For some future plans, I needed some massive gains in defense. I decided to approach this in two different ways. First, I wanted to test out a couple of different AFKing areas. After that, I'd keep working on Slayer and doing some random quests that had some combat involved as well.
Leveling Up Defense The AFK Way
The nice thing about AFK spots is getting to work on other stuff while I'm still getting some gains in the game. The downside is after a while monsters stop hitting you. You also need to be attacking things you know can’t kill you.
This was not my first time off in Stronghold of Security to gain some levels. I ended up going down a floor or so and AFKing at the Flesh crawlers. With auto retaliating, all I had to do was find a good spot to sit and let them attack me.
This spot was not the worst. I even got some herb drops that I ended up selling for a couple of grand of gold from time to time. I also never had any issues with getting the creatures to attack me back once they stopped attacking.
To do so I'd just need to leave the room I was in and go a certain distance away. Then I'd run back and they would be willing to attack me again. This would happen every ten minutes. Usually, I'd try to check in on the game every three or so minutes to keep myself from getting logged out. Sometimes I might be gone for half an hour or longer and just log myself back in and do my normal running out of the room and back in again.
The biggest downside is these things only had 25 health. That meant I was killing them rather quickly and there would be a bit of a delay before I'd start getting experience from hitting the next one.
Killing Flesh Crawlers also did not do much else for me other than a little amount of gold and the experience I was after. After a while, I decided I just wanted a far better spot and moved on.
My new spot ended up being on Fossil Island. Time again and again I'd find myself returning here anytime I knew I had to get a lot of stuff done IRL but I wanted to keep earning some kind of experience. While it was a bit of a run out to the island, I was fine with that.
These Ammonite Crabs were not only one hundred health but were like a great creature to AFK and they had zero chances of ever killing me. I doubt they even got more than a couple of points of damage on me after hours of farming them.
They also dropped something I was looking for. I needed more fossils from the island to clean. I wanted to get an amulet that allows me to teleport back out to this island which required cleaning fossils till I found one.
While I might have only looted ten or so fossils while I was at this location. With none of them after cleaning then up having the item I wanted inside. It was just nice there was a chance at getting the amulet piece I needed. I also would not be shocked if a few rotted away from dropping and me not notice while I was AFK grinding away.
On top of possible fossil drops they were dropping other things I had uses for as well. Like Mumulite which I could sell any extras once I no longer needed any. Along with many other drops that you can only get while on the island. While the amount of gold I was earning here was not that great it sure beat my other spot.
The biggest downside is after they stopped attacking me. I’d run off quite a distance like you need to do to reset them. Then I'd run back and sometimes they would not attack me. I don’t know if this was because of my level or what. Sometimes I'd re-run back and back again to fix it. Other times I just had to kill any Ammonite Crabs in their area for a while and then they would go back to attacking me on sight again for a while.
I ended up liking this spot so much that I'd even level up my stealth and attack here a bit as well. While there are much better things I could be doing that would also increase something like Slayer while also getting combat experience. I just loved this spot for when I knew I had to AFK for a while.
While getting out to this island was a bit annoying. I usually had a reason to come here anyway. So, I usually felt like I lucked out since it gave me a reason to visit the island and get some other stuff done when I had the time.
Leveling Up Defense Working on Slayer
When I was able to be more active, I ended up working on leveling up my Slayer experience, gaining Slayer points and yes getting further defense experience as well. That was at least when the creature I was fighting I could take out with melee without it being an issue.
This was also great fun as I got to hunt quite a few creatures I've never had much experience dealing with. It also took me all over the game. Such as killing 56 Otherworldly Beings in the hidden fairy lands.
This was a place I never spent much time in. That is also when I found out some odd stuff just happened there. Such as some very threatening-looking NPC showing up to sing to me. At first, I thought it was some kind of random combat mini-game. Only to find out I could not kill them at all. It was quite a funny moment.
Another spot I got to go to a couple of times was the Slayer Caves. I had no idea there were entire caves filled with slayer creatures. I was also rather thrilled any time I was given this as a task. The caves are right outside next to a Fairy Ring. Making it quite an easy spot to get to. Even more so when I'd just get things like Cockatrices for the task.
The biggest downside is many of the slayer creatures in here require having a special item. On one of my runs, I forgot to pick up my mirror shield in my bank before heading out to slay some Cockatrices. Without the mirror shield equipped they not only deal damage every so often they also massively lower your health, attack, and other attributes with a de-buff. It took forever for my character to get his normal levels back. At least these things do not do a lot of damage to me. So, I just ended up going back to the bank and then slowly grinding out the 90 or so kills of them I needed at the time.
I would not consider all the creatures I fought while leveling up my defense and working on Slayer to be fun. Sometimes it was just the location I went to. More times than not I'd get a creature and I had no idea where the best spot for getting to let alone killing them was.
Such as these Ice Giants. Not only did they do some damage to me. I had to walk past some nasty stuff just to get to them that did some decent damage to me. They were also mixed with other creatures that hit like a truck and were not helpful in finishing my Slayer task. So, I was not always only hunting what I needed for the task.
Final Thoughts
While it felt like it took forever to get my defense up to where I needed to be just to do a single quest. I was finally there. It was at least nice to get a few things done while working on defense. I will be needing quite a few more Slayer levels moving forward.
Information
Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about Old School RuneScape
