What does the Failure to Summon Collaborator mean in Elden Ring and how to fix it

If you’ve ever been into the fun co-op in the game Souls, you know that the connection between players can sometimes be the opposite of excellence. Undoubtedly, if you tried to summon a player to help you fight the boss, you’ll get an error message that says “Failed to summon cooperator”. If you’re curious what this means and how to fix it, read on.

The “cooperator could not be summoned” error means one of two things – the connection between the two of you is unstable, or it’s more likely that the player has been summoned by someone else first. The type of multiplayer for which the Souls series is famous is based on what is known as “peer-to-peer” networking – that is, one player “organizes” other players in their world. This means a bad connection from the host or a disconnect from the server to one of the virtual players, which can lead to some weird game behavior.

Conversely, if someone is summoned elsewhere before you reach them, their mark will not immediately disappear from your world. The game will try to call them to your world, recognize that they are already in another world, and return the “Cannot summon collaborator” error at you. This is extremely common right in front of boss doors, as most players drop signs in those locations trying to farm bosses to get Runes.

However, if you are not able to summon multiple people in a row, you may want to restart your game application and refresh your connection to the Elden Ring server. This is the easiest and fastest way to fix any potential game server connectivity issues you may have.