This post was last updated on March 1, 2026
Although Elden Ring is primarily a single player game, it does have a couple multiplayer features, including the ability to summon friends to help. This is great if you are in tough dungeons or just need help killing a tough boss. But occasionally, you might get an error message instead of a friend.
The first thing you should be aware of is that you may receive this message if someone has already summoned the person you are attempting to summon. Next, you should check your internet connection, followed by the version of Elden Ring you are running. Finally, the last thing you might need to do is reinstall.
In this article, we will look at all the common causes to the “Unable To Summon Cooperator Error” so you can play online.
How To Summon A Cooperator
To play Elden Ring co op with a friend or get help from someone else, you need to make sure that your game is connected to its online services. The Elden Ring game client will try to connect on launch, so you shouldn’t need to do it manually.
If, for whatever reason, it didn’t connect at this stage, you can do it in the game network settings in the main menu. Here you can set your launch settings and matchmaking preferences and “Enable” the ability to “Send Summon Sign”.
Once this is done, you can use the Furlcalling Finger Remedy item to see a golden summoning sign, which you can activate to bring people into your game (a maximum of two other players).
You can craft the Furlcalling Finger Remedy with a crafting kit and Erdleaf Flowers, or they are found in the following places:
- Dropped by various enemies; Bloody Finger Nerijus; north-east from Agheel Lake, toward Murkwater Catacombs, Recusant Henricus; north-east of Stormhill Shack, Anastasia, Tarnished-Eater; the Smoldering Church in Caelid, Festering Fingerprint Vyke; outside the Church of Inhibition
- Dropped by Hosts of Fingers when invading other players games with a Bloody Finger.
- Dropped in Highroad Cave.
- Buy it from Merchant Kalé, at the Church of Elleh in Limgrave or buy it from Twin Maiden Husks at the Roundtable Hold after giving them Kale’s Bell Bearing
- Can be found in Castle Morne area.
- One on a corpse at Stormveil Castle.
- Buy it from Patches at Murkwater Cave after he sets up shop (which will happen if you spare his life) or buy it from Twin Maiden Husks at the Roundtable Hold after giving them Patches’ Bell Bearing.
- One can be found on a corpse at the Siofra River Well Depths Site of Grace in the Siofra River.
- One can be found in the Siofra River surrounded by a group of Land Octopuses.
- Can be found on one of the corpses lying in Ainsel River.
- Found on a corpse in Nokron, Eternal City.
- Looted off a corpse near the Schoolhouse Classroom in Raya Lucaria Academy.
- Looted off a corpse near the Iron Ball trap stairs in Raya Lucaria Academy.
- In the Capital Outskirts, at the end of the corridor past the elevator, on your left side.
- One is held by a corpse at Stormveil Castle.
- One found under a wooden walkway in the eastern section of Castle Sol (on the way to the boss room.)
- Found on the fortified manor, at Leyndell Royal Capital.
- 1 Dropped by each of the Volcano Mannor assassination targets.
Troubleshooting Summon Cooperator Error
If you have checked that you are connected to the online services in Elden Ring but are still getting the “unable to summon cooperator” error messages, there are a couple of things you can do to try and fix it. Here are the most common issues and solutions:
- You are trying to activate a summon sign on an especially hard boss such as Malenia or Radagon and you get the summon cooperator error message, this can simply be because someone else has managed to summon the same operator. The best way that you can check this is to try another one of the golden summon signs or to reload the area, by resting at a site of grace or fast travelling, using another Furlcalling Finger Remedy and trying again.
- Internet connection could have dropped. The quickest way to check is to see if the Multiplayer and Messages tab is available on the in game menu.
- Your internet connection might be too slow. Not everyone lives in an area with great internet so it might be worth doing a quick speed test to see how yours is. If you are on Wifi bear in mind that a wired connection via an ethernet cable will be faster.
- Updating Elden Ring; Make sure your game is up to date with the most recent patch. To fix this simply check for updates for the game on whatever medium you’re playing it on.
- On PC, it can be worth verifying the integrity of the game files in the Steam client, as corrupted files can cause such issues.
- Server error and maintenance can prevent you from summoning. These can last a few hours so it can be worth checking the internet for the Elden Ring server status and planned server downtime.
- The issue can be on your co op partner’s end. Try to summon a different partner.
- If you have tried these fixes and still have had no luck it will be worth it to reinstall Elden Ring.
Final Thoughts
Although Elden Ring isn’t an online game, it is a lot of fun to play with friends. It isn’t the end of the world if you are unable to summon cooperator error. The biggest issues will stem from your internet connection or the Elden Ring server status and always remember to keep your game up to date.
