Rufous

{
  "post": {
    "title": "How does multiplayer work in PoE2?",
    "selftext": "Hello I am a newcomer to path of exile series. I preordered new game and already excited. I see there is a multiplayer in this game. So how does it exactly work? Is it like we see other players in the world going around like any other mmo? Or we invite people to our game world and play together? How does dungeons and story effected by multiplayer? My coworker also bought the game and we are wondering if we can play together. Lets say I am in act 2 and my friend is in act 1 in story mode. Can we still play together?  A lot of confussion on my side.",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/PathOfExile2/comments/1h0ya02/how_does_multiplayer_work_in_poe2/"
  },
  "comments": [
    {
      "body": "all areas (except towns) are instanced. you can only enter them together, when you are in a party.\n\nfor your example: you can join your friend in act 1 and help him, but he very likely cant join you, because something (usually a boss) is a roadblock for the next act, that you have to defeat first.\n\nalso PoE is not a MMO. for whatever reason D4 thought its a good idea to add a shared open world, while its actually horrible",
      "replies": [
        {
          "body": "Can we progress together in story mode? Like we completed some missions. Is the progress shared? Or is it like elden ring where progression only restricted to the host",
          "replies": [
            {
              "body": "Yes. You can do the same quest at the same time and turn them in together, and it will progress both of your characters. Think of it like this: the world is shared, but zones are only shared for parties. The only difference being made is that you’re doing a quest with a friend. It’s not like Elden Ring where it’s a single player game that you make multiplayer, it’s always online and always multiplayer, but zones are instanced.\n\nIf you’ve played WoW think of it like this: the towns are the overworld, and the zones are the dungeons. You can only see people in a dungeon if they are in your party."
            },
            {
              "body": "Yes. It's not uncommon for people in poe1 to go through the campaign in a party. I do that sometimes too. \n\nIn poe1 at least, there's only 1 quest where each person needs to make a decision, and either you make the same decision or you do that quest on your own. There's no place where the host`s progress will prevent another player from progressing aside from that 1 quest."
            },
            {
              "body": "You progress together :)"
            },
            {
              "body": "You will both receive the quest progress but will both have to turn it in."
            },
            {
              "body": "Yeah, as long as both of you have access to same place all will get the quest completed. It's even possible to split and just call the other player for main objective, which will be used by parties to complete story asap."
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "body": "Game is instanced, the only zones where you can see other players are town, otherwise only people in party can join your zones. You can play with your friend at any point, just the one further in the story won't get much from it as you can go back but your friend can't skip act to join you. Monsters are tougher and drop more loot in multiplayer.",
      "replies": [
        {
          "body": "How does item drops work in multiplayer? Can other people see dropped loot?",
          "replies": [
            {
              "body": "Drops are shared, there should be settings to make it free for all, short allocation and permanent allocation for player. Allocation is random."
            },
            {
              "body": "If it's like PoE1, you can choose different loot distribution options as the host of the party. Like FFA, round robin, and so forth."
            },
            {
              "body": "You can do shared loot, or round robin, or not shared loot. I’m pretty sure round robin is for a specific amount of time, where you can pick it up but the other can’t, and after some time it will be available to everyone. You get more loot in a party."
            },
            {
              "body": "Yes. There's 3 loot modes to choose from by the host. Free for all, locked on a timer and locked forever. It depends on rarity threshold. Very few things are dropped for 1 player only, in which case only that player can pick it up (until the other player leaves the area)."
            },
            {
              "body": "You also usually get a bigger loot multiplier when playing with a party meaning more drops"
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}