What is the best co-op roguelite to play with friends?

For most groups of four on PC, Risk of Rain 2 is the safe pick: years of updates and four-player online co-op. Ravenswatch suits a team that loves heroes who play very differently. And if anyone in the group can't install games, Rogue Defenders runs in a browser tab and is free to try.

Are there free co-op roguelites?

A few. Rogue Defenders is free to try, with four heroes and the first difficulty tiers open to everyone. The Binding of Isaac's online co-op came as the free Repentance+ update, though everyone needs the base game and all its earlier expansions. Most of the others on this list are paid games.

Which co-op roguelites work on one screen?

Vampire Survivors has local co-op for up to four players on one screen. Rogue Defenders has couch co-op for up to four on one computer, with keyboard, mouse and gamepads, so the whole sofa can join. Risk of Rain 2, Ravenswatch and Gunfire Reborn are online co-op games.

Is a roguelite the same as a roguelike?

Not quite. In a roguelike you usually start over with nothing when you lose. A roguelite lets you keep something between runs, like unlocks, gear or levels, so every attempt moves you forward. Most co-op games here are roguelites: in Rogue Defenders you keep gold, shards, gear and hero levels after every run.

Co-op Roguelite Games to Play With Friends in 2026

The best co-op roguelite games to play with friends in 2026 are Risk of Rain 2, Ravenswatch and Gunfire Reborn for four players online, Vampire Survivors for one couch, and Rogue Defenders when your group wants to play in a browser tab with nothing to download. Rogue Defenders is ours, so we'll say plainly where the others fit better.

A good co-op roguelite is the best excuse for "one more run". Someone finds a ridiculous item, the run snowballs, the boss goes down in a blaze of nonsense, and you're all shouting. Or it falls apart on the last wave and you're queueing up again before anyone's stopped laughing. Below are nine games that do that well, with how many can play and where. Details are as of November 2026. For the full picture of our entry, read the complete Rogue Defenders guide.

Which co-op roguelites are worth playing?

Game	Players	Where	Cost	Style
Risk of Rain 2	1-4 online	PC, consoles	Paid	Third-person shooter, item stacking
Ravenswatch	1-4 online	PC, consoles	Paid	Top-down action, fairy-tale heroes
Gunfire Reborn	1-4 online	PC, consoles, mobile	Paid on PC and consoles	First-person shooter
Vampire Survivors	1-4 local or online	PC, consoles, mobile	Paid on PC and consoles	Bullet heaven, auto-attacks
The Binding of Isaac: Repentance+	1-4 online	PC; PS5, Xbox Series, Switch 2 from Nov 19, 2026	Paid (online co-op a free update)	Twin-stick dungeon crawl
The Spell Brigade	1-4 online	PC, PS5	Paid	Co-op bullet heaven with spells
Dungeon Defenders: Going Rogue	1-4 online	PC, consoles announced	Paid	Roguelite tower defense
Windblown	1-3 online	PC (Early Access)	Paid	Fast action, from the Dead Cells team
Rogue Defenders	1-4 online or one screen	Any browser, phone too	Free to try	Hero-led wave defense

Risk of Rain 2: the safe pick for four

Risk of Rain 2 is where most groups start. Up to four of you drop onto a planet, kill monsters, stack items into absurd builds and race a difficulty that climbs with the clock. It's a paid game on PC and consoles.

Pick it if your group is on PC, wants a shooter and plans to play for months. It beats Rogue Defenders for anyone who'd rather aim in third person than hold a point together.

Ravenswatch: heroes with very different kits

Ravenswatch by Passtech Games is top-down action for one to four players online, with heroes drawn from folk tales and a day and night cycle that changes how they play. It's on PC and every current console. A team that loves learning each hero's tricks will like it most.

Gunfire Reborn: a first-person roguelite shooter

Gunfire Reborn is a first-person shooter roguelite for up to four, with heroes, guns and scrolls that change each run. It's on Steam and also on Xbox, PlayStation and mobile, though the Steam version doesn't cross-play with them. If your friends like shooters and Risk of Rain 2 feels too chaotic, try this.

Vampire Survivors: great on one couch

Vampire Survivors added local co-op for up to four in 2023, and a free update later added four-player online co-op too. It's a bullet heaven: you move and your weapons fire by themselves, so anyone can pick up a controller and join. It's the best pick for a mixed group on one screen.

The Binding of Isaac: Repentance+

Isaac's online co-op arrived with Repentance+, a free update on PC for up to four players. Everyone needs the base game and all of its earlier expansions, and mods don't work online. A console edition with online co-op is due on November 19, 2026 for PS5, Xbox Series and Switch 2. It's the deepest game here, with hundreds of items, and also the darkest in tone.

The Spell Brigade: co-op bullet heaven with spells

The Spell Brigade left Early Access on April 29, 2026, on PC and PS5. It's an online co-op survivors-like for one to four wizards. Pick it if you like Vampire Survivors but want a wizard game built around online co-op from the start.

Dungeon Defenders: Going Rogue: tower defense meets roguelite

Dungeon Defenders: Going Rogue left Early Access in January 2025. Up to four players build towers and fight as heroes, in roguelite runs. It's the closest game here to Rogue Defenders, and the better choice if you want to place towers yourself on PC. Our list of games like Dungeon Defenders covers its whole family.

Windblown: brilliant, but for three

Windblown from Motion Twin, the studio behind Dead Cells, is a fast action roguelite in Steam Early Access since October 2024 and still there as of November 2026, with a full release promised for 2026. Online co-op is for up to three players, so a group of four will have to take turns.

Rogue Defenders: the one that runs in your browser

Rogue Defenders is our co-op roguelite wave defense game. Up to four heroes stand back to back around a crystal against 20 waves across 4 realms, and every fifth wave a boss crashes in. Each time the team levels up, every hero picks one of three powers from a pool of 74, so one run your Mage is raining meteors and the next your Archer's arrows bounce through the whole pack. Win or lose, you keep the gold, shards and gear you found, and your hero keeps their levels.

Rogue Defenders level-up screen where the Warrior picks one of three powers — In Rogue Defenders every team level-up gives each hero three powers to pick from, out of 74, so runs go different ways.

Why it's on this list:

Nothing to download. It opens in a browser tab, so it works on school laptops, Chromebooks and phones.
Online or one screen. Share a 4-letter room code, or play couch co-op for four with keyboards and gamepads.
Bots fill the gaps. Two friends can still run a full team of four.
Free to try. The Warrior, Mage, Archer and Cleric and the first two tiers are free; Pixaplay Pass adds the Engineer, the Assassin and Tiers 3 to 10.

A Warrior with three bot heroes around the crystal in Rogue Defenders — Bots fill empty seats in Rogue Defenders, so one or two players still run a full team of four.

Where it falls short: it's a pixel-art browser game, not a big 3D release, and it has less to discover than Risk of Rain 2 or Isaac after their years of updates. If everyone in your group has a gaming PC, start with those. If not, start here with the Rogue Defenders beginner guide, and choose who plays what with the heroes guide.

How do you pick a co-op roguelite for your group?

Ask four questions:

How many of you are there? Windblown stops at three; most others take four.
Same room or online? For one screen, Vampire Survivors or Rogue Defenders.
Does everyone have a gaming PC or console? If not, a browser game is the only way to get everyone in tonight.
Shooter or not? Risk of Rain 2 and Gunfire Reborn need good aim; Vampire Survivors needs almost none, and in Rogue Defenders sticking together around the crystal matters more than a sharp aim.

For more games to play together, across every genre, see Pixaplay's guide to co-op browser games. Want something slower? Hearthfall is Pixaplay's co-op village defense game, where you build by day and hold the walls at night, in early-access beta for Pixaplay Pass members.