Pest Control

This is a safe activity in an instanced area.

If you die here, you will not lose any of your items; however, any items you drop manually on the ground will be lost.
Warning: All PvM activities are dangerous for Hardcore group iron players, including Pest Control, Nightmare Zone, Fight Caves, and Chambers of Xeric.

This article has a strategy guide.

All information on mechanics and strategy will be on this page.

Pest Control
Also called		PC
Released		18 April 2006 (Update)
Type		Minigame
Members		Yes
Location		Void Knights' Outpost
Participants		5-25
Skills		Combat, Crafting, Woodcutting
Reward currency		Void Knight commendation points
Tutorial		No
Music		Pest Control
Location

Location on World Map
Void Knights' Outpost
↑
Unknown	←	Pest Control	→	Unknown
↓
Pest Control Island

Pest Control is a co-operative members-only combat-based activity. Players must defend the Void Knight from an onslaught of monsters, while at the same time destroying the portals from which the monsters spawn.

The activity is played in the name of Guthix to retain balance in the world, which may be disrupted by an influx of monsters invading islands in the south of the world. It is run by an order of Guthix known as the Void Knights. Players board landers, which transport them to islands under invasion. The activity is divided into three landers; access to each lander is determined by combat level.

This is a 'safe' activity. Players who die keep their items, respawn on the lander, and can rejoin combat immediately. In addition, Hitpoints, Prayer points, special attack, and run energy are fully restored at the end of each game. All stats are restored to their normal levels at the end of each game, meaning stat boosts of various potions like Super sets do not carry over from game to game. This makes using these potions for Pest Control somewhat expensive, as each game will require a new dose from each potion.

Required Items

Killing Abyssal creatures and portals

• Combat gear

Repairing structures

• An Axe
• A Hammer

Requirements

Skills

The only requirement to participate in a game of Pest Control is to have a combat level of 40 or above.

• A minimum combat level of 40 is required to use the novice lander.
• To use the intermediate lander, a player must have a combat level of 70 or higher
• To use the veteran lander, a player must have a combat level of 100 or higher.

Participation

In order to receive commendation points, a player must consistently maintain their activity bar throughout the duration of a game. Should the activity bar drop below the required amount of 25%, it will turn red and no points will be awarded if it reaches 0% before the end of the game.

Performing attacks on standard enemies will award a moderate increase in activity, while performing attacks on Portals and Spinners will award a higher increase in activity.

Repairing barricades or gates on the island will also give this higher increase in activity, as well as grant a low amount of Crafting experience. Players who struggle to maintain their activity via attacking enemies may find it easier to repair the barricades and gates. This allows for players who do not want to train combat-related skills to also receive points. For repairing barricades it is strongly advised that you finish the Easy Kandarin Diary for Kandarin headgear for double log output from normal trees. Trees will not respawn on the island. You need a hammer to repair barricades. You gain 5 Crafting experience per repair. Your barricade repair speed correlates to the attack speed of the weapon you have equipped, so having a fast weapon such as a dart equipped will allow you to repair barricades much more quickly.

As of 18 December 2014, Pest Control now grants full experience when dealing damage in the minigame. Prior to this, players would earn 1/2 the experience they would normally receive for damage dealt (e.g. 4 damage granted 8xp in attack rather than 16xp). This experience penalty did not apply when doing damage to portals.

Players

A game of Pest Control can be played by 5 to 25 players. Anyone who wishes to play must board a lander. If the lander fills with 25 players, the game will begin automatically. Otherwise, players must wait 2 minutes after at least 5 players have boarded the lander for the game to begin, and can start earlier if there are 5 players and no one else appears to be embarking the lander.

In busy Pest Control worlds, the landers, particularly the level 40 novice one, can fill up quickly. Sometimes, far more than 25 players may attempt to get on a lander. A player not taken in the first load of 25 players is assigned a priority number for the lander, starting at 1 and rising by 1 with each load that leaves without the player. The higher the priority number, the more likely the player will be taken in the next load. With large amounts of players all attempting to join a game at once, priority levels can exceed 5+. However, with that many players attempting to join a game at once, there is minimal wait time between games.

Some players bring items to cast High Level Alchemy or Humidify while they wait for the landers to fill up.

Restrictions

Pets are allowed on the island, but not on the landers or in the minigame itself. In addition, Dwarf multicannons and Alchemy spells may not be used during the activity.

Location

Pest Control is located on the Void Knights' Outpost, which is on one of the southernmost islands in the game. It can be accessed from the docks of Port Sarim south of the Lady Lumbridge (ship). Speak with the Squire and she will ask if you want to go to the Void Knights' Outpost. Alternatively, you can right-click the squire and select "Travel".

The fastest way to get to the outpost is through the use of the Grouping teleport, by selecting Pest Control and teleporting directly there (this has a 20 minute cooldown and cannot be cast in a player-owned house or from a PvP area such as the Wilderness or the Emir's Arena).

Players can also use Pest control teleports to teleport directly to the outpost. These can be found as rewards from Treasure Trails or bought from other players.

To get to Port Sarim, players can use fairy ring code AIQ to Mudskipper Point, use the Amulet of glory's teleport to Draynor Village, or walk from Falador or Lumbridge. Another quick way to get to Port Sarim is to teleport to Ardougne, take the boat to Brimhaven and then take the charter ship to Port Sarim. The Squire's ship is located right next to the charter ship.

The Outpost

The Outpost contains various utilities, including:

• Bank
• General store - Sells unique items
• Anvil - Nearby is a smith who can repair Barrows armour
• Void Knight Archery Store
• Void Knight Magic Store - Stocks body, air, water, earth, fire, mind, chaos, and death runes
• Three LCVP-style ships, called "landers" - Players board these to begin games of Pest Control

Official world

The following official world is assigned to Pest Control:

World	Location	Members	Activity
344	Germany		Pest Control

As with most minigames, it is not required to use the official world, though landers in most other worlds are usually empty if a dedicated group is not present.

Winning

Main article: Pest Control/Strategies

The rules for Pest Control are simple. There are two ways to win the game:

1. Keep the Void Knight alive for 20 minutes.
2. Destroy all 4 portals before the Void Knight is killed. This is much more commonly done, as games can be won in as little as 2 minutes with this strategy. However, the Void Knight can easily be killed even in two minutes if left undefended, so a small number of players should defend him. Since players rarely organise themselves, it can be worth checking the Void Knight's status after each portal kill and switch to defence for a while if the knight is being swarmed or has less than half health. Each portal that is killed will give the void knight 50 hitpoints.

Pests

Pests are the monsters that spawn out of portals to kill players and the Void Knight.

Monsters

Name	Attack style	Combat levels	Notes
Brawler	Melee	51, 76, 101, 111 or 129	Blocks the way due to its massive size, making it impossible to walk through. It is impossible for players or pests to shoot over it with ranged or magic attacks.
Defiler	Ranged	33, 50, 66, 80, or 97	Can range over the walls.
Ravager	Melee	36, 53, 71, 89, or 106	Destroys Gates and Barricades. Non-aggressive, but can hit hard with melee.
Shifter	Melee	36, 57, 76, 90, or 104	Can teleport (also over the walls). Immune to poison.
Spinner	Melee	37, 55, 74, 88, or 92	Can heal the portals. Will not retaliate when attacked.
Splatter	Melee	22, 33, 44, 54, or 65	Explodes when killed, damaging nearby players and pests. Will explode instantly upon moving adjacent to gates and barricades.
Torcher	Magic	33, 49, 67, 79, 91 or 92	Can cast spells over the walls.

Brawler

Main article: Brawler

Brawlers are the largest and most resilient creatures in the Pest Control activity, and they defend the portals. They resemble a gorilla or a small elephant with spikes sprouting from their backs and a pointed, very slightly transparent, snout. When you see one of these creatures, ignore them, for they are the lowest priority to kill unless they are in your way.

Normally they will not attack the fort, though they are still a match for anyone attempting to destroy the portal. Their combat levels can be 51, 76, 101, 111 or 129, and their colouring is based on their level. Brawlers are one of only five creatures that you cannot run through (the others being Monkey Guards on Ape Atoll, and the monsters fought in the quest Dream Mentor) - they block your path in a similar manner to the barricades in the Castle Wars activity.

Brawlers block other monsters too. This can be used to the team's advantage by 'luring' a brawler to the steps where the Void Knight is. Defilers and Torchers cannot shoot over brawlers, and Shifters are unable to teleport through them. Brawlers will never attack the Void Knight. Thus, 'luring' can be an effective tactic to protect the Void Knight from potential damage by monsters behind the lured brawler. Again, however, players rarely organise themselves and many players will attack the brawler anyway. If there are hordes of monsters behind the brawler when it is killed, the result can be catastrophic and the Void Knight can take substantial amounts of damage as a result. Thus, it is wise to never kill brawlers when they can be used to keep the void knight from sustaining additional damage.

Defiler

Main article: Defiler

Defilers are fast, agile creatures in the Pest Control activity. They have the appearance of the lower half of a snake, a humanoid top half and a face resembling that of a cat. They can throw flying spikes over long distances, which can inflict a large amount of damage to the Void Knight. They can even launch their barbs over walls, though if they are in the spaces right in front of one of the three gates, they cannot shoot over it, so keeping them closed will block those directly in front of it. Their combat levels vary from 33, 50, 66, 80, or 97, and their colouring is based on these levels.

Ravager

Main article: Ravager

Ravagers are short, humanoid creatures with large claws in the Pest Control activity. Their appearance is closely related to that of a mole with over sized claws and red eyes. They are capable of tearing down the gates and so they must be killed to protect the void knight from the torchers and defilers. They are non-aggressive and have low attack and defence, but very high strength, so Protect from Melee is recommended. Their combat levels can be 36, 53, 71, 89, or 106 and their colouring is based on these levels. When attacked, a ravager will often continue destroying its target (if any) before engaging in combat with the attacking player, and may also destroy anything nearby that gets repaired, though after the barricades have been destroyed, they are not a threat.

Shifter

Main article: Shifter

Shifters are creatures that excel in melee combat and can teleport across the island and even past walls. For this reason, they are very dangerous for those on defence since they can teleport right next to the Void Knight and attack him. They have the bottom half of a spider with the scythes of a praying mantis (similar to the Abyssal demon). Their combat levels can be 36, 57, 76, 90, or 104 and their colouring is based on these levels. Although it has the ability to teleport other monsters, such as ravagers and torchers (and up on to towers), they can only teleport others a very short distance.

For some reason shifters are some of the few monsters that can attack at a diagonal, other than ranged monsters, most single squared beasts will align with the player to attack. They also seem to hit the Void Knight from a distance while teleporting around them.

Spinner

Main article: Spinner

Spinners are creatures that appear as spinning tops or jellyfish, and float above the ground. They repair portals on the island and it is unlikely the damage players do will be greater than the amount the spinners heal, especially if there is more than one. However, if the players manage to destroy the portal before any spinners healing it are killed, the spinners will spin around violently and then explode, hitting all players within a few squares with poison that deals 5 hit points of damage instantaneously and then poisons for 1 hit point afterwards. Their combat levels can be 37, 55, 74, 88, or 92. Since they often prevent players from destroying the portals quickly (and thus extend the length of the mini-game) they are the first priority to kill, even if the portal they surround is still protected.

Splatter

Main article: Splatter

Splatters are creatures that appear like a giant ball with a single eye in the middle and liquid inside them. They will go towards the nearest standing barricades or fort doors and detonate, causing 5-24 typeless damage to all players and monsters within a 3x3 radius, as well as weakening the structures they were targeting. This will also happen if they are killed, which is easy since they are often low level and weak defensively. When a splatter "detonates" near another splatter, if the secondary splatters' health is low enough, the damage may cause a chain reaction, increasing the overall damage. Some players find amusement in exploiting the splatter's detonation. By making several or many splatters follow a player with auto-retaliate turned off, leading them into a group of enemies or players, and then killing one, they can start this chain reaction of detonations, likely killing everything/everyone surrounding them. Their combat levels can be 22, 33, 44, 54, or 65 and their colouring is based on these levels. If the opportunity arises, Splatters can be used in a similar manner to a Void seal by detonating them near large groups of monsters. This does not work on portals. Currently no prayer protection can defend against their "detonation". Players wearing Dharok's equipment may wish to kill Splatters to lower their health and activate the set effect to do extra damage, but this can be unreliable due to the highly variable damage from the detonation. Killing them is a higher priority the closer they get to the gates, as their explosions can damage the gates. Splatters will never attack the Void Knight, and do not inflict damage to them if killed nearby.

Torcher

Main article: Torcher

Torchers are creatures that look like winged snakes with bat wings and will actively attack the Void Knight. They have a long distance magical attack which can harm both players and the Void Knight. They can even launch this attack over walls, though if they are in the spaces right in front of one of the three gates, they cannot shoot over it, so keeping them closed will block those directly in front of it. They have relatively low Hitpoints and Defence, so they are dispatched easily. Their combat levels can be 33, 49, 67, 79, 91 or 92 and their colouring is based on these levels.

Portals

Portals are the key mechanic in Pest Control. A portal will continually spawn pests until it is destroyed.

At the start of a game, all four portals are given a shield, which makes the portal invulnerable to all damage. Players will have to wait for the Void knight to disable the shield before attacking. The first shield will go down 15 seconds into the game, and then the following shields will go down in 30 second intervals thereafter. Portals will be announced as the shields drop. All shields drop at 1 minute, 45 seconds.

Once the shield is down, players are free to attack and destroy the portals. Each portal begins with 200 Hitpoints in the novice lander, or 250 in the intermediate and veteran landers. Portals have a defence level of 120. They also have defensive bonuses of +100 to each attack style, except their weakness. Players attacking a portal should either be exploiting its weakness, or have a high accuracy bonus. The specific weakness of each portal is indicated by the following table:

Colour	Location	Attack weakness
	W
	E
	SE
	SW

The following table shows the order in which portals shields will drop. In general, Portal 1 and Portal 2 will predict which portal shields will drop as Portal 3 and Portal 4. The red portal shield will never drop first.

Portal 1	Portal 2	Portal 3	Portal 4

The best strategy is for the players to follow the portals as they open, killing or luring all spinners first (1-2 spinners are ok with a very strong team- i.e. Dharokers or equivalent), then killing the portal. Players should ALWAYS close the gates as they run through or past them, this will also help keep the Void Knight's HP up longer.

A player should remain alert in the event that the portal spawns spinners. A Spinner will repair damage done to the portal, and the effect of multiple spinners will stack, making the portal nearly invincible. Unless your team is specifically trying to gain more experience by allowing the spinner to heal the portal, it is better to either kill or lure the spinners to prevent the portal from healing. A common misconception is that using special attack or prayer on the portals will cause Spinners to appear, but this is nothing more than a myth.

Once a portal is destroyed, it will stop spawning pests, and the Void Knight will regain 50 health. The game will end as soon as the four portals are successfully destroyed.

• 

  The portals information interface.

• 

  A portal with its shields still active. Notice the faint white lines around the portal, showing that it is shielded.

• 

  Players attacking an unshielded portal

Any players fletching or other similar activities will have their actions interrupted when a portal loses its shield.

Strategies

Main article: Pest Control/Strategies

The best strategy is to make sure the gates stay closed as the players run through or past them. This helps keep the Void Knight safe. It is ok for 2-3 players to be at the Void Knight to help keep pests from attacking him, but the majority of the players should be following the portals as they open to destroy them as quickly as possible. Rangers, halberdiers, and magers can easily lure Spinners away from the portals while the meleers are attacking and killing the portals.

Never stand in the middle of the front of the portal because this is where the pests spawn and you will trap Spinners from being lured from the portal and also trap yourself. A great place for Dharokers to stand is at the back of the portal in the middle. When the portal dies, if any Spinners are still alive, they will poison all those nearby, unless they are standing at the back of the portal nowhere near the Spinner(s).

When at the portals, Spinners will spawn and begin repairing the portal. A Spinner makes a distinct sound when it starts healing the portal, notifying players of its presence. Generally, if there are a number of people attacking the portal, a single Spinner can be ignored, and the portal can still be easily destroyed. Once multiple Spinners spawn, however, the portal will be repaired quicker than players can damage it. Players will need to either kill or lure the Spinners away in order to be able to destroy the portal. It is possible to one-shot the 4th portal by collecting and stacking enough splatters.

Rewards

Main article: Void Knights' Reward Options

Winning players are rewarded with a number of commendation points dependent on the chosen difficulty level and whether they have completed certain tiers of Combat Achievements. The most commendation points a player can have at any time is 4,000, as the squire will not let you board a boat while in possession of 4,000 points. Commendation points can be traded in for experience, Void Knight equipment, and various resource packs. You also receive coins for each game of pest control won, equivalent to 10 times your current combat level.

	You have successfully defended the island!

	Alas, the Void Knight has died.

	Highest tier of Combat Achievements completed
	None	Easy	Medium	Hard or above
Novice Lander	3	4	5	6
Intermediate Lander	4	5	6	7
Veteran Lander	5	6	7	8

Set costs

The total costs for buying a full set of void armour. The full sets do not require the void knight mace, so its cost is not included in anything but the full collection log.

	Regular void	Elite void
1 helm	850 points	1,250 points
2 helms	1,050 points	1,450 points
3 helms	1,250 points	1,650 points
Collection log	1,510 points	1,910 points

Changes

Date	Changes
30 November 2022 (update | poll)	With the Easy, Medium, and Hard Combat Achievement tiers you now gain an extra one, two or three points respectively per game
12 March 2020 (update)	Healing hitsplats are now used for when spinners heal a portal or when a dying portal causes the Void Knight to be healed.
30 May 2019 (update)	A game of Pest Control will now start much faster if a full team of 25 players is present on the lander. If there are at least 5 players on board, but no more are embarking, the same applies. The priority system has been reworked, and is no longer biased towards players standing on the north-western tiles of the lander.
8 June 2017 (update)	An Activity Bar has been added that must be kept above zero for players to earn points in a game. The amount of points rewarded has been increased to 3 points for the easy boat, 4 points for the medium boat and 5 points for the hard boat.
16 April 2015 (update | poll)	The cap on Pest Control points has been raised from 250 to 4000.
5 March 2015 (update | poll)	The void knight top and void knight robe can now be upgraded to the elite void top and elite void robe for 200 Pest Control points each after completing the Hard Western Provinces Diary.
18 December 2014 (update | poll)	Full combat experience will now be given inside the Pest Control minigame.
24 April 2006 (update)	Players now need to have dealt at least 50 points of damage to the attacking monsters over the course of a game to get a reward. Each section repaired now counts as doing 5 points of damage. Level 40 combat is now required to board the lander and play the game. Each player in a game of Pest Control increases the number of monsters in the game. If more than 25 people board the lander, the people left behind will be given priority in being transported to the island on the next game.

Trivia

• Originally, players had to deal at least 50 points of damage or repair 10 barricades in the game in order to receive commendations. This is no longer the case as of an update, due to player complaints about participants simply meeting the minimum requirement and not participating afterwards. To counter this, the activity bar was added, requiring players to continually participate or risk not getting commendations. The commendations awarded by each lander were increased by 1 to compensate for this.
• The boat that drops players off in the minigame is modeled after the American Higgins Landing Boat, designed by Andrew Higgins and used by Allied troops on D-Day in World War II.