Familiarisation

Familiarisation
Release date	16 February 2010 (Update)
Area	Obelisks around Gielinor
Members	Yes
Frequency	Weekly
Reset	Wednesday 00:00 UTC
Skills	Summoning
Currency	Raw shards
Infobox • Talk page

Familiarisation is a weekly Distraction and Diversion, based on the Summoning skill and was released on 16 February 2010. To start this Distraction and Diversion the player has to talk to Pikkupstix in Taverley, who can teach players the art of Summoning. Pikkupstix needs players to go to the Spirit Plane, the home of all Summoning creatures, and gather resources from it, from which the druids create spirit shards. The player has to find the one currently active small Summoning obelisk and mentally project themselves into the Spirit Plane. Pikkupstix will tell the player he has an apprentice, Pikkenmix, who knows which small Summoning obelisk is currently active. The player has to find the small obelisk and enter the spirit plane with the help of Pikkenmix. There, assuming the shape of a Summoning familiar, they need to gather as many piles of raw shards as possible while avoiding certain other familiars. An obelisk will only remain active for 20 minutes after which it will become inactive. The active obelisk changes every two hours.

Participation in this Distraction and Diversion is limited to once per week, resetting weekly at Wednesday 00:00 UTC.

When seeing an active obelisk before speaking to Pikkupstix about it, players can skip that step and go ahead and talk to Pikkenmix and enter the Spirit Plane.

Familiarisation has no requirements, not even the Wolf Whistle quest which is an introduction to Summoning. However, some potential active obelisks require the completion of the quests Fishing Contest, Heroes' Quest, Lost City, and partial completion of Lunar Diplomacy, Regicide and Eadgar's Ruse. These quests grant access to a greater number of Summoning obelisks, any of which could become the next active obelisk.

Since the obelisk changes every 2 hours, and only stays active for 20 minutes, it is most likely that there is no obelisk active at the time. The best way to find out when an obelisk is active is to open the Adventures interface and select the Minigames tab, from here players can select D&Ds from the drop down menu and see in real time when the next obelisk event will be active.

Travel to Taverley

Pikkenmix at an active obelisk

Pikkupstix is in the Summoning shop in Taverley. There are several ways to contact him:

• Home Teleport to Taverley and run east.
• Home Teleport to Falador and run west.
• Use the Taverley Teleport spell and run north-east.
• If the player's player-owned house is in Taverley, teleport to the house portal there, then proceed to run east.
• If using Lunar Spells, the NPC Contact spell can be used to talk to Pikkupstix.
• After the quest Love Story, a player can use a Chisel with a Teleport to house tablet to make a Taverley tablet.
• While there is an active Familiarisation obelisk, all small obelisks in Runescape will glitter and allow teleportation directly to Pikkupstix. This also means that for the 20 minutes the obelisk is active, a player can have easy access to a large obelisk for infusing pouches.

Gameplay

The Spirit Plane.

While playing the player will be summoned as a random familiar and will have to hunt around for raw shards. The game will end when either one of the following occurs:

1. 60 raw shards are collected by the player.
2. The player's mental focus reaches 0.

As soon as the Spirit Plane is entered, there will be two types of familiars opposed to the form that the player was assigned that will instantly recognise them as an enemy within their plane of existence. As the player remains within the Spirit Plane for longer, more types of familiars will start to see through the player's disguise and recognise them as an imposter. If the player goes too close to any familiars that will recognise them (these are depicted at the top of the screen), they will drain some of the player's mental focus and their presence within the Spirit Plane will weaken.

The level of focus is tracked by the bar on the left-hand side of the screen. When this has completely worn down, the player will lose focus and their consciousness will return to their body next to Pikkenmix, along with as many piles of raw shards as the player managed to collect. The current level of mental focus can also roughly be gauged by the colour draining from the player's form in the Spirit Plane. Mental projection like this takes a lot of effort, so the player will only be able to stay in the Spirit Plane for a maximum of twenty minutes from when it was first entered, and run energy will very rapidly drain. That is, unless the native familiars cause the player to lose focus or if all sixty piles of raw shards are found first. The total number of raw shards in the Spirit Plane is more than 60 (approximately 63).

Strategies

Run energy decreases very quickly as a Familiar. An advantage can be gained by activating the Globetrotter boots or taking a dip in the salt-water spring in Oo'glog if the As a First Resort quest is completed, or the Anachronia base camp spa if it has been built. This will give unlimited run energy for a short while. Also, the Oo'glog wellspring relic may be active (level 81 archaeology to enable) giving unlimited run energy indefinitely. In this case, the hunting familiars can be basically disregarded and run around continuously, gaining the shards; the player will collect their limit long before the focus runs out.

Don't run about randomly, try to develop an effective pattern, such as circling the outskirts and collecting all shards in sight, then finish with the centre area. This will help ensure none are missed, and get forced to randomly run around looking. With one of the infinite run energy sources mentioned above just run from one shard to the next ignoring enemies completely. You will be spotted by some of them but will have no real danger of losing the game.

Although the Surefooted and Greater surefooted auras give unlimited run energy, they do not apply to familiarisation.

Obelisk locations

Hint to Pikkenmix's location, as given by Pikkupstix	Pikkenmix's location	Quests/skills required	Map
I expect off somewhere relaxing. He's been quite busy lately.	There are currently no active obelisks. An obelisk will only remain active for around twenty minutes. A new obelisk becomes active roughly once every 2 hours.	N/A
A dungeon of beasts that crawl near the barbarians.	Inside the Fremennik Slayer Dungeon	N/A
A camp in the woods with a catapult nearby.	Obelisk near Tyras Camp	Partial completion of Regicide
A farming patch, castle, dock, etc.	Obelisk on Etceteria	The Fremennik Trials
A rotten town south of a corrupted, shady village.	Obelisk north of Burgh de Rott	N/A
Near the ever-flagging war.	Obelisk near Castle Wars	N/A
A place that is Mostly Harmless.	On the island of Mos Le'Harmless	Cabin Fever
A large cave dwelling, full of bustling, small people with pickaxes. I see...a bank!	East of the bank in Keldagrim	Started The Giant Dwarf
A large cave dwelling, full of bustling, small people with pickaxes. I see...a boat!	South of the bank in Keldagrim	Started The Giant Dwarf
A place where doors talk.	First Level, Stronghold of Security, at entrance	N/A
Beneath a huge tree in the darkness and roots.	Grand Tree mine under Grand Tree at the Tree Gnome Stronghold	The Grand Tree
Between a temple and a lycanthropic town.	Obelisk south of Slayer Tower	N/A
Beware the spider's bite, beneath a rocky city.	Obelisk by the Deadly red spiders in Varrock Sewers	N/A
I spoke to a tree within sight of people crossing a log.	Obelisk near the agility course of the Tree Gnome Stronghold	N/A
I hope the tortured souls in the jail use the chapel. -or- I hope the poor souls in the prison are allowed in. -or- I wonder if the poor souls in the prison are allowed to visit the chapel.	South-west of the Port Sarim lodestone, west of the jail, north of the chapel	N/A
If there's blood on the sand, a victor emerges.	Obelisk near the Duel Arena entrance, south of the Fire Runecrafting altar	N/A
I hope the villagers' defences hold against those zombies.	The obelisk in Shilo Village	Shilo Village
Near a Heroic Fountain.	Obelisk under the Heroes' Guild south of Burthorpe	Heroes' Quest
Northern barbarians have a cosy home.	Obelisk south of Rellekka	N/A
North of the city of sickness.	Obelisk near the Combat Training Camp	N/A
Next to a bridge south of great expanses of danger	Obelisk at Edgeville bridge, near the Grand Exchange	N/A
Near a village of long-eared people.	Obelisk at Lletya entrance	Regicide
North of a fountain of green.	Obelisk north of the Ectofuntus	N/A
Pass through to thirst.	Obelisk by the Shantay Pass	N/A
Purple rippling near flying rugs.	Obelisk near the Pollnivneach house portal	N/A
Seaside infested with Barbarians.	Obelisk north-west of the Barbarian Outpost	N/A
South of the city of sickness.	Obelisk near the Khazard Battlefield	N/A
South of the market village.	Obelisk south of Draynor Village	N/A
Sun, sand, freshly-picked fruit and pretty music.	Obelisk near the musician in Catherby	N/A
Surrounded by jungle, with drakolith near.	Obelisk just north-west of the nature altar on Karamja	N/A
The land of the moon people. / Place of the moon people.	Obelisk outside the city gates on Lunar Isle	Partial completion of Lunar Diplomacy
The lava walks, and the rocks talk.	Obelisk directly south of the TzHaar City furnace	N/A
The stench of fish is strong here.	Obelisk near Fishing Guild bank	68 (boostable)
Under a white city and through the scorpions.	Under Falador in the Dwarven Mine	N/A
Within sight of a fishing boat.	Obelisk near Port Khazard	N/A
What a magical land ..in spite of the talking sheep.	Lost city of Zanaris	Lost City
Yes it is ... no it's not. Yeah, 'tis so! (Neitiznot) or Yes it is ... no it is really not! (Jatizso)	The obelisk on Neitiznot or Jatizso	Started The Fremennik Isles
You must dodge the rocks to reach the summit.	Obelisk at Trollheim	Partial completion of Troll Stronghold
Travel through demons and dwarves of chaos, but mind the axes!	Obelisk south of the Blue Dragons in Taverley Dungeon	N/A
He's near some monkeys, I hope they don't fall in the volcano. or A cheeky monkey and....Oh, my! I hope that volcano doesn't explode.	Top of Karamja Volcano	N/A
Near a cave with knights and worms.	North-west of the Port Sarim lodestone, near the Grotworm Lair entrance	N/A
In a sandy cave. A king scuttles below.	Obelisk just inside the entrance of the Exiled Kalphite Hive	N/A

Oppositions

What the player is up against.

In the Spirit Plane, the mental energy will be drained by other spirits, depending on the player's form in the Spirit Plane.

More types of spirit creatures will try to drain the player's energy as time goes by in the Spirit Plane; a message appears with a warning of this, and a picture of the spirit creature appears at the top of the screen. A maximum of six types of spirit creatures will hunt the player.

The following table shows the types of spirit creatures that will always hunt the player from the beginning of the game, depending on the player's form.

The player's form	Opposing creature #1	Opposing creature #2
Thorny snail	Barker toad	Desert wyrm
Compost mound	Geyser titan	War tortoise
Giant chinchompa	Hydra	Karamthulhu overlord
Void spinner	Obsidian golem	Vampyre bat
Evil turnip	Compost mound	Thorny snail
Spirit coraxatrice	Spirit kyatt	Spirit larupia
Spirit larupia	Spirit wolf	Void ravager
Stranger plant	Pack yak	Ravenous locust
Adamant minotaur	Forge regent	Lava titan
Giant ent	Beaver	Fire titan
Ice titan	Pyrelord	Spirit Tz-Kih
Pack yak	Albino rat	Spirit cobra

Rewards

Once the time in the Spirit Plane is completed, then the player has the chance to gear up for their triple charm reward by going back to Pikkupstix or Pikkenmix.

If ingredients are chosen, then a box of summoning ingredients of items that can be used to infuse pouches is received. The rewards depend on how many piles of raw shards the player managed to collect from the Spirit Plane, as well as the player's Summoning level. As of 6 March 2017, the Shaman's outfit parts can be obtained from the box of summoning ingredients - this is also available to ironmen.

If triple charms are chosen, then a charm drop enhancer is received. It is not possible to obtain more than one charm drop enhancer at once. If the player already owns one and attempts to claim another, then the first one can be used after which the player can return to Pikkupstix to claim the next one.

When the charm drop enhancer is used, for a maximum of forty minutes of in-game time, any charm drops that the player receives (including obsidian charms and abyssal charms, but not talon beast charms or elder charms) will be tripled. Each shard collected is worth 40 seconds, and the total time is rounded to the nearest minute. A warning is shown at 5 minutes and at 1 minute before the time runs out. Charms received from killing Bork or Ork legions will not be tripled, nor will the charm reward from a mystery box.

Only a maximum of thirty piles of raw shards from a previous trip can be kept. Therefore if a substantial amount of shards (60 or close to that amount) is already collected, then it is more efficient to collect the reward, rather than spending time on this again.

Maximising charms

Main articles: Summoning training § Obtaining charms (P2P) and Charms § Obtaining charms

Players who choose triple charms should begin killing monsters with high frequency charm drops, such as waterfiends. Before using the charm drop enhancer, make sure preparations were made with necessary items such as armour, teleports, food and potions, charming imp or legendary pet if one is owned, and if possible be at the monster location so that minimal time is spent banking or gearing up.

Achievements

• Regard My Shards ( 40) – Collect 60 shards in Familiarisation.
• A Bit TOO Familiar ( 40) – Play as the following familiars in Familiarisation.

Music

• A Familiar Feeling

Update history

The update history project is a work-in-progress – not all updates to this topic may be covered below. See here for how to help out!

• patch 7 December 2020 (Update):
  • Pikkenmix no longer asks you to participate in Familiarisation after completing it.

• patch 14 September 2020 (Update):
  • After leaving the Familiarisation D&D you will now be placed back at the obelisk in Taverley, instead of in the Lumbridge Crater.
  • The XP Claim screen now uses the standard Lamp XP UI. Unavailable skills are greyed out.

• patch 7 October 2019 (Update):
  • The triple charm buff from the Familiarisation D&D is now persistent after logging out and back in.

• patch 7 May 2019 (Update):
  • The rewards for the Familiarisation Distraction & Diversion have been reverted to give the summoning ingredients they did before the Mining and Smithing rework.

• patch 11 March 2019 (Update):
  • Pikkupstix now mentions Drakolith rather than Mithril, when locating Pikkenmix.

• patch 14 January 2019 (Update):
  • The Mining and Smithing Rework is released, replacing metal bars and metal equipment in the box of summoning ingredients with stone spirits and salvage, respectively.

• ninja 5 February 2018 (Update):
  • Familiarisation now resets on Wednesdays instead of every seven days.

• ninja 11 January 2016 (Update):
  • The remaining time for the familiarisation triple-charm reward now appears on the player buff bar.

• ninja 19 January 2015 (Update):
  • The following changes have been made to the Familiarisation D&D:
    • All worlds now start Familiarisation at the same time.
    • The D&D tracker now accurately shows the starting time of Familiarisation.
    • All summoning obelisks that allow entry to Familiarisation will now sparkle when the D&D begins, and will also offer a teleport to Pikkupstix.

• patch 15 September 2014 (Update):
  • The D&D tracker now shows correct the information regarding when players will be able to replay the Familiarisation activity.

• patch 24 November 2010 (Update):
  • Various typos fixed.

• patch 3 March 2010 (Update):
  • Ensured that some of the map locations in the Familiarisation area aren't blocked by shards.

• update 16 February 2010 (Update):
  • Added to game.