You'll be able to play Remnant 2's new DLC with a friend who has it, even if you don't own it yourself

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Fun for free, guns for a fee.

Image for You'll be able to play Remnant 2's new DLC with a friend who has it, even if you don't own it yourself
(Image credit: Gunfire Games)

I'm pretty excited about Remnant 2's first DLC, The Awakened King. Aside from adding a whole new area to one of my favourite games of 2023—a much-appreciated upgrade, since it's built to be played multiple times—it'll also add a new archetype, build-altering jewellery, and even more guns for me to tinker with. 

What's more, if you're playing the game with a friend, they'll be able to join you for the ride whether they own the DLC or not, as confirmed by the official Remnant 2 twitter account yesterday.

(Image credit: @Remnant_Game on Twitter/X)

There are, however, some caveats. While you can receive items, anything DLC-specific will collect dust in your bags until you buy it. You'll still be getting all of the game's default resources, though, so you're not getting nothing out of the deal. This is genuinely pretty neat, though thinking about it, I'm not sure there was another way to pull this off.

Remnant 2 works by slotting together procedurally-arranged, hand-crafted areas on any playthrough, like a randomised mega-dungeon in an ARPG. The Awakened King takes place in the world of Losomn, but you need to beat every world once on any given playthrough. Unless the DLC breaks with that tradition, the new zone will likely be just another biome you can encounter on your travels.

All this to say, if one player has the DLC and another player doesn't, blocking off the latter from doing the DLC content would also shut down that co-op run. "Sorry, Jeff, we rolled the DLC level, you've got to hang tight while I spend a couple of hours putting the Awakened King back to sleep. I'll tell you all about it when I'm back."

Still, as far as compromises go, this is very generous. I especially like that you still get the loot—and while filling up your bags with loot you can't use while your co-op partner plays with their new toys is absolutely some kind of marketing strategy, it's ultimately a win-win. The Awakened King will be arriving November 14.

Harvey Randall
Harvey Randall
Staff Writer

Harvey's history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he's since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G'raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He'll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many.