Dino Hunters supports 1-4 player cooperative play on PC via Steam, and the co-op layer is one of the most enjoyable parts of the game because it lets your squad split tracking duties, share ammunition, and bring down monsters that would be impossible to solo. That said, the multiplayer setup is also the single most common source of frustration for new players, because the Steam overlay, lobby, and connection sequence has several moving parts. This Dino Hunters co-op multiplayer setup guide walks you through every step from inviting friends to troubleshooting a lobby that refuses to load.
The first decision you need to make before doing anything else is who is hosting. In Dino Hunters, one player must be the host of the game world and the other 1-3 players connect to that host. Hosting requires a stable network connection, an open port if you play behind a strict NAT, and ideally a wired Ethernet link rather than Wi-Fi. If your home network is unreliable, we strongly recommend having the player with the most stable connection volunteer to host.
The second decision is which co-op region to use. The game uses Steam's region matching by default, which pairs you with whoever Steam thinks is geographically close. If you and your squad live in different countries, choose a central region (Frankfurt or Amsterdam for EU-US squads, for example) to minimize ping. Wrong-region choice is the leading cause of rubber-banding and crashes.
Hosting a Co-op Session
To host a co-op session, launch Dino Hunters, select Multiplayer from the main menu, and then choose Host Game. The host menu gives you five options before launching the world, all of which affect how the multiplayer session plays.
Recommended Host Settings for New Co-op Squads
| Setting | Beginner Recommendation | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| World difficulty | Normal | Predictable dinosaur aggression; balanced payouts |
| Sharing contract | Shared rewards | Eliminates squabbles over who gets credit for the kill |
| Player damage | Friendly fire off | Avoids accidental squad wipes early on |
| Respawns | Limited per contract | Adds tension without being punishing for new players |
| Cross-play | Disabled for first runs | Easier to diagnose network issues without console players in the mix |
After you click Launch World, the game loads into the host's Frontier Wilderness instance and shows a lobby code in the upper right corner. That lobby code is what your friends will need to join, and it is also what you type into the Steam overlay to invite them.
Sending a Steam Invite
Steam invites in Dino Hunters do not use the in-game friend list — they go through the regular Steam overlay. Press Shift+Tab while in the game, click your friend in the Steam list, and select Invite to Game. Your friend will receive a Steam notification with a Join button, and the moment they click it, the game will launch if it is not already running and they will be transferred into your lobby as long as your world has an open player slot.
If your friend already has Dino Hunters running, the invite arrives as a small pop-up that says Your friend is hosting a game. Accepting the pop-up pulls them directly into the session. This is by far the smoothest path, and we recommend that both the host and the joiners launch the game before sending any invites.
Joining an Existing Co-op Session
If your friend is the host, you do not need to do anything special. Make sure the game is running, accept their invite, and you will be brought into their world automatically. If you want to join without using an invite — for example, when joining a stranger's public lobby — select Multiplayer from the main menu, choose Join Game, and either browse the public list or paste a friend's lobby code into the search field.
The matchmaking panel shows ping, current biome, and current world difficulty. As a rule of thumb, never join a lobby with a ping higher than 120 ms unless you have no other choice. Above 120 ms, the hit-registration becomes inconsistent and the bull's-eye icon on your crosshair will jitter, which makes precision shots on moving dinosaurs very frustrating.
What to Expect the First Time You Join
| Joining Step | Approximate Time | What Happens |
|---|---|---|
| Accept Steam invite | 1 second | Steam pulls you out of your current game (if any) |
| Game launches | 20-40 seconds | Standard Steam launch time |
| Lobby loads | 10-20 seconds | World data streams to your client |
| Spawn into biome | 5-10 seconds | You appear next to the host on the map |
| First sync | 10-20 seconds | Other players' inventories and cooldowns sync |
If any of these steps takes significantly longer than the time listed, the most common cause is a mid-session host migration, where the host's connection dropped and the game is selecting a new host. Wait it out for 60 seconds; if the lobby still does not appear, exit to the main menu and rejoin from there.
Troubleshooting Multiplayer Problems
Even on a perfect network, multiplayer games occasionally misbehave. The four problems we see most often are outlined below, with the fix that almost always works.
Lobby not appearing in friend's invite list. Usually caused by Steam's offline status flip. Both you and your friend should set your Steam status to Online, restart Steam entirely (right-click the tray icon and choose Exit), then re-launch Dino Hunters.
Lobby appears but joiner hangs on the loading screen. Open the host's firewall and ensure ports 27015-27030 are open for both UDP and TCP. Most home routers do not require manual port forwarding, but if you have a strict NAT type, you will need to forward Steam's matchmaking ports.
Joining succeeds but world desyncs constantly. Look at the in-game ping display. Anything above 150 ms will produce visible desyncs. The fix is to switch region or to have only one player per physical location, since two players sharing one internet connection often overload the upstream link.
Host crashes mid-contract. This is almost always caused by an outdated graphics driver or a mod that the host has installed that the joiners do not. Disable mods on the host first, then update the host's GPU driver. If the host crash persists, the joiners should form a new lobby with one of them acting as host before proceeding.
Co-op is not just about bringing more guns to a fight. It is also about how you split responsibilities — one tracker, one sniper, one revive, one driver for the motor buggy. For specific role breakdowns, see our Dino Hunters team composition guide. For weapon pairings that work across two or three hunters, see our Dino Hunters weapons tier list.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does co-op require a Steam friend or can strangers join?
Both are supported. Friends join via Steam invite, strangers join by browsing the public lobby list or by entering a 6-character lobby code. Public lobbies are filtered by region and language by default.
Can the host save the game and quit while joiners keep playing?
No. Dino Hunters uses a host-dependent world model; when the host leaves, the session ends for everyone. The host cannot migrate to another player. Plan your session length around the host's availability.
Does co-op increase dinosaur difficulty?
Yes. The game scales dinosaur health and aggression based on the number of hunters in the session, but the contract payouts scale as well, so the risk/reward remains roughly equivalent. Three-player squads typically clear Tier 4 contracts with less hassle than a solo hunter clearing Tier 3.
Can we mix PC and console players?
Cross-play is currently disabled by default. RaptorClaws has signaled support for it in a post-launch update, but until that ships, both the host and the joiners must be on the same platform family. Enable it from the host settings menu if a same-platform cross-region option is needed.