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 - Detailed Familiar Descriptions

Summoning Familiar Details - Dreadfowl Summoning Familiar Details - Thorny Snail

As its examine test implies, this familiar wouldn’t be the favorite of Little Miss Muffett, but it will be greatly appreciated by RuneScape players who are trying to train the Herblore skill. And what if I told you that the spirit spider, which requires only level 10 in a skill that some players call “useless”, turns out to be one of the very best ways for new members to earn gold? Read on and learn how…

The spirit spider is another familiar that Jagex did a really nice job of bringing to life. It’s about the same size as a deadly red spider NPC, and resembles one in many ways. Its body and head are reddish, while its legs are more of an orange color. The spider has four chat options, though talking with it isn’t a lot of fun—Jagex chose to imbue the spider with a somewhat “depressed” personality. In fact, most of the chat dialogs end with your character, exasperated, saying “Siiiigh.. spiders.” J

The spirit spider is capable of combat; it is level 23 and has 15 HP. However, it has no special combat attack, really doesn’t do much damage, and dies easily, so combat is really not its specialty. The great draw of this familiar is its special move, which allows you to generate red spiders’ eggs on demand pretty much anywhere. That’s right—no more running into dungeons to gather eggs for restore and super restore potions, or playing with sardines at the Tower of Life.

The key summary information for the spirit spider can be found in Table 56; for an explanation of the table’s entries, see the topic Explanation of the Familiar Summary Tables.

The spirit spider’s scroll ability to generate red spiders’ eggs makes it an incredibly useful familiar. The scroll takes 6 special move points, so you can use 10 of them before having to pause for the bar to recharge. In my tests, I usually get 15 to 20 red spiders’ eggs from 10 scrolls.

I also recruited a friend who had level 16 Summoning to test the spider for me. He got similar results, so the number of eggs you get does not seem to be level-dependent. I admit that the sample size was rather small, so there could be some small effect that I didn’t notice; his tests yielded slightly less than the best I had obtained, but I used more scrolls.

I have noticed that the ability seems to work much better outdoors than indoors. In fact, I’ve run into several players who thought this ability was pointless because they used a bunch of scrolls inside a bank and got almost nothing. So be sure not to do that… J

Here’s how to use the spirit spider to generate red spiders’ eggs in the most efficient way possible:

1. Make sure your Summoning points are recharged, and go to a bank where summons are allowed and where you can easily get outside. Piscatoris is a good choice since it is near a Summoning obelisk, or you could just use Edgeville.
   
   
2. Withdraw a spirit spider pouch and a bunch of Egg Spawn scrolls. Then go outside the bank.
   
   
3. Cast 10 Egg Spawn scrolls one after the other, using up all 60 of your special move points. Don’t stop to collect the eggs after each cast, as this slows you down—the eggs won’t appear to other players until at least a minute after you are done anyway (see Figure 264).
   
   
4. Collect all the eggs and bank them. While waiting for the special move bar to recharge, do something else in the bank, like alching, or hey, making potions using your red spiders’ eggs! J
   
   
5. Renew the familiar as needed; it takes only 2 Summoning points. When you are out of points, let the familiar expire, recharge your points at an obelisk, and start over. (The pouches are cheap so I wouldn’t waste Summoning potions here.)
   

   Figure 264: Generating Red Spiders’ Eggs with the Spirit Spider

   In this screenshot I am in the middle of firing off a round of 10 Egg Spawn scrolls. If you don’t recognize my location, I am near the Prayer Guild, not far from Edgeville—it is really not necessary to go that far from a bank under normal circumstances, but I wanted a clear space for testing and taking screenshots.

   
   

Using this method, it generally takes about 3 minutes to do a complete round of casting 10 scrolls and then waiting for the special move bar to fully recharge. This means that in the course of an hour you can do 20 rounds, yielding an average of 300 to 400 red spiders’ eggs. You also get about 40 Summoning XP as a bonus; not much, but every little bit helps. Since much of the time is spent waiting for the bar to refill, you can also do other things at the same time.

Now, here’s where the spirit spider gets interesting. Consider that there are no skill level requirements or quest prerequisites for the Wolf Whistle quest that starts you off in Summoning. One of the quest rewards is 275 free gold charms, which is enough to raise your Summoning to around level 16 before you need to get more. This means that a new player can easily get to a high enough level to be able to use the spirit spider, possibly even within an hour or two of stepping foot off Tutorial Island.

At the current market price for red spiders’ eggs of around 300 gp each, a beginner can make around 100k gold an hour just by making red spiders’ eggs and selling them. Now, what was that again about Summoning being “useless”? J I realize that my publicizing this may cause Jagex to nerf the familiar, or the price may go down as more players try to take advantage of it. Still, even at a fraction of those numbers, it’s a nice way for a newbie to get going in the cash department.

The spirit spider has a higher combat level and more hitpoints than the dreadfowl, but is less effective than it in combat because it has only a simple, weak melee attack. In my tests, it was barely able to put a dent even in relatively low-level monsters such as level 28 kalphite workers, but it dies quickly if they turn on it (Figure 265).

I don’t recommend bothering to use this familiar in combat.

The spirit spider is an excellent low-level Summoning familiar because of its non-combat special move. Anyone who is training Herblore or wants to make restore or super restore potions for personal use will appreciate the ability to get red spiders’ eggs cheaply and easily, as will those who are low-level and need to make some quick gold for other uses.

Here are a few extra points to keep in mind:

• As with many other familiars, spirit spider pouches and Egg Spawn scrolls are available in abundant supply and low prices. If you need a bunch and don’t have them from your own leveling, post to buy some on the RuneScape Summoning forum, and you can likely get them far cheaper than they sell for in the Grand Exchange (which isn’t much to begin with.)
  
  
• It’s more efficient to wait for the special move bar to fully recharge and then use 10 scrolls at once, than to use scrolls as the bar recharges. This also gives you a larger block of time to do something else in between scroll uses.
  
  
• If you want to avoid having tons of people asking you questions about what you’re doing, use the spider in a bank located in an out-of-the-way location, such as Port Phasmatys, Burgh de Rott or Lletya.

Summoning Familiar Details - Dreadfowl Summoning Familiar Details - Thorny Snail