If you’ve spent hours exploring the sun-dappled plains and eerie ruin sites of Wuthering Waves alone, you’ve probably wondered can you co op in Wuthering Waves to share the fun with your friends. The open-world action RPG has won over millions of players with its fast-paced combat, stunning open world, and deep character customization, so it’s only natural to want to team up with other players for tough fights or just casual exploration. I’ve spent months testing every part of the game’s multiplayer features since launch, so I’m breaking down exactly what co op options exist, how to access them, and what you can and can’t do when playing with others.
Can You Co Op in Wuthering Waves: Core Multiplayer Features Explained
If you were worried that the answer to can you co op in Wuthering Waves was no, you’ll be happy to hear the feature is fully fleshed out and has been supported since the game’s global launch. It’s not a full open-world MMO experience, but it offers all the core co op functionality most players look for in a gacha RPG. Co op in Wuthering Waves supports up to 4 players per group, so you can bring three friends along for most activities.
Crossplay is fully supported across PC, iOS, Android, and PlayStation 5, so you don’t have to worry about being locked out of playing with friends who use a different device. Cross-platform co op is enabled by default for all players, so you don’t have to mess with any special settings to join friends on other platforms. I tested this with a friend playing on a budget Android phone while I was on PC, and we had zero lag even during intense 4-player boss fights.
The only major catch is that co op is not available right when you start the game. You’ll have to put in a few hours of solo play first to unlock the feature, which we’ll cover in more detail next. This restriction is in place to make sure new players understand the core combat and progression systems before they jump into multiplayer sessions.
How to Unlock and Access Co Op in Wuthering Waves
Co op unlocks once you complete the main story quest “A Voice from the Void”, which you’ll reach around account level 16. For most players, this takes between 3 and 4 hours of gameplay, though it can take longer if you stop to explore every area and collect every chest you find. I made the mistake of trying to find the co op menu when I was only level 10, and spent 20 minutes scrolling through settings before I realized I had to progress the main story first.
Once you unlock the feature, accessing it is straightforward. Follow these simple steps to host or join a co op session:
If you choose to host your own world, you can adjust privacy settings to make it private, friends only, or open to the public. If you’re hosting a public world, you can enable a request filter to only let players above a certain level join, so you don’t end up with new players who can’t keep up with your high-level boss fights. You can also kick disruptive players from your session at any time if they’re trolling or interfering with your activities.
What Activities Can You Do in Wuthering Waves Co Op?
If you’re wondering what you can actually do once you confirm can you co op in Wuthering Waves, the list of allowed activities is longer than you might expect. The most popular co op activity by far is farming world bosses, which drop rare materials needed for character ascension and weapon upgrades. Higher-level bosses like the Storm Dreadnought are extremely tough to beat solo, but become trivial with a full team of 4 players, and you get the exact same drop rewards as you would playing alone.
You can also run all challenge domains in co op, which are used to farm Echo upgrade materials, weapon enhancement items, and experience books. You can either join friends for domain runs or matchmake with random players if you don’t have anyone online to play with. Casual exploration is another fun option, as you can roam the entire map together, fight random enemies, and collect resources like ore and plant materials that do carry over to your own account.
There are a few key restrictions to keep in mind, though. You can’t progress main story quests or character-specific side quests in co op, so you’ll have to complete those solo first. You can’t claim chests or collect permanent account items like Soundstones in another player’s world, so make sure you finish exploring your own map first before you join friends to grind for loot. You also can’t use certain world-altering items in another player’s world without the host’s permission.
Common Co Op Issues and How to Fix Them
Like any online game feature, Wuthering Waves co op has a few common bugs and issues that players run into from time to time. The most common issue is not seeing the co op option in your menu at all, which is almost always because you haven’t completed the required main story quest or reached account level 16 yet. Double check your quest log to make sure you’ve finished “A Voice from the Void” if the option is missing.
Another frequent problem is being unable to join a friend’s world. If you get a connection error, the first thing to check is that both you and your friend are running the latest version of the game. Outdated game versions are the number one cause of co op connection errors, so make sure you install all available updates before trying to play together. If you’re still having issues, try restarting your game and your internet router, as minor connection glitches are usually fixed with a quick reset.
If you’re not getting loot from boss or domain runs in co op, you’ve probably used up your weekly or daily reward attempts for that activity. You only get 3 weekly boss reward attempts per account, and 6 daily domain reward attempts, so keep track of how many you have left before you join a group. If you run out of attempts, you can still join runs to help friends, but you won’t get any rewards for yourself.
At the end of the day, the answer to can you co op in Wuthering Waves is a resounding yes, and the feature is well worth unlocking if you want to make grinding less tedious or just mess around with your friends in the game's beautiful open world. It’s not a fully unrestricted multiplayer experience, but the available activities cover most of the endgame content that players spend the most time on, so you’ll never run out of things to do with your group. Just remember to progress far enough in the main story to unlock the feature first, and keep the restrictions on collectible progress in mind when you join another player's world. If you haven't tried co op yet, grab a few friends and run a couple of domain runs this week, you might be surprised how much more fun the game feels with a team.