Nobody is going to be shocked to learn that Elden Ring is a tough game, it is a FromSoftware title, at the end of the day. That said, people have been caught off guard by just how difficult the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC is. If you are trying to tag in some help but keep running into the “Unable to summon cooperator” error, then we have some insight for you.
‘Unable to summon cooperator’ error – explained
The bad news is that this appears to be a one-size-fits-all error, and it doesn’t tell you too much about what is happening. It will pop up whenever the connection doesn’t work for any reason. It could be a problem on your end, the other player’s end, the servers, or any other reasons. The other person might just have quite mid connection, or their internet might have gone down. All you can really do is find another summon sign and try again.
The most common reason for this to happen is that the summon sign loads into your game and another player’s game, and you both grab it when looking for help. The game can only connect the summon with one of you, so the other one will get the failure message. This happens a lot outside boss rooms, and it is the most likely cause of the error if you are getting it before a fog door.
The second most likely reason for it to happen is that someone pops down their sign, then goes wandering around and accidentally leaves the area, meaning you cannot “pull” them back onto that part of the map when you try to summon them, as summon locations are localized.
Now, this has always been something of a flaw in the cooperative mechanics of Soulsborne games, and sadly, Elden Ring has not escaped it. It’s also exacerbated because this is such a busy time, and everyone is trying to grab summons where they can. There is no shame in grabbing a jolly cooperator to help you get through tougher sections of the game, especially as you balance it out with the need to deal with invaders. Plus, as already stated, the Shadow of the Erdtree is a real beast on the difficulty front, with even series vets feeling the heat.
There are other ways to seek help. Keep an eye out for summon signs from NPCs instead of players, as you won’t have any issues there, and you can also use your every useful Mimic Tear to spawn a whole new you if you need it.