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Dark Souls has always had co-operative multiplayer as part of the franchise’s offerings, but there has always been something a bit unconventional about it.
Instead of a simple multiplayer where you could casually tag with your friends and complete quests together – Dark Souls has a complicated yet entertaining co-op alternative in which you need to put a bit of effort into playing the game with fellow gamers.
Aside from the co-op in Dark Souls 3, the game has a few other online capabilities that you would otherwise miss out on if you played the game offline.
But of course, you’re here for how to play online co-op in Dark Souls 3 and we’re here to explain to you in easy steps how you can play that mode of the game. So, without wasting any time, let’s jump right into our guide!
How to Play Co-Op in Dark Souls 3
Before we get into the exact method of how you can play co-op with other players in Dark Souls 3, let’s take a moment to talk about how the system works, to begin with. You can either bring other players in your own game as Phantoms by summoning them, or you can join their game as a Phantom instead.
If you’re worried about the game becoming too easy when there are multiple players present – fortunately that’s not how it works. The game’s difficulty increases itself based on how many players are together at one time.
This also means that if you have difficulty beating a certain boss, your troubles might not end by having other players join you. Fortunately, there is an advantage for playing co-op and that is in the form of players getting better rewards and more bonuses for killing larger enemies.
Now that we have the system itself out of the way, let’s talk about how you can do it.
How to Play with Others by inviting
The very first step to summoning your friends in co-op gameplay is to become a ‘kindled’ which is a pretty simple task that everyone knows of. If you’re unsure, this is basically the state in which your clothes emit orange fire as if they are burning.
Once you are kindled, you begin to see ‘summon’ signs and you can use them to call your friends into the game. You’ll need to use an ‘Ember’ which is an in-game item you can find and it allows you to summon your friends on the signs.
So, that’s basically three steps that you need to complete.
You can avoid using an amber too which is to beat bosses and gain the strength of flame and strength of fire respectively. It’s simpler to just use Embers though, which is the preferred method within gamers so to speak.
Once your clothes are on fire, you can summon the players in your game. Funnily enough, this works offline too as you can summon AI-controlled NPCs when your game is not connected to the internet.
How to Get Embers
If you’re out of Embers and don’t know how to get them, you can find them in shops run by NPC merchants such as the ‘Greirat of the Undead Settlement and the ‘Shrine Handmaid’ in the Firelink Shrine area of the game.
If you don’t want to purchase them, you can find them as rewards for killing bosses and such too.
How to Join Others
The method of joining others is a bit different in comparison. You’ll need to go to the ‘Shrine Handmaid’ in Firelink Shrine and buy an item called White Sign Soapstone for 500 souls.
Then you can use the item to draw a summon sign on the ground and it shows up to other players who can then do the same things explained in the previous step to summon you in their game.
There are plenty of other ways to play online in Dark Souls 3, but this guide is only about the cooperative mode and how you can begin playing it with other players.
There are many things you can find that will always make your experience feel different, so don’t be hesitant to experiment.
And that’s it for our guide on how to play online co-op in Dark Souls 3!
We hope that you’re up and ready to play the game cooperatively and we’re here to answer any questions that you might have. And while you’re here, make sure to check out some of our other helpful gaming guides too.
