If you’ve spent hours grinding for Flame Altar upgrades or getting mauled by Fell creatures alone in Enshrouded, you know the game hits different when you bring friends along for the ride. I still remember the first time I tried to invite my roommate to my Enshrouded save, I spent 20 minutes clicking the invite button over and over before I realized my world was set to private. Figuring out how to invite people to Enshrouded is the first step to turning your lonely survival run into a chaotic, fun co-op adventure where you can split resource gathering duties, take down world bosses together, and build massive bases faster than you ever could solo. I’ve run into every possible invite error over 300+ hours of playing the game, so I’ve put together all the steps and fixes you need to get your group connected without the frustration of endless loading screens or failed invites.
Step-by-Step Process to Invite People to Enshrouded (All Platforms)
First, you don’t have to beat the entire tutorial to unlock multiplayer, but you do need to progress far enough to activate your first Flame Altar after escaping the opening cave. That only takes 10 to 15 minutes for new players, so you won’t have to grind alone for long before you can bring your group in. The process works almost identically across PC (Steam and Epic Games Store), PS5, and Xbox, with only minor menu differences between platforms.
Once you’re loaded into your save, open the pause menu and navigate to the Social tab. You’ll see a list of friends on your connected platform, plus an option to search for players by their in-game display name if you have crossplay enabled. Select the friend you want to add, click the “Send Invite” button, and they’ll get a pop-up notification on their end to accept the request. Make sure your world is set to "Friends Only" or "Public" if you want people to join, because private worlds block all incoming and outgoing invites by default, even for people on your friends list.
If you’re playing cross-platform, you’ll need to make sure crossplay is enabled in your Gameplay settings first, both for you and the person you’re inviting. You can also send invites directly from your platform’s friends list outside the game, but in-game invites are usually more reliable, especially if you’re playing on a custom dedicated server. Once your friend accepts, they’ll spawn right next to your current location, or at your base’s spawn point if you’ve already set one.
Common Invite Errors and How to Fix Them Fast
Even if you follow all the steps correctly, you might run into glitches that stop invites from going through, and most of these are tied to small, easy-to-fix issues instead of major server problems. Check that both you and your friend are running the same game version first – out-of-date patches are the number one cause of failed invites, especially if one of you has auto-updates turned off on your platform. If one person is on an older build, you won’t be able to connect until you both update to the latest version.
If you’re getting a “Failed to Join Session” error, it’s almost always tied to your network settings. For console players, make sure your NAT type is set to Open, not Moderate or Strict, because restricted NAT types block peer-to-peer connections for most co-op games. For PC players, double check that your firewall or antivirus software isn’t blocking Enshrouded’s connection, as many default security settings flag co-op games as untrusted at first. If crossplay invites aren’t showing up at all, confirm that both players have the crossplay toggle switched on in their settings, as this often gets turned off automatically after game updates.
These quick fixes will resolve nearly all invite issues you’ll run into:
- Restart both the game and your platform client (Steam, Epic, PSN, Xbox) if invites don't come through – this fixes 70% of minor connection glitches without extra work
- Ask your friend to send you a join request instead if your outgoing invites aren't working, as this often bypasses small server routing issues that block sent invites
- If you're playing on a dedicated server, make sure you have admin permissions set to allow friends to send or accept invites, as default server settings often restrict invite access for non-admin players
Best Practices for Smooth Co-op Sessions After Inviting Friends
Once your friends are in your world, there are a few small adjustments you can make to avoid conflicts and keep your session running smoothly for everyone. Set clear role expectations before your group starts exploring – if one person is focused on building, another on gathering Shroud resources, another on combat, you’ll avoid fights over who gets what rare loot or what task to tackle next. You don’t have to stick to rigid roles forever, but setting basic expectations at the start prevents frustration later on.
Set a shared spawn point at your main base as soon as possible, so everyone respawns in the same spot if they die in the Shroud. This saves a ton of travel time, especially if you’re exploring far away from your base, because no one has to run 10 minutes across the map to rejoin the group after dying. You should also turn on loot sharing in the game settings so everyone gets equal access to rare drops, no one has to fight over a legendary weapon that drops from a boss, and you don’t end up with one person hoarding all the healing potions.
Keep in mind that only the host keeps the world progress, so all builds, upgrades, and unlocked fast travel points will only be saved to the host’s save file. If your group wants to keep playing even when the original host is offline, you’ll want to set up a dedicated server that runs 24/7, so everyone can log in and make progress whenever they want. If you’re the host, don’t close the game without warning your friends first, because they’ll get kicked immediately and lose any unsaved progress they made since their last checkpoint.
What to Do If You Want to Invite Random Players to Your Enshrouded World
If you don’t have friends who play Enshrouded, or you just want to meet new players to explore with, you can invite random players to your world too, either by setting your world to Public or by finding players in official Enshrouded community hubs. Public worlds show up in the co-op browser for all players, so people can join directly without an invite, but you can still send specific invites to players you meet in communities if you want to handpick who joins your world.
If you’re hosting a public world, enable player kick permissions in your server settings first, so you can remove anyone who’s griefing, stealing loot, or ruining the experience for everyone else. It’s also a good idea to add a world description that lists your progression level and playstyle, so players who are at a similar level will join, and you won’t have a max-level player joining your new save and one-shotting all the bosses for you, which takes away all the fun of early-game progression.
Keep in mind that if you join a random person’s world, you won’t keep any of the progress, items, or levels you earn there, so only do that if you’re looking to help out other players, test out new builds, or just mess around without messing up your own save. If you hit it off with a random player, you can add them to your friends list to invite them back to your world later, or join their saves for future sessions.
Bringing friends into your Enshrouded world makes every grind, every boss fight, and every base build feel way more rewarding, and once you know how to invite people to Enshrouded without running into annoying errors, you can spend less time troubleshooting and more time exploring every corner of Embervale. I’ve used these steps to host sessions with up to 15 players on dedicated servers and 4 player co-op on regular saves, and they work every single time, no matter what platform you’re playing on. Don’t be afraid to tweak the world settings to fit your group’s playstyle, and if you run into a weird error you can’t fix, a quick restart almost always does the trick.