Online play and co-op¶

Online play is a beta. Messages, bloodstains and ghosts come from a community game server: Seamless Hunt's (the default) or The Hunter's Dream. Bells and summons go through a co-op pool, and then the players' games connect to each other. Linux and Windows players can play together: everyone needs the game at version 1.09 and the same pool.

shadPS4's public shadNet server no longer accepts bbport builds: it signs the game out right after the login ("This shadNet server doesn't accept your shadPS4 build" in the log), and the launcher says so. The pools for bbport are Seamless Hunt (the default), The Hunter's Dream's and a server of your own.

Seamless Hunt¶

Seamless Hunt is a community server for Seamless Co-op (BBSC), where Windows players join with BBSC's package for the Windows port.

In the launcher's Multiplayer → Online tab, turn on Play online and choose Seamless Hunt: its shadNet server, WebAPI and game server come with it.
Type a name and a password under Account and press Create (once). The server wants an email for each account; the launcher makes one from the name, as Seamless Hunt's own tool does.
Turn on BBSC in the Seamless co-op (BBSC) group and press Test in the Status row.

Its bloodstains and death visions crash the game with "Transaction failed", on Windows too: they are off by default, as in Seamless Hunt's package (Bloodstains on Seamless Hunt brings them back). Messages, ghosts and summon signs are not affected.

The Hunter's Dream (with bbhost's players)¶

Choose The Hunter's Dream (with bbhost players) in the launcher's Multiplayer → Online tab. bbbridge by MaskZeus starts with the game, stands in for a shadNet server on this computer and talks to The Hunter's Dream the way bbhost does, its relay included, so no router port is needed. The account is The Hunter's Dream's, kept in user/bbbridge (no password):

Sign in with Discord: the launcher shows a code and opens The Hunter's Dream's page; approve it there. The account is the same one bbhost uses.
Without Discord: type a name and Create. Keep the recovery code the launcher shows: with the name, it brings the account back on another computer (Recover).

The game's play log (its own telemetry) stays blocked, so The Hunter's Dream's live map does not show you.

This connection is unofficial. The Hunter's Dream's team has not approved bbbridge, and they do not support bbport: report problems here (issues), not to The Hunter's Dream's support.

Your own server¶

Its owner creates the account (hosting your own server), or you make it with Create under Account when the server lets anyone register.

In the launcher's Multiplayer → Online tab, turn on Play online, choose Your own server with its address, and enter the account name (not the email) and the password. The password is kept on this computer with the launcher's settings.
Press Test in the Status row: the game server, the shadNet server, its UDP port and its WebAPI should all answer, and with the account filled in, the sign-in should work. A wrong name or password shows there (the server does not say which of the two).

If the game says you are not signed in to PlayStation Network, the shadNet login failed: the log then has a shadNet login error (code 8 is a wrong name or password). If the server did not answer when the game started, the game keeps trying in the background.

Seamless co-op (BBSC)¶

BBSC (Bloodborne Seamless Co-op, by CLS_AMG) keeps a co-op session going through deaths, lamps, areas, bosses and the Hunter's Dream, for up to 5 hunters: the guest follows the host through lamps, sees the host's world (doors, bosses, lifts), keeps the items and echoes it gets, and enemies get stronger for every guest. It runs inside the game (bbsc/, loaded as libbbsc.so). It is new, and its own author marks much of it as untested.

In the launcher's Multiplayer → Online tab, turn on BBSC in the Seamless co-op (BBSC) group. BBSC settings has its options (the same as in BBSC's Windows launcher); the defaults are BBSC's.
Every player of the session needs BBSC, the same version: on Linux this port, on Windows BBSC's package for the Windows port (its BBport release). A player without it plays the normal game.
The server decides how much of it works:
BBSC's game server (Seamless Hunt's, which comes with it, or your group's, hosted with it): everything, summons across areas and 5 hunters included. Set it as the Game server of the Online tab.
The Hunter's Dream: the session stays together (deaths, lamps, bosses), but summons are the normal game's: BBSC turns its own summon changes and the 5 hunters off on public servers. Its messages go straight between the players.

With BBSC and BBSC's game server, two players who cannot reach each other directly (CGNAT, strict routers, two games on one PC) are connected through that server's UDP relay (port 3478); SHADPS4_P2P_RELAY=0 turns it off. Without BBSC, and on The Hunter's Dream (bbbridge relays by itself), the relay is off.

BBSC gives every character its own items, which cost no Insight: the Hunt Bell (call other players), the Kin Bell (join another player), the Bloodlust Bell (invade), the Duel Bell (PvP on and off during co-op) and the Parting Blank (end co-op). It takes the game's Beckoning Bell, Small Resonant Bell and Silencing Blank out of the inventory, and they do not come back when BBSC is turned off; BBSC's own items stay, with their names (scripts/bbsc_kit_texts.py), and work again when it is back on. Before changing anything it backs the saves up to user/bbsc/save-backups/: copy a character's save from there to play it without BBSC with its old bells. Its texts follow the game's language (Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Russian; English otherwise). F8 puts you back on the ground if you get stuck inside another player.

Not yet tested with more than one player on Linux: one player alone works (its items, deaths, lamps, the Hunter's Dream). Report what you find with the log.

Its log is in user/bbsc/logs/ (in the AppImage, ~/.local/share/bbport/user/bbsc/logs/), and the game's log has its warnings (BBSC: lines). Not in the Linux build: BBSC's cinematic camera (L3 + R3 opens bbport's menu) and its own Discord status (bbport has one).

Summoning in the game¶

The host rings the Beckoning Bell (one Insight each time); the helper rings the Small Resonant Bell. With BBSC: the Hunt Bell and the Kin Bell, at no Insight cost.
Use the same password in the game's network settings, so you find each other whatever your levels.
Be in the same area, close to each other, with the area's boss still alive in the host's world.

Ports¶

Co-op traffic is UDP, straight between the players' computers. With your own server on Tailscale (hosting your own server) it goes through Tailscale: turn UPnP off and skip this section. Otherwise each player has to be reachable from the Internet:

The router. With UPnP on (the default), the game opens its port on the router itself: the log says UPNP: mapped UDP port <port>. A router without UPnP needs a port forward by hand (UDP, the pinned port below, to your computer's LAN address).
Pin the port when you open it by hand or in a firewall: Co-op port (UDP) in the Online tab, for example 3658 (0, the default, is a random port each time). The log then says P2P transport ready: UDP physical_port=3658.
Open it in the firewall. UPnP opens the port on the router only, not in this computer's firewall. With ufw or firewalld on, the launcher's Multiplayer → Online tab says so and gives the commands. For ufw:
```
sudo ufw allow 3658/udp
sudo ufw allow from <router IP> proto udp    # the router's UPnP answers
```
Windows players open the same UDP port in their own firewall.

A router whose public address is shared by many customers (CG-NAT) cannot forward ports: the log's UPNP: IGD found - external IP=... should be your real public address. Tailscale works behind CG-NAT too.

Reading the log¶

Run with BB_GPU_LOG=info in the extra variables for the online details. In a summon:

Line	Meaning
`Logged in npid='...'`	The shadNet login worked.
`summon_messenger/create`	Your sign is placed (helper).
`summon_messenger/get`, `sceNpMatching2CreateJoinRoom`, `summon_messenger/request`	The host found the sign, made the room and sent the summon.
`peer '...' endpoint unresolved`	shadNet has no address for the other player: its UDP port did not answer.
`Online: the shadNet server ... does not accept this build`	The server refuses bbport (shadPS4's public one): use Seamless Hunt, The Hunter's Dream or your own server.
`event=0(DEAD)`	The connection gave up.