You just stumbled on a lush paradise planet with floating waterfalls, zero sentinel activity, and regular S-class freighter spawns, and the first thing you want to do is show your friend who’s been grinding NMS for months right alongside you. But if you’ve ever fumbled through menus trying to figure out how to join a friend in No Man's Sky, you know how frustrating it can be when all you want to do is team up. I’ve been there too: I once spent 20 minutes refreshing my friend list while my buddy waited on a radioactive planet getting mauled by six-legged sentient fauna, so I’ve tested every method to get this right. This guide covers every possible way to connect, crossplay rules, and fixes for the most common issues that pop up when you’re trying to squad up.
How to Join a Friend in No Man’s Sky: 3 Working Methods for All Platforms
The method you use to connect will depend on if you’re playing on the same platform, crossplay, or if you’re running into minor glitches with the default friend list system. All three methods work reliably as long as you follow the steps correctly, and it’s good to have all three in your back pocket in case one fails. When you're trying to figure out how to join a friend in No Man's Sky, having a backup method saves you a ton of wasted time.
- Direct friend list join: This is the fastest method if you're already friends on your platform (Steam, PlayStation Network, Xbox, or Nintendo Switch Online) or linked your Hello Games account for crossplay. Just open the main menu, navigate to the "Friends" tab, find your friend's name, and select "Join Game" from the dropdown menu. You’ll load directly into their current system, usually within 30 seconds.
- Session invite from a friend: If your friend is already in a game, they can send you a direct invite through their platform's overlay or the in-game friend menu. You'll get a pop-up notification that you can accept to load directly into their system, no extra steps needed. This works best for same-platform play, but it also works for crossplay if you’ve added each other via Hello Games accounts.
- Coordinate via a shared system or base: If you can't connect through the friend list for any reason, have your friend share their system address or base glyph code with you. You can input the glyphs at any space station portal to warp directly to their location, then join their session from the Space Anomaly once you're in the same system. This method works 100% of the time as long as you both have crossplay enabled.
I prefer the direct friend list method for most casual play sessions, but the portal trick is a lifesaver when crossplay connections glitch out. Just make sure both of you have your multiplayer settings set to "Friends Only" or "Public" before you try to connect, or you won't see each other's sessions pop up.
Crossplay Rules You Need to Know Before Teaming Up
A lot of players run into connection issues because they don't understand how NMS crossplay works across different platforms. First, you don't need a Hello Games account to play with friends on the same platform, but you will need to link one if you're playing with someone on a different device. For example, if you're on PC Steam and your friend is on PlayStation 5, you both have to link your platform accounts to a free Hello Games account and add each other as friends on that account to see each other's sessions.
You also need to make sure all players are on the same game version—if one of you hasn't updated to the latest NMS patch, you won't be able to connect at all. That's a super common mistake I see new players make all the time, so double check your update history before you try to join a squad. It only takes 30 seconds to check for updates, and it saves you 20 minutes of troubleshooting later.
One more thing: if you're playing on a Nintendo Switch, you can only join up to 3 other players in a session, while PC, PlayStation, and Xbox can support up to 32 players in a single system for community events. That doesn't matter for most casual co-op play, but it's good to keep in mind if you're planning a big group build with a dozen friends. Switch players also can’t join sessions that have more than 4 players total, so adjust your group size accordingly if you have a Switch player in your squad.
Fixes for the Most Common Connection Errors
Even if you follow all the steps correctly, you might run into errors when trying to join a friend's session. I've tested every fix for these over hundreds of hours of co-op play, so these are the ones that actually work, not the generic advice you see on random forums. First, if you get a "Failed to join session" error, the first thing you should do is restart both your game and your router. 9 times out of 10, this fixes minor connection glitches that are blocking the session link.
If that doesn't work, check your NAT type—if you have a Strict NAT, you won't be able to connect to most multiplayer sessions. You can fix this by enabling UPnP on your router settings, or using a VPN if your ISP blocks peer-to-peer connections. If you’re not sure how to check your NAT type, you can find it in the network settings menu on your console or in your router’s admin dashboard.
Another common error is when you can see your friend's session in the list but can't join it. That's usually because one of you has your multiplayer settings set to "Invite Only" or has blocked crossplay in the game settings. Have both of you open the options menu, go to the "Network" tab, and make sure crossplay is enabled, and the session visibility is set to at least "Friends Only". If you're still running into issues when you try to join a friend in No Man's Sky, you can also check the official Hello Games server status page to make sure there's no ongoing outage. If the servers are down, there’s nothing you can do but wait for them to come back up, which usually only takes an hour or two at most.
Tips for a Smooth Co-Op Experience After You Connect
Once you successfully join your friend's session, there are a few things you can do to make sure your playtime goes off without a hitch. First, sync your quest progress before you start doing anything major. If you're working on the main story quest, only the host's progress will count if you're not at the same point in the story. To avoid losing progress, talk to the Nexus in the Space Anomaly and select "Sync Story Progress" before you start any main quest missions together. This ensures that everyone in the squad gets credit for the missions you complete, even if you’re at different points in the story.
It's also a good idea to set a shared base marker as soon as you load in, so you don't get separated if you wander off to explore different parts of the planet. You can do this by building a base computer, then setting it to "Shared with Group" in the base settings. That way, everyone in the squad can fast travel back to the base no matter where they are in the galaxy. I’ve had way too many sessions where my friend wandered off to find a rare mineral and got lost on the other side of the planet, so this small step saves a ton of time.
One thing a lot of new co-op players don't know is that you can share resources and items with your friends by dropping them from your inventory, or by using a storage container that's set to shared access. Just don't drop any rare S-class upgrades if you're playing with randoms, but with friends you trust, this is a great way to help each other gear up faster. I once gave my friend a fully upgraded S-class multitool when he first started playing, and he still uses it 100 hours later. That's the fun of co-op NMS, after all: you get to share all the cool stuff you find with the people you play with.
At the end of the day, figuring out how to join a friend in No Man's Sky doesn't have to be a headache if you know what steps to follow. Whether you're teaming up to take down a pirate freighter, build a giant shared base on a paradise planet, or just explore weird new systems together, the co-op mode adds a whole new layer of fun to a game that's already packed with things to do. Next time you find something amazing in the galaxy, don't waste 20 minutes fumbling through menus like I did that first time. Just follow the steps in this guide, and you'll be playing with your friend in minutes.
