How to Play Gravhounds Co-op

Gravhounds is built for a pack. Steam lists single-player and online co-op. Xbox Wire talks about players who genuinely need one another, not four people shooting the same health bar. Josh Holmes’ favorite moments are when the plan lasts about thirty seconds and you still pull it off together. This page is the pack manual: who does what, how to share a Grav Beam without a funeral, and how to leave as a group.

Platform notes live on platforms. The loop lives on Getting Started. This is the social layer.

What co-op is (and is not)

• 1–4 players, PvE. You are not fighting other squads for the node. Comparisons to Scavengers (Holmes’ previous extraction experiment) miss the point: Gravhounds is self-funded, self-published, and PvE-only.
• Online co-op. Steam’s category list is online co-op, not split-screen. Do not promise a local couch mode the store does not list.
• Not a class shooter. Everybody builds, everybody shoots, everybody beams. Personality kits from the crew add Dozer mines, Selene Fetch, Finn Play Dead, and still-private tools on Zane and Luna. Mix them because the studio designed mixed packs to cover more of a job, not because a holy trinity requires a tank.

Four jobs that are not classes

Call them out in Discord before you launch, then break the rules when the planet does:

1. Spine. Pipeline, power, fabricator babysit. Reads How to build. Often a Dozer-brained player even if they queued as Selene.
2. Mule. Grav Beam logistics, kit throws, crate yeets. Reads Grav Beam.
3. Gun. Wildlife, leapers, anything that is currently chewing the turret line.
4. Clock. The person allowed to say extract. Reads How to extract. If nobody is the clock, you will all die rich.

Solo players rotate all four hats. Two-stacks should never both chase a far node. Three- and four-stacks can afford one “lone wolf expanding the operation” — official language — as long as the spine still has a name attached.

Beam etiquette

The Fetch fantasy is real: fling objects to teammates, including health. The disaster fantasy is also real: four beams, one volatile tank. Pack rules:

• One mule calls “mine” on unstable cargo.
• Health throws beat loot throws when someone is down a bar.
• Do not beam a teammate who is socketing a generator.
• Dump zones are marked, even if the mark is “that crater, not the dropship.”

Rescues, downs, and Play Dead

Holmes describes the propulsion rig as the tool you use when somebody made a series of poor decisions and now requires assistance. Again. Pipe-boost is a rescue tool. Hover is a rescue tool. Finn’s Play Dead is a personality-shaped stall. IGN’s interview also mentions a self-revive beat (a doll version in the trailer). Use those tools to reset a mistake, not to farm the swarm for extra Reward Pods while two hounds are already down.

Call a cut. A heroic wipe is still a wipe. Meta unlocks may survive; the crate will not. See the extraction guide.

Voice, pings, and COSMO

You will not get a published ping bible from us. You will need some channel: Xbox party, Steam overlay, Discord. The official server is on links. COSMO is the AI supervisor, not a fifth player who will save you. Jobs still need doing even when the pack is arguing about a barrel.

Why this game wants a pack

Octopus Panic is seven people who missed making systems that surprise them. Co-op is the test harness. If your group only enjoys synchronized shooting, you can still have fun — guns are real — but the wiki will keep pointing you at pipe, beam, and extract because that is the design. Pair this page with the preview crew ranks only after you have named the four jobs out loud.

Queue with people who will leave when you call it. Loyalty is a lore joke. The dropship is not.