While Dark Souls is a co-op game, it is completely different from every other co-op game out there. The first time my brother and I attempted to play co-op, we had no clue how to do it and didn’t understand the limitations.

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It’s important that you understand how co-op works from the start, and you’ll avoid wasting time trying to figure the confusing system out on your own. Whether you are playing the original version or the Remastered edition, I’ll tell you how to play co-op both with your friends or with random people.

Here is everything you’ll need to know about co-op in Dark Souls and Dark Souls Remastered

Related:Here’s What You Need to Level up in Dark Souls

Host vs phantom

In order to do any sort of co-op, you need one player to host and another to join. The joining player is referred to as a phantom, and their character will have a white, ghost-like appearance.

The host won’t receive any penalties, but the phantom will immediately lose half of their Estus flasks (an uneven number of flasks will round down). This is the developer’s way of balancing the game and ensuring it doesn’t turn into ultra-easy mode.

In the original game, a host is able to summon 2 phantoms and be invaded by one invader. The Remaster allows you to summon 3 phantoms and 2 invaders using an item called a Dried Finger.

To obtain a Dried Finger in the Remastered edition, you can buy it from the Undead Merchant in the Undead Burg. This merchant is located near the first bonfire of the Undead Burg.

The phantoms’ job is to protect the host at all costs, even at the expense of their own life. If the host dies, every phantom will be returned home. Phantoms that die will return to their own worlds, but the host will remain in his as long as he survives.

Playing with friends

If your goal is to play with friends, you’ll basically have to play the game through twice. Anything you do in a hosts world will only be for their game. Nothing you do there will affect your world in any way.

To play through the entire game co-op, you have to complete the area and bosses both on your game and your friend’s game. Many people have voiced their opinions on this, saying it ruins the fun of playing the game with friends.

Single-player Dark Souls is the purest form of the game you can get. Playing with friends does make it much easier than normal, but it can still be a challenge.

The best way to play with friends while making sure random people can’t join is with Password Matching.

Password matching

Navigate to the Network Settings in the menu tab to access Password Matching. It’s a pretty self-explanatory setting, but some people have a hard time understanding it.

Basically, both you and your friends need to have the same exact password set, and then you’ll only be able to see each other’s summon signs. No one else can see yours or join you unless they have the same password.

People that are having issues joining each other should try to set a short and simple password that’s hard to mess up. If they still are having issues then it might be a network issue.

Later on, I’m going to explain Soul level and weapon level restrictions on joining friends. These don’t apply at all to anyone using password matching, so you and your co-op buddy don’t have to worry about those.

White Sign Soapstone

Any player who wishes to be summoned to another world needs to first obtain the White Sign Soapstone. It’s easy to get and can be obtained early on in the game.

Right after you defeat the Taurus Demon, look for an NPC called Solaire of Astora. He can be found before you cross the bridge to the Undead Parish and is recognizable by the red sun on his clothes.

He should give it to you right away upon speaking to him. If he doesn’t, you will be forced to kill him to obtain the Soapstone.

The Soapstone will be in your inventory, and can never be consumed. To use it, you must place it on the ground wherever you’d like someone to find it. The one who places the White Sign Soapstone will be the phantom summoned to a host’s world.

To place the sign on the ground, locate the Soapstone in your items and press “Use.” The sign will be placed right where you’re standing. Any player that wishes to summon you has to go to the exact location the sign was placed.

The sign will appear on the ground, and a host has the option to click on it to view the name and player model of the one who placed the sign. It might take a few minutes to appear, so wait a few minutes to allow for the server to update.

Become human

You will spend most of Dark Souls in a hollowed state. Whenever you become human, a single death will return you to being hollow.

The only way to view a summon sign that has been placed by players is to become human. To become human, visit any bonfire and press the “Reverse Hollowing” option. There must be at least one Humanity in your inventory, which will be consumed upon reversing your hollowing.

There are a few good benefits to being human, such as increased item discovery. Beware though, a human can be invaded by hostile invaders, and there really isn’t a whole lot you can do but try to fight them.

Any friends you have with you in co-op can help you defeat the invader, so many people will make it easier. If an invader comes into the world, the phantoms should be the first ones in line to fight while the host does their best to stay alive.

Summon location

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Many locations in Dark Souls will not allow you to place a White Sign Soapstone. For example, you can’t place them inside boss rooms or in areas that don’t have a boss.

Some locations just don’t allow you to place one for whatever reason. The obvious solution is to find another place to put one, so keep searching.

The entire world is split up into areas where the White Soapstone can and cannot be used. Certain areas you can only place a summon sign once you have completed a certain in-game event.

For example, I’ve found that I can’t summon anyone near-certain bonfires. If I go into an adjacent room, the sign is able to be placed just fine. I really don’t know what determines the right areas to place a sign, but this Reddit post gives a great list of popular summon locations.

Boss status

Summoning a player depends on the status of the main area boss. If the boss has been defeated, then you can’t summon any co-op players into your world. You can, however, be summoned into your friend’s world to help them fight the enemies and bosses.

Bosses will increase in HP with each phantom that joins the world. The more players you have, the harder the boss will be to defeat. Don’t let that scare you though, having more people makes fighting a boss immensely easier.

One player can draw all of the boss’s attacks, while the other goes in for the fight. The boss only targets one player at a time, making it very easy for the attacking player to get some good hits.

Make sure that the host stays further away from the boss attacks because a host’s death will return every phantom. Both the host and the phantom can attack for double the damage, but there’s a greater risk of the host dying this way.

After defeating the boss, both players will receive some souls. The phantom will be returned to his own world, and the host can no longer summon any more players.

Soul levels

When it comes to playing with random players in co-op, things get a little more complicated. Playing with anyone through Password Matching removes any summoning restrictions the game may have, but random summon signs have a few caveats.

There is a special formula that can be used to determine what level you’ll be paired up with (x = host soul level). x +/- (10 + 10%).

This is to stop players with the top weapons and gear from coming into your world one-shotting every enemy and boss in the game. It also stops people from dropping you super overpowered gear that will make the game a piece of cake for you.

Because it’s measured by soul level, a player on their first run can join an NG+++ player. Summoning works regardless of what number of times they’ve beaten the game on that character, just as long as they aren’t a super high level.

As long as you use Password Matching, you can negate this entire mechanic. The developers were thoughtful enough to allow us to co-op with friends of any level!

Weapon levels

The weapon level mechanic is one that was introduced in the Remastered version of the game. Once again this is something that can be bypassed using Password Matching but affects every other player doing co-op.

I haven’t been able to find any numbers that easily explain how weapon level matching works, but here’s a wiki link to further explain it.

Covenants

There are 3 covenants in the game that provide different co-op abilities.

• Way of White
• Princess Guard
• Warrior of Sunlight

The Way of White covenant makes players likely to be matched with others of the same covenant. It also makes players less likely to join members of a hostile covenant. Joining this doesn’t provide any special multiplayer items like the other ones do.

The Princess Guard will give you a greater chance of joining others of the same covenant. Members of this covenant will be given access to special multiplayer miracles: Bountiful Sunlight and Soothing Sunlight.

The Warriors of Sunlight covenant gives players a golden summon sign and also makes their phantom gold in co-op opposed to the white it normally is. They also get a multiplayer miracle called the Sunlight Spear. Anytime a player defeats a boss with the help of another Warrior of Sunlight, they both will receive a sunlight medal. The medal can be used to increase your rank in the covenant.

Remastered vs original

The Remastered edition of Dark Souls changed a few aspects of co-op that slightly change how the game works.

One question many people wonder is, “Can Dark Souls and Dark Souls Remastered players play with each other?” No, you can’t unfortunately. They are completely separate versions of the game with a separate set of matchmaking rules.

The soul level matchmaking formula was changed, along with the addition of the weapon level matchmaking feature.

Negatives aspects of co-op

A lot of players argue that Dark Souls is a journey that should be experienced alone. While this is partially true, Dark Souls co-op is just another example of the many different options it gives players.

There are a few things that co-op will negatively affect gameplay (some people may see them as positives).

The first thing is that the game becomes immensely easier. Having a second person in your world can do more for you than having an amazing weapon could. Phantoms can lure out enemies or draw the bosses attacks while the host is able to whittle down his health.

The health of the bosses is also increased based on the number of co-op players in the world. This really doesn’t make a difference though, as many phantoms can wreck bosses much faster than one person could.

Playing through an area in co-op will make you lose a lot of the thrill of exploration and tension in Dark Souls. Having another person there makes everything seem less stressful and scary, which is a major part of the Dark Souls atmosphere.

Without that tension, it essentially becomes just like every other game. Granted, it still is a difficult game even with co-op, but it’s nowhere near the same as playing it alone.

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The second thing is that when an invader comes, chances of defeating him are much higher than one player fighting one on his own. Speaking of invaders, there is a greater chance of having one invade while you are playing co-op.

Common Issues

Can’t place a White Sign Soapstone

I see this one on Reddit and other forums all the time. This has also happened to me until I finally found a way around it.

When I tried to summon my brother for some co-op, the Use button on the White Sign Soapstone was crossed out and gray. I found that the particular area I was in wasn’t suitable for summoning.

Remember how I talked about summoning locations above? Well, there’s a good way to find out where you can and can’t place a summon sign.

Place the White Sign Soapstone in your item slot where you can see it. Simply run around the in an area you wish to place it. If the game will allow it, it’ll light up in your item slot.

Can’t see a friend’s summon sign

Yet another glitch my brother and I have encountered. Sometimes, the sign just isn’t showing up. This can be happening for a number of reasons.

One is that one of you has the wrong password set up. If one or both of you have different passwords, you simply can’t summon each other.

First, check to make sure that both your passwords match. They must be exact matches. Next, check your online status. Obviously, offline players can’t use any online features.

Both of your Matchmaking regions must be the same too. Summon Sign Visibility is a setting used to reduce the number of signs in a given area. A lot of people are confused as to exactly how it works, but keep the setting at Unrestricted for the best results.

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Be patient. The summon sign might take several minutes to appear, so wait at least 5 minutes for it to show up.

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Missing White Sign Soapstone

You may be desperately searching for your Soapstone to no avail, and that’s probably because you don’t have it. Many players didn’t receive it from Solaire after talking to him.

The only way you can possibly get it back now is to defeat him and loot his body. If you do this and still don’t have one, then there really is no other option.

You probably could mod one onto your character, but I won’t cover that here. There is potential to mess up your character permanently, so I don’t recommend doing this.

Conclusion

Co-op in Dark Souls is a confusing, yet very fun part of the Souls series. There is always the potential to run into bugs, but the few issues listed here can be easily fixed.

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I recommend playing the game through at least once solo for the full experience. After that, you can enjoy playing this amazing game with your friends.