How to Play 'Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty' With Friends — A Breakdown on Multiplayer and Co-Op

Within the early hours of Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, its Spirit system and crushing difficulty will be awkward for gamers unfamiliar with the Soulsborne formula.

Enemies can be incredibly aggressive, and Wo Long has several gameplay mechanics — like Morale Rank and Wizardry Spells — that introduce more complexity to the RPG game.

To shave off some of that challenge, dialing up a friend or two during stages or before starting one can make your experience more enjoyable. But in order to invite your friends, you'll need to pass a certain point in the story.

Here's a breakdown of how to play multiplayer and co-op in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty.

Before you can play multiplayer and co-op in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, you must defeat the first boss in the game. It sounds easy enough, but developer Team Ninja has made the first boss, Zhang Liang, a difficult test for newcomers to Wo Long.

Zhang dishes out lethal attacks with a gigantic hammer and will require you to deflect his attacks to unbalance his Spirit Guage and deal massive damage.

Taking time to memorize his mechanics and attack patterns will be significant to survive the encounter alone.

In a surprising twist, beating Zhang will queue a second phase that will refill his health bar, sending you up against a demonic version of himself with different attack patterns.

By pushing through both fights and winning, you'll gain access to the next mission in Wo Long — where the multiplayer and co-op mode will unlock.

Now that you're at the second stage in Wo Long, you can rest at a Battle Flag to access online multiplayer and co-op at your leisure.

At this point, the game opens up a few online services, so you must decide which you'd like to use to benefit your experience. For instance, selecting the "Online Lobby" from the Battle Flag menu will show "Recruit" and "Co-Op."

The Recruit option will ping random online players to join your world to help you complete your mission. It's possible to summon them at any Battle Flag scattered across your map.

You can recruit up to two players, but they can't interact with doors, treasure chests, and other items in your world. Even though it's a limited multiplayer feature, it does work for those wanting an extra hand to overcome a section of their mission.

With the Co-Op option, Wo Long will give you a numerical password code, which you can send to specific players to join your missions.

Like the Monster Hunter series, joining players will be with you from start to finish, and if everyone dies, all players will respawn at the most recently interacted with Battle Flag.

While playing Wo Long via multiplayer and co-op could make some aspects less challenging, it does help you deal with its frustrating parts and eases up the mastery needed to complete the game.

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is now available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.