Lethal Company is a co-op horror game in which a crew of up to four lands on abandoned moons, scavenges scrap from dark facilities and sells it to the Company to meet a quota that rises every cycle. It has been in Early Access since October 2023, and the current version is V80, "The Blooming Update". Moon, item and monster names stay in English, as they appear in the game.
Buy, wait or skip: the short answer
| Your situation | Verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Three or four friends who play on voice chat | Buy | This is what the game is built for. Every role is filled, and the laughs come from the group |
| One regular partner | Buy | Very playable with one inside and one on the terminal, though the quota gets hard sooner |
| Mostly solo | Skip | Same quota and same scrap with one pair of hands and nobody to watch the map |
| A group of five or six | Look at R.E.P.O. first | Lethal Company is four players without mods; R.E.P.O. supports six officially |
| You need a translated interface or subtitles | Skip or wait | Interface and audio are English only, with no subtitles |
| You want a finished game with regular updates | Wait | Still Early Access; the last two major updates came about ten months apart |
What kind of game it is
Each run is a string of quota cycles of three working days. Each day you pick a moon at the ship terminal, land, find scrap in the facility with the scanner and carry it back before the ship leaves at midnight; a day lasts 11 minutes 40 seconds of real time. On the deadline day you sell at the Company Building. Meet the quota and the next one is higher; miss it and the crew is fired, ending the run.
The first quota is always 130, and every increase is larger than the last. That curve gives a goofy scavenging trip real tension: good days build a cushion, and one full-crew wipe deletes all the scrap on the ship.
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Developer and publisher | Zeekerss |
| Status | Early Access since October 23, 2023. Current version: V80, The Blooming Update (April 5, 2026) |
| Price tier | Low indie price. No DLC and no microtransactions |
| Players | 1 to 4 online. More only with mods |
| Platforms | Windows on Steam. Valve rates it Playable on Steam Deck |
| Languages | English interface and audio only, no subtitles |
| Steam user reviews | Overwhelmingly Positive, about 96% positive across more than 400,000 reviews |
| Recognition | Won Better With Friends at the Steam Awards 2023 and Stream Game of the Year at the Streamer Awards 2024 |
What it does well
Pros
- +Proximity voice chat and simple monster rules turn disasters into stories
- +The ship operator is a second, completely different role
- +Low indie price, no DLC, no microtransactions
- +Days under 12 minutes fit several quotas into one evening
- +Updates still add real systems, such as the V80 utility slot
Cons
- −Solo gets the same quota with one pair of hands
- −English only, no subtitles, Windows only
- −Early Access updates arrive months apart
- −Dead players spectate for the rest of the day
- −Late quotas climb steeply and the moons start to repeat
The comedy is a system, not a script. Voice chat only carries over short distances, so a crewmate screaming two rooms away is simply gone; the walkie-talkie (10 credits) exists to talk across the map. Eyeless Dogs hear your voice too, so yelling for help is itself dangerous. None of this is a written joke, which is why the stories feel like yours.
The monsters have readable rules. A Coil-Head only moves when nobody is looking at it. A Bracken retreats if you glance at it but attacks if you stare. Eyeless Dogs are blind and hunt by sound; Thumpers are deaf. Each first death teaches a rule, and a crew that knows the rules survives far longer. The Monster Guide lists all of them.
The operator role changes the game. One player stays on the ship to watch the radar, open secure doors, disable turrets and landmines for a few seconds and call out monsters. V70 rebuilt the radar with a face cam and a path line to the exit. For a friend who dislikes jump scares, this is a real way to play.
It respects your time and money. A low indie price, no DLC, no paid cosmetics, and days short enough that a full quota cycle fits into an evening.
Where it falls short
Solo is a harsher game. The quota formula has no term for crew size, and each moon spawns the same scrap. A solo player carries everything, has no operator, and nobody can hit a Snare Flea off their head.
Dead players wait. Death means spectating a crewmate for the rest of the day. The dead can vote to make the ship leave early, but the first death can still sit out most of a day.
Language and platform. English only, with no subtitles. There is little to read (scan labels, a few logs), but terminal commands must be typed in English. Windows only, no console versions.
Long runs get repetitive. Eleven moons, three interiors (Factory, Mansion, Mineshaft), and quota increases that grow quadratically, so late runs come down to farming the same paid moons, as the Quota Guide shows.
Solo, duo or a full crew
| Crew size | What it is like | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| Solo | Quiet, tense, and slow to make money. No operator, every item carried by one person | Playable for practice, poor as the main way to play |
| 2 players | One inside, one on the terminal, or both inside for speed. Every death hurts | Good |
| 3 players | Two scavengers and an operator: the easiest setup to coordinate | Very good |
| 4 players | The intended size. Room for an operator, a pair inside and someone carrying scrap | Best |
| 5 or more | Only with mods such as MoreCompany; all players need the same mods | Fun but unsupported |
The Beginner Guide shows how to spend the starting 60 credits at each crew size.
Early Access: what has changed since launch
Lethal Company launched as Version 35, and Zeekerss said he planned to finish it within six months. In the V70 notes he described his updates as leading up to the one that ends Early Access, and in the V80 notes he said Version 85 should be "much more content-focused", with no date. At the time of writing, V80 is the latest version.
| Version | Released | What it added |
|---|---|---|
| V45 The Frosty Update | December 2023 | Nutcracker, Masked, Signal Translator, keybinds, arachnophobia mode |
| V50 The Hopping Update | April 2024 | Artifice, Adamance and Embrion; Butler, Old Bird, Tulip Snake; the knife |
| V55 The Cruising Update | July 2024 | The Company Cruiser vehicle, the Barber |
| V60 The Stuffy Update | August 2024 | Mineshaft interior, Maneater, new scrap |
| V70 The Incubating Update | May 2025 | Radar overhaul with face cam, Mansion rework, Giant Sapsucker, furniture |
| V80 The Blooming Update | April 2026 | Backwater Gunkfish, Feiopar, Cadaver Bloom, the returning Kidnapper Fox, utility slot, reworked March, accessibility options |
Big updates, long gaps. V80 also did quiet work for new crews: a "diversity meter" that limits how many monster species spawn on some moons in one day, toggle-to-sprint, an option to disable head-bobbing and a lower pixel-resolution setting for weaker PCs.
Mods, briefly
Mods are a big part of the community. The best known raise the lobby above four (MoreCompany) or add cosmetics, emotes and content. Since V80 the game detects a mod loader and marks it in the server list, though Zeekerss wrote that mods are not officially supported or recommended. Everyone in a lobby needs the same mods, a big update can break them, and the developer advises turning them off for the weekly Challenge Moons. Play unmodded first.
Compared with similar games
| Game | The job | Players | Status | Languages | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lethal Company | Scavenge scrap to meet a rising quota | 1-4 | Early Access | English only | Tense runs with an operator and real stakes |
| Content Warning | Film scary things and get views on SpöökTube | 2-4 online | Full release, also on consoles | 12 languages | Short, silly sessions on any platform |
| R.E.P.O. | Carry fragile, physics-based valuables to extraction | 1-6 | Early Access | English only | Bigger groups and physics slapstick |
| Phasmophobia | Investigate a haunting and identify the ghost | 1-4 | Early Access | Many languages | Slower deduction and VR |
Content Warning also runs on three-day cycles, but you chase video views instead of a quota. It is cheaper, translated, on consoles since April 2026 and less punishing, with less long-run tension and no solo mode.
R.E.P.O. is the closest relative: extracting valuables from haunted levels with proximity voice. Its loot is physical, so a piano has to be carried carefully, and it takes six players. For groups above four, it is the natural pick.
Phasmophobia is investigation: gather evidence and name the ghost type. Slower, more serious and VR-capable, where Lethal Company is faster, louder and about escaping with the loot.
Common complaints, and how true they are
"It's impossible solo"
Mostly true. Solo is possible and good practice, but with the same quota and no operator it is much harder. If you will mostly play alone, this is the wrong buy.
"We keep wiping on the first quota"
Usually a habit problem. The first quota is only 130, and one normal day on Experimentation covers it. Early wipes come from sending everyone inside, staying too late or selling early. The Beginner Guide covers those habits.
"It's abandoned"
Not true, but slow. The last major updates came about ten months apart (V60 in August 2024, V70 in May 2025, V80 in April 2026), with smaller patches in between. Buy it for the game as it is.
"It gets repetitive"
Partly, for long runs. Learning moons and monsters takes many sessions, but a skilled crew ends up farming the same paid moons. The Moons and Equipment Guide shows which ones still pay.
★Honest Take — the best co-op horror loop, if you bring the crew
Lethal Company's funniest moments are not written: they fall out of proximity voice, physical loot, a teammate shouting directions from the ship and monsters with simple rules, and the quota gives them stakes. The weaknesses are just as real: a weak solo game, English only, and a long Early Access with updates months apart. With two or three friends on voice chat, it is one of the best-value co-op games you can buy. Without them, look elsewhere.
