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Familiar Summoning, Interaction and Chat Managing the Familiar Timer

As you explore the Summoning skill and get to know the familiars, you’ll learn that they are welcome in most places within RuneScape, but not all. Jagex has designated certain areas as being “Summoning-free zones”. There aren’t many of these, but the ones that do exist are pretty important, so you need to know about them and plan accordingly. There are also some other areas that allow familiars, but with certain restrictions.

Remember that, unlike pets, you cannot pick up familiars and store them in your inventory. To enter a Summoning-free zone you must actually dismiss your familiar, which can be quite a nuisance in certain situations.

There are two main categories of places where familiars cannot be brought; the Summoning obelisks, and high-traffic areas within big towns.

The obelisks are listed later in this section when I discuss recharging Summoning points; Jagex’s official rationale for them being restricted from familiars is that “Summoning energies are too great” near obelisks. That’s cute, I must admit. J The more practical reason is probably just game balance: allowing you to bring a familiar to an obelisk would allow you effectively to keep a single pouch going forever.

The town areas disallowing familiars are:

• Varrock (excluding the Palace and the small area in the town square where you land when teleporting).
  
  
• Falador (excluding the White Knights’ Castle, and the teleport spot).
  
  
• Lumbridge (excluding the castle courtyard, again, this is to allow teleports).
  
  
• The Grand Exchange (only right near the center; they are allowed outside the “circle” surrounding it).
  
  
• Seers’ Village

Here the game reason is that the town locations are “too stable for a portal to open to the familiars' realm”. I think it more likely that they did this simply because they are places where many people congregate, and having hundreds of players in one place with familiars flapping about would cause a lot of lag.

Note that the Summoning-free zone in Lumbridge can be a real nuisance if you are accustomed to using the Home Teleport spell to “get back to civilization” after a Slayer task or whatnot. You’ll be able to get to Lumbridge, but not to go anywhere from there with your familiar—ironically, you can actually summon a familiar at the Culinaromancer’s chest in the basement of the castle, but you can’t walk from the teleport point to the chest (Figure 237). If you are using a beast of burden, walk up the stairs to the castle until you are stopped, dismiss the familiar, run to the bank and then run back and pick up the items it has dropped.

Jagex specifically mentions certain minigames where familiars are not allowed, while others are slowly being discovered by players. It’s likely that these rules are in place for the same two reasons mentioned above: technical issues or game balance.

Here’s a list of known minigames where familiars are not allowed:

• The Barrows
  
  
• The Mage Training Arena
  
  
• The Brimhaven Agility Arena

These minigames specifically do allow familiars:

• Castle Wars
  
  
• The Duel Arena

I’ll expand this list as information becomes available.

There appear to be some areas of the game that, while not Summoning-free zones, cannot be accessed if you already have a familiar following you. This means that any summon you want to use within these dungeons or other areas must be brought in pouch form—significantly less convenient in a number of ways. So far, I’ve discovered only two, but I’m sure there are more:

• Ancient Cavern: The Ancient Cavern is accessed via whirlpool found in the lake below Baxtorian Falls, once you’ve completed enough of Barbarian Training. (It’s the dungeon where mithril dragons are found.) You can use summons within the cavern—non-combat uses only, since it’s single combat—but cannot take a familiar into the whirlpool.
  
  
• God Wars Dungeon, Zamorak’s Fortress: You can bring a follower with you from the outside to the main part of the God Wars Dungeon, but cannot take one from there into Zamorak’s Fortress (Figure 238). I haven’t tested the other three god-specific areas yet.
  

  Figure 238: Last Time I Checked, Bats Could Fly Over Water

  Okay, okay, I get the point, but still. J Oh, and why is it cruel to allow it to drown, but okay to let it get hacked to pieces by a black demon? J

  
  

I mentioned in the previous topic that if you are in an enclosed place too small for your familiar, you cannot summon it. If you already have a familiar out and move to one of these places, the familiar won’t be unsummoned or harmed in any way, but it won’t appear either. You will have to move to a larger area, at which point it will appear beside you (a message will appear in your chat window informing you of this.)

Just a quick note to point out that while familiars will not fight for you in single combat areas, they can still be quite useful there. Most non-combat special abilities and effects will function in single combat zones, such as skill enhancement, foraging and beast of burden capabilities.

Familiar Summoning, Interaction and Chat Managing the Familiar Timer