If you’ve spent dozens of hours hacking through Shrouded zones, building out your base, and unlocking new Flame Altar levels solo in Enshrouded, you’ve probably wondered how teaming up with friends changes the experience. Enshrouded’s mix of survival crafting, open-world exploration, and soulslike combat was designed with group play in mind, and understanding how does multiplayer work in Enshrouded unlocks a ton of content you can’t access on your own, from massive castle builds to coordinated boss takedowns. This guide breaks down every part of the multiplayer system, from first-time setup to endgame group play best practices.
How Does Multiplayer Work in Enshrouded: Lobby Setup Step-by-Step
Getting a multiplayer lobby up and running takes less than five minutes if you know which settings to adjust first. You have two core options when starting a multiplayer session: host a world from your own device, or join an existing public or private server. Host settings you can adjust before launching your lobby shape the entire play experience, so it’s worth taking a minute to tweak them to match your group’s preferences.
For new groups, we recommend running through this quick pre-launch checklist to avoid common headaches:
Multiplayer Progression and Loot Rules You Need to Know
One of the most common questions new co-op players have is whether their progress will carry over between their solo world and friends’ lobbies, and the answer is mostly yes. Individual quest progression sync works for all main story and side quests you complete in another player’s world, as long as you have already unlocked the quest tier in your own save. If you join a friend who is further along in the story than you, any quests you complete that you haven’t unlocked yet will only count for you once you reach that point in your own playthrough.
Loot distribution in Enshrouded multiplayer is designed to avoid conflict between group members too. Instanced loot for chests and boss drops means every player gets their own unique set of rewards from every loot source, so you don’t have to race to open chests or argue over who gets the new legendary weapon. Resources gathered from the world are not instanced, though, so you should agree on resource sharing rules with your group before you start clearing large mining or foraging areas.
Most groups take 10 to 15 minute breaks between long Shroud dives or boss runs to stretch, grab snacks, or reset their focus before the next task. Many players pick low-stakes, quick round games to pass this downtime without straying too far from their lobby, and a popular pick for players based in India is IND Rummy, a fast-paced card game that fits perfectly into short break windows. It’s easy to pause and jump right back into your Enshrouded lobby whenever your group is ready to start playing again.
Base Sharing and Permissions in Enshrouded Multiplayer
Base sharing is one of the biggest draws of Enshrouded multiplayer, as groups can build far larger and more elaborate structures together than any single player could pull off solo. All builds in a multiplayer lobby are saved to the host’s world save, so if the host deletes their save, all shared builds will be lost. All players with build permissions can edit, add to, or repair shared bases no matter who placed the original blocks, which makes group build projects run far smoother.
You can adjust build permissions per player from the in-game lobby menu, so you can restrict random players from public servers from editing your base while letting your close friends build freely. If you run a public server, it’s a good idea to set build permissions to “friends only” by default to avoid griefing. Shared crafting stations are another big benefit of group bases: any player can use a crafting bench, smelter, or other station placed in a shared base, even if they didn’t build it, so you don’t have to waste resources building duplicate stations for every player.
If you join a friend’s world, you can bring all your personal gear, weapons, and resources you collected in their world back to your own solo save, but you can’t take any blocks or structures you built in their world with you. That means it’s best to save rare building materials for your own personal base if you don’t plan to play in the same shared lobby long term.
Common Multiplayer Issues and Quick Fixes
Even with a well-setup lobby, you might run into small issues when playing Enshrouded multiplayer, most of which have simple fixes. Connection timeouts when trying to join a friend’s lobby are almost always caused by either mismatched game versions or closed ports on the host’s router. You can fix the first issue by verifying your game files through your store client, and the second by forwarding the ports listed on the official Enshrouded support page for your router model.
Crossplay between Steam and Epic Games store versions works by default, but if you can’t see your friend’s lobby across platforms, make sure both of you have crossplay enabled in your in-game settings, and that you have added each other as friends on your respective store accounts. If your quest progress doesn’t sync after completing a mission in a friend’s world, just log out of the lobby and log back into your own solo world, and the completed quest should appear in your log automatically.
Frame drops and lag in lobbies with more than 8 players are common if the host is running the game on a lower-end PC, as hosting and playing at the same time uses a lot of system resources. If you plan to run a large public server or a 16-player build server, paying for a low-cost dedicated server will eliminate almost all lag issues for every player in the lobby.
Once you get the hang of how does multiplayer work in Enshrouded, you’ll find that group play adds a whole new layer of fun to the game, whether you’re building a sprawling castle with your friends, tackling hard mode bosses you could never beat solo, or just exploring new Shroud zones together. Take the time to tweak your lobby settings and agree on group rules before you start playing, and you’ll have a seamless, enjoyable co-op experience from your first play session to your endgame builds.