Penguin Hide and Seek

Penguin Hide and Seek, also known as Penguin Hunting, is one of the broadest extensions of Distractions and Diversions and can be used to earn money or experience in any skill. Penguin Hide and Seek was released with the original three Distractions and Diversions on 2 September 2008. The main objective of this D&D is to hunt down undercover penguin spies and report back to the Ardougne Zoo.

Getting started
Larry is positioned near the south west side of the Ardougne Zoo, at a comfortably close proximity to the Penguin Exhibit. While the rest of RuneScape thinks he is insane, he alone realises the true threat the penguins pose and stands in faithful guardianship at the side of the Penguin enclosure. After Hunt for Red Raktuber, the polar bear Chuck will assist the player instead of Larry. Chuck is located in the Polar Bear pen, east of where Larry was.

Simply ask Larry about penguin hunting and he decides that he is able to trust the adventurer with the information required to get out and do the dirty work for him. He'll give you a Spy notebook that will keep track of how many penguins you have spied each week and displays how many Penguin points you have ready to turn in. Keeping the book is optional and if you happen to lose your spy book, speak with Chuck or Larry to have it returned.

There are ten disguised penguins which players can spy each week. A polar bear and a Shadow Realm penguin can be unlocked after completing the Hunt for Red Raktuber and Some Like It Cold quests, respectively. Penguin Hide and Seek resets every Wednesday at 00:00 UTC.

Chuck or Larry will offer hints to help locate penguins if requested by a player. Some of the hints are general areas, while other are more specific. If you receive more than ten location hints, it may be because a penguin has recently crossed over into another hint's boundary. Chuck or Larry give hints for all disguised penguins — whether you have already spied on them or not. Hints are not given related to the Shadow Realm penguin or the polar bear agent.

Players can use the Quick Chat code e→f→d→p→2 to check how many penguins they have spied, returning:
 * The Quick Chat command includes the Shadow Realm penguin in its count, but does not include the polar bear.
 * The Quick Chat count resets each week after the player logs into the game after the weekly reset occurs (every Wednesday at 00:00 UTC), or after spying a new penguin.

Requirements
There are no skill or combat levels required for Penguin Hide and Seek.

Optional quest requirements
The following quests add additional content and rewards:

Other quests are required to access locations where the penguins roam, however, not all of them need to be completed. Simply beginning some quests are all that is required. Note: Some quests have prerequisites.

Completed quest unlocks
These quests must be completed to be able to reach the new places.

Additional quest unlockable
You only need to reach a certain point in these quests to reach the new places.

Disguises
FBI penguin spies hide in a variety of disguises that can help them blend into their surroundings:

Suggested items

 * Teleportation items such as Amulet of Glory, Games Necklace, Ring of Duelling, Explorer's ring 3, Desert amulet 2, and Ardougne cloak 1 can greatly reduce a players travel time, but are not required.
 * The Lodestone Network is highly suggested in lieu of other conventional means of teleportation and travel.
 * A Dramen Staff or Lunar Staff for usage of the Fairy Ring network.
 * Money for boat trips and/or carpet rides in the desert. (An activated Ring of Charos helps with this by allowing you to select a significant discount in the costs.)
 * Ecto-tokens to get inside Port Phasmatys (not required for those who have completed Ghosts Ahoy or who charter a boat, instead).
 * A Wicked hood, allowing a player to teleport to runecrafting altars to reach locations easier.
 * An Enchanted water tiara, Tome of frost, or Waterskins for more easily suviving the Kharidian Desert.

Official worlds
Groups dedicated to penguin hunting can be found in the Minigames and D&Ds section of the RuneScape Forums.
 * There are several choices when it comes to finding the penguins, the most popular of which are:
 * World 60 for Friends Chat hunting and spying.
 * World 71 for Forum Thread based hunting and spying.

Trapping penguins


It is possible to trap a penguin in one spot so that it can not move around by positioning players and the scenery around the penguin and boxing it in. When players are standing still, the penguin can't pass through them thus allowing the penguin to be trapped. The trap is broken when another player moves through that square, allowing the penguin to escape from the trap. It is therefore very important not to step on or run through trappers when spying a trapped penguin.

If a trapper is stepped on, they should wait until the other player moves off them and then move off the square and then back to their original spot quickly.

Tips on trapping
 * 1) If penguins are unable to move from the square they are standing on for approximately 7 minutes, then they "re-spawn" or teleport to their primary spawn point. Each penguin has one re-spawn point. So unless you’d like to go hunting all over again for that penguin, give it at least two squares to move around!
 * 2) If you want to help herd penguins, follow it until it is near a suitable location, then open doors in front of the penguin and close them behind it. This works better with 2 or more people.
 * 3) Try not to stand on people who are trapping a penguin; standing on and then stepping off a person allows the penguin to pass through them. Players should take the following precautions:
 * 4) Turn off run when approaching the penguin.
 * 5) Move to a square with a line of sight to the penguin before spying.
 * 6) Click away after spying. (Otherwise players may automatically walk towards the penguin).
 * 7) In the case of a door, walk up to the door before opening, open it, take a single step inside and close it behind you.
 * 8) If you can, spy over water, lava, fences, through windows, low walls, etc.
 * 9) There are a few pets such as a platypus or tooth creature which can help you trap penguins as they block them the same way players do.

Other hints and tips

 * Wilderness penguins can trap themselves just south of the South Western building in the ruins west of the bandit camp around level 20.
 * Since penguins do not appear as dots on the mini-map, turn music off and volume up. Penguins are noisy spies and can be generally heard if they are visible on your screen. It is sort of a mechanical chugging sound, interspersed with the penguin's pops and whistles.


 * Look for the polar bear. They can't move, are always in wells, and give one extra penguin point. Players must have completed Hunt for Red Raktuber quest to be able to spot them.
 * Don't be afraid to ask other players if they have recently seen a penguin.
 * If players are in a penguin friends chat, it would be wisest to first find the penguins that are harder to trap, e.g., the desert penguins. If these penguins escape, it could take a very long time to find them.

Rewards
Penguin points can be redeemed by talking with Chuck or Larry at the Ardougne Zoo. Players may choose either a coin reward or an experience reward. The player is rewarded for as many points as they have at the time of speaking and is not asked how many points they would like to redeem. Keep this in mind if you wish to use penguin points for multiple skills.


 * If coins are chosen, the player receives 6,500 coins per point.
 * If experience is chosen, the amount of experience gained is dependent on the player's current level in the chosen skill, determined by the following formula where $$L$$ is the level of the skill on which you use the reward, and $$P$$ is the amount of points redeemed: $$L \times 25 \times P$$

Additional rewards
Players may earn a maximum of 10 points per week if no penguin quests have been completed, 15 points per week if the Cold War quest is completed, 16 points per week if the Hunt for Red Raktuber quest is completed, and 19 points per week if the Some Like It Cold quest is completed. A D&D token (weekly) awarded from Treasure Hunter may be consumed once a week allowing the player to spy the penguins and polar bear once more for a weekly maximum of 38 penguin points.


 * After completion of the Cold War quest a bonus point is awarded for half of the penguins.
 * After completion of the Hunt for Red Raktuber quest a Polar Bear may be spied in various wells around RuneScape once a week for an additional penguin point.
 * If the quest Some Like It Cold has been completed, players may also spy a Shadow Realm penguin once a week for an additional 3 points. Spying the Shadow Realm penguin also requires the Ring of visibility from Desert Treasure.

Note
 * 1) Penguins worth two points only provide their bonus point after Cold War is complete. Spying a "two-point" penguin without finishing Cold War only earns one point. The PBJ agent from the Hunt for Red Raktuber quest cannot be spied until that quest is complete.
 * 2) Chuck or Larry only keep track of up to 50 points per player. Any points earned beyond 50 are lost. For example, if a player has 49 points and spies a 2-point penguin, one point is lost. A player with 50 points saved will not be able to continue spying until they have redeemed a reward from either Chuck or Larry.

D&D of the week
D&D of the week A different distraction and diversion is chosen each week to give the player a Key token for simply participating. Once every 4 weeks, the player may gain a key token for claiming a reward with their penguin points. Key tokens can only be received when the Penguin Hide and Seek D&D is the designated D&D of the week.

Double points day
On Thursday, 27 October 2011, in celebration of bot nuke day, double points were awarded for spying penguins.
 * At 00:00 UTC players' spying status reset, although penguins stayed where they were. Players who had spied penguins on Wednesday for normal points could spy them again, potentially for triple points that week.
 * By 00:03 UTC the queue for World 60 was over 1500.
 * By 00:28 UTC the queue for World 60 was full. Afterwards, players got a message saying that the world was full, indicating that both the world and its queue were full at 2000 players each.
 * At 24:00 UTC, penguins returned to awarding normal points for spying.

Wild Weekend
From Saturday, 26 May to Monday, 28 May 2012 (the final Wild Weekend in 2012), players could hunt for ten monkeys in Chase the Monkey. The monkey disguises were patterned after the penguin disguises, but larger. Instead of earning experience or money, players could obtain a Monkey cape if they found all ten monkeys.

Trivia

 * Players used to be able to spot all the penguins twice in a week. If a player spotted all penguins within the first few hours of the penguins resetting, later that week they could be spotted again. Jagex has fixed this bug.
 * On 28 January 2009, there was a glitch where players were able to spy on the same penguin over and over again. This led to masses of players abusing the glitch, allowing them to gain points quickly and receiving massive amounts of experience or coins in a short time. On 3 February, Paul Gower posted a thread in the Recent Updates forum, saying that 159 players have been permanently banned and a number of players involved were given temporary bans for breaking the Rule 4.
 * After Hunt for Red Raktuber, players could continue to contact Larry through the NPC Contact spell in the Lunar spellbook and receive hints, even though Larry had been taken to the Motherland. This is now fixed, so you can only contact Chuck.
 * When exchanging points for money, the text says "Show me the money", a catchphrase from the movie,.
 * Penguins do not show up as a yellow dot on your minimap like other NPC's. You can only notice/acknowledge them by seeing them on your screen, or hearing them walk by.
 * On 10 February 2012, the mindspike staff glitch allowed players to kill any NPC, resulting in missing penguins and duplicate penguins in Al Kharid.
 * The Shadow Realm penguin's examine text ("Licensed to Chill.") is a reference to 00 agents in the James Bond stories, since they are "licensed to kill." "" was also later a title of a film in the Bond franchise.
 * The Shadow Realm penguin was introduced 8 August 2012. However if a player spied any 10 penguins (including the Shadow Realm penguin or not), the message "You've spotted all the penguin spies this week!" appeared. Players could still spy the eleventh penguin and get points for it. Jagex fixed this bug in the subsequent week's regular update.
 * On 2 April 2012 the Squeal of Fortune gained an update allowing players to obtain spin tickets. These tickets could only be received when the Penguin Hide and Seek D&D was the designated D&D of the week.
 * The Squeal of Fortune has since been discontinued and replaced with Treasure Hunter.
 * On 30 March 2015 Weekly resetting D&Ds (including Penguin Hide and Seek) were made to reset closer to 00:00 UTC on Wednesdays, instead of up to an hour later.