After collecting 100 medals and savoring the victory over countless invaders, I feel qualified to give you some tips revolving around co-op and how to make it as jolly as possible, as well as a few general observations I've had in the past 50 hours of playtime. (You don't actually get anything for handing in more than 30 medals and hitting Rank 2, sadly, but if you count it out, I'd be a grossly incandescent Rank 9.)

The State of Things

There's no better time to collect some medals than at the launch of a Souls game. Summon times are almost instant (as long as you are at an appropriate boss for your level), and the level range is wide; I was around SL115 and still getting snatched up in under 30 seconds for bosses that, frankly, I didn't expect anyone would bother doing in co-op (I'll get to that in a bit). It's also the best way of farming souls by a long shot; I was getting 20-25k for a boss that'd keel over in a minute flat. Even with a random failure here or or there, you're still pulling in hundreds of thousands of souls per hour.

And you get embers on top of it! The hell am I going to do with 100 embers?

However, not all is bright and glorious; this IS a Souls game, after all, which means the netcode can be sketchy. Somewhere between 10% and 20% of the time, all of the animations would just completely break, causing both the boss and other players to glide around in a T-pose. This is a blessing in disguise, however; you still do full damage to the boss, and he can't hurt you a bit. The flip side of that is when it doesn't break fully, and instead of a benign sliding statue, you wind up with a teleporting, undodgeable rage monster that you can't really land any hits on. But the worst by far is a bug that prevents you from crossing the fog door. No amount of emoting, rolling or pleading is going to save a host that is forced to fight a boss now balanced for three people.

Still, the netcode is mostly not on fire, so it's well worth your time for an occasional lag fest.

The next batch of observations deals with being summoned and what you are being summoned for. One thing that struck me was just how often people would summon me in for their very first attempt at a fight. Certain bosses have tells; as the host, you might be able to run up to a boss before the fight actually starts, but you lose that advantage after your first try, while us phantoms are stuck at what would be the fog door until you actually engage him no matter what. I mean, I'm not complaining; it's more work for me, and that's a good thing. But it leads to silly situations like having a host with no clue what to dodge or move away from, and no amount of frantic "HEY!" emotes is going to save them.

Finally, I was summoned in the most for a boss that I felt was a pushover; his attacks are slow, he has very little health in comparison to other bosses at that point in the game, and most of all you've seen his attacks before. Again, not complaining; we could wallop this guy in a minute and I made thousands because of it, but it just goes to show that one person's easy is another person's difficult, or at the very least some people summon just to summon, and not because they're in a tough spot.

Tips and Tricks for Getting The Most Out Of Your Jolly Co-Operation!

There's a few things you can do as a host to get the most out of a random co-op buddy, and a few things you can do to improve co-op for everyone, with no cost to you!

If the summon sign is by a boss door, don't drag your new friend across the whole level.

Some Sunbros love to play tour guide, doing their best to point out hidden treasures and helping to slay the various flora and fauna that inhabit a level before a boss. I salute them for their determination and willingness to fight waves of invaders. With that being said, people who put a sign down before a boss door simply want to offer help beating a boss (and that boss in particular), and aren't interested or assume you've already cleared the level. Do everyone a favor and only use those signs if you intend on heading into the boss room immediately; it saves everyone a lot of time, and gives work to those who really want it in the first place.

You don't always have to summon in multiple people.

Far from me to tell you how to play your game, but unless you are really down for a three person gangland beatdown on a boss, just one Sunbro is more than enough to turn most enemies into putty. The AI just cannot handle target prioritization, so simply adding one other person into the mix will make your victory a near certainty. So many people are trying to grab up summons right now that your sign will often be picked within seconds, so spread the love unless you are really in the mood for a party.

With that being said:

Summon other people before summoning NPCs.

Every person you bring into a boss fight cranks up their health by a good amount. I would prefer if all summons had a functioning brain, and I bet you would too, so if you are going to bring more than one person to a fight, make sure to chose humans over NPCs if you can. While the AI isn't completely useless, I've found that things often go faster without them there at all. So, if you can, try to take humans first, or roll purely NPCs if they are available.

Try the boss once before summoning people.

There's nothing wrong with summoning on your first shot, but I think you'll find that you'll have a lot more fun in co-op if you aren't getting smacked around like a gnat by a boss with buffed health, and the best way to do this is to at least see the enemy's patterns once or twice before calling in the cavalry. Sunbros are in it to win it (for you), and we will happily solo the whole boss if that's your aim, but there's nothing more disheartening than doing 90% of the work only for you not to realize you're in-range of the instant death zone, and none of my frantic waving or emoting has ever saved someone whose death is due to inexperience over lack of skill. There's no quicker way to turn people off of co-op than a host with his thanatos drive set to maximum.

Don't want to lose your ember/souls on a failed run? Why not try and do some co-op yourself? You won't lose a thing and you still get to learn the boss' patterns before giving it a go for real.

Don't worry about invaders, they're going to have a bad time.

I almost feel bad for them. Almost.

Stick close to your summons.

Beyond generally knowing quite a bit about the area or the boss, your summons will often have area of effect buffs that they can drop before entering into a big fight. Rather than activating a sign and immediately running in, hang back a bit and see if your new friend needs a few seconds of prep time. You might fight yourself with a healthy armor/damage buff if you just wait a bit before throwing down. This goes double for exploring the level; not only are you better protected from enemies and invasions, but you might find a few things you've missed with the help of your buddy!

Toss any of those rules out the window if it means you won't try co-op otherwise.

In the end, there's no Warriors of Sunlight without people to summon us in, so if any of the above feels too restrictive or frightening, ignore it and summon away. After all, we're here for you, even if you sometimes act like a blind lemming with a penchant for blocking the biggest attacks with your face.

Have you done any co-op, either as a host or as a summon? Are you a dirty invader who's had a bad time? Let me know if your experiences match mine, and any tips that I've left out.

Great post. Tonight I had the worst time with co-op. Five people in a row summoned me and then ran to their death at the boss before I could really get into the room and into the fight. Then the next three people summoned me at the boss and expected me to traipse back through the level with them, so I left. Generally I don't mind if there is an optional area close by with a big bady. But if you bum rush the boss door just to summon someone and then expect me to fight every enemy with you back across the entire area, I'm out.

That invading video cuts me deep, real deep. Pls From save me from these ganks re balance invasions.

I'm glad I'm not the only one noticing the T-pose bosses and impassable fog doors.

I've occasionally seen hosts that I've invaded do a T-pose, but still be able to attack. I don't know if that's from netcode problems or if those people had real issues on their end.

I did a butt ton of co-op on the Pontiff and a bit on the Cursewood and it hasn't been too bad. I only had one case of someone trying to drag me around the level and only one person making us do the fight for them. The thing I never get is why people always summon the NPC in lieu of another player or no one. I'm pretty sure all that is doing is basically giving the boss more health. Oh well, I got my 30 Sunlight medals and like 200,000 souls.

Not sure what the deal is, but I can't summon anyone for nameless king. I drop my sign and get summoned instantly. I have no issues summoning in any other area. But this one, unable to summon phantom. Every time. I've died to this asshole 20 times solo. I've helped ~20 people beat him. Really driving me nuts I can't summon anyone at this location.

@sterling: It's simply due to the volume of people wanting summons vs the number available. I've heard some people have had good luck timing the summon sign refresh and just mashing it in an area that people frequently drop signs, but it's still a crapshoot.

If you can summon elsewhere, you are just hitting signs that people have already used up a fraction of a second earlier.

@mirado:Yeah there aren't many signs there. Maybe one or two every 2-3 minutes. It explains why I put mine down and I am summoned instantly.

Right after I post that, I realized I was having a hard time solo due to my low lightning absorption. So I put on a shield that blocked 88%, and used the ring to boost absorption to 35. I beat it no problem then. Now I feel like a moron for not thinking of that sooner.

Oh, you're one of those guys. One of them kind folks ready and willing to lend others a "helping hand" out of the goodness of your sun-praising heart. I tend to kill your lot a bunch. I tend to come into your world and use you, and all your Solaire-cosplayer friends, as nothing but a free estus flask refill before I go for the throat of whoever it was couldn't deal with the boss on their own, and had to enlist your help. You're all equally as helpless, and numbers won't do you much good when you swing at nothing, and I swing for your heart. Any true finger of Rosaria is worth ten of your kind.

Seriously, good on you for this write-up. Plenty of folks, especially newer players, need the help, and a bunch of arcane systems without proper explanation, as is the Souls way, is only going to add to the already mounting frustration.

Always fun to get summoned mid-invasion, spend 10 minutes chasing the bastard and finally gutting him, and then enter the boss room only to see the host die almost immediately.

Helping people with Nameless King gives me warm fuzzies though.

There are two factors now for summoning. Level, which is generally host -20, host +20. But then there is also the second level of weapon upgrade. You can summon someone who has +2 on your current level. So if someone is only 5 levels above you, but they have a +10 weapon equipped and you only have a +4, you can't summon them.

Here is a spoiler free link to a wiki page with all the info.

And purple signs are a covenant. Summoning them is a gamble. They may help you, or they may attack you.

Do you have to use another ember to summon more than one person? There was a boss I wanted to curb stomp with multiple summons, but as soon as one person joined all the signs disappeared for good.

@ethanielrain: No, but if your Hollowing level is too high then you will only be able to summon one person at a time until you take care of your Dark Sigils. A Dried Finger may get around that, not sure though. There are consequences for all those "free" levels you got!

@ethanielrain: @mike:You can also just use a purging stone to reset the hollow level to 0. Which will allow you to appear human again and summon more than one. But when you die you gain them back again based on the number of dark sigils you have. Clearing hollow and clearing dark sigils take two different actions. Removing dark sigils costs way more than the hollow level. A purging stone is 4500 souls. Removing the dark sigils costs you those free level ups, but at your current cost to level up. So if you had say 5 sigils at soul level 80, it would cost you 207K+ souls to remove the 5 sigils.

@sterling: Do you know if Dried Fingers would temporarily allow someone to summon more than one phantom?

I feel like I chose the wrong game to turn heel. Sorry sunbros.

@mike: Yes it does work, but not all the time. I'm level 99 hollow and with a dried finger I have been able to summon two people, but not consistently.