Pyramid Plunder Guide


This minigame has been rated as High Risk. See the minigames page for a definition of high and low risk.


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Introduction

The northern-most temple in Sophanem is home to the Pyramid Plunder minigame. In this game you use your thieving skills to search Sarcophagi, Urns, and Chests to claim rewards. You will have five minutes to search as many places as you can and collect treasure. The temple is full of trinkets that can be traded for cash, and occasionally the Sarcophagi or Golden Chests will contain a golden Pharaoh's Sceptre. See the rewards section for more details.

Requirements & Equipment

The only requirements to play Pyramid Plunder are:

Very little equipment is actually necessary to play Pyramid Plunder as it is not particularly dangerous to most players who have access to it. The primary focus is on curing poison and keeping yourself alive which mid to high level players can do with the use of the Enhanced excalibur and an Anti-poison totem. For players who do not have access to these, Bunyips and antipoison potions can be used (preferably those that provide immunity for a short while).

Armour is not required, however some players choose to wear armour to provide some protection from Mummies and Scarabs. Due to its lightness, Dragonhide armour is a fairly popular choice but heavy armour can be worn by those with a good Agility level.

Although you are unlikely to deplete your run energy during the minigame, it is a good idea to wear either a Spotted cape* or Spottier cape* with the Boots of lightness to keep your weight down.

Lastly players may want to equip a Ring of wealth to improve the loot you receive and an Ardougne cloak 3/4* to boost your chances of looting successfully.

*The capes are fairly interchangeable, most players will not need the weight reduction from the Hunter capes however there is little evidence that the Ardougne cloak works in Pyramid Plunder. An alternate option is to wear a cape with a high prayer bonus.

Pyramid Plunder Equipment

Getting There

As mentioned the Jalsavrah pyramid where the Pyramid Plunder minigame takes place is located within the city of Sophanem at the southern most point of the Kharidian Desert. Unless one has a Pharaoh's sceptre or a Sceptre of the Gods it is not quick to get to and there are few means of getting there.

Pyramid Plunder Location
Getting to Sophanem
Pic Method Notes
Magic Lvl00 Home Teleport Teleport to the lodestone just outside the Bandit Camp and run south from there to the Pyramid.
Pharaoh\\'s Sceptre (3) Pharaoh's Sceptre/Sceptre of the Gods Both these sceptres obtainable from the minigame have the option to teleport you directly to the pyramid by using the "Jalsavrah" option.
Fez Magic Carpets After starting Icthlarin's Little Helper you can ride a magic carpet from Pollnivneach to Sophanem.
Pollnivneach Tablet Pollnivneach Pollnivneach is located north of the Pyramid and is easily accessible through the use of a chipped teleport tablet, house teleport, slayer ring or magic carpet.
Nardah Teleport Nardah Nardah is located north-east of the Pyramid and can be accessed easily by the use of Nardah teleport scrolls or the magic carpet.
Simon Templeton
Pic Notes
Golden Scarab Simon Templeton is located at the entrance to the Agility pyramid and will exchange your loot from Pyramid Plunder for coins. They can be noted.
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The Game

When you enter Sophanem you will see a temple directly south of the gate. This temple has an entrance, leading to a small chamber, on each side. The Guardian Mummy, who starts the minigame, will only be in one of the four chambers, so you need to move from one entrance to another until you find him standing in the chamber. Occasionally when opening a door, you will get hit by a hand and take some damage, the Mummy is in that chamber. Once you find the Mummy speak to him or right click him to play the minigame. The Mummy will remain in his chamber for approximately 15 minutes at which point he will randomly move to another one.

Upon starting the minigame you will find yourself in a chamber with Urns, a Golden Chest, and one Sarcophagus. Near the entrance to each room is a spear trap that must be disabled before you can access the urns. If you fail to disable it you will suffer some damage. Once you are past the speartrap you can use your thieving level to loot Urns, Sarcophagi, and the Golden Chest.

  • "Failing" to loot urns will cause a snake to bite you, deal some damage, and poison you.
  • Often opening Sarcophagi and Golden Chests will cause you to be attacked by Mummies and Scarabs respectively.

The Urns will give only trinkets, while the Sarcophagus and Golden Chest on each level will give either trinkets or the Pharaoh's Sceptre. Once you have finished in a room, attempt to open each of the four doors until you find the one that moves you to the next room. If someone is in the same room as you and finds the door to the next room, it will be the same door for you. After your five minutes are up you will be transported back to the outside of the Pyramid along with any trinkets or items you obtained.

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It is worth noting that if another player enters the pyramid while you are in it the doors will reset. This means you may end up having to try all the doors in the room you are in again (you will not gain additional experience for this).

In total there are 8 rooms to plunder, each requiring you to be 10 thieving levels higher than the previous room required. The final room, which requires 91 thieving to enter, is home to the Engraved Sarcophagus which is the only way to obtain the Sceptre of the Gods.

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Experience Tables

While playing the Pyramid Plunder minigame you will get thieving experience for avoiding traps and opening chests. You will get more experience if you don't use a lockpick or snake charm, but they can make plundering easier. There are three different ways to loot the urns, with different speed, safety and thieving experience points:

Urn Thieving Methods
Description Check Charm Search Speed Safety XP
Search Only X Fastest Riskiest 100%
Check for Snakes then Search X X Medium Medium 100%
Check for Snakes, Charm, then Search X X X Slowest Safest 66%
Thieving Experience
Object Room 1 XP Room 2 XP Room 3 XP Room 4 XP Room 5 XP Room 6 XP Room 7 XP Room 8 XP
Speartrap 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10
Urn - Search Only (Risky) 60 90 150 215 300 450 675 825
Golden Chest 40 60 100 140 200 300 450 550
Sarcophagus - - - - - - - -
Door without Lockpick 40 60 100 140 200 300 450 -
Door with Lockpick 20 30 50 70 100 150 225 -
You get experience for dead end doors. The door to the starting chamber where you meet the Guardian Mummy gives 20 thieving xp.
Checking Urns - Medium Risk (100% of Possible Experience)
Action Room 1 XP Room 2 XP Room 3 XP Room 4 XP Room 5 XP Room 6 XP Room 7 XP Room 8 XP
Check for Snakes 20 30 50 70 100 150 225 275
Search after Checking 40 60 100 140 200 300 450 550
Total 60 90 150 210 300 450 675 825
Charming Snakes - Lowest Risk (66% of Possible Experience)
Action Room 1 XP Room 2 XP Room 3 XP Room 4 XP Room 5 XP Room 6 XP Room 7 XP Room 8 XP
Check for Snakes 20 30 50 70 100 150 225 275
Charm Snake 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Search after Charming 20 30 50 70 100 150 225 275
Total 40 60 100 140 200 300 450 550

If you open a sarcophagus, you get some strength experience from pushing the heavy lid off.

Strength Experience
Room 1 XP Room 2 XP Room 3 XP Room 4 XP Room 5 XP Room 6 XP Room 7 XP Room 8 XP
20 30 50 70 100 150 225 275

Note: Opening the Engraved Sarcophagus in the 8th room grants you 275 Runecrafting experience.

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Maximising Experience

For players with over 91 thieving, Pyramid Plunder is one of the best ways of training the skill with xp rates of around 240k experience per hour possible. For lower levels there are better methods of training, however many do find plundering enjoyable regardless. There are two popular methods for Pyramid Plunder, both are identical up until the penultimate room you have access to.

The aim is to get to your penultimate room as quickly as possible so just head straight for the doors when you get into a room (you can open the Golden Chests if you want, however this is not recommended for players with a high thieving level). Once you reach your second to last room, there are two options:

Option 1: This is the better of the two options as it offers more experience and is most often quicker, however you do stand to take more damage from snakes. The idea is to search around half of the urns in the room before proceeding to your final room. As there are an odd number of urns in all but one of the rooms it is better to try and search 7 urns, although if pushed for time 6 is ok. Once the urns have been searched, open the golden chest and head to the final room.

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Option 2: This method sacrifices speed and experience for safety. Rather than searching half the urns, check all the urns in the room for snakes and open the golden chest before heading to the final room. For higher levelled thieves this tends to leave very little time for the last room, particularly if you have had bad luck with doors so it is not recommended.

You should aim to get to your final room with about 2 minutes to go. Once you have arrived in your final room, check all the urns for snakes before searching them for trinkets and open the golden chest. If you have time you can open the sarcophagus, however if other players are around this tends to be frowned upon as it can unleash an aggressive Mummy.

Players, particularly those with a low thieving level, may find themselves finishing their final room with a lot of time left. If this happens consistently you may want to consider opening more urns in your penultimate room to boost your experience.

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Using the Pharaoh's Sceptre or Sceptre of the Gods to teleport to the Guardian Mummy after each run is advised. To ensure you are able to recharge your sceptre it is a good idea to keep hold of any gold trinkets you get while plundering in your inventory as fewer gold trinkets are required to recharge your sceptre.

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Rewards

Below is a list of all trinkets that you can collect in the minigame as well as how much Simon Templeton will pay for them. Just take the trinkets (he will accept them in note form) to Simon, who is near the Agility Pyramid, and he will pay you the price listed. Although Simon will offer you 100 gp for the Sceptre, it is worth much more than that. Most of the items can be sold on the Grand Exchange.

Trinkets
Pic Name Selling Price
Ivory Comb Ivory Comb 50
Pottery Scarab Pottery Scarab 75
Pottery Statuette Pottery Statuette 100
Stone Seal Stone Seal 150
Stone Scarab Stone Scarab 175
Stone Statuette Stone Statuette 200
Gold Seal Gold Seal 750
Golden Scarab Gold Scarab 1000
Golden Statuette Gold Statuette 1250
Jewelled Golden Statuette Jewelled Golden Statuette* 7500
Jewelled Diamond Statuette Jewelled Diamond Statuette** 12500
Pharaoh\\'s Sceptre (3) Pharaoh's Sceptre -
Sceptre Of The Gods (10) Sceptre of the Gods** -

*Note that this item is only obtainable while wearing a Ring of Wealth.
**Note that this item can only be found in the engraved sarcophagus inside the eighth room.

The Pharaoh's Sceptre

The Pharaoh's Sceptre is obtained from either the Sarcophagus or the Golden Chest. It is a random chance, but the likelihood increases as you make it to higher levels of the Pyramid. The Sceptre has combat bonuses and teleportation bonuses. Below is a chart with all bonuses that the Sceptre provides.

Pharaoh's Sceptre Attack Bonus Other Bonuses
Stab Slash Crush Magic Range Strength Prayer
Pharaoh\\'s Sceptre (3) +7 -1 +25 +10 0 +32 0

In addition to the attack bonuses, you can use the Sceptre to teleport to:

  • Jalsavrah - this (Pyramid Plunder) minigame, to the room of the Guardian Mummy
  • Jaleustrophos - the Agility Pyramid
  • Jaldraocht - the Ancient Magicks Pyramid

The Sceptre, like an enchanted Glory Amulet, only has a certain number of charges before it must be recharged. The Sceptre can hold three charges. Once you have used the three charges go and see the Guardian Mummy with 24 combs or pottery trinkets, 12 stone trinkets, 6 gold trinkets, or 1 jewelled golden statuette to recharge your Sceptre.

The Sceptre of the Gods

Exceptionally skilled thieves who manage to make it into the final room in Pyramid Plunder will find an Engraved Sarcophagus tucked into the walls. You will be able to rob this sarcophagus with a Runecrafting level of 75, earning 275 Runecrafting XP in the process, and with enough luck, you might find the Sceptre of the Gods. Like the Pharaoh's Sceptre, the Sceptre of the Gods offers combat and teleportation bonuses, listed below.

Sceptre of the Gods Attack Bonus Defence Bonus Other Bonuses
Stab Slash Crush Magic Range Stab Slash Crush Magic Range Strength Prayer
Sceptre Of The Gods (10) +7 -1 +25 +10 0 +2 +3 +1 +10 0 +32 0

The Sceptre of the Gods functions like the Pharaoh's Sceptre, except that it can hold up to 10 teleportation charges instead of 3. Like the Pharaoh's Sceptre, it will need recharging after its charges have been expended. The Guardian Mummy will graciously recharge your Sceptre of the Gods for you if you return him some of the trinkets you stole, offering a full recharge in a manner similar to that of the Pharaoh's Sceptre. You may use a Jewelled diamond statuette with the Sceptre of the Gods to recharge it yourself without having to speak to the mummy. Otherwise, he will accept items in the combinations of either a Jewelled golden statuette and 4 regular gold artifacts, 10 regular Gold Artefacts, or 20 Stone Artefacts.

In addition, wielding the Sceptre of the Gods whilst in Pyramid Plunder will reveal four more urns, two in each of the last two rooms. When looting these urns, the odds of finding better loot are increased.

Finally, while wielding the Sceptre of the Gods, your chances of finding the extremely rare Black Ibis gear will be increased.

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Black Ibis Clothing

The garb of a shadowy secret society, Black Ibis clothing can be found hidden in the urns of the Pyramid. Whilst searching the urns or the sarcophagi in the Pyramid, you will have a small chance of finding this equipment. If you have been lucky enough to find a Sceptre of the Gods, wielding this while searching the urns or sarcophagi will increase your chances of finding Black Ibis clothing.

The chances of finding Black Ibis gear is the same throughout the pyramid so if experience is not important to you, you can just search all the urns in the first few rooms. Even with the Sceptre of the Gods, Black Ibis clothing is very rare so do not be disheartened if it takes a while to find a piece. When you find a piece of Black Ibis clothing you will get a message and it will be placed on the floor.

When worn while practising thieving, Black Ibis clothing will provide a bonus to your thieving XP, based on which pieces of it you are wearing. Additionally, wearing the full set will give you an additional XP boost. This bonus will stack with other thieving XP boosts. However, this boost will not function in Pyramid Plunder or while Blackjacking. Black Ibis clothing offers no equipment bonuses, and cannot be traded. The thieving XP boosts it offers are listed below.

Black Ibis Equipment
Pic Name Bonus
Black Ibis Boots Black ibis boots 1.25%
Black Ibis Mask Black ibis mask 1.25%
Black Ibis Legs Black ibis legs 1.25%
Black Ibis Body Black ibis body 1.25%
Full set 5%

Happy plundering!

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Credits

Original Guide by: abomb67

Revised Guide by: BloodAngel

Thanks to: abomb67, Baffler, Dogfever, Esper_Jones, Guyx5000, Idunedain, Koddo, mchainmail, Misplacedme, mypapillons, Oldstyle, Omnitec, Paw_Claw, pokemama, soult_tar, thingummywut, SportsGuy, Sy_Accursed, Vhellcat, Vulxai, Warriormonkx

Last updated by: Warriormonkx

Last updated: 26-Nov-2013


RuneScape 2007
Find this page on the Internet Archive with a date as close to Aug 10, 2007 as possible.

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