Rat Pits

OS

Rat Pits was removed after an update. The contents of this page no longer exist in RuneScape, and this article is kept for historical purposes.

Rat Pits

Release date	28 November 2005 (Update)
Removal date	11 April 2016 (Update)
Members	Yes
Location	Ardougne Sewers, South-East Varrock, Keldagrim East, Port Sarim
Participants	2
Skills involved	None
Reward currency	None
In spotlight rotation	No
Hiscores	No
Tutorial	No
Custodians	Jimmy Dazzler, Hooknosed Jack, Smokin' Joe & The Beast, The Face, gamblers
Music unlocked	Bubble and Squeak, Catch Me If You Can, Rat a Tat Tat, Sarim's Vermin
Developers	Chris J

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The Rat Pits was a members-only minigame that involved cats. Playing this minigame required the completion of the Ratcatchers quest. This was a "Dangerous" minigame, as cats could die here.

The Rat Pits were made inaccessible on 11 April 2016 due to supposedly poor quality of the content, while the Ardougne ones were completely removed.

Rat pits

There were four rat pits in RuneScape. These pits were located in:

• Varrock (cats) - Hooknosed Jack
• Ardougne (kittens) - Jimmy Dazzler
• Keldagrim (overgrown cats) - Smokin' Joe
• Port Sarim (wily cats) - The Face

As lazy cats were not allowed, the player would have to train it to become wily again before it was allowed in the minigame.

Ardougne rat pits (for kittens)

Location	Image	Map	Notes
			At entrance: Bones (kitten) and Jimmy Dazzler (human). Inside: Claude (kitten in rat pit), Topsy (kitten in rat pit) and Gamblers (human). Note: Northern corridor goes to the Ardougne Sewers.

Varrock rat pits (for cats)

Location	Image	Map	Notes
			At entrance: Pox (cat) and Hooknosed Jack (human). Inside: Mittens (cat in rat pit), Treacle (cat in rat pit), Fluffs (just visiting to watch the fights), Gamblers (human) and Barman (human).

Port Sarim rat pits (for wily cats)

Location	Image	Map	Notes
			At entrance: Bellemorde (wily cat) and The Face (human). Inside: Pusskins (wily cat in rat pit), Turbogroom (wily cat in rat pit), Felkrash (human), Gamblers (human) and Barman (human).

Keldagrim rat pits (for overgrown cats)

Location	Image	Map	Notes
			At entrance: The Beast (overgrown cat). Inside: Captain Tom (overgrown cat in rat pit), Loki (overgrown cat in rat pit), Anleif, Fior, Oxi the rat keeper, Sagira, Vaeringk (dwarf gamblers) and Rauborn (dwarf bartender).

Gameplay

What to bring

• Cat (depending on the location of the rat pit; i.e. kittens for Ardougne rat pit)
• Rat pole (recommended)
• Catspeak amulet (optional, for strategy). Without the amulet, one's cat would keep the same stats and fight to its death.

Bets

A bet must have been placed by both players, and must be the same for them, before the game began.

Strategy

If the player had a catspeak amulet, he or she could discuss a strategy with their cat. Due to a glitch, the cats and rats were invincible starting from the Evolution of Combat update.

Strategy	Increases	Decreases	Deathmatch?	When does the cat run?
Just be careful in there cat.	Defence and Constitution significantly.	Attack and Strength significantly.	No	Runs (loses) when its life points drops.
Stay in for as long as you can.	Defence and Constitution slightly.	Attack and Strength slightly.	No	Runs (loses) when its life points becomes extremely low.
No guts, no glory!	Attack and Strength slightly.	Defence and Constitution slightly.	Yes	The cat will not run.
Go berserk!	Attack and Strength significantly.	Defence and Constitution greatly.	Yes	The cat will run.

Note: If a player was not wearing the Catspeak amulet, the cat's stats would remain unchanged and it could die, in which the player lost both the fight and the cat.

Once the bets were placed and the strategies chosen, the cats began to kill rats. The number of rats that need to be killed before a cat won depended on the type of cat. If a cat ran away or died, the owner of the cat would lose the bet. However, the cat would only be lost if it died. In the case that both cats tired out at the same amount of kills, the match was declared a draw and both cats and bets were returned to their owners.

Rewards

The game only rewarded coins. There were no other rewards given, and items could not be staked.

Music

Music unlocked:

• Bubble and Squeak - Keldagrim Rat Pits
• Catch Me If You Can - Ardougne Rat Pits
• Rat a Tat Tat - Varrock Rat Pits
• Sarim's Vermin - Port Sarim Rat Pits

See also

• Kitten
• Cat
• Gambler
• Overgrown cat
• Lazy cat
• Wily cat

Trivia

Victory

The jingle that played when winning a fight in the pits.

Loss

The jingle that played when losing a fight in the pits.

• Rat traps were found near many of the rat pits. The player could attempt to pick up the traps, but doing so would also set off the trap and deal minor damage to the player. Although most traps were empty, some contained cheese that the player could take. For doing that, they would still take damage and the trap would remain on the floor.
• Each rat pit had a Rat barn, which housed the rats for the pit. Barrels of live rats were also found near some pits.
• The Keldagrim rat pits were different from the other three rat pits locations. They had a stone floor, vs. dirty floors for the others. The pub was in an enclosed room with named bartenders, vs. open bar pumps and generically named 'barmen'. The dwarf gamblers were individually named, vs. generically named 'gamblers' for the humans. The entrance to the pits only had a cat, vs. a cat and a human.
• All pubs in the rat pits, plus the Laughing Miner pub outside of the Keldagrim pits, sold beer for 2 coins and stew for 20 coins.
• The Ardougne rat pits were the only ones without an underground pub. However, players could visit the Flying Horse Inn on the surface instead.
• There is a glitch after the EoC update where the cats would not attack the rats and simply get stuck in various places of the arena based on the strategy. The fight would end in a draw. Also, after the fight, your cat would not follow you and would wander until you picked it up. The cat would remain in the area even if you left the pits.