Permafrost co-op joins, guest inventory and dog companion

Content Update #1 lists a new known issue: Dog Days can become impossible to finish if you save and exit before taming the dog. Finish the taming before you quit. It also reports fixes for invisible dog models with floating harnesses, harness alignment, backpacks using one breed’s shape for every dog, and gamepad navigation when choosing dog skins and colours.

For co-op, the update reports a Friends List fix and a fix for female characters appearing male to other players after rejoining. Host frame rate may drop when looking toward distant clients, and other players’ arrows may be invisible while aiming. These are developer statements; Kingy has not tested a join, rejoin or dog quest on this update.

The October 11 hotfix says Steam Friends “Join Game” and Steam chat invites now work when the joining player has already launched Permafrost and is at the main menu. This is the developer’s stated condition; Kingy has not tested a join or reconnect.

That invite fix does not establish guest-inventory recovery or reliable persistence. Rejoin the same host world and compare the same guest character’s gear separately. The October 14 journal-playback fix is a separate quest statement, not an inventory or invite-recovery result.

The first three affected posters are Sanginius, DPD and WillPlays73. Sanginius briefly joined through Steam Friends, then returned to the menu; DPD says the first-cabin suggestion did not work. WillPlays73 reports unreliable joins and a previously played guest arriving without gear. Two later posters bring the thread to five: kefront (#9, #11) initially joined after the host passed the cabin but could not reconnect after a break, even through Steam Friends or invites; Juca (#12) could not find a friend’s lobby after a crash.

The earlier developer reply says the host should pass the first cabin and remain online in the game. The host owns the world save and guests are intended to retain character progress and gear when returning. The later co-op guide clarifies that characters are tied to a world; a solo character does not carry into a friend’s world. Test retention in the same host world with the same guest character.

The developer calls the reported missing gear unintended and asks for a bug report. This report does not establish a same-world before/after comparison, permanent deletion or successful recovery. Neither the cabin step nor Steam Friends joining is a guaranteed workaround. kefront later says Discord guides did not resolve the issue; the developer then linked the Steam guide below.

The developer-linked October 9 co-op guide gives these setup checks. They address session configuration and character/world selection; they do not guarantee a successful join or restore missing gear.

1. Host: Main menu → Play → Host Multiplayer. Choose the existing world or create a disposable test world. Loading a world in solo mode does not create a joinable co-op session.
2. Set enough player slots, turn Private Off for session discovery, and set a password to share with the group. Wait for the host world to load.
3. Guest: Main menu → Play → Join Multiplayer Sessions. Find the host, enter the current password and wait for the world to load.
4. On return, have the host load the same world. Check the password, player limit and both installed versions; if still stuck, the guide suggests restarting the game. Record whether the retry helped.

Use a short disposable session and low-value items. Preserve original saves. These are proposed checks; Kingy has not independently tested the launch build. Record each result separately: opening the game does not prove acceptable performance, and reconnecting does not prove that guest gear persisted.

The developer introduces the dog as an early companion. The store adds its scouting, warning and supply-carrying roles. None of those statements establishes an exact inventory size, a danger-detection range or whether it can die. Check the actual companion interface before relying on a particular ability.

Choose one host and a short shared objective. The developer says the world save belongs to the host; the later co-op guide clarifies that characters belong to a world. Use the same host world for rejoining. Dedicated servers, cross-store multiplayer and reliable persistence are not verified here.

1. Choose a host and confirm everyone is on a compatible build.
2. Check startup, performance, joining and inventory after rejoining separately before a long expedition.
3. Assign responsibilities for gathering, shelter work and carrying supplies.
4. Agree on the return shelter and the signal to turn back.

The October 3 playtest patch reports a fix for inventory loss when a client closed the game while the server was loading, plus the dog floating indoors. These developer-reported playtest fixes do not prove the October 9 guest-gear problem is repaired or establish demo recovery or save carryover.

The October 9 launch announcement describes co-op improvements included at launch. The later RTX 20/30 hotfix and RTX 40/50 Hotfix 2 disable FSR on those GPU families to reduce crashes, without a stated co-op or guest-gear repair. The launch reports still need separate joining and post-rejoin inventory checks; successful gear recovery is not verified.

Toplitz's October 11, 2024 warning says that demo could not save progress or resume a closed playthrough. Its January 2025 reply still described saving as a release-version feature. These dated statements do not establish the behavior of a later playtest or Early Access build.

A January player reported that a previously used character name remained unavailable. That report does not demonstrate a saved world. Kingy has no verified procedure for recovering that demo's closed session.

1. Identify the exact Steam library entry and build: Demo, Playtest or the main game. Match any troubleshooting advice to that version.
2. For the October 9 main game, use a short disposable session to check persistence: record inventory, quest state and a placed object, exit normally, then reopen the same session and compare.
3. Have the guest rejoin separately and compare their state too. If progress differs, record both builds, host/guest roles and the exact load result for support; this is a proposed check, not a tested recovery method.

Record the build and the action that failed. Distinguish a missing feature from a control you have not found. Keep critical supplies with a known carrier until you have observed how companion inventory and multiplayer saves work.

The update reports a multiplayer crash while collecting Moon Rock fixed. It does not announce a missing-guest-gear restoration or replace the October 11 main-menu condition for Steam invites. Retention still needs a same-character, same-host-world check.