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.

The summoning skill has some similarities to Prayer, in that the skill is trained mostly through one actions (infusing pouches) and points are used when the skill is brought into action, such as summoning a familiar to assist in fighting, carrying or foraging.

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.

Pouches
Summoning pouches are used to summon familiars. The creation of a pouch is relatively simple: the pouch is infused with the essence of a creature, or familiar, which can be summoned later on using the pouch. Doing so yields experience in the skill.

Several items are needed in order to make summoning pouches. A single empty pouch, a number of spirit shards, depending on the familiar, and a charm (of specific colour) is needed for each summoning pouch. Each familiar also requires a unique component that embodies the familiar in some way: for example, wolf bones are needed to summon a spirit wolf. Empty pouches and spirit shards can be purchased from Pikkupstix in Taverley for 25 coins each. Three shops sell the basic summoning components (see the Summoning Shops section). Most of the components can also be purchased from players, or through the Grand Exchange. However, charms are only available as monster drops, which is a key factor in the difficulty of this skill.

To make pouches, the required items must be taken to a Summoning obelisk. Players can right click on the obelisk and choose the option "create pouch". This will open up an interface that allows players to choose what type of pouch and how many they wish to make.

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 use the pouch on a Summoning obelisk. A window will open and allow you to choose what type of scroll (and how many) you want to make. You can also click the obelisk's option of "Infuse pouches", which will open the same window but require you to switch from the pouch-making page to the scroll-making page. You will get 10 scrolls for each pouch that is transformed.

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.

It is also a possibility to talk to a pet/familiar if you have at least 10 or more summoning levels above the required level to summon that pet/familiar. Such as the pack yack or dragon, you will never be able to talk to them since getting over natural 99(un-potted) is impossible.

Abilities
Familiars have different special abilities that they are able to access. Some are accesed by talking, using the familiars special button or right clicking a familiar for another option.

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. If that stat has already been raised by a potion, then the skill boost will not work.

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.

Special Move
Familiars have special moves that they can use during combat. In order to use the special move, players must have the correct summoning scroll with them.

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.

When you get a pet it will be the baby version of the adult. Young pets need to be fed a certain type of food so that it does not run away because it is hungry. After a certain amount of time it will grow into an adult pet which is slightly larger than the younger version. Even though cats do not need food once they are grown it is not the same for the new grown pets, they still need to be fed.

It is also a possibility to talk to a pet/familiar if you have at least 10 or more summoning levels above the required level to summon that pet/familiar. The pack yack, dragon, and monkey will never be able to be talked to since it is impossible to get a "natural" summoning level over 99.

The table below shows the different pets, the levels at which they can be obtained, and what kinds of foods they require. Some pets require you to place the egg in an incubator found in pet shops in Taverley or Yanille. Note that hatching may take several hours, so be patient.

Notes:
 * 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.
 * Some pets require you to catch them with the Hunter skill. Pets caught using hunter (noted in the table below) will be caught as the baby version, just like other pets start as.
 * All of the pets besides cats require you to have completed Wolf Whistle and have the required Summoning level and Hunter level (in some cases).

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:

Items
Note: These summoning items can only store strike scrolls.

Summoning Shops

 * Taverly
 * Gu'Tanoth
 * Nature Grotto

Pet Shops

 * Yanille
 * Taverley

Obelisks
Note that the italic bank locations need some quests or limitations to use.

Warriors' Guild : requires an attack+defence or strength+hitpoints level greater than 130 Burgh de Rott : requires In Aid of the Myreque Quest done Lletya : requires Regicide Quest done Piscatoris Fishing Colony : requires Swan Song Quest done

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. Have a look at the Charms page for more information on obtaining charms.

However,using the scrolls will provide a quicker level advancement. Using the scrolls while fighting for charm drops will provide exp for summoning and providing faster charm drops. The best familiar to use is the one with the highest usage exp. one such familliar is the Spirit kalphite using the Sandstorm scroll which gives 2.5 for summoning and 2.5 for using the scrolls. The scroll attack can hit up to 20.

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.

High alchemy
Players may be able to make a small profit from alchemizing their pouches, but only for those made from gold charms, and only if they craft their own Nature runes. Players are not advised to alchemize pouches made from crimson, green, or blue charms as they may make a loss instead. The amount of money received from high alchemy is proportional to the number of shards used in summoning the creature.

In return for every 100 Granite crab pouches alchemized, players have enough money to buy enough pouches and shards for 213 Granite crab pouches.

Table below shows minimum cost of only pouch and shards, assuming players get tertiary components themselves.

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 25 coins each. It will cost around 50,000 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.

The experience given for a particular pouch is a charm linked factor multiplied by Summoning skill level required for that pouch. The table below gives the multiplication factor for each pouch type.

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.

Chaos Tunnels
Main article: Chaos Tunnels

The Chaos Tunnels were released in conjunction with Summoning. When players run out of charms, this is the main location where they go to get a large supply of them. Different monsters drop different types of charms. Players should be warned that the area is multicombat and it would be best to come prepared with food and good armour. There are 5 entrances to the tunnels.

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.

Music

 * Scape Summon - The opening music at the Welcome to RuneScape screen when the skill was released
 * Animal Apogee - in room with Summoning Obelisk

Trivia

 * Initially, it is not possible to use tomes of experience or magic lamps on Summoning. The player is advised : "This skill cannot be raised right now; please try again in a few weeks".
 * Also, 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 probable that summoning will become available to train with lamps/tomes and tears of guthix within a few weeks.
 * Hiscores - first player to reach level 30 did it in about 5 hours. After 1 week there were 33,750 players with 1 at level 77, whereas Hunter had 124K and 1 level 93.