How many people can play Lethal Company?

Lethal Company is a co-op survival horror game from solo developer, Zeekerss, that has managed to take Steam by storm during its launch into Early Access. As you strive to collect scrap for the strange, foreboding "Company", you’ll also be witness to (and the victim of) the endless horrors that stalk the excavation areas.

As a co-operative experience, some players are wondering how many friends they can pile into a single lobby, and whether there are any ways they can play in larger lobbies. So, here’s how many people can play Lethal Company, and how you can play with even more players.

How many people can play Lethal Company?

At the time of writing, a maximum of four players can play Lethal Company at any given time.

The game is still in Early Access and receiving plenty of requests from players to increase the maximum player-count, so there is plenty of time yet for solo developer, Zeekerss, to make this a reality.

In the meantime, however, keen modders have taken it upon themselves to conjure up some mods that will allow people to play in larger lobbies of more than four players.

How to play Lethal Company with more players

To play Lethal Company with more than four players right now, you will need to install mods. Mods that support larger lobbies will also need to be installed by every player that plans on participating, and not just the host.

Due to this, it can be a bit of hassle getting everyone organised, but if you’ve enough patience to help your friends install all the necessary mod files, you’ll be able to play in groups larger than four players.

To install Lethal Company mods, all players will need to install the BepInEx Unity Installer and LC API, as well as a mod for supporting larger lobbies. This sounds complicated, but I promise you that it’s just a case of moving three downloaded files into the game files, pretty much.

We explain how to install mods step-by-step in the second section of our guide to Lethal Company’s best mods and how to install them. We recommend checking that out if you’re yet to install any mods!

As for which multiplayer mod you should use, you’ve a few options. Me and my friends personally use the MoreCompany mod, which supports lobbies of up to 32 players but works best with a maximum of eight players.

If you run into issues with that, however, there’s also the BiggerLobby mod, which supports up to 100 players. Actually reaching that player-count will likely lead to performance issues, however.

It’s also worth checking out the LateCompany mod while you’re at it. While this mod won’t increase the lobby size for your games, it will allow new players to join later in your game if needed. I’ve found this useful for larger lobbies where there’s always one friend who arrives fashionably late to the party.

Can you play Lethal Company solo?

You can play Lethal Company solo if you prefer to play games alone. All you need to do is boot up the game and play via LAN to play solo.

That said, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend playing Lethal Company solo. You can still scavenge for scrap on moons and be scared senseless alone, but you’ll likely struggle to make progress solo, while also missing out on the goofiness of proximity chat.

While playing solo, I did have fun with the game and found myself scared senseless, but it is a struggle to progress after a while. Carrying all that scrap to and from your ship alone takes time, especially amidst a thunderstorm, and some enemies - such as the Coilhead - are near-impossible to tackle alone whilst deep within these facilities.

In groups, you’ll often leave someone on the ship while the rest of the crew go scrap-collecting. This player can help their friends avoid enemies, open and close doors, and disarm traps with the right know-how. This is incredibly useful for escaping moons unscathed, trapping troublesome enemies in areas where they can’t reach players, and so forth.

Ultimately, it’s a tough journey to go alone. You can play Lethal Company solo, and the bravest of players will still have a blast, but it will be difficult (especially on moons with higher hazard levels) and you will be missing out on some of the more fun, team-related aspects of the game such as witnessing your friends be mauled to death and hearing their muffled screams over proximity chat.

For more on Lethal Company, check out how to survive the Flower Man.