A service-focused look at Lords of the Fallen’s major co-op update, how shared progression has changed, what’s been fixed since launch, and why the PS Plus drop is the right moment for new and lapsed players to return.
If you bounced off Lords of the Fallen at launch or never found the time to try it, the next few days are lining up in your favor. CI Games’ soulslike is about to join PS Plus on April 7 at noon local time, and it has just received a major co-op focused update that quietly fixes one of the game’s biggest long-term problems: how badly it handled playing with friends.
This is not a full re-review. Think of it as a “why now” check-in. If you’re looking at the PS Plus lineup and wondering whether Lords of the Fallen is finally worth your time, especially in co-op, here is what has actually changed.
Co-op used to feel like a side mode
At launch in October 2023, Lords of the Fallen had a solid core pitch: a dual-realm soulslike that let you shift between Axiom and Umbral, with thick atmosphere and big, theatrical bosses. But its co-op setup felt surprisingly restrictive.
Guests in a friend’s world were mostly along for the ride. You could help clear areas and melt bosses, but the host handled the meaningful progression and world interaction. You were limited in what you could upgrade, where you could travel, and how much the session respected your own character’s growth. Over a longer playthrough, that made co-op feel less like a true shared campaign and more like a temporary damage buff for the host.
On top of that, matchmaking could be finicky, session setup was clunky, and a handful of bugs, especially around respecs and gear systems, undercut what should have been a marquee feature.
The new patch is built to tackle that exact problem.
Shared progression is now much closer to a full campaign
The headline change is to shared progression co-op. In the new update, joining another player’s world no longer means parking your character’s growth at the door.
Guest players can now upgrade their weapons and gear during co-op, so every session feeds directly back into your own build instead of just showering you with currency you can only spend later. You can freely socket upgrade items, interact with vendors, and make actual decisions about your character instead of waiting until you’re back in your own world.
The update also unlocks core structural actions for guests. You can rest and warp between Vestiges, plant Vestige seeds to create new checkpoints, and even initiate boss fights. Cutscenes can be skipped by either player, which is a small but critical quality-of-life change if you’re replaying content with someone who is on a fresh run.
Taken together, this moves co-op away from a “host’s world, guest’s chores” model and toward something that feels closer to a shared save file, even if your characters ultimately live on separate profiles. Both players get to treat a session as real progress.
Non-shared co-op now respects how you want to play
Not everyone wants full parity in co-op. Maybe you’re helping a newcomer and you do not want them reconfiguring the world, or you are trying to keep spoilers and shortcuts under control. The update accounts for that with new privilege options in non-shared progression.
Hosts can now choose between limited and full privileges for partners. Limited keeps tighter control over what the guest can do in your world, while full is more generous and closer to the shared progression settings. Crucially, both players have to align their progression preferences when setting up a session, which prevents mismatched expectations where one person thinks they are committing to a full shared run and the other expects a quick carry.
It is a simple menu addition that has an outsized impact on how comfortable people will feel jumping into public or semi-public sessions.
Matchmaking and setup are less of a hassle
Co-op games live or die on how fast you can get a session running. The new update revisits the nuts and bolts of matchmaking on PS5, with improvements that should reduce friction if you just want to play with a particular friend.
You can now drop a password at a Vestige via the multiplayer menu. Your partner does the same in their game, and as long as your progression options match, you connect. If you leave the password field blank, you fall back to more traditional matchmaking.
This is a small change if you come from other soulslikes, but it brings Lords of the Fallen closer to the convenience baseline that players expect in 2026.
Under the hood: bug fixes and platform polish
Alongside the headline systems work, the patch quietly cleans up several long-standing issues. Co-op interactions around socketing Umbral Eyes and weapon runes have been corrected, so investing in these systems as a pair should be more reliable. A more serious bug that could multiply your character level after using Chrysalis Rebirth in co-op has been addressed, which matters a lot if you are experimenting with builds but want to keep a stable progression curve.
There are also technical tweaks outside PlayStation’s ecosystem. DualSense problems on the Steam version have been fixed, and Steam Deck performance has been improved. Even if you are planning to jump in via PS Plus on PS5, those cross-platform changes suggest the developers are still tuning the game’s foundation instead of just layering on one headline feature.
How different is Lords of the Fallen from its 2023 launch?
Beyond co-op, the current version of Lords of the Fallen is not the exact game that launched in 2023. Over the past year, the developers have rolled out performance passes, stability fixes, and incremental balance tweaks that smoothed out some of the rougher edges around enemy encounters and frame pacing.
The basic identity is unchanged. This is still a dense, relatively aggressive soulslike with striking art direction and a dual-realm gimmick that rewards curiosity and punishes complacency. But compared to the launch window, it is a more stable, better tuned experience that wastes less of your time with technical snags.
If you bounced off early due to co-op friction or jank rather than the core combat loop, there is a good chance those specific pain points have been softened.
Is this a smart time for lapsed players to return?
For lapsed players, timing is the real selling point. The PS Plus release drops the cost barrier to zero if you subscribe, which makes it much easier to justify reinstalling just to see how it feels now.
The co-op revamp gives you more reason to do that with friends. Your time spent helping someone else is finally meaningful for your own character, and you have better tools for tailoring how involved your partner can be. If your earlier attempts to play as a duo felt like you were compromising your own progress, the new shared progression setup is built to correct that.
Coming back right now also means you will be returning to a larger influx of players, at least in the short term, which is prime time for summoning help on tricky bosses or starting a new campaign together.
If you left because you fundamentally did not click with its heavier feel, enemy design, or world structure, the patch will not transform Lords of the Fallen into a different kind of soulslike. These changes refine what is already there instead of reinventing it.
What if you are a first-time player via PS Plus?
If you are jumping in for the first time on PS Plus, the updated co-op systems effectively make Lords of the Fallen a much friendlier pick for duo playthan it was in 2023.
You can comfortably start fresh characters together and know that both of you are progressing, not just the host. You can move between checkpoints, adjust builds, and tackle bosses without constantly stopping to re-establish who gets to press which button. The flexibility around shared and non-shared progression lets you decide up front whether you are playing a true co-op run or just occasionally calling for backup.
Solo players benefit indirectly too. A healthier co-op layer means more activity around bosses, more opportunities for help if you get stuck, and a community that is less frustrated by technical headaches and more focused on the actual combat and exploration.
So, why now?
Taken in isolation, most of these changes are quality-of-life tweaks rather than showstopping new features. In context, arriving right as Lords of the Fallen hits PS Plus, they do something more important: they turn co-op into a feature that respects your time.
If you have been waiting for a lower-friction, friend-friendly version of the game, this is the moment it finally lines up. The entry cost is lower, the systems work harder for both players in a session, and the technical foundation has had a year to settle.
Lords of the Fallen in 2026 is still the same dark, uncompromising soulslike at its core, but for co-op minded players especially, this PS Plus drop may be the best chance yet to see whether that core finally clicks.