Catapult Construction

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Catapult Construction (#134)

Release date	13 February 2008 (Update)
Members	Yes
Voice Over	No
Official difficulty	Master
Quest series	None
Age	Fifth Age
Developers Main developer(s) Rod C Graphics Concept Unknown edit Quality Assurance Core Unknown edit Audio Composition Unknown edit

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Catapult Construction is a short quest in which the Tyras Camp's rotting catapult is restored and tested.

Official description

Things are not going well for the Catapult Guard at the Tyras Camp. Already unpopular with his comrades after his security lapses, he's now neglected the catapult and allowed the damp of the forests of Isafdar to seep in and rot the frame. General Hining is furious, the replacement catapult parts haven't arrived and the rookie catapult engineer has gone missing. It's a good thing, then, that a bold adventurer with your knowledge of Construction is in the area. Of course, this will take more effort than forming furniture - catapults are complicated pieces of equipment - ensuring that this mission will mean your exertions will be mental as much as physical.

Game Guide

Walkthrough

Start point	North of the Tyras Camp
Member requirement	Members only
Official difficulty	Master
Official length	Short to Medium
Requirements	Skill requirements are not boostable unless marked with a [B] for boostable. Quests: Catapult Construction Regicide Underground Pass Biohazard Plague City 42 Fletching 44 Construction Ironmen: 54 Smithing (to smith mithril nails)
Items required	Items from the tool belt are not listed unless they do not work or are not automatically added. 90 mithril nails (or better) 10 mahogany planks (protean planks will not work) Recommended: Access to the Tirannwn lodestone A charged amulet of glory or combat bracelet An Explorer's ring 3 or 4 for the cabbage-port (easier access to Port Sarim bar and Thaki the delivery dwarf) Some food and antipoison
Enemies to defeat	None

Starting the quest

The Tyras guard wanders near the catapult.

Speak with the Tyras Guard north of the Tyras Camp by the catapult (the same one talked to during the quest Regicide). He will explain that General Hining may be wanting to remove him from the job as he has not been treating the wood on the catapult properly. After an unsympathetic conversation, he asks you for help. He needs someone with more experience in Construction to help him repair the catapult. Tell him you will help.

Head to the Tyras camp and speak with General Hining. He will explain that the catapult is an essential part of the camp's defence and that without it, it could mean disaster for the camp. He will give you permission to help repair the catapult. He tells you that you need to find the missing engineer whom he suspects is off somewhere in the forest. He will also give you an Engineer's letter to bring to him. If you lose it, speak to General Hining again to receive another one.

Finding the catapult engineer

Items recommended: Food, antipoison, 10 Mahogany planks, 90 Mithril nails

Find the Catapult engineer. He is located in a clearing filled with pawyas, visible just barely north of the Tyras Guard. Use the Tirannwn Lodestone and head north-west past the rabbits. There will be a second group of rabbits and then a leaf trap. Go north to the bears and Pawyas. To the west, search for a little path between the trees that leads south to the Engineer. Be careful of the stick trap! Speak with the Engineer and offer your assistance.

Read the Catapult schematics you get from the engineer to see what materials you will need, then talk to the engineer again and ask to see the letter. Read the letter to find out what kind of materials you need.

You will need:

• 90 Mithril nails
• 10 Mahogany planks

Once you have all the parts, read the schematics and choose to make the repair parts. After making the parts, talk to the engineer and ask him to let you read the letter that you gave him earlier. Speak to him again and ask him about Rolad.

Getting the catapult repair parts

A player constructing the mahogany catapult parts.

Find Rolad in the east building at the entrance to the Dwarven Mines on the edge of the Ice Mountain. He says that he has already sent a delivery dwarf to Port Sarim with the catapult parts.

Head to Port Sarim, where you will find Thaki the delivery dwarf in the Rusty Anchor pub north of the docks. Speak to him and try to get him to give you the metal catapult parts. However, he will refuse since you don't strike him as a sailor. Search the Drunken Sailor outside to get a sailor's hat. Alternatively a tricorn hat from the naval outfit will also work. Wearing the hat, speak to the delivery dwarf again (who happens to notice the difference). This time you will get the metal catapult parts.

Repairing the catapult

Bring the Metal catapult parts, Mahogany catapult parts, and tools to the Tyras guard by the catapult north of the Tyras Camp and talk to him to start repairing the catapult.

To repair the catapult, you will have to fit the different pieces of the catapult in a tetris-like puzzle. There are two sides: an orange and a purple side. Both require certain pieces to make it work. There are many possible combinations to fill out one side, but it may not leave you with the correct pieces to complete the other. The following two pictures show the correct piece placements.

Controls

Orange side

Purple side

Click on a part to make it appear on the screen. Use the directional arrows to move it up/down/left/right, the circular arrows to rotate it clockwise/anticlockwise, the yellow curved arrow to select the opposite side, and the green sunburst button to restart.

Testing the catapult

Note:The interface for the catapult has been visually updated. The updated instructions no longer correlate with the control picture.

Once you have solved the puzzle, you have to test the repaired catapult. You will have to hit three stones with an 'X'. Increasing the counterweight causes the stone to fly farther; decreasing the counterweight causes it to strike nearer. For example, to hit the closest boulder, you want to have just one bar of blue showing. This part is fairly easy compared to the other puzzle. It requires a small amount of trial and error, but can be quickly finished.

• The centre rock requires the minimum counterweight (click the down counterweight arrow until you cannot remove any more weight).
• The left most rock requires an almost full counterweight bar (click the up counterweight arrow until you cannot load on any more weight, then click the down counterweight arrow once).
• The right most rock requires a full counterweight bar (click the up counterweight arrow until you cannot load on any more weight).

Aiming the catapult

Controlling the catapult

Firing the catapult

Press the down arrow (to decrease weight) for closer distance or up arrow (to increase weight) for farther distance. Use Direction to move left or right. Press the "Fire" button to fire. After hitting all the rocks, talk to the guard again.

Congratulations, quest complete!

Reward

• 2 quest points
• 15,000 experience
• 5,000 experience
• 30 Teak planks (worth 11,160 coins)
• 2,000 coins
• Adamant halberd
• Increased damage when using the Castle Wars catapults
• Sailor's hat
• 2 Treasure Hunter keys and 2 Hearts of Ice
  

Music unlocked

• Meridian (When you finish building the catapult)

Required for completing

Completion of Catapult Construction is required for the following:

• Plague's End

• Ardougne Tasks:
  • Hard: "Artillery Strike"

Transcript

This article on a quest has an associated dialogue page. Click here for a transcript of possible conversations encountered throughout the quest.

Trivia

• On the first day of release, if players clicked to see the spoilers, they received the message: Alas, it seems the Tyras guard looking after the reward list has misplaced it. Check back tomorrow.
• On the day of release of the quest, all servers failed due to unknown reason, and the forum post rate went up to more than 1000 posts per second.

  

  The catapult appearing broken, while it is still fixed. It changes back the next second.

• Upon the completion of this quest, one's Adventurer's Log will read: "I’ve helped the Tyras Camp - for a change - by repairing their rotten catapult. Their catapult engineer was useless!"
• After completing the quest, if the player talks to Juna, their character will say, "...And that was how I repaired the catapult in the Tyras camp." to which she replies, "Catapults are terrible devices. They move rocks from their proper Guthix-assigned positions."