Co-op

You can play every Campaign zone alone or with other heroes. A normal Campaign lobby holds up to five heroes, the host included. Each of you brings your own hero, class and talents, and you fight one shared horde.

Windows and browser players can sit in the same lobby. Everything below works the same for both unless it says otherwise.

Solo or co-op: what changes

Beside the Enter button on the hero menu a round switch reads Solo or Co-op. Click it to flip.

• On Solo, Enter starts the zone alone.
• On Co-op, Enter reads Find Group and opens the LOBBIES tab (see Finding a group). Once you are in a lobby, Enter works as usual for the host and as Ready for guests.

The switch remembers its setting on your install. Some game modes are solo only (the Daily Challenge and the Proving Grounds); a mode's card in the Game Modes window shows its tag, such as SOLO or SOLO · CO-OP.

Modes can seat more than five. Warband seats up to ten heroes as a raid of two groups of five. Hubs seat up to sixteen (see Hubs).

Opening a lobby for friends

1. Pick your hero, then click Group in the lower right corner of the hero menu. The GROUP window opens.
2. Click Open Lobby. A LOBBY CODE appears on a plate. Click it and press Ctrl+C to copy it (the label changes to CTRL+C TO COPY).
3. Send the code to your friends, or invite them from the friends list (see Friends).
4. Pick the zone and difficulty yourself. Only the host chooses them; guests see those controls greyed out.
5. When everyone is ready, press Enter.

The window lists every seat with the hero's class, name and state: HOST, READY or WAITING, and Open slot for free seats. While you are in a lobby, the Group button on the hero menu shows how many heroes are in, for example Group (3). The window also shows the game mode and any run challenges the host picked.

Joining a friend's lobby with a code

1. Click Group. Under JOIN A FRIEND'S LOBBY, type the code into the box (Enter a lobby code).
2. Click Join or press Enter in the box.
3. Click Ready (or press Enter on the hero menu) when you are set. Change heroes whenever you like; the lobby sees the new hero.

If your friend's game is newer or older than yours, the join is refused and the message tells you who has to update.

Ready check and starting

When the host presses Enter and some guests are not ready, a READY CHECK window pops up on their menus: "wants to start the run. Are you ready?" with Ready and Not Ready. The host also gets Start Anyway to go in without them. Guests follow the host into the run on their own.

The host can remove a guest with the small cross on the guest's row (Remove from lobby). Leave Lobby takes you out of one.

Lobby links and Discord posts

A lobby opened for strangers (see below) is posted to the community Discord with a link and a Join button.

• On Windows with the game installed, the link opens the installed game and puts you in that lobby, using the hero the menu shows.
• Without the game, the link's web page offers Download for Windows and Play in the browser. The browser game only starts when you click that button.
• If the lobby is full or closed by the time you click, the LOBBIES tab says "The lobby from the link is closed or full."

You will find the Discord server at discord.gg/PAkjPpryPP. Linking your Discord account is covered in Leaderboards and Discord.

Finding a group

Click the round button above Group to open the Socials window. It has three tabs: FRIENDS, HUBS and LOBBIES. Find Group (Enter on Co-op) opens LOBBIES directly.

The LOBBIES tab

• Right side: open lobbies and runs with a free seat. Each row shows the zone, difficulty, host, hero count (for example 3/5) and a Join button. A tag reads Run under way if the run already started, and From the link for a lobby you were sent. The header counts lobbies and searchers.
• Left side: "Looking for a group", the zones other heroes are searching a group for right now, and how many of them.
• Your own open lobby is listed on top; its button reads Group and opens the group window.
• Create Group starts a search for the zone and difficulty the hero menu shows, and turns into Cancel Search while it runs. Enter reads Searching with the time. When the search finds a group or other searchers, you are put into a lobby and the GROUP window opens. One of you becomes the host.

Opening your lobby to strangers

As host, click Open for Players in the GROUP window. Strangers searching for your zone can join, and the lobby shows on the LOBBIES tab. Click Close for Players to stop. The line over Enter shows "Looking for players" with the seats taken.

If you are away from keyboard and mouse for a couple of minutes, the lobby closes for players (or your search stops) and the game tells you why.

A lobby that a search put together says "A random group: the others found it through Find Group."

Joining a run in progress

Two ways in:

• Run under way on the LOBBIES tab means a host with an open run. Click Join.
• A friend who is in a run shows In a run on your friends list. Click Join next to their name. They get a popup, "would like to join your run. They start at level 1." with Let in and Not now.

Heroes who join a run in progress start at level 1 in it. A host can turn friends' asks off with Let Friends Join My Run on the Network page of the Interface options; with that box off, every ask is declined without a question.

Friends and invites

The Socials window's FRIENDS tab is your friends list. It needs the cloud: if it says the cloud is off, turn it on in Account. Name your hero first, because friends find you by that name.

• Add: type a friend's name (3 to 16 letters and digits) and click Add, or use Search by name. They see Wants to be friends and answer Accept or Decline.
• Remove: right-click a friend and choose Remove friend.
• Each friend shows Online, Offline or In a run.
• Invite next to an online friend opens a lobby if you have none and sends them its code. On their menu a CO-OP INVITE popup appears with a Join button; accepting leaves any lobby they are in.
• In a run, press O to open the friends window; it has Invite buttons and an option to open the run for players.

Linking Discord in Account adds your Discord friends who also play as friends here, marked with Discord.

Hubs

A hub is a quiet place, not a run: up to 16 heroes gather, show off looks, use emotes and wardrobe keepers, and practice on dummies. Open the HUBS tab.

To open one: type a name (3 to 32 letters), pick a place from the row of round icons (Dalaran, Throne of the Elements, Sholazar Basin, Lake Elune'ara, Grizzly Hills, Crystalsong Forest, Brunnhildar Village or Elwynn Forest), pick WHO MAY COME IN, then Open Hub.

To join: the list has a search box and All, Friends and Public filters. Rows show the host, the place, the hero count and tags such as Friend, Friends only and Browser (the host plays in the browser). A full hub, or one marked Moving, cannot be joined.

If you do not know a password hub's password, the password dialog has Ask the host to let you in. The host sees "asks to join your hub." with Let in and Not now.

Inside a hub, the left side shows your hub with Leave Hub. The host also gets New Code; old codes stop working.

If the host of a hub leaves, the hub moves to another hero ("The host left. The hub moves to another hero...").

In a co-op run

Group frames and pings

Your friends appear in group frames. Past five heroes the group becomes a raid, five to a subgroup.

Pings mark a spot or a thing for everyone in the run. Tap the ping key (the middle mouse button by default, or G if the middle button is taken) to ping the ground or whatever is under the cursor: an enemy, elite, boss, chest, portal, rune, or a friend. Hold it to open the ping wheel: Go here, Danger, Boss, Loot, Help me and Group up. Move toward one and let go; let go in the middle to cancel. Ping your own ping again to take it back. Ping Sounds in the Interface options turns the sound off.

Falling and reviving

A hero brought to nothing lies downed, not dead. A friend standing beside them brings them back; more helpers revive faster. The run is lost only once every hero is down. A dash through a downed friend's spot also brings the revive nearer.

While you are down and friends stand, your camera follows a living friend and a bar names whom you watch. Left and right arrow keys switch friend. After a revive you are back in your own view.

The One Life challenge changes this: with it on, fallen heroes stay out.

Enemies and rewards

• Enemies grow with the group. Each hero beyond the first makes the horde tougher and more numerous. Past five heroes, the horde keeps growing in numbers but each extra hero adds much less toughness. Chests also come more often.
• Gold and experience are shared. What one hero picks up goes to every hero; a downed hero gets no experience. Heals reach your friends too.
• Boss treasure is everyone's: each hero gets the cards.
• A cursed chest's treasure is the opener's alone, but the curse falls on everyone.
• Rift portals: every hero has to step into the portal, then you channel the summoning together.

Ending a run together

On Escape, End Run for Everyone asks the party; only everyone's yes ends the run. A vote window with Yes and No appears for the others. Leave Run takes only you back to the hero menu.

Voice chat

Click the microphone button in the GROUP window to join the group's voice chat; it is off until you do. In voice, click the microphone to mute or unmute, right-click to leave voice. The headset button holds the volume and Mute All. A speaker on each member's row lights when they talk, and a right-click on a row mutes that member for you. If no microphone is found you can listen, not speak.

The Network page of the Interface options has Join Voice Chat with the Group to join automatically. Voice is peer to peer.

When the connection breaks

• Your connection drops: your hero stands untouchable for a moment while the game tries again.
• Your game closes (a crash): start it again. If you come back soon (within a couple of minutes), it takes your seat back in the host's run, with the same hero.
• The host closes the lobby: guests see "The host closed the lobby." and return to the menu.

If the game closes on you, send the crash report it offers; the Network page has Send Crash Reports. More in Troubleshooting.

Leaderboards for groups

Runs are ranked by group size: solo, and co-op for 2 to 5 heroes. A co-op win is judged by the whole group's kills, and the kill requirement for a record is shared among the heroes. Warband runs stay off the boards. How boards work is in Leaderboards and Discord.

Recruit a Friend

Recruit a Friend gives you a code of your own. A friend who enters it gets a welcome pack, and you earn cosmetics you cannot buy in the shop. The window, Brotherhood of the Banner, opens from the round glowing button next to the Game Pass button.

For the new player:

• Under Have a friend's code?, paste the code or invite link and click Join their banner. You get a Welcome pack: gold and a name style only recruits wear.
• One code per account. You can enter it only while your account is new: within 14 days of creating it, or before account level 5.
• You can also open the invite link; the game opens with the code filled in.

For the recruiter:

• Share Your recruit code with Copy code or Copy link.
• A recruit counts as Qualified once their account reaches account level 5 and they have finished 3 runs. The window shows each recruit's level and runs, and a countdown if their account is still too young to count.
• Milestone cosmetics at 1, 3, 5 and 10 qualified recruits: a footstep trail, a name style, a mount, and at ten the Frostmourne weapon look. Click Claim rewards when one is ready. They are kept for good.

The window needs the cloud.

Quick answers

• How many can play together? Five in a Campaign lobby, ten in Warband, sixteen in a hub.
• Can a browser player join a Windows player? Yes.
• Can I join a run already going? Yes, through the LOBBIES tab or a friend's Join; you start at level 1.
• Where do I see my lobby code? In the GROUP window, on the plate; click it to copy.