There's No Shame in Playing Elden Ring in Co-Op

ign.com:

If you’re finding yourself struggling against one of Shadow of the Erdtree’s many difficult bosses, you shouldn’t be afraid to call for a little back-up.

Since the launch of Shadow of the Erdtree, there has been a lot of talk about how difficult the DLC is proving with director Hidetaka Miyazaki even admitting that the developers were trying to push players past their limits with this new DLC. Having beaten the DLC during the review window, I absolutely agree that FromSoftware is trying to do different things with Shadow of the Erdtree, making players think differently when it comes to challenging bosses.

I changed my build and I re-spec’d my character multiple times during my playthrough, and in the back of my mind I kept thinking, “maybe I’ll have to hold off beating the DLC until it launches and I can get some help with fighting [Redacted].”

In the end I did finish the DLC before the review embargo went up, but instead of jumping to start a new game, I’ve been camping around some of the bosses I had the most trouble with during my time beating the game — mainly Rellana, the Twin Knight, and Messmer the Impaler — to leave behind my summon sign and help new players on their quest through the Elden Ring DLC. It’s a lesson I learned from a dear friend of mine, Solaire, the jolly co-operator from the very first Dark Souls game whose incandescent aura was meant to teach players that co-op in Dark Souls isn’t just a tool, but a divine calling.

The frequency in which I’m getting called in to help someone fight a boss, I think, proves how little issue most players have with summoning online players to help. And one of my close friends playing the DLC now is trying to do so without any summons at all, NPC or otherwise, for their first playthrough which is also a valid way to play. But to anyone saying that summoning an online player or even an NPC to help with a boss is somehow “cheating” is ridiculous, and furthermore, plain wrong.

The hardliners calling for there to be only