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, and will only gain Slayer 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 profitable when in the high levels, as special types of mystic robes, granite armour, abyssal whips, dark bows, and many other items dropped only by slayer monsters can sell for vasts amounts of cash.

Variations of monsters count towards the slayer assignment. For example, if a player has been assigned to kill blue dragons, they may instead slay baby blue dragons and receive Slayer experience. If a player has been assigned to kill crawling hands, then they can kill level 8 or level 12 crawling hands, as well as Skeletal Hands or Zombie hands. Since the amount of experience received is based on the monster's hitpoints, there may be an advantage to selecting the higher level creature as a target. The current minimum to be ranked on the hiscores in Slayer is 30 Slayer and experience. The Chaos Tunnels can also be a good place to train slayer.

Introduction
Slayer is a unique skill in terms of having to go around the world to see special people, known as Slayer Masters, and needing to kill a lot of more off-beat monsters. Some monsters require special equipment, such as earmuffs for Banshees. 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. Slayer can lead to making a lot of money. There are a wide variety of unique things dropped by slayer monsters, such as Armoured Boots, abyssal whips, dark bows, and white/gold and black/red Mystic robes, as well as dropping better non-unique items and larger numbers of coins or clue scrolls than most non-slayer monsters per combat level.

There are currently 6 slayer masters located around RuneScape. They give players assignments to increase their slayer level, varying from level 2 goblins to level 304 mithril dragons. The monsters assigned are not necessarily slayer-specific monsters; Slayer monsters or normal monsters may be assigned to the player. Players only get experience from doing their assignment.

All slayer masters sell the same batch of slayer equipment, which is necessary to kill certain slayer monster. When a player gets their task, they can ask the master for advice on killing the assigned monsters. They will inform the player if any special equipment is required. If there is no equipment necessary, they will give the player some other tips such as weaknesses in defence.

All slayer masters sell enchanted gems. Once a player starts training (this involves some begging from their chosen master), the player is given one for free. Afterwards, players can buy them for 1 coin each. These allow players to contact their slayer master, ask for tips, ask who the master is and where they are located, and, most importantly, see how many monsters are left to kill. The gems cannot be used to get a new assignment. For that the player must see a master in person. An alternative to the gem is a worn Combat bracelet, 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 the player in contact with the slayer master who will be best for training him/her (this may not be the one who gave the player the previous assignment).

The masters vary in the level of difficulty of their assignments. If a player receives an assignment they do not wish to do, the master in Burthorpe may consider giving players an easier assignment if they talk to him. However, this only works if the assignment is something that he doesn't assign. For example, if Duradel assigns a player Desert Lizards, then the Burthorpe slayer master cannot change their task, as he too assigns Desert Lizards. However, if the number given is far greater than Turael would normally give, it is possible to change the player's task. For example, if Duradel assigns 140+ Kalphite, then Turael will change this for another mission (or a lower amount of Kalphite, randomly). However it is not advised to do so because players will lose their streak of slayer points. Under Normal circumstances players would use their points to change their task if they didn't like it. All slayer masters can assign the same types of 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.

Currently, there are six Slayer Masters scattered around RuneScape

Additionally, those who have completed Lunar Diplomacy can use the spell NPC Contact (67 Magic required), which allows players to instantly contact any slayer master and request a new assignment.

Slayer monsters
Some monsters can ONLY be killed once players have reached a certain level in Slayer. Not all of them require special equipment.
 * Although official manual says that they need only level 5 slayer to kill, players need level 31 slayer to reach skeletal and zombie hands.



Training

 * See Slayer Training guide for more info.



Temporary boosts

 * A Slayer's respite will boost slayer by 1. This can be 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 by a Slayer Master. They can be obtained by fighting Cave Horrors in a cave on Mos Le'Harmless, or by buying them from other players. When meleeing Cave Horrors, a Witchwood Icon is required. The Masks have a number of charges, represented by a number behind them from 10 to 1.  When the player still has charges, he or she will sometimes have his or her opponent's defence decreased. Each time this effect randomly takes place, the player will 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.
 * The Salve amulet is a reward from the Haunted Mine quest, which boosts attack and strength by 15% when fighting any undead monster, such as Aberrant Specters, Banshees, and Shades. The player can make it enchanted by defeating Tarn Razorlor and using the book obtained on the amulet. A Salve amulet (e) gives a 20% bonus to attack and strength. The bonuses for the amulets do not stack with the effect of a Black Mask.



Points
On 5 June 2008, Jagex released Smoking Kills, which released many new rewards that can be bought with Slayer Points. Slayer points are earned by completing 5 or more tasks in a row without having a task changed by Turael. Every 10th and 50th task, a special bonus is given to the player's slayer points, the bonuses also differ in points to each Slayer master.

The rewards that can be bought with these points include Slayer experience, a Slayer ring, the ability to combine Slayer headgear onto the Black mask to make a Slayer helmet, and even the ability to buy monsters off a player's task list forever.

Since getting good tasks worth keeping isn't guaranteed, it is suggested that players get their first four kills on the Slayer master Mazchna, and then get any other kills from there on higher masters like Duradel.

After getting 4 or more kills in a row, Slayer masters will hand out points when players finish their tasks. The number of points varies as the difficulty of the Slayer master goes up.

After slaying many beasts, players will be able to buy some nice rewards with their hard earned points.

The Slayer helmet combines the stat boosting qualities of the Black mask with the protective slayer headgear facemask,nosepeg,earmuffs, and Spiny helmet, and the defence bonus' of a Rune Full Helmet; making it the best helmet option for slayers.

Trivia
If two people are slaying the same monster, the experience is divided in half. The person who does the most damage, and the one who gets the last hit.

The idea of some slayer monsters having a special quality that makes them normally unattackable is similar to the various tricks Hercules and Perseus employed in Greek mythology.

Slayerbelle was the first player to get an untrimmed Slayer Cape, first thought an impossible feat to achieve by other players. This is because slayer normally (can differ) levels up at 1 xp per hitpoints a monster has, but the player will receive 1.33 xp per hitpoints a monster has when killed. Therefore, hitpoints will usually reach level 99 before slayer, causing the slayer cape to be trimmed. However, Slayerbelle was able to defy this normal course of levelling by using the Dwarf Multicannon, which offers Ranged exp but does not give experience to Hitpoints, and by using controlled attack modes so ensure that combat experience was as low and distributed as possible.

On 5 June 2008, many Slayer monsters had an unannounced graphical update. Players with an already assigned task on this date would receive the message "we seem to have lost your records in our recent reshuffle." from their slayer master when contacted through the slayer gem. The Abyssal demons and the Dark beasts did not receive a graphical update. (However, the Dark Beasts had already been updated months before.)