Summoner

A base-class path focused on a pact with summoned companions.

Primary role: Summoned allies
Advanced path: Necromancer

Plan your next steps as a Summoner

Continue with early-game practice, leveling preparation, and how to check advice for the Necromancer path. This is a learning checklist, not a verified best-in-slot build.

Read the Summoner progression guide →

Reviewed 2026-10-16 · every figure below is quoted from a dated official Steam announcement

What the patch notes document about the Summoner

The class listing is short, and that is the point

The Steam store listing names seven base classes — Acolyte, Mage, Summoner, Knight, Warrior, Scout and Rogue — and says players unlock unique skill trees and advanced specializations as they grow. Necromancer appears in the same listing as one of the advanced specializations. That is the full extent of the class description the developer publishes: there is no skill list, no summon table, no stat growth curve and no ranking. Everything below therefore comes from dated patch notes rather than from a class description, and any claim you read elsewhere should be traceable to a patch note or to your own client before you act on it.

0.31.0 introduced Bond Targets as the summon scaling lever

The 0.31.0 Dark Fortress note states that skill splash no longer affects Bonds and that a new stat, Bond Targets, was introduced in the same update. The same note lists the sources that grant it: all books give +1, the Oathbound Artifact Set gives +1, Spirit Familiar and Chains of Binding each give +1, the Soulbinders Armor Set gives +2, and the Weaver Card Combo gives +1. Read that list as a set of levers rather than as a build. The note publishes no cap, no stacking rule and no formula converting Bond Targets into damage, so any statement about an optimal Bond Targets total is not something the developer has stated. What the note does establish is that a summoner's Bond Targets investment spans several systems at once — books, two named sets, two named summons or skills, and one card combination.

0.31.0 also moved named summons and summon behaviour

The same note changes how summons survive and how they act before it changes how hard they hit. Summons now take 50% less splash damage, defined in the note as damage from attacks not directly targeted at them, and summons now auto attack and cast at the same time. Skill chain range was reverted from 12 back to 15. Four named entries also moved numerically: the Wraith summon changed from Str 30 and Luk 45 to Str 45 and Luk 30, Grim Scythe moved from 30 Atk and 10 Matk to 45 Atk and 0 Matk, Life Drinker moved from 25/25 to 20/40, and Blight Reaver moved from 25/25 to 30/30. The Necronomoicon gained summon all stats +1 per refine.

0.33.0 trimmed skeleton mages rather than nerfing summons broadly

The 0.33.0 Halloween note devotes a short section to the summoner archetype, headed with the developer's own wording that skeleton mages were being brought more in line with other builds. Two named entries lose one skeleton mage each: Dancing Dead and Bone Choir. The same section lists three corrections — summons were not auto-attacking sometimes, summons were able to use Burning Rage, and reanimation could be used with Dancing Choir. It is worth separating those two kinds of statement. The skeleton-mage reduction is a deliberate balance change aimed at aligning the archetype with other builds; the other three are fixes to unintended behaviour. A player reading the section as a general summons nerf would be overreading it, because the developer named skeleton mages specifically and left the 0.31.0 summon behaviour changes in place.

The 12 October note narrowed two effect scopes

A separate balance note published on 12 October 2026 is short but directly relevant to a summoner, because it is about scope rather than magnitude. It states that damage to and from element mods no longer works on Players and Summons, and adds that this affects Faith as well. It also removes Ground Resist from Paladin's High Guard on a PvP-only basis. For a summoner the first line is the important one: an effect that used to apply through your summons no longer does in that interaction, which is exactly the kind of change that makes an undated build claim unsafe.

0.34.0 closed a summon snapshot exploit

The 0.34.0 PvP Conquest note, published on 9 October 2026, lists a fix for snapshotting exploits with necromancer minions alongside its headline PvP additions. It also states that damage is reduced by 82.5% in PvP and healing by 65% in PvP, and that the Second Wind Grimoire is disabled there. The 0.34.1 follow-up raised PvP level scaling from 100 to 150, mainly affecting HP and MP, and disabled the Swift Intervention Grimoire in PvP. If you are evaluating a summoner setup for arena play, those mode-wide multipliers sit underneath any class-specific number and are the first thing to check.

Cards documented for this path

0.31.0 gives three concrete card entries for a summoner. The Summoner Card accessory grants +5 summon all stats. The Necromancer Card weapon grants +5 All Summon Stats, with the Weaver Card Combo adding +1 Bond Targets on top. The Necro Master Card, a head slot item, grants +2% mdef pierce per refine. Note the shape of those entries: two are flat additions to every summon's stats, one is the Bond Targets lever described above, and one scales per refine. Because the values are tied to refine counts and specific slots, comparing two cards by name alone tells you nothing — a flat +5 summon all stats card and a per-refine stat are not interchangeable, and the notes give no conversion between them.

Grimoires make class equipment a crafting chain

The 0.31.0 note made Grimoires character bound. The 0.32.0 update then introduced Advanced Grimoires and states how they are made: craft at class masters using the matching artifact set, Masterwork Cores and a corrupted core, with the result account bound. The 0.33.0 note reduced the Masterwork Core cost from 25 to 20. For a summoner, that means the Grimoire route runs through content rather than through the market. The cards and artifacts guide on this site walks through that acquisition chain, and the artifact sets guide covers which set your path consumes.

A review routine for the next patch

Write down four things whenever you change a summoner setup: the version, whether the target is PvE or PvP, the refine level of any card or set you rely on, and the activity the setup is meant to solve. Then, when a new note lands, re-read only the parts that mention summons, Bond Targets, the Necronomoicon, the named armor sets, the class cards or minions — those are the surfaces this archetype has actually been changed on. Keeping the version next to each note is what turns the next balance pass into a bounded question instead of a reason to rebuild the character.

Frequently asked questions

Did SpiritVale nerf the Summoner in 0.33.0?

The 0.33.0 note heads the summoner section by saying skeleton mages were brought more in line with other builds and lists Dancing Dead and Bone Choir each losing one skeleton mage. The same section fixes three summon behaviours, so it is narrower than a general summons nerf.

What is Bond Targets in SpiritVale?

Bond Targets is a stat introduced in the 0.31.0 Dark Fortress note, at the same time that skill splash stopped affecting Bonds. The note lists its sources — all books, the Oathbound Artifact Set, Spirit Familiar, Chains of Binding, the Soulbinders Armor Set and the Weaver Card Combo — but publishes no cap, stacking rule or damage formula.

Do SpiritVale summons still benefit from splash damage reductions?

Yes. The 0.31.0 note states that summons take 50% less splash damage, defined there as damage from attacks not directly targeted at them. No later announcement that we have reviewed reverses that change.