TruthScape.com  9  TruthScape Skill Secrets       9  TruthScape Skill Secrets - Summoning            9  TruthScape Skill Secrets - Summoning - Understanding, Using and Benefiting From Familiars                 9  TruthScape Skill Secrets - Summoning - Summoning and Managing Familiars

The Summoning Interface for Familiars Summoning-Free Zones and Restrictions on Familiar Use and Travel

Now let’s talk a bit about what’s involved in actually getting a familiar, and how you will deal with it once it is following you around all over RuneScape. Fortunately, this is one of the simpler aspects of the skill.

You probably already know that Summoning is basically a two-part skill: you gather the materials for a familiar and infuse them into a pouch, and then you summon the monster from the pouch. You also likely realize that it is the making of the pouch that constitutes most of the work, which is why it’s also where most Summoning XP is obtained. The process of actually summoning the familiar is, generally speaking, just a matter of right-clicking the pouch and choosing the “Summon” option (Figure 235). When you do this the pouch disappears and your familiar appears behind you.

Note that there are a few limitations on when and how you can use your pouches. First, there are Summoning-free zones, which I describe in the next topic; you will not be allowed to use a pouch in one of these places. Second, many familiars take up four or more squares of land area; if you are standing in a place too small for them, you won’t be able to summon them until you move. (One example of such a spot is next to the bank windows in the Grand Tree.) And finally, of course, you must have enough Summoning points for the pouch.

Also bear in mind that there are a few factors that may determine when it makes the most sense to summon a familiar; we’ll discuss that later in this section.

The default (left-click) option for every familiar is to “Interact” with it. Clicking on the familiar will either bring up a menu, or just begin a chat dialog, depending on that familiar’s options and features. Simple familiars with only combat abilities and a special move will usually not have a menu. More complex ones, such as beasts of burden or foragers (which need to have menus to give you access to items they carry) will list their available menu options for you to choose from.

There are also some familiars that have a right-click option for selecting features, instead of a menu. These tend to be combat-related abilities and attacks, where bringing up a menu would be impractical.

Note that you do not activate special moves (from scrolls) by clicking on the familiar itself; you use the Summoning interface.

The ability to chat with familiars isn’t “useful” in the sense that many people define the word: it won’t let you in on any game secrets or advise you, for example. (And it certainly won’t “give you stuff” or help you kill monsters faster!) Why bother then? Because it’s fun. J Jagex did a nice job with giving each familiar a unique personality, ranging from dull to amusing, and friendly to downright rude. My favorite so far is the karamthulhu overlord; despite being a silly little squid in a fishbowl, it has a bit of a god complex and likes to try to order you around.. try one if you are high enough level! (see one in action in Figure 236).

Jagex put a restriction on chatting with familiars: you must be at least 10 levels higher than its level to understand what it’s saying. (If you aren’t high enough level then it will just chat in a gibberish language without translation.) Frankly, I think this is needlessly annoying, but hey, nobody asked me. Just be patient and soon enough you’ll be able to make sense of the dialog.

Be sure to always try chatting many times with each familiar. Most have multiple dialog options, and which one comes up is random each time you chat.

The Summoning Interface for Familiars Summoning-Free Zones and Restrictions on Familiar Use and Travel