Poncle’s Vampire Survivors has taken the indie game world by storm, boasting player numbers that few titles in the space can even dream of. One of the most requested features by the community is a way to play with friends.
A request that Poncle was happy to oblige. In this guide, I’ll show you how to play Vampire Survivors Co-op. I’ll also explain a few limitations and how to troubleshoot some basic problems.
Related: The 10 Best Weapons in Vampire Survivors
How does Vampire Survivors Co-op work?Â
The most significant limitation to co-op in Vampire Survivors is it’s local only. This means you have to play in the same room as your friends. There is technically a workaround for this if you play on Steam, as you can use the ‘Remote Play’ function. But broadly speaking, there is no online multiplayer.
Honestly, it’s a major bummer that Vampire Survivors is local co-op only. When they announced Vampire Survivors co-op, I was excited to play with my friends and family who all live in different areas. While local co-op is a blast, not having the ability to play co-op Vampire Survivors online is a drag.
Providing you’re playing on the same machine, starting a co-op game is easy. Start a round as usual, pick a character, and everyone with a controller/keyboard can do the same. Bear in mind there is no way to share peripherals, so you can’t have multiple users sharing a keyboard, for example. The official FAQ lists this issue as a ‘technical limitation.’
Poncle has also stated that if the community wants it, online multiplayer may be a possibility in the future, so there’s still hope. I’d be shocked if Poncle doesn’t introduce online co-op at a later date.
What’s new in Vampire Survivors Co-op?
The same Vampire Survivors you know and love is still here in co-op. The most significant difference is you’re limited to four Weapons and Equipment slots instead of six. As usual, each player has their own inventory, but some powerups affect the entire team. Items like Spinach, for example, have ‘[all]’ written beside them, indicating a global change. This feature allows for some great synergies between you and your friends.
Another huge addition to Co-op is the Friendship Amulet. This item is a potential ‘level up’ reward and upgrades a random weapon in each player’s inventory. The Friendship Amulet offers a ton of value and will show up multiple times per run.
Players share gems and take turns leveling up. Chest rewards are also given to a random player regardless of who opened it. In general, the new features in Vampire Survivors found in co-op play are really fun and fair. I think the limitations are more than okay because of the Friendship Amulet and shared gems and chest rewards.
How do I stop my controller from moving multiple characters?
With the default configuration, you may find that one player can control multiple characters. Fortunately, there’s an easy fix for that in the Options Menu. Uncheck the ‘Assign Controller to Player 1’ box (pictured above), which should split the inputs.
You can also customize several co-op settings here, including player colors. Vampire Survivors quickly gets hectic in multiplayer, so the ‘Permanent co-op outlines‘ option may help if you keep losing track of your character.
Vampire Survivors offers a superb single-player experience but works so well with friends. Subnautica is the same, although you need to jump through a few hoops to get it to work. If you’re interested, check out our guide on how to set it up.
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