Runescape: TzRek Jad (or "How to Raise Your Own Baby Jad")

A Boy and his Jad

     Okay, I'm going to have a 'me' moment today.  I've been working and obsessing like a mad fool to get TzRek-Jad, the baby version of TzTok-Jad.  Since the day they announced it, I've been working to get Baby Jad.  My first blog post about him was August the 3rd, he was released August 23rd, and today is September 17th.  So roughly a month and a half. 

     The requirements are steep.  99 Summoning.  99 Slayer.  A Fire Cape.  100 Zeal from Soul Wars.

      You buy him as a reward from the Soul Wars minigame.  When you pay up, it takes your Firecape, and tells you Baby Jad ate the Fire Cape!

      Lucky for me, the requirements weren't too far away.  Already had 99 Summoning and a Fire Cape.  My Slayer skill was 93.  Doing Nomad's Requiem gave me a bonus of 70 Zeal, which I never used.  So, 7 Slayer levels, 30 Zeal, and it's a done deal.  Sounded easy.  Until you start grinding away for a 99.  At least Slayer is a fun skill.  I did everything I could to speed it up.  Cannon, Steel Titan, potions…  and it still took a long time.

     Ancient Effigies really helped.  I had no idea how many get dropped when you power slay.  They're rare drops, but if all you're doing is killing things as fast as possible, and not stopping to pick things up (except effigies, dark bows, whips, and so on) then they show up reasonably often.  To be specific, on a good trip, I'd get 2 effigies.  One single day I had 3 assignments that netted 2 effigies each trip!  That was six right there!  A normal day would usually give me 2 or 3 effigies at a rate of one every other task or so. 

By the time it was finished, those effigies added up to over 800k of exp.  I had planned on selling my Slayer Points too, but never bothered.  Even after getting 99 Slayer, I cashed in 2 more effigies, and have 4 left in the bank. 

     Jad and I have a history, which I've already detailed previously.  For now, lets just say that I used to be able to beat him using Ancient Curses / Deflects.  Then Jagex changed the rules, and that doesn't work any more.  I'm still trying to learn how to beat him again.  So during my Slayer training, when Kuradal offered a Tzhaar task, and an upgrade to Jad, I always took it.  Since it was a chance to practice for Jad, and still make some exp, it was win-win, even if I got killed.

     Still working on Jad.  Might actually focus on it, now that I've finished this goal.  But with all of the history, I felt a strong connection when Runescape released Baby Jad.  Besides, I've already got a houseful of Baby Dragons, which used to be the coolest pet in Runescape until TzRek-Jad.  I love the cool pets.  I got so carried away with the baby dragons, that I collected 1 green, 1 red, 2 blue, and 5 Blacks, all in the menagerie.  I'd love to have at least one Jad in the house menagerie, maybe more.  I've got a spare Fire Cape, but getting all that Zeal is very off-putting.

 To the side is a quick shot of my menagerie.  The pets tend to wander around and spread out very quickly, so it's hard to get a good shot of all of them.

      Of course, a side benefit is the 99 Slayer.  I wasn't even planning to go for that yet, but it worked out well.  One of the first things I did after getting Baby Jad was to get the Slayer Cape.  It's a highly respected cape, and looks pretty cool.  The cape emote is pretty lame though.  Big bad Slayer gets attacked by this spindly little 3-legged monster, throws monster to ground, stomps monster flat.  I feel kind of bad for the monster.  It may not be practical, but for an impressive Slayer emote, the monster should be bigger than the player character. 

     I love the fact the Baby Jad is maintenance free.  No feeding, and he never runs away.  That's very nice.  I'm immensely curious whether he stays on death or not.  But not enough to get killed just to see.  You do it.  Not me.  He was too hard to get, for taking chances like that.  I'm also pleased that TzRek-Jad can go into your Player Owned House Menagerie.  He fit right in with my dragons.  Since I've only got 1 baby red dragon,  his Jad's red color provides a nice counter-balance to the baby black dragons.  But now I'm in a quandary.  I really hated doing Soul Wars.  Was very lucky to already have most of the Zeal points from a quest.  But if I want to put him in my menagerie, I'm going to have to play Soul Wars again.  A lot.  I've still got 2 more Fire Capes.  If I keep one, and cash in the other, I can have a Jad in the house, and one to follow me around Runescape.  But that's for the far future.  For now, I'm on Soul Wars retirement. 

Sit boy... Good boy!

     I'm thrilled to finally have him.  I wonder how many are out there?  I've only ever seen one before mine.  And yes, I know he's functionally useless.  No help fighting or carrying.  Doesn't boost any skills.  But he's just plain cool.  Plus, as Monique pointed out, having Jad is like bragging rights.  If he's following me, people automatically know I've got those 2 99's and have beaten Big Jad in the fight cave.  If I wear any other skillcape at the same time, that's bragging even more.  If I do the Taskmaster Emote at the same time, that's just too much showing off … hmmm, maybe I could do it just a couple of times?

Okay, so I'm proud of him.  But even more, I'm happy to have him, because I've wanted, and worked hard, to own my very own TzRek-Jad.  Not sure what I'll work on next.  But I know it's going to be fun!