Exploring the lush, monster-filled open world of Wuthering Waves is a blast on your own, but teaming up with other players turns routine grinds and tough boss fights into a way more fun, low-stress experience. If you’ve been scrolling through your menu looking for the multiplayer option and coming up empty, you’re not alone. A lot of new players get confused about how to co op Wuthering Waves, since the feature isn’t available right when you start the game. This guide breaks down every step of the process, from unlocking co op to fixing common connection issues, so you can start playing with friends as soon as possible.
How to Co Op Wuthering Waves: Unlocking Multiplayer First
You can’t access co op the second you create your account, and that’s not a bug. The game locks multiplayer behind a couple of early progression milestones to make sure you understand the core mechanics before you join other players’ worlds. The first thing you need to do is complete the full prologue story arc, “The Shore that Sings,” which takes most new players between 2 and 3 hours to finish. Once you beat that arc, you also need to reach Adventure Rank (AR) 11 to unlock the co op menu.
You won't see the co op menu option until you hit Adventure Rank 11 and finish the first main story prologue arc. If you’re close to AR 11, the fastest way to level up is to complete daily commissions, open chests scattered around the starting area, and turn in any side quests you picked up during the prologue. Don’t waste time searching for a hidden multiplayer toggle before you hit these milestones, because it won’t show up yet.
It’s also worth noting that you can only co op with players who are on the same regional server as you. If you made your account on the North America server, you can’t join a friend who made their account on the Europe or Asia server, even if you’re both on the same platform. There’s no way to transfer servers right now, so if you plan to play with friends long-term, make sure you all pick the same server when you create your accounts.
Setting Up or Joining a Co Op Session: Step-by-Step
Once you unlock the co op feature, accessing it is straightforward. You’ll see a new two-person icon in the top right of your main menu, right next to the event and mail icons. Click that icon to open the co op menu, and you’ll see options to host your own session or join someone else’s. If you’re still figuring out how to co op Wuthering Waves after unlocking the feature, these simple steps will get you into a session in under a minute.
If you want to host your own world, you can adjust three core settings before you make your session public:
- Session privacy: Pick friends only if you don't want random players joining your world unannounced, or invite only if you only want specific people to be able to join
- Max player count: You can limit sessions to 2, 3, or 4 players depending on what activity you're planning, which is helpful if you only want to run a boss fight with one other friend instead of a full group
- Permission settings: Toggle whether guests can harvest resources in your world or open chests without your approval, so you don’t lose rare materials you were saving for character ascensions
Always double-check your permission settings before opening a public session. I’ve had random players join my public session and take every single rare crystal in my mining zone before I realized I had permissions set to open, so trust me when I say checking that setting first saves a lot of frustration. If you want to join someone else’s session, you can browse public lobbies by activity type, send a join request to friends who are online, or accept an invite that someone sends you directly.
Keep in mind that if you join another player’s world, you can only access areas they have unlocked in their own story. If you’ve progressed further in the main story than the host, you won’t be able to access your later story zones while you’re in their world. You also won’t get progress on your own main story quests while you’re in co op, since all story missions are locked to solo play.
Best Activities to Do in Wuthering Waves Co Op
Not every activity in the game works well in co op, so you don’t want to waste your group’s time trying to do things that are only designed for solo play. The best co op activities are ones that reward all players equally, no matter who is hosting, and get easier when you split up the work.
World and weekly boss fights are the most popular co op activity for a good reason. Bosses like the Infernal Roamer and Storm Lizard have huge health pools and tricky attack patterns that can take 10+ minutes to beat solo, but a full group of four can take them down in 2 or 3 minutes. Co op is the fastest way to farm weekly boss rewards if you're short on time to grind solo, and every player in the group gets the same drop rewards as they would if they beat the boss alone, as long as they have a reward claim available.
Resource farming is another great use for co op. If you need 50 Luocha flowers to ascend your main DPS character, splitting up with three friends to search the same zone means you can collect all the materials you need in a quarter of the time it would take you to farm alone. Just make sure the host has resource permissions turned on so everyone can pick up the materials they find. Limited-time event challenges also often have co op exclusive modes that give extra premium currency and rare upgrade materials, so those are always worth running with a group.
Avoid trying to complete main story quests, solve one-time puzzle chests, or unlock fast travel points in co op. None of that progress will carry over to your own world, and you’ll just end up having to redo all of it when you go back to solo play. You only get 3 weekly boss reward claims per account, no matter how many runs you do in co op or solo, so don’t waste your claims on lower rarity bosses if you’re saving them for higher reward weekly fights.
Fixing Common Wuthering Waves Co Op Issues
Even if you follow all the steps correctly, you might run into a few common issues when trying to play co op. Most of these problems have simple fixes, so you don’t need to panic if you can’t connect to a friend’s world right away.
The most common issue is getting a “cannot connect to host” error when you try to join a friend’s session. Cross-region co op is not currently supported, so you and your friends have to make accounts on the same server to play together. If you’re already on the same server, check if the host’s session is full, or if they have their privacy settings set to invite only. You also can’t join a session if the host is in the middle of a solo story quest cutscene, so ask them to finish the cutscene first before you try to join.
Lag or random disconnections are another common problem, especially in full 4-player sessions. If you’re the host, close any background apps that use a lot of bandwidth, like streaming services or download clients, to free up space for the game. If you’re playing on PC, switching from a Wi-Fi connection to a wired ethernet connection will cut down on lag significantly for both you and the other players in the session. If you keep getting disconnected from public sessions, try hosting your own session instead, since connection issues are usually tied to the host’s internet speed.
If you finish a co op boss run and don’t get any rewards, you probably already used up your weekly reward claims for that boss, or you didn’t deal enough damage during the fight to qualify for a drop. The game requires you to deal at least 10% of the boss’s total health to get a reward, so don’t just stand back and let the rest of the group do all the work if you want to get your drops.
Once you know how to co op Wuthering Waves, it adds a whole new layer of fun to the game, whether you’re grinding for ascension materials, taking down tough weekly bosses, or just exploring the open world and messing around with friends. The small upfront hurdles of unlocking the feature and adjusting your settings are well worth the payoff, especially if you usually get bored of solo grind pretty quickly. I’ve spent dozens of hours running co op boss fights with my guild, and it’s made the process of leveling up new characters way less tedious than it would be if I was grinding alone. If you’re new to co op, start with friends only sessions first to get the hang of the mechanics before you join public lobbies, and you’ll have a smooth, fun experience every time.