Tainted Grail Summoner Build: Spirituality Minion Guide

Updated 2026-10-15: Rechecked against the community wiki, a 1.21 build video and r/TaintedGrail. The earlier version said only two summons can be active, called Ghost of Broc Meala the strongest summon, and recommended a Golem summon. Your cap is higher (Astral Bonds raises it to 5), Ghost of Broc Meala is an Act 1 summon that later knights outclass, and there is no Golem summon at all; those sections are rewritten.

TL;DR: Spirituality is the stat: it raises Max Mana, which decides how many summons you can keep up, and with Invocations of Might it buffs every minion. Take Prepared Rituals, Astral Bonds and Invocations of Might. Run Grindylow in Act 1, Kamelot Spearman or the Round Table knights in Act 2, Remor Warrior or Sir Galahad in Act 3. Soul Salvage refunds part of a dying summon's mana.

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Tainted Grail summoner build: the short version

• Main stat: Spirituality, then Perception for crit. Practicality trims mana costs if you have spare points.
• Perks: Prepared Rituals (less mana reserved), Astral Bonds (higher summon limit), Invocations of Might (Spirituality buffs summons), then Summoner's Battery and Worthy Sacrifice.
• Summons: Grindylow early, Kamelot Spearman and the Round Table knights mid-game, Remor Warrior and Sir Galahad late.
• Utility: Soul Salvage to recycle a dying summon into mana or health.

Key Takeaways

• Summoning spells reduce your Max Mana while the summon lives, so a bigger mana pool means more and bigger minions.
• Spirituality is the only stat summons care about, and only through the Invocations of Might perk.
• The summon limit is not two: Astral Bonds lifts it to 5, and gear can push it higher.
• Ghost of Broc Meala is a solid Act 1 pickup; Act 2 and 3 knights have many times its health.
• There is no Golem summon; Golems are Act 3 enemies.

How summon mana actually works

The wiki puts it plainly: "The Mana Cost for summoning spells is taken as a reduction in Max Mana. This reduction does not count towards spent mana or threshold triggers." A summon's cost is locked out of your pool for as long as the summon lives, and you get it back when it goes.

That changes how you play. You won't empty your bar casting a summon and then wait to refill it. Instead, every minion you keep up leaves less room for your own spells. As whatthatgame put it on r/TaintedGrail, each summon "eats a chunk of your available mana pool until it dies instead of just being flat mana cost," which "forces you to either focus on managing your summons or using cheaper spells."

Screenshot: Steam store page

Stat priority for a Tainted Grail summoner build

Spirituality (primary). Per point it adds Spell Power, Max Mana and Mana Regeneration. Max Mana is what matters most, since it sets how many summons you can hold. The bigger reason sits in the perk tree: Invocations of Might makes each Spirituality point add 5% to your summons' max health and damage. Pastaphobik, whose 1.21 summoner build is embedded below, sums it up: "Minions are not affected by spell power or scale anything except with one thing, spirituality."

Perception (secondary). Per point it adds Critical Damage, Critical Chance and Sneak Damage. Pastaphobik's build names "spirituality and perception" as the main stats, with crit feeding his explosion setup.

Practicality (optional). Each point cuts stamina and mana costs by 1%. With the default soft caps added in patch 1.20, that bonus tops out at 30%.

Dexterity (stealth flavor). Each point lowers Noise and Visibility by 3%. It's the stat for a sneakier summoner; most summoner setups only buy the few points a weapon requires.

Don't spread evenly. Spirituality first, every time, until your summon roster is comfortable. Free points help too: Pastaphobik does the alchemist questline for "those two extra points in spirituality," and our alchemy guide covers the crafting side of alchemy.

The Summoning perks that make the build

The Spirituality tree's Summoning section is the core of the build. These are the ranks as the community wiki lists them:

Pastaphobik's order opens with Summoner's Battery, Prepared Rituals and Astral Bonds, then calls Invocations of Might "the most important perk in this tree." We agree: it's the perk that turns your Spirituality investment into minion strength.

Which summons to run, act by act

The Summons' Information page on the community wiki lists base stats for every summon. A selection, ordered by when you can get them:

Act 1: Grindylow. It's cheap, the merchant Drest sells it for 400, and players rate it. "Grindylows are also pretty good. That hammer knockback matters a lot more than you'd think," Flaky_Bullfrog_4905 wrote in a best-summon thread. Pastaphobik upgrades from the wolf to Grindylows early in Act 1.

Ghost of Broc Meala is a quest reward from the Queen Bee in Gifts For The Queen. It's a big jump for Act 1, but it reserves a lot of mana and its health is a fraction of what the later knights bring. Take it, don't build around it.

Act 2: Kamelot Spearman and the knights. Pastaphobik calls the Kamelot Spearman "one of the best summoners for Act 2," adding that "they will almost never die and they have insane stagger potential." Sir Gawain and Sir Bertilak come from knights' tombs; one player explains "you have to explore the Knights tombs in each Act map," each opening once you hold that act's soul fragment. Pastaphobik notes you can't get Gawain and Bertilak until you finish Act 2. Our zones guide helps you plan the routes across each act's map.

Act 3: Remor Warrior and Galahad. Remor Warrior reserves little for its health pool, and Pastaphobik calls it "the main summon spell I use" for the rest of his run. Sir Galahad has the largest health pool on the list.

What about Golem? There's no Golem summon on the wiki's summon list. Golems are enemies: "druidic constructs" guarding Merlin's Tomb in Act 3. For a tank, players point elsewhere: "Gawain is an absolute tank," Mysterious-Emotion44 wrote.

If you own the Sanctuary of Sarras expansion, it adds sea creature summons such as Sea Bite; our Sanctuary of Sarras guide covers the expansion.

Screenshot: Steam store page

How many summons can you have?

More than two. Astral Bonds raises the summon limit to 4 at rank one and 5 at rank two. Pastaphobik's gear list adds the Usurper from the Act 2 boss because it adds critical chance and raises the summon limit. Players running full armies report going past five: "6 summons and you can just wait," Serentense wrote in the summoner thread.

The practical limit is your Max Mana, which is why Prepared Rituals and Spirituality come first.

Soul Salvage: recycle a dying summon

Soul Salvage is a spell you find, not a perk. Its light cast costs no mana and "removes targeted Summon, restoring up to 75% of Mana Cost used for its initial summoning, based on their current health." Its heavy cast costs 15 mana and turns the summon into healing for you instead. It needs 2 Spirituality.

The catch is the health scaling: the refund shrinks as the summon gets hurt. Cast it on a summon you're about to swap out, not on one that's nearly dead. The wiki lists three places to get it: a crate in the Miners' Tunnels, a dug-up chest behind the Nimue Statue in Horns of the South, and Yorath in the Forgotten Cemetery Crypt during Dead As Dreams.

Screenshot: Steam store page

Watch a 1.21 summoner build

Pastaphobik's April 2026 video pairs summons with the Volatile spell for crit explosions. Skip to 2:26 for the Usurper and the summon limit, 5:28 for the Summoning perk order, 15:41 for the Act 2 summon swap, and 19:49 for the Remor Warriors. His gear picks for summoners: the Usurper, the Tainted Wood of the Archmage from Merlin's Tomb ("the only item currently that will buff our summon damage"), and the Archdruid amulet from the Act 3 druid shrines, because "you will need a lot of mana to afford all these fat guys." Our best gear guide has more gear options by slot.

Step by step: your first summoner run

1. Level Spirituality first. Grindylow needs 3, Ghost of Broc Meala needs 9, the knights need 12 to 15.
2. Buy Grindylow from Drest and swap out the wolf as soon as you can afford it.
3. Take Prepared Rituals and Astral Bonds early, then Invocations of Might.
4. Prioritize mana gear. Pastaphobik's advice for the early game: mana is what lets you "afford and resummon our minions."
5. Climb the ladder each act: Kamelot Spearman and the knights' tombs in Act 2, the Remor cave in Act 3.
6. Pick up Soul Salvage for clean swaps.

Common mistakes

Expecting summons to scale with Spell Power. They don't. Only Spirituality buffs them, through Invocations of Might.

Assuming summons follow you everywhere. "They get stuck if you jump up or down one level," Pristine_Ordinary267 warned, "while still paying the mana reduction from them." Recast after a big drop.

Keeping weak summons out of habit. Happy_Cry286 in the same thread: "most summons deal laughable damage to anything outside of Act 2 even when fully specced into (it's basically summon roundtable knight ghosts or bust)." Upgrade aggressively.

Our take

Build the summoner as a mana build and it's one of the most forgiving ways to play Tainted Grail. Spirituality every level, the three core perks, and a roster that gets replaced each act. Don't chase a Golem that isn't there, and don't treat Ghost of Broc Meala as the end goal. The Round Table knights are the payoff, and our lore guide explains the dark Arthurian world they come from. If you want your own hits to land harder, our crit build guide is the Perception half of this setup, and the best builds guide compares the summoner with other archetypes.

How we checked this

On 2026-10-15 we read the community-run Tainted Grail wiki's Attributes, Skills, Summons' Information, Soul Salvage, Summon Grindylow, Ghost Of Broc Meala (S) and Golem pages, Pastaphobik's "1.21 Summoner Build" video transcript, and four r/TaintedGrail threads on summons. Nobody on staff played a summoner run for this update. Each fact maps to a row in our source table.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you build a summoner in Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon? Put most of your points into Spirituality: each point adds Max Mana, Mana Regeneration and Spell Power, and with the Invocations of Might perk it also makes every summon tougher and harder-hitting. Perception is the usual second stat for crit. In the Summoning perk tree, take Prepared Rituals, Astral Bonds and Invocations of Might.

What is the best summon in Tainted Grail? It depends on the act. Grindylow is the cheap Act 1 workhorse, Kamelot Spearman and the Round Table knights (Sir Gawain, Sir Bertilak) lead Act 2, and Remor Warrior and Sir Galahad have the biggest health pools in Act 3. Ghost of Broc Meala is a strong Act 1 quest reward, not the strongest summon overall.

How many summons can you have active in Tainted Grail? The Astral Bonds perk raises your summon limit to 4 at rank one and 5 at rank two, and the Usurper (a reward from the Act 2 boss) raises it further; players report running six. The real limit is mana, because every summon reserves part of your Max Mana while it lives.

What does Soul Salvage do in Tainted Grail? It's a spell, not a perk. The light cast costs nothing and dismisses a summon, returning up to 75% of its mana cost based on how much health it has left. The heavy cast costs 15 mana and converts the summon into healing for you instead. It needs 2 Spirituality.

Is there a Golem summon in Tainted Grail? No. The community wiki's summon list has no Golem spell. Golems are enemies: druidic constructs you fight in Merlin's Tomb in Act 3. If you want a tank summon, Remor Warrior and Sir Gawain are the ones players lean on.

Can you combine summoner with a stealth build in Tainted Grail? Yes. Dexterity lowers Noise and Visibility and Perception adds sneak damage, so a summoner can open from stealth while the minions take the fight. Popular summoner setups lean on Perception for crit rather than full stealth.

Related Reading

• Tainted Grail Best Builds: the six stats and the other community builds, if summoner isn't your style.
• Tainted Grail Best Gear: Weapons, Armor, and Jewelry Guide: mana gear that lets you hold more summons.
• Tainted Grail Crit Build Guide: the Perception side of this build.
• Tainted Grail Boss Guide: the fights where a summon wall earns its keep.
• Tainted Grail New Game Plus Guide: what carries over into a second run.
• Tainted Grail Tips: early-game habits before you commit to a build.
• Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon Guide Hub: every guide for this game in one place.

References

• Tainted Grail Wiki: Summons' Information: base stats, Spirituality requirements and mana costs for every summon
• Tainted Grail Wiki: Skills: Summoning perk ranks
• Tainted Grail Wiki: Attributes: per-point stat gains and soft caps
• Tainted Grail Wiki: Soul Salvage and Golem
• Pastaphobik: 1.21 Summoner Build on YouTube
• r/TaintedGrail: Is summoner the most broken build?
• Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon on Steam