Ratcatchers

Difficulty: Intermediate Requirements: Easy Length: Long

Start location: Go to Gertrude's House just west of Varrock, you must have a cat or a kitten with you.

Requirements:

Items: 100gp, an Empty vial, one Kwuarm, one Red spiders' eggs, 4 pieces of Cheese, one Unicorn horn dust, one Marrentill, one Bucket of milk, Catspeak amulet, one Weed, one Tinderbox, a Empty pot and some food for your cat

Must also have a Cat or Kitten. Overgrown cats can't catch rats, so you cannot use an overgrown cat for this quest, except during the King Rat Battle (see section 12).

Suggested:

Items: Teleports to Varrock, Ardougne, Keldagrim, and Pollnivneach, Overgrown cat for the battle against the King Rat

Monsters: 

Rat (level 2)

NPCs: Ali the Snake Charmer, Felkrash, Gertrude, Grimesquit, Hooknosed Jack, Jimmy Dazzler, Phingspet, Smokin' Joe, The Face

Walkthrough hide »

Bank Bank Bank
Varrock
Required: Your Cat or Kitten
Suggested: Ardougne teleport

I. Start

1. Talk with Gertrude. She will tell you to go and see Phingspet and Grimesquit, in the Varrock Sewers.

2. Your cat will have to kill at least 8 level 2 rats before the two ladies will speak with you. Once complete, they will give you a rat pole.

Bank Bank Bank
Varrock
Required: Rat pole, your Cat or Kitten
Suggested: Varrock teleport

II. Jimmy Dazzler and the Mansion

3. Go and speak with Jimmy Dazzler in the house behind the pub in East Ardougne (north west of the castle). He knows of a man outside Ardougne hosting a party and he needs his mansion cleared of rats. This is a NO RISK job for you and your cat - you cannot die from the guards in this house. You will have to be stealthy. Jimmy will give you a page of directions. Read them and choose the option to follow them. You will be transported to the mansion.

4. Stay out of the field of view of the guards, else they will teleport you back to one of three restart points depending on how far you've gotten. Use the hedges for cover and watch the guards' patrol routes. It's best to go all the way north to the rear of the mansion and hide north of a hedge there, and then climb the trellis on the mansion wall to the upper floor.

Ratcatchers Quest Mansion Map

5. Again you must watch for the guards patrolling inside the house. When you are safely in a room, sic your cat on a rat. Choose to add it to your rat pole. Upstairs, there is usually one rat in the north-western bedroom. Going back out to cross the north room is probably simpler than trying to cross the stairway rooms.

6. There are two rats in the south-eastern room, as well as a ladder. Descend to the ground floor south-eastern room to find two rats. Finally, use the door to go north into the Kitchen to kill two rats. The second one may not appear until after the first is killed.

7. Your character will tell you when you've killed enough. After that, you must climb the same trellis you used to get in to get back downstairs and you will be transported to Jimmy Dazzler in Ardougne. If you are seen by an NPC before you make it to the trellis, you will be teleported into a room in the mansion.

8. Speak to Jimmy Dazzler. He will give you an overview of the kitten pits and send you back to Varrock to speak with Hooknosed Jack. Now go to Varrock.

Bank Bank Bank
Varrock
Required: Kwuarm, Red spiders' eggs, Empty vial, 4 Cheese
Suggested: None

III. Hooknosed Jack

9. He can be found in the fenced-in area South-east of the East bank. Hooknosed Jack doesn't have a lot of free time, so you'll have to run an errand for him. You'll need to give him the ingredients to make rat poison (kwuarm, red spider eggs, and vial), and put it on four pieces of cheese.

10. Go to the warehouse directly south of you, and go up the ladder. You will need to place a piece of poisoned cheese in front of each of the rat holes by using them on the holes. Then you should report back to Hooknosed Jack. He will tell you that his cat Pox has eaten some rats that you've poisoned and is now sick.

Bank Bank Bank
Varrock
Required: Marrentill, Unicorn horn dust, Bucket of milk, your Cat or Kitten
Suggested: Good food for your cat (high level raw fish such as Swordfish, Lobster, etc.), your Overgrown cat (if you have one)

IV: Apothecary

11. Head to the Apothecary on the other side of Varrock, who'll ask you for marrentill, unicorn horn dust, and some milk to make an antipoison for Pox.

V: The Cat Fight

12. Bring this potion back to Jack, and he'll tell you that there is still one king rat that you must dispose of in the warehouse. You will not be able to put poison in the crack in the wall, but it is big enough to put your cat through. Bring extra food for your cat in this fight as the king rat has about three times as many life points as your cat. Your cat can die in this fight.

Note: It is recommended to use an Overgrown cat for this battle as they have more life points than an ordinary cat or kitten. See the Pet Care Guide for information on obtaining an Overgrown cat.

Ratcatchers Kingratfight

13. Put your cat in the crack in the wall. To heal your cat, just place food in the same crack in the wall. Once the king rat is slain, go back to Hooknose. He will send you to Smokin' Joe in Keldagrim to teach you what to do with overgrown cats.

Bank Bank Bank
Varrock
Required: Your Cat or Kitten, Empty pot, Weeds, Tinderbox, Catspeak amulet
Suggested: Method to get to Keldagrim (Lyre, Lodestone)

VI: Smokin' Joe

14. Smokin' Joe is located in Keldagrim on the East side of the city, east of the mining shop. Smokin' Joe is a bit under the weather and cannot finish a task of smoking some rats out of a hole, and you will need to make a smoking device of your own to finish off his job.

15. Get your pot, your weeds and your tinderbox. Put the weeds in the pot, and light it using the tinderbox. Use this pot with the nearby rat hole, and you'll see the rats run out the other side when the smoke is blown in, and then retreat when it is clear.

16. Set your cat or kitten (overgrown cats will not work here) down and once again attempt to smoke the rats out. Your cat will offer to take guard on the other side to ambush the rats as they come out so they cannot retreat when the smoke clears. Once this is done, Smokin' Joe will have you go speak to The Face in Port Sarim.

Bank Bank Bank
Required: Your Cat or Kitten
Suggested: Ring of charos (a), 1500 gp

VII. The Face

17. The Face stands near a manhole, which is south of the Jewellery store in Port Sarim. She has you go talk to a bard downstairs, Felkrash, who wanders around. She agrees to help - if you can get rid of all the rats in Port Sarim in one action. This is not easy. Go up out of the Port Sarim pits and speak to The Face again. She'll mention the Snake Charmer in south-east Pollnivneach.

VIII. The Snake Charmer

18. The snake charmer sits south of the bar in Pollnivneach. Use your coins on his coin jar to snap him out of his trance, then ask him about animal charming. If you tell him you'll pay him, he will offer to teach you for one more coin than you have in your inventory. Tell him no, and if you don't have ring of Charos (a), choose the walk away slowly option and he will slowly drive his own price down. If you do have the ring, you can charm him into charging only 50gp. He will give you a sheet of music and a charming device. Head back to the Port Sarim docks and get ready to play this tune.

Ratcatchers Charm

Bank Bank Bank
Required: Your Cat or Kitten, Charming device
Suggested: Music sheet or the picture in this guide

IV: Pied Piper of Port Sarim

19. To set up the music, click on the flute. You'll see that you are on the first of 8 pages. On the first page select the first note that is on the sheet of music from the snake charmer so that it turns red. Then go to the second page (do not press play, just select the next note and go to the next page). On the second page you select the second note from the snake charmer's sheet of music. Do this for the 8 pages.

Note: Remember to click on the icon that looks like a gust of wind (octave key) if the music sheet shows a note with that symbol above it (usually on note 5, so click the icon on page 5). Only select the icon for the note that it appears over, not on all 8 pages.

20. After you have put one note onto each page, click the word "PLAY" at the top of the page in the book. There will be a cutscene of you charming all Port Sarim's rats off the edge of the dock.

Ratcatchers Charming

21. Return to Felkrash (down the manhole) to claim your reward. If you have your overgrown cat out, she will change it into a wily cat for you. If you do not want to change it into a wily cat, bank it just to be safe.

Congratulations - Quest Complete!

Reward

Quest points: 2

Tips, Tricks & Notes

After the quest, the 'Rat Pits' Minigame allows you to duel your cat against another player's. Staking is allowed. For information, see Tip.It's Pet Care guide.

Credits

Written by: Ks Jeppe and Lime_Mercury

Thanks to: Baffler, Beethovens29, Cowman_133, Doctor_Phil, essiw, Fakeeoghan, Foodfight13, Graham Uk, Greenito, Jaffy1, Kilian Irion, King Jeff, Kyabena, micarina, mini3343, Mishnu, Nirvana05, Olithon20, SallyAcorn, Wachtwoord, Vox1st


Last updated: 23-Nov-2013

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

Will you use Menaphos to train your skills?



Report Ad