Systems and methods are disclosed for selecting a relay device for device-to-device communication with a target device in a partial coverage scenario. The method may include determining that the wireless device is out-of-service, detecting a set of candidate relay devices, identifying one or more communication parameters associated with each candidate relay device of the set of candidate relay devices, calculating a selection metric associated with each candidate relay device of the set of candidate relay devices based on the identified one or more communication parameters, selecting at least one candidate relay device from the set of candidate relay devices based on the selection metric, and transmitting the data to the selected at least one relay device.