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Managing Summoning Points and Timing Summons and Dismissals Making Best Use of the Special Move Bar

The natural analogy between Summoning and Prayer continues when it comes to recharging points. Where you recharge Prayer points at an altar, you restore your Summoning points at a Summoning obelisk. These are the same odd, glowing pillars that you also use to infuse components into pouches, and to transform pouches into scrolls.

Unfortunately, while altars are located in dozens of places all over RuneScape, including convenient ones in many towns, there are only seven obelisks (for now), and most are in obscure locations. With so few options, to avoid wasting time you’ll need to plan how and when you recharge your points.

Of course, the Summoning potion is also an option, as described in the prior topic.

While many players aren’t convinced of the power of the Summoning skill, Jagex clearly was! The company implemented only seven obelisks, and put most of them in truly strange, out-of-the-way locations—the intent was obviously to avoid making recharging Summoning points too easy. There are two obelisks that are in reasonably useful spots, but after that, the spots get increasingly obscure.

The obelisk locations are described in the RuneScape knowledge base; here’s an overview with a few words about them, and my opinions on the value of using each. I’ve listed them roughly in the order that I think most people will find them valuable:

• Taverley Obelisk: This is the “main” obelisk located under the house of Pikkupstix; it’s where you did the Wolf Whistle quest. It is generally the most accessible of the obelisks; I’ll explain shortly several ways of getting to it.
  
  
• Piscatoris Obelisk: This obelisk is located in a cave next to the mining area south of the Piscatoris fishing colony. It is also close to both a fairy ring (code “A K Q”) and the woodlands hunting grounds, making it reasonably convenient.
  
  
• Brimhaven Obelisk: If this were in Brimhaven itself it would be rather convenient, but even in its actual spot (well west of the town), it’s not too bad. That said, I can’t see much purpose to going out to it unless you are in that area for some other reason.
  
  
• Gu’Tanoth Obelisk: Not too far from Yanille, this obelisk likewise isn’t too close to Yanille either. It’s on the way to the Ogre Enclave, though, for what that’s worth—though that can also be a problem, ironically, because it means you can’t take summons with you into that dungeon.
  
  
• Mort Myre Obelisk: This obelisk is in the same cave as the Nature Spirit grotto, just northwest of the town of Mort’ton. It might be useful if you are going through this area to Burgh de Rott, for example, but since going through the swamp that way is not the fastest route, few will use it.
  
  
• Kharidian Desert Summoning Obelisk: An obelisk located roughly in the center of a triangle formed by the Ancient Magicks pyramid, the Agility Pyramid, and the town of Pollnivneach. Frankly, I don’t see much use for this spot, at least at present.
  
  
• Isafdar (Underground Pass) Obelisk: Notwithstanding some of the other strange spots, this one’s a real head-scratcher! It’s not near anything at all—even getting there from Lleyta is a long trek—and going through the Underground Pass from Ardougne is such a hassle that nobody goes there if they can possibly avoid it. Perhaps there is some future content in the works that will make this obelisk useful? Otherwise, it must be some sort of joke. J Anyway, I did go there once, just to say that I had seen it (Figure 240).,
  

  Figure 240: A Sight Few Have Seen

  Okay, it’s not as rare as an Armadyl hilt on the ground after killing Kree’ara, or a bunch of J mods making goofy emotes, but my guess is that few RuneScape players have ventured to the Summoning obelisk inside the Underground Pass. Getting here took me three full minutes, I got poisoned, had to cross four sections of dense forest, and fell into a leaf trap taking 15 damage. Um, I don’t get it. J

  
  

Remember that you cannot take familiars to obelisks. In some cases you may get a warning and be stopped from getting near the obelisk, but in other cases your familiar will be automatically dismissed if you try to approach it! That’s definitely the case at Piscatoris, so watch out (see Figure 241).

It’s no big surprise that for routine point recharging, I strongly recommend either the Taverley or Piscatoris obelisks. Which is better depends mainly on two factors: how you play and where you are when you need a recharge.

In most cases, Taverley is the easiest obelisk to get to, and it can be even easier if you take the simple step of relocating your player-owned house to that town. By putting an altar in your house and then teleporting there, you can recharge your Prayer, exit the house, and then recharge your Summoning points all in short order. In a test, it took me only 20 seconds to run from the house portal to the obelisk in Taverley.

If you don’t want to put your house in Taverley, there are several other options for getting there:

• Teleport to Falador, go north and follow the path to Taverley and then walk to the obelisk.
  
  
• Teleport to Falador, go southwest past the Falador West bank, through the Agility shortcut (broken castle wall) and then run northwest to Pikkupstix’s house.
  
  
• Use a games necklace to teleport to Burthorpe and run south.
  
  
• If you’ve done Enlightened Journey, you can use a hot air balloon ride. Go to Castle Wars and take a regular log out of your bank, or grab a hatchet and chop one just outside the CW doors. Then use the balloon there to go to Taverley, which drops you right near the obelisk.

The Piscatoris obelisk (shown somewhat in Figure 241) is a nice option for those who are using familiars and find themselves near a fairy ring. Since these rings are often used for Slayer assignments and for getting around in other circumstances, renewing points is simply a matter of hopping over to “A K Q” and running a brief distance to the northeast. After recharging you can go back to the fairy ring, teleport out, or run over to the Piscatoris colony (assuming you have access to it).

There are some familiars that will fish for you, such as the ibis, which works very nicely to gather swordfish and tuna for you while you are netting monkfish in Piscatoris. The proximity of the obelisk to the colony makes it a natural for these sorts of uses. There’s also a bank in Piscatoris, making it arguably the closest bank to an obelisk in the game.

The other five obelisks are ones you will only use for recharging under special circumstances, such as already being in one of those places for other reasons. For example, the Gu’Tanoth one could be handy for blue dragon hunters, and if you are mining gold in Brimhaven you could take advantage of the obelisk there. But overall, you’ll want to stick to Taverley and Piscatoris.

Since the obelisks used for recharging are also used to make pouches, take advantage of this! Don’t go to that obelisk empty-handed: grab some empty pouches, spirit shards, charms and seconds, and make a load of pouches while you are there. Hey, it might not be much, but it’s one less trip to make later when you are trying to level up.

Another option is to take with pouches you already own and convert them to scrolls. This gives you a few XP, and if you are buying these items, a pouch is often less expensive to purchase than 10 matching scrolls.

One final, handy tip. There’s a Farming tree patch right behind Pikkupstix’s house—plant a willow tree there. Then, whenever you go to that obelisk to make pouches or recharge points, bring with a pair of secateurs and cut six willow branches from the tree—this is most easily done if making the pouches into scrolls afterwards (see Figure 242). Voila, six future “giant ents” or some quick cash for little trouble. J

Figure 242: Nearly Free Willow Tree Branches

There’s a willow tree literally right next door to Pikkupstix’s house (you can see him in the upper left corner of this shot.) I always bring with secateurs when making pouches or recharging, and grab six branches.

Managing Summoning Points and Timing Summons and Dismissals Making Best Use of the Special Move Bar

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