Palworld Multiplayer: Everything You Need to Know

Often referred to as a perfect combination of survival and monster-taming, Palworld has taken the world by storm. It's an open-world title with terrific crafting and combat elements, creating a massive fan base within a few months of its release.

However, since it's a new game, Palworld multiplayer is very buggy, causing players to flood the online forums with questions like "Can you play Palworld with friends?"

If you're one of these players, our comprehensive Palworld multiplayer guide will answer all your questions and show you how to play with friends on Palworld through co-op and multiplayer.

How to Play Palworld Multiplayer

The multiplayer aspect of Palworld is a significant part of the game's appeal, but joining your friends can be pretty tricky if you're a beginner. The answer to how to play Palworld multiplayer primarily depends on your platform, as only one of the game's versions can join a 32-player server. The steps also differ between Palworld co-op and Palworld multiplayer.

Let's dive into Palworld co-op first. You can play it with up to three friends by following these steps:

1. Launch Palworld and hit Start Game.

   

2. Tap Create New World, name it, and click Confirm.

   

Alternatively, select an existing world and tap the Change World Settings button.



3. Toggle the Multiplayer option and make sure it's ON.

   

4. Tap OK > Confirm > Start Game.
5. Once inside the game, tap the ESC key, and you'll see an Invite Code at the top right on the Options tab. Copy it and share it with your friends.

   

6. If you're joining someone else's Palworld co-op game, select the Join Multiplayer Game (Invite Code) option in the game's main menu.

   

7. Paste the Invite Code into the field, and tap OK.

   

Note: If you're playing with friends, you should always let the player with the most powerful PC create a new world or host the Palworld co-op game to avoid stutters.

For Palworld multiplayer with up to 32 players, users can only play it on the Steam version and will need to follow these steps to join such a server:

1. Launch the game and select the Join Multiplayer Game button (Steam-only option.)

   

2. Select Official Servers to filter the servers and look for worlds hosted by the developer.

   

3. Tap on Community Servers if you want to join a friend's server.
4. If you've set up a local server, enter your localhost IP address and port in the field at the bottom and hit Connect.

Palworld Xbox multiplayer is limited to the Palworld co-op only, which can have up to four players. However, if you're a Steam player, you can join official and community servers or create a dedicated or community Palworld server.

While such a server supports up to 32 players, it requires downloading the Palworld Dedicated Server from Steam and is only suitable for advanced users with command-line knowledge. Nonetheless, you can follow the Palworld tech guide's steps to create your server.

How Palworld Multiplayer Works

Now that we know how to play Palworld multiplayer, we should also elaborate on how Palworld multiplayer is presently set up and how everything works.

Since it's a relatively new game, Palworld is far from ideal. While Palworld's online multiplayer works, it's currently a bit buggy and treated as a completely separate world where players must start from scratch. There's no way to bring your equipment or Pals when you go from single-player mode to any Palworld multiplayer game.

On the one hand, Palworld co-op, which supports up to four players, requires the hosting player to have a powerful gaming PC and be online whenever the other three joining players want to grind and progress through the game. While a type of cross-platform Palworld co-op gameplay has recently been enabled, it can also be quite buggy if the players enter a Palworld Xbox co-op game from Steam and vice versa.

On the other hand, Palworld multiplayer, which supports up to 32 players on a single server, is PC-only. Players can quickly join such servers through the Steam version, but they're also treated as separate files with no way of bringing Pals and equipment from single-player mode to Palworld multiplayer.

Palworld Multiplayer Gameplay Tips

Since you can't bring your single-player items into a multiplayer game, we thought we should share some tips on getting the best start in Palworld multiplayer. These tips include the following:

• 🚀 Join the game's Official Servers to avoid ending up on slow, laggy, or dead servers or having them turned off or reset by the owner;
• 🌎 Filter Server Types and join physically close servers (for example, European players should choose EU servers);
• 🎯 Sort the Official Servers by Days active and join relatively new servers that have just launched;
• 🔍 Once inside the game, find a good location for your base and focus on building it from the get-go;
• 🗫 Group up and form guilds; they'll provide access to multiple bases and workbenches and help you progress much faster.

Following these Palworld online multiplayer tips will ensure a pleasant gaming experience without lag. You'll also be able to level up alongside other players and not fall behind.

Troubleshooting: Palworld Server Error

Despite being a popular multiplayer game today, Palworld players have encountered more than their fair share of issues, often related to server errors.

• Server Stability Errors – Don't worry; this isn't your fault. Due to the game's quick rise to fame, Palworld online multiplayer is experiencing severe instability. The only thing to do in these situations is wait for a fix.
• Prevented from Playing Multiplayer – This one is usually related to you. You can try the usual fixes, such as closing and reopening the game, running it as an admin, and restarting your Xbox if you're playing on it. If there's a Palworld game update, download it, as playing on the latest game version often fixes this error.
• Inability to Join Servers – Although a form of cross-platform gameplay has recently been enabled through Game Pass, Steam users still have issues joining Palworld Xbox multiplayer games and vice versa. You can try overcoming these issues by ensuring that the Steam and Xbox players are running the latest version, but not much else can be done.

Understanding and troubleshooting these errors is vital to your gaming experience. While you might be unable to fix all of them, knowing what's wrong can at least point you toward the fix.

Bonus: How to Recover Lost Palworld Save Files

Palworld multiplayer and server errors aren't the only issues players encounter in this viral game. Losing hours upon hours of grinding in Palworld co-op and game progress is another massive problem for Palworld enthusiasts, as many lose their vital game saves. However, these files can often be fixed faster than Palworld multiplayer issues.

All you need is the right tool, and these come in the form of data recovery applications, which can quickly and efficiently restore your lost game saves. Wondershare Recoverit is one of them.

Whether your game saves were lost due to accidental deletion, file removal by Windows Defender and other antivirus/antimalware tools, system crashes, corruption, or formatting, this professional game save recovery tool can effortlessly restore your files in a few simple steps.

Here's how you can do that for your Palworld game saves:

1. Launch the Wondershare Recoverit app on your computer, tap Hard Drives and Locations in the left sidebar, and select your operating system drive (If your Palworld game saves are in another disk drive, you'll need to select that disk.)

   

Alternatively, launch File Explorer, right-click a folder or drive containing your Palworld installation, and select the Scan for deleted files with Recoverit option.



2. The app will automatically start a deep scan of the selected disk drive, searching for any lost data in that location.

   

3. You can then adjust the app's file filters to look for game saves or specify when these files were lost to pinpoint the app's search.

   

4. You can also add keywords to look for specific game save files and further speed up the app's search.

   

5. Once the app finds lost data, you can preview the discovered files to verify their integrity and ensure they are the files you want by clicking the Preview button next to each item.

   

6. When you've got the correct save file, tap the Recover button to retrieve it and choose a save location. (Your save location should be a different drive than the disk you're currently recovering from, and you can later copy the recovered game save file to its proper destination.)

   

Palworld game saves aren't the only thing this fantastic app can retrieve. The tool works flawlessly for any modern game with save file issues, including Elden Rings, Hell Divers 2, Dragon's Dogma 2, CS2, Monster Hunter, and Monster Hunter World.

After all, this professional data recovery app supports over 1,000 file types and formats, including images, videos, music, documents, and game save files, making it indispensable for all your data recovery needs.

Conclusion

Despite being one of the most popular base-building survival and monster-taming games of 2024, Palworld multiplayer is an aspect many new players don't fully understand. Cross-platform gameplay between Steam and Xbox isn't enabled yet, causing Palworld Xbox multiplayer to be limited to co-op games, while PC users can join Palworld multiplayer servers with up to 32 players.

We've shown you how to invite friends on Palworld, but Palworld multiplayer gamers are also plagued by lost game saves. These saves are commonly removed by Windows Defender or caused by accidental deletion and game crashes. Yet, solutions exist, and these errors can be resolved using a powerful game data recovery tool like Wondershare Recoverit.