Pyramid Plunder

This is a dangerous activity.

On death, Hardcore Ironmen will lose their status.
Unprotected items will be moved to a grave.

Pyramid Plunder
Released								17 July 2006 (Update)
Type								Minigame
Members								Yes
Location								Sophanem
League region								Desert✓
Participants								1
Skills								Thieving
Reward currency								N/A
Tutorial								No
Music								Tomb Raider
Map
<mapframe align="center" frameless="" plane="0" width="300" y="2793" x="3289" height="300" zoom="3" mapID="0"> [] </mapframe>

Pyramid Plunder is a Thieving minigame set in the Jalsavrah Pyramid in the city of Sophanem, far in the southern Kharidian Desert. Access to the minigame can be found behind one of four anonymous looking doors, guarded by the Guardian mummy.

Upon starting the minigame, the player has five minutes to plunder the contents of Jalsavrah. The pyramid consists of eight rooms, each requiring progressively higher Thieving levels.

This is the only place where players can obtain the Pharaoh's sceptre.

Requirements

• At least 21 Thieving is necessary to start the game. Every ten levels thereafter will grant entrance to the more valuable rooms, up to level 91. Note that these levels cannot be boosted.
• Players must have started Icthlarin's Little Helper for access to Sophanem.

Recommended

• It is highly recommended to finish Contact! to be able to bank in the nearby Sophanem Dungeon.
• With at least 43 Prayer for Protect from Melee, damage from mummies and scarab swarms will be fully negated.

Official world

The following official world is assigned to Pyramid Plunder:

World	Location	Members	Activity
493	United States (east)	1	Pyramid Plunder

Getting there

Jalsavrah is the northern pyramid in the city of Sophanem. You can get there in several ways;

• Take Shantay Pass Carpet (OR break a Pollnivneach teleport/use the house portal) to Pollnivneach, then run south and ride the magic carpet from Pollnivneach to Sophanem for 400 coins, or 200 with the Rogue Trader miniquest.
• Travel to fairy ring code AKP and enter the city's eastern gate. This method requires unlocking the Necropolis during Beneath Cursed Sands and 62 Agility, which can be boosted.
• Use the Pharaoh's sceptre to directly enter the minigame lobby of Jalsavrah. You have to charge the sceptre first by talking to the Guardian mummy inside this room.

Recommended setup

File:Pharaoh's sceptre.png

Items

• Lockpick to open the tomb doors more easily, at the cost of only gaining half the amount of Thieving experience for unlocking the door.
  • In practice, the altered success rate of using a lockpick is not noticeable. Players may choose to forgo using one for the added experience and extra inventory slot.
• Snake charm at Thieving levels below 51, for higher chances of looting an urn. It is inefficient to use at higher levels.
• Some superantipoisons or antidotes++.
  • For players who have completed The Great Brain Robbery, a prayer book and holy symbol can save some inventory space at the cost of a few prayer points.
• One or two Prayer potions, or other potions that restore Prayer for Protect from Melee.
• Optionally, a stamina potion or two.
• Unless the player wants to collect the regular artefacts, it is recommended to fill all other inventory slots with food.

Equipment

• Pharaoh's sceptre for the fastest teleport to the start of each game.
  • Should the player have a rejuvenation pool or better, it is helpful to bring Teleport to House tablets in combination with the sceptre.
  • Without the rejuvenation pool, a ring of dueling or desert amulet 4 also allows the player to continuously restore all stats, while furthermore granting quick access to a bank.
• Graceful outfit or other weight-reducing gear, so stamina potions are not necessary.
• Prayer-boosting equipment, such as the Ardougne cloak 1+ or a dragonbone necklace.
• Armour for melee defence, only if not using Protect from Melee.
• Charged serpentine helm for immunity against poison, as alternative to antidotes or antipoisons. Note that scarab swarms will always consume 10 Zulrah's scales when they appear and attack the player, even with Prayer on. This can be avoided if the player escapes the current room before receiving any hitsplats from scarab swarms.
• Prayer Book and Holy Symbol for a free, low level alternative to cure poison.

Guide

The guardian mummy's chamber.

You can enter the Jalsavrah Pyramid via one of its four anonymous looking doors. Only a single door leads to the Guardian mummy, while the rest leads to an abandoned room. If you stumble upon the latter, simply leave the pyramid and try another entrance. Leaving will always place you in front of the northern door.

The correct entrance is randomised every 25 minutes. Note that until then, the correct door is the same for all players, which makes it useful to play on the official game world (493) if you lack a Pharaoh's sceptre.

When you have found the right door, the odds of successfully entering are dependent on your Thieving level. On a failed attempt, you will be stunned and take 1-4 damage. Keep trying to enter until you succeed. Once you are inside the pyramid, you can speak to the Guardian mummy or simply right-click him to start the game. Using the Pharaoh's sceptre to Jalsavrah will place you directly next to the mummy.

You will be teleported to the first room, and a timer of five minutes will commence. You have this time to loot as much treasure from the pyramid as you can. When the time runs out or when you manually leave, you will be teleported back outside. Should you get the rare Pharaoh's sceptre during this trip, the Guardian mummy will instantly end your run and also teleport you outside. Be aware that if your inventory is full, the sceptre will be dropped on the ground under you outside the pyramid.

Gameplay

In each room, you will first need to disarm a spear trap, which deals 1-4 damage on a failed attempt. It grants 10 Thieving experience when disarmed. You will then encounter several containers, granting you an artefact and experience when opened. Rewards are dependent on the room you are in.

• Urns: Every room contains exactly 13 lootable urns (bar the third room, which contains one less). Searching it might cause a snake inside the urn to bite you for 1-4 damage and poison you for the same amount. You may try to search the urn again until you are successful. Alternatively, you can first check an urn for snakes, and then charm them with a snake charm for higher chances of success. This might save time if your Thieving level is less than 51, but it is often counterproductive at higher levels.

The golden chests may spawn scarabs upon looting them.

• Grand Gold Chest: There is a golden chest in the centre of each room. You will always open it in one click, and may rarely find a Pharaoh's sceptre inside one. However, based on your Thieving level, there is a chance you set off a trap and take 1-4 damage. This also causes a level 98 scarab swarm to appear, which has 25 Hitpoints and will rapidly deal up to one damage every 0.6 seconds. Its attacks can poison, and it will only try to attack you. When the swarm appears, you will still get an artefact from the chest, but no Thieving experience.

I want my mummy!

• Sarcophagus: Each room has a sarcophagus, which may also contain a Pharaoh's sceptre, though it takes some time to open one. Instead of Thieving, opening it uses Strength and always grants Strength experience. Combat with a scarab swarm will not interrupt this action. Occassionally, a level 84 mummy will arise from the sarcophagus. The chance for this event is based on the room you are in, occurring more frequently in later rooms. The mummy is only aggressive to you, hitting up to 6 damage.
• Tomb doors: Each room has four locked tomb doors, one of which will lead to the next room, while three of them are fake. Players can fail in opening the doors, although no consequences will occur if they fail. Having a lockpick will increase your chances of opening the doors, though it will half the experience gained from doing so. The correct doors in each room are the same for every player. However, the doors in each room change whenever a new player starts a round by entering room 1 (a player entering the lobby or a subsequent room has no effect upon the correct door). It is possible for the doors to change so that a previously opened incorrect door is now correct - upon trying this door again players can simply pass through it.
  • Since a hidden update, if the player has attempted three doors and all were incorrect, the fourth door will always let the player through. This is the case even if a new player joined and the door has changed - in this case, both the fourth door and the new correct door will take the player to the next room. However, the fourth door will not work for any subsequent players who joined - therefore players should be aware that doors that others disappear through are not necessarily correct.

You can leave the game earlier via an exit door or any teleport.

Experience

A map of the pyramid chambers.

This minigame provides relatively high experience rates, especially beyond 71 Thieving. Players gain access to more valuable rooms every ten Thieving levels past level 21.

Room	Lvl Req	Urn	Chest	Door	Sarcophagus
1	21+	60	40	40	20
2	31+	90	60	60	30
3	41+	150	100	100	50
4	51+	215	140	140	70
5	61+	300	200	200	100
6	71+	450	300	300	150
7	81+	675	450	450	225
8	91+	825	550	N/A	275

Experience rates and strategy

In the most optimal scenario, up to 120,000 Thieving experience can be gained per hour at level 71, and upwards of 275,000 experience at level 91, accounting for failed searches and the occasional resupply. Rates are also dependent on the player's equipment, e.g. a Pharaoh's sceptre will nullify the time spent entering the pyramid.

Generally, for the highest experience rates, you'll only want to loot the following;

• The golden chests in room 4 and beyond. With low Thieving, it is advisable to also search chests in earlier rooms.
• All urns in your second to last and last possible room. You should save at least 90 seconds for the last room.

Optionally, for the Pharaoh sceptre, you can search the sarcophagi in rooms 4 onward. These have higher sceptre rates than the sarcophagi in previous rooms. However, sarcophagi grant no Thieving experience and take some time to open.

Chests and sarcophagi should always be searched last, just before leaving the room, as it might cost time or resources to defend against possible enemies.

Rewards

Players will find artefacts within the urns, chests, and sarcophagi. Artefacts in later rooms are generally more valuable. They can be used to charge the Pharaoh's sceptre. They can also be sold to Simon Templeton at the Agility Pyramid just northeast from Sophanem, though this is not recommended, as selling them on the Grand Exchange grants about the same returns and is faster. The ivory comb is even worth a lot more on the Grand Exchange.

Artefact		Rooms	Sold for	GE price	Difference
	Ivory comb	1–2	50	690	−640
	Pottery scarab	All	75	74	1
	Pottery statuette	All	100	95	5
	Stone seal	All	150	150	0
	Stone scarab	All	175	180	−5
	Stone statuette	All	200	197	3
	Gold seal	3–8	750	744	6
	Golden scarab	4–8	1,000	986	14
	Golden statuette	7–8	1,250	1,240	10

Sceptre

Players may rarely find a Pharaoh's sceptre instead of an artefact inside a golden chest or sarcophagus. Should this happen, the player will immediately be teleported outside of the northern entrance of the pyramid, as the Guardian mummy will be angry that the player has found his master's sceptre. Should their inventory be full, the sceptre will be dropped on the ground under the player outside the pyramid.

The Pharaoh's sceptre will appear more frequently in chests or sarcophagi in later rooms. The sceptre’s drop rates are shown below for each room.

Room	Lvl Req	Sarcophagus	Chest
1	21+	1/4,200	1/4,200
2	31+	1/2,800	1/2,800
3	41+	1/1,600	1/1,600
4	51+	1/950	1/950
5	61+	1/800	1/800
6	71+	1/750	1/750
7	81+	1/650	1/650
8	91+	1/650	1/650

If the player searches all golden chests as far as their level allows, the cumulative rates for obtaining a Pharaoh's sceptre per run are as below. Note that due to the lengthy animation for opening the sarcophagus, it is generally considered a more effective use of time to ignore the sarcophagus entirely until reaching room 4 due to the relatively low odds of rolling a sceptre during the first three rooms.

Level	Cumulative Rate	Cumulative Rate (Skipping Room 1-3 Sarcophagi)
21-30	1/2,100	1/4,200
31-40	1/840	1/1,680
41-50	~1/410	~1/820
51-60	~1/220	~1/301
61-70	~1/142	~1/172
71-80	~1/103	~1/118
81-90	~1/78.5	~1/87
91+	~1/63.5	~1/69

Changes

Date	Changes
[[{{#explode:30 August 2023| |0}} {{#explode:30 August 2023| |1}}]] [[{{#explode:30 August 2023| |2}}]] (update)	The drop rate of the pharaoh's sceptre has been adjusted; previously, it was reduced once players reached the sixth room, and becoming four times rarer in the eighth room. Chests and sarcophagi will now roll the sceptre if players fail to open them.
[[{{#explode:1 March 2023| |0}} {{#explode:1 March 2023| |1}}]] [[{{#explode:1 March 2023| |2}}]] (update)	Scarab swarms will no longer interrupt players looting the sarcophagus.
[[{{#explode:24 March 2021| |0}} {{#explode:24 March 2021| |1}}]] [[{{#explode:24 March 2021| |2}}]] (update)	Pharaoh's Sceptre now has scaling drop rates depending on the room its chest/sarcophagus is located.
[[{{#explode:18 April 2019| |0}} {{#explode:18 April 2019| |1}}]] [[{{#explode:18 April 2019| |2}}]] (update)	W493 has been made a themed world for Pyramid Plunder.
[[{{#explode:12 April 2018| |0}} {{#explode:12 April 2018| |1}}]] [[{{#explode:12 April 2018| |2}}]] (update)	The hourglass has been removed.
[[{{#explode:15 December 2015| |0}} {{#explode:15 December 2015| |1}}]] [[{{#explode:15 December 2015| |2}}]] (update)	Corrected a problem where the timer in Pyramid Plunder would interrupt actions such as casting a home teleport spell.
[[{{#explode:24 September 2015| |0}} {{#explode:24 September 2015| |1}}]] [[{{#explode:24 September 2015| |2}}]] (update)	Scarab Swarms should no longer follow you outside of Pyramid Plunder.
[[{{#explode:16 July 2015| |0}} {{#explode:16 July 2015| |1}}]] [[{{#explode:16 July 2015| |2}}]] (update)	The Pyramid Plunder timer overlay now increments more reliably when switching between graphics modes.
[[{{#explode:18 June 2015| |0}} {{#explode:18 June 2015| |1}}]] [[{{#explode:18 June 2015| |2}}]] (update)	Relocated the pyramid plunder timer in resizable mode.
[[{{#explode:14 August 2014| |0}} {{#explode:14 August 2014| |1}}]] [[{{#explode:14 August 2014| |2}}]] (update | poll)	Pyramid Plunder exits now have a right-click quick-leave option.
[[{{#explode:6 March 2014| |0}} {{#explode:6 March 2014| |1}}]] [[{{#explode:6 March 2014| |2}}]] (update | poll)	The Pyramid Plunder overlay now displays your time remaining more accurately.

Trivia

• Using an oculus orb in the lobby of Pyramid Plunder, it is possible to see Waterbirth Island Dungeon to the south-west of the lobby.

The hourglass that used to be displayed.

• Before an update on 12 April 2018, an hourglass was displayed alongside the current timer in the upper-left corner of the interface. This was removed as there was already a bar showing players' remaining time in a run.
• A room can be seen from the third room of Pyramid Plunder on the top edge of the map that appears to be an area in Keldagrim. According to Jagex, the area is in fact a duplicate part of the map that was used for a cutscene (specifically the Consortium meeting at the end of The Giant Dwarf) before developers were able to generate instances for them.
• In the minigame lobby, a non-interactive grey sarcophagus can be seen in the centre, closed. Bizarrely, this sarcophagus will only appear open after players mine the rubble leading to the Burgh de Rott pub's basement during In Aid of the Myreque.