Slayer

The Slayer property is a damage multiplier carried on certain melee weapons, ranged weapons, musical instruments, talismans, and spellbooks. A slayer item, used against a creature in its targeted group, multiplies damage substantially — and a slayer used against the opposing group inflicts extra damage on its wielder. Slayers have been a foundational pillar of high-end PvE since the Age of Shadows expansion in February 2003 and remain one of the strongest single-property tools in the realm.

How Slayers Work

A slayer property does several distinct things, depending on the item it sits on:

• Melee and ranged weapons deal multiplied damage to the targeted creature group. Super Slayers do double damage; Lesser (creature-specific) Slayers do triple damage.
• Spellbooks, when equipped, cause most direct-damage spells to deal multiplied damage against the targeted group — also double for Super, triple for Lesser. The bonus applies only to spells whose damage formula uses Evaluating Intelligence; notable exceptions that do not benefit are Mind Blast and Harm. Necromancy and Spellweaving spells likewise are not affected.
• Musical instruments with a Slayer property gain a 20% boost to barding-skill success against creatures of the matching group, and a 20% penalty against creatures of the opposing group.
• A successful slayer use produces a small white flash on the target as visual confirmation.

The Damage Increase from a talisman-based slayer and from a weapon, spellbook, or instrument slayer stacks, subject to the standard 300% Damage Increase cap. This makes pairing a Bear Slayer talisman with a Bovine Slayer weapon (against a Gaman, for example) materially stronger than either alone.

Where Slayers Come From

• Weapons, ranged weapons, and instruments can drop with a Slayer property as a rare modifier on monster loot, and weapons can also be crafted with Slayer properties using Runic Tools.
• Slayer instruments are loot-only — they cannot be crafted.
• Slayer spellbooks are loot, artifact, or scribe-crafted using a scribe pen at high Inscription and Magery skill. Player-crafted spellbooks may roll any of the Slayer groups.

The Two Tiers: Super Slayers and Lesser Slayers

Slayers fall into two tiers. Super Slayers affect a broad group of racially or elementally similar creatures. Lesser Slayers are creature-specific and named for the creature itself — for example, "Lizardman Slayer." Until the Stygian Abyss expansion all Slayers did double damage; afterward, Lesser Slayers were upgraded to triple damage to make them genuinely competitive against their broader Super-Slayer counterparts. Some Lesser Slayers — Scorpion, Spider, and Dragon among them — were already prized despite the older 2× rule.

The Super Slayer tier is split between two delivery forms:

Talisman slayers do not affect spells cast by the wearer; their bonus is to weapon damage only. The named weapon Flesh Ripper (an Assassin Spike) is a known exception — its Mage Slayer damage may apply to spells.

Opposing-Slayer Pairings

Each Super Slayer has an opposite. Wielding a slayer against its opposite makes the attacker take more damage from the target than they would otherwise — a long-dormant mechanic that the developers reintroduced in their later balance patches. Using an Undead Slayer against a humanoid (Repond), or an Ophidian Slayer against a Terathan, makes the wielder a target for additional retaliation. This is the reason artifacts like the Berserker's Bardiche, found during the Ophidian War event cycle, find limited use in mixed combat.

The Eodon Slayer, introduced with Publish 90, has no defined opposite as of yet.

Lesser Slayer Mappings

Each Super Slayer covers a constellation of Lesser Slayers, each tuned to a single creature or close family:

• Abyss / Demon Slayer — Gargoyle Slayer (the only documented lesser; the Abyss group on weapons is referred to as Demon Slayer).
• Arachnid Slayer — Scorpion Slayer, Spider Slayer, Terathan Slayer.
• Elemental Slayer — Air, Blood, Earth, Fire, Poison, Snow, and Water Elemental Slayers.
• Repond Slayer — Goblin Slayer, Ogre Slayer, Orc Slayer, Troll Slayer. Of these, only the Talisman of Goblin Slaying carries the Goblin Slayer property.
• Reptile Slayer — Dragon Slayer, Lizardman Slayer, Ophidian Slayer, Snake Slayer (and family).
• Undead Slayer — many creature-specific Undead Slayers; the broader group covers all Undead.
• Fey Slayer — covers all Fey creatures; as of Publish 92, the property can be imbued via Fey Wings through an artificer.

Slayer Spellbooks: A Worked Example

A practical example illustrates how the multipliers compound. Consider the Energy Bolt spell against an Ancient Wyrm:

• Normal spellbook: ~35 damage.
• Reptile Slayer spellbook (Super Slayer, 2×): ~70 damage.
• Dragon Slayer spellbook (Lesser Slayer, 3×): 110+ damage.

A Flame Strike with a +9% Spell Damage Increase, Dragon Slayer spellbook against a Cold Drake has been recorded in excess of 240 damage. The slayer-spellbook bonus is by far the largest single multiplier available to a non-tank caster.

Notes by Slayer Group

A handful of slayer groups carry quirks that materially affect their use:

• Bird Slayer — does not affect Saliva, Harpies, or Stone Harpies, which have no slayer vulnerability. It does work on Turkeys. Chicken Lizards belong to the Reptile group.
• Bovine Slayer — Minotaurs are not in the Repond group despite their humanoid form. Yamandon are in the Reptile Slayer group, not Bovine. The Butcher's War Cleaver is the one weapon (not talisman) that carries Bovine Slayer.
• Flame Slayer — does not apply to Fire Ants or Fire Daemons.
• Ice Slayer — White Wyrms belong only to Reptile, and Arctic Ogre Lords belong only to Repond, despite their cold associations.
• Mage Slayer — the original Five on Friday list excluded Black Order Mage, Grand Mage, Master Theophilus, Ophidian Apprentice Mage, Ophidian Shaman, Ratman Mage, and Savage Shaman from the affected group.
• Vermin Slayer — restricted to rodents; testing has shown no effect on Gnaw or other wolves, nor any of the insect-class creatures (Solen, Ant Lions).
• Wolf Slayer — found only on the Misericord dagger. Tsuki Wolf is vulnerable to both Wolf and Demon; Hell Hound is vulnerable to both Wolf and Flame.
• Repond Slayer — has no effect against other players. The word Repond itself is from early Ultima lore, originally a spell in Ultima III used against orcs, trolls, goblins, and other humanoids.

History

The slayer mechanic's life in the realm has gone through four major eras:

• Pre-2003: Virtue Weapons. The earliest slayer-equivalent was called Virtue Weapons. They applied only to melee weapons and operated quite differently from the modern system. The very first slayer weapons were Undead Slayers, then known as Silver weapons.
• Publish 16 (12–22 July 2002). Slayer Musical Instruments were introduced. Initially their bonus was double damage, identical to weapons, though their tooltip described the success-chance boost.
• Age of Shadows (February 2003). Slayer weapons were rebuilt into the system that has held since: Super vs. Lesser tiers, opposing-group penalty mechanics, weapon multiplier formula.
• Publish 31 (17 March 2005). Slayer Spellbooks were released as part of an effort to balance mages relative to melee in PvE.
• Stygian Abyss (2009). Lesser Slayers were lifted from double damage to triple damage to restore their value. The new Abyss Slayer was added.
• Publish 90. Eodon Slayer introduced with the Valley of Eodon, available only on a small set of artifacts.
• Publish 92. Fey Slayer became imbuable via Fey Wings through an Imbuing artificer.

Notable Named Slayers

A handful of named items have outsized place in the realm's slayer history:

• Soul Seeker, Vorpal Blade, Night's Kiss, The Impaler's Pick, Gwenno's Harp — named Repond Slayers.
• Staff of Pyros — named Undead Slayer.
• Iolo's Lute, The Night Reaper, The Redeemer, Exiler, Abyss Reaver — Abyss/Demon-class.
• Defiler of Virtue, Pixie Swatter, Wind of Corruption, Ironwood Composite Bow, Fallen Mystic's Spellbook — Fey.
• Berserker's Bardiche — Ophidian-class artifact from the Ophidian War event cycle.
• Halawa's Hunting Bow, Anon's Spellbook, Grugor's Shield — Eodon Slayer artifacts.
• Ratman Bane — named Vermin Slayer.
• Talisman of Grobu Removal — named Bear Slayer talisman.
• Talisman of Goblin Slaying — the only carrier of the Goblin Slayer property.
• Misericord — the only weapon carrying Wolf Slayer.
• Butcher's War Cleaver — the only weapon carrying Bovine Slayer.
• Flesh Ripper — Assassin Spike with Mage Slayer that uniquely affects spells.