Battling Gielinor's ferocious beasts is more exciting and more rewarding today, with the chance to spawn elite monsters.

Elites have a chance to spawn on the death of others of their kind, with one guaranteed spawn and greatly increased chance per kill when you take on a matching Slayer assignment. The following monsters can now spawn elites:

Waterfiends

Harpie bug swarms

Nechryael

Aquanites

Earth warriors

Cave horrors

Cows

Ankou

Dust devils

Hobgoblins

Infernal mages

Dark beasts

Greater demons

Abyssal demons

Please Note Edimmu elite spawns work as before, although they no longer despawn if there are no other players in the area, and remain for 30 minutes if not killed – longer than the 10 minutes that other elites will remain. Also, elites will not spawn in the tutorial, if the Path System is active, or during Rush of Blood.

The spawn rates and mechanics of elite rune dragons are unchanged.

You'll recognise an elite by its unique name, and – if you are the player who spawned it – a special animation. Elites are initially protected: attackable only by the spawning player for three minutes, or until the player moves a significant distance from the elite, if sooner.

You can find out how long until an elite is attackable by clicking on it. Once the protection ends, the animation plays again, for everyone nearby. Then, it's fair game for everyone.

Elites are tougher than their brethren, and most have special attacks that make them extra challenging to fight.

The rewards make it worthwhile, though, particularly for slayers: an elite kill grants you 220% Slayer XP compared to a regular kill, if killed while on assignment.

The elites listed above will also give three rolls' worth of loot from their drop tables – including three chances for summoning charms.

This Week's Streams

Each week we stream developer Q&As, in-game events and more. Watch our streams and find a full streaming schedule over on our Twitch channel.

Community Stream: Loot from 1,000 Triskelion Keys! | 14:00 UTC, Tuesday 28th July

Join Mods Jon and Balance as they grab the loot from 1,000 triskelion keys – this is one for all you drop-table fanatics!

Developer Q&A: RuneLabs focus | 16:00 UTC, Tuesday 28th July

Join the usual cast of JMods on the streaming sofas as they take your questions, and take a look at RuneLabs – the releases to date, the current projects, and the future of RuneLabs!

Ask your questions on the forums, on Reddit, or on Twitter using the hashtag #RSDevQA.

Community Events

Vote for your favourite player-made Raids Boss

We've had over 100 amazing entries to our 'Design a Raids Boss' competition – and we've had a tough time narrowing it down to our top 9. Now, it's your turn to vote for your favourite.

Check out the entries, and make sure you choose your favourite Raids boss! Good luck to all our finalists!

Don't forget – you can also take part in our Roleplay a Raid competition! Prizes to be won every day!

And during forum month, there's a prize to be won every day! Make sure you explore our forums every day to find that day's competition.

Enjoy!

Training Slayer is ever more compelling with elite spawns. Have fun, and let us know what you think over on the forums.

The RuneScape Team

Read the patch notes for further details of today's updates.