Last updated: 11 July 2026

Elden Ring Co-op Multiplayer Guide — Jolly Cooperation, Explained

Elden Ring's multiplayer system is deliberately cryptic — you will never see an on-screen button prompt telling you to summon help. But once you understand the handful of reusable items and the matchmaking rules that govern them, summoning friends or strangers becomes second nature. This complete Elden Ring co-op multiplayer guide covers every relevant item, the level and weapon-upgrade matchmaking brackets, what you give up when you summon, invasion basics, platform crossplay limits, and the fastest way to connect with a specific friend using password matching.

01The Two Roles: Host and Cooperator

Every co-op session has one Host of Fingers — the player whose world the session takes place in. The host keeps all progress: boss kills count, Sites of Grace activate, and story events trigger. Cooperators, called Furled Fingers, are golden phantoms who assist the host. When a cooperator leaves the session (by dying, defeating the boss, or choosing to exit), they return to their own world and keep their runes and items earned while helping but receive no story progress from the host's world.

This asymmetry matters: if you want to make progress in your own game, you need to be the host. If you just want to help a friend or earn some quick runes and a Rune Arc, cooperating as a Furled Finger is the way in.

02Furlcalling Finger Remedy — The Host's Required Item

Before the host can see anyone else's summon signs, they must use a Furlcalling Finger Remedy. This consumable reveals gold (cooperative) and red (duelling) summon signs placed by other players in the surrounding area. Without it active, the ground looks completely empty of signs even when dozens of players are waiting to be summoned nearby.

The remedy is not permanent — it lasts until you rest at a Site of Grace, are invaded, or leave the area. You can craft one from two Erdleaf Flowers using the Crafting Kit (bought from Merchant Kalé at the Church of Elleh), or purchase them directly from Merchant Kalé for 1,000 runes each. Erdleaf Flowers grow in clusters throughout Limgrave and the Weeping Peninsula, so the craft path is essentially free once you own the kit.

• To craft: Open inventory → Crafting → Furlcalling Finger Remedy → requires 2 Erdleaf Flowers + Crafting Kit
• To buy: Merchant Kalé at Church of Elleh, Limgrave — 1,000 runes each
• Tip: Stock at least four or five before a boss attempt; each death at a Site of Grace removes the active remedy

03Tarnished's Furled Finger — Placing Your Own Summon Sign

A cooperator who wants to be summoned into other worlds uses the Tarnished's Furled Finger, a reusable item that places a gold summon sign on the ground. You can only have one sign active at a time — placing a second removes the first. The sign appears in other players' worlds when they activate a Furlcalling Finger Remedy in the same area.

The Tarnished's Furled Finger is found early: look on a corpse to the right of the lift entrance at the Stranded Graveyard starting area, right before the first tutorial section. Almost every new character walks past it. If you missed it, it can also be purchased or found in the early Limgrave area — check the messages section of your Multiplayer menu, which also lets you place signs.

After placing a sign you just wait — a host somewhere in the matchmaking range will see it and tap it to pull you in. Once summoned your objective is to help defeat the area boss. The sign reappears automatically in your world after each summon ends so you never need to re-place it.

04Small Golden Effigy — Summoning Pool Broadcast

Elden Ring introduced a second cooperator item that skips the manual sign-placement step: the Small Golden Effigy. Instead of dropping a sign at your feet, using it broadcasts your cooperation request to all nearby active Summoning Pools simultaneously — effectively getting your sign into multiple locations at once.

Summoning Pools are activated by touching the Martyr Effigy statues found near boss fog gates, dungeon entrances, and major landmarks throughout the Lands Between. Once activated, they stay active. The Small Golden Effigy is the faster option if you are near an area with multiple pools, because you reach more potential hosts without walking to each spot.

Hosts see signs from both sources in the same way — by using a Furlcalling Finger Remedy and then walking up to a gold sign to summon. As a cooperator you do not control which method a host sees your sign through.

05Playing with a Specific Friend — Password Matchmaking

Random matchmaking works well for quick cooperation, but if you want to summon a specific friend you need the multiplayer password system. Both players open their menu, go to the Multiplayer tab, and enter the same password string. After that, summon signs from password-matching players are tinted with a white glow to distinguish them from stranger signs.

The most important benefit of passwords: they bypass the standard level and weapon-upgrade matchmaking brackets entirely. A level 300 endgame character and a brand-new level 20 can summon each other freely as long as they share a password. This makes it the go-to method for friends who are at different points in the game.

One caveat: passwords only affect summoning. They do not prevent a third party from invading the host's world once a cooperator is present — invasions follow their own matchmaking rules regardless of password.

06Matchmaking Ranges — Level and Weapon Upgrade

Without a password, the game checks two factors before two players can see each other's signs: character level and highest weapon upgrade level ever obtained on that character (the game permanently remembers your peak, so selling a +25 weapon does not reset your bracket).

The cooperative level formula, calculated from the host's perspective:

• Lower limit: Host Level × 0.9 − 10
• Upper limit: Host Level × 1.1 + 10
• Example: A level 100 host can summon players from roughly level 80 to level 120

Weapon upgrade level uses a tiered bracket system rather than a continuous formula:

• +0 to +5: can match with players ±3 upgrade tiers
• +6 to +12: can match with players ±4 upgrade tiers
• +13 to +25: can match with players ±5 upgrade tiers

Practical takeaway: if you and a friend are far apart in level or upgrade progression, use a password. If you are doing open sign-based matchmaking, it helps to be within 10–20 levels of the intended play area's recommended level and to have a weapon in a comparable upgrade range.

07Co-op Restrictions — What Changes When You Summon

Co-op comes with meaningful trade-offs the game does not explain well at the start. Know these before your first boss run:

• Spirit Ashes are disabled. Once a human cooperator is present in your world, you cannot summon Spirit Ashes from the Spirit Calling Bell. It is a deliberate design choice: the game treats human help and AI summons as mutually exclusive. Choose one approach and commit to it.
• Torrent is unavailable. You cannot mount the spectral horse while cooperators are in your world. Open-world traversal with a party is on foot only.
• Area restrictions apply. Co-op sessions are bounded by fog gates in certain areas. You can explore open overworld regions together, but some underground passages and legacy dungeon transitions will break the session or require the cooperator to be re-summoned on the other side.
• You become invadable. Summoning one cooperator opens your world to invasions by hostile players (Bloody Fingers, Recusants). A second cooperator does not increase invasion frequency — but using the Taunter's Tongue does.
• Cooperators do not keep story progress. Defeating a boss in the host's world does not count as a kill in the cooperator's own file. Cooperators must clear each area themselves in their own sessions.

08Party Size and How Sessions End

A standard co-op session supports a maximum of four total players: one host, two cooperators, and potentially one active invader. You cannot have three cooperators; the cap for friendly summons is two.

Sessions end in one of three ways:

1. Boss defeated: All cooperators are automatically ejected from the host's world. Each surviving cooperator receives a reward — a Rune Arc and a quantity of runes — deposited directly into their inventory.
2. Host dies: All cooperators are ejected immediately. No rewards are given for failed runs.
3. Manual exit: Either the host or a cooperator can use the Finger Severer at any time. As host, it removes all phantoms from your world. As a cooperator, it returns you to your own world.

Cooperators who die before the boss is killed are also sent home immediately. There is no respawning in a co-op session — if a Furled Finger dies, the host must resummon them from a new sign.

09Invasion — The Antagonist Side of Multiplayer

Invasions are part of the same multiplayer system, so understanding them helps you manage your co-op sessions more effectively. Here is a brief overview of the main invasion items:

• Bloody Finger — Invades a random host's world as a hostile red phantom. Objective: kill the host before they reach the boss fog gate. Obtainable via White-Faced Varré's questline at the Rose Church in Liurnia after defeating any shardbearer.
• Recusant Finger — Functionally identical to the Bloody Finger but tied to the Volcano Manor faction questline (Volcano Manor is located in the Mt. Gelmir region, north of the Altus Plateau). Recusants and Bloody Fingers are hostile to each other when they appear in the same session.
• Duelist's Furled Finger — Places a red sign for consensual 1v1 duels. Found on a corpse near the Stormhill colosseum entrance. Hosts must use a Furlcalling Finger Remedy to see it; summoning a red sign counts as agreeing to a duel.
• Taunter's Tongue — A host-side item that actively invites invasions. It allows your world to be invaded even without cooperators present and shortens the interval between invasion windows. With Taunter's Tongue active, the party is capped at one cooperator (instead of two) but allows a second simultaneous invader — making it ideal for intentional 2v2 PvP sessions.
• Blue Cipher Ring — Purchased from the Twin Maiden Husks at Roundtable Hold for 1,000 runes. Equipping it makes you eligible to be summoned as a Hunter — a defensive phantom who arrives to help a host being invaded. The host does not need to activate any item; Hunters can arrive automatically.

As a host in active co-op, your best defense against an invader is the same principle that makes summons powerful — numbers. Two cooperators plus the host make short work of most red phantoms, who often focus the host to end the session quickly. Communicate through gestures and use the terrain to your advantage.

10Crossplay — Which Platforms Can Play Together

Elden Ring does not support cross-platform play between different platform families. The breakdown:

• PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 can play together freely (cross-generation within the PlayStation ecosystem).
• Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S can play together freely (cross-generation within the Xbox ecosystem).
• PC (Steam) players can only play with other PC players.
• There is no crossplay between PlayStation and Xbox, between PC and either console, or any other combination across these families.

The Shadow of the Erdtree DLC (released June 2024) did not change the crossplay structure, and FromSoftware has made no announcements about adding it. If you plan to co-op with friends, confirm you are all on the same platform ecosystem before purchasing.

11Quick Troubleshooting — Why You Cannot Summon

Several common situations block summoning and are easy to overlook:

• No active Furlcalling Finger Remedy (host side): Signs are invisible without the remedy active. Use one from your Quick Slots — the ground should immediately show colored signs nearby.
• Already summoned an NPC phantom: Certain NPC summon signs (golden ashes visible without a remedy, near boss fog gates) conflict with player summoning. Dismiss the NPC phantom first or choose one or the other.
• Boss already defeated in your world: Once a boss is cleared in your file, summon signs for that area stop appearing. You cannot resummon for a boss you have already beaten.
• Playing offline: Check your network settings in the game's System menu. Offline mode, which some players enable to avoid invasions, also disables all summoning.
• Level or weapon mismatch: If you and a friend cannot see each other's signs even with a password, confirm both players entered the exact same password string. Without a password, use the level formula to check whether your levels overlap.
• You are a cooperator trying to use Spirit Ashes: The Spirit Calling Bell is unavailable while you are a golden phantom in someone else's world. This is not a bug — it is the intended restriction.