If you’ve spent hours digging through Embervale’s ruins or fending off shrouded creatures alone, you’ve probably wondered if bringing friends along makes the grind easier. One of the most common questions new players ask before jumping into a session with friends is how many players Enshrouded supports for co-op play. Unlike many survival RPGs that lock you to tiny group sizes or force you to pay extra for larger lobbies, Enshrouded’s multiplayer setup is built to accommodate both small friend groups and slightly larger crews. I’ve tested co-op across both public and private lobbies over the last three months, so I can break down exactly what to expect, plus common pitfalls to avoid when playing with others.
How Many Players Can Join an Enshrouded Co-op Lobby?
At launch, Enshrouded supports up to 16 players per custom dedicated server for groups that want to build large shared bases or run massive exploration runs. If you’re hosting a lobby directly from your game without a dedicated server, the player cap drops to 8 concurrent players to prevent performance lag for the host. That might sound lower than some competing survival games, but there’s a good reason for the cap: Enshrouded’s fully destructible voxel world and dynamic enemy spawns require a lot of processing power, so larger lobbies without dedicated hosting often suffer from rubber banding or missing terrain loads.
I’ve hosted 8-player lobbies on a mid-range PC with 16GB of RAM with zero issues, but when I tried to mod the cap to 10, we ran into constant crashes during base building sessions. It’s also worth noting that player count caps apply to both PvE and the limited PvP mode, though most players stick to PvE for co-op play. Modding the player cap above 16 is technically possible, but it breaks enemy scaling and causes frequent terrain desyncs, so it’s not recommended for any long-term playthroughs.
Key Differences Between Small and Large Enshrouded Groups
Picking the right group size for your crew makes a huge difference in how enjoyable your playthrough is. Small groups of 2-4 players are ideal for casual players who want to focus on story progression without splitting resources too thin, while larger groups of 8-16 work better for dedicated crews that want to split into specialized roles. Some key differences you’ll notice between group sizes include:
- Resource availability: Larger groups will burn through ore, plant fiber, and shroud core supplies 2-3x faster than small groups, so you’ll need to assign at least one player to farming and gathering full time
- Base building speed: Groups of 6+ can build fully fortified multi-level bases in half the time it takes a solo player, as you can split tasks like mining stone, harvesting wood, and placing blocks between multiple people
- Enemy difficulty scaling: Enshrouded scales enemy health and damage based on the number of players in a given area, so larger groups will face much tougher shroud creatures that drop higher quality loot
- Quest progression speed: Main story quests that require collecting rare items or clearing large dungeons can be completed 30-50% faster with 4+ players, as you can split search areas across the map
I’ve played through the full main story both solo and with a 7-person group, and the group playthrough was far less grindy, even with the enemy difficulty scaling. The only downside of larger groups is that you’ll need to coordinate more to avoid overlapping quests or wasting rare crafting materials on duplicate gear. It’s also harder to make sure everyone gets a chance to unlock new recipes and skills if you don’t split loot fairly.
Tips for Setting Up a Stable Enshrouded Multiplayer Lobby
Even if you stay under the official player cap, you can run into performance issues or connection errors if you don’t set up your lobby correctly. I’ve helped dozens of friends troubleshoot their co-op setups, so these are the fixes that work 90% of the time. First, if you’re hosting a lobby for more than 4 players, use a wired ethernet connection instead of Wi-Fi for the host device. Wi-Fi connections drop packets constantly when sending data to multiple players, which causes lag spikes and random disconnections for everyone in the lobby.
Second, turn off background downloads or streaming services on the host device while the lobby is active. These services eat up bandwidth that you need to keep the lobby running smoothly. Third, if you plan to run a persistent lobby that stays online when you’re not playing, invest in a low-cost dedicated server. Most Enshrouded-specific server hosts cost less than $15 a month for 16-player slots, and they eliminate all performance issues related to host hardware. You don’t need any technical expertise to set one up, either, as most hosts offer one-click Enshrouded server installations.
Crossplay and Multiplayer Access Restrictions for Enshrouded
A lot of players ask about player count alongside crossplay support, since cross-platform lobbies let you play with friends on different devices without extra work. Enshrouded currently supports full crossplay between PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S, so player count caps apply the same way regardless of what platform your group is using. That means a 16-player dedicated server can have a mix of PC and console players with no extra restrictions.
The only exception is if you set your lobby to private, which restricts access to only players you invite via your platform’s friend list. Private lobbies are the best option if you only want to play with people you know, as public lobbies often have random players who join to grief bases or steal rare resources. If you do open a public lobby, make sure to enable the base protection setting in the game menu, which prevents non-friended players from editing or destroying any structures you’ve built. I’ve had only one bad experience with a public lobby, where a random player destroyed half our base before we could kick them, so I always stick to private lobbies for long-term playthroughs now.
At the end of the day, the best group size for your Enshrouded playthrough depends entirely on your playstyle and how many people you want to play with. Whether you’re sticking to a 2-person co-op run with your best friend or running a 16-person dedicated server for your entire gaming community, the game’s flexible player count system is built to work for almost any group. Now that you know how many players Enshrouded supports, you can set up your lobby, invite your friends, and start exploring Embervale without worrying about hitting arbitrary player caps or running into preventable performance issues. Just make sure to stock up on extra building supplies if you’re playing with more than 4 people, you’ll go through them way faster than you expect.