This article is about the Distraction and Diversion. For the NPC from the Tower of Life quest, see Effigy (NPC).
Ancient effigies are a part of the Distractions and Diversions released on the 15 June2010. They require nourishment which is supplied by knowledge in particular skills with a level range of 91 to 97, with there being four stages for each effigy. The reward from doing so is an amount of experience in the skill used to nourish that effigy, and after the fourth stage a dragonkin lamp appears, which grants experience in any skill relative to skill level.
Each effigy can be nourished in one of two skills. The effigies are interested in only a limited set of skills (Agility, Crafting, Construction, Thieving, Cooking, Firemaking, Fishing, Farming, Fletching, Woodcutting, Herblore, Hunter, Mining, Smithing, Runecrafting, and Summoning).Dungeoneering, Slayer, and all combat skills other than Summoning are not associated with this Distraction and Diversion.
The assist system can be used to nourish one, if the owning player does not have the required level in either of the two skills the effigy requires. The assisting player, however, receives the experience for nourishing the effigy, although the owning player will receive the dragonkin lamp when the effigy is fully restored.
When an effigy is nourished, the skills its next level needs are reset. For example, an effigy that first wants nourishment in Hunter or Herblore will next want nourishment in two different skills (say, Thieving and Construction).
The unofficial world to give and receive assistance is 117 at Daemonheim. There are also some effigy assistance friends chats with the most well known being "fast effigy" of which is run by "p-mods"
Players can possess multiple effigies. However, as of 14 February2012, it is no longer possible to gain effigies if you have 5 or more sitting in the bank. They do not stack in the bank, regardless of what stage they are at or what skills they require. Jagex also stated with this update that there will now be a permanent reduction in the drop rates of Ancient Effigies.
Since effigies can't be sorted by appearance, they can by sorted by placing them next to related materials in your bank. For example, an effigy which needs Construction assistance could be placed by some planks. Likewise, an effigy which requires Smithing assistance could be placed by ores and bars, and effigies which require Herblore assistance could be placed by potions or herbs, and so forth.
If a player does not possess the skill levels required to feed the effigy, and does not wish to search for someone to assist them in doing so, he or she can hand the effigy to Historian Minas on the first floor of the Varrock Museum in order to gain an experience lamp worth 5k experience to any skill over level 50. This is almost the same experience as using the dragonkin lamp in a skill of level 47. After the player has exchanged the effigy for a lamp and it is used, they receive a message that says they have gained xp, "but at what cost?"
Players who intend to swap an effigy for a lamp while carrying several effigies with them must be careful, because Minas will not exchange the effigy you used on him, but the one that comes first in your inventory. It is recommended that you do not bring effigies that you do not intend to swap.
There are no skill level requirements for a player to receive an effigy from a monster drop. The effigies are a rare drop, and are dropped by many low-level and high-level monsters alike. As of the 14 February 2012 update, they've become even more rare to obtain. Receiving an effigy as a drop will show up on the player's Adventurer's Log and more than one can be held at one time. It has been confirmed that the ring of wealth does NOT affect the drop rate<ref>Dr Nick 51 & Mod Rathe. "Ancient Effigies Question...". 15 June 2010. Recent Updates Forums. *</ref>, but defeating a higher level monster will give a greater chance of receiving an effigy. Moreover, players cannot receive effigies from monsters if they have five or more in their bank or inventory.
Estimation table
Monster Combat Level
Approx. Chance One in...
5 to 10
480042 to 124510
10 to 20
56541 to 32293
20 to 30
20914 to 14665
30 to 40
10862 to 8376
40 to 50
6659 to 5424
50 to 60
4505 to 3903
60 to 70
3254 to 2817
70 to 80
2463 to 2172
80 to 90
1931 to 1727
90 to 100
1554 to 1406
100 to 110
1279 to 1168
110 to 120
1200 to 950
120 to 130
911 to 844
130 to 140
784 to 730
140 to 150
682 to 638
150 to 160
599 to 563
160 to 170
530 to 500
170 to 180
473 to 448
180 to 190
424 to 403
190 to 200
396 to 383
Stages
Starved ancient effigies are received as rare drops from a range of creatures. An effigy will always be found in the starved stage, and as it progresses to each new stage, the skills required may change. There are 4 types of ancient effigies:
Starved ancient effigy - This will require at least a level of 91 in one of the two skills to investigate; after investigation it becomes nourished, rewarding 15,000 experience in the skill used.
Nourished ancient effigy - This will require at least a level of 93 in one of the two skills to investigate; after investigation it becomes sated, rewarding 20,000 experience in the skill used.
Sated ancient effigy - This will require at least a level of 95 in one of the two skills to investigate; after investigation it becomes gorged, rewarding 25,000 experience in the skill used.
Gorged ancient effigy - This will require at least a level of 97 in one of the two skills to investigate; after investigation it provides 30,000 experience in the skill used and, then crumbles to dust, leaving behind a dragonkin lamp.
The formula for the lamp is , in which is the skill level. For example, at a skill level of 60, the experience gained would be . A complete table can be found here. A rough estimate of the exp gained can be found by simply cubing the level and then dividing by 20.
After players have enlightened an entire ancient effigy - from its starved form to its gorged form - they will have received a total of 90,000 experience across the skills used and a Dragonkin lamp which has the same use as a regular experience lamp but with a larger amount of experience depending upon the level in the skill used.
Requirements
A player without the required level attempting to inspect an effigy.
Players will need various skills levels of 91, 93, 95, and 97 to feed the effigy with knowledge and retrieve the object stored within them. The level required depends on the stage that the effigy is in. If players do not have the required levels themselves, they can request assistance from other players via the Assist System, however not all skills are available in this system. Moreover, players should bear in mind that others can only receive up to 30,000 experience through the system each day. Once the assisting player has reached this limit, players in need of assistance will not be able to request further assistance from that player, and will subsequently have to find another partner. If the Assist System is used, the assisting player will receive the experience instead, as long as their daily experience cap of 30,000 experience hasn't already been reached. Before PvP worlds were removed, ancient effigies couldn't be investigated on them.
Note: Assisting players do not need to have the full amount of xp available to assist. For instance: If a player has assisted another player for 25,000 xp, they will be able to assist another 5,000 xp. The rest of the xp will be lost and the effigy will go to the next stage.
Players will be able to get assistance in 1 skill out of each pair that an ancient effigy craves.
Note that only visible boosts can be used to open effigies.
Minimum levels
In order to open the effigies yourself, the following requirements need to be met, assuming maximum boosts are used, although all boosts are listed. This table reflects levels needed by players who are using boosts other than spicy stews.
The skills affected by each colour of spice are as follows. Note that Summoning, Constitution, and Dungeoneering are not affected by any of the spices. Spicy stew can give a boost of up to +6, though that is extremely rare.
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Trivia
When trading a starved effigy to Historian Minas, he mentions that he'll "have his top men look into this right away," to which your character replies, "Who?" To this, Minas only says "Top... men...", an almost direct quote from the Indiana Jones movie Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Jagex in some news items circa 2009-2010 had indicated they want to encourage players to train many non-combat skills more, as apparently many players were either training combat skills to high levels but not other skills or were training one or a few non-combat skills to get the skillcape but not others. Ancient effigies, like Shattered Heart, appear to be part of their effort to encourage non-combat skill training. Effigies require skill levels of 91-97 for the non-combat skills they want. Further, each nourishment stage of effigy causes the skills it wants to change, so that a player needs to be up to level 97 in at least 8 skills in order to gain the maximum benefit of the effigies.
On 14 February 2012, the drop rates for effigies were drastically reduced. Moreover, it is no longer possible for players to receive effigies if they have five or more in their bank or inventory. A message will now be displayed if the player has more than 5 effigies in their bank.File:Rs-bank-effigies1.pngMessage when opening bank with more than 5 effigies.
Considering that the effigy has four stages and you get a dragonkin lamp at the end, the maximum XP you can get from one effigy is 175,560 XP if you use the dragonkin lamp on Dungeoneering with a level of 120.
Crafting
Agility
Construction
Thieving
Cooking
Firemaking
Farming
Fishing
Fletching
Woodcutting
Herblore
Hunter
Smithing
Mining
Runecrafting
Summoning
Attack,
Strength,
Defence, 
Ranged,
Magic
Prayer,
Slayer,
