How to Play R.E.P.O. With Friends: Host, Invite & Join
A step-by-step walkthrough for getting a R.E.P.O. co-op squad running: creating a lobby, sending Steam invites, sharing a lobby link, joining a friend, and fixing the errors that stop people connecting.
Quick Answer
To play R.E.P.O. with friends, pick Host Game from the main menu, step into a player slot, then use the Invite option to open the Steam overlay and pick your friends — or copy your Steam lobby link and paste it into Discord. Friends can also right-click your name in their Steam friends list and choose Join Game. A lobby holds six players total, everyone needs their own copy on PC, and the host runs the session, so the most stable connection should host.
How to Host a R.E.P.O. Lobby for Friends
Everything starts with one player creating the lobby. Four steps from the main menu to a full squad:
Pick the host with the best connection
R.E.P.O. has no dedicated servers — one player hosts the session peer-to-peer and everyone else connects to that PC. Whoever has the most stable line (ideally wired, low packet loss) should host, because their connection decides how smooth physics and grabbing feel for the whole squad.
Choose "Host Game" from the main menu
Launch R.E.P.O. and select Host Game instead of Singleplayer. The game shows a notice reminding you that hosting needs a good internet connection — confirm it, and you drop straight into your own lobby.
Take your slot and set the lobby type
Walk into a free player slot to claim your character. Once you are in a slot, the View Game Settings button appears near your character name — that is where you switch the lobby between Friends Only and Public.
Invite up to five friends, then start the run
A lobby holds six players in total, so you plus five friends. While you wait you can chat and customise characters. When everyone has taken a slot, the host begins the run and the truck heads to the first level.
Four Ways to Invite Friends to Your Game
All of these route through Steam. If one method is being stubborn, try the next — they are interchangeable.
In-game Invite button
Easiest
From inside the lobby, use the Invite option to open the Steam friends overlay, then pick the friends you want. They get a Steam invite popup and join with one click. This is the method most squads use.
Steam friends list
No overlay needed
Your friend can right-click your name in their Steam friends list and choose Join Game while you are sitting in a lobby. Handy if the in-game overlay is misbehaving or if they alt-tabbed before you sent the invite.
Steam lobby link
Best for Discord
Right-click the green Join Game button on your Steam profile and copy the lobby link. Paste it into Discord or any chat — opening the link in a browser hands the player to Steam, which launches R.E.P.O. and drops them into your lobby.
Open the lobby to Public
For randoms
If you are short on friends, flip the lobby to Public in View Game Settings so other players can find it. There is no true skill-based matchmaking, so quality varies wildly — expect a mix of helpful strangers and chaos.
Note: invites only work between accounts that are already Steam friends. Send and accept the friend request first, otherwise the invite silently goes nowhere.
How to Join a Friend’s R.E.P.O. Game
On the other side of the invite, joining takes seconds — there are three routes in and one thing not to forget:
Accept the invite popup
When the host sends an invite, Steam shows a notification in the corner of your screen. Clicking Join launches R.E.P.O. if it is closed and connects you to the lobby automatically.
Or join from the friends list
Missed the popup? Open your Steam friends list, find the host, right-click and pick Join Game. You can do the same from the Steam overlay with Shift + Tab while another game is running.
Or paste the lobby link
If the host shared a lobby link, paste it into a browser address bar. Steam intercepts the link, asks for confirmation, and takes you to the active lobby.
Claim a slot before the run starts
Inside the lobby, step into an empty player slot. If you are still standing outside a slot when the host starts, you can be left behind — so take one as soon as you load in.
Friends Only vs Public Lobbies
Once you have claimed a player slot as host, a View Game Settings button appears near your character name in the lobby. That menu holds the lobby privacy toggle:
- Friends Only — the default social setup. Only people on your Steam friends list can get in, whether by invite, friends-list join, or lobby link.
- Public — anyone browsing can drop into a free slot. Good for filling out a short squad, risky if you care about the run, since strangers can grief the cart or waste the quota.
- Set the privacy level before you start the run. Deciding mid-level means pausing your squad while you fiddle with menus.
Tip: if you want strangers but not chaos, keep the lobby Friends Only and recruit from a community Discord instead — you get fresh players who are still accountable to someone.
Friend Can’t Join? Work Through These Fixes
Join failures are almost always one of six things. Check them in this order — the cheap fixes are first.
You are not Steam friends yet
Invites only reach people already on your Steam friends list. Add each other and wait for the request to be accepted before trying again — this is the single most common reason an invite "does nothing".
Mismatched game versions
If one player updated and another did not, joining fails. Let Steam finish downloading updates for everyone, then restart the game. Verify integrity of game files from the Steam library if an update looks stuck.
Conflicting or one-sided mods
Gameplay mods generally have to match across the lobby. If one person runs a modded launch and the rest are vanilla, connections can be refused. Disable mods on every machine as a test before blaming the network.
Firewall or antivirus blocking the connection
Allow both Steam and R.E.P.O. through Windows Firewall. If a third-party antivirus has web or network shielding, pause it briefly as a test — if the join then works, add an exception rather than leaving protection off.
Strict NAT or an active VPN
Because the game is peer-to-peer, a strict NAT type or a VPN sitting between players can break the handshake. Turn off VPNs on both ends and, if joins keep failing, look at enabling UPnP on the host router.
Stale Steam invite state
Invites sometimes desync after long sessions. Fully quit R.E.P.O. and restart Steam on both machines, then have the host recreate the lobby. It sounds lazy, but it clears a surprising share of join failures.
Related R.E.P.O. Guides
Multiplayer Overview
Player counts, platform support, crossplay status and splitscreen — the co-op facts behind this how-to.
Voice Chat Setup
Getting proximity voice working, fixing mic problems, and why in-game audio beats an external call.
Tips for New Squads
What to do once everyone is in: quota pacing, carrying valuables together, and common beginner mistakes.
Playing With Friends FAQ
How many friends can play R.E.P.O. together?
Six players fit in one lobby, which means you plus five friends. The game is playable at any size from one to six, but hauling heavy valuables is much easier with three or more people carrying together. Community mods such as More Players raise the cap far beyond six, though everyone in the lobby needs the same mod installed for that to work, and physics can get unstable with very large groups.
Does everyone need to own the game?
Yes. Every player needs their own copy of R.E.P.O. on their own Steam account and their own PC. There is no shared-screen or local co-op mode, so you cannot pass a controller around one machine. Steam Family Sharing cannot be used to play the same copy at the same time either, since only one session per licence can run at once.
Is there matchmaking, or do I need friends?
The game is built around invites rather than a matchmaking queue. You can set your own lobby to Public in the View Game Settings menu so strangers can join, and you can browse for public lobbies the same way, but there is no ranked queue or skill matching. If you want a reliable squad, most players coordinate over Discord and invite through Steam.
What happens if the host leaves or crashes?
The host machine runs the session, so if they disconnect the run ends for everybody. There is no host migration. This is why picking the most stable connection as host matters, and why squads with an unreliable host often swap the role before starting a long run rather than losing progress mid-level.
Can I play with a friend on console?
Not currently. R.E.P.O. is a PC title on Steam, so there is no console version to cross-play with. Everyone in your lobby has to be on PC through Steam. If a console release arrives later, crossplay support would be a separate question the developers would need to answer.
Can a friend join in the middle of a run?
Joining is designed around the lobby, so the reliable way to add someone is between runs while everyone is back in the truck or lobby screen. If a friend wants in after you have already started, the cleanest approach is to finish the current level and let them take a free slot before the next one begins.
Do we need Discord, or is there in-game voice chat?
R.E.P.O. has proximity voice chat built in, and it is a core part of the experience — hearing a teammate panic from two rooms away is half the fun. External voice apps work too, but they flatten the distance-based audio that makes the horror land. Most groups use in-game voice during runs and Discord only to organise the session.
My invite sends but my friend cannot join — what now?
Work through the checklist in order: confirm you are actually Steam friends, confirm both copies are on the same patch, disable mods on every machine, allow Steam and R.E.P.O. through the firewall, and switch off any VPN. If it still fails, restart Steam on both ends and have the host make a fresh lobby before assuming the game is broken.