The Pit

The Pit is a Distraction and Diversion released on 12 October 2011. It is Agility-based and gives Agility experience and a Gorilla mask if successfully completed. The Pit is run by Scrambles and Snotgut.

By completing a lap on an agility course, players may attract the attention of a Talent scout. It does not matter if obstacles are failed (like the Death Slide in the Werewolf Agility Course); there is always a chance to be attracted after completing a full lap. If a greenish arrow is flashing above the Scout's head, talk to him to be offered the chance to go to The Pit. There will also be a coloured infobox message when he is interested. If he is not spoken to within a minute or so, he will lose interest, and the opportunity will be missed. The attention of the talent scout can only be obtained once per hour.

Players with 99 Agility can speak to the Talent scout while wearing an Agility cape, Max cape or Completionist cape for free shots at the events. After completing an event, a small amount of experience will be received, but the experience cannot be gambled. The gorilla mask can be attained by talking to the Talent scout after removing the Agility cape.

Once at the pit, players will be set one of the challenges to complete, chosen at random. Completion of the task will give the player a large amount of experience, the chance to gamble it all, and a Gorilla mask. Failure will result in the player being granted experience similar to completion of a lap of the course they were previously on.

Note: The time a player has to complete each event is limited. As such, it may not be beneficial to skip the dialogue at the beginning by clicking on the minimap; the event for an entry will be unknown till it starts then. The timer starts upon swinging into the center of the area.

If the player logs out and back in during the event, they are removed from The Pit without a reward.

Talent Scouts appear at the following Agility courses:
 * Gnome Stronghold agility course (basic and advanced)
 * Agility Pyramid
 * Barbarian Outpost (basic and advanced)
 * Ape Atoll Agility Course
 * Wilderness Agility Course
 * Werewolf Agility Course
 * Dorgesh-Kaan agility course
 * Hefin Agility Course

Crate Expectations
Players must find a key by opening the numerous crates in the arena. However, only five crates can be opened. Once five crates have been opened and no key is found, the player fails the event. There are 16 crates arranged in a 4x4 grid. Some crates may also contain chickens.

Given player's capacity to choose only five of the crates, they have a 36.085% chance of completing this task successfully. Players should take care that they do not box themselves in, as Jagex has employed an underhanded trick with this game: the chickens that come out of crates that don't contain a key block the player's path, do not move, and cannot be moved or killed.

The Floor is Lava
The player must cross from one side of the arena to the other by jumping on the crates. However, some of the crates are weak and will break when you jump on them. If one of the weak crates is jumped on, the player fails the event.

It is currently unknown exactly how many of the crates in each game are weak, and so there is no accurate statistic of how often this game may be completed. There are three current suggestions for possible odds here:


 * If we assumed that two crates from each layer were weak (and there was only one safe path), the player's chances of success would be 1.36%. This kind of low number makes this scenario unlikely.
 * If we assumed that only one crate from each layer was weak, the player's chances of success would be roughly 5.45%. This also seems like an unusually low chance compared to other The Pit tasks.
 * If we assumed that one crate from each layer was weak and that the first crate is always a guaranteed success, the player's chances of successfully completing this task would be roughly 10.89%.
 * Note that the first crate in reality is not a guaranteed success and this has been confirmed.

In addition, success is not affected by the Surefooted aura.

This is a very unpopular event in The Pit as this event has the lowest chance of succeeding, and gives the least amount of experience.

High-low There
The player is shown a number between 1 and 9. The player must then guess whether the next number is higher or lower than the number being shown. The player must guess correctly 6 times in a row to win.

The optimal strategy is to guess 'Higher' if the number is below 5, and to guess 'Lower' if the number is above 5. If the number is 5, it does not matter what you guess. Following this optimal strategy, the odds of winning are approximately 18.07%.

Karaoke
The player must avoid falling rocks for approximately 40 seconds. As with most of the other minigames, this is mostly a game of chance, although there is a small amount of time to run away from falling rocks just before the larger rocks fall.

The best way to play this game is to keep running. The only way to be sure of this is by clicking the minimap before you end your end point of the previous click. Also keep an eye on the areas with the most walking space, since you have a smaller chance to end up standing still there. This method gives an almost 100% certainty of winning.

Punch the Hungry Sheeps
A sheep has eaten a key. The player must find the key by punching the numerous sheep in the arena. However, only 5 of the 14 sheep can be punched. If the player punches five sheep and no key is found, the player fails the event; otherwise, the player succeeds.

Given the player's capacity to choose only five of the sheep, and assuming that each sheep is equally likely to hold the key, they have a 35.714% chance of completing this task successfully.

Put the Thing in the Other Thing
The player must fit three different blocks into each of the three indentations on the ground so that the block matches the indentation. If the time runs out, the player fails the event.

When a block is clicked, it is picked up and held it above the player's head, and so only one can be held at any given time. This is the only game that can be completed successfully if done correctly, as it is based on skill rather than pure chance like the others. However, since the event is timed and since the picking up and dropping of pieces takes time, it is strongly suggested only blocks that are intended to be used are picked up. Look at the indentations first to know which blocks to pick up. The blocks on the floor may be rotated, so be sure to look carefully if the right block cannot be found for any of the indentations.

This event can be somewhat 'cheated' upon by hitting the North on the compass before starting and examining each of the indentations. By knowing what to put in before hand, there is a higher chance of beating this event. Time runs down extremely quickly in this event, so speed and accuracy are key.

Rewards
Players will receive experience based on the agility course they were training at and the event they received.

Success
The first successful completion of a game will reward a gorilla mask. Additionally, experience will be rewarded, in the range of 648-10125 experience. Success will also give the option to gamble (See the gambling section).

The experience for succeeding, before gambling, for each game at each course is as follows (Some values may not yet have been updated and are therefore inaccurate):

Failure
Players failing a game will also receive experience, but this will be much reduced from that received when succeeding. The experience is approximately how much would have been received by running the course in the time it took to take part. However, the amount received is fixed and not dependent on the actual time taken. This is generally in the range of 100-1500 experience.

The experience for failing for each game at each course is as follows (Some values may not yet have been updated and are therefore inaccurate):

Skillcape
Players with an Agility skillcape can access the pit at any time by talking to a Talent Scout. Doing this will still give a gorilla mask upon succeeding, in addition to reduced experience as follows:

Gambling
Upon completing the event, there is the option (with noted exception) to gamble for double experience, normal experience, or half experience; the outcomes have an equal chance of occurring. Accessing the pit with the use of an Agility skillcape will not give the option to gamble.

The expected value of gambling is 7/6x the experience without gambling. In the long term, gambling is expected to provide 17% more reward xp from The Pit.

Trivia

 * With the update on 7 February 2012, experience rewards for losing was increased by 100% and winning by 50%.
 * The double experience bonus from Sköll boots or Penance Horn do not stack with the rewards, even if the reward was gambled.
 * One of Snotgut's comments during the Karaoke event (Snotgut mad as hell and not going to take it any more) is a reference to the film "Network", where the lead character makes a similar statement after suffering a live breakdown.
 * Crate Expectations is a reference to the famous book by,.
 * "Luck be a sheep tonight," which the player-character says during the hungry sheep event, is a reference to "Luck Be A Lady", a song written by Frank Loesser.
 * If you win a game while wearing the Ring of Charos, when you talk to Scrambles in the reward area he will be wearing a mask and will say, "I'm not stupid, human. I can see you wearing that silly ring. This mask protects me!" and that he knows about it because he read it in a book somewhere.
 * When opening one crate and it is not the correct one, it will sometimes say "It's full of stars." a reference to 2001: A Space Odyssey
 * "Ooh, didn't I do well!", which the player-character says during High-Low There is a reference to a catchphrase by, a British game show host who once hosted a show called Play Your Cards Right in which contestants had to guess Higher or Lower with playing cards.