Remnant 2: How To Join Lobbies & Invite Friends

This article is part of a directory: Remnant 2: Complete Guide - Archetypes, Bosses, Builds, Puzzles, Secrets, & More

Table of contents

The multiplayer in Remnant 2 is very similar to the first game and at the same time also quite different. In most ways, it's better, while in a few small ways, it's a bit worse. Granted, over the course of the game's many patches, updates, and now the Awakened King DLC, a lot of online stability adjustments have been made.

Remnant 2: Best Body Armor, Ranked

Of all the different vests, chest pieces, and trenchcoats Remnant 2 has to offer, there are only a few that seem to work well in almost any build.

Players now have a more reliable dodge roll in multiplayer lobbies, and they can even spawn in 'alive' instead of spawning in spectating and then having to wait til the host reaches the new Worldstone. However, the process of joining another random player, a whole party, or one specific friend works a bit differently this time around, so let's go over that process exactly.

Updated December 7th, 2023 by Jacob Buchalter: Remnant 2 has seen a whole lot of micro-adjustments, major overhauls, and content additions since it first came out on July 25th, 2023. The developers at Gunfire Games completely overhauled the Armor Encumbrance system at one point, added the highly-requested Loadout feature, and have made a whole bunch of small improvements to the online stability of the game. Because of this (and also because the game is now on Xbox Game Pass), a lot of people are coming back to Remnant 2 to check out the Awakened King DLC. With that in mind, let's go over how exactly a group of friends is meant to get a session going.

First Step: Unlocking Online Features

Gotta Get Past The Tutorial First

Remnant 2 - This Session Is Now Joinable

Before anything else, Remnant 2 does require players to complete the tutorial their first time through, arrive in Ward 13, and activate the Worldstone before Online becomes available. Not only should players be able to instantly tell once they've reached this point (as it's right their player character reluctantly follows another character into the, now active, Worldstone), but the game also tells them that their 'session is now joinable'.

From here, players will want to check their lobby settings immediately. This can either be done on the Main Menu AKA on the character select screen, or in-game by going to the System tab and clicking on the 'Game Session' box. There are three options players can set their session to:

Offline
Public
Friends Only

Second Step: Pick A Method To Join Another Game

Different Players Prefer Different Methods

Remnant 2 - Playing With Full Lobby Running Towards Fog Door

First off before going into any specifics, let's go over the three ways someone can easily Join their friend's Public Lobby or Friends Only Lobby. These three methods are:

Joining through the Worldstone
Joining through the game service overlay (Steam, Epic Games, Playstation, Xbox, etc.)
Accepting an invite through the game service overlay.

Method 1: Joining Through Worldstone

AKA The 'In-Game' Method

For the first option, joining through a Worldstone, it's pretty simple. Essentially, once players have made it past the tutorial, have selected a starting Archetype, and now have an accessible session, they can access this menu by interacting with any large Worldstone (most players just use the one in Ward 13), and at the bottom right-hand side of the radial World Map selection should be a 'Join Game' option.

Click on this and it should load up any number of Join-able lobbies that players can select, with each one detailing the host's name, their selected difficulty, the game mode (Campaign or Adventure), the Power Level of their world, and the number of players currently in that lobby. Thankfully, it's very easy to see which lobby is a friend's lobby, as anyone on the player's friends list will have their screen name listed directly below the map's name. Funnily enough, for people who prefer to play games 'offline' sometimes, this Join Game menu can accidentally rat them out.

Method 2 & 3: Joining Through The Overlay & Through An Invite

These Other Two Methods Both Involve Interacting With The Overlay In Some Capacity

Remnant 2 - Game Session Settings In System Menu Tab

For the other two options, the procedure is pretty much the same as it would be in any other game, though both Xbox and Playstation are much easier if players just start their own Party and invite their friends rather than trying to directly join them through the overlay.

For Steam and the Epic Games Store, it's even easier. Either press Shift+Tabfor Steam or Shift+F3 for Epic and find the friend in question through the friend's list, right-click on their name, and it should give players the option to 'Join Game', as long as their lobby is open.

How Extensive Is Remnant 2's Multiplayer?

Thankfully It's Pretty Much Everything A Player Could Want

Remnant 2 - Example Of Multiplayer Lobby

Lastly, let's go over a bit of what exactly Remnant 2's multiplayer entails. Some Soulslikes follow the FromSoftware route with their multiplayer where friends can summon each other into their own worlds to help with a boss fight, only to have the game kick them out once that boss fight is over.

Thankfully, in Remnant 2, once a player joins, they're in for the long haul until they choose to leave or they're kicked. In fact, a player could join their friend right after the tutorial, and the two of them could play the entire campaign in one sitting, and the game would never force the friend out of the host's session at any point.