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While Dying Light has always featured a co-op system, it hasn’t always been the best, especially if we compare it to other games that offer cooperative gameplay. However, Techland made many changes for Dying Light: The Beast, which now boasts not only the best but also the most seamless co-op features we’ve seen recently. If you want to know how this feature works and what its limitations are, below is a quick guide to get you started with your cooperative zombie-slaying antics.
How To Start a Co-Op Session
To start a new co-op session, simply head to the co-op menu and join an existing session, which is usually set to public. Alternatively, you can look for friends who are playing and have their session open to everyone or just friends. If you want to be the host, just enter your campaign first, set your preferences to friends only or public, and then let others join.
There’s another hidden feature of sorts that is “Call For Help,” which works like S.O.S flares in Monster Hunter. After dying in the game or activating it from the co-op menu, you can call in players to help you during your campaign. This is particularly useful if you’re facing a tough fight or need help with a challenging side activity. You can also turn this feature on and off at the press of a button in the respective menu.
Is Co-op in Dying Light: The Beast Seamless?
Contrary to its predecessors, Dying Light: The Beast features a completely seamless co-op mode in the sense that everything is shared and everyone can progress through the story together. However, there are a few things you need to keep in mind, as there are just some tiny restrictions or conditions.
For starters, when joining as a guest, you’ll see that there are two types of icons: a green one that shows your campaign will also progress once you’re back in your world, and a red one that shows that the mission you’re doing will only let you carry over the loot, but not the actual quest progress. Always make note of these quests and decide which ones you should do alone and which ones with others.
Furthermore, it is important to remember that if you join a player who has advanced the story more than you and complete a quest in their world, you won’t be able to return to the previous quest. Be mindful of this, as joining the wrong session could make you lose many main quests, so always double-check how far into the story the host is.
Loot, Combat, and Trading
In terms of combat, everything runs smoothly without any lag or hiccups. We tried it out on a PS5 and PS5 Pro, and there weren’t any rubberbanding or visual glitches. It all ran flawlessly.
Loot is also instanced, meaning players can farm every spot on the map and get loot for themselves, which they can then bring back to their world. This also applies to Dark Zones you’ve previously completed. The only restriction that applies to single-player and co-op modes is that armor doesn’t respawn. Every other material, however, will appear after some in-game time.
Last but not least, there isn’t a proper way to trade items with others, but you can actually exchange weapons and materials with players in your session. To do so, just head to your inventory and drop whatever item you want on the ground, and other players will be able to grab it. We tested this with weapons and throwables, but it seems other players can grab pretty much everything that has the “drop” function inside the inventory.
Overall, Dying Light: The Beast boasts a terrific co-op mode, which we’re glad is so seamless. It is also surprising that it runs so smoothly, especially for those who want to do flying kicks with others and enter Beast Mode at the same time.
