The latest Elden Ring update has added some interesting changes to summoning signs.
Update 1.06 has made summoning signs more useful, adding “the function to send summoning signs to summoning pools in multiple areas, including distant areas.”
Essentially, this means you’ll have more of a chance of being summoned to another player’s game while going about your business in The Lands Between. You won’t even have to stay near your sign anymore and can continue exploring while you wait for a summon.
Unfortunately, when sending a summoning sign to a “distant area” the summoning pools in Mohgwyn’s Palace are excluded. While no reasoning is given for that single exclusion, it may be because this area is commonly used to farm Runes and level up faster than you normally could.
There’s also a change to invasions, allowing players to invade a larger area, “including distant areas.”
Oh, and if you’ve been having trouble with White Mask Varre’s questline, there’s a new way to advance it by killing a newly-added NPC. This is because the means of completing Varre's quest required players to go online – this offers an offline option. The patch notes don’t explicitly explain where the NPC you’ll need to kill will be, so you might have to work that one out.
Elden Ring’s multiplayer mechanics have been a highlight since the game launched, and with this new update, you’ll find it even easier to join others or go to-to-toe with other Tarnished.
As well as this update to summoning signs and pools, there are also a ton of balance changes and bug fixes, notably reducing the time before you can roll after a Greatsword, Curved Greatsword, or Great Hammer attack. The motion speed of strong and charged attacks has also been increased for those weapons. There are over 30 bug fixes included, with full patch notes found here.
IGN’s Elden Ring review called the game a “masterpiece” praising the game as “FromSoftware’s largest and most ambitious game yet”.
“Elden Ring is a massive iteration on what FromSoftware began with the Souls series, bringing its relentlessly challenging combat to an incredible open world that gives us the freedom to choose our own path,” it reads, as well as PVP and co-operative play that our critic was barely “able to scratch the surface of.”
Having trouble with Elden Ring PVP and co-op? Find out how to level up quickly in Elden Ring as well as how to access co-op and invasions.
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.