I remember the first time I tried to play No Man’s Sky with my college roommate, we spent 25 minutes clicking through every menu tab before we realized we’d forgotten to enable multiplayer in our settings. If you’re in the same boat, learning how to multiplayer No Man's Sky doesn’t have to be a frustrating waste of playtime. The game’s co-op system has been polished heavily since launch, and it supports everything from casual exploration with friends to full 32-player community events on public servers. This guide breaks down every step you need to know to get connected and start playing with other people, no matter what platform you’re on.
How to Multiplayer No Man’s Sky: First-Time Lobby Setup for All Platforms
If you’ve never messed with these settings before, figuring out how to multiplayer No Man's Sky for the first time can feel confusing, but the steps are straightforward once you know where to look. First, make sure your game is updated to the latest available version, as older builds don’t support crossplay or newer multiplayer features. If you’re playing on console, you’ll also need an active subscription to your platform’s online service (PlayStation Plus, Xbox Live, or Nintendo Switch Online) to access multiplayer functions.
You can set up a lobby either from the main menu before loading your save, or mid-game if you’re already exploring and want to invite friends to join you. The core steps are the same across every platform:
- Load your No Man’s Sky save file and open the Network & Access tab from the in-game options menu
- Toggle Multiplayer Enabled to on, and set your lobby visibility to Invite Only, Friends Only, or Public depending on who you want to join your game
- Send invites to your friends via your platform’s friend list or the in-game social menu, or join a friend’s existing lobby from the main menu multiplayer tab
- Confirm you see your friend’s player marker on your HUD once they join to verify the connection worked properly
If you’re setting up a public lobby, it’s a good idea to turn on base protection from the same Network menu to stop random players from editing or deleting your builds without permission. I learned this the hard way a few years back, when a random player joined my public lobby and tore down half my activated indium farm before I could kick them.
Crossplay Support and Common Compatibility Fixes
One of the best parts of No Man’s Sky’s multiplayer system is that it supports full crossplay across PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch, so you don’t have to be on the same device as your friends to play together. Crossplay is enabled by default, but if you can’t see a friend’s lobby or they can’t see yours, there are a few quick fixes you can try first.
Make sure crossplay is toggled on in your Network settings first — it’s easy to accidentally turn it off if you were adjusting other preferences earlier. If that doesn’t work, have the host restart their lobby, as the game’s public servers occasionally glitch and hide lobbies from crossplay users. Modded PC players should note that they can only join lobbies with other players who have the exact same mods installed; if one person has a custom ship mod and the other doesn’t, the connection will fail every time.
Switch players should also keep in mind that the console’s hardware limits mean performance will drop noticeably if you have more than 3 players in the same small area. Stick to groups of 2 or 3 if you want smooth framerates while exploring or building together.
Fun Co-Op Activities to Try With Your Group
A lot of new players assume multiplayer is just for exploring planets together, but there are dozens of structured and casual activities you can do as a group that make the game feel completely different from single-player play. Co-op story missions and expeditions are a great place to start, as every player in the lobby gets full credit for mission progress and rewards, so no one misses out on loot or story beats even if they’re not the host.
Shared base building is another fan favorite: you can assign build permissions to specific friends so they can add to your existing base, or pick a remote, scenic planet to build a shared community base with farms, storage units, and landing pads for everyone in your group. You can also take on high-difficulty activities that are nearly impossible to beat alone, like raiding sentinel capital ships, taking down pirate fleets, or hunting for rare S-class freighters and starships together.
You don’t have to stick to structured content either. My friend group regularly holds exocraft races across desert planets, has base-building contests with silly themes, or spends hours jumping between random star systems looking for weird alien creatures and weird planets to document.
How to Avoid Common Multiplayer Headaches
No Man’s Sky’s multiplayer is surprisingly stable these days, but there are a few small issues that pop up constantly for new players that are easy to avoid if you know what to look for. Double-check your PvP settings before you join a public lobby — PvP is disabled by default, but if you toggled it on for a fight with friends earlier, random players will be able to attack you and destroy your ships if you don’t turn it back off.
If you’re joining a friend’s lobby, don’t worry about losing your progress or inventory: all your items, base progress, and story unlocks stay tied to your save file, so you can jump between single-player and multiplayer lobbies as much as you want without losing anything. If you’re the host, try not to warp to another star system without warning your group first, as players who aren’t in your ship when you jump will get left behind in the previous system unless they manually follow your warp signal.
If you run into constant connection drops, try connecting your console or PC directly to your router with an ethernet cable instead of using Wi-Fi. No Man’s Sky’s multiplayer doesn’t use a ton of bandwidth, but unstable Wi-Fi connections are responsible for 90% of common multiplayer errors for most players.
At the end of the day, learning how to multiplayer No Man's Sky opens up a whole new side of the game that you just can’t get playing alone. Whether you’re grinding for rare resources with friends, building a massive floating base in the clouds of a gas giant, or just messing around exploring weird planets together, the co-op system is flexible enough to fit whatever playstyle you prefer. You don’t need any special setup beyond the basic steps we covered, and most small issues can be fixed with a quick lobby restart or a double check of your network settings. Grab a few friends, jump into a lobby, and go explore the galaxy together — you won’t regret it.
