be defeated if the portals are to be destroyed. It is therefore recommended that players kill the Spinners first before attacking the portal, especially if more than one Spinner is present. If the humans over power the portal and destroy it before the spinner can finish healing, it will begin to spin around and then explode hitting all players within a few squares with poison that does 50 life points instantly as it explodes and poisons starting at 18 LP thereafter. Their combat levels can be 37, 55, 74, 88, or 92. They are the top priority to kill around the portals, and are best dealt with using Ranged or Magic.

Splatter
Splatters are creatures that appear like a giant, wrinkled ball with a single eye in the middle and liquid inside them. They will go towards the fort and detonate, causing big damage to all players, monsters, and objects in the immediate vicinity. 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' life points are low enough, the damage may cause a chain reaction, increasing the overall damage. Some players find amusement in exploiting the splatter's detonation. By making several or many splatters follow a player with auto-retaliate turned off, leading them into a group of enemies or players, then killing one, they can start a chain reaction of detonations, likely killing everything/everyone surrounding them. Their combat levels can be 22, 33, 44, 54, or 65 and their colouring is based on these levels. If the opportunity arises, you can use the splatters sort of like a Void Seal by detonating them near large groups of monsters. This does work on portals. This "attack" is sometimes called "splatter barrage". Also, if you are fast enough you can avoid the detonation by running away when you know they are going to detonate, but haven't started the detonation yet. This is unreliable, however. Currently no prayer protection can defend against their "detonation". Players wearing Dharok's equipment may wish to kill Splatters to lower their health and activate the set effect to do extra damage. 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 if killed near it, no damage would be dealt to the Void Knight. As hordes of Shifters tend to cluster behind the Void Knight, luring a splatter to the Void Knight and killing it would cause massive damage.

Torcher
Torchers are creatures that look like snakes with bat wings and will actively attack the Void Knight. They have a long distance magical attack which can harm both players and the Void Knight. 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. Their combat levels can be 33, 49, 67, 79, 91 or 92 and their colouring is based on these levels.

Portal
A portal is not technically a monster, but it is attackable by players. Each one has 2000 lifepoints in the novice lander or 2500 in the intermediate and experienced landers, and will spawn monsters until destroyed. Players have to wait until the shield around it disappears before the attack may begin. Its defence is very high, so be sure to have a high attack and strength level when attempting to attack it. Using the dragon battleaxe's special attack, a strength potion, or attack and strength enhancing prayers can also be very useful. Upon the destruction of a portal, the Void Knight will gain 500 life points back. Beware of spinners, as they can heal the portals, and will poison all surrounding players if the portal is destroyed before them.

A common misconception is that using special attacks on the portals will cause Spinners to appear, but this is nothing more than a myth.

Strategies
Each portal has a different weakness. Unless you are attacking a portal with very few people or by yourself, these aren't really necessary to follow.

If a portal is destroyed then the Void Knight will receive a small amount of health. It is assumed that 500 lifepoints are restored for each portal destroyed, making a total of up to 2000 lifepoints restored per game, assuming all portals are destroyed.

Note that the Void Knight only has a maximum of 2000 lifepoints so destroying a portal will not always heal the knight 500 lifepoints. For example, if the Void Knight has 1723 lifepoints, destroying a portal will only bring his health to 2000 lifepoints rather than 2223 lifepoints.

Destroying portals is the objective of the game. Not only does it heal the Void Knight, it stops the monsters from spawning from there.

Rewards
Winning players are rewarded with coins and commendation points, the amount of coins you receive is your combat level times 10. For example: a player with a combat level of 110 will receive 1100 coins per game won.

Depending on your boat, you will gain a different number of commendation points upon winning a game:


 * Novice Boat: 2 points per game won.
 * Intermediate Boat: 3 points per game won.
 * Veteran Boat: 4 points per game won.

If a player trades in 100 points in one go, they get an extra 10% experience per point. If they trade in 10 points, you get an extra 1% experience. Some players save points up to 100, then trade in, and repeat because of this "bonus" experience.

Another form of reward a player can obtain, with commendation points, is Void Knight Equipment. The Equipment includes the following items; Three Helmets (Magic, Range and Melee), Void knight robe, Void knight top, Void knight gloves, Void knight deflector and the Void knight seal. If one of the previous helmets are equiped with three of the four armour items (Void knight robe, Void knight top, Void knight gloves or/and Void knight deflector) you are provided with an additional bonus, which varys depending on what helmet you current are equiping.

Note: The most commendation points a player can have at any time is 500. If you board a boat while holding 500 points, a warning will be given to the player to trade the points in. If a player continues to play with 500 points, subsequent games will not award any commendation points. You will also get a warning if winning the next game would result in wasting points, for example if you had 498 points and you were playing in the Veteran boat (4 points per game). In this event, winning the game would only take you to the maximum 500 points, wasting the other two points, which is not considered much of a waste.

While playing Pest Control, you have a chance to obtain boots from the three Hybrid armour sets.

See Void Knight commendation points for further details about rewards.

Worlds
The official worlds to play Pest Control on are:
 * World 53
 * World 69
 * World 115
 * World 144 (usually crowded, sometimes full)

It is not required to use these worlds, and they often have many inexperienced Pest Control players, which can be frustrating for players trying to get commendation points. However, landers in most other worlds are usually empty, unless a Pest Control clan is present. However, if a player does not have a specific team to join them, simply using the Novice lander on a crowded world is plenty sufficient. Occasionally, a game will be lost on that lander, but games are completed very quickly, so there's not much of a loss of points overall.

History
There have been four updates concerning Pest Control.

Updates

 * This game was first released on 18 April 2006. Initially, players of all levels were allowed into games, and there was no damage requirement in order to receive a reward. Originally, the max points a person could receive was 150.
 * This was changed on 16 May 2006, along with a game engine update. Players now needed a combat level of 40 to enter the game, and must do 50 hitpoints (corresponding to 500 life points) to monsters or portals to receive rewards. During the first few months of the game's existence, players gathered on world 78 to play Pest Control, often bringing the player count to server capacity. Within a few months, however, higher levels established "PC clans", and began playing on other worlds, in order to reduce the number of low levelled players in the games. This led to very fast experience points for the players in the clans.
 * On 19 February, 2007, pet cats were blocked from entry into the activity.
 * On 17 July, 2007, Jagex launched a new update to the activity.
 * Pest Control was split up into three boats, one for each levels 40+, 70+, and 100+, a feature long requested on the official forums.
 * Monster and portal difficulty was adjusted so that the lower level boats were easier to play. The three boats now give two, three, and four points as a reward, respectively. However, each point now only gives 35% of the experience it used to. Rewards for Magic and Ranged were reduced a further 10%.
 * In order to balance the effects of this, players were allowed to run through all monsters without being blocked apart from Brawlers, and Jagex introduced a "shield" on the portals, effectively making the shortest games two to three minutes long, instead of the thirty seconds possible before. Many players viewed this as unfair, and launched the World 99 riot in response.
 * There was a hidden update sometime during the summer of 2009 in which the behaviour of Brawler (monster) was greatly changed. Along with this update Ava's devices started working differently and wouldn't retrieve arrows shot at brawlers and portals. The "south-west" position no longer affects arrow pick-up.
 * Sometime in the month of May 2010, the Ava's device started acting differently than normal: it now will never pick up the arrows/bolts fired at portals, and the ammo fired at portals is not retrievable; it simply disappears.

Controversies
In total, Pest Control has been a source of two controversies. Before the 17 July 2007 update, some players claimed that it was too easy to raise combat, and had coined the term "PC product," which was usually used as an insult.

Jagex has made references to the "PC product" label in the TokTz-Ket-Dill quest. If you choose the plot option where a human defeats the TzHaar criminal after training with the Void Knights for several months, TzHaar-Hur-Brekt refers to them as "Void Knight Products".

After the update, there was more outcry from players who trained this way.

There have been many debates about the experience cap being lowered and on the day of the release of this cap, some riots sprouted up in Falador and the Ice Plateau on World 99. Originally the game calculated this as your level squared, divided by 6 (or 12 for prayer). Jagex decided that was too generous, and changed the way it was worked out. Players who had Pest points left over after the update had to spend all of their points to be able to get more, but they still had the more beneficial formula. However, players who had purchased Void Knight items, instead of experience, ended up paying more than those purchasing the same items under the new formula.

Trivia

 * During Hallowe'en events, there is a chance that Death will appear and say "Let me escort you to Lumbridge/Falador/Camelot/Soul Wars, player display name." despite the fact that you respawn back in the lander.
 * At the end of a game you hear a clock ticking.
 * When you lose a novice game, you see a male squire talking but when you win a female squire is talking.
 * Sometimes you hear the winning or losing sound twice.
 * The landing boats resemble America's Higgin's boat from the WWII era.

Kammerjäger Pest Control Pest Control