Wuthering Waves’ vast, monster-filled open world is a blast to explore on your own, but there’s something special about taking down tough bosses or hunting for rare upgrade materials with friends. If you’re a new player, you might have noticed the multiplayer icon is greyed out when you first boot up the game, and you’re probably wondering how to do co op in Wuthering Waves without running into annoying error messages or locked features. I’ve put in over 200 hours across PC and PS5 versions of the game, and I’ve tested every part of the co op system to put together this no-jargon guide that works for all platforms, no matter your skill level.
What You Need to Unlock Co Op in Wuthering Waves First
Co op isn’t available the second you create your account, and that’s the biggest mistake I see new players make when they try to invite friends right after finishing the first cutscene. You only have to meet two simple requirements to unlock the full multiplayer system, and you can hit both in roughly 2 to 3 hours of casual play if you stick to the main story. You don’t need to spend any in-game currency or complete side quests to unlock co op, despite what some outdated forum posts might tell you.
First, you need to finish the entire prologue questline called “The Shore of Recurrence”, which introduces you to the core mechanics of Resonators, combat, and the world of Jinzhou. Second, you need to reach Account Level 8, which you’ll hit naturally as you complete main story quests and open overworld chests. Once you meet both requirements, the multiplayer icon in your main menu will light up automatically, and you’ll get a pop-up notification explaining the basics of co op play. Crossplay is enabled by default across PC, iOS, Android, and PS5, so you don’t have to adjust any settings to play with friends on different platforms.
How to Do Co Op in Wuthering Waves: Full Step-by-Step Walkthrough
Once you’ve unlocked multiplayer, starting or joining a co op session only takes a few taps or clicks, depending on your platform. First, open your main menu and navigate to the Friends tab to add any friends you want to play with, if you haven’t already. You can add friends using their unique 9-digit UID, which you can find at the bottom right of your main screen, or sync your platform friend list to automatically add people you already play with on other games.
To start your own co op session, head to the Multiplayer tab and select “Create World”. You can set your world to private (only people you invite can join), friends only (all your friends can join without a request), or public (any player matching your level range can join). To join a friend’s world, go to their profile in your Friends list and select “Request to Join”, then wait for them to accept your request. You can only join worlds of players whose Account Level is equal to or lower than yours, so if you’re level 10, you can’t join a friend who’s level 12, but they can join your world to help you out. If you don’t have any friends online, you can use the built-in matchmaking feature to join random players for specific activities like world boss fights or co op commissions, no friend add required.
Top Rules and Limitations for Wuthering Waves Co Op Sessions
Wuthering Waves’ co op system has a few intentional limits to keep the game balanced for both hosts and guests, and most of the confusion new players face comes from not knowing these rules upfront. Before you jump into a co op session, it’s worth knowing what you can and can’t do to avoid wasting your time or frustrating other players:
- You can collect overworld materials, defeat world bosses, and complete co-op exclusive commissions together, all rewards are personal so you don’t have to fight over loot
- You cannot progress main story quests in another player’s world, so you’ll have to go back to your own server to advance the main plot
- You can bring up to 2 of your own Resonators to another player’s world, while the host can use all 4 of their characters for the party
- You cannot open chests marked as "world exclusive" in another player’s world, but you can earn chest rewards from co-op specific challenges
It’s also worth noting that you can’t use fast travel points in another player’s world unless the host has already unlocked them, so you’ll have to follow their lead if you’re exploring a new area. All loot you earn in co op is instanced per player, so you never have to worry about a teammate snatching that rare 5-star weapon drop you’ve been grinding for. If you’re hosting, you can kick players from your session at any time if they’re being disruptive or ignoring team requests, no cooldown for that feature.
Pro Tips to Make Your Co Op Sessions More Rewarding
Once you get the hang of the basics, there are a lot of small tricks you can use to get more out of every co op session, whether you’re farming materials or just messing around with friends. The biggest perk of co op for most players is the faster clear time for high-level world bosses and weekly bosses. For example, a level 40 Feilian Breeze that takes 10 minutes to beat solo will take less than 3 minutes to beat with a full 4-player party, according to recent community testing.
Running co op commissions daily gives you 20% extra Aurum and upgrade materials compared to running them solo, so it’s worth teaming up with even one other player to knock out your daily tasks every day. If you’re stuck on a tough boss or puzzle that you can’t beat alone, you can post a public request for help in the multiplayer tab, and higher level players can join your world to help you out without losing out on their own rewards. Turn on push notifications for friend join requests if you’re hosting a public farming session, so you don’t miss players coming in to help you grind for rare materials like Crystal Clusters or weapon ascension items. You can also use the in-game ping system to mark locations or enemies if you don’t want to use voice or text chat, which is perfect for quick farming runs with random players.
Once you know how to do co op in Wuthering Waves, it completely changes how you interact with the game, turning tedious grinding sessions into fun, social experiences that give you better rewards faster. You don’t have to be a high-level player or have a full team of 5-star Resonators to benefit from co op either, even new players can get extra materials and clear tough quests way faster by teaming up with friends or helpful randoms. If you run into connection issues when trying to join a session, the first thing to check is that all players have updated to the latest game version and have unlocked co op, that fixes 90% of common issues right away. I’ve spent dozens of hours farming boss materials with my friends in co op, and it’s easily my favorite part of the game, way better than grinding solo every time.