Summoning



Summoning is a members-only skill released on 15 January 2008. It allows players to infuse the essence of a variety of creatures into Summoning pouches, then summon these creatures, termed familiars. Each familiar has a unique ability that requires a Summoning scroll, made from a corresponding pouch, to use. Summoning familiars and creating scrolls gives very little experience, so players must almost always create pouches in order to gain levels quickly in the skill.

Similarly to Herblore and its "tutorial quest", Druidic Ritual, Wolf Whistle acts as a primer and requirement to begin Summoning. It is designed to teach players the basics of Summoning, including pouches, scrolls, and summoning familiars. Its reward gives players the ability to summon a Dreadfowl as well as gold charms that can be used to train initially. This quest is started by speaking to Pikkupstix in a house on the east side of Taverley.

Before it was released, Jagex released four mini-Development Diaries and three wallpapers detailing the process of developing the skill. Conflicting reports from Jagex moderators had been given regarding whether this would be a member only skill or a skill for all, however Paul Gower said that Summoning will definitely be members-only. This was confirmed in the final Development Diary.

Also in the final Development Diary, it was announced that a second batch of familiars would be released sometime in February, 2008. These are currently accounted for in the "reserved" spots in the pouch-making interface.

History
Summoning was mentioned in Issue 20 of the God Letters when Saradomin mentions the Mysterious Old Man who apparently roams RuneScape looking for people who are "of such low intellect that they cannot respond even directly to their own name" and would teleport the aforementioned over great distances (using a mysterious type of rune) if they did not respond in an attempt to "test" Summoning.

On 31 March 2004, a Behind the Scenes-like article was published, which included the updates of the next few years. Within these, there were also "Summoning spells - summon skeletons, demons, etc...!".

In November 2007, Jagex first started hinting about "something big" to come in the near future, and continued to hint about it until they finally announced its future release in January 2008. They then proceeded to release four Development Diaries about the skill, as well as three sets of wallpapers, all giving small hints and teasers about the skill. Finally, on 15 January 2008, the skill was released.

Creating Pouches
See also Summoning pouches Summoning pouches are used to summon familiars. The creation of a pouch is very simple, basically you infuse a pouch with the essense of a creature, which allows you to call that creature (or familiar) later on as needed.

There are several items that you will need in order to make a summoning pouch. First, the Pouch (Summoning) itself, Spirit shards, a Charm (either red, green, blue, or crimson), and a special component which is unique for each familiar. The pouches and the spirit shards can be purchased from Pikkupstix in Taverly, while the charms can only be obtained as monster drops. As for the special components, some are simple to find, others are obtained when doing different skills (Farming, Woodcutting, etc.), and others as monster drops.

Take the required items to a Summoning obelisk. Click on the obelisk and use the option "Create pouch". This will open a window that will allow you to choose which type of pouch (and how many) you want to make.

Creating Scrolls
See also Summoning scrolls

Summoning scrolls are required to enable a familiar to use it's special move.

Creating a summoning scroll is very easy. It requires a pre-infused summoning pouch. Simply click on a Summoning obelisk and choose the option "Create scroll". A window will open and allow you to choose what type of scroll (and how many) you want to make.

Familiars
See also Summoning familiars Familiars are friendly creatures that players may summon to help them do many things. The familiars have many different abilities, from boosting skills to aiding you in combat, and all of them have special moves that can be activated with Summoning scrolls.

In order to summon a familiar, players must use the "Summon" option on a Summoning pouch. It costs summoning points (similar to Prayer points) to summon familiars, as well as to keep them with you without having to re-summon them.

Fights
This familiar will fight with you when you attack something, the level in brackets indicates the familiar's Combat level. Note that you must choose to attack for it to come to your aid. The pack yak and unicorn stallion will only fight to defend themselves, and then only if you have auto-retaliate turned on.

Light enhancer
Some familiars - notably bats - can see well in the dark and will make any light source you have with you brighter.

Right-click
A small number of familiars have a special ability that they can use (normally in combat). To trigger one of these, right-click your familiar and select the name of the ability.

Skill boost
Some familiars can temporarily raise your level in a given skill, while some other familiars provide an 'invisible' boost that is always active. The number in brackets indicates the size of the boost, and the term 'invisible' indicates that is always active as long as your familiar is close by.

Remote view
These familiars can fly into the air and allow you to see through their eyes, giving you the ability to see things much further away.

Beast of burden
A beast of burden can carry a number of items equal to the number in brackets. In some cases, it will only be able to carry certain items, in which case they will be listed.

Forager
A forager will find certain items from time to time, and can carry a number of them equal to the number in brackets. You are only able to 'Withdraw' items from these familiars.

Pets
Pets are animals that follow you as you travel throughout RuneScape. They do not fight for you like familiars, mostly they are "decoration", as well as a way to show off your Summoning level. They are very similar to Cats obtained from the Gertrude's cat quest. The pets, at their young stage, need to be fed until they grow to adulthood. Different pets require different types of foods, and it's important to note that if they are not fed, they will run away. The table below shows the different pets, the levels at which they can be obtained, and what kinds of foods they require.

Note: For the pets in the dog variety, feeding them bones does not count as feeding them food. If you only supply them with bones, they will eventually run away.

Summoning Items
Summoning includes the use of 4 new subitems. These include Pets, Familiars, Summoning Scrolls, and new Summoning only items. These and their required Summoning skill levels are listed below:

Shops

 * Yanille
 * Yanille Petshop
 * Taverley

Obelisks
The closest obelisk to bank is at Piscatoris.

Training
The main summoning experience is gained from making pouches. Making scrolls and using the special effects give very little experience (typically less than 10% of that provided by making pouches). Hence, training the skill involves making loads of pouches. The critical element for pouch making is the Charms requirement. The gold charm reward from the Wolf Whistle quest is generous, but lots more are needed to train the skill. Given the rather low collection rate for charms, picking one with a good experience reward seems a good strategy.

A secondary concern is the availability of the secondary item. Some items can be bought from stores which may make it easier to obtain them in reasonable quantities. Some also may want to consider the cost of the shards required.

The next element is to find a quick way to do round trips between a bank and the summoning obelisks. House locations, fairy rings, and teleporting jewels can be useful in this regard. One method is to use the Balloon Transport System to travel to Taverley and use the obelisk there, then bank at Castle Wars using rings of duelling. Moving your house to Taverly is another option (especially if you have portals to teleport near banks)and only costs 5k. Another is to make snail pouches at the Nature Grotto obelisk, with all needed items obtainable in that area or brought in the inventory, making it necessary to bank only when the player's inventory is full of pouches. The closest bank is the one in Burgh de Rott.

Minimum cost
Based upon minimizing the cost due to the number of spirit shards used:

This will use up all the gold charms from the quest. Raw chicken meat can be bought in a store in Canifis or from Ali Morisanne in Al-Kharid. Iron ores are easily mined or purchased from the Grand Exchange. It also will require just over 2,000 Spirit shards at 50 coins each. It will cost around 100,000 coins to reach level 18. Expect at least 3 times that amount to just make the hiscores at level 30.

Minimum time
This method minimizes the time taken to gain levels. It also minimizes the use of Summoning charms:

Costs
The cost of training the skill is in larger part determined by the number of shards and the cost of each shard. Analysis of the cost of a summoning experience point shows that the cost starts at 5.7 coins per point (Barker toad) to 62.5 coins per point (Beaver).

Analysis of the pouch table shows an interesting relationship between cost per summoning experience and Charm type:

The analysis applies to summoning levels over 16. For the lower levels, players essentially use the gold charms from Wolf Whistle.

The interesting effect is that the gold and the blue charms enable the most cost efficient way of training summoning.

Even the lowest option to train the skill puts this skill at a higher cost per experience point than any other skill even exceeding the acknowledged money sink skill - Construction.


 * See Update:Summoning balancing regarding skill costs.

Music

 * The opening music at the Welcome to RuneScape screen when the skill was released is Scape Summon.

Trivia

 * Initially, it is not possible to use tomes of experience or magic lamps on Summoning. The player is advised to "try again in a few weeks".
 * In the same vein as tomes, Juna of Tears of Guthix will not assign experience to Summoning if it's your lowest experience level. She says "I must warn you though the Tears cannot help you with the Summoning skill at this time, for Guthix does not wish to interfere with the balance of such a new skill". It is possible that summoning will become available in a few weeks later.
 * The first person to reach summoning 30 and therefore being in the Summoning Highscores was Dark Dude 98.