I am able to play with my friend – we both enabled matchmaking by password, we are both using Warriors of Sunlight covenant (so our cooperation could be jolly), our soul levels are in range, host has the power of the Lord of Cinder.
But after failure (one of us dies) or success (boss kill) we are not able to reconnect immediately. Host just can't see summon sign. We've tried restarting game, teleport to Firelink Shrine and back to location, replacing summoning sign, even attempted to use Dried Finger item (Way of White item was unusable in our case) – no luck. Eventually things just go back to normal and host starts to see symbol again.
Does summoning has any known cooldown? Are there any techniques which could help us to connect more reliable?
Best Answer
There's a few things controlling when you can summon someone (even with the password on).
First off, when you have password summoning on, the soul-range system is overridden, so your level 100 friend can come help your level 20 character, they will just get a normalizing damage reduction.
Second, if you are in an area where you have defeated all bosses in that area, you cannot summon anyone, regardless. You used to be able to forgoe this in Dark Souls and Dark Souls II with the Small White Sign Soapstone, but that doesn't seem to be the case in 3, as I haven't seen that item in-game. The exception to this rule is that you can do PVP summons (red sign soapstone, etc.).
Third, the summoner must have used an ember (or defeated a boss) restoring them to be a Host of Ember.
Finally, Dark Souls also enforces a "summoning cooldown" at times, limiting when you can summon your friend.
If all these conditions are met, you should be able to summon. Keep in mind it can take up to a few minutes (in my experience) for summoning signs to appear.
Also, just a sidenote: the Dark Souls netcode is sometimes a bit buggy. There are certain areas I cannot summon my friends in, but they can summon me, regardless of us having the same progress. While it's not foolproof, sometimes both the summoner and the summonee restarting Dark Souls 3 completely.