There’s nothing quite like stumbling across a glowing, alien paradise planet or surviving a brutal pirate ambush in No Man’s Sky – and it’s even better when you don’t have to experience it alone. I’ve spent hundreds of hours bouncing between solo exploration and co-op sessions with friends across PC, PlayStation, and Xbox, so I’ve worked out all the kinks that leave most new players stuck waiting in empty lobbies. If you’ve been wondering how to play with friends in No Man’s Sky without dealing with constant disconnects or missing lobby invites, this guide covers every step you need, plus fixes for the most common issues you’ll run into.
How to Play With Friends in No Man’s Sky: Core Setup Steps for All Platforms
First off, you don’t have to stick to players on your exact console or PC storefront to play co-op. Hello Games rolled out full cross-platform support a few years back, so you can team up with friends on Steam, Epic, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and even Switch, as long as you complete a few quick pre-checks first. I always run through these before any planned co-op session to avoid 20 minutes of troubleshooting while everyone waits:
Different Ways to Join a Friend’s Session (No Invite Required)
Once your setup is complete, you have more options to join friends than just waiting for an invite to pop up. I prefer using the session code method when I’m playing with people I don’t have added on my Steam or PSN account, like people I met in the No Man’s Sky community Discord, because it’s fast and avoids platform friend request delays. All the host has to do is pull up their multiplayer tab and copy the 6-digit session share code to send to you, and you can enter it in the “join by code” field to connect immediately. If you’re playing with people already on your platform friend list, you can just head to the multiplayer tab from the main menu, select their active save, and join directly, as long as their lobby is set to friends only or public. If you want to meet up in the same location after joining, you can pull up your friend’s profile from the in-game menu and select warp to player, which will drop you right next to their current location, even if they’re 100 star systems away. Just note that you’ll need enough warp fuel in your ship to make the jump if you’re in a different system, or you can spawn near their base if they’ve set a base computer and uploaded it to the server. If you want to play without randoms joining, set your lobby to invite only in the network settings, so only people you send a direct invite or session code to can join your save. Oh, and if you're looking for more co-op mission ideas to play with your group, check out the official Hello Games community mission board for limited-time rewards you can only earn in co-op sessions.
Fun Co-op Activities to Try Once You’re Teamed Up
A lot of new co-op players assume you can only explore together, but there are dozens of structured and casual activities you can do as a group, whether you’re playing with one friend or a full 4-person lobby. I’ve spent entire weekends with my group just building shared bases on paradise planets, and we’ve even built a full space station outpost together in a high-traffic system for other players to visit. We added a trade terminal, crafting stations, and even a small farm of hazardous flora as a silly surprise for anyone who stops by. If you’re looking for structured content, you can run Nexus missions together from the Space Anomaly, which give you higher rewards for completing them with a group than you’d get running them solo. You can also take on pirate fleets together, or even participate in community expeditions for exclusive cosmetic rewards that you can’t get anywhere else. If you’re more into casual play, you can split up to scan all flora and fauna on a new planet to unlock the full discovery bonus, or trade resources with each other to finish building that big freighter you’ve been saving up for. One thing to note: only the host of the session will progress through the main story quest if you’re doing story missions together, so if everyone in the group wants to advance their own story, you’ll want to take turns hosting or complete those missions on your own first before jumping into co-op. I learned that the hard way when I spent 3 hours playing through the Artemis path with my friend as host, only to find none of the progress counted for my save.
Fixes for Common No Man’s Sky Co-op Connection Issues
Even if you follow all the setup steps perfectly, you’re probably going to run into a connection error at some point, especially if you’re playing cross-platform. I’ve dealt with every error under the sun, so these are the fixes that work 99% of the time without you having to restart your entire console or PC. The most common error is invites not popping up, which is almost always caused by your platform’s notification settings blocking game invites, or your Hello Games account not being linked properly. If that happens, just have the host send you the 6-digit session code instead, and enter it manually in the multiplayer tab to join. If you keep getting disconnected mid-session, the first thing to check is that both you and the host have a stable internet connection – No Man’s Sky co-op uses peer-to-peer connection, so if either one of you has spotty internet, you’ll get kicked regularly. If your internet is fine, try turning off crossplay temporarily if you’re both on the same platform, as that can reduce connection lag for nearby players. Another common issue is not being able to build on your friend’s base, which is fixed by having the host add you as a base contributor in the base computer settings. You can set different permission levels, so you can let friends only build, or let them also delete and rearrange existing structures, so be careful who you give full access to if you’ve spent hundreds of hours on your base build.
At the end of the day, half the fun of No Man’s Sky is sharing the weird, wonderful things you find across the galaxy with people you enjoy playing with. Once you get the hang of the setup steps, it’s easy to jump into sessions whenever you want, whether you’re running quick missions or spending weeks building a shared galactic empire. If you’ve been putting off learning how to play with friends in No Man’s Sky because you thought it was too complicated, give these steps a try – you’ll be exploring new planets with your group before you know it. If you have a go-to co-op activity I didn’t mention, drop it in the comments below so other players can try it out too.
