As much as we love single-player games, it’s impossible to play a gem like Breath of the Wild and not think of how fun it would be if you could play it with your friends. Although Nintendo seems to be in no mood to add multiplayer or co-op options to Zelda, Genshin Impact manages to give us a glimpse of what might have been.

 

At its core, Genshin Impact is an action role-playing game – so it does not feature full-fledged multiplayer options. However, it does offer co-op functionalities and you can play several side quests and even partake in a few activities with other players.

 

Unlike most games these days, where you can jump into co-op multiplayer right after completing the tutorial, Genshin Impact requires a few steps to be completed before co-op options become available. So, here’s an easy-to-follow guide on how you can play co-op in Genshin Impact!

 

 

How to be eligible for co-op?

 

There are a few requirements that have to be met before you can play co-op in Genshin Impact. The process of fulfilling these requirements usually takes players up to 3 hours. Let’s take a look at what you need to do to be eligible first before we get into how you can actually play.

 

1.  Make sure that you and your friends pick the same server

 

One thing that isn’t immediately obvious about Genshin Impact is that the server that you pick when starting the game is crucial in allowing you to play co-op with your friends. You need to make sure that you and your friends are on the same server, otherwise, you won’t be able to invite them or join their game.

 

2. Reach Level 16

 

Another requirement that the game has before players can unlock co-op is to reach Adventure Rank 16 for their account. As mentioned above, this can take somewhere around 3 hours and can be slightly longer if players like to take things slow.

 

 

Fortunately, hitting level 16 isn’t as intimidating as it may sound and you can follow these steps to get quick experience:

• Story Quests – One of the fastest ways of leveling up in Genshin Impact is to complete Story Quests. Since you can only complete these quests by yourself, it should give you an incentive to use them as a way of getting a lot of EXP before you end up playing with your friends.
• Daily Commissions – Once you’ve hit level 12, completing Daily Commissions is a pretty good way of farming EXP.
• Side Quests – Similar to story quests, the side content also helps you level up at a pretty good pace.
• Opening chests & Solving puzzles – If you’re someone who enjoys exploring, you can find puzzles and chests to gain EXP points. It’s one of the fastest ways of leveling up in the game, as long as you don’t count the time spent exploring.

If you keep completing quests and tasks from the suggested list above, you’ll be level 16 in no time and you’ll be able to quickly head to playing co-op.

 

How to play co-op

 

There are two ways to play co-op in Genshin Impact. First, you can join sessions of other random players that you don’t know. Secondly, you can invite or join your friends, just note that you’ll have to add them to your friend’s list first.

 

1. Joining other random players

 

There are two ways to partake in co-op sessions with random people in Genshin Impact. The first one is to create a co-op session of your own, while the second one is to join someone else’s. To do this, you just have to tap the Paimon Menu in the top left corner of the screen in the Open World. This brings up a lot of options and you have to select the ‘Co-Op’ mode from the menu list.

 

From there, you can request to join co-op sessions of other people (who will either accept or reject your request) or you can create your own sessions (which others can join in the same way).

 

Lastly, there is a Domain mode which is similar to how dungeons work in online games. For this game mode, you’ll need to team up with people who wish to play the same Domain as you. Domains have specific Adventure Rank requirements, so being level 16 might not be good enough for some of them.

 

 

2. Playing co-op with your friends

 

At the bottom of your screen are a bunch of numbers next to the letters ‘UID’. That number is essentially your username in the game’s code and it’s used to add people to your friends list. Either get the UID of a friend or give them yours and then friend requests can be sent and accepted in the aforementioned Paimon Menu.

 

Once that’s done, playing co-op with your friends is as easy as inviting them to your game or joining theirs. However, you can’t join certain games if the other player’s Adventure Rank is significantly higher than yours – in which case they will have to join your game instead.

 

Note that you can only have up to 3 other players in your session, for a maximum party size of four characters. Also, know that Genshin Impact features cross-play functionalities, meaning that you can play with your friends regardless of what platform you’re on. (For example, someone on a PlayStation 4 can play co-op with a friend that plays on an Android phone.) 

 

You should be able to run just about anything with your co-op buddies, with a few exceptions (such as the Story Quests). So, stop reading this guide and go have some fun!