The summoning circle is one method by which you unlock captains. The summoning circle is also used for Artifacts, but artifacts are only available to players who have unlocked Guardsmen Level 4.
Summoning scrolls give captain fragments
Once in the summoning circle you can use a summoning scroll to receive “captain fragments”, the things that look like puzzle pieces with a captain’s face on it. Once you have enough fragments, you can “hire” the captain. If you get really, really lucky, you can summon the captain directly, without having to collect fragments, which means you can hire them right away. Any captain you have hired is available to use at any time after that. You can choose to send that captain into battle, or to mine crypts or resources, depending on the captain’s specialty. After you have hired a captain, you still collect more fragments, because they are used along with the “Essence of the Immortals” to increase a captain’s star rating, and make them even more powerful.
How to obtain scrolls
There are two types of summoning scrolls, Common and Elite. Elite scrolls rarer and are worth more than a Common scroll but you get better rewards for using them. Each day the Summoning Circle gives you 5 free common scrolls and 1 free elite scroll. You also earn 1 each for earning 200 points doing daily tasks. You can even receive summoning scrolls as rewards for completing event tasks or purchase them for event coins in the Ragnarök shops.
The Summon Mastery event
Using scrolls in the summoning circle gives you points in the Summon Mastery event. You earn 1 point in the event for each common scroll used, and 10 points for each elite scroll. Once you collect 50 tournament points, you are rewarded with even more captain fragments. Every two days, the Summon Mastery event “features” a different captain. For instance if the featured captain happens to be Captain Minamoto, when you open 5 elite scrolls you will score 50 points and be rewarded with Minamoto fragments.
Save your scrolls to get the fragments you need
Use your free summoning scrolls each day to receive the free fragments, but save everything else you earn. Don’t open them right away. Instead, hold onto them until you see a captain that you want being featured in the Summon Mastery event. Then open as many scrolls as you need to score points in the tournament and collect that captain’s fragments.
Unlock essential captains first
As a starting player, you should unlock captains Stror and Carter as soon as you can. So wait until you see those captains featured, check how many fragments you’re missing to unlock them, and open the scrolls needed to receive them.
After that, which captains you choose depends on your playing style. You can unlock Farhad and Aurora to speed up research and construction, or you can choose Doria and Dustan for Valor and Conquest point bonuses. Scroll through all the different captains and make note of the ones that might be useful to you and keep an eye on the Summon Mastery event to see when they pop up.