Elden Ring Summoning Pools – How Do They Work?

Multiplayer in Souls games is simultaneously incredibly innovative and immensely frustrating. Even if it feels like you’re playing a solo adventure, the other players of the world can pop in in a variety of ways to either help or hinder you. This is part of the reason these games don’t usually have pause functions, because the world is constantly alive and online. Elden Ring uses more or less the same online system, though with a few additions that make the process even more delightfully obtuse. Case in point, Elden Ring’s Summoning Pools. What are they, and more importantly, how do they work?

What are Summoning Pools in Elden Ring?

Summoning Pools are cross-like effigies scattered around the Lanes Between, usually showing up near important places like Sites of Grace and dungeons. Summoning Pools act kind of like satellite dishes, revealing the presence of summoning signs and allowing you to interact with them. If there isn’t a Summoning Pool nearby, you won’t be able to see other players’ summoning signs, as well as certain NPC summoning signs if you’re playing offline. This means that, whether you want another player to help you, fight you, or just generally annoy you, there has to be a Summoning Pool in your general vicinity for them to lock onto.

How do Summoning Pools Work in Elden Ring?

To utilize a Summoning Pool, or any other form of multiplayer interaction for that matter, you’ll first need a special consumable item called a Furlcalling Finger Remedy. These can be purchased from merchants, crafted using two Erdleaf Flowers, or occasionally looted from certain defeated enemies. 

When you walk up to a Summoning Pool and interact with it, it will become activated. You can then use the Furlcalling Finger Remedy to reveal summoning signs nearby, taking the form of small rock formations on the ground. Players put down their own summoning signs at these spots by using Red and Golden Effigies, with each color signaling the player’s intent. Incidentally, any player that summons other players into their game instance becomes known as a “Host of Fingers.”

• Placing a Red Effigy signals that you want to play competitively. If you activate a player’s red summoning sign at the Summoning Pool, you’ll summon that player into your game instance as an invader. Their goal will be to kill you, the Host of Fingers, in order to earn Rune rewards.
• Placing a Gold Effigy signals that you want to play cooperatively. If you activate a player’s gold summoning sign at the Summong Pool, you’ll summon that player into your game instance as an ally. Their goal will be to aid you, the Host of Fingers, in whatever big encounter is within the Summoning Pool’s proximity.

It should be noted that summoning players from a Summoning Pool isn’t exactly the same as summoning players with regular multiplayer items. The point of the Summoning Pool is to provide a convenient gathering place for players who either want help with a particular dungeon or boss fight, or want to make their experience a little more interesting with an invader. You can still summon allies or invaders elsewhere in the world if they placed their summoning signs with Finger items.