Baldur's Gate 3 Multiplayer: How Co-op Actually Works

A Baldur's Gate 3 co-op campaign can run with any of its players missing except one. Per bg3.wiki's Multiplayer page, a multiplayer save can be played with the other players absent, or even as a single-player game, but it cannot be run without the player who created it — and that host is the only player responsible for saving and loading. A friend's character in your campaign lives in your save, not theirs.

A lot of how co-op works follows from that rule. Below is how to get up to three friends in — online, LAN, direct connection, cross-play or split-screen — the first-come rules on origin characters, why four players leaves no room for companions, and which systems run separately for each player. The sources are bg3.wiki's Multiplayer, Options and mechanics pages, Larian's support FAQs, its Patch 7 and Patch 8 notes and Community Update #34, plus the PlayStation and Xbox store listings, all checked on 14 October 2026.

The host owns the campaign

The ground rules, from bg3.wiki's Multiplayer page:

• Up to four players: the host and three more. Larian's Multiplayer Information FAQ describes the same four-player online co-op.
• Two ways to start. Create a multiplayer game from the main menu, or open a single-player campaign you are already playing to other people by changing its Online Visibility from the in-game menu.
• Only the host saves and loads. Any player can trigger an autosave.
• Missing players do not stop the game. Their characters can travel as companions or wait at camp, covered below.
• Multiplayer has the same difficulty options as single player.

Larian does document one way round it, although it lists it as a connection fix rather than a feature: its Multiplayer Issues FAQ suggests switching who hosts, with the current host providing the latest save from the existing playthrough. Where that file lives on each platform is in our save files guide.

Five ways into a game

If you want strangers rather than friends, Larian's Community Update #34 points to the LFG channel on its official Discord server, where players on different platforms look for parties.

The lobby settings

bg3.wiki's Multiplayer and Options pages list four multiplayer settings on top of the usual difficulty choices, plus one dialogue option:

Two notes on the wiki's Multiplayer page matter more than the table:

• Friends Only is the real default, although the game labels Closed as the default, and it resets to Friends Only every time you return to the main menu or restart. To keep friends from wandering into a solo run, set Online Visibility to Closed each session.
• Loading a save opens it to friends. Since 10 August 2023, loading any save, single-player ones included, makes it a Friends Only multiplayer session without LAN or Direct Connections.

Settings changed in the in-game Multiplayer menu go back to their defaults when you return to the main menu or restart; the wiki says they are not stored in the save.

Cross-play, step by step

Patch 8 brought cross-play and full cross-platform progression to PC, Mac, Xbox and PlayStation 5, running over what Larian calls the Larian Network. From Larian's Patch 8 notes and its cross-play FAQ:

1. Link every player's platform account to a Larian Account at larian.com/account/connected.
2. Tick Allow Cross-Play in Options, under the Gameplay tab.
3. Add each other by Larian Account username: Manage Account at the bottom right of the main menu, then Friends List, then Add Friends.
4. For a new campaign: Multiplayer, the Cross-Play tab, Create, invite your friends, then Launch once they show as Ready.
5. For an existing campaign: Load Game, select the save, tick its Cross-Play checkbox, load it, then invite from the in-game Multiplayer menu.

Three limits come with it:

• No Direct Connect. Community Update #34 removed the option from cross-play settings because it cannot be used there.
• Mods must match exactly. Larian's cross-play FAQ says every player needs the same mods at the same version. Per Community Update #34, a Mod Verification window opens on joining to list which mods need installing, uninstalling or updating. The console limits on top of that are in our save files guide.
• Cross-play is not cross-save. Cross-play puts different platforms in one session. Cross-save moves your own saves between your own devices, and Larian's Larian Account FAQ says those server copies are deleted after six months. The save files guide covers what that means for your runs.

Split-screen is two players on one machine

The console store listings set the number. Sony's PlayStation Store page describes split-screen co-op for up to two players on one PS5, or up to four players online, and lists online play for up to four players with PS Plus. Microsoft's listing describes the same split for one Xbox, with "Xbox local co-op (2-2)" and "Online co-op (2-4)" in its feature list.

• PC has split-screen; Steam Deck does not. Larian's Multiplayer Information FAQ says split screen is available on PC but not on Steam Deck.
• Xbox Series S got it in Patch 8. Larian's Patch 8 notes list "Xbox Series S split screen" among the patch highlights. Microsoft's store listing, checked on 14 October 2026, still carries a note that local co-op is not supported on Series S. The patch notes are Larian's own word on what the game does.
• The screen splits and merges on its own. Patch 7, which reached PC in September 2024, made the two halves merge when the player characters come close together and split again when they move apart. Patch 8 made the game split the screen when the two players are on different floors or at a large enough height difference, and added a Forced Split Screen option to the Gameplay tab for controller.

On Steam, the store page also lists Remote Play Together, Valve's feature for streaming a local multiplayer game to friends online.

Origin characters are first come, first served

Who gets to be Astarion is settled once, at the start. Per bg3.wiki's Multiplayer page:

• Origin characters, the Dark Urge included, can only be chosen during the first character creation, when the save is being created.
• No two players can take the same origin.
• Wyll and Karlach lock each other out. Their wiki pages each say that if a player chooses one of them as an origin, the other is no longer available to the remaining players.
• Anyone who joins later makes a custom character. That covers players who join a campaign after it has started and anyone joining a single-player game that has been opened up. Larian's Multiplayer Information FAQ, which still uses pre-launch future tense, describes a mid-adventure joiner taking over a companion instead. Companions can be assigned to any player from the Multiplayer menu, so the end result can be the same.

Two story knock-ons are documented. Sceleritas Fel, per his wiki page, appears only in a Dark Urge playthrough or when the Dark Urge is in a multiplayer party, so one player picking the Dark Urge brings him into the campaign; our Dark Urge guide covers what he is there for. And per bg3.wiki's Act One camp events page, Astarion prioritises biting the player character who recruited him.

Four players is a full party

Players count towards the party limit of four. The Multiplayer page says companions refuse to join a party of four players, or of two players and two companions, so the number of companion slots in the active party is simple subtraction:

The companions are still recruited; they just wait at camp. The wiki notes that a few plot events briefly add a fifth member to a four-player party, its example being meeting Lae'zel on the Nautiloid. Our companion recruitment guide covers who can join and when.

Control rules, from the same page:

• One player controls each companion at a time. Characters are assigned to players from the Multiplayer option in the in-game menu.
• Only a companion's controller can talk to them while they are in the party. At camp, anyone can.
• Connected players' characters belong to those players. While their player is connected, a player character cannot be grouped with other players' characters, spoken to or controlled by anyone else.

Absent players go in a wardrobe

When a player is offline, their character becomes usable like a companion. To bench them, speak to them and send them to camp. Per the Multiplayer and Campsite pages, they go into Withers' Wardrobe of Wayward Friends, which spawns near Withers when player characters are dismissed. You can take them out by dragging their icon onto the ground like an item, and the game puts them back in the party automatically when their player rejoins.

What each player keeps separately

Co-op splits several systems by player. bg3.wiki documents these:

What those rows change in practice:

• Approval thresholds are per avatar. The numbers in our approval guide are checked against your own score with that companion, not the party's.
• Karmic Dice stops pooling. The Dice rolls page notes that in a single-player game one player's debt covers the entire party. In co-op, each player's misses build their own debt, so one friend's bad streak does nothing for yours. The formula is in our Karmic Dice guide.
• Exploration rewards drift. The Experience page's own example is Crèche Y'llek, a "Big" area worth 120 experience at character level 4, 240 at level 5, 280 at level 6 and 300 at level 7. A player who first walks in at a different level from the rest gets a different reward.
• Chests have colours. The Traveller's Chest page gives the host a yellow chest and the others green, pink and blue in the order players joined, in a note the wiki marks as still needing verification. Using camp supplies from the chest is in our camp supplies guide.
• Player characters banter with each other. Patch 7 let overhead dialogues involve characters assigned to different players, which its notes say means more banter between player characters in multiplayer. The Eavesdrop option in the lobby table lets you listen in on other players' dialogue scenes when the game allows it.

Photo Mode, which Patch 8 added, opens with F9 on PC, both analog sticks on console or the camera button on the minimap. In a multiplayer session, the Photo mode page says only the host can open it.

Quests that behave differently in co-op

The wiki's quest pages document a handful of places where a party of players changes the outcome:

• Help the Devilish Ox. The reward is not given if the Strange Apple is in the inventory of a non-host player's avatar when the party enters the Lower City. It still pays out if the apple is in a companion's inventory, even a companion a non-host player controls. The wiki lists this under bugs. Give the apple to the host or a companion.
• Auntie Ethel's Hair. The documented way to take the hair, free Mayrina and still kill Ethel, which has an out-of-combat party member confirm the reward while she is still in dialogue, does not work in a multiplayer game.
• Hunt the Devil. Whichever character starts the conversation with Karlach becomes the focal point of the follow-up conversations with Anders, which the quest page describes as getting wonky in multiplayer.
• Drake General Dye. With a Larian Account connected, 5 bottles appear in the Traveller's Chest. The item page says more can be had by starting a multiplayer game with several logged-in players.

The ending is shared on the same terms. Per bg3.wiki's Epilogue page, every player character in the party when the Netherbrain is defeated attends the epilogue party, and anyone who permanently died or left the party along the way does not.

When nobody can connect

Larian's Multiplayer Issues FAQ lists these fixes, among others:

• Switch the host. Test in a new game, or have the current host provide the latest save.
• Try every route. If everyone is on Steam, or everyone on GOG, try an invitation as well as the online lobby. Direct Connection works with a Server ID or IP address; the host finds the Server ID in the lobby of a new game, or in the Session Settings after loading a save.
• Ask the router for help. Enable UPnP, check NAT and DMZ settings, and the host can forward ports 23253 to 23262 and 23243 to 23252.
• Close what interferes. The FAQ names antivirus, firewalls, overlays and chat programs as known causes.
• Test without mods, and verify the game files through Steam or GOG Galaxy.
• Change the connection. Try wired against wifi, or a phone hotspot to tell a network problem from a system one.

For cross-play, Larian's cross-play FAQ adds two checks: every player needs cross-play enabled, and if you are using mods, try hosting or joining without them.

Quick reference

• Up to four players online, the host plus three. Split-screen is two players on one PS5, Xbox or PC; Steam Deck has no split-screen.
• The host owns the campaign. Only the host saves and loads, and the game cannot run without them. As a connection fix, Larian's FAQ suggests switching hosts by having the current host share the latest save.
• Online Visibility defaults to Friends only and resets every time you return to the main menu. Set it to Closed to keep a solo run private.
• Cross-play since Patch 8 (15 April 2025) covers PC, Mac, Xbox and PS5: link a Larian Account, tick Allow Cross-Play, add friends by Larian username, and enable cross-play on an existing save before inviting. Direct Connect is not available for cross-play, and mods must match exactly.
• Xbox Series S split-screen arrived in Patch 8, per Larian's notes, even though Microsoft's store listing still says otherwise.
• Origins are picked once, at the first character creation, with no duplicates. Wyll and Karlach lock each other out, and late joiners make custom characters.
• Players count toward the party of four. Four players means no companions in the active party.
• Offline players' characters can be used as companions or sent to Withers' Wardrobe of Wayward Friends at camp.
• Per player: companion approval, Karmic Dice debt, exploration XP and the Traveller's Chest. Player characters cannot romance each other, and only the host can open Photo Mode.
• Keep the Strange Apple off non-host avatars for Help the Devilish Ox.
• Connection trouble: switch hosts, try Direct Connection with the Server ID, forward ports 23253 to 23262 and 23243 to 23252, and test without mods.