Modder LukeYui’s project to bring seamless, user-friendly co-op to Elden Ring enters public beta today, with the mod available for download (opens in new tab) on the Elden Ring Nexus.
Elden Ring’s cooperative play is severely limited: it’s bounded in the open world, you can’t ride your horse, and cooperators get sent back home on defeating a boss. It’s understandable that FromSoftware’s formula might have some growing pains in the transition to open world design, but co-op is the one area I think they really failed to adequately adapt. I mostly went lone wolf in my first playthrough, partially out of preference but also because I didn’t want to fiddle with all the little “finger” items and aforementioned annoyances.
LukeYui’s mod provides a more user-friendly platform for playing Elden Ring with friends. LukeYui is an experienced hand with altering FromSoft games’ online functionality: he’s behind Sekiro’s multiplayer mod (opens in new tab), as well as the Blue Sentinel (opens in new tab) project which addressed hacking and security vulnerabilities in Dark Souls 3.
The Seamless Co-op mod allows for continuous uninterrupted play with support for multiple players riding their own Torrent, allowing them to enjoy Elden Ring with friends as long as they want, as opposed to the base game’s “ships in the night” approach to cooperative play. The mod also has its own launcher and connectivity, separate from EAC and similar to LukeYui’s offline launcher (opens in new tab), which means you can enjoy this style of play without risking your status in normal online play. Stay tuned for our hands-on impressions in the coming days.