Frostrail co-op

Frostrail is built for online co-op with crews of 1–4. Solo is a first-class way to play. Local split-screen is not what FakeFish advertises. If you came here hoping to couch-coop on one PC, stop and read the FAQ at the bottom — then wishlist anyway, because the four-player loop is the reason the train has windows.

This page is the human layer on top of How to Play: how people actually get into a test together, which jobs prevent wipes, and how not to turn a Relic run into four separate single-player games that share a locomotive.

Getting four people on the same rails

During closed tests, access is the real boss fight.

• Request Access on Steam. Earlier playtest sign-ups stay in the pool.
• An accepted player can invite up to three Steam friends from the store page. Each of those friends can invite three more. That is how a four-stack happens even if only one of you got a mail from Valve.
• There is no NDA on the 2026 closed beta. You can stream. You should still avoid leaking private Discord channels that FakeFish asked testers to keep tidy.
• Beta clients have an in-game bug button and a survey. Steam Playtest discussions and a Discord testing corps role exist so the four of you do not file the same carriage-clip five times.

Full calendar and invite steps: closed beta. If nobody in your group has a key, you cannot “fix” that with this wiki.

Jobs, not classes

There are no published class screens. Roles are agreements. Steal this split and rename it if you want; just say it before you leave the boiler.

Engine. Lives near Power, Heat, Pressure, Speed, Consumption. Fuels the Eden Engine, watches defense encounters during obstacle-clearing, and has veto power on “one more cellar.” If the engine player is also the greedy looter, you do not have an engine player.

Scout. First out, first to call heat and enemy type. Distinguishes Revenant swarms from corrupted soldiers so the crew does not dump rifle ammo into melee and pistol ammo into a firing line. Enemy habits: enemies.

Salvage. Value, not volume. Fuel, repair mats, ammo, Relics, clothing. Leaves cabinets. Knows the Relic is useless until someone activates it on the train. List: Relics.

Rear. Last out of the car, last back in. Owns doorways and the walk home. In playtest shots the useful picture is two people in a wrecked carriage, rifles up, snow-creatures on the tracks — not four silhouettes disappearing into fog.

Duo play merges Engine+Rear and Scout+Salvage. Trio parks Rear on whoever has the loudest mic. Solo rotates the jobs in time instead of in space: engine check, short loot, walk back, spend, repeat. Never “full dungeon then maybe fuel.”

Communication that survives a blizzard

Pings are nice if the build has them. Voice is better. Call four things:

1. Heat. “I’m dropping” beats “I’m fine” from someone already blue.
2. Enemy type. “Soldiers, two, roof” versus “lots.”
3. Ammo. If the rear guard is dry, the scout does not start a shrine fight.
4. Train status. Defense encounter, blockage, or boiler going cold — that call overrides loot.

Push-to-talk must not share a key with interact. That fight is documented on controls because it has ended more crews than Revenants have.

How four people fail the same train

Everyone loots. The engine is alone for a defense encounter. You return to a burning tutorial.

Nobody loots. You survive and go broke. The next level’s upgrade never happens. FakeFish has been clear: the train must grow as the struggle grows.

Relic tourism. Four backpacks of artifacts, zero activations, then a wipe on the walk home. Relics are timed buttons for the pilgrimage, not a museum.

Ammo communism without math. One person crafts a machine gun from the weapon list and starves the shotgun that actually clears Revenants in a doorway.

Invite chaos. You add a random fifth via a friend-of-a-friend during a live test and discover the design cap is four. Stay at four. If a fifth wants in, they wait for the next session — or host their own train.

Session script (steal this)

1. Load in. Engine checks fuel, heat, repair benches. Everyone else stays aboard until that check is done.
2. Say jobs. Confirm who is last out.
3. Open the survival checklist or a paper copy. Tick clothes, ammo, torch, and a planned time-box for the stop.
4. Scout calls the building type. Salvage sets a loot cap. Rear holds the door.
5. If a dungeon looks like a Relic, agree on a turn-back rule: half ammo, or temperature X, or engine ping.
6. Walk home together. No “I’ll catch up.”
7. Spend on the train before the next stretch: repair, craft, Relic activation, extra storage if you actually filled the last one.
8. File one bug as a crew if something broke. Do not each write a novel.

After Early Access starts

Q4 2026 Early Access will add people who never read this page. The design cap may be tuned — FakeFish said crew size versus challenge is something they will keep evaluating. If they raise or lower the cap, this guide will follow updates. Until then, play the 1–4 online co-op they shipped in tests, not the eight-player fantasy the Discord always wants.

New players in your crew should still open Getting Started once. You cannot voice-chat someone through a missing interact bind.

Official Discord and Steam forum links sit on links. Use them for LFG only if you are willing to explain jobs in the first minute. A pug that loots your boiler is worse than solo.