Summoning training

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

Starting
To begin training the Summoning skill, players must complete Wolf Whistle, which will grant 276 experience to Summoning (increasing the player's level to 4), as well as 275 gold charms (enough for level 20 "1-99 guide"). After that you will have to collect your own charms. Look below for information on how to do that.

Quests
Players may complete certain quests and activities to receive summoning experience, including Penguin Hide and Seek, the Tears of Guthix activity, as rewards following certain random events, and certain quest lamps (usually require you to reach level 30 first to get summoning exp). Using non-charm methods of levelling gives experience, and allows players to save valuable charms for use in higher level familiars.

Pouches
The only viable way of training Summoning is to create Summoning pouches. To begin making a Summoning pouch, the following are required:
 * An empty pouch, which can be bought from Pikkupstix for 1 gp each. (Not required for Summoning within Daemonheim)
 * A quantity of charms, which must be collected by the player through monster killing and other methods. Good ways to do this are listed below.
 * A large number of spirit shards, which can be bought from Pikkupstix for 25 gp each or you can buy a set of 5000 for 125k. (Not required for Summoning within Daemonheim)
 * A tertiary ingredient which is specific to the creature you are creating, similar to the secondary ingredients used in Herblore.

Obtaining Charms
Players attempting to train summoning should kill monsters that drop lots of crimson charms, as they are the best for experience.

Monsters vary greatly in the amount and type of charms they drop.

Once weekly, the Familiarisation Distraction and Diversion can be done, which gives a reward of 40 minutes of triple charm drops. It is recommended to use this time by killing a monster that drops a lot of crimson charms.

See here for a table of monsters which drop charms.

Goblins
Goblins have an 11% gold charm drop.The best way to kill goblins is to go to the Goblin hut or goblin meadow in Lumbridge or to the Goblin Village north of Falador. It is a bad idea to bring a slow weapon like a Godsword, Battleaxe, or 2H, as you cannot hit very fast resulting in slow progress. A weapon like a Whip, Scimitars, Daggers, or Claws are ideal so you can do 20-30+ goblins and 2-3 charms per minute. So if you camp for an hour, you can easily get 50+ charms. Not recommended if you cannot frequently hit 50-120 damage, depending on where you go.

Slayer
The fastest way to level summoning is to camp at a monster that drops lots of charms, such as Waterfiends or Rock Lobsters. However, it is also common for players to get charms from training Slayer rather than from camping at a specific monster. It is possible to get enough charms for 99 summoning by getting 99 slayer, although it depends on what tasks the player does. If a player is going for 99 in both skills, there is no need for them to camp at a monster specifically for charms. However, if a player does not want to do slayer, or is unable to obtain all the charms that they want purely from slayer, then there are several monsters that are very good to camp at for charms.

Giant rock crabs
Giant rock crabs can be the best monster to get gold charms from. They drop three of these at a time quite frequently. The giant rock crabs are just located in the Chaos tunnels, near the entrance southwest of Stealing Creation. It is recommended to use Magic to kill Giant rock crabs, since it is their weakness. Bring a few pieces of food, runes for the spell you'll be using, and also some runes for telekinetic grab (if using Normal Magic). There's a safespot by the stalagmites in the northeast corner of the room.

Walk near a boulder and it will transform into a giant rock crab. Lure it to your safespot so it gets stuck and you can safely mage it. When near death, the Giant rock crab will attempt to flee. Once the crab is dead, it's recommended to use telekinetic grab on the charms so you wont put yourself at danger by going near some other crabs, especially since the area is multicombat.

Since it is multicombat, Ice Burst or Ice Barrage can be used effectively here. Use Protect from melee or Deflect melee and gather all the crabs at a spot so that you can burst or barrage them. This method gives the most charms per hour.

A disadvantage to killing Giant rock crabs is that the charms gained are mostly gold, which are the lowest level charm. Comparatively, the charms that can be gotten a given time period from killing Giant rock crabs will not give as much summoning experience as the charms that can be gotten in the same time period killing a monster that drops mainly higher level charms, such as Waterfiends or Rock lobsters. Giant rock crabs should only be killed at low level summoning when gold charms are most useful, and even then, it is important to realise that since charms can be saved up, it probably would be more worth your time to just start at a monster that drops primarily crimson charms right away, since you will end up getting gold charms to make it through the low summoning levels anyway, at the same time as you save up tons of crimsons to use later.

Rock lobsters
Killing rock lobsters is often considered to be the fastest way to train summoning, although Waterfiends can actually be faster than bursting with the optimal levels and equipment, including 99 summoning for a Steel Titan, Rock lobsters do not require a high summoning level to kill quickly, however.

The best way to kill Rock lobsters is to use Ice Barrage or Ice Burst. There are many different ways to do this successfully, most of which involve luring 9 rock lobsters towards you while using Protect from Melee or Deflect Melee, moving to a safe spot, then casting the spells to kill them. Armour that gives high magic and/or prayer bonuses is recommended. Most of your inventory should be Prayer potions, but you will also want runes for ice spells, and a few blood spells (to heal, as you can take damage from Dagannoths using a ranged attack). Also bring a teleport and a few pieces of food.

You need at least one partner to get to rock lobsters, and one of you will have to bring a Rune thrownaxe, as it necessary to open the door. See the Waterbirth Island article for more information.

Players attempting to use this method to kill Rock lobsters should have 70+ (preferably 94+ magic), and 70+ prayer. They should also have a large amount of cash, as this method does cost a significant amount of money due to the runes and prayer potions used.

Ice bursting rock lobsters can give over 150 crimson charms per hour, whereas ice barraging can give up to 200 crimson charms per hour.

To further improve the amount of crimson charms players get and how many runes they use, many players choose to use damage increasing variables such as the staff of light, arcane stream necklace, arcane blast necklace or arcane pulse necklace as well as the Wolpertinger special move, Magic Focus which gives the same boosting effects as the extreme magic potion.

Waterfiends
Waterfiends, like Rock lobsters, are very good to kill for crimson charms. Waterfiends are cheaper to kill because magic is not needed, and Waterfiends can potentially be even faster crimson charms than Rock lobsters. However, the best kill rates of Waterfiends can only be gotten with very high levels including 99 summoning and equipment such as the Chaotic maul.

Waterfiends can be killed in the Ancient Cavern, which is single combat, or in the Chaos Tunnels, which is multicombat. The latter is more dangerous, as multiple Waterfiends can attack simultaneously, and only should be used by players with high summoning who can use a good combat familiar such as a Titan to get a higher kill rate.

Waterfiends have a ranged attack and a magic attack. The ranged attack is more dangerous. Players should wear mage defence armour (Karil's or Black d'hide) and use the Protect from Missiles or Deflect Missiles prayer. Players with 68 or higher summoning may use the Bunyip familiar's scroll (swallow whole), to consume the raw sharks and raw lobsters dropped by the waterfiends. Waterfiends are weak against crush attacks. The best weapon to use is the Chaotic maul. The next best weapons to use are the Zamorakian spear or the Saradomin sword.

Many high level players will use a Unicorn stallion's healing aura scroll, so they do not have to use prayer, except in the Chaos Tunnels. Others prefer to use the Turmoil and Soul Split prayers to avoid using a unicorn stallion familiar. The extreme potions from Herblore also come in handy here. These methods are only beneficial with 95+ melee stats, 80+ prayer, 90+ range and mage, and 88+ summoning. This higher-level method will lead to 100-140 crimson charms per hour in the Ancient Cavern.

In the Chaos Tunnels, for upwards of 200 crimson charms per hour, extreme potions (89 or 90 Herblore) and maxed combat skills (with 95+ prayer) are required. However, this method can be used at lower levels as well, resulting in approximately the same amount of crimson charms per hour as bursting rock lobsters. For both methods level 95+ summoning is strongly recommended, since the Iron and Steel titans are capable of doing massive damage with their special attacks. Players will need high level equipment (Karil's and a Zamorakian spear) with a high defence against magic bonus. It is a very hard, but very rewarding method, and is definitely not for everyone. A generic inventory would contain a couple combat-boosting potions, high level food (Monkfish or above), and 200+ Iron within or Steel of legends scrolls, leaving the rest to be filled with prayer potions and one emergency teleport. Alternatively, the food and prayer potions can be replaced with Saradomin brews and Super restore potions.

Which Pouches to Make

 * DISCLAIMER - These are only recommendations, you should be very careful when deciding what pouches to make for summoning, as prices change, and some pouches may only be good to make at certain times if you are wishing to get a summoning cape for a relatively low cost.
 * It is best if you can save Blue charms until level 89 and make Geyser titans, since they give the most experience per blue charm.
 * Some people prefer to stop using gold charms once they get to level 85 or close to it, as they begin to give slower experience and can waste your time. But, of course, if you have used all your other charms and have some gold charms, you might want to use them. Also, Barker toads are a fairly good way to gain some levels for better pouches not requiring gold charms that you can almost make; for example, at level 87 you might want to use your gold charms and save your green charms for Unicorn stallions at level 88.
 * Some people also do not use green charms, because they are very expensive for the experience gained.

How to Make Pouches
When making pouches, you should have the charms you are using, the unmade pouches, and the spirit shards. Then you should have 25 of the tertiary ingredient. Unless you are using the Taverley obelisk, in which case you should have 2 spaces to hold runes (with a air or water staff equipped) or 1 to hold Falador Teleports.

Below level 57 summoning, it is best to run back and forth between Piscatoris bank and the Piscatoris summoning obelisk. You could also use the fairy ring to bank in Zanaris. If you have not done Swan Song, you may also use the Obelisk under Pikkupstix and bank in Falador, or alternatively, use a games necklace to teleport to the Wilderness Volcano, bank there, then use the necklace to teleport to Burthorpe Games Room and run down to Taverley. Because these methods requires lots of running, you will want to have any weight reducing equipment you own equipped. You may also choose to use a familiar to hold more items, or use a Spirit terrorbird for infinite run, that is very cheap. Another good strategy would be to have a house at Taverley, using House Teleports and rings of duelling or games necklaces to teleport. this requires running from the house teleport portal to Pickupstix's house and repeating.

Above level 57 summoning, you should use Spirit kyatt pouches as a teleport near the Piscatoris summoning obelisk, and use rings of duelling to bank at Castle Wars. Using this method it is possible to make over 2700 pouches an hour, making it the fastest way to train the summoning skill. Due to the agility update, all you need to have equipped is a ring of duelling. You will use your kyatt to get near the summoning obelisk, and run north after it teleports you. It is also possible to use a Ring of Kinship to teleport to the Dungeoneering start area and use the bank chest there.

It is also possible to use the Balloon Transport System to make pouches in Taverley. Equip a hatchet and a ring of duelling, take a balloon to Taverley, make pouches, then teleport to the bank at Castle Wars. You'll use one inventory space for logs (which you can cut at Castle Wars next to the balloon site), but won't need anything else equipped as running is not a problem.

If your house is in Taverley you could use teleport tablets (teleport at portal!!) and make the pouches. After that you could go to your house and teleport(via teleport chamber) or you can use Falador teleport.

What to do with the Pouches
Some options only work well with some pouches, some only work well depending on prices. You should analyse the data and figure out what is the best option for you.

Other Important Information

 * Why aren't Arctic bears listed?
 * Arctic bears only give slightly more experience per pouch than barker toads, but they cost much more. Gold charm pouches are in general relatively cheap (in accordance with how much experience they give.) Because of this, there is really no reason to make Arctic bears, unless you want them for their teleport and hunter bonuses. (Such as for collecting Kyatt furs.)
 * Why aren't any abyssal pouches listed?
 * Mainly because Abyssal charms, unlike Obsidian charms, are rare. They are dropped one at a time, while Obsidian charms are dropped two at a time (from TzHaar-Ket and TzHaar-Xil). They are also much rarer, and are in a more remote location. Overall, they take a lot more effort to obtain, not making them worth the effort for Green charm pouches.
 * Why aren't talon beast pouches listed?
 * Although talon beast pouch is the single pouch that give the most experience in game, in order to make talon beast pouches, talon beast charms are needed. The only way to obtain these charms is to play Temple Trekking activity over and over again in hope to encounter nail beasts which drops them. If players have talon beast charms then it is recommended that the player would use them, but talon beast charms usually take more effort to obtain than any other charm in-game therefore it is not recommended to list talon beast pouches as your only option to gain experience.
 * Why does it say to wait so long before using Blue charms?
 * Blue charms give lots of experience, and as it is easy to level with the other charms at first, it is a waste to use your blue charms, when you could gain way more experience in the long run.
 * Why should Gold charms be saved from levels 28-51?
 * There are not many good Gold charm pouches at these levels, and it is better to use Green charms and Crimson charms for the time being.
 * Why should Spirit larupias not be made when they are essentially the same as Spirit graahks and Spirit kyatts?
 * Spirit larupias are in lower demand, because they are not quite as useful, so it is better to make the other ones. Also Spirit kyatts can be used in the Piscatoris method of making pouches.
 * Why should Ice titans not be made when they are essentially the same as Fire titans and Moss titans?
 * Ice titans require both an Air talisman and a Water talisman for every pouch, meaning they take more than twice as long, and more money.
 * Why should Wolpertingers not be made at level 92, instead of continuing on with Swamp titans?
 * Again, they take two items, meaning they take more than twice as long, the slight bit of extra experience you get is not worth the extra time involved.
 * What's the fastest way to make pouches? Where's the closest bank?
 * (57 summoning required) - The fastest method is to summon your Spirit Kyatt, and have a ring of duelling. Click on your familiar, and use the Teleport option, this should take you only a few steps below a trapdoor, where a summoning obelisk is located for making pouches. Go down the trapdoor, and create familiar pouches, then using the ring of duelling, teleport to Castlewars (this is the closest bank). Bank your scrolls, and repeat this method for the fastest method.
 * A useful variation on the above is to again use a Spirit Kyatt but instead of using a ring of duelling equip a ring of kinship in order to use the bank at Daemonheim. This is only slightly slower than the ring of duelling method but has the advantage of not using a consumable resource.
 * An alternative to using the Spirit Kyatt is to use fairy ring code AKQ and the bank in Zanaris. Also, with the advent of Dungeoneering, some might wish to consider the Ring of Kinship rather than the Ring of Duelling, which although it puts you farther from a bank also has unlimited teleports.
 * (If you can't summon a Spirit Kyatt) - If your house is in Taverley, use this method. Withdraw your pouch ingredients and either:


 * 1) Air runes, Law runes, and a staff that provides unlimited Earth runes,
 * 2) Earth runes, Law runes, and a staff that provides unlimited Air runes, or
 * 3) House Teletabs (which will allow 1 more pouch per trip).
 * 4) (Note that with option 1, if you use either a lava staff or a mud staff, you gain the ability to teleport to Varrock or Falador, Respectively; option 2 allows Camelot teleports, while option 3 will allow you to use any portals you have in your house for banking.)


 * Once you are ready to make the first trip, teleport to your house portal. Run towards the summoning obelisk (don't forget your boots of lightness and spotted cape or spottier cape) Make the pouches, then teleport to a bank. Bank and repeat (Note: - Using a Beast of Burden; such as the Spirit Terrorbird, to store items required for scrolls can be extremely helpful, although the extra banking time required may be debatable if its faster or not).
 * When using a Beast of Burden, it is suggested to only half stock their inventory. This way when you make your inventory into pouches, you can then trade your familiar X number of pouches and take out an equal number of tertiary items. Otherwise, X number of items will have to be dropped and picked up again each time.

Trivia

 * Note that after reaching level 17 or 29 it is theoretically possible to get to any level (even level 99) in a single trip by making either spirit mosquito pouches or giant chinchompa pouches at the Feldip hills obelisk. Both of these familiars require a stackable tertiary ingredient, allowing a player to collect all the required charms and seconds for any level within a single inventory. While technically possible, it requires immense amounts of preparation and time, and does not have much of a benefit, so it is not suggested. The player could also do this method by buying mithril seeds, picking the flowers and making praying mantis pouches.
 * For the above to work one must also make the pouches in to scrolls or else the inventory would fill up from pouches or with a high enough summoning level swap them back for shards.