Co-op, PvP and servers FAQ
The Legend of California is played online on persistent multiplayer servers. You can play solo or form a company with up to three other players, so a full company is four people sharing resources, buildings and progress. Most servers are PvE with limited Lawless (PvP) areas; dedicated PvP servers make almost the whole island PvP. For Alpha 5 there are four PvE servers and one PvP server, Dire Wolf.
| Question | Official answer |
|---|---|
| Maximum company size | You plus three other players |
| Offline or single-player mode? | Not listed; Steam lists online co-op and online PvP, and a broadband connection |
| Is PvP required? | No; optional on PvE servers, which have marked PvP areas |
| Alpha 5 PvE servers | Outlander, Desperado, Syndicate, Legión Sangre |
| Alpha 5 PvP server | Dire Wolf (whole map PvP) |
| Do worlds reset? | Designed to reset on a roughly monthly basis |
| Voice chat? | Proximity voice chat was added for the June 2026 Alpha |
How PvP rules differ
The Alpha 4 patch notes describe the rules that apply everywhere. Items gained in Lawless areas are flagged, and only visiting your tent campsite or ranch clears the flag. While flagged you cannot fast travel home or take a stagecoach, and dying drops your Lawless items and respawns you farther away. The exit timer from a PvP area is 15 seconds and resets if you deal or take damage.
On the PvP server, everything except your tent campsite, your ranch, outpost vendors and stagecoaches is PvP, and the PvP vendor’s prices are higher. On PvE servers, Outlaw Strongbox and Contraband Cache events can briefly turn a Stronghold into a PvP area, with advance warning. The developers expected PvP balance issues and suggested PvE servers for anyone who wants to avoid them.
Playing with friends
Steam friends appear automatically in the in-game Friends list, and a Discord button pulls in Discord friends. You can see which server friends are on, get a notification when one joins yours, and join them straight from their Steam or Discord profile. In the Social panel, any player can be invited to your company, muted or reported. A company leader can also make someone leader or kick them. Turning off Enable Rich Presence hides which server you are on, but not that you are online.
How many players per server?
No final cap is published. During the first Alpha, the studio lowered concurrency to 45 players per server, and lower on some, to protect performance. It has said it wants busy communities without a ranch on every acre.