Elden Ring’s high level of difficulty and obtuse nature encourages most players to learn how to summon help from co-op players early on. It’s a comforting sight to see gold summon signs littered across the floor in front of a challenging boss fight. However, there is another type of summon sign you might encounter in Elden Ring: the Red Summon Sign.
Red Summon Signs are used for PVP rather than for co-op. If you summon a player through a red summon sign, they will fight you to the death. Use a Furcalling Finger Remedy to reveal red summon signs. Red signs can be placed by players with the Duelist’s Furled Finger.
But how do you find a Furcalling Finger Remedy or a Fuelist’s Furled Finger?
Red Summon Sign in Elden Ring: Everything You Need to Know
The goal of any player summoned with a red summon sign is to kill the player host. Most players who use red summon signs are experienced players who have fought many PVP battles and have finely tuned builds and gear sets designed around a particular playstyle or strategy. Unlike invaders, red summon sign users, or duelists, prefer to have a fair fight in which the host is ready for combat with another player. While it is possible to summon co-op players to help against a duelist using gold summon signs, this is considered unsportsmanlike conduct in the Elden Ring community, as players seeking to fight against multiple people will use invasions instead.
Red summon signs are a good way to get practice with PVP before going on invasions or placing a red summon sign of your own. One advantage when summoning a player from a red summon, is that when you interact with the summon sign you will get a preview of the character. This will allow you to see what weapons and gear they have equipped, which can clue you into what playstyle the player uses and what you should prepare for in battle with them. On the other hand, the duelist player has no idea what type of player is summoning them, leaving them at a disadvantage.
If the idea of leaving a red summon sign for duels with other players sounds appealing to you, you will first need to acquire a Duelist’s Furled Finger. This item can be found in the northern part of Limgrave on a burned corpse in front of the abandoned colosseum (fitting, isn’t it?). This is the only way to place a red summon sign for other players to see. In the same spot, you can also find the Small Red Effigy.
This item will allow you to expand the pool of players who will see your red summon sign. If you find that it is taking you a long time to be summoned for duels with other players, you should use this item so more players have a chance to summon you. As a reward for defeating a player in a duel, you will receive runes and a Furcalling Finger Remedy. While these rewards are nice, the main reason to leave a red sign is for the thrill of the fight with another player.
It is common in all FromSoftware games, including Elden Ring, for players to organize fight clubs in certain areas. These are locations where players agree to place red signs, and then summon many duelists into their world, who then take turns watching players engage in one on one fights, each successive winner facing off against the next player until only one remains. Fight clubs can take place in large, open areas where roaming enemy NPCs aren’t a threat, or in front of high-traffic summon areas like boss doors.
For your experience with red summon signs to be successful, you must make sure that you are flagged as “online” in your game. If you are offline, you will not see red or gold summon signs and cannot engage with any multiplayer features. You can go online and offline from the game’s main menu. Since invasions will only happen while you have a player summoned for co-op, it is recommended that players be online whenever possible.
In previous games, invaders could enter the games of any player who was online without warning. In Elden Ring, invasions are limited to players who have already summoned a co-op partner, so even online players can opt out of invasions and still get the benefit of player messages and other online features. You will not be invaded if you summon a player through a red summon sign; only if you summon a player with a gold summon sign can you be invaded.
If you wish to leave a red summon sign only for a friend, you can set a password to your summon sign. Only players using that password will be able to see your red summon sign and summon you. This can also be used to coordinate fight clubs with other players, using communication platforms like Reddit or Discord outside the game. There are no direct communication methods between players inside Elden Ring, so you will have to organize with other players outside the game and share passwords that way.
If you accidentally interact with a red summon sign and don’t wish to fight, you can use an item called the Finger Severer to eject a summoned player from your game world. You can use this to remove players summon with red or gold summon signs. Unfortunately, this item cannot be used to remove invaders from your game world. If someone invades your world, you will have to fight and defeat them, or make it to a boss door for them to be removed from your game session.
Why am I seeing red summon signs if I’m not online?
In addition to red summon signs placed by players, there are a small number of red summon signs that summon NPC players to fight in your game world. Most of these are tied to questlines in the game, but they differ from invader NPCs as they will only be summoned if you interact with their summon sign, giving you time to prepare before the fight.
One area in which there are multiple NPC duelists is in northern Caelid, in front of the Great Jar. The Great Jar is a giant Living Jar who stands in front of an abandoned colosseum. When you approach the Great jar, you will see red summon signs appear on the ground. You must defeat these duelists (the Knights of the Great Jar) in order to complete the quest and receive a reward. You will need to defeat three Knights of the Great Jar to complete the quest.
The unique aspect of these NPC duelists is that they are all based upon the characters of other players who have previously completed the Great Jar’s quest. That means the Knights can vary wildly in terms of equipment and playstyle each time you encounter this quest in your playthrough. Previous FromSoftware games have included a similar feature, like the Old Monk boss in Demon’s Souls. Once you defeat the duelist NPCs, you will be rewarded with the Great-Jar’s arsenal talisman, a talisman that raises your maximum equip load by 19%!
The other major quest that involves NPC duelists is the Volcano Manor questline. Speak to Tanith at the Volcano Manor, and she will instruct you to assassinate certain characters. First, you will need to travel to Limgrave to find the red summon sign for Old Knight Istvan. Defeat him to receive the Scaled armor set, then return to Tanith and she will give you the Magma Shot Sorcery. After this, Patches will send you to assassinate Great Horned Tragoth.
After this battle, Tanith will have another assassination for you: Rileigh the Idle, who resides on Altus Plateau in a secluded valley. Summon him and defeat him to receive Crepus’s Vial, a talisman that will make all player movement silent. Report back to Tanith and she will give you the Serpentbone Blade, a katana which inflicts poison. Your last assassination task will be for Juno Hoslow, whose sign appears in the Mountaintop of the Giants.
He is an interesting opponent, as he will teleport around the battlefield and dual-wields whips to fight. Defeating him will reward you with his Petal Whip and the Hoslow armor set. Return to Tanith after this, and she will reward you with the talisman Taker’s Cameo, which restores 3%+30 HP each time you defeat an enemy.
Completing all these steps will see Tanith invite you to meet the lord of the Volcano Manor, Rykard. If you accept, she will teleport you to the site of grace just before Praetor Rykard’s boss door. This method allows you to skip the dungeon between Volcano Manor and Rykard’s boss arena. If you are able to complete this quest, congratulations! You have become a master duelist in the world of Elden Ring.
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