Fighting epic creatures sounds like a fun time. So, I thought it was about time I took a dive into the slayer tasks and leveled it up a bit. It would be some time before I fought anything crazy however since I'd be both leveling up my slayer levels and combat skills this just seemed like a nice thing to pair.

A Porcine Of Interest

It all started with me working on a quest called A Porcine Of Interest. At the time it was just some random quest I was running. I did not even know starting it would reward me with some slayer experience as well as lead me down the slayer path.

I was told of some deadly creature luring me into a nearby cave. I thought I could easily slay that and pick up some quick rewards for my time. Once I arrived at the chamber the beast had been hunting in, I started to realize all the bones of past adventures who had failed.

Then out of nowhere, I was knocked out. I certainly thought I would be a goner as well. I ended up getting saved by someone named Spria. Who ended up being one of several Slayer taskmasters.

After recovering I returned to the cave and ended up defeating a level 37 Sourhog. I had some ok but not great combat skills at the time, so the fight was not that challenging.

I removed proof that I had defeated the creature and returned it to the original person who was offering a bounty for the creature. I ended up getting 5k gold for the kill and after collecting it went back to Spria.

Spria would end up giving me my first slayer task ever. I also gained 9 slayer levels for finishing this quest. Along with getting a decent chunk of slayer points for my troubles.

I, however, just took note of what task I was given. I then moved on to a bunch of quest-grinding elsewhere. Somewhat forgetting I even had a slayer task to take up.

My First Slayer Task

After gaining quite a few combat levels. I recalled I still had my first-ever slayer task unfinished. These things are a bit open-ended. You are told which creature you need to kill and how many. I however was not required to kill them in any certain area.

I needed to kill 18 skeletons. The only place I could recall that had any was in the Varrock Sewers. I have no idea if this was even the best place to go hunting for them or not.

All I do know is they were quite easy to kill. I gained enough slayer experience for killing skeletons I was now level 17. I however knew I needed quite a few more Slayer levels to do some quests I've been wanting to do so I ended up taking further tasks from Spria.

More Spria Slayer Tasks

At least at this level of slayer, I started to notice it was more important for me to know and find decent locations to hunt the different creatures I was after than anything else. Spria’s slayer tasks were not that challenging. I, however, needed a few more before I could even earn Slayer points for completing any of them.

Slayer points could be spent on quite a few different things. I ended up browsing through some of the items you could buy from the Slayer rewards. I’m still not quite sure which will be the first reward I'll end up going after first. It would seem I still had a little while to go before I would even have any let alone enough points to buy anything.

I also started to notice the amount of slayer points I was getting was in proportion to the amount of health the creatures I was killing. So, when I could easily get to a higher-level creature, I was assigned to fight a lower-level variant of it. I’d go with those options.

Still, the tasks offered at Spria’s slayer level were not that challenging. I knew at some point I'd need to venture out and start running slayer tasks from a higher-level master. For the time being, I ended up enjoying the easy kills.

After slaying scorpion, minotaur, and kalphite I felt like I needed a bigger challenge. I was now over level 21 slayer. For the most part, it was taking me just as long to travel to each location to fight one of these creatures as it was to kill the number I needed to finish each task. Which seemed to be an indicator that perhaps these were all a little too easy. What a mistake that way of thinking would end up being.

Slayer Vannaka

I'm not sure if I just ended up with way too hard slayer tasks than normal from Vannaka or what the deal was. He was, from my understanding a step up from Spria. I, however, would quickly learn it was quite the step up.

During this entire time, I also started to wonder why anyone would break their slayer task steak. When you decide to fail a task if that is even the right term for it the steak resets to zero. You then must do some tasks where you get zero points.

Since I was still so new to Slayer tasks I was still in the starting phase where I was not getting any Slayer points outside of quest rewards. I should have stuck with Spria for another task finishing off the last one I needed before I could earn task points. As the next one I would end up going on from Vannaka was insane.

I was told to kill 80 Fire Giants. I’ve killed quite a few giants in the past with not much trouble. If I recall I used to farm moss giants quite a while ago for quite a few melee and magic levels.

The place I ended up fighting fire giants ended up costing me 875 gold each time to get into. While that does not sound like much at first. I would end up making quite a few trips back to restock food, and switch out gear, and other supplies. The location was also a bit of a ran from the fairy ring adding even more time being consumed each time I needed to resupply.

It did not take long to realize this was a bit of a mistake to take on a slayer task fighting Fire Giants. These things ended up having 111 health. They could also deal quite some damage to me.

I might have only managed to kill 9 or 10 of them of the 80 I needed on my first trip out. I then was out of food and needed to restock. My next trip did not end up going as well with me getting even fewer kills than the last.

At the very least I was getting some insane slayer experience. At the time I also knew I was going to need to grind out some magic levels. So, I thought I might as well bring in some runs to cast fire spells on the Giants as well.

I had forgotten just how expensive it was to level up magic. I must have bought like 30k gold worth of runes thinking that should have been enough to kill the remaining fire giants I needed. I was not even close.

It also took me a few kills to find a safe spot that worked ok. I kept having issues with giants I was hitting with fire magic. When they could not hit me they would start to run backwards till they were out of attaching range. I’d then have to move out of my safe spot and chase after them. Then when they got too close where I could take damage I'd run back to my safe spot. Those first few attempts were not ideal locations.

I ended up finding a spot where only the nearest Fire Giant spawn I could kill without any issues. Anything else, even if I tried to position them right, would end up wandering backward out of my spell range to attack.

After a couple more kills than I could do with melee I ran out of runs to cast further fire spells. I then went out and grinded some defense experience with me till I ran out of food and needed to teleport out.

I decided to investigate seeing if I could get some better magic gear. It turns out now that I was a member I could get a much better magic set and weapon. I ended up dropping 120k gold on some new gear. Along with 40k more on even more ruins. I then headed back in and repeated the madness.

Final Thoughts

In the end, I gained a hit point level, a defense level, 31 slayer levels, and 9 or more magic levels. Those Fire Giant kills ended up taking me forever to finish and costing a lot more than I wanted to spend that day. It's also a shame I did not earn any Slayer points from finishing off that task.

This also seemed like a decent stopping point for a while. I now had some slayer and even magic levels I needed to go out and do some quests I wanted. At some point, I'll be returning to Slayer. I'm not quite sure yet if I'll be giving Vannaka another try or seeing if there is a step down from him as the task, he gave me was quite nasty for my combat levels.

Information

Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about Old School RuneScape.