Ubisoft has now officially revealed Watch Dogs: Legion Online Co-op. The game mode is just part of what will make up Watch Dogs: Legion‘s overall multiplayer offering in the future. In this guide, we’re going to cover everything known about the game modes prior to their release.
When Does Watch Dogs: Legion Online Co-op Release?
The release date for all these online co-op elements is March 9, 2021. This date will bring two new modes to the game. The first is the general online co-op experience. The second is the Spiderbot Arena.
We’ll cover how each of these modes functions next.
What is Spiderbot Arena?
Spiderbot Arena is a competitive game mode coming to Watch Dogs: Legion. It pits players against one another using Spiderbots, the main drone that every character has access to in the main game.
The arenas are small, which makes sense since Spiderbots are also quite small. In the main game, Spiderbots have no weaponry or defensive capabilities. They’re completely useless outside of hacking, which is why soldiers will shoot them on site.
In the Spiderbot Arena though, there are powerups to collect all around the arena. These are randomized, giving players a different weapon or defense each time.
Players can pick up a machine gun, grenade launcher, shield, electromagnetic hack, and any number of other items through these boxes. The idea is to then use these items to either destroy other Spiderbots or defend against incoming attacks.
There are killstreaks available for those who can rack up a number of kills in a single match. This will see the player gain an extremely powerful weapon, which will help them further boost their kills in the game.
While we haven’t had it confirmed, it appears as though you only gain progression to the online mode’s season pass by winning in these matches. That seems to be the case according to what Ubisoft has explained in their marketing material.
Watch Dogs: Legion Online Co-op Mode
The bulk of the content that will arrive on March 9 is the online co-op mode. This adds a brand new online game world and story to Watch Dogs: Legion. The world will automatically be populated with other players, though you can team up with friends as well. It also has a built-in team chat, which will make the missions far more accessible.
Let’s break this mode down into its two core elements. The world and the co-op missions.
The World
The online world for Watch Dogs: Legion is the same as the one in the base game. It’s a dystopian version of London that’s populated by a private military company. Everyone wants to fight back and get control of their lives into their own hands again. That’s where players come in.
From what we can see, players are told that there are many cells of DedSec out in the world. Even in London, there are a good few to team up with.
The progression here takes the form of more missions, similar to what you’d see in the base game. you’ll take on these missions and side missions and slowly level up your overall cell. This will give you the ability to buy more skills, but also recruit more NPCs.
The NPC recruitment works a little differently online than the base game. Instead of needing to complete a mission in order to recruit an NPC, they will join you straight away. With that said, you do need to pay for them to join you. This comes in the form of points that you’ll collect by completing missions around the world or finding them through exploration.
Without having played the mode, it’s hard to say if as many of the collectibles or side activities will be present. It seems likely that the side activities will be, but there will probably be new collectibles. Ubisoft seems to want to keep this online world very separate from your base game campaign.
Co-op Missions
While there are probably going to be single-player missions in the online mode too, the meat of the content here are the co-op missions. These see players team up with up to three other players to take on a completely different challenge.
Preview videos show that these missions are typically based around a single location. However, the emphasis is on players to bring the right skills to the table in order to complete the task at hand.
Each location is heavily guarded, meaning players need to help each other by watching out for guards, and taking them down when necessary. It will be possible to get through these missions without being seen, but the level of skill required is quite high.
The ultimate challenge in these missions is the Tactical Ops. These are missions that can be played with three players, but need four for the best experience.
In a Tactical Ops mission, players will be split into two teams. Teams will need to tackle a hack on the opposite side of the city to each other, but both hacks will need to be simultaneous. This means that players will have to coordinate through team chat.
Pulling the hacks off is just part of the mission though. Players will also have to deal with enemies and get away with the data they’ve secured before they can complete the mission. (hoyoskitchen.com)
Seasonal Progress
The final part of this guide is the seasonal progression that’s present in this new online mode. Ubisoft hasn’t shared too many details on the matter, so it’s hard to track what sort of rewards we’ll be getting. However, we do know that there’s a seasonal pass to work through, indicating that more seasons will drop in the future.
The season pass will work like any other. Players earn progress through completing activities in the game. As we mentioned in the Spiderbot Arena segment, it seems like only wins will add progression. When it comes to the online co-op mode though, it looks like all activities will grant progression.
Whether you’re playing through missions alone, with others, or completing Tactical Ops, it’ll all add progress for the season. The rewards will almost certainly be purely cosmetic. However, since this is an online co-op experience, there may also be some items that will provide an in-game advantage. Since there’s no competitive element to the co-op world, this would be a great addition to the game.
We’ll be sure to update you with all the new features in Watch Dogs: Legion as soon as they drop.