One of the few weaknesses of Elden Ring is its antiquated and clunky online cooperative play. Having to summon and resummon your friends after every boss, poor connections, and other outdated systems. The Seamless Co-op mod fixes essentially all those issues. Here’s how to install it.
All Steps to Install and Use the Seamless Co-op Mod in Elden Ring
Installing Seamless Co-op is fairly straightforward, and the only real technical know-how you need is being able to find the Elden Ring game files on your PC. Using the mod in-game is a little bit more complex and a bit clunky to set up, but once it’s going, it works like a dream (usually).
To install Seamless Co-op, you must:
- Download it either from the NexusMods site or from its GitHub library. If you want to use Nexus, you will need to create an account and, in my case, have a Google Authenticator app on your mobile device. GitHub is easier for that reason, among others. If your browser warns you the .zip file is suspicious, don’t worry. Seamless Co-op is not a malicious file in any way. Its creator, Luke Yui, is a long-time community member and author of many online mods across the Souls games.
- Place the contents of the Seamless Co-op .zip file (the SeamlessCoop folder and ersc_launcher.exe) into your Elden Ring root folder. By default, you can find that in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\ELDENRING\Game, or you can right-click on Elden Ring in your Steam library, select Properties, click Installed Files on the left-hand menu, then press Browse at the top right of the menu.
- Open the Seamless Coop folder you just placed and the “ersc_settings.ini” file. There, you must set a password you and your coop partners can use (look for cooppassword = X, where X is your password) and turn off the ability to be invaded by setting “allow_invaders = 0.” There are other settings you can tweak as well.
From there, all you need to do is open ersc_launcher.exe to start up the mod.
How to Use the Seamless Co-op Mod in Elden Ring
The first thing you may want to do with Seamless Co-op is convert your existing save file, which is thankfully pretty easy.
- Navigate to the Elden Ring save file location: C:\Users\[your account username]\AppData\Roaming\EldenRing. There, you’ll see a folder that’s just a long string of numbers. Open it, and you’ll see a file with the .sl2 extension.
- Make a backup of this file and store it somewhere safe.
- Copy the file again, change its extension to .co2, and place it in the save folder.
Note: Do not convert your Seamless Co-op save to a standard Elden Ring save, as you may be banned for modifying game files.
You are, of course, free to start a new game and play seamless co-op with a friend, but to obtain the items you need to use the mod, you need to sit at any Site of Grace. In other words, you need to die to the starting Grafted Scion or jump off the side cliff in his arena.
Once you sit at a Grace, you’ll receive five items essential to the mod:
- The Tiny Great Pot, which creates an active seamless co-op session.
- The Effigy of Malenia, which allows you to join an active session.
- The Separating Mist, which allows players to leave a session. If the host leaves, the session ends, and all players disconnect.
- The Judicator’s Rulebook, which can turn off local PvP and friendly fire.
- The Rune Deancter, which allows you to spend runes to activate your Rune Arc.
- The Challenger’s Lynchpin, which allows you to invade other seamless co-op sessions.
Provided you’ve reached the point where you can get all the seamless co-op-specific items by sitting at a Grace, you’re all set to go. You won’t be able to connect to the regular Elden Ring multiplayer servers, so messages, Furlcalling Finger Remedies, standard invasion tools, and all other multiplayer-specific mechanics will be inactive.
One final note: the Seamless Co-op mod remains in an extended beta period, and as Elden Ring gets more and more updates following the release of the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, you’ll need to update the mod alongside those official patches. Mod author Luke Yui has been very good about staying on top of keeping the mod up to date with current updates, and while it works well, there are still some kinks to iron out. A significant, sweeping update to Elden Ring‘s code via a sizeable patch will, of course, require more time for Luke to get Seamless Co-op back up to par.
I should also mention that Seamless Co-op does not come with an anti-cheat, and I have seen content creators be directly affected by malicious code that corrupts their save and hard crashes their PC. For this reason, always keep a backup of both your base Elden Ring and Seamless Co-op saves. Do not pick up items from players you do not know personally or at all, and definitely don’t invade unless you’re okay with the risks of being the Bad Red Man no one likes.
Other than that, load into your friend’s session or host one of your own, and enjoy Elden Ring and the Shadow of the Erdtree content to your heart’s content, free of the shackles of antiquated multiplayer mechanics.
For more Elden Ring content from us, check out our guides hub.
Published: Jul 16, 2024 12:37 am