Last Ember co-op guide: room codes, roles and revives

Last Ember supports co-op for up to 4 players in the browser, with no download. One player hosts a lobby and gets a 4 character room code. Friends type the code (or click the game in the Open games list), pick their survivors and ready up, and the host starts the run. Every mode works in co-op, and each player keeps their own XP, skills and loot.

How do you start a co-op game?

1. Pick a survivor, then pick the mode, map and difficulty on the Play tab.
2. Press Host a lobby. The game generates a 4 character room code and shows it with a Copy code button.
3. Send the code to your friends. They type it into the CODE box on the Play tab and press Join, or click your game if it is public.
4. In the lobby everyone can chat, swap survivors and press Ready up. The host can still change the mode, map and difficulty.
5. The host presses Start, and everyone drops into the same world.

Room codes use letters and numbers but leave out the characters that are easy to confuse (I, L, O, 0 and 1), so a code read out over voice chat gets typed right. Codes are not case sensitive. If you want the technical side, we wrote up how our room codes work.

Public or private

A lobby is public by default, which lists it under Open games on the Play tab with its mode, map, difficulty, how many players it has (out of 4) and how far along it is. Switch it to private and only people with the code or an invite can join. Friends can also join a run that has already started if there is room, and after a run the host can bring everyone back to the lobby without anyone rejoining.

Friends, invites and messages

With an account you pick a name and get a tag like Ash#1234. Add friends by tag, accept requests, see who is online and what they are playing, invite them to your lobby or jump into theirs. You can message any friend from the Friends panel, in the menu or from the pause menu mid-run.

How does the connection work?

The host's browser runs the whole world. Each player sends their inputs to the host, and the host sends the world back. That traffic goes directly between browsers (peer to peer), and the server is only used to help players find each other. If a direct link cannot be made within a few seconds, the game falls back to a relay capped at 8 updates a second, which works but feels less smooth. A few things follow from this:

• The host should be the player with the best connection and the strongest computer.
• If the host leaves, the game ends for everyone. Everyone else can leave and rejoin freely.
• In solo the game pauses when you open the menu. In co-op it keeps running.

What is shared and what is yours?

Loot is made for the player who earned it: a drop matches that player's class and sits around their level. Loot is also personal: you only see and pick up the drops made for you, so nobody can grab your piece. When a boss falls, every survivor still standing gets their own rare or better piece. A few bonuses only count from the host: the starting fire from the host's Hearth, Firemaking and Dry Kindling upgrade, the Quick Study XP upgrade and the Lucky Find gear upgrade.

How does difficulty scale with more players?

More survivors means a harder world, not a slower one:

• Every extra survivor gives every enemy and boss 35% more health.
• Night spawns come faster: the gap between spawns is divided by 1.6 with two players, 2.2 with three and 2.8 with four.
• The home fire burns 15% faster for every extra survivor.
• Bosses call more help: Moonfang's howl, the Brood Mother's brood and the Lantern Eater's wraiths each add one per extra survivor.

To keep up, light more camps, keep more wood moving and split jobs between players.

How do revives work?

When a survivor's health hits zero they go down and lose all the wood they were carrying. Stand right next to them and a revive bar fills; it takes about 3 seconds, and they get back up with 40% health. If nobody is helping, the bar slowly drains. Some things make revives faster:

• A Warden helping revives twice as fast.
• Talents and tree nodes like Shepherd (+50%), Lifeline (+25%) and Resurrection (+40%) speed it up further.
• The Warden's Sanctum pulls downed teammates in range straight back up, and the Second Dawn special gets nearby downed teammates back up while healing the whole team.
• In the Boss Rush everyone gets back up at half health after each boss falls.

While you are down the camera follows a teammate who is still standing; switch who you watch with A and D. If everyone is down at once, the run ends.

Which classes fit which roles?

A solid four-player team has one tank, one healer and two damage dealers, with at least one of them carrying control. For a duo, a Warden with any damage class is forgiving, and a Shieldbearer with an Emberwitch gives you a wall and something to hide behind it. The class guide covers every kit in detail.

Co-op tips

• Split the day: one player feeds the fire and lights camps, the others gather ore, fish and herbs.
• The Tinker's 20% camp discount and 1 wood torches make it the best camp builder, so give them the wood.
• Wraiths and brutes go for the fire and the camps. Assign someone to stay home at night.
• Save Battle Cry for boss nights: it turns every enemy near the Shieldbearer to fight them, bosses included, which takes the heat off the rest of the team.
• In the Expedition, every player votes on the next road within 30 seconds. Most votes wins, and a tie goes the host's way.
• Bring your Smokehouse provisions. Everyone brings their own, so four players means four sets.

Frequently asked questions