From the days of dark souls, you were able to initiate jolly cooperation, with Solaire of Astora giving you the white soapstone. Co-op is definitely back in Elden ring and busier than ever, with hundreds of different builds you’ll find that each invasion, duel, and summon has their own unique twist on what works for them. Elden ring has the highest number of players of any Fromsoftware game, with its peak being at 952,523 players on steam. You’ll have no trouble at all with matchmaking.
Summon your friends (pictured) to enjoy the game with people.
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Elden ring sadly doesn’t have any crossplay, if you’re on PC you can’t play with your Xbox friends, but they do support cross-generation play, so if you’re on Playstation 4 you will be able to play with Playstation 5 players. Multiplayer in Elden ring isn’t as straightforward as in other games by simply inviting someone and playing, you will need a few items if you wish to do jolly cooperation;
Furlcalling Finger Remedy.
The Furlcalling Finger Remedy (pictured) will be the multiplayer item you'll need to use.
This item will reveal co-op and hostile summoning signs that other players have set down, you will find co-op signs around boss arenas and summoning pools. This is also a craftable item, all you’ll be needing are two Erdleaf flowers. If you wish to send another, or yourself back to your or their game, you need to use the finger severer that can be found right at the start of the game.
The most important item for jolly cooperation is the Tarnished furled finger. With it, you create a summon sign that other players can see, and that makes them able to summon you to their world, to help them beat the boss that they are struggling with.
Use the Furled finger (pictured) to help others.
The duelist’s furled finger is almost the same as the Tarnished furled finger but instead of placing a cooperative summon sign, you place a competitive summon sign to duel against other players. The Tarnished Wizened finger will be used to write messages to other worlds and can be found at the very start of the game on a body against the wall on the right side of the tutorial area.
The taunters tongue (pictured) for those who wish to be invaded.
The taunters tongue can be used to lure in invaders after using a Furlcalling finger remedy, and if you wish to be the invader, you use the bloody finger that you get from White-faced Varre by talking to him at the Rose church and doing his quest line that revolves around invading.
The small golden- and red effigy are the same as the Tarnished- and Duelist’s furled finger, but it sends your summon sign to summoning pools with a higher chance to be summoned if your sign is at various pools.
If you wish to try again and again against that three stacks of players whilst invading, you can use the Phantom blood finger to try and invade their world again. If you wish to help someone when they are invaded, you can always use the blue Cipher ring that will have you on call when they are invaded, and if you use the white Cipher ring you will receive help when you are invaded by a Blue Cipher ring using friend.
With matchmaking being set depending on level, you’ll have a hard time being summoned by a level 4 at Margit when you’re level 200, the ideal level to stay around is 150, most people at the end game are around level 120-150, be sure to try multiplayer at least once before going over level 150 as matchmaking will be harder.
So you’re already in a new game plus 8 with a level 550 character and your friend just got Elden ring, don’t fret for you can still play together without having to start over with the password system, the host sets a password, then the person who wishes to be summoned places his sign where the host wishes to summon him, and so jolly cooperation begins. If you don't have anyone you wish to play with, but still want to get summoned, you can find people asking for help on r/CypherRing.
