Exterminauts is built around three-player cooperative crews. The pillar is stated first in every piece of first-party marketing, and the design leans on it heavily: repair objectives commit one crew member at a time, which means the other two have to cover them, so the shooting and the working are never separate activities. The game is player-versus-environment only, with no competitive mode against other players.
Party Size
Configuration | Status |
|---|---|
Three players | The intended and marketed crew size. Every pillar, trailer and hands-on session has been built around it. |
Two players | Supported. |
Solo | Supported. Storefront listings show a player range of one to three. |
The PlayStation listing records support for up to three online players and a player range of one to three. Online play is required regardless of party size.
Cross-Platform Play
Cross-platform multiplayer is a confirmed storefront feature. Preview coverage of the gamescom build reported that cross-platform play is planned for launch. Per-platform online requirements are covered in Release Date and Platforms: PlayStation Plus on PlayStation 5, an online multiplayer subscription on Xbox consoles.
Roles Are Built, Not Picked
There are no fixed classes and no hero roster. Each crew member's role emerges from a shoulder patch called an Emblem combined with their weapons, gadgets, MODs and passive abilities. Developers have given two example builds: one that boosts gadget deployment speed and cooldowns to fight around deployables such as turrets, and one that aligns grenades, special weapons and the main weapon around a cooling element to specialise in freezing enemies.
Because contracts field different creatures with different weaknesses, crews are expected to talk about their loadouts before clocking on rather than each bringing a fixed kit. See Weapons and Gadgets for the equipment side.
Friendly Fire
Friendly fire is enabled. Hands-on coverage reported that swinging a powerful weapon around carelessly can put a teammate down, which is a meaningful constraint given how much of the arsenal produces large area effects. It also gives the confirmed movement options, sliding and rolling and zipline repositioning, a defensive purpose beyond mobility.
Cooperation And Competition
The cooperative framing breaks in exactly one place. After the crew clocks out, the roughly two-minute defence before extraction scores each player's kills, and the highest scorer earns a bonus on their pay. Developers have described this as the moment three people who have spent the whole job protecting each other start competing for the last few targets. The crew still has to leave together, so the greed has a hard limit. Contracts covers the clock-out phase in more detail.
Communication Tools
Storefront accessibility data confirms two non-voice communication features on PlayStation 5: quick chat, which sends preset words, phrases or icons, and ping communication, which marks points of interest or information on teammates' interfaces without needing voice or text. Given how much of the game turns on calling out threats while a teammate is locked into a repair, these are functional tools rather than accessibility afterthoughts.
Not Yet Confirmed
No matchmaking model, public queue, private lobby or invite system has been described.
No confirmation of drop-in or drop-out joining mid-contract.
No detail on how difficulty or enemy volume scales with party size, or whether solo play is balanced separately.
No revive, downed-state, respawn or spectator rules have been published.
No voice chat, text chat or moderation details.
No information on cross-progression, only cross-platform play.
No server regions, dedicated server or peer-to-peer confirmation.
No clan, guild, friends-list or persistent squad features.