RS3 Summoning Guide - How to get from 1 to level 99

RuneScape 3

3 December 2020

SellersAndFriends

“For many centuries now, the druids of Taverley and some of the ogre shamans of Gu'Tanoth have been bringing various familiars from other realms to help them with a variety of their tasks. Of course, the druids being peaceful and the ogres being more 'business-like', they traditionally summon entirely different familiars - what would a druid want with a rune minotaur, for example? What would an ogre do with a unicorn stallion?

Having realized how useful this skill is to the adventurers of RuneScape, they have released the secret of their powers, and now you can enjoy the curious advantages that come with learning the art of Summoning.

Summoning works by 'infusing' the essence of a creature from a strange realm into a type of pouch. When the Summoning pouch is opened, a portal is briefly activated to pull the familiar through to the world of RuneScape, where it is bound to serve its master for a period of time before the portal closes and it is pulled back.”

— Summoning: The Basics Game Guide

Summoning. The combat skill that lets you summon a Fire Titan, a Spirit Kyatt, or any of the other available familiars from the spirit plane, by using your summoning pouches. This combat skill is usually a members-only one, but F2P players can train it up to level 5. You need different Summoning Scrolls, created from the corresponding pouch since each Familiar has a unique ability.

So, why would you like to get to level 99 Summoning? Well, Familiars can be used in a wide variety of ways, they can provide boosts, carry items, or even help you in combat.

Summoning Familiars

During your journey, you can use different creatures called Familiars to help you with the most diverse activities, from supporting you in the battle, to boost your skills. All of them have different abilities that you can use to your advantage. Spirit kyatt, fire titan, geyser titan, granite lobster, pack yak, compost mound, spirit terrorbird, smoke devil, or unicorn stallion, are some of the Familiars you can summon. The list is extensive and each one also has a signature move that can be activated by using scrolls tied to that specific type of familiar. You can activate only one at a time, so you need to dismiss one, before summoning another.

To summon, you have to select “Summon” on your pouch. Once the Familiar is out, it will consume your summoning points that will slowly drain for as long as the familiar is out there. Once your Summoning points reach 0, your familiar will remain out, but all the right-click abilities will be disabled until you recharge your summoning points. You can recharge your Summoning points at a Summoning Obelisk or using Summoning potions.

Every familiar is different and all of them have different skills and abilities that can be exploited, like a Geyser Titan, a Granite lobster or even a beast of burden to carry your cargo. The way to activate those abilities is different for each one. Some of them can be right-clicked, some others can be set up in auto mode, and others are available with the familiar’s special button; so let’s take a look at all of them.

Fighter. A Familiar with a similar level to regular creatures that will fight along your side.

Light Enhancer. These creatures will make any of your light sources brighter

Skill booster. This familiar temporary enhances your level in any of your skills.

Remote view. Flying creatures that let you see through their eyes.

Beast of burden. Cargo beasts that allow you to carry a larger amount of items with you

Healer. Familiars that heal you at a constant rate.

Forager. This familiar can track certain items and carry up to 30 of them for you.

Teleporter. You can teleport anywhere with the assistance of these familiars.

There are only few areas where you cannot summon familiars, as The Runespan, the Tears of Guthix weekly Distraction and Diversion, or the Nature Grotto in Mort Myre Swamp.

First steps

Training Summoning may be daunting at first, but the basics are quite simple. Although it is not necessary, it is a good idea to start by completing the Wolf Whistle Quest, since it works as an introductory summoning guide, where you're going to learn about

You need to use your summoning points to summon familiars and use their abilities. Your points will drain upon each summon, but you can restore them with summoning potions or super restore potions. It works similar to Prayer.

Wolf Whistle Quest

This is the best way to start your summoning skills training since the whole quest works as a summoning tutorial that teaches you the basics of the skill. You will also learn everything you need to know about pouches and ingredients, and additionally, the quest will reward you with a 276 XP lamp that can help you get up to level 4 when used. You will also get 275 gold charms, and you can get up to Summoning level 18 with that.

Outfit

In order to start training your summoning skills, you need all the pieces of the shaman’s Outfit. You can get this one via Treasure Hunter. Each piece of the outfit grants you a 1% bonus summoning experience and when you wear all the pieces together they grant you an additional 1%, so you get a total bonus of 6%.

If you happen to have one of those, a Fang of Mohegan can double your chances of getting charms by slaying monsters and allows you to teleport to a large Summoning Obelisk.

Skill Boosts

Skill boosts can be used to increase summoning points or to meet effigy requirements, but they will not let you create pouches or summon familiars at a higher level since those are tied to your absolute skill level, not your current skill level.

Items you need

You can put your hands on most items using real world money at Grand Exchange, but if you are serious about getting to level 99 summoning by yourself, besides all the blue charms, gold charms, and green charms that you can get, you will also need to make pouches, and get diverse items like:

Spirit Gems. You can get them as rare drops from many monsters, but also can get them from Treasure Hunter or Gem rocks in Prifddinas. When infusing your pouches, Spirit gems can save your charms, and each one offers a chance of saving a charm depending on the tier. When it saves a certain number of charms, the gem will be destroyed.

Shaman’s Outfit. Each piece of the outfit grants you a 1% bonus summoning and if you equip the whole set, it grants you an additional1%. You can get it through Treasure Hunter or Familiarisation.

Summoning Cape perk. This perk will provide a 2% chance to not consume a charm the next time you infuse a Summoning Pouch.

Summoning focus. This item will give you 20%+ summoning experience if you make your pouches at any obelisk. You need one for each pouch you make.

Summoning 101

So, the combination of the XP lamp and the gold charms you get from the Wolf whistle Quest can yield the necessary XP to achieve level 18 summoning skills. Now you need to find or purchase the tertiary ingredients to create the pouch you need.

There are a couple of basic things you will need to start your Summoning training. First, you need to create your summoning pouches infusing the essence of the required familiar; then you need to create scrolls that allow that familiar to use abilities.

Summoning pouch

The main method to get Summoning experience points is by the creation of Summoning pouches. This can be a relatively simple process and can also be used to summon a familiar. Remember each time you summon a familiar, the pouch gets destroyed and those are not restored when the familiar departs. To create your summoning pouches, you need some items:

Pouch. An empty pouch where you can put all the other items. You can purchase it from Summoning Shops or by catching Spirit Implings

Spirit Shard. You will need from 1 to 222 shards depending on the type of pouch you are creating.

Charm. As spirit shards, you will need a different type of charm depending on the pouch you are creating.

Tertiary ingredient. This is the main ingredient in your summoning pouch and the one that decides its nature. Usually, this is the most complicated ingredient to get and some pouches may even require 2 of them.

You can get over level 16+ After completing the Wolf Whistle quest, and with that you can create summoning pouches from levels 4 - 16, those are Dreadfowl, Spirit spider, Thorny snail, and Granite Crab. Once you get over level 16, you will be able to create more pouches.

Scrolls

The Familiar Special moves are very different from each other and they all are tied to the specific familiar. To perform any of these moves you need to have Summoning scrolls that are tied to the familiar you are using. This consumes your summoning spell points but does not consume summoning points. You can get 10 scrolls by converting one charged familiar pouch at an obelisk. The scrolls will be tied to the familiar on the pouch.

Locations

There are many important locations to consider when you want to improve your Summoning skills, but the two main are:

Summoning Shops. Where you can purchase materials and create pouches. You can find them in Taverley, Gu’Tanoth, The Amlodd district of Prifddinas, or the Nature Grotto wishing well.

And Summoning Obelisks. In Runescape 3, there are different types of Obelisks. Regular Obelisks, where you can infuse pouches or turn them into scrolls, and charge your Summon points. And small Obelisks, that you can use to heal wounded familiars and recharge summoning points.

Obtaining Charms

You can find 5 different types of charms used to create Summoning pouches: Gold charms, Green charms, Crimson charms, Blue charms, and Elder charms.

When talking about tertiary ingredients, you can find 7 types of charms: Obsidian, Abyssal, Talon Beast. And the Void Viking charms: Ravager, Shifter, Spinner, and Torcher.

Monster slaying

There are countless ways to get yourself all kinds of charms, hunting Glarcos, rock lobsters, Waterfiends, or Cockroach soldiers is a great, almost-always available source. Most Slayer assignments also have good drop rates, just have to keep in mind that charm drops will always vary greatly. If you are new to Summoning, you may want to look for monsters that drop a crimson charm or blue charm because those give you the best experience-per-charm relation.

It is common for players to train Slayer in order to get charms; however, the fastest way to get the charms and level their summoning skills at once is to camp at monsters that drop a lot of charms like Waterfiends or Rock lobsters

But don’t worry if you cannot obtain all the charms you need from slayer, there are many different monsters that drop charms, and here we show you some of them.

Gelatinous Abomination

These monsters are given as a low-level slayer assignment. Gelatinous abominations can be found at Turael or Taverley. You will need some spiked gauntlets to hunt them down, but usually, they are quick and easy to kill since they are level 6 and have 150 life points. They also have a good chance of dropping gold charms each time. The combat experience they provide is minimal.

Rock Crabs

These monsters commonly found in the Fremennik province have a particular method of disguise themselves as a rock, which makes them quite unique. However, they always reveal themselves when you approach. Rock Crabs can be detected easily because they have a specific shape and texture different from the authentic rocks, and they can be found in small groups. These creatures are ideal for combat training at low levels.

Moss giants

Big creatures, widely known because they are a popular choice for players who want to level up. This is because, on the free-to-play worlds, they are one of the few ones that can be killed with slash attacks and drop Big Bones. They are usually weak against all types of melee attacks and will try to attack you with Ranged. Sometimes can be given as Assignments by Vannaka.

You can find them in places like the Pirate’s Cove, at the west of Fishing Guild, Crandor, or the Moss Giant Island.

Ice Giants

As its name stands, these giants can be found in icy areas and a lot of players go after them since they are a great source of experience and charms. And also Big Bones, since they drop it almost always. Although they have a strong Constitution level and hit a max of 185 life points, they tend to be weak against fire spells.

They are the highest level giants in f2p mode and they are not aggressive against players over level 130. You can find them in places like the Asgardian Ice Dungeon, the Chaos Tunnels, the Frozen Waste Plateau, or the White Wolf Mountain.

Goblins

Weak monsters that can be found in several places scattered across the RS3 world. This low-level monsters are popular for combat training and have an almost 1 in 5 chances of dropping gold charms.

Goblins are one of the few races that have Champions in the Champion's Challenge Distraction and Diversion. If you head to the goblin hut in Lumbridge with a whip, dagger, or claws, you can get a very decent amount of gold charms with ease. The ones at the Goblin Village do not drop charms, so try to avoid those.

Abyssal Walkers

These are creatures commonly used to train magic along the other creatures found in the Abyss.

They have strong defense and constitution, but they have low accuracy, so they are easier to kill than it seems. They can also be poisoned, but that is not an easy task.

Is common to find them in the Abyss, but those you kill in there grant much less experience; and you can find them also in the Abyssal Area. At the beginning they are aggressive, but they change after a while.

The best part is, fairly often they drop two Abyssal charms at once, and they also have a good drop chance for Green charms. If your defense and magic are at least at 70, you can kill them easily using magic.

Giant Rock Crabs

They are the best option to loot gold charms. You may find them at the Chaos Tunnels, or the Wilderness Volcano. Although, as they drop only gold, we suggest you go for them only at low levels. For higher-level summoning, Waterfiends or Rock Lobsters are the best choices.

The larger version of the Rock Crabs, also disguises themselves as rocks, only to reveal themselves when you approach and then attack you. They are the only monster that drops rock-shell fragment items. When you attempt to kill them, remember this creature retreats back to its shell when wounded.

Black Demons

They were first called Alyaroth, on Infernus, the place they came from.

From all the greater demons, Black demons are the strongest, that's why they are often assigned as Slayer tasks by Sumona, Lapalok, Kuradal, Morvran, or Laniakea. Their magic attacks can hit you up to 672, so better to be careful around them.

Although they seem tough, the truth is any player with a decent amount of experience can kill them. If you have some experience slaying lower level demons, you can easily succeed in combat against a Black Demon using prayers and abilities. These demons are relatively easy to kill and offer good slayer experience and pretty good drops.

This creatures are a great source for crimson charms, but also for infernal ashes since they drop them almost always

Rock Lobsters

These little fellas act similar to the Rock crabs, they both like to disguise themselves as rocks only to attack you when you get close to them. Your magic attacks are the most effective weapon against them. The Rock Lobsters can inflict up to 300 damage.

Many players tend to look for Rock Lobsters because killing them is one of the best and fastest ways to train Summoning and because they do not require you to have a high summoning level.

They are commonly found at the Waterbirth Island Dungeon and they are usually pretty aggressive, so try attacking them using Ice Barrage or Ice Burst.

Waterfiends

Similar to the Pyrefiend and the Icefiend, Waterfiends can be found in places like the Ancient Cavern, the Chaos Tunnels, and also there is a slightly different type that can be found at the Ghorrock Fortress, with different drops.

Experienced players can get up to 200 crimson charms per hour. They can be easy to kill with a royal crossbow, so if you happen to have one of those, this is a great option for you. For middle-level players, the easiest Waterfiends to kill are the ones at the Ancient Caverns.

As all types of Waterfiends have really good drops. Many players look for them to level up their summoning skills quickly since their drop rate for crimson charm is around 80%. This is the reason they are the most popular of the crimson charm droppers.

While some of them can yield some damage, they usually are easy to kill using higher-level magic weapons or using dark light, for those who wish to use melee. They are weak to bolts too, and easy to kill with a royal crossbow or another ranged weapon above 75, as Dual chaotic crossbows or dual ascension crossbows.

For mid-level players, the best option is to search for the ones at the Ancient Caverns, with one of the weapons mentioned above, and a healing familiar; while higher-level players may prefer a combat familiar instead. Using Extreme potions and turmoil can help you get up to 225 crimson charms per hour.

But if you have an even higher level, the best choice for you is to go and slay the ones at the Chaos Tunnels, where they appear in larger numbers. If you use your higher-level weapons, the appropriate scrolls, and potions, you can get up to 300 per hour.

Gladii

Gladii are a great way to collect crimson charms and money too. They are members of the Order of ascension and are described as highly mobile. They can be found at the Monastery of Ascension.

They will charge against you if they have enough space to do it, and if got hit, you will be blinded for 3 seconds. You can avoid the stun using Freedom or Anticipation. When you deliver enough damage, they will teleport to a location where they can charge against you again. They can charge in different angles, and even in an L-shaped line.

Bork

You can find Bork at the Chaos Tunnels where you can fight him once a day. The first time to kill it you will get 5,000 slayer, but after that, you will only get 1,500 each time.

This is a monster that always drops either a blue charm, crimson charm or green charm. But all these drops can be doubled after completing the hard Varrock achievements. You need to defeat Bork at least once to start the While Guthix Sleeps and the Mighty Fall.

Tormented Demons

Their first appearance was in the Grandmaster quest While Guthix Sleeps. These demons are kept in a state of perpetual pain, which makes them very hostile. After the quest is finished, you can find six of these Tormented Demons in the Temple.

They are tough demons but wanted by many because they drop Dragon Limbs that later can be used to forge the Ascension Crossbow. They also drop dragon platebody, dragon claw, and off-hand dragon claw.

But the tormented Demons drop more valuable items like charms, herbs, weapons clue scrolls, armor, and even rune equipment, so don’t forget to bring your charged spirit cleaner.

Greater demons

The demonic followers of god Zamorak may be found in many locations around Runescape, they can be distinguished from the rest of the demons because they are bigger and have large wings. They are more powerful and have accurate magic attacks, but weak to silver light and holy water.

They are called Alyaroth back on Infernus, where they originate, like the rest of demons within this world.

Players look for them because they are a great source of crimson charms and clue scrolls. Due to their low defense, they also provide great slayer experience.

Hellhounds

They have a good chance of dropping gold Charms and can be safely spotted almost everywhere.

These monsters are mid to high level. A lot of players kill them because of their gold charm drop rate. They are also known due to their very high drop rate of hard clue scrolls.

You may find Hellhounds can be an excellent way to train melee for free-to-play players. You can look for them in uncrowded areas in the wilderness in f2p worlds.

Cave bug

They are easy to kill and can drop green charm. Just remember only the ones above level 12 drop charms.

King Black Dragon

They are a great way to get crimson charms. You just need to have high melee stats and you can get up to 115 charms per hour.

This three-headed enormous dragon was the second dragon ever. You have to kill him at least once if you have any intention of getting the Dragonkin Lamp from Mr. Mordaut.

By killing him, you may also get the soul of a black dragon.

Kalphite Queen or Exiled Kalphite Queen

The strongest monster in the hive is the Kalphite Queen, who awaits you in the deepest room of the Kalphite Hive. If you are a new visitor, you will need a rope to climb, and a second rope to get into the queen’s room.

You can get a good number of different types of charms while making around 600-800k per hour

Exiled Kalphite Guardians

They are located at the Exiled Kalphite Hive, within the passageways of the hive. They protect the Kalphite king.

Players with Kalphite slayer tasks, and those who want to train summoning, usually look for Exiled Kalphite Guardians, because they provide a great number of blue charms. The Exiled Kalphite Marauders can also be killed while AFK in higher levels, and provide a few more charms. This is a great way to obtain blue charms without having to complete high-level quests for tormented demons.

Troll Brute and Troll Chucker

Troll Brutes were first introduced during the Burthorpe tutorial and can be found in the Abandoned Burthorpe mine. Troll chuckers were introduced as part of Troll Warzone. These monsters are the only two kinds that drop charms in non.member areas. They are ideal for low-level players, while more experienced ones can get better drops.

Ascension members

The varieties of monsters in the Monastery of Ascension drop different types of charms mainly: Rorarius - Gold charms, Capsarius - Green charms, Gladius - Crimson charms, Scutarius - Crimson and blue charms, Legiones - Crimson and blue charms.

Besides monster-slaying, there are some other ways to get charms, some of them are:

Distractions and Diversions

The familiarisation Distraction and Diversion gives a reward of triple charm drops for 40 minutes but it is available only once a week.

Charming Imp

You can buy a charming Imp If you spend some time training Dungeoneering and have a Summoning Level of 21. That will increase your rate of charms and your combat experience. Make sure to set it up for all types of charms.

Camp monsters

Look for the monsters that drop more charms and camp at them. Waterfiends or Rock Lobsters are good examples.

Summary

Summoning is the combat skill that lets you summon familiars from the spirit plane by using your summoning pouches. As a f2p player, you can train it up to level 5 and you need different Summoning Scrolls.

Familiars are creatures you can summon to help you in a wide variety of ways, they can provide boosts, carry items, or even help you in combat. They all have signature moves that can be activated using scrolls tied to that specific type of familiar.

Once your familiar is out, it will consume your summoning points for as long as it is out there. You can recharge your Summoning points at an obelisk or with Summoning potions

Each familiar has a different set of skills and abilities, some of them can be activated or used by the player and some of them are automatic actions the familiar performs once it is out. There are different types of familiars: Fighter, light enhancer, skill booster, remote view, beast of burden, healer, forager, and teleporter

To star summoning training, the best you can do is to complete the Wolf Whistle quest, because it is kind of an introduction to the summoning skill. The whole quests guide you through the necessary steps to learn the basics of summoning. Here you can learn all you need about pouches and ingredients.

You can also get the Shaman’s Outfit via Treasure hunter. The whole outfit grants you a 6% bonus summoning experience. If you use a Fang of Mohegan, you can also double your chances of getting charms by slaying monsters. Although skill boosts can be used to increase your summoning points, they will not allow you to create pouches or summon familiars at higher levels.

In order to summon training, you may need a variety of items, materials, and ingredients like Spirit gems, the Shaman’s outfit, a summoning cape perk, or summoning focus

You need to create your own Summoning pouches and infuse the essence of the familiar you want, and then you need to create the scrolls that work with that familiar. Creating pouches is quite simple, you just need an empty pouch, spirit shards, charms, and a tertiary ingredient that will give the pouch its nature. You also need a scroll that matches the same familiar on your pouch.

You can get all the charms you need, mainly from monster slaying, but there are also different activities that can get you some of those as the Familiarisation Distractions and diversions, available once a week.