Elden Ring crossplay & cross-platform – how does multiplayer work?

Everything you need to know about multi-player gaming in Elden Ring, including who you can actually play with

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Yay, it is Elden Ring week. What will you be playing one of the most eagerly anticipated games in recent years on? Is that PlayStation 5 in the corner finally going to get some use? Have you dusted down your last-gen GPU in your gaming PC for a bit of Souls-like action, or is it a case of deleting Halo Infinite off your Xbox’s tiny storage to make way for the Elden Ring download?

Whatever you are choosing to set off on your Elden Ring journey, you probably want to know if your friends playing on different systems are going to be able to share the same stories of battle with you. Let’s have a look, shall we?

How does Elden Ring multiplayer work?

Multiplayer in Elden Ring works in much the same way as in the Dark Souls games from the same stable. There is a co-op experience and you can read all about the best way to play that in our special guide right here as well as PvP.

Multiplayer is unlocked early on and will give you access to a new menu, especially for that. If there is a problem with your copy of Elden Ring, or if you got hold of it in a less than legal way, multiplayer will never be available for you and you will get a message upon loading that there are problems with your license and it will be forever greyed out, so just go and buy a copy of the game!

Elden Ring PvP – How does it work?

PvP in Elden Ring is all about challenging and fighting other players. You can invade their game uninvited and take them on, or you can leave a sign behind – the Duelist’s Furled Finger – that will alert others to the fact that you fancy your chances as a proper fighter.

PvP is all about giving other players the, er Finger. Here are some of the other items that will be of interest if you are looking to get into the PvP side of the game.

• Host of Fingers
  An item that allows players to make their game open to coop and invasion events.
• Tarnished Furled Finger
  You get this at the end of the Tutorial and it allows you to join players looking for a coop partner.
• Blue Cipher Ring
  You can get this item from the Round table for 1000 Runes. It allows you to turn the tides of a potential PvP player looking to ambush some unsuspecting player by joining a host world’s currently under attack.
• Small Golden Effigy
  This allows you to draw golden circles on the ground, with a player looking for help pulling you into their world.

Is Elden Ring Crossplay?

Nope. That’s the end of that then eh? Perhaps not, as although Elden Ring does not have crossplay or cross-platform multiplayer there is the option for cross-gen co-op and PvP.

So what does that sentence mean? To many it would just be gibberish, so we will explain it for ya.

If you are about to play on your PC, the only option is to play via Steam. You can’t play with anybody else not on Steam and that includes console friends and enemies.

If you are playing on PlayStation or Xbox you also cannot play with players on a different console ecosystem. Xbox players will play with Xbox players and so on and so forth.

Is Elden Ring cross platform?

The only option to play with friends on a different machine to you is if you are playing cross-gen. For example, if you are on Xbox Series S and your friend is on Xbox Series X, that will work, as will playing on a PlayStation 5 if your friends are on PlayStation 4.

Yes, it’s a little disappointing we may not all be able to adventure together, but let’s be honest, you didn’t really like them anyway did you?

More great Elden Ring content

For more articles on Elden Ring check out our huge Elden Ring hub right here where you will find guides, how-to’s and information no matter how experienced an Elden Ring player you are.