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Not to be confused with Dimension of the Damned.
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Dimension of Disaster is RuneScape's 200th quest. It features an alternate universe where the player character never existed, changing the course of history in Gielinor. It has no skill requirements to start, however the required completed quests do have skill requirements. The quest takes place in alternate Varrock, during year 170 of the Fifth Age. It consists of five subquests similarly to Recipe for Disaster. These include an introductory quest and "twisted" versions of existing quests, namely Shield of Arrav, Demon Slayer, Defender of Varrock and The Curse of Arrav, with the latter requiring completion of all the former to start.

Players cannot bring any of their own items into the quest, and there is no bank or Grand Exchange, meaning players will have to create or purchase their own equipment to complete the quest. Like Broken Home, it is replayable, with some additional rewards available for doing so.

Official description[]

Have you ever stopped to think what would happen if you did not exist? In a pocket dimension of Varrock - an alternate reality - you were never born, the Sixth Age never happened, and the villains you would have defeated rule with impunity.

In this reality, Varrock has suffered greatly over the past year; its citizens massacred when the demon Delrith was summoned by Denath. Shortly thereafter, the city was conquered by the Mahjarrat necromancer Zemouregal's horde of armoured zombies.

Zemouregal has since corralled Delrith behind a demonic ward in the south-east corner of the city, and raised any Varrock citizens who are still reasonably intact as zombies.

Can you find your way into this dimension and overthrow the villains once more?

Walkthrough[]

Start pointQuest map icon
Dimension of Disaster icon
Speak to Gypsy Aris in Varrock
Member requirementP2P icon Members only
Official difficultySpecial Special
Official lengthVery, Very Long
RequirementsSkill requirements are not boostable unless marked with a [B] for boostable.
Quest Quests:
Items requiredItems from the tool belt are not listed unless they do not work or are not automatically added.
Enemies to defeat

Coin of the Realm[]

The quest may be started by speaking to Gypsy Aris in her tent in Varrock Square. This will start a short introductory subquest, which is required to complete all other subquests.

New Varrock[]

Main article: New Varrock/Guide
Zemouregal rejuvenated chathead

After completing the first subquest, you will arrive in New Varrock, an alternate version of Varrock under the control of the Mahjarrat Zemouregal. It is wholly separate from the rest of the game, and you cannot bring any items in. Thus, you will have to make most items yourself, either using items gathered or bought in shops with zemomarks, the currency of New Varrock. Alternatively, you can trade with other players.

During the quest, a new task set, the New Varrock Tasks, may be completed for Tiny Zemouregal for additional rewards. These are saved between quest resets.

Subquests[]

Four subquests must be found and completed in order to finish the quest.

Icon Subquest Start point Required quests Required items
Dimension of Disaster Shield of Arrav icon Shield of Arrav Orlando Smith, in the Varrock Museum Shield of Arrav and Coin of the Realm
Dimension of Disaster Demon Slayer icon Demon Slayer Gypsy Aris, in her tent Shadow of the Storm and Coin of the Realm
Dimension of Disaster Defender of Varrock icon Defender of Varrock Reldo, in Varrock Castle Defender of Varrock and Coin of the Realm
Dimension of Disaster Curse of Arrav icon Curse of Arrav Arrav, in the Varrock Castle garden The Curse of Arrav and all previous subquests
  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m This item is not needed if the appropriate override set has been bought using silver pennies.
  2. ^ a b c d This item is not needed when replaying the quest.

After completing Curse of Arrav, you will have freed New Varrock from Zemouregal's control and will be returned to standard Varrock. For replays, do not select "complete" from the right-click option when talking to Gypsy Aris as this will result to obtaining zero silver pennies. Speak to Gypsy Aris, and she will congratulate you, tell you some statistics, and give you some additional rewards.

Gypsy Aris tells you about a vision of the world where the player rules over it. The outcome is determined by the number of killed zombies and times of success stealing from zombies, but not counting any of non-human and armoured zombie variant. These numbers are reset when a replay is started. The vision shows the citizens are richer when less stealing actions were done, and the world is more just if less zombies are killed. The vision dialogue is only for show and does not affect anything in the game.

Congratulations, quest complete!

Complete rewards[]

Dimension of Disaster reward
  • 139,600 total experience
  • 100 Thieving experience lamp
  • 5,000 Crafting experience lamp
  • 5,000 Magic experience lamp
  • 15,000 Combat experience lamp
  • 10,000 Magic experience lamp
  • 15,000 Thieving experience lamp
  • 10,000 Defence experience lamp
  • 2,000 Construction experience lamp
  • 30,000 Combat experience lamp
  • 14,000 Thieving experience lamp
  • 9,000 Ranged experience lamp
  • 9,000 Agility experience lamp
  • 9,000 Crafting experience lamp
  • 4,000 Farming experience lamp
  • 2,500 Magic experience lamp
Music unlocked

Achievement[]

Historical background[]

The Dimension of Disaster is a dimension where the player never existed, thus the world of Gielinor went through a quite different timeline. As the player never existed, they never inspired Jack to become a righteous person instead Jack became a malevolent and powerful sorcerer who caused havoc and casualties across the land. Guthix finally felt that he couldn't stand by any more and killed Jack to end his reign of terror. When Seren discovered that Guthix had killed a mortal, she was horrified and thus rejected Guthix's offer to come to Gielinor and remained on Tarddiad with her elves. Slightly embittered by Seren's refusal, Guthix went to sleep at the end of the First Age. Without Seren's light to subconsciously guide him, Zaros never arrived on Gielinor, and as Zaros never came; the hydra-god Loarnab was free to terrorise its surroundings.

Loarnab increased in power, gained intelligence, discovered demonic magic and used it to build an empire around itself. The Desert Pantheon was threatened by Loarnab's forces, when Ichtlarin managed to bring the Mahjarrat with him to fight against them. The Mahjarrat betrayed Ichtlarin and the rest of the history repeated itself with Loarnab basically filling Zaros' place as the Dark Imperator, even including the creation of a creature called Nex (made from dragons, virii, hydras and Mahjarrat) and Zamorak rebelling against and slaying Loarnab with the Staff of Armadyl.

Zamorak's rise to power started the God Wars, which raged for centuries, until Guthix awoke. Guthix, however, was not as reluctant compared to our dimension due to his embitterment and directly attacked the warring gods - Zamorak, Saradomin, Armadyl and Bandos, siphoning off a great deal of their power and energy, scattering it across the world before banishing them. Guthix then returned to sleep, not to be heard from again. However, Bandos managed to maintain a presence in Gielinor, having successfully possessed Zanik as his Chosen Commander. The Chosen Commander eventually defeated the other warring factions by seizing all pieces of the Godsword, reforging it and using it against them. In her victory, she opened the doors to the Ancient Prison, revealing Nex, who killed Bandos' avatar instantly.

During the last years of the Fifth age the player completed various quests to ensure the safety of the Kingdoms of Misthalin and Asgarnia, but without their existence the kingdoms' history became another. Guthix was never assassinated, so the gods never returned to Gielinor and the Sixth Age never began. Without the player's assistance in finding the heir to the Shield of Arrav, Zemouregal conquered Varrock, killing almost all of its inhabitants, reviving them as zombies. He also killed any hero who dared to oppose him.

Tolna's rift was never cleansed, thus allowing the horrors of Tolna to infest and corrupt most of the Misthalin underground. The Kinshra gained control over Falador and exiled the White Knights. The trolls were eventually able to overrun the Burthorpe Imperial Guard and went on a rampage in both Burthorpe and Taverley. Count Draynor eventually regained his strength, and he turned most of the population of Draynor Village into vampyres. Amascut's plans went on unhindered, and she was able to conquer the desert and all its inhabitants, having her minions patrol the city of Al Kharid.

As several of the Mahjarrat interacted with the player in some way, they too were also affected in this dimension. Azzanadra was never freed from his prison, Jhallan remained hidden, Akthanakos was eventually captured, Wahisietel was sacrificed in the 18th Ritual, Kharshai attempted to attack New Varrock with the Fremennik but failed and Enakhra disappeared into the desert, shortly after Akthankos' capture after rejecting Zemouregal's romantic advances. Like in our dimension, Lucien was killed by the dragonkin, this time led by Kerapac, and Sliske sought out the Stone of Jas and the Staff of Armadyl following Lucien's demise. Hazeel was revived by his cult, with the assistance of Philipe Carnillean, who had turned snobbish as the player had never opened the world of adventuring to him. Hazeel later managed to recapture Ardougne and became king of Kandarin.

Post-quest FAQ[]

  • Read the post-quest FAQ here.

Trivia[]

Dimension of Disaster head banner
200th Quest Alternate Universe concept art 1

Zemouregal, king of Varrock

200th Quest Alternate Universe concept art 2

Delrith's circus, unused tentative concept art

  • The quest's location and the inclusion of twisted Shield of Arrav were the result of two Player Power polls. Gertrude's Cat also won the same Player Power poll, but was added to a task set unique to alternate Varrock. It was originally supposed to be its own quest, but lack of time (and connection to the main storyline) prevented this from happening.[1]
  • Other titles for the quest included The Edge of Disaster, Nothing Interesting Happens, City of Villains and A World without Heroes, while New Varrock's originally suggested names were all based on Zemouregal's name.[2]
  • The quest may be a reference to Turn Left, an episode of the British sci-fi series Doctor Who, where a gypsy teleports the Doctor's companion to a similar alternate universe where the Doctor does not exist any more, due to an earlier defeat.
    • The episode is also an allusion to It's a Wonderful Life, which popularised the formula of an alternate universe where the main character does not exist.
  • The tramp, who throws rotten tomatoes at the locked-up adventurers, occasionally says "Shut up, Meg!" This is a reference to Family Guy in which Peter Griffin often says this to his daughter, Meg. It may also be referencing the same dialogue option in player-owned ports.
  • The quest hosts an assortment of references to the quest Recipe for Disaster:
    • Both quests were released to celebrate respectively the 100th and 200th quest.
    • Gypsy Aris plays a minor role in both quests.
    • In both quests the character asks Gypsy Aris "what the flipping hippo is going on?" In Dimension of Disaster, when the player asks this, they comment afterwards that they have gone over this before, in the Recipe for Disaster quest.
    • Both quests are made of smaller sub-quests.
  • "Bring your friends. Stay a while. Stay forever. Journey to the Dimension of Disaster" is a reference to the quote "Another visitor. Stay awhile. Stay forever!" found in the game Impossible Mission, which plays when the player first starts the game.
  • If the player suggests another coin might be required to the Gypsy, she replies "Your lack of faith disturbs me", a reference to the Star Wars quote by Darth Vader: "I find your lack of faith disturbing."
  • There are two references to If You're Happy and You Know It:
    • Katrine mentions she is being taunted by the Phoenix Gang via singing it after her arm was taken.
    • Using the Scrying pool on the Demon Camp will cause Evil Dave to sing "If you're evil and you know it, clap your hands..."
  • In the hallway leading to Arrav's heart, the statues of Zemouregal examine "Fire walk with me". This may be a reference to the Twin Peaks film by the same name.
  • "Blue-fang" technology mentioned in the Scrying pool manual is a parody of the wireless technology Bluetooth.
  • Inside the Blue Moon Inn, the penguins Ping and Pong paraphrase lines of the song "God Gave Rock and Roll to You" by the British band Argent. Pong's rock costume is a reference to the attire of Gene Simmons of Kiss, who at one point performed a substantially modified version of this song.
  • When trying to open the sealed manhole that leads to the sewers a possible message states "The sewer cover is sealed with a pink, sticky goo." This could be a reference to the pink mood slime in the Ghost Busters movie.

References[]

  1. ^ Mod Mark. "Behind the Scenes - March 2015." 27 February 2015. RuneScape News.
  2. ^ Jagex. Mod Stu's Twitter account. 19 March 2015. Mod Stu: "They were mostly rubbish. :) But here you go..."
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