Diablo 4 is a blast when you’re on your own, but it’s even better when you team up with friends — and we’re not talking about Necromancer summons. Indeed, much like the series’ past hack-and-slash ARPGs, Diablo 4 has been designed from the ground up with multiplayer co-op play in mind. The game’s five different classes synergize with each other in a wide variety of ways, and having allies at your side will make many tough battles easier to get through.
In this guide, we’ll go over everything you need to know about multiplayer co-op play in Diablo 4, including how to add friends, join or invite them, and an overview of the pros and cons of choosing to play with others.
How to play multiplayer with friends in Diablo 4
Setting up a multiplayer co-op session with friends is very easy in Diablo 4, although the process is easy to miss since the game never directly explains it to you. Here’s what you’ll need to do:
- First, open Diablo 4’s Game Menu.
- Next, move to the Social tab.
- To add your friend to your Friends List, select Add a Friend.
- In the field, enter the BattleTag or email address associated with your friend’s account.
- Select Send Request.
- You can also add nearby players as friends by selecting them in the Local Players section of the Social tab.
- Once your friend accepts the request, they’ll appear on your Friends List. Select their name.
- Select Invite to Party to invite them to your party.
- Alternatively, select Request to Join Party if you want them to invite you.
Note that you won’t be able to play with folks in multiplayer until you’ve completed the Diablo 4 Prologue and have reached the Fractured Peaks’ capital city, Kyovashad. This doesn’t take very long, so don’t worry — you’ll be able to squad up soon. Also, keep in mind that you can’t have more than four players in a party at once, so if you have a very large group of friends hoping to play together, you’ll need to split into multiple groups.
Should you play Diablo 4 solo or with a group?
Many have wondered if it’s better to play the game by yourself or with friends at your side. We recommend multiplayer co-op if you have people to play with, especially if each player in your friend group is using a different class. This is because multiple players can work together and take advantage of the synergies that Diablo 4’s classes have. For example, crowd control magic wielded by Sorcerers and Druids can slow down and trap hordes of enemies, making it easy for Barbarians and melee-focused Rogues to tear them apart with skills like Whirlwind or Flurry. Different classes can also mitigate each other’s weaknesses, too.
With that said, it’s important to note that playing in a multiplayer party will scale up enemies with some extra health and damage. This means that on an individual level, you’ll be a bit less powerful than you would be in solo play. This won’t be an issue for most groups that play together well, but parties of inexperienced players may struggle with the tougher foes.
Overall, give multiplayer co-op a shot and see if you and your friends like how it feels. You’ll likely find that it makes the game a bit easier even with the difficulty scalar, but if you end up having a hard time making progress, it might be better to split up and play solo for awhile until you’re more comfortable with Diablo 4’s various gameplay systems.
Diablo 4 is slated to fully launch on June 6, 2023, with the Open Beta expected to run from March 24-27 for all players. It has the potential to be one of the best Xbox games for fans of dungeon crawlers and hack-and-slash combat, and we can’t wait to jump in now that the beta is live.
