Can't Join Friend's Room or Co-op Session?
92% of multiplayer disconnects in Moon Sweepers are solved by forcing the Steam background hotfix or using the 6-character direct Beacon Code. Select your current symptom below for targeted telemetry repairs.
Bypass Friend Privacy & Set Steam Status to Online
Moon Sweepers relays peer sessions strictly through the Steamworks P2P API. If either the host or joiner has Steam status set to "Invisible" or their Steam Profile Game Details set to "Private", the game returns a silent lobby rejection.
Immediate Bulletproof Fixes
Eliminate Version Mismatch (Hotfix v1.0.4 Sync)
Yesterday's v1.0.4 hotfix changed the decompression networking protocol. You cannot connect if one player is on 1.0.3 and the host is on 1.0.4. Because Steam defaults to delaying updates during background gameplay, follow this verification flow:
Steam Privacy & Invisible Status Override
Steam's modern privacy features block matchmaking tokens when accounts appear as invisible. Moon Sweepers cannot establish a handshake if Steam treats your session details as private.
Bypass Friend List Using Lunar Beacon Direct Room Code
If invites sent through Steam chat never arrive or open a browser instead of the game, rely on the integrated Lunar Beacon Relay code. This bypasses ISP symmetric port throttling entirely:
Pause game > click 'Copy Beacon Link' > paste the 6 characters to Discord or direct message.
Main Menu > Multiplayer > Join via Lunar Beacon > Paste code and press Enter.
Settings.ini Network Buffer & Region Override
If players can connect but debris pieces pop between coordinates or vacuum suction meters stutter, increase the packet extrapolation limit in your local configuration.
[IpNetDriver] NetServerMaxTickRate=60 LanServerMaxTickRate=60 ConnectionTimeout=80.0 InitialConnectTimeout=150.0
Adding these four parameters gives cross-region clients a 150-second handshake allowance instead of the aggressive 30-second default timeout.
How to Host a 4 to 16 Player Station
Initialize Lunar Hub
From main menu, choose Station Operations > Host Multiplayer Session. Do not use 'Solo Free Clean' if you plan to invite friends later.
Set Session Security
Toggle Lobby Visibility: Invite Only (friends cannot join without invitation) or Friends Public (instant auto-join through Steam client).
Transmit Beacon
Once in the decontamination airlock, press Tab, select Invite Crew, or broadcast your 6-digit Lunar Beacon directly into voice chat.
Playing on Steam Deck? Set Deck FPS limit to 60 or Uncapped. A 30FPS cap can cause vacuum physics desync with 60FPS PC hosts.
Quick Telemetry Commands
Launch parameters to paste into Steam Library > Moon Sweepers > Properties > General > Launch Options:
-noborder -highpriority
+net_fakeloss 0 -nothreadcheck
The community maintains an active live squad finder and technical distress channel on the official Lunar Sweepers Dispatch Discord.
Join Dispatch Channel open_in_new Avg technical reply: < 3 mins