October 8, 2026 · Valentín Stancu
Devlog #2 — Co-op is coming: four shopkeepers, one store
Last Store on Earth is getting co-op for up to four players, demo included. Meet the eight shopkeepers and everything you can do together: voice chat, walkie-talkies, pings, emotes… and the odd slap.
Hi, Keepers 👋
It’s been a few weeks since my last update, and not for lack of work. Today I can finally show you what I’ve been up to: Last Store on Earth is getting co-op for up to four players, from day one and in the demo too.
Until now, both here and on Steam, we said multiplayer was “an intention, not a date”. It’s not an intention anymore: it’s happening, and we’re putting it through its paces.
Raise the shutter
When you want company, you raise the shutter and decide who gets in:
- My friends: anyone on your Steam friends list.
- Invite or code: only the people you invite, or anyone with your store’s code.
- Anyone: your store shows up in the public store list, for whoever wants to lend a hand.
You give it a name and, if you like, a description. There’s room for four shopkeepers. If an invite comes in while you’re playing, the game saves your run before taking you to your friend’s store.
The store belongs to whoever opens it, and progress is saved in their game. Yours goes there too: come back another day and everyone picks up their own shopkeeper and their own experience.
Eight shopkeepers, no duplicates
Before you start, you choose who you are. There are eight shopkeepers: four women and four men, aged 20 to 71, each with their own story, personality and color. Nobody can pick the same one in a shared store, and you choose a shopkeeper when you play solo, too.
On top of that, each of them brings an object of their own and an ability only they know how to use. What do they do? For now, that’s a secret: you’ll find out by playing. 😉
Let me introduce them:
Wara Quispe
20 · Junkyard scrapper
She grew up among dead cars in her father's junkyard. All she knows of “before” is what it left lying around. She stopped at the crossroads because the shutter was in one piece, and by weight that was a lot of óbolos. Then she saw the shelves.
Angry and defiant, with a sharp tongue. She can't forgive her elders for the world they left her.
Hugo Lin
24 · Sign painter
His grandfather ran a variety store in the neighborhood and taught him to write with a brush. He painted town names and water warnings for anyone who'd feed him. He stayed because no one could read the store's sign anymore.
Quiet, a perfectionist, head in the clouds. He can spend an hour staring at a wall.
Iria Carballo
31 · Motorcycle smuggler
She ran cigarettes by motorcycle over mountain trails; then medicine, then whatever paid. She came back from the last run on foot, with no bike and no load, and every time she tells it the story's different.
Brash, reckless and a charming liar. She laughs at everything, danger most of all.
Ousmane Diop
37 · Cook
Cooked the lunch special at a diner in an industrial park. Under rationing he learned to feed forty on what was meant for ten. He carries his knife wrapped in a rag. He was looking for a kitchen and found a store.
Proud and demanding. Generous with food, stingy with praise.
Doina Lupu
46 · Streetlight electrician
Fifteen years up streetlights on a lighting crew, and one of the last to come down the ladder. She saw the broken streetlight at the crossroads from far off, dangling by its cable, and couldn't bring herself to leave it like that.
Cheerful, stubborn and loud. She sings at the top of the ladder and argues at full volume, but never holds a grudge.
Anselmo Oria
58 · “Cash for Gold”
He bought up half the neighborhood's gold when the Withering began; then gold stopped being worth anything. Now he appraises the only thing that still has value: what works. He came looking for a counter. It's the only place he knows how to be.
Smooth-talking and calculating. He calls you “sir” while he sizes up your shoes.
Trinidad Nsue
64 · Librarian
Thirty years at her neighborhood's public library. When nobody came anymore, she kept opening up; when firewood was needed, she hid the good books. She walked into the store because the shelves were crooked.
A neat freak and a little pedantic. She speaks softly, corrects everyone and looks after people without letting it show.
Joaquín Galván
71 · Barber
Fifty years shaving the same neighborhood, until there was no neighborhood left. He knows everyone's story and has never told a single one. The way he sees it, a store is just a barbershop that sells something else.
Courtly and a little vain. He never calls anyone by their first name and won't step out without combing his hair.
What you can do together
Everything you do alone, you can do together: clean up, cut furniture down with the angle grinder, repair, paint, stock the shelves, set prices, order from Garcés over the radio and serve customers. When someone walks up to the counter, whoever starts serving them takes that sale, and everyone else carries on with their own work.
Talking: voice, walkie-talkie and chat
- Proximity voice chat. You hear everyone from wherever they’re standing, and their voice fades with distance: if your friend is in the stockroom, you won’t hear her from the street. Use push-to-talk or an open mic.
- The walkie-talkie. For when someone’s far away, Garcés sells walkies over the radio. Carry one and you can talk to anyone else who has one, wherever they are, with that crackly radio sound. Without a walkie you won’t hear a thing… unless you’re standing next to whoever’s talking.
- Text chat, with everyone’s name in their shopkeeper’s color.
Pings without a word
Not everyone wants to talk. That’s what the bunch of tags is for: cardboard tags with a rubber stamp, tied to a ring. Pick one (“Come here”, “Look at this”, “Danger”, “Fix this”, “Customer”…) and it hangs on whatever you’re pointing at, for everyone to see.
Emotes
With a second bunch, this one in green card, your shopkeeper strikes a pose and the camera pulls out to third person so you can see it too: dance (there are four different dances), clap, wave, take a bow, nod yes or shake no, “no idea”…
And the slap
We all have that friend who stands right in the doorway while they go grab a coffee. That’s what the slap is for: give them one, their head snaps to the side, they’re left with a red handprint and little stars spin around their head. And they get nudged out of the doorway, too. The chat, of course, makes sure everyone hears about it.
What’s shared and what isn’t
- Shared: the store, the till (the money belongs to the store), the missions, which move forward for everyone, and the world: the time of day, the weather and the generator.
- Your own: your backpack, your hunger and thirst, and your trade experience. Everyone levels up their own skills.
- The shopkeepers’ abilities: each can only be used by its owner. Some help the whole team and some only help whoever uses them. Which is which… you’ll find out by playing. One thing’s for sure: when someone uses theirs, you’ll notice.
The host is in charge
Whoever opens the store decides, player by player, whether they can take payments, build, order from Garcés or change prices. They can also mute someone’s voice or chat, turn their volume down, kick them or ban them. Your store, your rules.
So, when?
From day one. Online co-op will be in the game from the moment you can get your hands on it, demo included.
Right now it’s in full development: we’re testing it hard, and some things will change along the way.
If you want to be there with your friends on day one:
- Wishlist Last Store on Earth on Steam
- Join the Discord: I’ll keep you posted there, and you can find people to run a store with.
Now tell me: which shopkeeper are you picking?
— Valentin, King Island Studio
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