No Rest for the Wicked Together: How a Brutal ARPG Became a 4‑Player Co‑op Hit

No Rest for the Wicked Together – The Brutal ARPG Goes Full Co‑op

This caught my attention because No Rest for the Wicked already felt like an odd, thrilling outlier in the ARPG space – punishing, deliberate combat and hand-crafted levels that reward patience. Turning that into a four-player co‑op game is bold: it’s not just a matchmaking toggle, it’s a rewrite of how encounters, persistence and progression must behave.

Key takeaways

• No Rest for the Wicked Together adds up to four-player co‑op with free private realms, shared world persistence, and rebalanced solo/co‑op play.
• A free weekend runs through Jan 26, and the game is 40% off (to $23.99 / £20.99) through Feb 5.
• The co‑op update spiked concurrent Steam players to ~50,000 – above its launch peak and close to PoE2 and Diablo 4 numbers.
• Moon Studios emphasizes careful testing and balance: this is intended to feel earned, not just easier with friends.

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Publisher|Moon Studios
Release Date|January 24, 2026
Category|Action RPG, Co-op update
Platform|PC (Steam)
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No Rest for the Wicked has always been a strange hybrid: the measured, weighty combat of a Souls‑like crossed with ARPG loot and progression. That slow, deliberate rhythm — where a single mistake is punished and levels feel hand‑tuned — is the game’s identity. Converting that to co‑op is risky. Add too many players or the wrong scaling and the design’s tension evaporates; scale poorly and fights become tedious brawls or break completely.

Moon Studios says they “tested, broke, rebuilt, and tested again” to avoid that. The studio highlights three pillars for the update: free private realms (so groups can play their own instances), a shared world that remembers (progress and world state persist across sessions), and “solo and co‑op fully balanced” (encounters and progression tuned to feel meaningful with any number of players). Those are the right priorities — persistence and careful tuning matter as much as raw player numbers when your combat is unforgiving.

On the numbers side, the co‑op launch and free weekend pushed Steam concurrency to roughly 50,000 players — eclipsing the game’s previous launch high of 36,276. That’s notable: it’s within striking distance of Path of Exile 2’s current Steam concurrent and close to peaks for much larger live‑service titles. Free trials skew these bursts, of course, but they also show demand: players want co‑op for difficult games that previously demanded solo mastery.

From an enthusiast’s perspective, there are a few follow‑ups I want to see quickly: how do bosses scale when four players coordinate to exploit mechanics? Are drop rates and progression pacing adjusted so co‑op doesn’t trivialize gear hunts or penalize solo players? And how robust is the netcode — does the pacing and timing of hits remain crisp in four‑player lobbies? Moon Studios’ emphasis on community testing is encouraging, but these are the practical questions that will determine whether Together feels like a meaningful expansion or a poorly grafted add‑on.

There are good signals. The update appears community‑driven in spirit — inspired in part by the popularity of co‑op mods for Dark Souls — and the studio’s messaging shows it took balancing seriously rather than slapping on shared health bars and calling it a day. That tends to produce the best outcomes: co‑op that preserves the original design’s tension while letting friends coordinate around it.

What this means for players

• If you loved the game’s difficulty but were stuck on progression, co‑op now offers a way forward without forcing you into solo pain tunnels.
• Bring friends for the shared persistence experience — the free private realms make it easy to run a stable group without public matchmaking headaches.
• Try before you buy: the free weekend through Jan 26 is the best way to judge whether the co‑op tuning matches your playstyle; the 40% discount to Feb 5 lowers the risk if you click with it.

In short: if you enjoy deliberate, high‑risk combat and want to test teamwork under those constraints, this is one of the more interesting co‑op experiments in ARPGs this year. If you prefer the faster, twitchier flow of Diablo or the loot treadmill of other titles, Wicked’s deliberate pace will probably frustrate you — but that niche is exactly why Wicked stands out.

TL;DR

No Rest for the Wicked Together turns a punishing, hand‑crafted ARPG into a thoughtfully executed four‑player co‑op experience with private realms and shared persistence. The free weekend (through Jan 26) and 40% sale (to Feb 5) make now the moment to try if you want cooperative challenge; watch for how encounters and loot hold up under four‑player scaling, but early player spikes suggest the update landed with impact.