Beast of Burden

"BOB" redirects here. For a list of non-player characters with this name, see Bob.

A familiar's inventory interface

Beast of Burden (often abbreviated to BoB) is a type of Summoning familiar that has the ability to carry items for the player. To access their familiar's inventory, players need only to click on them, or interact with them and manually ask them to open their inventory. The familiars with this ability are shown in the table below.

List of Beasts of Burden

Standard

Familiar		Slots	Time (min)
Thorny snail	13	3	16
Spirit pack pig^{Tier 1}	14	4	17
Spirit kalphite	25	6	22
Bull ant	40	9	30
Spirit pack pig^{Tier 2}	44	8	35
Spirit terrorbird	52	12	36
War tortoise	67	18	43
Spirit pack pig^{Tier 3}	84	22	55
Pack yak	96	30	58
Pack mammoth	99	32	64

Rune essence

Familiar		Slots	Time (min)
Abyssal parasite	54	7 Essence	30
Abyssal lurker	62	12 Essence	41
Abyssal titan	93	20 Essence	42

Divine memories

Familiar		Slots	Time (min)
Nightmare muspah	81	35 memories	60

Item storage

The beast of burden icon is the lower-right corner of the bank interface.

If players have a Beast of Burden (BoB) familiar with them with the bank window open, they can deposit its entire inventory into their bank by clicking the summoning familiar icon at the bottom of the bank interface, similar to the 1-button inventory or equipped items deposit feature. Players can also Withdraw-X from a bank to BoB without having to exit the bank or use bank presets to automatically withdraw items to a Beast of Burden.

There is also a give-all option, which would deposit all inventory items, prioritized according to their order in the inventory, into the familiar's inventory. However, this option is not available in the summoning interface and only shows up on the familiar's interface, so it is not possible to do in combat.

Before the familiar's time limit is up, two messages will appear, along with a tick-tock sound:

You have 1 minute before your familiar vanishes.
You have 30 seconds before your familiar vanishes.

After that: Your familiar has dropped all the items it was holding. You will have exactly five minutes until your items disappear for you to pick them up, which is significantly longer than if you had dropped them yourself. This technique is useful in fighting difficult bosses.

Limits of items carried

Currently, the known limits for what a beast of burden will carry are as such:

A certain maximum amount of coins that varies between familiars
Tradeable items (untradeable items, such as most quest items, cannot be carried by the familiar)
All potions, including untradeable ones like Extreme attack potions
Items with higher values. (Items that go over the Grand Exchange market value the familiar can hold will give the message "This item is too valuable to trust to this familiar.")
Rune and pure essence can be carried only by the three abyssal familiars, which can only carry essence (see below).

Additionally, familiars cannot hold Restricted trade items along with the following tradeables:

Bonds
Summer Beach Party tokens (both years)
Crafting catalyst items (Metal setting, Leather case, Gem focus, Summoning focus)
Parasols

Currently the limit is 5,000,000 coins. The limit is based on the Grand Exchange market values of items. For example, a beast of burden will carry a rune full helm, but not a Drygore Mace.

The amount a familiar could hold was changed with the release of summoning patch #2. There is speculation that it was changed because people were complaining about the limited amount of items a player could store with the familiars.

For large volume resource collection, combine a beast of burden familiar with imp boxes. Use imps to send your resources and empty imp boxes to the bank, then fill up your familiar and your inventory and travel back to the bank. This will allow you to transport 28 items in your inventory + 28 items banked by the imps (+banked boxes) + your familiar's cargo space worth of items.

It should however be noted that collecting imp boxes takes a long time and it might be simplier to just bank more often.

For quest items that cannot be handed to a familiar, the method above still works. Simply hand your empty magic boxes to your familiar until it is full, then ship the remaining empty boxes to your bank with imps from occupied boxes. In each case, the sums come out the same. Imps either take one item and one magic box home, or the box is handed to the familiar, and the imp carries two items home.

Beast of Burden limitations

Although in most cases a beast of burden helps, there are a few factors that should be taken into consideration before using it.

Premature death

If a beast of burden dies while carrying items, they will be dropped on the floor and players may not be able to retrieve them if they do not have inventory slots available. Players may want to think about how many items they load a familiar with depending on what situation they will be in, such as in a fight where the beast of burden can be attacked by a player or monster, and how much they should carry to combat it. It should be noted that beasts of burden are immune to poison and most should have more than enough lifepoints to get through the situation.

Familiar timer

All familiars have a set lifespan - including beasts of burden. The timer is a key factor to take into consideration. Players should consider how long a trip might take, or the familiar's timer might end up running out. If the familiar is being used to bring items back and not to carry them, consider waiting until it is really needed before summoning.

On 29 April 2009, an update allowed players to replenish the familiar's lifespan. They are required to have both the pouch of the familiar they currently have, and have the summoning points that would otherwise be required to summon a new one. Pouches can be used on the familiar to do this, or the familiar interface may be used.

Other beasts of burden

The following familiars can only be summoned while training Dungeoneering in Daemonheim.

Familiar	Summoning level required	Number of slots	Time (min)
Cub worldbearer	7	12	60
Little worldbearer	17	14	60
Naive worldbearer	27	16	60
Keen worldbearer	37	18	60
Brave worldbearer	47	20	60
Brah worldbearer	57	22	60
Naabe worldbearer	67	24	60
Wise worldbearer	77	26	60
Adept worldbearer	87	28	60
Sachem worldbearer	97	30	60

The following Beast of Burden Clay familiars are exclusive to the Stealing Creation activity.

Familiar	Summoning level required	Number of slots	Time (min)
Class 1	1	1	30
Class 2	20	6	30
Class 3	40	12	30
Class 4	60	18	30
Class 5	80	24	30

Glitches

There was a glitch with beasts of burden when using Cyreg Paddlehorn's boat (to or from Mort'ton). When a beast of burden was following a player, the beast would be forcefully dismissed, dropping all of the items it was carrying. There was no way to pick up the items from the boat. The messages only appeared after arriving at the destination and dismissing the message that informs the player of the arrival. This has since been fixed.
During a God Wars Dungeon instance, occasionally a player's beast of burden would vanish with the items inside regardless of the timer; the only way to reobtain the items from the familiar was either to summon a new one or use the deposit familiar option at the bank. This is now fixed.