Pest Control/Strategies

While there are numerous different ways to play Pest Control, there are a few common strategies used in order to help gain pest points most efficiently.

Pest Control Basics

• Pest Control is a completely safe minigame (except for Hardcore Group Ironman, where any deaths are not considered "safe"). If you die, you will respawn back at the lander.
• There are two primary roles within Pest Control: Defenders and Portal Killers.
  • Defenders primarily will focus on defending the Void Knight from the attacking pests by either pulling aggression off them or by flat out killing the pests.
  • Portal Killers will deal with destroying the Portals around the map along with dealing with Spinners due to them healing the portals.
• Portal Killers should have high damage output as the damage amount can easily be healed by a rogue Spinner.
• Clean-up of Pests after a Portal is destroyed is often unnecessary as this can prolong a match because completion of a match is decided by the destruction of all the Portals, by keeping the Void Knight alive for 20 minutes, or by the death of the Void Knight.
• Splatters along with Ravagers can destroy barricades and the gates leading to the Void Knight, however both of these can be repaired with a Hammer and Logs.
• Simply being idle in the lander will not gain any commendation points. Actively dealing damage to portals, pests and even repairing damaged structures will count as participating which will lead to being rewarded upon completion.

Defending the Knight

• Since there is no formal organisation of who attacks and who defends, it is usually best to periodically check the walls and centre platform to see if the knight is being defended, and help out if necessary.
• Try to distract Torchers and Defilers that are attempting to attack the Void Knight. If you can attack them before they get a chance to fire at the Void Knight, they will begin attacking you instead of the knight.
• Closing the gates to the south, and especially to the east and west, can help prevent many pests from attacking the Void Knight. As this will only prevent pest directly behind the gate from attacking, many pests will still be able to attack from behind the southern wall.
• Splatters and Ravagers are able to destroy the barricades and gates on the outside of the island. If the gates are destroyed, then pests will be able to freely walk through and attack the knight. Players can kill Splatters and Ravagers before they reach the gate, or they can alternatively repair the gates after the have been destroyed. Usually, though, defending the barricades is a lost cause due to the speed at which these pests destroy them. In that case, it is best to lure the unaggressive Splatters into groups of Defilers and Torchers that are attacking the Void Knight from just beyond the gates and detonate them, should you find yourself severely outnumbered.

Attacking the portals

Destroying portals is an important objective of the game. Not only does it heal the Void Knight, but it stops the monsters from spawning at that location and eventually reaching and attacking the knight. Thus, some players may wish to specialise in attacking the portals. Each portal is weak to a specific combat style, as shown in the table below. The weakness depends on the colour of the portal:

Colour	Location	Weakness
	West	Range
	South-west	Crush (melee)
	South-east	Slash or Stab (melee)
	East	Magic

• Players will be notified of a portal losing its shield in the chat. This will happen sooner than the icon at the top is updated.
• Each portal has a different weakness. While damage is unaffected, attacks will be much more accurate. Even if a player does not have that great of gear or stats, they will often find they can do considerable damage on a portal using its weakness.
• The order in which the shields drop is always one of 6 patterns:
  • Purple - Yellow - Blue - Red
  • Purple - Blue - Yellow - Red
  • Blue - Red - Yellow - Purple
  • Blue - Purple - Red - Yellow
  • Yellow - Purple - Red - Blue
  • Yellow - Red - Purple - Blue
• The red portal will never be the first shield to drop.
• The yellow portal is often the easiest to kill. It has a weakness to both slash and stab, which are usually the most common attack styles used. Using a special attack such as that of the Dragon dagger will often be extremely effective, even without the best of stats.
• If a team cannot match a portal's weakness, the portal can still be easily destroyed using a large number of players, especially if a number of them are high levelled.
• When a portal is destroyed, the Void Knight will be healed 50 hitpoints. Given that the destruction of the final portal will end the game, the knight can be healed up a maximum of 150 hitpoints per game.
• If a portal is destroyed when the knight has more than 150 hitpoints remaining, the excess healing will be lost, as the knight can only have up to 200 health. As such, it may be most efficient to leave the knight undefended until the first portal is destroyed, allowing for players to move onto the remaining three portals quicker.

Spinners

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.
• Spinners can be lured away from the portal using range or magic. When attacking it from a distance, the spinner will begin moving towards the player momentarily. Using a fast weapon, such as knives or a shortbow, the spinner can be kept away from the portal and prevented from healing.
• Spinners will obey NPC blocking behaviours. If another player or pest has moved to a location without being moved through, then the Spinner will be unable to move through them. In certain circumstances, especially at the east portal, this can be used to prevent the Spinner from repairing the portal.

Dharok's armour

Using a set of Dharok's is one of the quickest ways to destroy portals. Its ability to deal more damage as the player's health gets lower allows it to hit high amounts of damage.

• Items can be brought in to help lower health; see Dharoking.
• Dharokers should hide behind the portal, or pray Protect from Magic when they are exposed. Since they will normally have very low health, they are susceptible to being killed easily.
• Since Dharok's greataxe offers great accuracy for both slash and crush, Dharokers should be sure to use slash against the yellow portal, and crush against the red portal.