Summoning/Starting
Summoning can be a complex skill at first, but once you know the basics it's actually very easy. This is a breakdown of the basic steps needed when Summoning:
- Creating pouches and scrolls
- Recharging your Summoning points via Obelisks
- Summoning the familiar from the pouch
- Using the familiar
- Familiar's timer runs out and familiar is dismissed.
Below you will find out what these steps mean and what takes place.
Pouches
The first step of Summoning and the most common way to gain xp! By now you should have finished Wolf Whistle, if not then it is probably best to do that before you read the guide. You should have plenty of gold charms to start off with.
At first you will start off making Spirit Wolf pouches. When making pouches you need 4 ingredients: a charm, some spirit shards, a pouch and the specified ingredient. To find out what specific items you need, you must first go to your skill interface and click on Summoning, and a list will pop up! First, find the familiar you are looking to create. Right now it is the Spirit Wolf - So find that, read the ingredients, and gather them.
You need:
- A Gold charm (you should have plenty from the quest right now)
- A pouch (buyable - can be bought from Pikkupstix - 1gp each)
- 7 Spirit Shards (buyable - can be bought from Pikkupstix - 25gp each)
- A set of Wolf bones (obtained by killing wolves or bought from other players)
Once you have all the correct items needed, you must proceed to a full obelisk (We will focus on the one in Taverley in this guide, but you will find out more locations later). Once at the obelisk, right click "Pouch-Creation", and find the familiar that you are looking to create, click it, and there we go! You have a pouch - wasn't so hard was it?
When you are ready to use your familiar, you should summon the pouch. Simply right-click on the pouch and select "Summon" and there you have it, your familiar is summoned. Be warned - there are a select few places that you cannot summon or take a familiar.
Scrolls
Pouches summon mighty familiars - but that's not all! With the help of scrolls, you can activate some unique and powerful special attacks that that familiar and only that familiar can access. Making scrolls is a lot easier than making pouches!
- Choose which familiar you would like special attack scrolls for.
- Obtain the pouch for that certain familiar.
- Find a full obelisk (such as the one we visited earlier in Taverley)
- Right-click "Create-Pouch" on the obelisk.
- Click the "Create-Scroll" button in the top left corner of the box.
- Find the familiar you would like to create scrolls for and click.
Each pouch you turn into scrolls produces 10 scrolls.
After you have created them, you will need the corresponding familiar summoned (so if the scrolls you have were Adamant Bull Rush, then you would need an Adamant minotaur familiar summoned to activate them).
You must then enter Summoning interface, which is in the HUD on the top right of your screen, showing how many summoning points you have and click the scroll button - there we have it, you activated a scroll! Note that combat-scrolls can only be activated in Multi-Combat areas, and if you use a scroll attack on an enemy the enemy will switch aggression to you, and not the familiar - so beware!
Recharging Points
Can't summon a pouch? Wondering what those strange stones all over RuneScape are? Read on. They are obelisks! When you have a familiar out, your points slowly drain, and when you have too low points, you can't summon any more familiars! To get your points back up, you should either drink from a summoning potion, or find a full or small obelisk to recharge on.
The difference between big and mini Obelisks is the fact that you can make pouches with the big obelisks as well as recharging, but the small ones are purely for recharging points. There are dozens of small obelisks scattered around RuneScape.
Summoning Interface
The Summoning interface can be daunting to look at sometimes, but really it's not hard at all -
Special move button
This Button is clicked to activate a familiar's move via a scroll. The number indicates how many scrolls you have in your inventory.
Special bar
This is the special move points bar. Whenever you use a scroll, a certain number of points are temporarily taken away to stop you using them over and over, but don't worry they will very shortly regenerate. A full bar consists of 60 points.
Summoning points
This little icon shows how many Summoning points are left. When a pouch is summoned, a certain number of points will be removed, and while the familiar is still summoned the points will slowly drain. If there are not enough points to summon the pouch then you need to either recharge our summoning points (see above for more on recharging) at an obelisk or sip from a summoning potion. The maximum amount of points possible for you is your total Summoning level.
Familiar timer
Each familiar has a specified time that they survive for, and this icon shows how much time they have left. When the timer is up, the familiar will disappear. If another is wanted a new pouch will be needed to summon it. Note that even though summoning points are used up while the familiar is being used, it will still stay around after your summoning points have reached 0.
Call familiar button
If a familiar gets stuck behind a wall or to move it in to fight, then this button is the one to click. It calls the familiar. While in combat when called it will engage in the fight provided it is a multi-way combat zone.
Collect familiar inventory button
A few familiars can carry items, their inventories range from 3 slots all the way up to 30. This button, when clicked, will transfer as many items from out of the familiars inventory and into normal inventory. This can also be used on forager familiars to withdraw items collected.
Dismiss familiar button
This button can be clicked when the familiar is no longer needed. It will make the familiar disappear after which if another familiar is wanted it will have to be summoned using a new pouch.
Pets
Pets don't actually have any use, apart from showing off your well-earned Summoning level and having a buddy by your side. They can't fight, or assist in any skill in any way.
Certain pets are found in egg form, to hatch them you must take them to a pet shop such as the one in Taverley or Yanille.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. Why isn't my familiar attacking?
A. Certain familiars are non-combat, others will only fight to defend themselves; but the most common reason why familiars won't fight is because you are not in a multi-combat area. You must be in multi-combat areas for familiars to aid you fighting.
Q. Where can I get charms?
A. Charms are monster drops. Certain monsters drop different amount of certain charms - for more info refer here - charms.
Q. Is Summoning expensive?
A. Very! Summoning is currently one of the most expensive skills in the game, however, the pouches may be sold or traded in for shards, cutting the cost down by a lot (See Bogrog). Also, remember, the pouches you make can be used! Use familiars to help you with combat and skills.
Q. Where can I get more in-depth and detailed info on Summoning?
A. Summoning has a very very detailed summary of the skill, once you have mastered the basics that is where you should go.
Q. What's a forager?
A. A forager is a name for any familiar that produces items for you, to see if your familiar has produced any items for you right-click on them and select "withdraw".
Q. What's a beast of burden?
A. A beast of burden is a familiar that can carry items. Higher level beasts of burden can carry more items, to a maximum of 30 items.
Q. What's an "invisible" boost?
A. A boost that does not actually effect your physical level, instead increases the speed of how you use that skill. For instance if you were level 42 fishing and you summoned a Granite Lobster, which gives an invisible fishing boost of 4, then you would catch fish at the speed of a level 46 fisher. However, you wouldn't be able to catch a Bass, which requires 46 fishing.
Q. What's a right-click ability?
A. Aside from scrolls, some familiars have other abilities too, such as a right-click option; simply right-click your familiar to see if there is anything to offer.