Pyramid Plunder

The Old School RuneScape Wiki also has an article on: osrsw:Pyramid Plunder

The unofficial world for Pyramid Plunder is world 64 (P2P).

This is a dangerous minigame. If you die, you will lose your items and will need to reclaim them from Death or your grave.

Pyramid Plunder
Release date	17 July 2006 (Update)
Members	Yes
Location	Sophanem
Participants	1
Skills involved	Thieving
Reward currency	None
In spotlight rotation	No
Hiscores	No
Tutorial	No
Custodians	Guardian Mummy
Music unlocked	Tomb Raider
Developers	Mod Chihiro
Infobox • Talk page

Pyramid Plunder is a Thieving minigame located in the city of Sophanem at the far southern reaches of the Kharidian Desert. Inside Sophanem, the Jalsavrah Pyramid can be found with four anonymous looking doors; access to the minigame can be found behind one of the doors, guarded by the Guardian mummy.

During 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 to enter and loot. Artefacts pillaged from the rooms range from ivory combs to jewelled diamond statuettes, with the most valuable artefacts found deepest in the pyramid.

Rarely, players may find a Pharaoh's sceptre within a grand gold chest or within a sarcophagus inside Jalsvarah. A sceptre of the gods can very rarely be plundered from the engraved sarcophagus in the 8th room, requiring 91 Thieving to access and 75 Runecrafting to pry it open. Pieces of the rare Black ibis outfit can be found within the urns or sarcophagi inside of the pyramid.

Requirements

• Access to the city of Sophanem
  • Having started the quest Icthlarin's Little Helper, or teleporting to Jalsavrah via a Pharaoh's sceptre
• 21 Thieving

Recommendations

• Completion of the quest Contact!; unlocks access to the bank within Sophanem
• Completion of the quest The Feud; reduced magic carpet fees
• Completion of the quest The Light Within; unlocks Crystal Mask and Light Form
• A Pharaoh's sceptre or Sceptre of the gods; unlocks teleports to the Guardian mummy
• Completion of the hard Desert Tasks; doubles teleport charges on sceptres and reduced chance of Scarabs and Mummies spawning

Quick guide

Teleport to Al Kharid, and use the magic carpet network to get to Sophanem. Speak with Tarik south of the Jalsavrah Pyramid near the northern gates of the city. He'll explain the pyramid, the dangers within, and explain the collection and selling of artefacts to Simon Templeton.

Quick guide:

1. Wear as many of the given items as possible, and carry food and a weapon.
2. Travel to the northern pyramid in Sophanem.
3. Enter one of the "anonymous looking doors" on the pyramid until you find the Guardian mummy.
4. Right-click the Guardian mummy and Start-minigame (or talk to him if it's your first time).
5. The game is divided into rooms, where the XP gains increase the deeper you go.
6. Since players have only 5 minutes to loot, it is recommended that players run through all the rooms except the last one or two rooms that they can do at their level.
7. Loot as much as you can in the 5 minutes that you are given.

When you enter a room:

1. Pass the Spear trap at the entrance.
2. To loot, simply click on the urns, and optionally the Grand gold chest and Sarcophagus.
3. To move to the next room, move your cursor along the walls and Pick-lock on all the doors until you find the entrance to the next room.

Plundering

As soon as the player starts the minigame a timer will appear on screen. Players have five minutes to plunder as many artefacts from the pyramid as they can before the timer is depleted and the Guardian mummy teleports the player out.

Inside Jalsavrah, the player will find a room that contains the door through which they entered, a speartrap, urns, a golden chest, a sarcophagus, an exit door, and four doors leading to the next room, of which three leads to a dead end. There are eight rooms in total, the first requiring 21 or higher Thieving to enter. Each subsequent room requires ten more levels than the previous room, with the final room requiring 91 or higher Thieving. These are hard requirements, meaning boosts will not work in any capacity.

Urns

A chamber inside the pyramid.

Each room inside Jalsavrah has 13 urns, with the exception of room 3 which only has 12 urns. Players may choose to search or check urns.

Checking an urn will check for traps. On successful checks, player will find a snake inside the urn. It may then be charmed if the player has a snake charm allowing the player to search the urn for artefacts without fear of activating a trap.

Searching and checking urns rewards the player with Thieving experience, but charming snakes does not. If charming snakes, experience awarded from successfully looting an artefact will be reduced by 33%. Unless charmed, a snake may bite the player, poisoning them.

Searching is much slower than stealing, and the rewards from urns are generally poorer than from the golden chest and sarcophagus. Rewards also get better the further one ventures into the pyramid.

The Menaphyrite gem may be obtained rarely while looting urns.

Grand golden chests

In the centre of each room the player will find the golden chest. Looting the chest will award the player with higher value artefacts than they would find in the urns nearby. A Pharaoh's sceptre may rarely be obtained from golden chests; if a sceptre is found, the Guardian mummy will appear and escort the player out of the pyramid, ending their plunder.

Occasionally the chest may contain an aggressive level 112 scarab swarm, which attacks extremely quickly and poisons. Scarab swarms will not follow players to the next room of the pyramid. Chests are often saved until everything else in the room has been looted, as scarabs can slow down the process of looting urns.

Pharaoh's sarcophagus

A sarcophagus can be found in each room of the pyramid. Opening sarcophagi awards the player with Strength experience and artefacts, with higher value artefacts and experience obtained deeper within the pyramid.

Opening sarcophagi can take a fair amount of time, and may awaken a level 70 mummy. Players can open the sarcophagus if being attacked without interruption.

There is a chance that Jenifurr will appear when opening this sarcophagus. She belongs to the Cats of Menaphos.

Engraved sarcophagus

Located in the eighth room, the engraved sarcophagus requires 91 Thieving and 75 Runecrafting to loot. When opened, the player has a chance of receiving a jewelled diamond statuette, a pharaoh's sceptre, a sceptre of the gods, or a black ibis outfit piece.

Opening the engraved sarcophagus awards Runecrafting experience. Just like with the other sarcophagi, players may awaken a mummy upon opening.

Spear traps

A spear trap can be seen within the wall.

The corridor to each room will contain a spear trap, taking up two game squares on each of the walls. Clicking on either of the closest squares will attempt to deactivate the trap, allowing the player to pass by unharmed if successful.

Players will be damaged by the spears if they attempt to walk into the room without deactivating the trap, fail to disarm the trap, or click on either of the farther squares.

Tomb doors

Faint signs of a door can be seen behind worn paint.

Four locked tomb doors are hidden in the walls of each room, only one of which leads to the next room. Players must successfully unlock the tomb doors until the correct one is found, allowing them to reach the next room.

Successfully unlocking a tomb door awards some Thieving experience. A lockpick or hair clip will significantly reduce the chance of the player failing to unlock the door, at the cost of halving the experience gained.

A quick escape from the dangers within.

The door leading to the next room will change each time a player joins the minigame. It is possible for groups of players to play the minigame together and quickly search all doors in a room at the same time. The other players can then follow the player who found the correct door.

Exit doors

Each room has an exit door, allowing for a quick escape via the right-click menu. Monsters will not follow players through the doors.

Damage

Failing obstacle and trap attempts will result in the player taking damage; the minimum a player will take from failing to loot urns is 50 damage. Damage is scaled, based the players maximum life points, increasing in damage as the player progresses deeper in the pyramid.

Room number	Damage values
1	1% of maximum life points
2	1% of maximum life points
3	1% of maximum life points
4	1% of maximum life points
5	1.5% of maximum life points
6	1.5% of maximum life points
7	2% of maximum life points
8	3% of maximum life points

Strategies

A map of the pyramid chambers. (click to view a larger version)

It is generally recommended for players to search urns in only the two highest level rooms they can access; to maximise experience rates the player should attempt to loot every urn in their highest accessible room, and as many urns from the second highest room as time would allow. Players using this method should always be aware of their time spent in the pyramid; it is advisable to move on to the last room after half of their time is remaining.

When the player is in their highest level room and time is running out, prioritise looting the golden chest for a chance at better rewards. If the player still has time remaining after, resume plundering urns until kicked out.

After completion of The Light Within quest players can use of the Crystal Mask spell in conjunction with the Light Form prayer to reduce the rate of failing when checking and searching urns significantly. Wearing Prayer boosting items and drinking a Prayer renewal potion will allow the player to do multiple trips into the pyramid without the need of banking, or recharging their Prayer points.

Healing

Unless the player plans to teleport to a bank after each pyramid plunder, food or a healing familiar is the only item necessary to play the minigame for extended periods of time. It is possible for mid-to-high levelled players to make it through several rounds without needing to heal. The equipment below is needed to withstand the damage from monsters and poison during a plundering trip. If the player wishes to reduce banking time, one full inventory of food and potions can last from four to sixteen games depending on how often the player consumes the items. To save time, it is best to eat in between games unless absolutely necessary.

Image	Object	Explanation
	Food	Monkfish or sharks are recommended unless the player has a better healing method. Banking is the quickest and cheapest healing method.
	Enhanced Excalibur	The Enhanced Excalibur will heal the player for 20% of their Life points over 20 seconds when activated; 40% over 40 seconds if the elite Seers' Village Tasks are complete. It can be activated via right-click, even if not equipped.
	Phoenix necklace	Heals the player for 30% of their maximum life points if the player's health drops below 20%.
	Summoning familiar	A void spinner, bunyip, or a unicorn stallion can be used to restore life points via special move or primary effects.
	Banks	If all else fails, the player can always use the bank located just east of the pyramid (after Contact!.) Health regenerates within seconds of climbing down the ladder. This is very helpful and can cut all costs and or prayer usage down to its minimum.

Equipment

	Anti-poison totem	Held in the off-hand or worn in the pocket slot, this provides immunity to poison; requires 60 Defence, 70 Herblore, and 60 Dungeoneering to wield. Bought from the Daemonheim rewards trader for 44,000 Dungeoneering tokens
	Saradomin or Zamorak warpriest armour	This armour provides a small chance to negate most of the damage received from a failure. Armadyl, Bandos, and Tuska warpriest armours do not have this effect.
	Black ibis outfit	A very rare outfit, the pieces of which can be obtained by looting urns and sarcophagi. Each of the 4 pieces boost Thieving experience by 1%; the complete set boosts an additional percent, totaling 5%.
	Trahaearn exoskeleton set	A reward from the Plague's End quest, it gives a 25% chance to nullify damage received when looting urns. The set provides bonus experience if the Black ibis outfit is owned.
	Master camouflage outfit	An outfit crafted through Invention, the outfit and the sets that make it up offer a 5–7% increased chance of not being bitten by snakes, an increased chance to pass doors, and an increased chance of finding Ibis clothing and additional Sceptres of the gods. Camouflage outfits retain the abilities of both Black ibis and Exoskeleton sets if owned by the player.

Helpful items

Image	Method	Explanation
	Sceptre of the gods	Having the Sceptre equipped will offer more urns to be looted, and increase the players odds of finding pieces of Black Ibis.
	Luck items	Highly recommended, while wearing the luck items the player's chance of finding a Pharaoh's sceptre, Black ibis outfit and Jewelled golden statuettes is increased.
	Lockpick or Master thief's lockpick	Highly recommend, with a lockpick in the players inventory (or toolbelt for the Master thief's lockpick) the players chance to fail unlocking a tomb door is significantly reduced. Alternatively, players who have completed the quest King's Ransom may use a Hair clip.
	Snake charm	Can be used to distract the snakes that reside in the urns.
	Desert amulet 3 or 4	Once obtained (not required to be worn), it reduces the chance of Mummies & Scarabs spawning, and doubles charges on the pharaoh's sceptre and sceptre of the gods.
	Summoning familiar	The special move of a Magpie (level 47 Summoning) or an Abyssal lurker (level 62 Summoning) gives temporary boosts of 2 and 4 Thieving levels, respectively. Players should use the special move in the last room that they are able to enter. The special move will not give temporary access to a pyramid level above the character's current Thieving level.
	Five-finger discount	Increases chances of successfully looting urns, lasting for 1 hour; recharge takes 3 hours.
	Crystal Mask and Light Form	Greatly reduces chances to get caught, almost to 0%. Supplies to keep up Prayer points will need to be brought along if not banking or recharging prayer at an altar.

Teleports

Quick banking can be achieved by using a ring of duelling, ring of kinship, or TokKul-Zo to teleport to nearby banks at Castle Wars, Daemonheim, or TzHaar City respectively. After, a Pharaoh's sceptre or Sceptre of the gods to return to the pyramid if possible. If the player has completed the Contact! quest, use of the bank in Sophanem is another option. A Summoning obelisk can be found along the east wall outside Sophanem, and an altar just southwest of the pyramid. If one is unable or not willing to use the Pharaoh's sceptre, the Menaphos Lodestone just east is a fast and free alternative.

Image	Method	Explanation
	Sceptre of the gods or Pharaoh's sceptre	Highly recommended, after completing a Pyramid Plunder round the player may use the Jalsavrah teleport to teleport directly to the starting room, making it the best way to reach the minigame.
	Ring of dueling	Teleporting to Castle Wars places the player near a bank.
	Tokkul-zo	Similar to Ring of dueling, but with unlimited teleportation charges. A Summoning obelisk and bank can be found in the Main Plaza.
	Skull of Remembrance	Provides an unlimited teleport near a bank.
	Desert amulet 3 or 4	Provides an unlimited teleport near a bank; is kept on death, should the player die.
	Emergency teleport	An emergency escape if life points run low. Players with good armour, high Defence, or plenty of food should not need this.
	Ardougne cloak 3 or 4	Offers a high Prayer bonus and unlimited teleports to the Ardougne Monastery to recharge Prayer points.

Tips

• While using Thieving boosts can make looting easier, they will not allow players to reach a room above their Thieving level; e.g. being level 90 and boosting to 91 will not allow players in the final room.
• Scarab swarms will only target the player who triggered them. They will ignore other players, allowing players to safely pass them without getting attacked.
• Sometimes players may open all four doors in the room to finding dead ends; this happens when another player enters the minigame, causing the tomb doors to shift. Recheck the tomb doors again to find the correct path.
• The correct Tomb Door advancing to the next room and the Anonymous looking door leading to the mummy is the same for all players. So players may follow another player or utilise teamwork for the correct path.
• Only Grand golden chests and the Engraved sarcophagus may contain the pharaoh's sceptre.

Rewards

A player teleporting with the Pharaoh's sceptre.

When looting urns, sarcophagi, and chests, players will find various artefacts which may be sold on the Grand Exchange, or traded to Simon Templeton for coins. After completion of the quest Dealing with Scabaras, Simon will purchase noted artefacts from the player. Currently, the completion of the quest Dealing with Scabaras is NOT necessary for trading noted artefacts to Simon (tested).

Simon Templeton's offer

Type	Ivory	Pottery	Stone	Gold	Jewelled Golden	Jewelled Diamond
Comb	50	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Seal	N/A	N/A	150	750	N/A	N/A
Scarab	N/A	75	175	1,000	N/A	N/A
Statuette	N/A	100	200	1,250	7,500	12,500

Grand Exchange value

Type	Ivory	Pottery	Stone	Gold	Jewelled Golden	Jewelled Diamond
Comb	3,568	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Seal	N/A	N/A	321	11,713	N/A	N/A
Scarab	N/A	318	304	7,549	N/A	N/A
Statuette	N/A	138	329	11,399	50,876	N/A

The Sceptre of the gods

Occasionally, players may also find the Pharaoh's sceptre in one of the Grand Gold Chests or Sarcophagi, worth 3,862,943 coins. Immediately after finding a sceptre the player will be expelled from the pyramid. Players inside the pyramid will see an Annoyed guardian mummy standing beside the chest in each room when this happens, and will announce the fact.

Players may also find a Sceptre of the gods inside the engraved sarcophagus. It has the same uses as a Pharaoh's sceptre, but with 10 teleport charges (20 with completion of hard Desert tasks), and when equipped grants players a greater chance of finding black ibis clothes.

Black ibis outfit

A player wearing the Black ibis outfit.

Rarely when looting urns and sarcophagi within Pyramid Plunder, players may receive a piece of the Black ibis outfit. When wearing pieces of this outfit the player will gain additional Thieving experience, up to 5% when wearing the whole set. Wielding a Sceptre of the gods will increase the drop rate of outfit pieces. If the player's inventory is full, the outfit piece may be retrieved from Diango. The player will receive the chatbox message: "You find a piece of Black Ibis clothing. It can be reclaimed from Diango."

Other

The gemstone menaphyrite may be rarely looted from urns. After completing The Jack of Spades and speaking to assistant librarian Subotai, it may be registered in the Menaphos journal. One may uncommonly receive a small Menaphite gift offering as well. Upon looting a sarcophagus a cat named Jenifurr has a rare chance to spawn.

Wearing a thieving cape will cause looted items to be noted.

Experience rates

Level	Experience per hour
21	17,000
31	20,000
51	54,000
61	71,000
71	100,000–118,000
81	158,000
99	195,000–241,000

Experience table

Level	Room	Check urn	Search urn	Gold chest	Sarcophagus	Door	Traps
21	#1	20	60 (40)	40	20	40 (20)	10
31	#2	30	90 (60)	60	30	60 (30)	10
41	#3	50	150 (100)	100	50	100 (50)	10
51	#4	70	215 (140)	140	70	140 (70)	10
61	#5	100	300 (200)	200	100	200 (100)	10
71	#6	150	450 (300)	300	150	300 (150)	10
81	#7	225	675 (450)	450	225	450 (225)	10
91	#8	275	825 (550)	550	275	N/A	10

Achievements

• Careful, There Are Snakes ( 20) – Loot 20 urns in a single run of Pyramid Plunder without disturbing a snake.
• Seems Legit ( 5) – Obtain five artefacts from Pyramid Plunder and sell them to Simon in one go.
• Wake-Up Call ( 15) – Open the sarcophagus in the level 61 room of Pyramid Plunder.
• Room Service ( 25) – Open the sarcophagus in the final room of Pyramid Plunder.

Update history

The update history project is a work-in-progress – not all updates to this topic may be covered below. See here for how to help out!

• ninja 8 February 2021 (Update):
  • The Sceptre of the gods from Pyramid Plunder has new charge caps of 10 for the base item, and 20 and 60, depending on completion of the medium and hard Desert achievements.
  • The sceptre can now be charged at any point rather than only at 0 charges.
  • With the above change, the charge value of Pyramid Plunder items has been adjusted:
    • Jewelled diamond items give 10 charges.
    • Jewelled gold items give 6 charges.
    • Gold items give 1 charge.
    • Stone items give 0.5 charges each, so two are required for 1 charge.
  • Removed hyphens on various options for the Mummy NPC in Pyramid Plunder and the Sceptre.

• patch 7 December 2020 (Update):
  • Menaphite Gift rewards from Pyramid Plunder are now stackable.

• patch 27 August 2019 (Update):
  • Damage received when playing Pyramid Plunder has been changed to feel more in-line with EoC.

• patch 8 April 2019 (Update):
  • Scarab swarms can no longer spawn outside the Pyramid.

• ninja 12 February 2018 (Update):
  • The number of urns looted to complete the Pyramid Plunder daily challenge (previously 50-52 in most cases) has been reduced to 30-42 to account for the time taken to reach the deeper rooms.

• patch 22 January 2018 (Update):
  • Players will no longer receive black ibis pieces from Pyramid Plunder if the outfit piece is currently stored with Diango.

• patch 24 July 2017 (Update):
  • Players can now get camouflage fragments from urns, chests, and doors in Pyramid Plunder.

• ninja 10 November 2014 (Update):
  • The mummies in the Pyramid Plunder minigame will no longer attack other players.

• patch 1 November 2014 (Update):
  • Height mapping on certain areas adjacent to Pyramid Plunder has been adjusted, so it no longer obscures the player's view.

• patch 14 July 2014 (Update):
  • Acquiring black ibis pieces from Pyramid Plunder will now replace artefacts if the player has no space available.

• patch 14 April 2014 (Update):
  • Several of the Pyramid Plunder animations have been updated.

• patch 24 March 2014 (Update):
  • A punctuation error in the dialogue for the Guardian Mummy from Pyramid Plunder has been fixed.

• ninja 7 January 2014 (Update):
  • The exit doors inside Pyramid Plunder now have a right-click ‘quick-exit’ option.
  • The Entrance mummy now has a right-click ‘quick recharge sceptre’ option.

• patch 11 December 2013 (Update):
  • The bonus XP rates for black ibis outfit in last Pyramid Plunder room have been corrected.

• patch 20 August 2013 (Update):
  • Players can no longer walk away from the spear trap in Pyramid Plunder and be knocked back inside chests and urns.
  • Looting the engraved sarcophagus and secret urns in rooms 7 and 8 of Pyramid Plunder will now count towards daily challenges.

• patch 13 August 2013 (Update):
  • The hidden urns in Pyramid Plunder can no longer be walked through.

• patch 4 March 2013 (Update):
  • Pyramid Plunder room 7 no longer has a random empty tile that was blocked.

• patch 12 February 2013 (Update):
  • The quick start option on the Guardian mummy has had two lines of chat removed.
  • Pyramid plunder has been rebalanced to damage players appropriately.

• patch 14 January 2013 (Update):
  • Trap, snake and scarab damage in Pyramid Plunder has been increased.

• patch 21 February 2012 (Update):
  • Tomb doors in Pyramid Plunder now animate correctly.

• patch 28 September 2011 (Update):
  • Players will no longer receive two of the same black ibis items when plundering pyramids.

• patch 9 August 2011 (Update):
  • Pyramid Plunder loot placed on the stairs near the chest no longer clips into the floor.

• patch 14 December 2010 (Update):
  • Pyramid Plunder gold seals have had their detail returned.

• patch 9 November 2010 (Update):
  • The Pyramid Plunder mummy will now try to attack whatever player spawned it.

• patch 6 October 2010 (Update):
  • Reduced the amount of confirm text on the Pyramid Plunder exit.

• patch 19 July 2010 (Update):
  • Fixed a timing issue in Pyramid Plunder with sarcophagi.

• patch 9 June 2009 (Update):
  • In Pyramid Plunder, you'll now get the message regarding the sceptre after leaving the area.

• patch 19 May 2009 (Update):
  • You should now be returned to your last position near Pyramid Plunder after a Random Event.

• patch 28 April 2009 (Update):
  • Improved the position of the timer and other features in Pyramid Plunder, especially in HD.

• update 17 July 2006 (Update):
  • Added to game.

Trivia

The eye of horus

• In the entry area of some tombs, including the first, fourth, and fifth ones, there is what appears to be an Eye of Horus, a real-life Egyptian hieroglyph. The entrance to Sophanem also has an Eye of Horus.
• When examining the Grand Gold Chest, it will say "Anyone lost an ark?" This is an allusion to the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark which uses the account of the Biblical Ark as its main storyline. After looting, the examine text reads "Phew, no evil ghosts in there". This is an allusion to the same movie.
• Previously, when a player found a Pharaoh's sceptre all players would be expelled from the pyramid.
• Prior to an update on 7 November 2014, Mummies would first target the player who triggered them but could and often would attack other players, too. Opening sarcophagi and not killing the mummy that spawned was generally frowned upon. They are now only aggressive to the player who opens its sarcophagus.