Summoning training

Summoning training can become very expensive and tedious, but familiars at higher levels make Summoning a rewarding skill.

Starting
To begin training the Summoning skill, players may complete Wolf Whistle, (not required anymore) which will grant 276 experience to Summoning (increasing the player's level to 4), as well as 275 gold charms (enough for level 16). 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 Distraction and Diversion, Troll Invasion, 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), Spirit Shards can also be bought at the Grand Exchange, which has a bank next to it. Though the guide price is not always 25, it is rare that anyone will sell it for anything less than that.
 * A tertiary ingredient which is specific to the creature you are creating, similar to the secondary ingredients used in Herblore.

Spirit Shards
With the use of Bogrog, the pouches you make can be turned back into shards; the amount of shards returned to you is 70% of the pouch cost. With this in mind, you can drastically reduce the amount of shards you have to originally buy by continually converting the pouches you make back into shards.

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.

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.

Rock crabs
Rock crabs have a 13% charm drop rate, 10% of which are gold charms. This can be an efficient way for lower levelled players with some extra cash to obtain charms, and get some decent exp. You should also run around and activate all the crabs since they don't attack and won't be able to be attack unless someone runs next to them. If they stop attacking you, just run south of the crabs, right past the helmet shop and then run back up. This can be a great way for lower levels to obtain charms and get ranged exp. You can get around 3-5 charms per minute if done correctly.

This is not recommended unless you don't mind spending money to buy cannonballs, since they're very expensive!

Moss Giants
Moss Giants are great for gold charms, about 40% drop rate. They have very low defense and slow attack speed making them easy to power through even at low levels. North West of Ardougne has 4 Moss Giants and it is more often than not, empty. Other popular places include the Varrock sewer system and Moss Giant Island.

Ice Giants
Ice Giants are great for gold charms, about 55-57% drop rate for charms. They have relatively low defense and slow attack speed making them easy to power through even at low levels. Two places to find Ice Giants are in the ice mountain dungeon and in the Asgarnian Ice Dungeon.

Goblins
Goblins have an 11% gold charm drop. The best way to kill goblins is to go to the goblin hut 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 quickly, resulting in slow progress. A weapon like a whip, scimitar, dagger or claws are ideal so you can do 20-30+ goblins and obtain 2-3 charms per minute. If you camp for an hour, you can easily get 50+ charms. This is not recommended if you cannot frequently hit 50-120 damage. Note: The goblins across the River Lum near the Al-Kharid gate have 67 LP, keep that in mind when choosing what weapon to use to get one-hit kills (scimitar works best most of the time).

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 the Wilderness Volcano. 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 the standard spellbook). 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 gained in a given time period from killing giant rock crabs will not give as much summoning experience as the charms that can be gained 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.

Black Demons
With the introduction of infernal ashes, killing black demons became another reasonable method of gathering crimson charms. The ashes cover the cost of the cannon balls and other consumables. At higher levels, such as with 70 agility, 52/68/96 summoning, a chaotic weapon, and 80+ combat stats, a player can amass profit above 200k per hour on top of the crimson charms. High magic levels help too, as demons are weak to magic.

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.

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 is 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 for crimson charms than rock lobsters. However, the best kill rates of waterfiends can only be obtained with very high levels including 99 summoning and equipment such as the Goliath gloves or the chaotic maul. Full Dharok's is also exceptional, but you have to be VERY careful about your life points.

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 weapons to use are the Goliath gloves unarmed, followed closely by the Chaotic Maul. The next best weapons to use are the Zamorakian spear or the Saradomin sword. Other beneficial weapons are those obtained from the Barrows brothers, such as Torag's hammers.

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.

Bork
Bork can be killed once per 24-hour period beginning at 00:00(UTC), and has guaranteed charm drops. The minimum he will drop on death is 5 blue, 7 crimson and 2 green charms. Wearing a Ring of wealth adds 3 crimson and 1 green to the base total, and completing all of the Varrock Tasks leads to the base charm drop being doubled. The Familiarisation D&D will not triple these charm drops.

As Bork can be killed daily, the number of charms that slowly mount up can significantly enhance the pool of charms that a player may amass through other methods, or even become the primary source of charms for players that only want to train Summoning on a casual basis.

Tormented demons/Glacors
Tormented demons are excellent monsters for obtaining blue charms. On average, around 3 charms per 2 kills will be obtained. A strategy guide can be found here.

Glacors are also excellent monsters for obtaining blue and crimson charms. They drop 3 per kill and have roughly the same percent chance of dropping blue or crimson. A strategy guide can be found here.

Greater demons
Using a Dwarf multicannon on the 10 greater demons in the Forinthry Dungeon can net 200+ crimson charms an hour. It is recommended to bring Prayer urns to collect the mass amount of Accursed Ashes that will be dropped, which will give prayer experience as well as greatly cleaning up the drops on the ground. The Forinthry Dungeon is in the Wilderness, the greaters within located in level 20-24, so if using this method, it is recommended to have a teleport item handy (such as an Amulet of Glory), and do not bring anything you are not willing to lose.

Hellhounds
Hellhounds, while not advised for green, crimson or blue charms, have a 68-69% drop rate for gold charms and can be safespotted in most of their locations. If you have high enough ranged or magic skill to swiftly kill them, you can quickly collect gold charms in safety. Unfortunately, hellhounds have very poor drops and aren't profitable (not counting the rewards of any possible clue scrolls you may find). An alternative for gold charms are fire giants with around 55% drop rate for gold charms and they are much easier to kill with additional good loot.

Cave Bugs
Cave bugs have a 40% green charm drop rate, the second highest in game after mithril dragons.They are level 96 and fairly easy to kill. Note only the level 96 ones drop charms, level 6 cave bugs drop no charms at all.

With dragon or better armour and an abyssal whip, one can easily achieve 40+ green charms an hour at levels 70 attack and 70 strength.The only place to kill them is the Dorgesh-Kaan South Dungeon, where there's a convenient fishing spot where you can fish for frogspawns and a fairy ring nearby.

Firemaking
With the new addition of the bonfire update, Fire spirits sometimes arouse from the flames. A common reward for freeing them is charms of all four types.

Hunter
There are 2 ways to collect charms using the hunter skill: spirit implings, which require level 54 hunter, and charm sprites, which require 72 hunter. However, these both give relatively low number of charms per hour compared to combat methods. Charm sprites are notable for giving a high blue charm output compared to the total number of charms, and spirit implings also give other summoning supplies, primarily tertiary items.

Which Pouches to Make
Note: The number in parentheses is the amount of pouches it takes for the xp between those levels.


 * 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.
 * 58-69 with blue charms can be replaced with Karamthulhu overlords, but they only give 8xp more than Spirit graahk or Spirit kyatt, and make much less money.
 * 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 choose to stop using Gold charms at around level 66 because the xp rate is around 230-240k xp/h which makes it expensive for the xp gained and not worth the time.
 * Some people choose to stop using Green charms at around level 80 because the xp rate varies from 370-420k xp/h which is expensive for the xp gained and not worth the time. From level 80-99, Crimson charms are 870k-1.145m xp/h and Blue charms are 1.187m-2.120m xp/h which is much more cost efficient than using Green charms.

How to Make Pouches
'''With the 31 January Troll Warzone update, summoning has been made a whole lot easier. The obelisk to infuse pouches is now on the ground floor and is only a short distance away from Taverley's new bank.'''

When making pouches, you should have the charms you are using, the unmade pouches, the spirit shards, and 25 of the tertiary ingredient.

Players who haven't completed Swan Song may find it best to use the obelisk in Taverley, as it is the closest to a bank.

Below level 57 summoning, it is best to use pheonix lair teleports and run north-east to the Piscatoris summoning obelisk, as it is only a short distance away, and pheonix lair teleports are relatively cheap. 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 Taverly. Because these methods require a lot of running, you may 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. Another good strategy would be to have a house at Taverley, using House Teleports and rings of duelling, games necklaces, or a Ring of Kinship (unlimited teleports) 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 banker there. After completion of The Elder Kiln, players may find that with the TokKul-Zo more convenient, as it provides access to a quick bank, and teleporting doesn't cost any charges.

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.

A good but expensive way to train summoning is to have all the pouches, charms and shards in your inventory, along with noted tertiaries. Sell all the tertiaries to Magestix at the Taverley obelisk. Buy 25 back, make the pouches and sell the pouches you've made to Magestix and repeat. This method is a massive loss-maker. It is possible to use 10k charms per hour using this method, where as the previous fastest method is about 2.7k charms per hour. This can grant up to 932k xp/h using Gold charms, 1,544k xp/h using Green charms, 4,352k xp/h using Crimson charms, and 7,832k xp/h using Blue charms. You can also reduce the loss of this method by making all of your pouches in to scrolls, which then can be exchanged back into shards or sold. This will, however, reduce the effective charms per hour rate by up to 50%.

How many Spirit Shards do you need to buy?
With the use of Bogrog, you can turn the pouches you make back into spirit shards; the amount of shards you get is usually 70% of the required shard number for the pouch. Utilising this, the amount of shards you need to initially buy can be drastically reduced, however the effectiveness of this varies greatly with number of shards you initially have and the amount of times you are willing to exchange your pouches.

The formula which calculate the effective amount of shards you own is as follows

$$\sum_{i=1}^{n}S\times0.7^{\ i-1}$$

S = initial amount of shards

n = number of trips done to Bogrog

i = parameter

However, it becomes tedious to recalculate this continuously to find the required number of shards you need initially. It is much easier to first decide how many trips to Bogrog you are willing to do as the amount of trips dictates what percentage increase you will ultimately get (regardless of initial count). The increases can be seen below:

Let's say you needed 55,000 shards to attain a certain level, the first thing you do need to decide upon is how many times you would be willing to visit Bogrog which will usually be 10 times, any more than this the gain in shards is minimal; for example doing 20 trips instead of 10 when having an initial starting shard count of 100,000 only yields an extra 6,405 shards. The amount of trips you are willing to do is something you have to decide.

At 10 trips, the increase is 227% so the effective amount will be 327% of the initial amount, or 3.27 times the initial amount. You then divide 55,000 by 3.27 to get 16,820 (rounded up). Therefore, to effectively have 55,000 shards whilst willing to do 10 trips to Bogrog you only initially need to have 16,820 Spirit shards.

Note: The division can easily be done on your computers calculator.

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 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 they 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 cost more money.
 * Why make Wolpertingers?
 * Although Wolpertingers require two secondary ingredients, the time it takes to find charms is a lot longer than the time it takes to make these pouches over swamp titans, especially when using a spirit kyatt pouch to make the Wolpertingers. So if you have limited charms and time, Wolpertingers are your option. If you already have more crimsons charms than you need, do NOT do Wolpertingers.
 * What's the fastest way to make pouches? Where's the closest bank?
 * As of the Temple Trekking update, a fast method is using the Nature Grotto obelisk via the Mort Myre gate shortcut reward from Temple Trekking. This will bring you right outside the Nature Grotto which is steps away from the obelisk inside. To bank, use an Amulet of Glory to Edgeville, and then use a Ring of Slaying to the Fremennik Slayer Dungeon to gain access to the Fairy Ring network, or simply use the Tokkul-Zo to teleport to the Fight Caves to both bank and access the Fairy Rings. Use Fairy Ring code CKS to teleport you a few steps north of the Mort Myre gate. Alternatively, you can teleport to Canifis using the Kharyrll teleport spell in the Ancient Magicks spellbook or use a POH Teletab if you have a Kharyrll portal. Use the bank in Canifis, then run back to the gate. The former method uses no inventory space if you're wearing the Glory and Slayer ring, or Tokkul-Zo, which means you can make more pouches per hour versus having runes or POH teletabs in your inventory.
 * (57 Summoning required) - The fastest method is to summon your Spirit Kyatt, 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 teleport to a bank with one of the following, bank your pouches, and repeat.
 * Using the Ring of Duelling, teleport to Castle Wars (fast, but adds cost)
 * Using the Tokkul-Zo, teleport to the Fight Caves (fast and free, but requires The Elder Kiln)
 * Using the Ring of Kinship, teleport to Daemonheim (slow and free, no requirements)
 * An alternative to using the Spirit Kyatt is to use fairy ring code AKQ and the bank in Zanaris or Edgeville (fairy ring code DKR).
 * If you have access to Wolpertingers and have unlocked the balloon near Castle Wars, another method is to use a ring of dueling and use it to teleport Castle Wars. Take charms, pouches, shards, 24 of the secondary ingredient, and logs and run to the balloon near Castle Wars. Travel to Taverley and run to the summoning obelisk there, make pouches, and teleport back to Castle Wars to repeat. *Note that your weight cannot exceed 40kg when doing this method; although weight reducing gear (such as boots of lightness and spotted cape) work.*
 * (If you have completed Swan Song) - Either teleport to the Phoenix Lair by using a Phoenix lair teleport scroll or run to the Piscatoris Fishing Colony. Withdraw all of your supplies (Pouches, Spirit shards, etc.) from your bank from Arnold Lydspor and run south until you reach the Colony gate. Climb through the Hole and run southeast to the Summoning Obelisk (marked by the Summoning icon). Climb down the trapdoor, make your pouches and/or, scrolls, repeat.

Trivia

 * Note that after reaching level 17 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 (includes getting all the blue charms, and buying a maximum of 10,000 pouches at a time from the Grand Exchange), and you would have to drop all made pouches or turn them into scrolls, 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 into scrolls or else the inventory would fill up from pouches or with a high enough summoning level swap them back for shards.

A way to avoid all the methods above is to have all the charms, pouches, shards, and noted secondary items at hand. Friends or people could trade you un-noted secondary items for noted items, although the odds of this happening without a paycheck for them is highly unlikely.