The Runescape Assist System

Controls - The Assist System

The Assist System is a game feature that lets you use someone else's skill levels temporarily to make items. In exchange, the person assisting you will earn the experience for standing around while you work. The advantage of this is that you will get to do things for yourself without items ever leaving your inventory.


If you want assistance

Previously, if you had a Smithing level of 42 and you wanted a steel platebody (requiring a Smithing level of 48) you could ask a friend with a high enough Smithing level to make it for you, giving them the steel bars and waiting for them to smith it and give you the armour. With the Assist System, on the other hand, you can simply ask your friend to assist you and do the job yourself.

To request assistance from another player, right-click on them to bring up the options (as shown to the left). Selecting the 'Req Assist' option will send them a request for assistance.


If you are assisting someone

If you are assisting someone, it allows you to relax and chat to friends while earning experience! Should you receive a request for assistance and wish to help out, simply click on the request in your chat window to begin. This will open a window showing your assist options:
The skills shown are those that you can choose to assist in. You'll notice that there are no options to assist with combat skills: this is for your own protection - while you are assisting you cannot move or work on skills yourself.

To begin assisting, select the skill or skills you wish to help the other player with by clicking on its name or icon. This will highlight them in the interface as shown below:

You will now assist the other player in those skills for as long as the skill is highlighted. They will be able to do anything in those skills that you can do provided they have the necessary tools and resources (e.g. willow logs and a knife for Fletching willow longbows). If you assist a player in a skill that they do not need help with (because they already have a high enough level), you will not receive experience for it.

Because you can control which of your skills you can assist someone with, you do not need to worry about getting experience in any skills you don't want to gain experience in.

Notes

You should be aware that there are a few exceptions and restrictions in the Assist System.

• You can earn a maximum of 30,000 experience in any 24-hour period by assisting people.
• You cannot assist someone with a quest, an Achievement Diary (they will not be able to mark a task complete if they were assisted in this way) or a minigame.
• When assisting someone with Magic, they will only be able to use the 'Enchant spells' and skill-based Lunar spells. They cannot use your level to teleport, fight, etc.

If you are being assisted, a convenient icon will display in the bottom-right corner of your game window.


To control who can ask for assistance, you can right-click on the Assist button. You can then set it to 'On', 'Friends' or 'Off'.