Jolly Co-Op

Jolly Co-Op is a local multiplayer gamemode introduced in the Downpour DLC. It allows up to four players to play and explore, , and 's campaigns, as well as Expedition, as any. In story mode Jolly Co-Op, Slugcats other than Survivor and Monk are available after unlocking their respective campaigns. In Expedition, Slugcats are available after completion of their respective campaigns, with the exception of Hunter, who is unlocked after completion of Monk or Survivor. Player 1 in Expedition must be the Slugcat that is selected at the start of the Expedition.

It is possible to play online via Steam Remote Play.

Mechanics
A number of mechanics are altered or introduced for Jolly Co-Op.

Controls

 * A crouching or dead Slugcat may be grabbed by pressing PICKUP, and piggybacked by holding PICKUP while the held Slugcat is in the player's right hand. A piggybacked Slugcat can jump out of the piggyback state, and can also be thrown by the carrying Slugcat.
 * This interaction also prevents a carnivorous Slugcat from eating a dead Slugcat.
 * Carrying another Slugcat has negligible effect on mobility.
 * While any player may show the HUD by pressing MAP, only the player with camera focus can display the minimap.
 * Double tapping the MAP button, and holding on the second tap, allows the player to point. An arrow appears over certain items and creatures that the player is pointing at. This can be useful in multiplayer, can direct certain friendly entities, or just for fun.
 * Holding DOWN for a long enough period of time results in the player performing a sleeping emote.

All Slugcats

 * Slugcats have collision with each other.
 * Each Slugcat has their own reputation counter and gain rate. For example, s are always hostile towards, even if another Slugcat has high reputation.
 * However, upon payment, toll Scavengers allow all present Slugcats to pass (except Artificer).
 * All Slugcats share the same food bar, determined by the current campaign. Any food can be consumed to add to the bar, regardless of whether Player 1 can eat it; however, individual Slugcats still have their own diet limitations.
 * For example, on a Expedition,  can consume  to add 1, but not.
 * All living Slugcats must be in the same Shelter in order to hibernate, regardless of difficulty.
 * All living Slugcats must be present for Karma Gates to activate.


 * Gourmand's slam, roll, and slide attacks can only affect other Slugcats if Spears Hit/Miss is on.
 * If multiple Gourmands regurgitate items at the same time, it is possible for the food bar to take on a negative value.
 * Visually, the bar appears empty when negative. Eating food appears to have no impact until the food bar takes on a positive value again.


 * Artificer's lung capacity is increased, except in Expedition where Artificer is Player 1.
 * Artificer's concussive blast and maul only affect other Slugcats if Spears Hit/Miss is on.
 * Artificer can turn Spearmaster's needles into s, although the Needles lose their ability to drain for food.


 * Spearmaster's weight is adjusted so they cannot infinitely fly by backflipping with a.
 * If one Spearmaster takes a fresh needle from another Spearmaster (when Friendly Stealing is on), the needle acts as if it is attached to the stealing Spearmaster, allowing it to drain energy for food.
 * Carnivorous Slugcats can still eat corpses that have been drained by Spearmaster.
 * For instance, a is typically worth 8  total to a Spearmaster and Artificer duo.
 * Spearmaster gains 1 by hitting a Slugcat with a needle (if Spears Hit/Miss is on).

Settings
Jolly Co-Op settings can be changed in its unique configuration menu toggled by the button in the top right of the Slugcat selection screen or Expedition mode. Slugcat selection is player-specific, while all other settings apply to the whole campaign. Settings may be changed at any time, including after starting a campaign.

Slugcat Selection
There are 4 settings that each player may choose to customize their experience:


 * Slugcat: Sets which Slugcat to play as. Multiple players may select the same Slugcat.
 * Color: If Custom is selected under the setting, players may customize their Slugcat's colors. This works identically to custom colors in single player campaigns.
 * Size: Allows players to play as a . This is purely aesthetic and has no effect on gameplay.
 * Name: Allows players to insert a custom name; the defaults are 'Player 1', 'Player 2', 'Player 3', and 'Player 4'.

Difficulty
Jolly Co-Op offers three different difficulty settings for a more casual or hardcore experience.


 * Easy: Only one player needs to reach a shelter in order to hibernate.
 * Normal: All players, alive or dead, must reach a shelter in order to hibernate.
 * This requires other players to carry dead Slugcats to the shelter.
 * If a Slugcat's body is destroyed or lost, the cycle must be reset, either by killing the remaining Slugcats or visiting an.
 * Hard: All players must be alive and reach a shelter in order for to hibernate.
 * Even if a player dies, the Game Over prompt does not trigger, so the only way to progress is to kill the remaining Slugcats or to visit an Echo.

Spears Hit/Miss
This setting toggles friendly fire. When toggled on, s thrown by players have collision with other Slugcats and are able to kill them. In addition, 's slam and 's stun and maul are able to affect other players. When toggled off, player thrown Spears phase through any other Slugcats, and Gourmand and Artificer's special abilities do not hit.

There are a few exceptions to friendly fire, most notably:
 * still hits players regardless of friendly fire being toggled on or off.
 * Projectiles fired by the hit players.
 * s always stun or kill players (With the exception of ).
 * s always kill players.
 * explosions always kill players.


 * Saint can always Ascend players if max Karma has been reached.

Friendly Stealing
This setting determines if players are able to take items from another Slugcat directly. If turned off, players are required to drop items to exchange them with each other.

Friendly Lizards
This setting affects whether tamed are friendly towards all players, or just the one that tamed it.

Camera Cycling
When toggled on, pressing the Map button twice cycles the camera to the next player. Otherwise, players can only request the camera for themselves.

Pipe Interactions
When Vanilla Pipes is on, Slugcats proceed through room transitions as normal. Otherwise, if the Smart Pipes setting is toggled, any Slugcat entering a pipe waits for a short amount of time before going completely through it, in order to give other players a chance to enter.

HUD
When toggled on, players' names are displayed above their Slugcat using their main color.

Color mode

 * Default: Players use their selected Slugcat's default colors.
 * This may make it difficult to differentiate between identical Slugcats.
 * Automatic: Players are automatically assigned colors.
 * Custom: Players may choose their own colors.
 * Body and eye colors are always customizable, but certain Slugcats have additional colors.

Bugs

 * Jolly Co-Op can cause the Ending to not trigger properly, as the light teleports whenever Slugcat swims closer.
 * If a Slugcat carries another Slugcat that is holding a heavy corpse, such as a, their combined physics behave unpredictably.
 * Sometimes, hibernating with multiple Slugcats causes the game to freeze.

Trivia

 * The name "Jolly Co-Op" is a very likely a reference to a quote from Solaire of Astora from Dark Souls, who tells the protagonist to "...cross the gaps between the worlds and engage in jolly co-operation!"
 * Player Slugcat kills count as 1 point.
 * The player piggyback mechanic is slightly different to the mechanic: dead Slugpups cannot be piggybacked.