The Blinding of Isaac is finally getting online co-op. It's only beta at the moment, but this is exactly what fans have been asking for
If you're a fan of Roguelikes at all, you'll probably have heard of The Binding of Isaac at some point. The twin-stick bullet hell featuring a small child crying his way through a randomly generated Judeo-Christian hellscape is arguably the Dark Souls of Roguelikes! No, not because it's brutally difficult (though it's definitely that too), but because it got so many things right on the first try that it serves as a genre blueprint to this day.
But now the game's dev team seems to have taken a page out of other games' books for once: The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth is finally getting the online co-op mode fans have been begging for since the game's launch in 2014. In fact, you can (probably) play it right now! The open beta for the new mode launched just this Saturday, and anyone can access it – if they know how, that is.
The Binding of Isaac Rebirth: How To Access The Online Beta
- Own the Repentance DLC and have it installed. You and everyone you want to play with will need the DLC to access the online beta at all.
- (optional) Back up your Repentance save data. Playing in the beta may damage your save files, so you'll want to have a backup ready just in case.
- Navigate to "C:\Users\[Your Windows username]\Documents\My Games\Binding of Isaac Repentance" in your file explorer.
- Copy any files with "persistentgamedata" in their name to another location on your PC.
- To restore your data with your backup just replace the save file in the "My Games" folder with your backup file, then open Steam to let the Cloud Save update, and finally replace the file in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\[Your Steam ID]\250900\remote with your backup file.
- Right-click on The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth in your Steam Library and select "Properties".
- Select the "Betas" tab and enter the current beta password in the field below the "Private Betas" option.
- Click "Check Code" and select the "online-beta - #IsaacOnline" option.
Do all that and you should be good to go! Opting out of the beta is as easy as going to the "Betas" tab again and selecting "None" in the "Beta Participation" drop-down menu.
The beta password as of November 29, 2023, is "combthedesert". The beta should be live during the first two weeks of every month and will require a new password after every 2-week break. If the code you see here doesn't work then the beta might just be offline, but if you're unsure you can check the Executive Producer's X (formerly Twitter) account. This is also where new beta codes are usually posted!
The online mode won't be getting a proper release until late 2024, so if you plan on playing online regularly until then we'll be seeing each other here pretty often. So, until next time!