How to unlock and play co-op in Wuthering Waves

The huge open-world of Wuthering Waves supports multiplayer gameplay, but new players will have to work to unlock it before they can roam the planet of Solaris-3 in the company of their friends. The grind to reach Union Level 22 isn’t an easy one, but it’s worth it to be able to farm materials and collect new, better Echoes in good company.

While Wuthering Waves co-op is something you’ll unlock naturally soon enough - provided you keep following the story beats of the game and completing as many quests as you can - here’s exactly how to unlock co-op in Wuthering Waves, and what co-op in this gacha-RPG actually entails.

How to unlock co-op in Wuthering Waves

To unlock the ability to play co-op in Wuthering Waves, you’ll need to first reach Union Level 22. This can take a fair bit of work, but continue to complete all the main quests as they become available to you - and any exploration or side quests - and you’ll get there eventually.

Once you reach Union Level 22, co-op play becomes available. This will be a small globe-like icon in the upper left-hand corner of your screen. You can also access it by selecting ‘co-op mode’ from the game’s main menu.

On the following screen, you’ll see a list of players whose worlds are available for you to ‘apply to join’. You can apply filters so that it only shows people on your friends list, or join your friends directly via your friends list if they’re online.

How to play co-op in Wuthering Waves

While playing in co-op with friends, your lobbies will be limited to three players. On top of that, you’ll also need to make sure you’re all at the same SOL-3 World Level. Players at a higher World Level will only be able to join people of the same level, so lower level players will be unable to join unless the host reverts their SOL-3 World Level.

Now, what can you actually do while playing in co-op with friends? A few things, actually. Mainly, you’ll be roaming the overworld and grinding, much like in Genshin Impact. You can explore as much as you want, collecting resources and materials for cooking, leveling Resonators, and so forth, and you can go ahead and beat up overworld enemies together. If you’re lucky, you’ll even be able to bag some new Echoes alongside one another.

That’s about it though for Wuthering Waves co-op, but playing with company does make the mundane task of picking flowers and defeating easier bosses a little more fun.

For more on Wuthering Waves, take a look at how to fast travel, how to rest, and how the gacha system works.