Guns of Eschaton How to Join Friends in Co-op

Joining a partner in Guns of Eschaton runs through the same menu you use to travel: the campfire. The game does not put multiplayer in a separate lobby screen, and that is the first thing to understand. The second is that Hounds' Camp is not the Sheriff's tent — a distinction the studio had to clarify in its own patch notes because players kept mixing them up.

Before you start a session

Four things have to be true before the menu is even worth opening:

1. Both players own the game on the same platform pool. Crossplay between PC and consoles has not been announced, so a split group cannot connect.
2. Both players are at a point where travel is unlocked. The campfire travel menu opens during the opening sequence, not before.
3. On PlayStation 5, the online player has an active PlayStation Plus subscription.
4. Both players are on the same edition if you want to play on launch day, because the Pay to Lose Edition starts 48 hours early.

The steps

Step 1 — reach a campfire. The first one sits near the start of the game, and the tutorial ends in its vicinity. Interacting with it opens the travel menu.

Step 2 — open the travel menu, not the rest menu. The campfire serves several functions, and only one of them is travel. Hounds' Camp appears in the travel list, and since a patch during the demo it appears as the first destination rather than buried under other entries.

Step 3 — invite or join. The invitation itself is platform-level: the console or Steam friend list handles the invite, and the campfire menu handles the destination. Nothing in the published material describes a room code or a password system.

Step 4 — travel together, not sequentially. A pair that travels at different times ends up in different instances. Agree on the destination before either player confirms it.

What happens to progress

Both players keep their own campaign progress, which is the reason a partner is not a temporary guest. A session in one player's world advances that player's story for both, and the partner's own world stays where it was.

The practical rhythm for a pair: pick one world as the shared run and treat the other as a solo save. Alternating between them doubles the distance each of you has to travel.

Common failures and what they mean

The travel option is not there. Travel unlocks during the opening sequence. If the campfire only offers rest, you are earlier in the game than you think.

Hounds' Camp is missing from the list. It has to be visited once before other campfire features unlock. Take the travel option the first time it appears.

The invite does nothing. Check the platform pool first, then the subscription, then the edition. In that order — the first is the one that cannot be fixed from inside the game.

What the campfire is for

The campfire is the game's hub interface, and it does more than open a travel menu. It is where attribute points are spent, where the Codex is best read (because nothing is shooting at you), and where you choose a destination.

That combination is why the multiplayer flow runs through it rather than through a lobby. The game expects you to return to a fire after every significant fight, and a session starts from the same place a build decision does.

A first session, end to end

1. Both players launch the game and reach the first campfire.
2. Each interacts with the fire and opens the travel menu.
3. Each selects Hounds' Camp, ideally after agreeing on the destination in voice chat.
4. Inside the camp, one player sends the platform-level invitation through the console or Steam friend list.
5. The invited player accepts, and the session loads into the host's world.
6. Both walk out together. The partner's own campaign progress is untouched.

If a step fails, the failure is almost always at step 4 rather than step 3 — the destination is a game action, and the invitation is a platform action. Mixing them up produces the impression that the invite "did nothing".

Playing with someone new to the game

A partner who has never played will struggle, and the reason is structural: the Codex is the tutorial, and it only fills in as you fight. A new player in someone else's session gets the fights without the accumulated knowledge that makes them readable.

Two things help. Fight the early enemies twice, once to die and once to read. And let the newer player take the kills on enemies they have already met, because the entry grows from their own encounters rather than from watching.

Why the game does not have a lobby

A lobby exists to gather strangers. This game does not need one: co-op is two players who already know each other, and the campaign is not matchmade. That design choice is why the flow runs through a location rather than a menu screen, and why the platform friend list carries the invitation.

It also explains the confusion around Hounds' Camp. Players looking for a multiplayer menu find a travel menu, and the camp looks like a lobby because that is what a shared-space hub resembles. It is a shop and a build station, not a matchmaking room.