Co-op

This is about Kingdom Two Crowns.

#Multiplayer

Cooperative, commonly abbreviated as co-op, is an alternative way of playing Kingdom Two Crowns, where two Monarchs cooperate with each other within the same Kingdom.

Local co-op

#Split screen

Additional controller detected – Enter splitscreen mode?

The player one must have finished the tutorial before starting a local or online cooperative game.

When a 2nd player is detected, a pop-up gives the options:

• stay in single player or
• enter splitscreen.

There are different ways to trigger this splitscreen pop-up.

Two on keyboard

Local co-op: the split screen divider will change depending on the technology era of the town.

To start a local co-op with the keyboard, press G, J or ~ (or the key between ESC and Tab, if in a non US keyboard). See the second player controls.

Keyboard and controller

While playing with the keyboard, plug the controller (or press the Start or the "pay coin" button) for it to be detected.

Two controllers

Co-op on mobile

Developers Angelica and Gordon playing together with wireless controllers.

Start the game with one controller and plug/turn on the second (or press the Start or the "pay coin" button) for it to be detected.

If this does not work, try restarting the game with both controlers already plugged/turned on.

On Switch, in order to get it to recognize each joy-con as a different controller follow these steps:

1. Go to the Switch HOME menu
2. Press the button in the lower tab that has a joy-con icon
3. Select "Change Controller/Grip Order"
   • If using joy-cons, activate them one at a time (follow the display for instructions)
   • If you're not using joy-cons, make sure that you have two separate controllers paired (player 1 and 2)
4. Launch Kingdom Two Crowns, and enter a campaign
5. While in-game, have player 2 press any button on his/her controller.

To go back to single player with joy-cons, slide both controlers into the main unit, and it will recognize them as being only one. The splitscreen question should pop up again.

Online co-op

For Steam users only.

Steam is the only store that makes online co-op available for PC players. Additionally, stores that sell Steam keys, like Humble Bundle, do provide a version of the game that supports online co-op.

1. Press Esc to open the menu
2. Click "Multiplayer"
3. Check "Allow Online Joining" and/or "Open Friend"
4. Invite a friend through the Steam chat.

No random matchmaking

There is no random matchmaking for online co-op.

“

We purposefully do not have a matchmaking system because we strongly believe it would lead to griefing in the community.—Raw Fury

„

We purposefully do not have a matchmaking system because
we strongly believe it would lead to griefing in the community.Raw Fury

Finding a partner

Players may find partners to play with on:

A specific Steam forum called Looking for People to Co-Op With

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There you can find a thread for your language, or created a new one.

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The official Raw Fury Discord server

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Once there, go on the channel "looking-for-group", under the section "Kingdom Series".

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No online co-op

There is no online cooperative mode for:

Android mobile

Apple mobile

Nintendo Switch

GOG.com

However, all have access to local co-op with splitscreen.

Steam Remote Play

When two people want to play online co-op but only one of them has the game on Steam, they can try the Steam Remote Play, which is basically that the screen of player one is streamed to player 2, and player 2 keyboard/controller input is streamed to player 1. That sort of turns it into a local co-op game session, except the two players are on different places. After having invited a remote friend to play, follow the instructions on Local co-op to activate the cooperative mode.

Cross-platform play

There is no cross-platform support for cooperative playing.

Players using Steam though can play online together no matter if they're on Windows, Mac, or Linux.

Are there any plans to make co-op cross-platform?

2018: “There are no plans to make it cross-platform. Nobody can tell the future, but I wouldn't hold your breath. Crossplay is complicated and the development team for Kingdom is very small.”—Kristi

2020: “It’s something that might be possible in the future, but we have a lot of work to do with online since Unet is no longer being supported by Unity.”—Gordon

Tabletop co-op

“

You’ll be able to play regular stacked coop when sitting next to your fellow monarch, but in case you sit across from each other, you’ll be able to play a custom mobile and tablet sky-to-sky feature that we call Tabletop Coop! This is just one of many cool new things coming soon to Kingdom Two Crowns on iOS and Android.—Raw Fury

„

You’ll be able to play regular stacked coop when sitting next to your fellow monarch, but in case you sit across from each other, you’ll be able to play a custom mobile and tablet sky-to-sky feature that we call Tabletop Coop! This is just one of many cool new things coming soon to Kingdom Two Crowns on iOS and Android.Raw Fury

Campaign

Playing in co-op make a lot of things easier, like having two different mounts, doubling the coins and gems carrying capacity, and being able to manage both sides of the Kingdom simultaneously.

Both Monarchs need to lose their Crowns in order to lose the game. If one monarch loses the Crown, the other can craft them a new one for eight coins. A crownless monarch isn't able to interact with anything and the Greed ignores them.

Challenge Islands

On 29 March 2021, a cooperative mode for the Challenge Islands has been announced as an incoming feature. On 14 April 2021, Raw Fury released the trailer for the Never Alone update. One week later the update went live, making all challenges playable both on single and cooperative modes.

Challenge Islands menu with co-op options

Split screen in Skull Island

Never Alone update trailer

Norse Lands

“

If you want to play online with someone, you own Norse Lands, (...) and they don't own it, as long as the host owns Norse Lands, you can invite them to play an online session with you. So not everybody has to own it. [That goes for all platforms?] All platforms that have online play, yeah.—Developer Gordon

„

If you want to play online with someone, you own Norse Lands, (...) and they don't own it, as long as the host owns Norse Lands, you can invite them to play an online session with you. So not everybody has to own it. [That goes for all platforms?] All platforms that have online play, yeah.Developer Gordon

An option

“

Coop is just an option, SP is the primary mode of Two Crowns.

„

Coop is just an option, SP is the primary mode of Two Crowns. 

The name of the game, especially when popularly abbreviated as "Two Crowns", is a clear mention of the co-op feature. Two Crowns, two Monarchs, two players in cooperation. This mention is related to the roots of the original project, made public at the Game Developers Conference on February 2017. At that moment, "Kingdom: Two Crowns" (then with colon) was intended to be a multiplayer expansion pack for Kingdom: New Lands. It was planned to be released by the end of that year, simultaneously with the New Lands edition for Nintendo Switch.

Two Crowns Nintendo Switch announcement trailer

Two Crowns trailer at GDC 2017

Nintendo got their edition. The Two Crowns project was postponed and grew way beyond the initial concept, but kept the same title. Passed the game release and a considerable amount of major updates, it isn't hard to understand that, despite being honored in the title of the game, the co-op feature became just one of the many important additions of Kingdom Two Crowns—no longer defining nor outlining it.

Reception

The first and most obvious benefit to co-op is that twice as much territory can be explored in a day if one person goes left and the other heads to the right. Coinage can also be shared, so if one player is short on building a guard tower or wall, it’s easy to throw some change their way. Another big bonus is that if one player has their crown stolen the game doesn’t end. The crownless player can’t build nor craft any equipment, however they can still gather gold coins or gems and hand them off to the remaining ruler. Another possible benefit is if they have a mount or monarch with an ability, as they can still use it, which makes crownless kings very effective against greed hordes, and potentially a fighter, if using the right combinations, as they are completely ignored by enemies, and can even take down portals on their own, although very slowly, if mounting a Gamigin, unless they have any coins in their bag, as otherwise they will lose coins when attacked be greeds. It is advised that the remaining player has to be extra careful to not lose their crown, as while it makes the hordes easier to handle, it also means the last player has to be protected very carefully. If necessary, a new crown may be crafted, and the other player may fully rejoin the game.

“

Since we're two players, if the Greed take my crown, for example, then you could come and help me by crafting a new crown for me, but while I'm crownless I can't really do anything; I can just collect money and give it to you, basically. So we need to stick together in that regard.—Liam O'Neill in Gamereactor's interview (3′15″). 16 May 2018.

„

Since we're two players, if the Greed take my crown, for example, then you could come and help me by crafting a new crown for me, but while I'm crownless I can't really do anything; I can just collect money and give it to you, basically. So we need to stick together in that regard.Liam O'Neill in Gamereactor's interview (3′15″). 16 May 2018.