The Lantern of the Laughless Saint Coop — Modes, Saves and Multiplayer Rules

The Lantern of the Laughless Saint coop answer is straightforward: the developer says the entire game is fully playable in co-op, and Steam backs that with a full set of multiplayer categories. What is much less settled is the plumbing around it — party size, save ownership, loot rules and disconnect recovery are all still unverified. This page separates the confirmed co-op model from the questions the developer has not answered, so you can plan a session without relying on numbers that no official source supports.

What Co-op Modes Are Actually Listed

The store page is the authoritative list of modes, and it is generous for an Early Access RPG. Both online and shared or split screen co-op are listed, and the game also carries Remote Play Together, which lets a friend join a local session without owning a copy. A network connection is required for multiplayer, which matters if you planned to play the online mode on a machine that is otherwise offline.

Store listing	What it confirms
Multi-player	More than one player is supported
Co-op	Cooperative play exists as a mode
Online Co-op	Networked co-op is supported
Shared/Split Screen Co-op	Local split-screen co-op is supported
Shared/Split Screen	Split-screen play is supported generally
Remote Play Together	A friend can join a local session remotely
Family Sharing	The game participates in Steam Family Sharing

• The whole game is playable together, including exploration, treasure delving and the choices that decide the island's fate.
• Consequences belong to the party, not to one player, which is why the host-and-guest save split matters so much.
• Split-screen players have independent map controls and camera movement, so two people can look at different parts of the island at once.
• Party status bars can show health, stamina and magic, giving you a shared read on who is in trouble.

How Host and Guest Progress Is Split

The documented starting point is separate host and guest progress, introduced in an official update, with a guest character that travels between sessions. In practice this means a guest is not a temporary shell: they bring a real character, and that character's progress is saved independently. The practical checklist reported from the official notes:

• Create and save a single-player character before you try to join anyone.
• Select that save when joining a friend's game, rather than creating a throwaway avatar.
• Expect appearance, equipment, regular items, gold, skills and perks to travel with the character.
• Expect quests and quest items to stay host-side, so your host carries the quest state.
• Guest progress saves independently every 30 seconds, which limits how much is lost if a session ends badly.

An earlier official fix specifically made co-op autosave store quest state, which was a real gap: before it, a session could save the world without saving where the quest had got to. A follow-up update changed quest-item checks so they apply to the player being asked, meaning the holder must turn the item in themselves instead of a teammate doing it for them. The same update reported that spellcrafting becomes available from the relevant NPC in multiplayer and that teleporting works for clients, which removes two early co-op blockers.

Friendly Fire, Party Settings and Companions

Friendly fire is a real setting rather than a permanent hazard. An official update added an option to disable it, and in co-op the host's choice determines the setting for the session — so agree on it before anyone loads an area-of-effect spell build. The third-party co-op listing had earlier warned that area-of-effect mages needed to be careful, which is a fair description of how the game played before the toggle existed.

Setting or behaviour	Who controls it
Friendly fire	The host's option determines the session
Party status bars	Show health, stamina and magic for the party
Split-screen map and camera	Independent per player
Quest ownership	Host-side on the documented model
Companion behaviour	Companions no longer react to player crimes after a later fix

Companions were also addressed during Early Access: an official update fixed a case where dismissed companions failed to appear and stopped companions reacting to player crimes. The same note is careful not to claim that guards or the evidence-chest crime system were removed. On the travel side, reported changes have included companions being shown on the map with an auto-teleport if they stray too far, co-op companions appearing on the compass, and the ability to teleport to a teammate by clicking their map marker. Those last behaviours are reported from update notes rather than reproduced here, so treat the exact map interactions as to confirm.

Co-op Problems the Developer Has Fixed

The co-op patch history is one of the more useful records for a new player, because it shows which issues were real and which are gone. A later update reported improved online stability plus alerts when either host or client disconnects, and it addressed missing Amphitheater ghosts after delayed co-op quest loading. Those are specific developer-reported fixes rather than proof that every save, connection or quest-state problem has disappeared.

• Update 11: co-op autosave now stores quest state.
• Update 12: quest-item checks apply to the player being asked, spellcrafting becomes available in multiplayer, and teleporting works for clients.
• Update 13: friendly fire can be disabled, with the host controlling the session setting.
• Update 16: separate host and guest progress, portable guest characters, companion behaviour fixes, party UI.
• Update 17: online stability improvements and disconnect alerts, plus the Amphitheater ghost fix.

Still Unverified in Co-op

Several questions that come up constantly have no official answer yet: maximum party size, host migration and disconnect recovery, save ownership and host or client progression authority, who controls quest choices, loot-sharing rules, cross-play support, and drop-in or drop-out behaviour. The Co-Optimus listing of four-player local and six-player online co-op remains a single third-party source and should be marked to confirm. For the quest side of co-op, the quest guide explains how quest items behave, and the gameplay page lists the systems that updates have actually changed.