Elden Ring DLC Co-Op Options Need A Middle Ground
Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC has a weird co-op system that can get annoying. The Small Golden Effigy is the item that lets you get summoned, but the proximity options are super limited. You have "Nearby Only," which keeps summons to the same area, and "Both Near and Far," which opens it up to the whole game, including the base Elden Ring world.
This is fine for the main game, but when you're playing Shadow of the Erdtree, you'd want to stay in the new DLC area. Having "Both Near and Far" activated means you can get summoned back to the old places all the time. This sucks when you're trying to explore the cool new stuff.
The Golden Effigy Only Offers Extremes
Imagine if you're playing Shadow of the Erdtree and suddenly get summoned back to the Stormveil Castle boss fight. This is a big problem with the current co-op setup. You don't even have the option to only play with people in the DLC area. It's either the whole game or just the area around you.
This makes the whole co-op experience feel kinda broken. You're stuck with the extreme options, which aren't ideal when you want to explore the new content.
Shadow Of The Erdtree Could Get Updated In The Future
FromSoftware has a good track record of updating Elden Ring after launch. They released the Colosseum Update, which gave players cool new arenas for PvP and PvE. It wouldn't be out of the question for them to add a new proximity option that's specific to Shadow of the Erdtree.
A "Land of Shadow Only" toggle would make a huge difference. It would let people who want to play the DLC together find each other more easily. This would be a pretty simple change that could improve the co-op experience a lot.
Elden Ring Has Had Major Free Updates Before
Remember when Elden Ring got the Colosseum Update? That was a big deal, and it made the multiplayer way better. FromSoftware is clearly willing to listen to the community and make changes. They've been working on Elden Ring's co-op since launch, and Shadow of the Erdtree co-op might be their next focus.
This would be an awesome way to show that they're paying attention to players' feedback. A few tweaks could easily make Shadow of the Erdtree's co-op much more enjoyable. Maybe they'll even add more co-op features. We can only hope!
