What does the 'Partner' button on that Enchanted Gem even do?! Time to find out...
In June 2020, we removed Slayer Partners due to a number of rulebreaking incidents. Luckily, ‘indefinitely’ does not mean ‘permanently’, and today we’d like to share an updated Slayer Partners pitch which avoids the pitfalls of the previous system while letting you and a friend mow down all the monsters you want. Let’s get into it!
Finding Your Slayer Partner
The trickiest step is the first one: finding a friend! We can’t help you much with that, but this is a massively multiplayer online RPG, so we’re sure you’ll manage! Once you’ve found your friend, you’ll need to use the ‘Partner’ option on an Enchanted Gem or Slayer Helmet and select ‘New Partner’. Type their name in to send an invite!
We've also updated the in-game partner interface to reflect how things are functioning now. Pressing the 'New Partner' button will give you the opportunity to type in your prospective partner's in-game name.
Typing in their name will send them an invitation in-game. Even though the characters in this screenshot are both in Yanille Bank, you can send somebody an invite from anywhere in Gielinor - the Enchanted Gem has range.
If they accept, you can start looking for your first task!
Obtaining a Task
With an active partner, Slayer Masters will assign Tasks you can complete together.
If you're the player receiving a Task, only your block list will be taken into account. Older iterations of Slayer Partner systems took both block lists into account, which meant it was possible to narrow down your available tasks to a select few and boost your progress significantly.
You’ll also only receive Tasks that both you and your partner can actually complete. In the past, if you got a Task your partner didn’t have the level for, they just wouldn’t be given one.
Lastly, we’ve removed the requirement for one player to have a higher Slayer level than their partner.
This new system guarantees that once you get a Task, you'll both be able to enjoy it!
If you already have a Task, you can’t partner up until you’ve finished it. This is to ensure that any Task you do together is suitable for both of you. In a similar vein, Irons won’t be able to partner up, but Group Irons can partner with other Group members.
This approach means that you and a friend could, theoretically, set up blocklists for two different moods and bounce between them at will. Perhaps one of you could keep a few boss-oriented Tasks open while the other focuses on XP rates? The possibilities are endless.
We are aware of the potential for players to narrow task lists significantly by using alternate accounts with uncompleted quests and high Slayer levels to ‘block’ additional tasks – but we reckon this will be a relatively rare occurrence and shouldn't increase XP rates too significantly for these players. To safeguard against this sort of thing, your combined number of available Tasks must exceed 10, or you won’t get any Task at all.
Your partner will persist between sessions, so if one of you has to log off you can put the task on hold or wrap it up by yourself. Obtaining a new Task while your Slayer Partner is offline will remove them as your partner – make sure to grab your next Task together to save yourself any headaches!
You can cancel your current Task at any time, but both you and your partner must cancel to receive another one. With even the ‘bad’ Tasks being twice as quick to complete, we expect to see fewer skips than normal – just imagine how quickly you and your mate could melt down 40 iron dragons!
Completing a Task
As an example, let's say you've been assigned gargoyles together. What does the task actually look like?
Assuming you and your partner are within 30 tiles of each other, your Task will decrease by one any time either of you kills a gargoyle. You’ll only receive XP for the damage you deal, whether that’s full XP for your own kill or partial XP if you both attack the same enemy.
If you’re on a Slayer Partners Task and kill a target without your partner nearby, you’ll receive an in-game message warning you that you’re too far apart. The notable exception is when you’re on a Boss Slayer Task and in an instance, where you won’t receive a message. Keep your friends close and your Slayer Partners closer to make sure you finish your Task at the same time!
As you work through your Task, you can check how many kills your partner has racked up using the 'Partner' option on an Enchanted Gem or Slayer Helmet. Give them a heads-up (or a telling off) if they're slacking!
You’ll only receive Points if you have individually secured kill credit for at least 20% of the Task. This discourages boosting for Task streaks or Points. For example, if you only kill 15 out of 100 gargoyles, you’ll receive no Points... and Duradel will be very disappointed in you.
Points are distributed based on what percentage of the task you did yourself. If you killed 60 gargoyles and your partner killed 40, Duradel’s 15 Points would shake out to 9 for you and 6 for your partner. Unlike most things in Old School, this rounds up so neither partner loses out. A perfect 50/50 split would result in 8 Points each – a whopping single point up from what a solo slayer could earn!
This could get a bit unusual when combined with Task Streak bonuses, since your streaks are probably different. To offset this, we’re generously only splitting the base Points – you’ll keep your Streak bonus for yourself. Don’t spend it all at once, now!
Once you’ve finished your Task and snagged your Points, it’s time for a new Task – or to go separate ways if they didn’t pull their weight.
(Note: we are not responsible for any breakdowns in friendship as a result of arguments concerning lacklustre Slayer performance).
Wrapping Up
We know you’ve wanted Slayer Partners back for a long time now. This update mostly just restores the system to its former glory with improved systems and usability – and as such, we’ll be releasing it without a poll. We will, however, be keeping a very close eye on how players use it going forward – our goal with these changes was to prevent the exploits we saw in Slayer Partners’ previous incarnation.
We’ve already consulted with a handful of expert players and we’re confident that the current potential for abuse is extremely low. That said, we’re poised to make changes if we do see anyone exploiting the system – although we don’t plan to remove it again any time soon.
Let us know what you make of our proposed improvements! We're hopeful to re-release Slayer Partner before Araxyte tasks are added to the game alongside Araxxor, since the best way to enjoy a brand-new Slayer task is surely side by side with an elf... or a friend.
You can also discuss this update on the 2007Scape subreddit, the Steam forums, or the community-led OSRS Discord in the #gameupdate channel. For more info on the above content, check out the official Old School Wiki.
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