The Void Stares Back

The Void Stares Back is a quest that was released on 6 October 2010. It is the third Grandmaster quest released. It is also the third and final quest of the Void Knights quest series.

The plot revolves around the impending threat of a full-on invasion by the void pests. The quest also includes strong enemies and difficult puzzles.

Walkthrough

 * 1) Speak to Captain Korasi. She will give you a special set of Black knight armour.
 * 2) Run to the Black Knights' fortress. When you enter you will automatically go into a dialog and will be sent to the Black Knights' base under Taverly.
 * 3) Talk to Captain Gilroy and you will be taken to a cutscene of a black knight dying while trying to open the door.
 * 4) Search the crates and you will find out that the labels are incorrect. Captain Gilroy will tell you that he can determine the weights' actual weight.
 * 5) If you take all the weights out of the crate you can use two on him and he will tell you which is heavier or lighter.

The Weight Puzzle
The results are: Label 2 is actually 4. Label 3 is actually 2. Label 4 is actually 6. Label 5 is actually 3. Label 6 is actually 5.

After which he will tell you to correct the scales and the password of the day is fifteen in each.

The solution is:

Top Scale 3 - 5 - 3 - 4 (Alternatively, 5 - 2 - 4 - 4 also works).

Bottom Scale 2 - 2 - 5 - 6.



After you set the scales, open the door. Be ready to fight 4 void creatures: A torcher, brawler, shifter and a spinner Attack the spinner first as it will heal the other creatures. As you kill a pest it will drop another security block. Be sure to get those; there are 4 in total but they stack in 2 piles.

After you collect the blocks, speak to Captian Gilroy. He will tell you to go fix the block at the mini-forge in the north-west room. Now exit through the first gate and head to the north-west room where the mini-forge is. You will need a limestone brick, a hammer and a piece of hard leather to fix it and then you will need a tinderbox and logs to light it. The limestone brick can be obtained from searching the crate in the same room as the forge. Now head North to the entrance room with the large banqueting tables. There is a kitchen off to the East of this main room and the logs are in one of the crates in there. The hammer and tinderbox are in another crate in the room next to (South) of the kitchen. Return to the main room and head (North-)East to the jail cell, the hard leather is in the crate beside it.

Once you have obtained all of the materials, return to the mini-forge and use your limestone brick or hard leather on it. Now, use your logs on it and then, finally, light it with your tinderbox. After you have done all this, use the broken block on the mini-forge to fix it. Now head back to the room with Captian Gilroy and place the four blocks in the wall. Open the security door and enter the next room.

(If you die or need to stock up on armour and weapons, you have to go back to the black knights in Taverley dungeon and continue on from there.)

The Control Panel
You will then encounter a control panel, begin by searching it for magical traps, after disarming the trap, open the panel. The goal here is to create a horizontal line spanning all three control panels. Keep in mind that you will never have to line them up facing up or down, as long as you use up your horizontal lines. The puzzle will not complete until every block is placed, including the ones that are not needed.

Solution to Control Panel:

Conquest
Following the control panel, you will play a modified Conquest game against NPCs. You have a slight advantage, as the pests cannot use spells (such as battle cry, etc). There is a slight correlation between class types, as well. While everyone may go about this in a different fashion, keep the following in mind:

The Spinners are similar to Champions.

The Ravagers have the movement range of Scouts and the damage rate of a Soldier. They can easily decimate your party if they are not dealt with swiftly.

The Shifters are less of a threat than other units and can be tanked if need be; however, watch your 100 LP units!

The Torchers are similar to Mages/Archers.

The Splatters will explode and deal 100 LP of damage to any adjacent unit that is within 1 square.

Pest Queen
Before continuing, bank and gear up for a tough fight! The Pest Queen can easily waste an entire inventory of brews, although if you have high stats (90+) an inventory of rocktails can be enough food.

If you happen to die during the fight with Pest Queen, your gravestone will appear in front of the portal in the black knight's hideout.

While gearing, keep in mind that your primary weapon will be Korasi's Sword. Save yourself an inventory space and don't bring a weapon of your own. In addition, you will need your special attacks to prevent the Queen's charge attack. As such, bringing a powerful spec weapon such as dragon claws or a godsword is not suggested or even viable.

When you are geared, enter the door at the end of the Conquest room. The first thing you will notice is that Valluta is not a metaphor, but a giant turtle!

Strategy
As for fighting the Pest Queen, has two styles of attack: Melee and '''Magic. '''You will, however, take damage regardless of your prayer, as prayer only lessens the damage to around 100-130 LP.

Most importantly, when the Queen stops attack and looks upward, use your special attack to prevent her from activating hers, dealing upwards of 500 LP of damage (not only to you, but to the archers as well). This is why it is important to either bring special attack potions or not bring a special attack weapon at all, as you have no means of defending yourself if you run out of special attack energy. Also important to note is the fact that she will heal herself after using the special attack as well.

If you spoke to Valluta, you will know that in order to defeat the queen you must defeat her drones. As you can't attack them, you must rely on the archers that enter the room periodically. In order to prevent them from dying, be sure to kill the Elite Pests when they spawn in, as they will attack the archers.

Be wary, when the queen's drones are defeating she will begin swapping prayers in accordance with yours. ''This means if that she will always be dealing damage to you. ''At this point, you may choose to attack the Elite Pests once to get them on you as opposed to defeating them so as to remain attacking the queen as long as possible. After a short period, the drones will respawn. Be sure to keep the archers around so they can quickly dispatch the drones again. If you did not keep the Elite Pests off the archers, you may find her fully replenishing her health.

Equipment and Preparation
When gearing for the Pest Queen, try to emphasize Magic and Melee defense, as these are her two attack styles (one will always be hitting you, so bring defence against both!).

You may wish to bring lower risk items, as the Queen can easily kill and it is unconfirmed whether or not items are retrievable.

Suggest equipment is as follows (You may wish to mix and match. This is fine as long as you have decent Magic and Melee defence) :

Helm: Verac's Helm > Helm of Neitiznot

Amulet: Amulet of Fury > Amulet of Glory

Cape: Ardougne Cape 3/4 or Nomad Cape or Fire Cape. (Ardougne cape is useful as the sword has a decent stab bonus already.)

Plate: Karil's Top > Black D'Hide Top

Legs: Verac's Skirt (For the combination of prayer and melee defence bonus)

Shield: Dragonfire Shield/Divine/Spectral > Obsidian Shield > God Book

Gloves: Barrows Gloves

Boots: Dragon Boots > Infinity Boots

Ring: Explorer's Ring or Warrior Ring/Berserker Ring (Ring Of Life - Reccomended on first few attempts)

Inventory
While it is advised to bring sharks, you will find your healing falling mostly upon brews/restores and a titan/unicorn familiar.

Suggested Inventory:

- 10+ Saradomin Brews (2:1 Brew/Restore ratio with 1/2 extra for prayer).

- 1 Super Attack/Combat Potion

- Empty slots filled with Sharks, Rocktails or other high-level food.

- Special Attack Restores (To be used if queen is using her special on under 15% special attack energy. Optional.).

- Titans Const. Scrolls/ Unicorn Scrolls / Ambush Scrolls (In accordance with your familiar; detailed below.)

- Titan/Unicorn/Kyatt -

Suggested Familiar/ Familiar Inventory:

Before leaving the bank, fill a Terrorbird/Yak/Tortoise (any BoB works, here) with food. Bring a Titan, Unicorn or Kyatt in your inventory.

When the food in your BoB is depleted, dismiss it (you will need to click quickly, as the queen will be doing continuous damage) and summon your second familiar. If you chose to bring a Kyatt, the strategy is the same; however, now is when you begin spam clicking Ambush scrolls.

Additional Info:
- Players have noted that damage with ruby bolts is capped at 450 LP.

- It is possible to attack and then quickly run away while praying against magic to avoid the swapping of attack styles; however, this is risky as you may do less damage before the drones return.

- The Steel Titan familiar is very handy when defeating queen, as it's special attacks can hit very high.

Rewards

 * 1 Quest point
 * Void guardian torso, Void justiciar torso, or Void executioner torso, depending on how you answered several psychological questions/decisions in the void quests. (leggings with the same names appear in quickchat)
 * Korasi's Sword
 * 2 Book of Equilibrium ( 50k experience each in any combat skill over 75)
 * The ability to trade your void knight armour for its elite version at the cost of 100 Void knight commendation points.
 * 20,000 Crafting-icon.png experience
 * 20,000 Construction-icon.png experience
 * 20,000 Firemaking-icon.png experience
 * 20,000 Magic-icon.png experience
 * 20,000 Summoning-icon.png experience
 * 20,000 Smithing-icon.png experience



Trivia

 * The title is a reference to the famous quote by philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche "Whoever battles monsters should take care not to become a monster too, for if you stare long enough into the Abyss, the Abyss stares back into you.".
 * The quest was once to be titled 'Summer Knights' but it was revealed in the October Behind the Scenes to be 'The Void Stares Back'.
 * The quest will have the highest skill requirement so far: 80 Magic.
 * There is a massive jump in requirements between the previous quest, A Void Dance, and this quest. A Void Dance requires around level 55 in some skills, while this quest requires multiple skills in the 70s and even a level 80.
 * The day the quest was released the text you are given from clicking spoilers says "Sir Tiffy, Commodore Tyr and Lord Daquarius are squabbling over the rewards. This may take a while..."
 * On the Adventurer's log there is a bug where the quest is listed on the top with quotations "The Void Stares Back" when the quest name actually starts with a V rather than quotes.
 * The popular movie quote "Say hello to my little friend", from Scarface, is used once during the quest's dialogue.