Today, we've got some exciting news to share: the return of Slayer Partners in Old School RS (OSRS)! Released on August 14, 2024, Slayer Partners is a feature many of you have been eagerly awaiting. Let's dive right into the details and explore what this update has to offer.

Slayer Partners: The Return of a Classic Feature

Earlier this month, Jagex proposed bringing back the Slayer Partners feature to OSRS, and today, it's finally here. For those unfamiliar, Slayer Partners allows players to team up with a friend or clanmate to tackle Slayer tasks together, making the skill even more enjoyable and social. This is particularly exciting for players who have always wanted to experience Slayer as a group activity, whether you're hunting down Abyssal Demons or taking on more challenging foes.

I never had the chance to participate in Slayer Partners during its previous iteration, but the concept sounds incredibly fun. Just imagine grinding Slayer with your friends or clanmates—it could make an already beloved skill even more engaging. However, one question remains: Will Ironman players be able to participate? Unfortunately, as we'll discuss later, the answer is no. But for everyone else, this feature is a game-changer.

How Slayer Partners Works

Setting up a Slayer Partner is straightforward. Once you've decided on a partner, you can initiate the partnership by using the "Partner" option on an enchanted gem or Slayer helmet. From there, simply type in your partner's name and send an invite. Once your partner accepts, you're ready to start slaying together.

One of the most interesting aspects of this update is how Slayer tasks are assigned. When you receive a Slayer task while partnered, you'll only be assigned tasks that both you and your partner can complete. Additionally, only the primary player's block list is taken into account, meaning that your partner will have to adapt to your blocked tasks.

Killing creatures while partnered will decrement both of your tasks simultaneously, and the points awarded for task completion are divided based on each player's contribution. This prevents players from exploiting the system by having an alt account contribute minimally to farm points. If a player fails to contribute enough to the task, they won't receive any points or streak increments. This ensures fairness and encourages active participation from both partners.

Setting Up a Slayer Partnership

Once the partnership is established, Slayer Masters will assign tasks that both partners can complete together. Jagex has made significant improvements to the system to address issues from the previous version, ensuring a smoother experience this time around. For instance, if you're the one obtaining the task, only your block list will be considered. Additionally, the requirement for one player to have a higher Slayer level than their partner has been removed, making it easier for players of different levels to team up.

However, if you already have an active Slayer task, you won't be able to partner up until you've completed it. This prevents mismatched tasks and ensures that both players can fully participate in the partnership. Unfortunately, Ironman accounts cannot partner up, which makes sense given the mode's restrictions, but Group Ironman members can partner with other group members.

One of the most convenient features is that the game remembers who your partner is, even if you log out. This allows you to pause tasks and pick them up later without losing progress. However, be careful—if either partner claims a new task while the other is offline, the partnership will be nullified.

Completing Slayer Tasks Together

When completing Slayer tasks as a pair, both players need to be within 30 tiles of each other and in the same world to receive kill count credit. This makes tasks go by much faster, especially for high-count tasks like Abyssal Demons. However, to prevent abuse, the system requires each player to contribute at least 20% of the required kills for the task to count as completed for both.

Points are distributed based on each player's contribution. For example, if you kill 60 gargoyles and your partner kills 40, the points will be split accordingly—nine points for you and six for your partner. This ensures that effort is rewarded fairly and prevents one player from carrying the other.

Another notable feature is that task streak bonuses apply separately, so even if your partner has a low streak, it won't affect your bonus points from maintaining a high streak. Once you've finished a task, you can either continue slaying together or go your separate ways—it's entirely up to you.

Are Slayer Partners Good for the Game?

Slayer Partners is a fantastic addition to OSRS, providing a new way for players to engage with the Slayer skill. While Ironman accounts are excluded from this feature, it makes perfect sense given the mode's self-sufficiency focus. However, Group Ironman members can still enjoy the feature with their groupmates, adding an extra layer of teamwork to their gameplay.

For newer players, Slayer Partners offers an excellent opportunity to learn the ropes from more experienced friends. Imagine being a lower-level player and teaming up with someone who has a high Slayer level—they can guide you through tasks, help you learn strategies, and make the game more enjoyable overall.

Moreover, Slayer Partners isn't overpowered. The system's checks and balances, such as the contribution-based point distribution and the requirement for each player to kill a minimum percentage of the task, ensure that it remains balanced and fair.

Poll 82 Updates: Quality of Life Changes

Alongside Slayer Partners, the latest game update also brings several quality of life improvements from Poll 82. These changes include offhand slot adjustments, big search options for Tempoross, and a significant makeover update.

Offhand Slot Changes: Players can now swap certain items to the offhand slot, including Amy's Saw, the Bruma Torch, and the Inendino Hammer. This change is incredibly convenient, especially for training skills like Construction, where you can now save inventory space by equipping both the Amy's Saw and the hammer simultaneously.

Big Search for Tempoross: A big search option has been added to Tempoross' rewards pool, allowing players to use five permits at once to roll five rewards. This is a much-needed improvement, particularly for players with large amounts of permits, as it significantly reduces the time spent searching the pool.

Makeover Update: The makeover Mage interface has been updated, allowing players to choose between body type A and body type B, independent of gender labels. Players can also select their preferred pronouns (he/him, she/her, they/them) or choose to continue without selecting a pronoun. This update reflects a more inclusive approach to character customization in OSRS, giving players more freedom to express themselves.

Conclusion

Slayer Partners and the Poll 82 updates bring a breath of fresh air to Old School RuneScape, enhancing both the Slayer skill and overall gameplay experience. Whether you're teaming up with friends to tackle Slayer tasks or enjoying the new quality of life improvements, these updates are sure to make your time in Gielinor even more enjoyable.

So, are you ready to dive into Slayer Partners and explore the new possibilities it brings? Grab a friend, gear up, and start slaying together—it's time to make the most of this exciting new feature in OSRS!

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RSorder Team