over the hill Co-op Guide: How Multiplayer, Progress and Crossplay Work

over the hill supports online co-op for up to four players in total — you and up to three friends, driving one shared wilderness as a convoy. It is also a game whose multiplayer rules are unusually friendly to mixed schedules, if the developer's official FAQ is to be believed — and since the FAQ (as relayed by the game's fan wiki) is currently the only systematic source for those rules, this guide attributes them carefully wherever they appear. Here is how co-op is structured, how progress and completion actually work per player, what teamwork can and cannot do, and the real status of crossplay.

Vehicles gathered on the shore of a mountain lake beneath a waterfall — A full convoy at rest. Co-op in over the hill is company plus mutual insurance — the game never asks you to race your friends. — Funselektor (via Steam)

At a glance

Party size: 1–4 players online in total; no split-screen (per the official FAQ)
Progress: Personal — per the official FAQ, each player's unlocks and completion are their own, and progress carries between solo and co-op
Completion rule: Objectives can be tackled together, but each player must reach the checkpoint themselves for it to count (per the official FAQ)
Teamwork: Mutual winching, shared navigation and repair help (per the official FAQ)
Voice: No built-in voice chat has been announced; use your usual external voice (per the official FAQ)
Crossplay: Confirmed in the official FAQ, but only meaningful once the console versions arrive in 2027

1. The shape of a convoy

Multiplayer here is not a mode bolted onto a solo game; it is the same exploration, shared. A group drives together, spots lines for each other, and treats the convoy itself as equipment: the vehicle ahead is your best winch anchor, the vehicle behind is your recovery plan. Because the game has no races and no timers, co-op never degenerates into waiting for the slowest driver at a finish line — it stays what the solo game is, at company speed.

Session structure follows the FAQ's picture: one player's world hosts the drive, friends join online, and the group ranges as far as it likes. During the demo period the game offered region-based server selection with visible ping; treat that as the shape of things rather than a promised final menu.

Three trucks in red, yellow and white cresting a snowy ridge together at sunset — The shape of a convoy: three trucks, one ridge, no one racing. Sessions in over the hill look like expeditions because they are paced like them.

2. Progress: personal, portable, and fair to solo players

The FAQ's rules, as relayed, form a coherent and generous system:

Completion is personal. Objectives can be worked on together, but a checkpoint counts for a player when that player reaches it. A carried passenger earns the drive, not the tick.
Unlocks are personal. Vehicles, upgrades and discoveries you earn in a friend's session are yours to keep in your own game — and vice versa.
Progress carries between solo and co-op. Scouting alone on Tuesday is not wasted when the convoy runs on Friday; your map, fleet and wallet are one continuous record.

Read together, these three rules make over the hill one of the lowest-friction co-op games of its type: nobody has to maintain a separate "group save," nobody falls behind by missing a session, and a completion gap between friends is a difference in checklists, not in worlds. (All three rules are stated per the official FAQ as reported by the fan wiki; if Funselektor publishes a fuller multiplayer breakdown, this guide will be updated against it.)

A rainy night camp with tents, a campfire and three trucks, player name tags overhead — A session at rest: tents up, fire lit, three trucks in camp and the name tags that make it a shared world. Personal progress means everyone in this picture is earning at their own rate.

An aerial view of a turquoise lakeshore with two small vehicles on the rocks — Two trucks, two checklists, one shoreline. Personal progress means a pair can share a world without sharing a save file. — Funselektor (via Steam)

3. Teamwork that actually changes outcomes

Three forms of help matter mechanically:

Mutual winching. Confirmed in the FAQ's picture of co-op: a stuck truck plus a positioned friend equals the game's most reliable recovery. A second vehicle is a heavy, mobile, repositionable anchor — the winch guide's anchor principles all improve with a driver attached.
Repair help. Per the FAQ, players can assist each other with repairs — the convoy keeps its own fleet alive rather than limping to mechanics one casualty at a time.
Group navigation. The unlisted but obvious one: four pairs of eyes read mesas, shorelines and shelf lines better than one, and the Algerian route-finding problem (see the Algeria guide) is measurably kinder with a spotter.

What teamwork cannot do is substitute for presence: per the FAQ's completion rule, nobody can be taxied to an unlock. The convoy helps you arrive; you still have to arrive.

Two frost-covered wagons on a snowy crest at night, one headlight beam cutting the fog — Teamwork weather: two trucks on a crest in fog and frost, where a second set of lamps and a second winch stop being luxuries. This is the driving the FAQ rules were written for.

Three vehicles crossing a canyon river on a narrow wooden plank bridge — Convoy order on a plank crossing: one at a time, spotters placed, recoveries pre-planned. This is co-op technique in one image. — Funselektor (via Steam)

4. The practical gaps: split-screen and voice

Two absences to plan around, both per the official FAQ. There is no local split-screen — co-op is online-only, one screen per player. And no built-in voice chat has been announced; the FAQ notes the developer has considered non-proximity (radio-style) voice a possibility, but at launch the working answer is your normal party chat on whatever platform your group already uses. Neither gap is unusual for an indie of this scale, but both are worth knowing before you promise a couch evening or uninstall Discord.

5. Crossplay: confirmed, and not yet a thing

The crossplay answer needs its two halves kept separate, because the internet keeps gluing them together. Half one: the official FAQ confirms cross-play support. Half two: the game is PC-only until the console versions arrive in 2027 (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and Switch 2), so there is currently no second platform for PC players to cross to, and the FAQ does not describe how cross-platform friending will work. The accurate sentence for launch is: crossplay is a confirmed 2027 feature, not a launch feature. Anyone telling you they are already playing PC-to-console is selling something.

A convoy driving through rain at night, headlights reflecting off wet rock — Night rain, four sets of lamps. However your group schedules it, the convoy version of a hard section is the kinder version. — Funselektor (via Steam)

A three-vehicle convoy crossing a golden autumn valley beneath cliffs in Canada — The social shape of the game: travel together, complete individually, keep everything. Few co-op games are this relaxed about it. — Funselektor (via Steam)

6. Running a mixed group without friction

The FAQ's progress model quietly solves the oldest co-op problem — the group whose members play at different rates — and it is worth running sessions to exploit it. Because worlds are shared but records are personal, a veteran can host a newcomer in finished country and the session still pays the newcomer in full: their discoveries are new to them, their objectives complete for them, while the veteran is there as anchor, spotter and storyteller. Rotate the host role by who needs the country, not by who owns the evening. Keep one etiquette rule and groups stay healthy: the convoy travels at the pace of whoever is earning the section, because they are the one the completion belongs to. Everything else — the winching, the repairs, the waiting at the viewpoint for someone's photograph — the FAQ's teamwork already covers; the etiquette is just what makes people come back on Friday.

Two trucks parked side by side in tall grass under a pink evening sky — A mixed group, parked: different trucks, different progress, one plan for the evening. The rules keep that picture frictionless — nobody here is dead weight.

FAQ

How many players can join a session? Up to four in total, online — you plus three friends. There is no split-screen option, per the official FAQ.

If my friend drives me to a checkpoint, does it count for me? Per the official FAQ, no — completion is personal, so each player must reach the checkpoint themselves. Friends can winch, repair and navigate for you, but the arrival has to be yours.

Does my solo progress carry into co-op, and back? Yes — per the official FAQ, progress and unlocks carry between solo and multiplayer sessions, and what you earn in a friend's world stays yours. There is one continuous record per player, not separate saves.

Is crossplay available now? No. The official FAQ confirms cross-play is planned, but the game is PC-only at launch; crossplay becomes meaningful when the console versions launch in

2027. How cross-platform friend invites will work has not been detailed.

Related guides

over the hill Beginner's Guide: The Winch, Your First Upgrades and What To Do First
over the hill Winch Guide: Self-Recovery, Anchor Points and Getting Unstuck
over the hill Valhallas Guide: Emerald Lake, Gimli Ridge and Asgard Mountain Routes
over the hill Challenge Trails Guide: Trail Types, Preparation and Resetting After a Fail