How to Play Co-Op in Online 404: The Ultimate Multiplayer Survival Guide

Cornfield Games, a two-person studio, has made a zombie survival game that takes away the crafting menu. Online 404 drops you into the quarantined Leminsgale District with a smartphone and nothing else. Want to fix a car engine? Open the browser and search for it. Want a medkit? Search for that too. It’s clunky in the best possible way, and with three friends it turns into a ridiculous team sport.

Co-op supports up to **four players**. The hosting setup has a few quirks that can burn you if you don’t know them, so here’s everything I’ve learned about running a session without losing your base, your gear, or your sanity.

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Setting Up a Co-Op Session

During Early Access, Online 404 runs on **peer-to-peer hosting**, not dedicated servers. The world lives on the host’s machine and nowhere else, so choose your host carefully.

Here’s how to get a lobby running:

1. Launch the game through Steam.
2. Hit **Multiplayer** on the main menu.
3. Pick **Host Game**. You can start a fresh world or reopen one you already built.
4. Set up the session. Use a **password-protected private match** unless you enjoy strangers wandering into your base and wrecking it.
5. Decide on **Friendly Fire**. More on that below.
6. Load into Leminsgale and invite your crew.

Joining a Friend’s World

You’ve got two options. The fast one is to right-click your friend in the Steam Friends List and hit **Join Game**. The other is the in-game multiplayer browser: search for the room name and type in the password. Both work fine, and the Steam route saves you a minute of typing.

Saves and Progression: Read This Before You Build Anything

This is the most asked question on Reddit and the Steam forums, and the answer stings a bit. In the current build, **everything is saved to the host’s profile**: the base layout, stored loot, crops, repaired vehicles, all of it. If the host quits, the session ends for everyone.

My advice is to pick one **designated host** for the whole group. Choose the person with the stable internet who actually plays every week, not the guy who vanishes for a month after buying a new game. Pour your hours into one shared world and keep going back to it.

The Smartphone: Your Best Friend and Your Biggest Liability

Your phone is the whole game. It’s your GPS, minimap, flashlight, quest log, stat tracker, and crafting manual all in one. In co-op, that gets much more interesting.

**Battery management is a team problem.** A dead phone means no map and no way to look up anything, which leaves you stumbling around Leminsgale blind. Nobody wants to be the guy who dies with 0% while three friends yell at him on voice chat.

Crafting works by typing real-world search terms into the in-game browser. Need to fix a damaged wire or get a car running while a horde closes in? Someone has to pull out a phone and search for the repair steps. There’s no auto-craft button to bail you out.

Here’s the catch, and it’s my favorite part of the whole design: the fake internet is **full of pop-up ads and straight-up bad information**. Follow a dodgy guide and you might craft something toxic or eat a poisonous mushroom you swore was safe. The game punishes you for trusting the first result, just like real life.

Split the Jobs

The smartest setup I’ve found is to **assign one player as the tech operator**. They research verified blueprints, track coordinates, and keep the group informed. The other three guard them and scavenge lumber, scrap metal, and parts. Rotate the role now and then so one person doesn’t spend the whole session staring at a phone screen.

Four-Player Strategy That Actually Works

Loot Like a Team, Not Like Goblins

Car parts, electrical components, and building materials eat inventory space fast. Set up **dedicated storage chests** at your base for each material type. When you’re raiding abandoned houses, call out what you’re grabbing over voice chat. Four people carrying the same junk is a waste of slots.

Keep the Lights On

A solid base needs power. Work together to siphon fuel, repair generators, and wire things up properly. A steady power source also lets everyone **recharge their phones safely** instead of burning through the single-use batteries you find in the wild. Those are better saved for emergencies.

Pick Your Roles

Leminsgale throws marauders, zombies, and nasty mutants at you, and you’ve got shotguns and rifles to answer with. For night raids, I’d run it like this:

• Heavy hitter: high-caliber firearms for the big, ugly targets
• Crowd control: keeps the smaller threats off everyone’s back
• Medic: watches the team’s health bars and carries healing supplies researched through the verified parts of the browser
• Tech operator: phone out, eyes on the map

Turn Friendly Fire Off (At First)

Dark, rainy nights with low visibility and a mutant charging at you make for chaos. Until your group learns the weapon handling and spacing, switch **Friendly Fire off** in the host menu. Once everyone stops spraying bullets blindly, flip it on if you want the extra tension.

Connection Problems and Quick Fixes

It’s an Early Access indie game made by two people, so expect bugs, desync, and the odd failed connection. When your group can’t connect, run through this list:

• Firewall permissions: make sure Windows Defender or your antivirus allows Online 404 through. P2P hosting needs open communication channels to work.
• Verify file integrity: if one player keeps crashing on join, they should right-click the game in Steam, open Properties, go to Installed Files, and click Verify integrity of game files.
• Match versions: the host and every guest must run the exact same build. Even a tiny hotfix mismatch can block the connection.

Final Thoughts

Playing solo, Online 404 feels like isolated, nerve-shredding horror. Playing with friends, it becomes a chaotic, tactical survival project where one person fumbles through a fake internet while three others hold the line. Get your host sorted, split your roles, keep your batteries topped up, and **double-check every recipe before you trust it**. The zombies won’t wait while you figure out which search result is lying to you.