How to Fix Riftstorm Co-Op Huge Desync Between Friends

There are few things more frustrating than finally getting your squad together for a long co-op session, only to realize everyone is playing a completely different game. That has been my experience with Riftstorm more than once during its early days. One minute the entire team is tearing through monsters, and the next someone is attacking enemies nobody else can even see. Another player is stuck running into a wall while insisting they’re halfway across the map collecting loot.

I’ve seen plenty of multiplayer launches over the years, and honestly, this isn’t anything new. Games that rely on fast action, physics calculations, and constant synchronization often hit similar problems during Early Access. The good news is that Riftstorm’s desync issue isn’t impossible to deal with. While there isn’t a magical one-click fix yet, there are several methods that noticeably reduce the chances of your lobby falling apart.

After spending hours experimenting with different settings and comparing notes with other players, these are the solutions that consistently produced the best results.

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Why Riftstorm Suffers From Heavy Desynchronization

The biggest misconception is that desync always means the servers are broken. Sometimes that’s true, but multiplayer synchronization depends on several different systems working together.

Riftstorm constantly exchanges information between every player in a match. Every movement, enemy position, ability activation, projectile, environmental object, and loot drop has to remain identical for everyone involved. If one player begins receiving delayed packets or starts running a different simulation than everyone else, the game slowly loses synchronization until each player is effectively experiencing their own version of the mission.

I’ve noticed this tends to happen much more often during longer runs than short missions, especially when the battlefield becomes packed with enemies and visual effects.

Some of the most common causes include:

• High latency between party members
• Different game versions
• Frame rate inconsistencies
• Temporary server instability
• Packet loss
• Peer-to-peer networking limitations

None of these are unique to Riftstorm, but together they create the perfect recipe for massive multiplayer desync.

Rebuild the Lobby Instead of Fighting Through It

One mistake I made early on was trying to finish the mission after desync had already started. Don’t. Once players begin seeing different enemies or different map states, the session is usually beyond saving. Continuing only wastes time because rewards, objectives, and combat events often stop syncing correctly.

Instead, have everyone:

1. Leave the mission completely.
2. Return to the main hub.
3. Disband the party.
4. Create a brand-new lobby.
5. Let the player with the strongest and most stable internet connection host.

This sounds incredibly simple, but it solved more failed sessions for my group than any complicated network tweak.

Keep Everyone on the Same Regional Server

One thing many players overlook is server region. Playing with friends from another continent may technically work, but it significantly increases latency. Once ping climbs high enough, synchronization becomes much harder for the game to maintain.

If possible, keep everyone connected to the same region and try to avoid parties where someone is connecting from the opposite side of the world.

A rough guideline I follow is this:

You can’t always avoid higher ping when playing internationally, but reducing latency wherever possible makes a noticeable difference.

Lock Your Frame Rate

This recommendation surprised me at first, but after testing it several evenings with different friends, I became convinced it actually helps. One player running at 180 FPS while another struggles between 45 and 70 FPS seems to create additional synchronization inconsistencies during busy combat.

Instead of letting everyone’s hardware run unrestricted, try matching frame rates across the whole party.

• Set a 60 FPS cap for every player.
• Enable V-Sync if screen tearing is not a concern.
• Keep frame times as stable as possible.
• Avoid large FPS fluctuations during heavy combat.

Is this a guaranteed fix? No. However, our group experienced noticeably fewer broken sessions after everyone standardized their performance settings.

Certain Abilities Can Make Things Worse

One interesting pattern I’ve noticed is that some builds seem far more likely to trigger synchronization issues than others. Abilities that constantly create autonomous objects, especially automated turrets, robotic summons, or multiple persistent constructs, appear to generate far more network traffic than straightforward weapon builds.

Until future updates improve multiplayer stability, consider avoiding loadouts that flood the battlefield with AI-controlled objects. That doesn’t necessarily mean these abilities are broken, only that they seem to increase the chances of synchronization errors during large encounters.

If your group repeatedly experiences desync during one particular build, it’s worth changing characters for a few matches just to see whether stability improves.

Verify Game Files

This is one of those troubleshooting steps people love to skip because it sounds generic. Still, it’s worth doing. If even one installation contains damaged or outdated files, strange multiplayer behavior becomes much more likely.

On Steam, follow these steps:

1. Open your Steam Library.
2. Right-click Riftstorm.
3. Select Properties.
4. Open the Installed Files tab.
5. Click Verify Integrity of Game Files.

The process only takes a few minutes and removes one more possible cause of multiplayer instability.

Refresh Your Network

Sometimes the issue isn’t inside the game at all. Old DNS records, router memory buildup, or unstable local connections can interfere with multiplayer traffic without causing a complete internet outage.

A quick maintenance routine includes:

• Restart your router.
• Restart your PC.
• Flush the Windows DNS cache.
• Close unnecessary downloads.
• Pause cloud synchronization software.
• Disable VPN services while playing.

If you’re using Wi-Fi, switching to a wired Ethernet connection is probably the single biggest improvement you can make for multiplayer stability.

Check Your NAT Type

Players who experience disconnects every few minutes should also investigate their router configuration. Restricted NAT types often interfere with peer-to-peer communication, leading to failed synchronization between players.

The easiest improvements include:

• Enable UPnP on your router.
• Avoid Double NAT whenever possible.
• Allow Riftstorm through Windows Defender Firewall.
• Whitelist Steam inside your antivirus software.
• Configure Steam multiplayer ports if necessary.

Networking isn’t everyone’s favorite topic, but these settings have solved connection issues in countless online games over the years.

What Actually Helped My Group

After dozens of matches, these changes consistently gave us the most stable experience.

None of these completely eliminate the issue, but together they dramatically reduced the number of broken runs.

The Good News

I’ve played enough Early Access games to recognize this pattern. Multiplayer stability is often one of the first major priorities after launch because it’s impossible to simulate thousands of real-world network conditions before players jump in.

The encouraging part is that Riftstorm’s developers have already been collecting player reports and releasing updates aimed at improving networking. That’s exactly what you’d want to see from a live-service co-op title.

Until larger patches arrive, your best strategy is keeping your entire squad on matching settings, using a reliable host, maintaining stable connections, and restarting the lobby the moment synchronization begins to break down. It isn’t the perfect solution, but in my experience, it keeps the action flowing far more often than trying to power through a broken session.