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"Circus" redirects here. For the Circus music track, see Circus (music track).
Balthazar Beauregard's Big Top Bonanza
Circus
Release date 2 September 2008 (Update)
Area Gielinor
Members Yes
Frequency Weekly
Reset Unknown edit
Skills Firemaking, Magic, Agility, Ranged, Thieving
Currency Circus points
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Balthazar Beauregard's Big Top Bonanza is a Distraction and Diversion. The circus is run by Balthazar Beauregard and allows players to participate in the circus by performing various activities, once a week. To enter the circus, players have to get a Circus ticket from a Ticket vendor. To exit, they just have to tear the ticket, teleport, or log out.

Completing Back to the Freezer will multiply all gained experience by exactly 1.5 in the Magic, Agility, Ranged, Thieving, and both Firemaking acts.

Introduction[]

To enter the circus, players have to travel to the town mentioned and find the Ticket vendor. The Ticket vendor will provide a Circus ticket, and players are transported into the circus, where they can give three performances (four after completion of The Firemaker's Curse or Some Like It Cold, and five if both quests are completed) in different areas of the Big Top.

The activity gives both experience points and circus-themed rewards. Balthazar Beauregard will reward players with a piece of a circus costume based on their performance score per individual activity. The costume pieces have no use outside the circus (other than to demonstrate your circus abilities to the world); however inside the circus they are believed to improve your chance of a high score and hence an even better costume. Up to 106,327.5 experience - 163,779.75 after Back to the Freezer - can be earned weekly, for players with 99 Magic, Agility, Ranged, Firemaking, and Thieving.

The activity has five parts, giving experience in Magic, Ranged, Agility, Firemaking (after Firemaker's Curse), and Thieving (after Some Like It Cold). The whole activity can only be completed once per week, similar to the Tears of Guthix activity. There are 10 possible actions in Magic, Ranged and Agility while Firemaking has 12 possible actions (2 activities with 6 actions each) and Thieving has 5 possible actions; players can choose to undertake different actions to attempt to maximise experience earned in the performance skill or to maximise their circus score for rewards.

Logging out after starting a performance counts as ending the performance in that skill for the week, even if the player did not perform all 10 parts of the performance. However, players can re-enter the Circus to undertake any unplayed performance.

Location[]

See Distractions and Diversions/Locations/Balthazar Beauregard's Big Top Bonanza for all possible locations.

The Big Top Bonanza circus can be found in one of twelve cities, and this changes every week. Every Wednesday at 0:00 GMT, the circus will move to another city. The circus is currently in:

Current location:Circus (Al Kharid) location
Tree Gnome
Seers' Village
Catherby
Taverley
Edgeville
Falador
Rimmington
Draynor
Al Kharid
Lumbridge
Lumber Yard
Gertrude's
Al Kharid
Days until next: 4 (wrong?)

.

Using the World map, the location of the circus can easily be spotted. It is marked with the "Distractions/Diversions" icon (D&D map icon). An alternative option to find it is to check the Minigames tab in the adventures interface, go to The Circus, and use the Teleport to Lodestone option.

Performances[]

Balthazar Beauregard's Big Top Bonanza map

To start a performance, players simply begin performing the actions.

You can perform ten actions per activity per week. After you perform the tenth, you will be stopped and the Ringmaster will tell you your score and experience earned from that particular activity. You have choices of what action to perform for each of your ten. There are level numbers associated with the actions - 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 and 99, and there are several choices of actions at each level. The level numbers are not requirements, only suggestions, however if you do not have the specified level then you can only 'barely' succeed at the action, which will score you a lower amount and reward less experience. The level 99 tricks can still occasionally be performed by someone with a much lower level and someone with a skill far in excess of what is suggested can still occasionally fail. The numbers only indicate the likelihood of success.

Your circus performance score will be shown in the top left corner of your interface, along with the experience earned and the latest audience requests. Both score and experience increase as actions are performed. The factors that influence the circus performance score are not clear, and there are many theories on how to maximise it. One of the factors is how "entertaining" you are. You can be more entertaining by the costume you wear, performing emotes between tricks, not repeating the same trick several times in succession, and following the audience requests.

The experience scored is not continuously variable - you can score only full points for success, according to the tables below. You score zero experience for failing. When performing tricks above your level in the Magic, Ranged, Agility, and Thieving events, you only get the experience for an act at half that level rounded down (e.g. at level 80, the level 90 and 99 tricks only reward the same as a level 40 trick).

Unlike the circus score, you only score experience once for each level.

Magic performance: Spell Casting[]

The Magic assistant fairy will give a quick guide on what players should do for the Magic performance. Players may begin performing by simply choosing any magical action. There are three spots from which you perform your spells, one with five possible levitation objects, one with 5 "Cast" objects (elemental spell) (both are difficulty 10 to 50), and one with five objects that you can either teleport or alchemise (difficulty 60 to 99).

In this event, players can "barely succeed" when successfully performing a trick above the player's skill level, receiving lower experience.

Circus spell casting

The "Elemental spell".

Levitation[]

Item Level Experience XP after Back to the Freezer
Rat 10 970 1,456
Cat 20 2,055 3,082
Bowl 30 2,059 3,089
Penguin 40 2,133 3,198
Ork 50 2,206 3,309
Total 9,423 14,134

Elemental[]

Item Level Experience XP after Back to the Freezer
Book 10 970 1,456
Tree stump 20 2,055 3,082
Helm 30 2,059 3,089
Shield 40 2,133 3,198
Armour 50 2,206 3,309
Total 9,423 14,134

Alchemy/Teleport[]

Item Level Experience XP after Back to the Freezer
Armour 60 2,647 3,970
Stool 70 2,794 4,191
Dumb-bells 80 3,088 4,632
Assistant 90 3,525 5,287
Anvil 99 3,529 5,295
Total 15,583 23,375

Ranged performance[]

The Ranged assistant fairy will explain the details of the Ranged performance. She will elaborate on the Ranged equipment used, and how to perform the tricks. Using equipment such as knives, throwing axes, and a bow and arrows (this equipment does not actually generate items), players can fire at the targets. Upon choosing the first shooting spot, the player must choose which ranged equipment to use. This equipment will be used for all shooting spots during the performance.

There are 2 targets: a fixed booth and a rotating target. The player takes 10 shots in total, 5 at each target. The booth may be shot at with any of the three ammunition types at any time, while the rotating target becomes limited to the first ammunition type that is used on it. For each target, players stand on one of the 10 spots, depending on the level of difficulty, with the highest level being the furthest from the target.

In this event, players can "barely succeed" when successfully performing a trick above the player's skill level, receiving lower experience.

Ranged Target XP[]

NoTargetNoPenguin

The target

Level Experience XP after Back to the Freezer
10 687.5 1,032
20 1,455 2,182
30 1,458.5 2187.75
40 1,510.5 2,266
50 1,562.5 2,344
60 1,875 2,812
70 1,979 2,969
80 2,187.5 3,281
90 2,495 3,742
99 2,500 3,750
Total 17,710.5 26,565.75

Agility performance[]

Tightrope scenery

Can you couple it?

Tightrope tricks

The Tightrope interface.

For the tricks, players have to enter the Agility area changing booth to change into the Acrobat costume. After the costume change, players appear by the high wire. Here, they can talk to the Agility assistant fairy to learn more about the tricks to perform. The assistant will provide a book called Tightrope 101, which shows all the tightrope tricks that can be performed. This book can be discarded.

Players may either perform tightrope tricks (such as "Backflips", "Handstand", etc.) or juggle various objects. In this event, players can "barely succeed" when successfully performing a trick above the player's skill level, receiving lower experience.

Acrobat Emotes[]

The Acrobat Emotes tab These are the tricks players may perform:

Image Name Level Experience XP after Back to the Freezer
Small hop emote icon Small hop 10 350 525
One-leg balance emote icon One-leg balance 20 578 867
Twirl emote icon Twirl 30 805.5 1,208
Handstand emote icon Handstand 40 1,033.5 1550
Cartwheel emote icon Cartwheel 50 1,261 1,892
Small leap emote icon Small leap 60 1,489 2,233
No-hand cartwheel emote icon No-hand cartwheel 70 1,716.5 2,565
Forward roll emote icon Forward roll 80 1,944.5 2,917
Large leap emote icon Large leap 90 2,172 3,258
Backflip emote icon Backflip 99 2,400 3,600
Juggle emote icon Juggle Varies See next section
Total 13,750 20,625

Juggling equipment[]

Juggling balls

A player juggling balls.

If players want to juggle they must choose the juggling option from the tightrope emote interface and then select an object:

Image Type Level Experience XP after Back to the Freezer
Balls (level 10 approx.) Balls 10 350 525
Plates (level 20 approx.) Plates 20 578 867
Eggs (level 30 approx.) Eggs 30 805.5 1,208
Knives (level 40 approx.) Knives 40 1,033.5 1550
Spades (level 50 approx.) Spades 50 1,261 1,892
Tuna (level 60 approx.) Tuna 60 1,489 2,233
Soap (level 70 approx.) Soap 70 1,716.5 2,565
Cannon balls (level 80 approx.) Cannon balls 80 1,944 2,917
Torches (level 90 approx.) Torches 90 2,172 3,258
Chinchompas (level 99 approx.) Chinchompas 99 2,400 3,600
Total 13,750 20,625

Firemaking peformance: Fire-breathing[]

This event is unlocked after The Firemaker's Curse. Sera will give a quick explanation if the player needs help.

To begin the performance, players must stand on the star near Sera and the firemaker's emblem where they will be prompted to start. Leaving the star before finishing the performance will prompt the player to end the performance early.

Players must breathe fire by choosing a coloured solution and using it to breathe a fire of that colour. There are six different colours available and the player may breathe 6 fires in their performance. In this event, the player cannot "barely succeed" a move, so performing a move above their skill level does not give less experience.

Circus firebreathing

A player uses blurite solution for the firebreathing performance.

Image Type Level Experience XP after Back to the Freezer
Salt solution (level 74) Salt solution 74 2,580 3,870
Berry solution (level 78) Berry solution 78 2,830 4,245
Copper solution (level 82) Copper solution 82 3,080 4,620
Blurite solution (level 87) Blurite solution 87 3,330 4,995
Elemental solution (level 91) Elemental solution 91 3,580 5,370
Rubium solution (level 95) Rubium solution 95 3,830 5,745
Total 19,230 28,845

Firemaking peformance: Flaming poi[]

This event is unlocked after The Firemaker's Curse. Emmett will give a quick explanation if the player needs help.

To begin the performance, players either must stand on the star near Emmett and the firemaker's emblem where they will be prompted to start, or talk to Emmett. Upon doing so, options for six poi moves will be displayed. If successful, an emote will display showing that poi move. Leaving the star before finishing the performance will prompt the player to end the performance early.

Players may perform 6 poi moves before the performance is ended. In this event, the player cannot "barely succeed" a move, so performing a move above their skill level does not give less experience.

Circus flaming poi

A player performing with the fire poi.

Type Level Experience XP after Back to the Freezer
Twig's Try 74 2,580 3,870
The Lazy Lina 78 2,830 4,245
Isis Spiral 82 3,080 4,620
The Flint Fling 87 3,330 4,995
Spinning Sera 91 3,580 5,370
The Big 'E' 95 3,830 5,745
Total 19,230 28,845

Thieving Performance: Magic Tricks[]

This event is unlocked after Some Like It Cold. To begin the performance, players must stand on the star near Teddy where they will be prompted to start.

The player will have 5 attempts to perform 5 tricks. In this event, players can "barely succeed" when successfully performing a trick above the player's skill level, earning the experience of a trick 40 levels below their skill level.

Water tank escape

A player performing the water tank escape trick.

Type Level Experience XP after Back to the Freezer
Pretend Levitate 50 2,206 3,309
Card Trick 60 2,647 3,970
Flowers from Sleeves 70 2,794 4,191
Rabbit from Hat 80 3,088 4,632
Water Tank 90 3,525 5,287
Total 14,260 21,390

Rewards[]

Acrobat costume (male) equipped

A player wearing the Acrobat costume

The Big Top can be used to earn substantial experience in a short amount of time and with little effort. Players maxed in each of the skills used can earn 109,186 experience in 12 minutes if no tricks are failed. Mid-level players can expect approximately 30,000-60,000 experience. Successful individual actions can be worth over 3,000 experience each. Completion of the Back to the Freezer will raise the experience to 163,779 if no tricks are failed.

In addition to experience received performing each trick, at the end of each performance, Balthazar Beauregard will give the player a score on how good their performance was and give them a reward in the form of a piece of costume. The reward depends on the score obtained, and the players with a score of 1,201 or higher will have the chance of obtaining the Ringmaster costume. The score earned is different from the experience earned, and it is possible to earn a high score and low experience and vice-versa.

The last 50 scores obtained by players (which is different for each world) are displayed at the Circus Performance Scoreboard accessed through the Ticket vendor.

The strategies followed to maximise experience are totally different from those for maximising Circus score (and hence costume). See later sections for details.

Treasure Hunter[]

A different distraction and diversion is chosen each week to give the player a Key token for simply participating. Once every 4 weeks, the player may gain a key token from participating in one of the events in the Circus. Key tokens can only be received when the Circus is the designated D&D of the week.

Circus costumes[]

The items that can be awarded are as follows:

Costume Items Score
Audience
Hat (male) (brown) Hat (male) (red) Hat (male) (yellow) Shirt (male) (brown) Shirt (male) (red) Shirt (male) (yellow)
Leggings (green) Leggings (maroon) Leggings (yellow)Shoes (male) (brown) Shoes (male) (red)
Hat (female) (green) Hat (female) (maroon) Hat (female) (yellow) Shirt (female) (green) Shirt (female) (maroon) Shirt (female) (yellow)
Skirt (green) Skirt (maroon) Skirt (yellow) Shoes (female) Shoes (female) (strap)
Giant's hand
1-500
Acrobat Acrobat hood (male) Acrobat shirt (male) Acrobat pants (male) Acrobat shoes (male)
Acrobat hood (female) Acrobat shirt (female) Acrobat pants (female) Acrobat shoes (female)
501-1,000
Firemaker
(After The Firemaker's Curse)
Firemaker's tabard Firemaker's trousers Firemaker's skirt 501-1,000
Clown Clown hatClown shirtClown leggingsClown shoesTambourine 1,001-1,200
Ringmaster Ringmaster hat Ringmaster shirt Ringmaster pants Ringmaster boots Mega-phonus 1,201+

The list above has all the items for the costumes for both genders. The maximum of pieces players will get is a total of 28 items: 12 pieces of the Audience costume, 4 pieces of the acrobat costume, 2 pieces of the Firemaker costume, 5 pieces of the Clown costume and 5 pieces of the Ringmaster costume.

To save bank space, costumes can be destroyed immediately after being earned - when destroyed, the circus costumes can be retrieved from Balthazar at any time. In effect, the costume(s) can be stored in the circus. When obtained, costume items are also added as cosmetic overrides.

Circus Costume Retrieval

The circus reward screen

Players cannot choose their reward - high-level players often get a good score but want a lesser award. To get a lesser award simply end the performance after less than 10 activities. A single level 99 trick seems to earn about 150 points.

Players can perform in each of the 5 areas once a week, and therefore it is possible to earn 5 pieces of costume each week.

Collecting all of these costumes is a requirement to obtain the trimmed completionist cape.

Maximising experience[]

Each unique trick during the performance (not including emotes), rewards the player with experience. A total of 106,327.5 experience (17,710.5 Ranged, 25,006 Magic, 10,531 Agility and 38,460 Firemaking and over 14,620 Thieving) may be gained from the performances if all tricks are unique and successful. After Back to the Freezer, this increases to 163,779.75 experience.

Repeating any trick will not result in more experience so you need to work through different tricks. This is different from the way Circus score is earned, where players can repeatedly perform the same high-level trick to increase their score (as long as they take measures to ensure they do not become boring). Therefore players wishing to maximise their experience gain do so at the expense of their Circus score.

Furthermore, experience is only awarded for a trick once for each skill level (level 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 and 99). Each skill has 2 or more tricks that are all considered to be the same skill level. Since players maximising their experience do not need to worry about being judged "boring", it is simpler and quicker to choose only one set of equivalent tricks.

  • Magic - Teleport spells and Alchemy spells offer the same skill levels. Both are on the same targets so choose one or other spell and use the single spot (though Teleport spells are recommended because they are slightly faster). Elemental spells and Levitation spells are each performed on different targets, but their skill levels are the same. Choose one type of spell and take to matching spot (though Elemental spells are recommended because they are considerably faster).
  • Ranged - Both targets offer all ten skill level spots, however since only 5 tricks can be performed at each target, do level 10 to 50 at one, and 60 to 99 at the other - it does not matter which way round. Arrows have the highest ranged bonus so it's recommended to use these.
  • Agility - Juggling tricks have the same levels and give the same XP as tightrope tricks.
  • Firemaking - All tricks give full experience when successfully completed, regardless of player level

If you fail a trick, you can repeat it until you succeed or barely succeed. Pay attention to your performance on the Tightrope, since there will not be a message if you fail (you will slip on the rope and get up again). "Barely succeed" counts as activity level completed, and you must move on to a different level.

It is still possible to fail tricks at skill level 99. Equally, even a low-level player has a chance of succeeding with the "level 99" trick. Players typically follow three possible strategies: "bottom up" - starting at level 10 and going up in order, repeating failed tricks until they succeed, "top down" - starting at level 99 and again repeating failed tricks going down in order, and "straight through" - performing one attempt at each level and then moving on the next regardless of success or failure. Low level players often use bottom up, because this maximises the number of successful tricks in the ten attempts. Any player level 65 to 70 and above are recommended to follow top down, since this means the 1 or 2 tricks they do not score will always be the lowest value ones.

When performing top-down on the magic performance, stay in the higher-level (alchemy/teleportation) area until you have successes at all five skill levels. For ranging, you must move to the other area after 5 attempts, successful or not, but it does not matter since in ranging both spots are equivalent (they cover the entire range of skill levels).

Also see the "Stat-Boosting Items" section below for information on possible armour-wearing effects.

Performing tricks above current level[]

When performing tricks above your level, you only get the experience for an act at half that level rounded down (e.g. at level 80, the level 90 and 99 tricks only reward the same as a level 40 trick), so it is best to start at the highest skill you can perform at full experience, and work down to the tricks at the level of your half-level tricks, and then perform the tricks above your level working up, before finishing off with the remaining tricks working down to 10. At level 80, the best experience you get is for tricks 80 down to 40, then 90 and 99 - which give the same experience as 40, then 30 down to 10. Repeat any trick you fail at until you succeed, ensuring that you get the highest experience available. The chance of failing a trick above your level isn't that bad, making it generally worth it to keep trying until you succeed before moving onto the very low level tricks.

Maximising circus points[]

Circus hud

A Circus HUD

The algorithm used to calculate the Circus score is much less understood than the experience score. Therefore, there are many alternate theories how to maximise the Circus score and hence obtain a piece of high score costume.

When asked, Balthazar will give the following advice to improve your performance:

  • Listen to the audience and give them what they want.
  • Avoid repetition.
  • Perform the more difficult tricks.
  • Perform emotes between tricks - don't repeat the same ones.
  • Wear crazy costumes.
  • Vary your performance according to the location of the Circus and hence the audience.

Perform difficult tricks[]

To maximise your points, you should perform the level 99 trick every time. To avoid repetition, perform different emotes between tricks.

Give the audience what they want[]

This is usually inconsistent with always performing the highest level trick. Opinions vary, but most successful Circus players seem to recommend ignoring the audience and staying with the highest-level trick. The latest audience request will appear in the top left corner of your interface.

Avoid repetition[]

To avoid repetition but at the same time do only level 99 tricks, alternate between equivalent level tricks, such as Alchemy and Teleport of the Anvil. Perform an emote before each trick.

Costumes[]

With regards to costumes, the Game Guide used to say: wearing a costume ... may increase the audience appreciation (and your rewards, of course), and the Ringmaster says: Wear crazy costumes - the crazier the better. However, the definition of 'crazy' is vague at best, and there is no way to tell exactly what qualifies as a costume. It is widely accepted that wearing circus reward costumes grant you the audience appreciation - higher the costume the better.

Wearing circus clothing appears to increase scores by a set quantity. Completing all 10 level 99 challenges with an emote in between and at the start, while wearing 4 pieces of clothing, scores 1480. Wearing 5, however, results in 1530. This seems to suggest a piece of clothing provides 5 bonus points for every emote completed. It could also suggest that each piece of clothing gives 50 points.

Circus locations[]

The Game Guide also states: some locations have a specific audience with specific things that entertain them, so it's a good idea to experiment and find out what sorts of things will amuse the audience you're performing for. This means that each area will respond better to certain moves, emotes, and possibly costumes. If the circus is in Seers' Village the people in the crowd are all seers, and if the circus is north of the Wizards' tower, most people in the crowd are wearing robes. When the circus is in the Tree Gnome Stronghold, the audience will consist of gnomes. In other locations the audience differences are not so clear. What this implies is unclear.

Emotes[]

Performing each emote provides 3 points. Wearing costumes does not seem to affect the points received from emotes.

Up to ten emotes will increase your score. They can all be performed in a row; it is not necessary to alternate between regular actions and emotes. After performing the maximum amount of emotes players will receive the message, "You've done the maximum number of emotes for this performance. They no longer count for points."

Obtaining the ringmaster costume[]

With all this information in mind, the easiest (not necessarily the quickest) way to obtain the Ringmaster costume is to alternate between the highest possible actions that can be performed while doing an emote in between each action. In the magic act, the player would alternate between alchemising the anvil (the level 99 object) and teleporting it, doing an emote in between each action. If this method is followed, it is possible to obtain a piece of the Ringmaster costume while failing one action. Using this method may take multiple tries, due to the fact that even with level 99 the player is not 100% guaranteed to succeed in every action attempted. Another effective method of obtaining the Ringmaster costume is to repeatedly juggle Chinchompas (level 99 recommended). By doing this, the chance of acquiring the Ringmaster costume is high if the player does not fail during the performance.

Personalities[]

*Possibly killed during the quest, if wrong choices were made.

Achievements[]

Music[]

Music track unlocked:

Trivia[]

Rocks

The set of rocks that mark nearly all Circus locations

  • Almost all possible locations for the circus are marked by a unique set of rocks, sometimes with or without examine options. similar markers with Fairy Rings were used before their release.
  • Circus barkers called the circus "The greatest show on RuneScape", a reference to Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, also known as "The greatest show on earth".
  • If a player has done all but the ranged act the RuneScape toolbar will say in the D&D section, "You can now give a gnome a close shave at the ranged circus event."
  • After the elemental spells got a graphical update, the one performed in the circus was not updated until later. With the Evolution of Combat, the way elemental spells are cast was updated, but circus is still not updated.
  • On 2 April 2012, the Squeal of Fortune gained an update allowing players to receive spin tickets from participating in one of the events in the Circus. Spin tickets could only be obtained when the Circus was the designated D&D for the week. The Squeal of Fortune has since been reskinned as Treasure Hunter, and key tokens are now received in the same way.
  • The levitation performance accurately depicts the real-world performance of that trick, wherein the illusionist positions himself so the audience cannot see one of his foot's toes.
  • The circus' location was announced by circus barkers located around Gielinor, until their removal on 23 April 2018.
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