There's a persistent stigma in Soulsborne communities that using summons is a lesser way to play, and it keeps a lot of struggling players stuck fighting the same boss for hours out of pride rather than actually engaging with a system FromSoftware built deliberately into the game. Spirit Ashes and co-op signs exist because the developers designed around them — using them well is a skill, not a shortcut.
Spirit Ashes change fight dynamics, not just add a helper
The real value of a Spirit Ash summon isn't "extra damage" — it's splitting boss aggro. Most Elden Ring bosses have attack patterns designed around tracking a single target, and a summon that pulls aggro even briefly opens punish windows that simply don't exist when you're fighting solo. Choosing a summon that draws and holds aggro (a tankier ash) versus one that adds burst damage from the side changes the fight completely — pick based on what the specific boss's moveset punishes, not just raw summon power.
Upgrade your Spirit Ashes, seriously
New players frequently under-invest in Spirit Ash upgrades because it's an easy-to-forget currency sink compared to weapon or flask upgrades. A fully upgraded Spirit Ash is dramatically more durable and useful than an un-upgraded one — if you're relying on summons at all, treating their upgrade material (Grave Glovewort, Ghost Glovewort) as a priority resource, not a leftover, pays off far more than most players expect.
Player co-op works differently than Spirit Ashes
Summoning another player via a golden sign changes the fight even more than an ash summon, because a human co-op partner can react to boss patterns dynamically and heal, revive, or reposition intelligently. It's genuinely a different, often easier, experience — but it also means you're not learning the fight's individual patterns as directly. If your goal includes getting better at the game, mix in some solo attempts even while using co-op summons, so you're building real pattern recognition alongside progress.
Summons are a legitimate strategy for exploration too, not just boss fights
Some of Elden Ring's toughest moments aren't bosses at all — they're dangerous overworld encounters or dungeon ambushes. Keeping a reliable Spirit Ash equipped for general exploration, not just save-scummed for boss attempts, smooths out a huge amount of the game's harder open-world content without meaningfully reducing the challenge of the parts that matter most.
There's no purity test worth stalling your progress over
If you're stuck on a boss for hours and considering quitting the game entirely out of frustration, that's a worse outcome than using every tool available — summons, upgraded ashes, co-op, even a stronger weapon via respec — to get past it and keep experiencing the rest of the game. You can always go back solo later once you understand a fight; you can't get back the hours you spent stuck at a wall out of stubbornness.
The takeaway
Spirit Ashes and co-op aren't a lesser way to experience Elden Ring — they're systems the game was built around, and using them well (choosing the right ash for the fight, keeping ashes upgraded, mixing solo attempts with co-op for learning) is its own kind of skill. Use them without guilt; the game was designed for it.
