Elden Ring guide: How to play online, summon friends, terrorize enemies, and earn tons of runes (2024)

Elden Ring continues FromSoftware’s “weird but cool” multiplayer, where by “weird but cool,” we mean “confusing and opaque.” It’s not quite like any other FromSoftware game, except the parts that are, and the game kind of explains it all, but not super well.

But understanding Elden Ring multiplayer can make you a better, richer player.

In this Elden Ring guide, we’ll teach you everything you need to know about Elden Ring multiplayer. That begins with an overview of connecting with other players (for good and for evil) — including when and why that’s a good idea. Whether you want to be helpful or a monster hurtful, optional multiplayer can make the game better. It’s also among the best ways to earn runes in Elden Ring.

Table of contents

• How multiplayer works in Elden Ring
• Write messages with the Tarnished’s Wizened Finger
• Bloodstains
• Summoning and being summoned: Playing with other Elden Ring players
• Summoning other players
• Summoning pools and martyr effigies
• The password system for playing only with your friends
• Elden Ring multiplayer items

How multiplayer works in Elden Ring

When you launch Elden Ring, you connect with the game’s servers automatically. Those servers are portals into other players’ games. If you don't want to be online, go to the System > Network, and chose Launch Setting > Play Offline. (Play Online is the default.) But even if you do that, parts of Elden Ring will behave as if you were online.

Write messages with the Tarnished’s Wizened Finger

You can see online-like behavior early on, when you walk across notes written on the ground. If you play offline, the only notes you’ll see are from the game’s creators. If you play online, you’ll also see messages from other players. Sometimes, those messages are helpful, like when players warn you of an ambush ahead. Sometimes, they trick you into jumping off a cliff because that’s kind of funny, from a certain point of view.

If you’re playing online, you can leave messages with the Tarnished’s Wizened Finger item which is “Used to write messages to other worlds.” (Fingers are an item that will keep coming up.) You’ll get it from a dead body in the Chapel of Anticipation right at the beginning of the game. Write a message, and they’ll show up in other players’ games. If someone rates your message, you’ll get a bonus to health.

Bloodstains

Bloodstains are a big advantage to playing online, because they show you where and how other players died, so that you don’t have to die that way, too.

Imagine finding a message that some naughty Elden Ring player wrote, telling you to jump off a cliff. It could be horse apples. It could be the path to untold riches. What’s a Tarnished like you to do?

Well, you find a bloodstain nearby, and you walk over it, and sure enough, it shows another Tarnished leaping down the hole to their death. Crisis averted. Watch those bloodstains. They might save your life.

Summoning and being summoned: Playing with other Elden Ring players

Real-time multiplayer takes two forms in Elden Ring: You can become the Host of Fingers to other players into your game, or you can leave your game temporarily and join someone else’s.

If you want to make lots of runes and you’re a helpful person, consider using the Tarnished’s Furled Finger and helping other players defeat a boss. If you want to make an indeterminate number of runes and you’re a mean and cruel person, consider invading other players’ worlds with a Bloody Finger and killing them.

Summoning other players

In Elden Ring, as in so many other FromSoftware games, summon signs represent other players. They look like piles of rocks on the ground. Use a Furlcalling Finger Remedy to see nearby summon signs. Gold summon signs are allies — people who want to help you. Red summon signs are enemies — people who want to fight you.

If you want to help someone, use Tarnished Furled Finger to create a gold summon sign that appears in other players’ games. Elden Ring calls this cooperative multiplayer.

If you want to fight someone, use the Duelist’s Furled Finger to create a red summon sign. You’ll become the Duelist, and your job will be to kill the player Host of Fingers who summoned you.

Summoning pools and martyr effigies

Summoning pools are a … weird part of Elden Ring multiplayer. Here’s how they work.

Let’s start with what Elden Ring says:

In each area, you may find effigies of martyrs. These effigies are summoning pools.

You’ll find it easy to summon other players at these locations, as co-op and hostile summoning signs created with small effigies gather at summoning pools.

Image: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco via Polygon

Geographical areas in Elden Ring have summoning pools, as represented by martyr effigies, like the one pictured above. You’ll find them near sites of grace, dungeons, catacombs, and legacy dungeons.

Walk up to an effigy, interact with it, and others’ summoning signs appear.

The password system for playing only with your friends

Image: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco via Polygon

Elden Ring’s password system allows you to play with a friend of your choosing. If you and a friend want to play together, here’s what you need to do.

1. Open the Elden Ring, menu and select System. (It’s the one on the bottom left with the gears icon.)
2. Navigate to the Network tab (it’s the wireframe globe icon), and make sure you’re online.
3. Navigate to the Multiplayer tab in the main menu.
4. Press Triangle/Y/whatever the PC equivalent is to enter Settings.
5. Choose an easy-to-type, definitely mature password that isn’t a childish word that we would never use.
6. Tell your friend the password.
7. Enjoy a period of jolly co-operation.

Elden Ring multiplayer items

There are several multiplayer items. They’re all about fingers. Here’s where to get them and what they do.