Distractions and Diversions, sometimes abbreviated as D&Ds, is a classification of game features initially released by Jagex on 2 September 2008. While D&Ds are a subclassification of minigames unlike most other minigames, many D&Ds move around to various locations in RuneScape, have a limit on how often they can be played, and only occur at particular times.
Distractions and Diversions earn their name, in that they are often used to divert the original intentions of the player in order to provide an interesting distraction from their everyday routines. Covering combat as well as many other skills, there are a wide variety of different D&Ds available to play.
Players who attempt every Distraction and Diversion can unlock the title [[the Distracted|[Name] the Distracted]]. Progress towards this title can be tracked by clicking on the title in the Titles interface.
When to Play
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Most Distractions and Diversions are only available to be played a certain number of times over a given period. Typically, they will fit into one of three categories: Daily, Weekly, and Monthly. Some, however, can only be played after receiving a specific item to start. Still others can be played an unlimited number of times, but only occur periodically in-game and are not always available. The table below lists all D&Ds by category, when to play them, and any other specific requirements to play.
| Category | Name | Timing | Frequency | Additional Requirements |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daily | ||||
| Big Chinchompa | Games start every hour, at half-past the hour | You may enter the event twice per day. | ||
| Bork | Individual | You may kill Bork once per day. | The Hunt for Surok mini-quest | |
| Evil Tree | Trees spawn 2 hours after the death of the previous tree, by server | You may nurture and/or kill two Evil Trees per day. | ||
| Fish Flingers | Games start every 20 minutes | You may play Fish Flingers as often as you wish, but you must have a competition ticket available. Tickets are given by the fisherman, and you can claim 2 per day. | ||
| Goblin Raids | Raids spawn every 30 minutes | You may fight as many goblin raids as you wish. | ||
| Guthixian Caches | Games start at 00:00, 3:00, 6:00, 9:00, 12:00, 15:00, 18:00, and 21:00 | You can access the cache as often as you wish, however you will only earn XP for the first 200 points per day. | ||
| Phoenix Lair | Individual | You may enter the Phoenix Lair once per day. | In Pyre Need quest; 51 Slayer. | |
| Rune Goldberg Machine | Individual | You may use the machine once per day. | ||
| Shooting Star | Stars fall approximately every 2 hours; exact times vary by server. | You may mine as many shooting stars as you can find, however there is not always a shooting star available. | ||
| Sinkholes | Games start every hour, at half-past the hour | You may enter a sinkhole twice per day. | ||
| The Pit | Individual | You may take part in The Pit as often as you wish, but must be called upon by the Talent Scout while training agility to enter. | ||
| Wilderness Warbands | Games start every 7 hours | You may take part in 3 raids per day. | ||
| Demon Flashmobs | Mobs spawn every hour | You may fight as many demon flashmobs as you wish. | ||
| Weekly | ||||
| Agoroth | Individual | You can defeat Agoroth 2 times per week. | A Shadow over Ashdale | |
| Familiarisation | Games start approximately every 2 hours, and remain available for 20 minutes | You can collect the reward for this task once per week. | ||
| Penguin Hide and Seek | Individual | You may spy each penguin once per week. There are 10 penguins to find, plus a polar bear. | Polar Bear requires The Hunt for Red Raktuber quest. | |
| Rush of Blood | Individual | You can practice this activity as often as you like, but can only claim the reward once per week. | ||
| Skeletal Horror | Individual | You may kill the Skeletal Horror once per week. | Rag and Bone Man Wish List mini-quest. | |
| Tears of Guthix | Individual | You may collect tears once per week. You must also gain at least one quest point, OR 100,000 total experience between games. | Tears of Guthix | |
| The Circus | Individual | You may perform in each of the circus activities once per week. | ||
| Monthly | ||||
| Giant Oyster | Individual | You can feed the oyster, gain experience and claim your reward once per month. | Beneath Cursed Tides | |
| God Statues | Individual | There are 5 total statues to build, and you can build each once per month. | ||
| Troll Invasion | Individual | You can practice this activity as often as you like, but can only claim the reward once per month. | ||
| Item | ||||
| Champions Challenge | Individual | You must find a challenge scroll, dropped randomly while fighting creatures of a given race. | ||
| Court Cases | Individual | The first case is available by talking to the clerk at the courthouse. You must find a court summons for additional cases. | ||
| Treasure Trails | Individual | You must find a clue scroll, dropped by various monsters. | See this list for monsters that drop clue scrolls. |
- Note: Those events with "Individual" listed for timing above can be started anytime the player wishes.
List of all D&Ds
Many different distractions and diversions are available, 24 in all, covering a wide variety of skills and activities.
Agoroth
Agoroth is a boss-related Distraction and Diversion found in the Ashdale Caves, and released alongside the quest A Shadow over Ashdale, on 22 April 2014. It is the first D&D and the first replayable boss for free-to-play.
After the completion of A Shadow over Ashdale, the player can access the Ashdale Caves weekly and fight Agoroth, getting black pearls as rewards.
Balthazar Beauregard's Big Top Bonanza
Circus barkers are found in each town mentioning the whereabouts of the Circus. To enter the Circus, players have to travel to the town (mentioned above) and find the Ticket vendor. The Ticket vendor will provide a Circus ticket, and players are transported into the Circus. To leave the Circus, they simply have to tear their Circus ticket. The destroy option also has the same effect. Note that the Circus moves to a different city every Wednesday, and the Ticket vendor can be found within the city area.
Whilst in the circus, players may test their skills and perform tricks in each of the areas: Agility, Ranged, Magic, Firemaking, and Thieving. The audience are key to earning maximum points, as they occasionally shout out tricks to perform. Players cannot do more than one performance in each area per week. This means that players, who have completed the Agility, Ranged, Magic, Firemaking, and Thieving performances have to wait for the following week in order to do it again. Circus barkers, who can be found in major cities, inform players where the circus currently is.
Big Chinchompa
Big Chinchompa is a Hunter-related Distraction and Diversion that was released on 28 August 2012. Players can start the Distraction and Diversion by speaking to Mieliki Tapio in the Tree Gnome Stronghold.
Players catch different soporith moths and feed them to the Plutonial chinchompa in the centre of the area, putting the chinchompa to sleep. The D&D lasts either 20 minutes or until the chinchompa falls asleep. The player earns competence points that can either be spent on various Hunter-related items, Hunter experience or on a private area to catch certain creatures.
A recent update by Jagex now allows players with a high Hunter level to collect only the highest valued Grey, Purple and Black Soporith moths, making the maximum possible points obtainable 1,500 easier to achieve.
Champions' Challenge
While fighting creatures of one of 13 'races', one may receive a Champion's scroll as a drop, which challenges the Player to a formal duel by the race's Champion. Champion's scrolls are extremely rare drops, making it quite difficult to duel all the Champions.
Larxus in the Champions' Guild Basement will instruct players about the Distraction and Diversion and will set up a match with a Champion when the player gives him a challenge Scroll. (The player must use the Scroll on Larxus, as just talking to him will not start the duel.) Until the match is started, the player can back out and decide to take the challenge another time.
The duels take place in the Champion's Challenge arena. They have certain rules, such as limiting the player's armour, disallowing some items, and prohibiting some forms of combat. Defeating the Champion will grant the player with equal amounts of Constitution and Slayer experience, as well as the possibility of duels with the Champions of Champions in the future.
After winning 10 challenges, the player will be challenged by the Human Champion of Champions, Leon d'Cour. After winning 13 challenges, the player will be challenged by the Gnome Champion of Champions, Glophren. While several other champions are present, watching the arena, only the Human and Gnome Champions will challenge the player. (Given that the 2009 update added lower champions for three additional races from the original ten and enabled a second champion of champion to issues challenges, many players expect future updates will expand the Distraction and Diversion, until all the Champions of Champions can issues challenges.)
Court Cases
Court Cases are a Distraction and Diversion released on 9 June 2010, unlocked after the completion of King's Ransom. Players also require either 65 Attack or 65 Defense in order to prosecute or defend respectively. The first case can be obtained from the Seers' Village Courthouse immediately after King's Ransom, but each case thereafter requires a court summons.
During a court case, players may read the case notes, interview witnesses, and inspect crime scenes prior to the trial. When the trial commences, players need to make compelling arguments and ask the right questions of witnesses in order to convince the Jury.
Each successful court case awards a combat XP lamp, one or more Mystery boxes, and may offer further rewards depending on the case. See Court Cases § Rewards for a full list.
Demon Flash Mobs
Demon Flash Mobs are the result of Zamorak and the incorporeal Zaros testing the boundaries of Gielinor by sending small flocks of demons forth. A demon mob spawns every hour, and about half of them are in the Wilderness, where their loot is greater. Each mob consists of a demon boss and several minions (imp heralds, greater demons and black demons). All minions must be killed (weakest first, strongest last) before the boss can be damaged - if they take too long to be killed, the boss will devour them himself to heal and strengthen. Once all minions are killed, the boss will attack. He is extremely powerful and not to be underestimated - this D&D is designed for groups only. Once the demon is dead, he will drop some loot (better loot in the Wilderness), with a chance to receive demon slayer armour.
Evil Tree
The Evil Tree can be attempted twice a day and helps players train their Woodcutting, Firemaking, and Farming skills, by chopping/burning it down, or nurturing the sapling. Waves of trees appear every two hours; between waves, no Trees will appear. To check if an Evil Tree is currently growing, a Spirit tree can be asked. It will also teleport you to it.
Players will see roots shoot out from the ground, giving a sign that the Evil Tree is sprouting and/or is nearby.
You do not need to bring anything with you, as you can store your hatchet and tinderbox on the tool belt permanently. So if you see an Evil Tree and are a long way from a bank, there will be no need to go back.
The locations of the trees are different for every World.
Familiarisation
Familiarisation is based on Summoning. Players will be summoned as a random familiar and will have to hunt around for Raw Shards. After that is done, return to RuneScape and claim a reward from Pikkenmix or Pikkupstix. They will offer a blessing which will triple Charm drops for a set time, or to receive some ingredients to use in infusing Summoning pouches in the means of a box.
To start Familiarisation, the player has to talk to Pikkupstix in Taverley, who can teach players the art of Summoning. There are no requirements, not even the Wolf Whistle quest.
Fish Flingers
This Distraction and Diversion features the Fishing skill. Located in Isla Anglerine, it involves participating in competitions and finding the best combination of bait, hooks, and weights to most efficiently catch the six different types of Fish there. There are no requirements or items needed. Players can start by talking to a Fisherman, who is located at Catherby's beach or in the Fishing Guild or outside Fishing Guild, and various other fishing spots around runescape. Rewards include Raw fish, Fishing experience, an xp boosting fishing outfit, and Tackle Boxes.
Giant Oyster
Giant Oyster is a monthly Distraction and Diversion that a player can participate in after completing Beneath Cursed Tides. The player must travel to Tutorial Island, obtain delicious seaweed and a sea cucumber and feed these items to the Oyster. After the monthly reset the player can loot the Oyster to receive a reward from the clue scroll rewards table. Fishing and Farming experience are also awarded while obtaining the required items.
Goblin Flash Mobs
Goblin Flash Mob occur every 30 minutes. They consist of Hollowtoof leading a group of goblin raiders in plundering things like farms or mines. The goblins and Hollowtoof are much stronger than average goblins and the D&D is much more dangerous since its update. The goal is to kill all goblin raiders, receiving whatever they were looting as a drop, then take on Hollowtoof, who will drop a piece of raider equipment, or rarely a piece of 'gud' raider equipment, which is the best free to play equipment. After all goblins are defeated, a small Black Guard squad, led by Commander Yodri, will arrive. Yodri gives additional rewards, based on what the goblins were looting.
God Statues
Players must build statues of various gods in return for Construction experience. God Statues may be completed once a month.
Five statues may be built each month in four separate locations around Gielinor. The locations of the statues are Taverley, Gu'Tanoth, Lumbridge, Canifis, and Prifddinas. Players must select who they wish their statue to represent. They can choose either Zamorak's K'ril Tsutsaroth, Saradomin's Zilyana, Bandos' Graardor or Guthix's Juna. Next, players must arrange the scaffolding around a large stone in the correct pattern to enable themselves to sculpt the statue. Players are rewarded with a construction experience reward for successfully completing each statue.
Depending on whether locals approve of the god depicted in their nearby statue, players can also receive either a prayer or slayer experience reward. Should a player's chosen statue satisfy local residents, they are able to pray at the statue gaining prayer experience. Whereas should the player's chosen statue anger locals, an aggressive Fanatic will appear. The fanatic's combat level increases depending on the difficulty of the statue. Once the fanatic has been killed, the player will receive a slayer experience reward.
Guthixian Cache
This is a Divination-themed Distraction and Diversion. It requires the player to hop into an Energy Rift, found at any of the wisp colonies (except the Pale wisp colony) which appear for 10 minutes at 3 hour intervals, to collect memories of Guthix. It requires no skill requirements to start. Up to 100 points can be collected per game, with a total limit of 200 points each day.
Penguin Hide and Seek
In this D&D, players search for disguised penguins hiding throughout RuneScape. In order to start, players must first talk to Larry at the Ardougne Zoo and receive a spy notebook. Larry can be asked for clues as to the whereabouts of each penguin either by talking to him or contacting him through the lunar spell NPC Contact.
Upon finding a penguin, the 'Spy on' option can be used to log the details into the notebook and earn penguin points. Return to Larry for the rewards. The spy notebook automatically records all of the penguins that have been spotted, as well as how many penguin points the player currently has. Despite this function, the notebook does not need to be carried in the inventory in order to earn penguin points. The regions of the penguins are the same for all worlds, but will change every week (and the specific location of a penguin varies from world to world).
After completing the quest Hunt for Red Raktuber, a polar bear, Chuck, replaces Larry as the source of clues and where to turn in penguin points. With the completion of the quest, players also have the option to spy a stationary polar bear hiding in a well for an extra point. The bear changes its location once per week on the same time-frame as penguins. Furthermore, after completing Some Like it Cold, you can hunt for a ghost penguin that is very elusive. A ring of visibility is required in order to see the ghost.
Phoenix Lair
The Phoenix is an Ancient, practically immortal creature capable of endlessly renewing herself under the correct conditions. The last Phoenix known to still exist is determined to live a very long life, and asks whichever Adventurer has saved her to return regularly for battle, so that she may repeat her death and rebirth cycle. Of course, the Phoenix must be sure that its opponent is worthy, and so its reborn guardians will do their very best to hinder anyone they come across. Players will have to complete In Pyre Need in order to do this. To kill the Phoenix, they will also need 51 Slayer. This is a daily activity.
Rune Goldberg Machine
The Rune Goldberg Machine allows players to mix three different types of runes for vis wax. It requires level 50 runecrafting to access (as it is located in the Runecrafting Guild) and can be played once per day. Members only.
Rush of Blood
Rush of Blood is a weekly Slayer-themed combat Distraction and Diversion that can be played in Prifddinas, requiring at least level 85 Slayer and completion of Plague's End. It is run by Morvran Iorwerth, slayer master and former warband leader, and takes place in his dungeon. Waves of different monsters, drawn from Morvran's assignment list, must be fought and one is given ten minutes to do so. The activity can be played once a week for rewards, and any number of times for practice.
Shooting Star
Every 2 hours, a Shooting Star falls into a random area within Gielinor. Players have to mine through the Star, collecting up to 200 stardust a day to exchange with the Star Sprite inside for coins, cosmic runes, astral runes, gold ore, and a chance to mine an additional ore while mining. Level 10 Mining is required to mine through the smallest Shooting Star, while level 90 Mining is required to mine through the biggest.
Players may figure out where the next Shooting Star will land by looking through a telescope in a Study inside a Player-owned house.
Sinkholes
This Distraction and Diversion is themed on Dungeoneering. Players can participate twice per day. Every hour on the half hour, a sinkhole appears in a location in Gielinor. By entering it, players in a group of 5 race to raid a dungeon looking like those in Daemonheim for resources. This may involve skill activities like Mining, Woodcutting, Fishing, Farming and combat with monsters inside dungeon rooms. The more a player raids, the greater the reward they receive. The Gorajo hoardstalker sitting inside sinkholes would provide more information on the game play and to start the game as well.
A twist in rewards is the use of summoning familiar cards. Each card gives a special effect that may swap with, copy from or add into players' rewards. The rewards may be in the form of Dungeoneering experience, Dungeoneering tokens, or a cosmetic Hoardstalker outfit.
There are no requirements for this D&D. The location of sinkholes can be checked from Talsar in Daemonheim, who offers teleports thrice per day.
Tears of Guthix
Tears of Guthix is a short game that players may use to gain experience in their lowest levelled skill, or the skill with the lowest experience (if two or more skills are at the same level), without having to train that particular skill. To participate in the Distraction and Diversion, players must have completed the Tears of Guthix quest. In addition, players may only play this Distraction and Diversion at most once every seven days and must have gained at least 100,000 total experience or one quest point since the last time they participated in it. To access the Distraction and Diversion, a player must travel through the Lumbridge Swamp Caves to the Tears of Guthix cavern and tell a story to Juna, the serpent guardian of Guthix's tears. Each time a story is told to Juna, players recount a story based upon a quest that they have completed. Since the Swamp Caves are dark, players require a light source in order to play. Additionally, both hands must be free in order to wield the stone bowl that is used to collect the Tears of Guthix.
Players receive 0.6 seconds inside the cave to collect tears for every Quest Point they have, up to a maximum of 180 seconds with 300 or more Quest Points. When the lowest level skill is at least 30, the player receives 60 experience for each tear collected. Below level 30, players receive 50 XP each, but there may be a lower limit. The XP gained per tear is not related to the quest points a player has, although more tears can be collected with more quest points.
Treasure Trails
Treasure Trails is one of the Distractions and Diversions available to Members in which a player follows a series of clues to get a reward. The value of rewards can range from about 100 coins to over 140 million coins, but more commonly is between 10,000 and 3 million coins. Level 1 clue scroll rewards range from as few as 100 coins to 7.5 million coins. Level 2 clue scroll rewards range between 2,000 coins to 28 million coins. Some players choose to do treasure trails to make money, due to the chance of getting an extremely valuable item. A treasure trail is started by finding a clue scroll. Clue scrolls are randomly dropped by various monsters and give the player his or her first clue to follow. For a list of clue-dropping monsters, please see List of clue scroll dropping monsters. Players will only receive a new clue scroll if he or she does not already have one in his or her inventory, bank, or Kingdom Management resources. Clues can involve following maps, solving puzzles, finding coordinates, talking to various NPCs, and fighting monsters. After the treasure trail is completed, the player receives a reward. Most unique rewards (with some notable exceptions) can be placed in the treasure chest in the costume room of a player's house.
- Level 1 trails can be between 1 and 5 clues long with little or no quest requirements.
- Level 2 trails can also be between 1 and 5 clues long with some quest requirements.
- Level 3 trails can be between 4 and 8 clues long, with multiple enemies to defeat and high-levelled quest requirements.
- Level 4 trails can be between 5 and 10 clues long as well, with high-levelled enemies to defeat and often many quest requirements.
Troll Invasion
Troll Invasion is a Distraction and Diversion in which players attempt to defeat trolls in Burthorpe. This can be done either through fighting or skilling. If fighting, waves of trolls come down the hills, getting progressively more difficult. In the regular version there are 20 waves, and in the hard version there are 7. If skilling, the gatehouse must be maintained for the soldiers. The ballista must be tended to, the oil vats refilled, and the barricades repaired. If the trolls are stopped for ten minutes, they will depart. The reward is a reward book, which gives experience in any skill. The reward is given after the first time playing per month; subsequent plays will not result in a reward.
The Pit
The Pit is a Distraction and Diversion in which players play various minigames relating to Agility, in order to gain agility experience.
By completing a lap on an agility course, players may attract the attention of the Talent scout, and may then choose to go and talk to him to participate in a challenge run by Snotgut and Scrambles. Completing the challenge successfully for the first time yields a gorilla mask. Each participation in The Pit is rewarded by agility experience, amount dependent on the agility course, challenge received, and whether the challenge was completed successfully or not. The Talent scouts' attention can only be caught once an hour.
Wilderness Warbands
The Wilderness Warbands are groups of followers of particular gods having set up a storage camp in the Wilderness. In this dangerous D&D, players must kill the followers and loot their camp. Then deliver the loot to the ent Quercus to be awarded vast amounts of experience or a large sum of money.
| The next warband begins in |
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Key tokens
Every week, a different D&D will give a key token for participation, which can be used to claim one free key. Using a D&D token (weekly) does not grant you an extra key.
- This week's D&D:
| For the week of 17 April–24 April (wrong?) |
| Shooting Star |
Additional Activities
There are several other activities that are sometimes incorrectly classified by players as Distractions and Diversions, due to their similarity to D&D style mini-games. However, this article covers only those activities that are classified as D&Ds by Jagex. For some of these other activities, see also:
- Triskelion Treasures - Find and assemble all 3 parts of the Crystal Triskelion.
- Shattered Heart - Collect strange rocks to re-assemble the Dahmaroc statue at the Varrock Museum.
Trivia
- On 3 March, 2010, Tears of Guthix, Champion's Challenge, and Treasure Trails were re-classified as Distractions and Diversions. Each had been initially released prior to the creation of the label, and had been listed as minigames.