Shifting Tombs

Death during this minigame is not safe. While this activity is not inherently dangerous, should you die by other means you will still lose your items and will need to reclaim them from Death or your grave.

Shifting Tombs

Release date	5 June 2017 (Update)
Members	Yes
Location	Menaphos
Participants	1-5
Skills involved	Dungeoneering, Agility, Thieving, Construction, Crafting, Runecrafting, Prayer, Divination
Reward currency	Coins, Menaphos reputation
In spotlight rotation	No
Hiscores	No
Tutorial	No
Custodians	Ozan
Music unlocked	Shifting Tombs
Developers	Unknown edit

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Shifting Tombs is a skilling minigame that is accessed in Menaphos after the completion of The Jack of Spades. It may be played solo, or in a group of up to 5 players. Ironmen players can play in groups that consist only of ironmen. Ozan tells the player of many rewards deep in the tombs. However, due to Amascut's corruption, players can only stay there for 5 minutes at a time before having to leave before the corruption infests them. Basic gameplay mechanics are explained during the first run.

Shifting Tombs allows players to gain experience in skills of their choosing by pledging allegiance to different gods. The four primary skill choices are Dungeoneering, Agility, Thieving, and Construction; players are able to choose whether they gain experience in all four skills or a particular one of them. While inside the tombs secondary experience will be given in Crafting, Runecrafting, Prayer, and Divination. Alternatively the player may opt to receive coins and other loot instead of experience which is the default option.

The minigame has three tiers: the first only requires level 50+ in the four primary skills, while the second and third tiers require level 70+ and level 90+, respectively, in all primary and secondary skills. Fragments for the master camouflage outfit are dropped more frequently in Shifting Tombs compared to other Thieving activities.

Starting a game

To start the minigame, players must first speak with Ozan. Afterwards, players may toggle their potential experience by interacting with the braziers and statues circling the entrance. Players may either enter the minigame alone by using the solo option, search for a group using the search option, or enter as a group using the available option under the Skills drop-down in the grouping system.

God	Location	Statue XP	Brazier XP
Scabaras	North	Agility	Prayer
Apmeken	East	Thieving	Runecrafting
Crondis	South	Construction	Crafting
Het	West	Dungeoneering	Divination

Objectives

In Shifting Tombs, there are 3 main objectives to be completed before the time limit of 5 minutes is reached, namely opening sarcophagi, looting treasure chests and cleansing corruption.

The number of sarcophagi and treasure chests to be opened, as well as the amount of corruption cleansed, varies from tomb to tomb.

To successfully escape the tomb, players must complete all 3 objectives and find the exit (a rope hanging from the tomb opening) before time runs out.

Players may escape the tomb at any time by clicking the rope, but will not gain any experience or reputation if they do not complete at least 2 of the 3 objectives, and will be teleported back to the lobby.

Reputation is given as a function of time, at 1.7766 reputation per second, up to a maximum of 533 when leaving at 1 second left. Some players choose to wait until the last few seconds to maximise reputation as reputation is gained based on the amount of time spent in Shifting Tombs. It is preferable to leave early, as a player can get more experience from smashing pots or mining crystallised corruption during the same time they would spend waiting at the exit, as they will be spending the same amount of time for every reputation point. E.g. it will take 5,000 seconds to gain 8,883 reputation, whether that is standing around at the exit or ending a tomb early and starting another, the same time is still required. Therefore, it is more beneficial to spend time gaining other experience within Shifting Tombs versus standing around for reputation.

Opening sarcophagi

Each sarcophagus is surrounded by tiles depicting the 6 minor gods in the Desert Pantheon. To loot a sarcophagus, players must first unlock it by clicking the tiles in a row, and the order in which players must click the tiles is shown by orbs emitting from the sarcophagus.

The start of the pulses is marked by a yellow flash on the sarcophagus, and this is followed up by 3 blue orbs emitted from the sarcophagus onto a tile, one at a time. After these 3 orbs have touched the tiles, the sequence is repeated, with another yellow flash marking the start of the sequence. To unlock the sarcophagus, players must click the tiles in the order that the orbs touch.

If the wrong input is placed, the pattern will reset again. A message will display, 'You hear a grinding as the panels reset to their original positions'. Wait for the yellow flash from the sarcophagus to re-enter the pattern. At any time, the pattern can be forcibly reset to a new pattern by selecting the reset option on the sarcophagus. When a pattern is successfully completed a message will display, 'You hear a click as you press the last panel'. It is important to click on the sarcophagus to open it before leaving the area. The sarcophagus lid will turn sideways to indicate it is open. Forgetting to open the sarcophagus will result in a nil count for that sarcophagus in the overall number of sarcophagus openings in the objectives.

Sarcophagi opening count is shared within a group. Any member of a group opening a sarcophagus will count towards each individual player's objectives.

If soloing, a maximum of 3 sarcophagi will need to be opened.

Looting treasure chests

Treasure chests are blocked by skills, similar to skill doors in Dungeoneering. They can only be unlocked with the requisite skill level of the skill type the chest requires: Firemaking (wax seal), Farming (buried in dirt and overgrown with vines), Woodcutting (not buried, but covered in larger vines), and Thieving (large lock). Chests vary in level all the way up to 99. Five to twenty-five feathers of Ma'at are received when looting a chest.

Looting a chest also occasionally spawns Corrupted Scarabs. Squishing them deals damage to the player and too many squished can result in death sending the player to Death's office.

Treasure chest loot count is not shared within a group. Once opened by any player, a chest will appear open to all players; each player must search a chest individually for it to count towards their own objectives.

Cleansing corruption

There are two ways to cleanse corruption and work towards the corruption objective, namely breaking urns and mining corruption crystals. Breaking urns can be done at a distance as long as the urn is considered within visible range of the player and near instantaneously, while mining corruption crystals takes time and is done like any other ore.

However, if players break 5 urns in quick succession, players gain a buff in which they can break corruption crystals quicker than they normally would by aiming a long blast in a line in front of them, which will cut down a row of crystals terminating in an AoE blast. The player can carry up to a maximum of three stacks of this buff by breaking more urns, but if they idle for too long without breaking an urn, all of the stacks will be lost.

Tips

Players have to run round the tomb as part of gameplay, so to minimise downtime between games or save time in a shifting tomb, players can use the salt-water spring at the Oo'glog spa facility for infinite run energy, or bring (super) energy potions, mint cakes, or either surefooted or greater surefooted aura for instant run energy restoration. Agile armour, boots of lightness, and other weight-reducing clothing will also help conserve run energy.

Players can wield an item with the Mobile perk for increased mobility, as Surge can be used in the tomb.

The earlier the player leaves the dungeon, providing that the player has 100% completion, the better the experience rewards will be.

A coordinated team will focus on retrieving and directing other players to chests as a team, as they must be physically claimed and will sometimes have skill requirements not met by some players, whereas sarcophagi are automatically claimed by all players once somebody opens it. This will minimise time wasted on unnecessary trips to opened sarcophagi.

Rewards

Rewards for Shifting Tombs consist of reputation and either experience or coins. Rewards are obtained both throughout the shifting tomb itself, as well as after finishing a shifting tomb. The type of experience earned is determined by toggling statues and braziers inside the Shifting Tombs lobby. If however, all statues and braziers are toggled off, coins are awarded instead after finishing a shifting tomb. The amount of coins earned after finishing a tomb is dependent of how many sarcophagi and chests were raided in total and how much corruption was obtained. The reward also scales with a player's level, although it is unknown which skills contribute.

Players also have a chance of receiving:

• A small Menaphite gift offering, which they can either open for rewards or trade in for Menaphos faction reputation with any of the faction leaders. If wielding luck enhancing rings, there is a chance of receiving a medium offering.
• Feathers of Ma'at when looting treasure chests. The number of feathers obtained is doubled at tier 5 Menaphos reputation with braziers and statues toggled off.
• Khopesh of the Kharidian or Off-hand khopesh of the Kharidian, tier 82 stab weapons, when looting the chests.
• Memory strands from chest and sarcophagus if Divination XP is activated.
• Corundum, one of the Jewels of the Elid, if the player owns the Menaphos journal.
• Bestopet, one of the Cats of Menaphos, may appear if the player owns the Menaphos journal.
• Camouflage fragments which can be used to create the Master camouflage outfit through Invention.

Trivia

Quick travel interface prior to 3 July 2017

• Prior to an update on 3 July 2017, players could right-click the entrance to the minigame, and open the quick travel interface in order to quickly travel to any district in Menaphos. The quick travel interface has been replaced with a right click interface serving mostly the same function.
  • Attempting to quick travel to the same entrance they were at could render the interface useless, requiring it to be closed and reopened.
• Players can find skilling pets, excluding the dungeoneering pet, as well as strange and golden rocks in Shifting Tombs.

References

• RuneScape's Road to Menaphos #2 - Skilling. 5 May 2017.*
• Menaphos - Shifting Tombs. 5 May 2017.*
• Menaphos - Skilling Q&A. 9 May 2017.*
• Jagex. Mod Orion's Twitter account. 11 May 2017.
• Mod Shauny. Do Shifting Tombs give Skilling Pets?. 6 May 2017.*