What do Summoning Marks do?

[Velorien]

I can't find a satisfactory answer to this anywhere. Gaining more of them doesn't seem to change anything about the familiar.

[twitch.tv/GFYE]

Summoning works like this.

Step 1 unlock the desired summon by doing a skill.
Step 2 craft "create familiar tablets" that summon ONE time so you can PASSIVELY gain marks without having to make that particular summon.
Step 3 begin gaining MARKS to level up the rank of that summon. Most summons that have synergies require a MARK LEVEL.
Step 4 Craft additional familiar tablets BEFORE you use a skill to accelerate the speed in which you level up that summon.

If you have unlocked for example " Mark of the Ent" and you have crafted ENT at least once, you can come back after a couple of hours or a full day of wood chopping and ENT will level almost certain gain marks. If you craft a couple thousand before doing woodcutting and it will likely also level up to the cap of Mark Level 6. This is all listed right on the summoning skill page. If you have FOUND the summon "lets say salamander" but you never craft it, it will stay Mark Level 1 forever until you do craft it.

It is very straight forward, so much so I neglected to do it for a good 100 hours " thankfully in skills I wasn't actively doing, mark level is easy to get so it doesn't really matter that much besides lost bonuses during farming sessions from using those summons" :D

TLDR: Summoning. Go to skill tab, craft familar tablets for everything you ever unlock . . . immediately after unlock. Just play the game. Tada :D

[HeroFantasy]

After discovering your first mark, you have to make the tablets for it one time to unlock further mark drops.

Marks level the familiar (tablet) up to 6.

Higher level familiars unlock synergies. Synergies are using two different tablets at once for a unique effect.

[HeroFantasy]

All this information is available in the official wiki, if you haven't been using it. It's the greatest resource for anything about the game.

[Princemousey]

To specifically answer your query in a concise manner, marks are for synergies.

So if you have your Ent at level 1 for example, you won't be able to use the synergies that require Ent to be at level 3. You can check this in the "Synergies" tab of the "Summoning" skill in-game. Gaining more marks will automatically level up the summons and unlock the synergies once you reach the required level for both summons.