Baldur’s Gate 3 Coop Explained

Learn everything there is to know about Baldur's Gate 3 Coop.

At this point, we can all agree that Baldur's Gate 3 might be one of the best RPGs of the past 10-20 years. On Metacritic, it is already rated as one of the best PC games of all time and is even on spot 33 on their greatest games of all time lists.

And now that people are slowly starting to wrap up their first playthrough (or are still trapped in Act 1 after 50+ hours but hey who's judging right?) some of them might be looking into the game's expansive Coop functionality. So here is a quick explanation of everything you need to know about Coop with its many ups and downs.

Baldur's Gate 3 Coop Explained

In BG3, you can play with friends or family (maybe even with strangers) online, LAN, or Local Coop. All these features will also be available on the game's upcoming PlayStation 5 version which releases in early September.

How many People Can Play?

Baldur's Gate 3 can be played with up to 4 people online or via LAN and with up to 1 additional person with the Splitscreen multiplayer. Remaining party slots will be filled up by the game's companions means in the worst case you'll miss out on some of the party's banter and some additional dialog.

But don't worry, you can always catch up with them later at your camp.

Every player gets to create their own character and or pick an origin character. But be aware that only the game's host will get to keep the save file. If you're playing with two or three people, you can then team their player character up with a companion they'll then get to control on both combat and while exploring.

What is Different in Coop?

One of the major benefits and potential downsides of Baldur's Gate 3's Coop is that you can split up the party and players can explore the Forgotten Realms at their own pace. That's great clearing out buildings, caverns, or homes for loot. Not so great when initiating quests, dialogs, and events while your Coop partner is on another map.

Players can spread out across multiple maps, as long as they take part in the same Act. Everything is done separately, this even includes major cutscenes and events. But you can also use this to your advantage, like getting into position before dialog triggers combat or other events.

You can join another player's conversations by clicking the listening option next to their portrait as long as they have not flagged a conversation as “Private”. So unless the player specifically chooses to, you don't get to see them have intercourse with a bear.

Inventory and Gold are also not shared between characters. This means you sometimes have to argue and fight your Coop-Partners to buy that new bow or fancy cape you've been ogling.

Aside from that, most of the game remains the same. You still get to interact with the supporting cast and witness their stories in full. But you'll need to actively seek them out in a 4 player coop to do so. Do also keep in mind that once created, a player-made character can not be removed from the party.

How to Play Coop

When starting the game, you can use the Multiplayer option in the main menu and select Create to start the multiplayer session. Via Steam, you should be able to join other players by using Steams Friendlist, you'll need to use the Direct Connect option and type in the session code if a player is using GOG.

You can also invite players to your existing campaign by simply hitting escape while being In-Game and using the Multiplayer option. A new player will then be prompted to create a new character and won't be able to select one of the Origin characters once a session has started.

Please remember before doing that that player characters can not be removed from the party once created.

And that sums up everything you'll ever need to know about Baldur's Gate 3 and its Coop. For more on Baldur's Gate like Combat Tips, all Moulds for the Adamantine Forge, and How to be a Vampire check out our other Guides here.