Summoning training

Training Summoning can become very expensive and tedious, but familiars at higher levels make it a rewarding skill. To begin training the Summoning skill, one must first speak to Pikkupstix in Taverley, and complete the Wolf Whistle quest.

Starting
To begin training the Summoning skill, you must complete Wolf Whistle, which will give 275 gold charms and bring your Summoning level to 4.

Quests
You can complete certain quests to receive summoning experience, including Penguin Hide and Seek, the Tears of Guthix minigame, as rewards following certain random events, and certain quest lamps (usually require you to reach level 30 first to get summoning exp). Doing this means some no-cost experience, but also making your charms be worth more exp when certain levels are reached.

Pouches
The most common way of training Summoning is creating Summoning pouches. To begin making a Summoning pouch, you will need an empty pouch, a charm, a large number of spirit shards, and whatever item is relevant to the creature you want to summon (referred to as a tertiary). You can purchase empty pouches from Pikkupstix for 1gp each. You may also buy spirit shards from him for 25gp each.

Note that at level 17 or 29 it is possible to get to level 99 in one trip by either making mosquito pouches and then transforming the pouches into scrolls to free up inventory space for more pouches or by making giant chinchompa pouches at the Feldip hills obelisk, trading in the pouches for shards, then repeating the process until you run out of charms, pouches, chinchompas, or shards. This method only requires a quarter of the shards compared to banking the pouches, because you get three quarters of the shards back each time you fill your inventory with pouches

Charms

 * See Acquiring charms for more details.

In order to create a pouch, you need a charm. You are given enough charms at the conclusion of the Wolf Whistle quest to get you to at least level 16. After this, you must obtain charms by thieving and killing monsters. (charms cannot be traded on the Grand Exchange).

Gold Charms only
Players with low slayer or combat levels may have a hard time getting any charms besides gold charms, and even at higher levels gold charms are often easier to obtain than any other type of charm (see Monsters to kill for gold charms).

This table describes a path for advancing in summoning levels using only pouches that require gold charms. The "Expensive/fast" section lists pouches with the most experience regardless of cost, while the "Moderate" section only lists pouches that cost less than 10 XP each (more or less, prices vary). While the "Expensive/fast" section looks overwhelming (total cost to reach level 99 over 500 million coins!), many players find that the effort required to obtain the charms makes the more expensive pouch choices worthwhile.


 * This table only contains pouches where the tertiary component is available on the Grand Exchange.
 * "Moderate" means the cost is less than 10 gold per XP (approximately, prices vary)
 * All costs assume you are selling the finished pouches
 * All costs assume you are purchasing the tertiary component; you can greatly decrease the cost by acquiring the tertiary component through other means - for example, getting proboscises for Spirit mosquito pouches through the Tai Bwo Wannai Cleanup minigame.

Green Charms Only
A player with green charms in their possession, wishing to increase their summoning level, can look in this table to find only pouches that require green charms.


 * This table only contains pouches where the tertiary component is available on the Grand Exchange.

By Cost
This table recommends pouches for players with sufficient combat and slayer levels to acquire all types of charms.


 * This table only contains pouches where the tertiary component is available on the Grand Exchange.
 * "Balanced" means the cost is less than 10 gold per XP (approximately, prices vary)
 * "Inexpensive" means the cost is less than 5 gold per XP (approximately, prices vary)
 * All costs assume you are selling the finished pouches

Minimising shards
Based upon minimising the cost due to the number of spirit shards used:

Table below shows minimum cost assuming players buy all the components (pouches, shards, tertiary ingredients).


 * From level 67 up, the rarity and cost of the tertiary component may be your primary constraint.
 * Costs are based on current exchange prices plus the cost of shards and pouches. And without taking into consideration later alching/use/trading of made pouches.