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Efficient Recharging of Summoning Points TruthScape Skill Secrets - Summoning - Using Non-Combat Familiar Abilities

Every familiar has a special move that is activated by matching scrolls that you can make from its pouches; these moves include special capabilities to damage enemies while in combat, and skill-related abilities. They are somewhat similar to the special attacks that you can launch using most high-level weapons. Just as special attacks are controlled via the special attack bar, the use of special moves is restricted through a special move bar. You draw down the bar when using a move, and when it is empty, must wait for it to refill before you can use scrolls again.

I described the special move bar’s location and appearance in my overview of the Summoning interface. In terms of use, it differs from the special attack bar in two important ways. First, special moves are described in terms of special move points (as opposed to “percent of the bar” with special attacks). Second, you do not click the special move bar to activate a scroll, but rather the special move activation button below it and to the left.

Here are a few tips and tricks for getting the most out of special move points.

When full, the special move bar contains 60 special move points. Each scroll uses up a number of points that varies from one familiar to the next; at present these range from 3 points (mainly for combat and utility moves) up to 20 points (chiefly for stat boosting abilities). You can check the exact number of special move points you have left by hovering over the bar with your mouse pointer, and the number of points needed for a scroll by hovering over the special move activation button.

When the bar has been drawn down from its full state, it will slowly restore back to full over time. The good news is that this bar refills much more quickly than the special attack bar: that bar gets back 10% of its color every 30 seconds, while the special move bar recovers 25% in that same time (15 points).

Note that in my testing, I’ve noticed that the special move bar does not seem to recharge at all if you are actively using scrolls. For example, suppose you are using a spirit cobra’s special “Ophidian Incubation” to transform regular eggs into cockatrice eggs. This takes 3 points, so you can use 20 scrolls before your bar is empty. It takes a full minute to do that many, so you might think you’d still have 30 points left after that time, but in fact, your bar will be empty.

Another option for restoring the special move bar is to use a Summoning potion; each dose will give you 15 special move points. Of course, this is a rather expensive method, so it will only make sense to use it under very limited circumstances (unless Summoning potions get very cheap!)

So, you’ve summoned a familiar, and now you’ve got 60 special move points at your disposal—how are you going to use them? The answer really depends mostly on the familiar, of course, but also on your style of play and what you hope to accomplish.

In many cases, you will never run out of special move points anyway, so efficiency is never an issue. For example, suppose you are using the macaw’s special move, which has a good chance of the macaw finding a random grimy herb and dropping it at your feet. It takes 12 points, so in theory you could use it five times per bar, but Jagex implemented a one minute delay between uses (to prevent it from being overpowered), so the special bar will always recharge between special moves anyway.

There are other familiars where you’ll want to do everything possible to cast as many special moves as you can quickly. A good example would be the spirit spider, whose scroll generates red spiders’ eggs, at a cost of 6 special move points. The more moves you can do, the more eggs you get! The same would apply to the spirit cobra as mentioned above.

In these situations, my experiments have shown that the most efficient method is to quickly blast out as many special moves as you can until your bar reaches zero, and then wait for it to fully recharge before starting again. Since your bar doesn’t recharge when you are using specials, this seems to net more total uses per unit time than using a few specials and waiting for a partial recharge, at least in my experience. It also gives you two minutes to do something else while you wait for the special move bar.

To take the spirit cobra as an example again, I get out 20 regular eggs and cast the special move 20 times to drain my bar. Then, while my bar recharges, I store the cockatrice eggs, get out more regular eggs, check my familiar timer and do something else while I wait for a recharge. I do the same when generating red spiders’ eggs using a spirit spider.

The same method is often also effective with combat familiars, especially ones with distance attacks. One nice example I found was the barker toad; I used its special to attack a black demon from a safe spot, unloading over 80 points of damage on it with 10 scrolls; I then moved in and finished it off using melee. Who said familiars were useless in combat? J

Efficient Recharging of Summoning Points TruthScape Skill Secrets - Summoning - Using Non-Combat Familiar Abilities