Pest Control just got a whole lot more rewarding, with higher XP returns per commendation – now including Summoning - patches to bolster your Void Knight armour, and more.

There’s also Jessika’s sword – an off-hand companion to Korasi’s sword – buyable with commendations by those who’ve completed The Void Stares Back.

With a range of graphical and quality-of-life improvements too, now’s the perfect time to rejoin the Void Knights’ vigil.

Play RuneScape now, or read on for more information.

How to Start

If you’ve never tried Pest Control, it’s a safe, co-operative combat minigame where you’ll help the Guthixian Void Knights drive back a relentless assault of otherworldly creatures known as the void pests.

To win, you’ll need to destroy four portals that the pests are using to enter Gielinor, or keep a stationary, vulnerable Void Knight alive for 20 minutes by fighting off attackers and repairing defensive structures.

To start, you’ll need at least combat level 50. Speak to the Void Knight squire at Port Sarim docks, or right-click her and select ‘travel’.

You’ll then be taken to the Void Knight Outpost, where you can get on one of three ships – requiring level 50, 100 and 150 combat respectively – which will take you to increasingly difficult versions of the game.

The higher the level of the version you pick, the more commendations you’ll earn to spend on rewards, should you win.



Better Rewards

First up, there’s a chance that you’ll get both a commendation and a Void Knight seal whenever you kill a void pest in the minigame.

Note that you will only receive the seal if you have the inventory space, and the commendation only if you’re not at the limit – although this has been increased to 1000.

Void Knight seals have been made more useful, too – dealing far more damage to void pests than before. They can also be used to teleport to the Void Knight Outpost, at the cost of one charge.

There’s more to buy with your commendations, too:

• Summoning XP can now be purchased with commendations, from level 22. It is earned at the same rate as Prayer XP.
• The rate of XP gain per commendation has been increased for all skills.
• Void Knight armour patches can be applied to pieces of regular or elite Void Knight armour, increasing their armour value and life points by 10 levels’ worth. Note that their equip requirements are not changed.
• Seed, mineral and herb packs now give you a selection of resources in various amounts, with a rare chance to get higher level resources.
• Those of you who’ve completed The Void Stares Back can buy Jessika’s sword – an off-hand companion to Korasi’s sword – for commendations.

The rewards interface has been clearly organised into four tabs, so all this is easier to find. There’s also an additional rewards vendor by the outpost’s docks.

Note that the Conquest rewards interface has not yet been updated.

Also, the small gold coin reward given for winning a game has been removed - replaced by the increased rewards detailed above.

Better Graphics

The environment of the minigame has been spruced up, with graphical updates to its landscape and to the portals.

Interfaces used during the minigame are better-looking and clearer too, with invulnerable, vulnerable and destroyed portals clearly indicated.

Message text shown when a portal’s status changes is now colour-coded.

Better Play

As well as improving the rewards and looks of Pest Control, we’ve made several other changes to make the game slicker and more enjoyable:

• Wait time to start a match has been reduced to three minutes.
• Logs for repairing barricades and doors must now be picked up from stockpiles in the minigame area. Only these logs will work, and they cannot leave the minigame.
• Contribution from repairing barricades and doors has been increased.
• Portal health, as well as pest stats and life points, have been upped for balancing reasons.
• Many smaller tweaks and fixes have been made, so the game looks and feels better than ever.

To Battle!

The Void Knights need your help, and you’ll be well rewarded for fighting alongside them. Log into RuneScape now and play Pest Control, and let us know what you think.

The RuneScape Team

In Other News

• The left-click option has been removed from all legendary and companion pets, to prevent accidental activation of its functions. The functions previously accessed in this way are now available from the familiar button on the action bar.
• The legendary pet functions accessed via the dialogue box have been reorganised:
  
  • ‘Scavenge’ and ‘Take to Bank’ are on the first page.
  • Emotes are activated on the second layer of options.
• A number of improvements have been made to the scavenging function of legendary pets:
  
  • A failed scavenge will no longer trigger the cooldown.
  • Legendary pets can now scavenge for noted items dropped as loot from enemies. This is selectable in the Pet Scavenge Options interface.
  • The scavenging cooldown has been reduced.
  • The Pet Scavenge Options interface now has a ‘toggle all’ option.

Read the patch notes for full details of today's updates.