Monster Slayer Squad

[Kylee Evancho]

Monster slayers are visitors that will visit and petition to stay in order to slay creatures in your caverns. They begin arriving to your fortress after you have first breached into any cavern layer, regardless of whether the fort has any locations.

Monster slayers arrive with their own weapons and armor, as well as some degree of basic combat skill. If you accept their service, they will live among your dwarves like regular citizens, although they will spend all of their time either loitering around meeting halls or prowling any breached caverns on your map they have access to, searching for cavern creatures to fight. Monster slayers cannot be assigned any labors, will not haul anything, and cannot be given orders or controlled by burrows or other means.

Monster slayers are less helpful than they might initially seem. Allowing these visitors to regularly rampage through your caverns will occasionally produce free meat, bone, and hides, but they are sloppy in their work - because you can't direct them to kill particular units, they'll often wipe out half a pack of troglodytes, while ignoring the other half entirely, or rush headlong into battle with that giant cave spider you'd been hoping to cage and farm. They are also often poorly suited to life in combat; some may arrive who hate all things military and panic at the first sign of violence, while others have ineffectual skills - which will inevitably end with them being killed by the monsters they're supposed to be hunting. Consider exiling monster slayers who seem like they're destined for tantrums, or arrange "accidents" for them if they happen to be carrying interesting equipment. Steel is steel, after all.

In case of using them for monster slaying note that they will produce plenty of litter (by killing harmless creatures) and by leaving pieces of themselves on encountering actual monsters. They are good for filing your tavern/inn with customers, which doesn't have much tangible benefit to you but makes it look busy if you don't regularly get other kinds of visitors.

Leaving caverns open is always an invitation to trouble, and monster slayers only reduce this risk slightly. Be sure to keep whatever access routes they use well-guarded with traps, doors, and dwarven guards in order to intercept the jabberer or cave dragon that will inevitably slip on in. Or with an all-powerful drawbridge. Alternatively, you may have the opening to the caverns disconnected from your fortress, so that cavern creatures have to path through the surface to reach you, and slayers don't need to step foot into your fortress to reach them. Also, be aware that closing off that cavern without sealing in some wandering monster slayers will take some effort on your part; barricading them in their bedrooms while they sleep until they've all safely left the cavern is pretty much the only way (unless you don't mind leaving them to fight to the death down below). They will follow the civil burrow rules. This might also be a possibility to get them out (and pretty much all the others).

Finally, don't even think about playing with monster slayers until you have a functional hospital up and running. Both the slayers and the civilians that play around down there are at risk of injury at any time. Strongly consider keeping the caverns walled off until you have a proper medical facility in place. Worst case scenario, you leave your poor slayers wandering bored around your tavern for a few years. There are far worse things in life.

Slayer is a skill that allows players to kill monsters that may otherwise be untargetable by players (players will be prompted a message stating they do not possess the required Slayer level to attack the monster). Players must visit a Slayer Master, who will assign them a task to kill certain monsters based on the player's Combat level. Slayer experience is awarded each time the player kills an assigned monster, and is equal to the monster's Hitpoints multiplied by its experience bonus.

Many players primarily train Combat by completing Slayer tasks, as Combat experience is still given as normal while fighting Slayer monsters. At high levels, Slayer is a very profitable skill to train, as high levelled Slayer monsters, such as Slayer bosses have a multitude of both rare and valuable drops. Completing a task also rewards a player with Slayer points, which can be exchanged for various rewards and benefits at a Slayer master.

To receive a Slayer task, players must visit one of nine Slayer Masters throughout RuneScape. All but two Slayer Masters have a Combat level requirement, and the final Slayer Master also has a Slayer level requirement. The tasks assigned are generally appropriate for the Combat level of the player, assuming they use the highest level Master available. Players may be assigned normal monsters to kill, or they may be assigned monsters that require the use of Slayer-specific items to deal damage or Slayer-specific armour to prevent stat reduction.

The Slayer equipment necessary to kill Slayer monsters can be purchased from any Slayer Master. When you get your task, you can ask the Master for advice on killing the assigned monsters, and they will tell you if special equipment is required. If no special equipment is necessary, they will give you other tips or advice such as if the monster is weak to poison or Magic.

One of the things the Masters sell is an enchanted gem. Once you start training (this involves some begging from your chosen Master), you get one for free. Afterwards, you can buy them for 1 coin each. These allow you to contact your Slayer Master, ask for tips, ask who the monster is and where it is located, and most importantly, see how many monsters you still have to kill before completing the task. The gems cannot be used to get a new assignment; for that, you must see a Master in person. An alternative to the gem is a combat bracelet, which will update the player every 10 kills while worn.

Players who have unlocked the Lunar Spells can also use the NPC Contact spell in order to receive a new assignment from a Slayer Master of their choosing. The Slayer gems automatically contact the Slayer Master most suited to your combat level; this may not be the one who gave you the assignment. It is advised to receive tasks from the Slayer Master the gems contact for you.

The Masters vary in the level of difficulty of their assignments; several of them require certain combat levels before you may get assignments from them. If you go to a Slayer Master that is too hard for you, Turael in Burthorpe may consider giving you an easier assignment if the task is something that he doesn't normally assign. For example, if Vannaka assigns you desert lizards, then Turael cannot change your task, as he too assigns desert lizards. The Masters are shown on the map with a yellow skull icon.

Note: Skipping assignments through Turael is not a recommended choice, as it's better to gain Slayer points from doing tasks in a row and spending it on blocking or skipping your current task without breaking your task streak, as Slayer points also allow you to buy useful items and perks.

Turael's tasks are simple, small, and easy to find. These assignments are excellent for the Slayer with a low combat level, but his assignments yield such low experience that most players find him unsatisfactory.

However, Turael is willing to replace an assignment given by another Slayer Master with an easier one, if the task to be replaced wouldn't normally be given by him (for example, he will replace a player's Black demon task but not a Crawling Hand task). This ability results in more players using his services than normally would.

Krystilia's tasks are monsters found within the Wilderness. Only monsters slain within the Wilderness count towards her tasks. She will assign players any task on her list without regard to the player's Combat level. Monsters killed during her tasks have the ability to drop Slayer enchantments and Larran's keys to compensate for this.

Mazchna gives fairly easy tasks too, but sometimes he may give a very small amount of more difficult monsters. Mazchna also has the habit of giving assignments which can be completed very close to him, making it convenient to get new assignments once completed.

Additionally, when on a Slayer task assigned by Konar, all kills on task have a chance of dropping a Brimstone key, which opens the Brimstone chest beside Konar. The chance of getting this drop is scaled by the combat level of the NPC players are fighting, and the key is granted in addition to the primary drop you would receive.

Nieve is the second most difficult Slayer Master. Her assignments are the same as Duradel's, except she doesn't assign waterfiends, but turoths instead (along with the number of monsters assigned per task).

Players who have unlocked the Like a boss ability via spending 200 Slayer reward points can have Nieve/Steve, Duradel, Konar quo Maten or Krystilia (Wilderness only) assign them boss monsters in addition to the tasks they already assign. Slayer Masters will check the requirements needed to access the boss; for example, if the player doesn't have 85 Slayer, they won't offer them an Abyssal Sire task. They will allow the player to decide the amount of bosses they wish to kill for that task, ranging from 3 to 35 (up to 36 for Barrows) per task. The maximum assignment can be increased by completing Combat Achievement tiers, up to a maximum of 65.

Slayer Partners were introduced to Old School RuneScape on 7 May 2015, which allows two players to work together on a Slayer assignment after inviting your partner to be your Slayer partner by using an enchanted gem, Slayer ring or Slayer helmet on them. Take into consideration that both you and your partner need to have no task assigned to be able to partner up correctly, if you try to partner up whilst either one of you has a task it will not work.

There are a few restrictions to prevent players being given tasks that they should not get. You will only be given a Slayer assignment that you have unlocked, have the Slayer and Combat level to complete and do not have blocked. If these criteria are not met then your partner will receive the task but you will not. You will be notified if this happens. Note that players that have unlocked TzTok-Jad and TzKal-Zuk will not be offered to slay him once instead of the number of TzHaar given if they are partnered.

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