I spent my first 20 hours of No Man’s Sky wandering the galaxy alone, jumping from uncharted planet to uncharted planet, wondering why the vast, procedurally generated universe felt a little empty. It wasn’t until I figured out how to play with friends in No Man’s Sky that the game really clicked for me. Exploring, building, and fighting pirates alongside people I know turned a quiet, meditative survival game into one of my go-to group activities. A lot of new players run into frustrating roadblocks with invites, crossplay, and sync issues when they first try to play with others, so this guide will walk you through everything you need to know to get your group up and running with zero headaches.
How to Play With Friends in No Man’s Sky: First-Time Setup Steps
Before you send any invites, you’ll want to tick a few basic boxes to avoid common connection issues. First, head to your game settings from the main menu and make sure the “Multiplayer” toggle is switched on. If you’re planning to play with people on different platforms, you’ll also need to enable the “Cross-Platform Play” toggle right below it. Always double-check that your platform’s privacy settings allow cross-platform friend invites — PlayStation and Nintendo Switch both default to strict privacy settings that block crossplay invites unless you manually change them.
Next, add your friends to your in-game friend list, or link your platform account (Steam, PSN, Xbox Live, Nintendo Account) to pull in your existing friends. If you’re hosting a lobby, select “Multiplayer” from the main menu, then choose “Host New Game” and pick your save file. You can set the lobby to friends-only, invite-only, or public, depending on who you want to join. If you’re joining a friend’s game, you can either accept their in-game invite, search for their username in the multiplayer menu, or join directly through your platform’s friend list. If you’re still confused about how to play with friends in No Man’s Sky after setup, don’t worry, most first-time players take a few tries to get it right.
Fix Common Co-Op Connection Issues Fast
Even if you follow all the setup steps perfectly, you might run into a few glitches when you first try to connect. Outdated game builds are the #1 cause of failed co-op connections in No Man’s Sky, so first confirm that every player in your group has installed the latest patch. Hello Games releases regular updates, so it’s easy for one person to fall behind if they haven’t launched the game in a few weeks.
If you’re still having trouble connecting, try these quick fixes that work for 90% of common issues:
- Verify both players have installed the latest No Man’s Sky patch before sending invites
- Disable any VPNs or ad blockers that might interfere with peer-to-peer connections
- If playing on PC, add No Man’s Sky as an exception to your firewall and antivirus software
- For crossplay groups, confirm all players have cross-platform play enabled in both game and platform settings
If invites aren’t showing up in-game, try sending an invite through your platform’s native friend list instead. The in-game invite system has a known glitch where invites sometimes get lost, especially for crossplay groups. I’ve had way more luck sending invites through the Steam overlay than the in-game menu when I’m playing with friends on Xbox.
Fun Co-Op Activities to Try With Your Group
Once you’re all connected, you might be wondering what to do first. You don’t have to stick to just mining resources and completing main story missions together. There are tons of co-op specific activities that are way more fun with a group.
Shared base building is one of the most popular co-op activities, and for good reason. You can split up roles to build massive, elaborate bases way faster than you could alone: one person can farm rare building materials, one can design the layout, and one can set up power and farming systems. Shared bases count towards all group members’ base building milestones, so you can unlock rewards faster together. I built a giant beach mansion on a paradise planet with two friends last year, and we still go back to it every few updates to add new rooms.
Pirate hunting and freighter raids are another great group activity. Taking on a fleet of pirate ships alone is tough, but with 2 or 3 friends, you can split up to attack different targets and take down the fleet in half the time. All loot from co-op missions and pirate attacks is instanced, so you don't have to fight over rare resources with your friends. You can also take on frigate missions together, run trade routes between systems, or join expeditions to unlock exclusive limited-time rewards way faster than you could alone.
Best Settings to Avoid Co-Op Sync Problems
Once you’re playing together, you might run into small sync glitches: items disappearing after a trade, bases not loading correctly, or you and your friend seeing different creatures on the same planet. Most of these issues are easy to fix with a few small setting adjustments.
Keeping your network send and receive rate set to the default 60 will prevent most item sync glitches in co-op. A lot of players lower this setting to reduce lag in single player, but it causes major sync issues when you’re playing with others. If you’re playing with 3 or more people, you can lower the “Max Active Entities” setting by 10-20% to reduce lag for everyone in the lobby, especially if you’re building or fighting large groups of enemies together.
There are also a few small habits you can pick up to avoid sync issues. When you trade items with a friend, stand still for 2-3 seconds after the trade goes through before you run off, to give the game time to register the item for both players. If you’re building together, don’t edit the same section of the base at the exact same time — I learned this the hard way when my friend and I both tried to place a landing pad in the same spot, and we ended up with 3 glitched landing pads we couldn’t delete for almost a week.
At the end of the day, No Man’s Sky is built for exploration, and everything is better when you get to share it with people you care about. Once you master how to play with friends in No Man’s Sky, you’ll wonder how you ever played the game alone. You don’t have to stick to the activities listed here either — some of my favorite memories from the game are unplanned, like spending 4 hours tracking down a giant flying creature my friend spotted on a toxic planet, or accidentally starting a war with a sentinel fleet while we were trying to take screenshots. Don’t be afraid to mess around, and if you run into a glitch we didn’t cover, a quick search of the community forums will almost always have a fix.
