What you need to know about Elden Ring’s co-op mod, PvP, and multiplayer experience.

(Image credit: FromSoftware)
Cooperative play has been a core feature of FromSoftware’s games going all the way back to Demon’s Souls, but it’s never been easier than it is in Elden Ring. Even if you prefer to play the Souls games solo, you may have taken advantage of their “summoning” mechanic that lets you call on friendly NPCs to take down bosses. More fun, in my opinion, is summoning another human player to battle through an entire area together. Prior to Elden Ring, this required spending a precious resource, but FromSoftware did away with that limitation to make Elden Ring much more multiplayer friendly.
Co-op in Elden Ring is still limited compared to most other games, though—you can’t just pull up your Steam friends list and invite someone into your session. If you die or defeat a boss, the co-op session is considered complete and your ally is whisked away back to their game world. While joining someone’s world for co-op does net you rewards, the process doesn’t carry over, meaning you’ll still have to defeat the same boss or area yourself. But thanks to an Elden Ring mod called Seamless Co-op, it’s possible to play through the entire game in co-op without these limitations. It’s a totally new way to play Elden Ring in multiplayer: the whole game, beginning to end.
Elden Ring with the Seamless Co-op mod is now my favorite way to play, though it does have a few limitations and bugs as you’d expect from such an ambitious mod. Here’s everything you need to know about Seamless Co-op vs. traditional Elden Ring multiplayer, including how to set up the mod for Elden Ring’s expansion Shadow of the Erdtree.
EXPANSION MOD SUPPORT
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Will the Seamless Co-op mod work in Shadow of the Erdtree?
The Elden Ring Seamless Co-op mod works in Shadow of the Erdtree—but it’s currently in beta, so expect some bugs.
Modder LukeYui released the mod on Nexusmods and has a list of changes posted in the comments. In this early stage of the mod, most updates will be mandatory. LukeYui says the forced updates are to “keep everyone on the same version so bug fixes can be confirmed and problematic issues that might disrupt playthroughs are addressed urgently.”
Seamless Co-op is an impressive and complex mod, and it could take some time before it’s out of beta, but LukeYui says the newest version should work smoothly for most people.
SEAMLESS CO-OP
(Image credit: FromSoftware)