What Together actually is
Together is not temporary drop-in assistance. It provides free private Realms for up to four invited Steam players. The shared world remembers quest, boss, town, vendor, door, project, and other state changes. Members can continue in the Realm when the original creator is offline.
That persistence is the feature and the main risk. A friend can advance a quest, spend project resources, open a route, or change the world while others are away. Good co-op therefore starts with Realm rules, not combat roles.
Start in the right place
Use How to Play Co-op for creation, sharing, acceptance, and join troubleshooting. Read Realms before deciding whether the group should progress only together or allow asynchronous play.
The current system is private and friend-invite based; it is not public random matchmaking. Each friend must own the Steam Early Access build and accept the Realm share.
Agree on five Realm rules
- Which quests and bosses require the full group?
- Can members advance the world alone?
- Who may spend town-project and rare crafting resources?
- How is contested gear assigned and traded?
- Who has permission to change difficulty?
Write the answers in the group chat. The new Realm Diary records many events, but it cannot explain why someone spent the last material stack.
Loot and character roles
World loot is picked up by a player rather than copied automatically to every member. Use Co-op Loot & Trading to identify items before assigning them and transfer gear through the direct interaction menu.
Do not lock players into MMO-style roles. Builds should still survive exploration when the group separates. A durable frontliner, fast pressure build, ranged bow, or Focus specialist can complement the party, but every player needs a stamina-safe normal loop and an answer when aggro changes.
Current communication tools
Together Patch 1 added Text Chat & Callouts. Messages appear in chat and as nearby overhead bubbles. Callouts come from the Gesture menu and also appear in chat. Realm Diary events surface there as well, so the feed combines coordination and world-state reporting.
Patch 1 also added PvP Duels. They are consensual challenges started from the same player-interaction menu as trading; they are not open-world invasions.
Difficulty and fairness
Realms offer Torn, Chosen, and Unspoken difficulty paths in the current build. A Realm administrator can change the active difficulty later through Settings. Use Realm Difficulty before changing it mid-session, and tell the group first.
Official Together messaging says solo and co-op are balanced and share the same world framework. That does not mean every encounter feels identical at every party size. Reassess builds, revive plans, and loot expectations when the group changes.
Version boundary
Together Patch 1 and Hotfix 8 continued changing Diary, callouts, rune swapping, duels, and balance. These guides are accurate to Build 22928553. Crossplay and console behavior belong to the future 1.0 Hub until those versions release and can be tested.
