Slayer

Slayer is a members-only skill that allows players to kill normally immune monsters. Players must go to a slayer master and get an assignment. Players will only gain experience for killing the assigned monsters. The slayer experience gained per monster is equal to the monster's hitpoints. Combat experience is also given, so some players use slayer as their major form of combat training. It can be very, very profitable when in the high levels, as full mystic robes, granite armour, abyssal whips, and many other slayer monster-dropped items can sell for a lot or money.

Variations of monsters count towards the slayer assignment. For example, if a player is assigned blue dragons, then they can kill baby blue dragons as well. If a player is assigned crawling hands, he can kill the level 8 or twelves. (However, the amount of experience recieved is based on the monster's hitpoints)

Introduction
Slayer is a more complicated skill in terms of having to trek around the world to see special people (known as Slayer Masters), but potentially a fun way to be able to kill a lot of more off-beat monsters somewhat different from the normal ones. Many of these are very innovative methods sometimes requiring special equipment such as earmuffs. The idea is that, for a normally equipped player, the monster has a special ability that stops said player from being able to attack and kill it normally, similar to the various tricks Hercules and Perseus employed in Greek mythology. Slayer can lead to making a lot of money, because when you are level 85 you are able to kill Abyssal Demons that drop the extremely expensive and very powerful Abyssal Whips. There are a wide variety of other things dropped such as Armoured Boots and valuable white/gold and black/red Mystic Armour for mages which can only be obtained from these monsters, not to mention dropping better items and larger amounts of cash than most non-slayer monsters.

There are currently 5 slayer masters located around RuneScape. They will give you assignments to increase your slayer level. These can vary from 20 bats to 216 steel dragons. The monsters assigned are not necessarily slayer monsters. Slayer monsters or normal monsters killed while you have not been assigned to kill them by a master will not increase your slayer level.

All slayer masters sell the same batch of slayer equipment which is necessary to kill certain slayer monsters. When you get your task, you can ask the master for advice on killing the assigned monsters, they will tell you if special equipment is required. If there is no equipment necessary they will give you some other tip such as: this monster is weak to poison/magic.

One of the things the masters sell is a slayer gem, once you start training (this involves some begging from your chosen master) you get one for free, afterwards you buy them for 1 coin each. These allow you to contact your slayer master, ask for tips, ask who the master is and where they are located, and most importantly see how many monsters you still have to kill. 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 worn bracelet of combat, which will update the player every 10 kills.

Players who have unlocked the Lunar Spells can also use the spell NPC Contact in order to receive a new assignment from a slayer master of their choosing. The slayer gems automatically put you through to the slayer master who will be best for training you, this may not be the one who gave you the assignment. It is advised to use the master the slayer gems contact you to.

The masters vary in the level of difficulty of their assignments, two 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, the master in Burthorpe may consider giving you an easier assignment if you talk to him. However this only works if the assignment is too dangerous for you to complete. All slayer masters can assign the same monsters as the masters below them, however as their difficulty increases there is a substantially higher chance of getting a more difficult monster. The masters are shown on the map with a yellow skull icon.

Slayer masters
A handful of slayer masters dot the map; each master gives assignments oriented towards a general range of combat levels.

Turael

 * Southeast Burthorpe - Games Necklace teleport or Hot-air balloon

His assignments 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 will find him unsatisfactory. However, Turael is willing to replace an assignment given by another slayer master if the task wouldn't normally be given him (for example he won't give another task instead of killing crawling hands). This ability results in more players using his services than normally would.

Mazchna

 * Northeast Canifis on the bridge - Ectophial, fairy ring CKS or Kharyll Teleport (can be via house)

Mazchna gives fairly easy assignments 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.

Vannaka

 * Edgeville Dungeon, east of the wilderness gate - Padewwa Teleport or Amulet of Glory''

Vannaka is one of the most popular slayer masters. His assignments are usually suitable for slayers with medium and even high combat skills. He can also be found on tutorial island where he teaches players how to use melee and ranged combat. He is the only Slayer Master to assign Terror Dogs.

Chaeldar

 * Zanaris fairy queen's court - fairy ring hub

Chaeldar will not give assignments to players below combat level 70. Her assignments are infamous for their extreme difficulty. Many people seeking adventure will choose her, only to travel to Turael to change assignments.

Duradel

 * Shilo village, top floor of the fishing store

Duradel is the most difficult slayer master. He refuses to give assignments to players until they have 100 combat and 50 slayer. His assignments are generally high-leveled demons, dragons, and slayer monsters such as abyssal demons.

Slayer monsters
Some monsters can ONLY be killed once players have reached a certain level in Slayer. Not all of them require special equipment.



Advanced Training
Slayer is probably one of the hardest skills to level, mainly because it cannot be bought easily.

This advanced training guide assumes that you are an above average player with decent skills, have plenty of cash (or the ability to make plenty of cash), and don't mind training slayer with little profit.

Quests
Any quests that give you access to teleports are strongly recommended. Notable quests required are
 * Heroes Quest so you can recharge your amulets of glory.
 * A Fairy Tale Part II for access to the Fairy ring network - fast access to Slayer Tower, Slayer Dungeon and Chaeldar the slayer master in Zanaris.
 * Troll Stronghold - trolls.
 * The Grand Tree for gliders - ogres, wolves.
 * Mourning's Ends Part I - elves, bears, wolves

Items
Essential:
 * Dramen staff or Lunar staff.
 * Plenty of Amulets of glory
 * Plenty of Games necklaces.
 * Super sets 1
 * Ranging potions
 * Plenty of good food, at least lobsters or better. Suggested: monkfish, because they're easy to fish or buy, and sharks for the hard tasks.
 * Dwarf multicannon and PLENTY of cannonballs or the money to buy lots of them. Cannonballs will be your most major expense whilst training slayer.
 * Full rune or better
 * Full black dragonhide armour (or the best you can wear)
 * Good melee weapon such as an abyssal whip, or if you can't afford a whip then a dragon scimitar is almost as useful.
 * Plenty of starting cash.
 * Black mask (charges are irrelevant).

1: It is possible to substitute super defence with Excalibur which has a +10% defence bonus as its special.

Recommended:
 * Full Guthans
 * Dharok's if you have prayer potions to burn
 * Amulet of Fury
 * Fire cape
 * Clue hunting apparatus - spade, watch, sextant, chart, anti-poison potions, and food.
 * Energy potions or Super energy potions.
 * Crystal bow with recharge cost at 180k.
 * Item merchants that will take drops off your hands cheaply and quickly to resell.
 * Bones to Peaches spell.
 * Saradomin book
 * Barrows gloves, available after completing Recipe for Disaster
 * Rune defender
 * a Ring of Wealth is entirely optional, as it only appears to increase chances of a half of a key drop, and possibly dragon spears and dragon half shields. Using a Beserker ring, a Warrior ring or even just a ring of duelling may be a better option.

Strategy
Ideally, you want to get to your set task, and stay there until the task is complete. If you wish to break-even (or better) whilst training slayer, do the clue scrolls that you get dropped. It is recommended that you use high alchemy on most of the dropped items, alching anything above a steel battleaxe. Generally, you get as many nature runes as you need whilst training slayer for you to be able to alch comfortably.


 * Use cannon on every task where it reasonable to do so. This means that not only multi-combat area monsters should be targeted, but if there is a safe spot, you can also set up a cannon there, and just pop out to refill the cannon whilst it's doing its work.  Examples of monsters that may be cannoned that aren't in a multi-combat area are hellhounds and fire giants.
 * Cannons cannot be used in the Slayer Tower.
 * Cannon cannot be used against turoths or kurasks.
 * Don't make your own cannonballs, they're bad smithing exp, and very slow. Buy them.
 * Use Vannakka for tasks up to around 60 slayer, then Chaeldar after this. Duradel's tasks are just a little too tough, except for the very best players.
 * Having lunar spells set may be a reasonable strategy if you don't mind not alching some of the drops and are able to complete a task in one go, you should have plenty of bank space to alch drops later, and plenty of teleport tablets. It allows you to contact the slayer masters without having to visit them in person.
 * To get a new task, glory to edgeville, go east across the river with your dramen or lunar staff to the fairy ring, and run north to chaeldar.
 * You should be permanently potted (super set, range pot) whilst training slayer.
 * Slayer Tower tasks - bank at edgeville as necessary, then use the fairy ring code CKS to get there
 * Slayer Dungeon tasks - bank at edgeville as necessary, use fairy ring code AJR to get there, use a super energy potion when your tasks is deep in the dungeon, unless you have 78+ agility for the shortcut.
 * In general, accept the task you're given, except in the cases noted below.
 * Always take some cash to the slayer master (100k recommended), so you can buy stuff as necessary.
 * For the truly advanced: If you really want to spend a LOT of money on it, then you could do the following:
 * Have lunar spells set, use NPC Contact, and only do cannon tasks, changing all ones where you can't.
 * Using prayer potions and dharoks would be extremely fast experience too, but expensive.
 * Hire fellow players that you can kill-steal from. In theory, you could get stunning amount of slayer exp if other players reduce monsters of your task to a small amount of hitpoints, then run away so you can get the kill - you only get half slayer experience when doing this, but this wouldn't really matter as the experience would be extremely fast.

Equipment and attack-styles
Your choice of equipment should be based on the monsters attack style. By keeping the customary "sets" that you will need together in the bank, it will speed up moving from one task to the next. Of course, this may involve buying 2 sets of the required items, which can be expensive. For the vast majority of players, melee is the best option for most tasks, though there are a few notable exceptions.

Temporary boosts
The Salve amulet is a reward from the Haunted Mine quest. You can make it (e) by defeating Tarn Razorlor and using the book on the amulet. Black Masks are available by fighting Cave Horrors in a cave on Mos Le'Harmless. When fighting Cave Horrors, a Witchwood Icon is required.
 * A Slayer's respite will boost slayer by 1. This can be made brewed using the cooking skill.
 * A Mature Slayer's respite will boost slayer by 2. This can also be brewed using the cooking skill.
 * A Wild pie will boost slayer by 5.
 * A Black mask will boost both Attack and Strength by 15% while fighting monsters that have been assigned to you by a Slayer Master. The Masks have a number of charges, represented by a number behind them from 10 to 1.  When you still have a charges, you will sometimes have your opponent's defence decreased. Each time this effect takes place, you lose one charge.  When Black Masks lose all their charges, they have no number.  There is no known way to recharge them at this time.
 * Salve amulet (e) is useful when fighting any undead monster (Aberrant Specters, Banshees, Shades, etc. The bonuses do not stack with the effect of a Black Mask.

Quests

 * Royal Trouble - 5000 experience
 * Wanted! - 5000 experience
 * Animal Magnetism - 1000 experience
 * Recipe for Disaster - 1000 experience
 * Shadow sword miniquest - 5000 experience
 * Killing Tarn Razorlor - 5000 experience