Co-op in Raid Mode: Local Play, Online Shutdown and Partner Controls

Co-op in Resident Evil Revelations on 3DS means Raid Mode. The Campaign has no second player, so the whole story is a solo run. Raid Mode takes two players per session. Local Play still works in 2026. Online Play stopped when Nintendo turned off 3DS online services on April 8, 2024 (Pacific time), which was the morning of April 9 in China and most of Asia.

What you need to play together

The Raid Mode menu gives three options: Solo Play, Nintendo 3DS Local Play and Online Play. For Local Play, each player needs their own system and their own copy of the game. The manual asks for two systems and two Game Cards, and there is no Download Play, so one cartridge can't serve a second system. The two systems have to be in wireless range of each other.

Both save files also need Raid stages, and clearing the Campaign isn't enough on its own. After you finish Episode 3, open Missions, select the completed Chapter 1 mission and claim its reward. That reward opens Raid Mode and Stages 1 to 7. The manual says a finished mission pays out only once you claim it in Missions. StreetPass is a separate local feature and still runs. It's how "Supplies from" and "WANTED" missions from other players reach your mission list.

Setting up a session

One player hosts and one joins. Pick the same connection type on both systems first.

1. The host chooses Recruit, then picks the stage and difficulty.
2. The guest chooses Join and picks the host's session from the list.
3. Both players land in the lobby. Until the guest arrives, the host sees "Waiting for other player."
4. Both players select Start. The lobby shows "Ready" next to each player, and the stage loads once you both are.

The guest can't change the stage. If the host picks a stage the guest hasn't unlocked yet, the game shows "Other player cannot use this stage yet." Pick a stage both of you have open, or have the guest clear more missions first. Nothing in the game lets a second player drop into a stage that's already running. Both of you start from the lobby.

Stages and Raid difficulties open through mission rewards. Meeting a requirement marks the mission complete, and the unlock only happens after you claim the reward in Missions. The first four come from Campaign progress. The last two come from Raid Mode itself:

The stage list and enemy levels for each difficulty are on the Raid Mode stages page. The full mission list, including the mop-up missions you earn after each stage, is on the missions page.

Talking to your partner: emotions

There's no voice chat. You get four canned callouts instead, and they only work in co-op. On Control Type A, hold Up on the +Control Pad and press a face button:

Up is the held direction on Control Type A. Other control types may use a different one: the game's hint text mentions both Down and Left, and one control type is listed with Left and the rest with Up. Which type uses which isn't confirmed, so if Up does nothing, check the control type in Options.

Downed partners, game over and quitting

When your partner's health runs out, they fall into a dying state and can still be saved. Walk over and use a Green Herb on them. The game's hint puts it as "Save your partner from death by using a healing herb on them." Keep at least one herb in reserve for this, especially on TRENCH and ABYSS.

If the stage ends in a game over, the screen asks "Continue?" Each player answers on their own system, and the other sees "Waiting for (name) to continue." The host can also end the session from the pause menu with END CO-OP PLAY.

Dying or quitting partway through a stage gives you nothing for that run, though the supplies you used on it aren't taken away either. This one comes from the Resident Evil Wiki's Raid Mode page, not the manual. The manual does say that items from Raid Mode stay in Raid Mode and never move over to the Campaign.

Levels and the 10-level gap

Your Raid level runs from 1 to 50, and it's one Player Level shared by every character, so you never level a character from scratch. The stage and difficulty set the base enemy level in the game's level table. That table has no column for player count, though other adjustments during play can't be ruled out. What changes the fight is the gap between your level and the enemy's.

The game stores one damage table keyed by level difference. At equal level it reads 1.0. In one direction it rises a step per level, reaching 1.58 at a 9-level gap and 1.65 at 10. The other direction falls to 0.41 and then 0.35 over the same gaps. The big jump comes between 10 and 11 levels of gap: 11 to 15 levels read 2.0 and 0.2, 16 to 20 read 2.5 and 0.15, and 21 to 30 read 3.0 and 0.1. The table doesn't say which side is the player. The game's hint reads "Don't fight those 10 levels higher than you," which lines up with that step, so being far below a stage's level hurts a lot.

If one player is far ahead, they can lower their level with Change Level on the character menu. Two players near the same level both get to fight, instead of one player clearing every room alone.

Co-op error messages

These are the connection messages, worded exactly as the game words them. The game doesn't say what triggers each one, so the second column gives likely causes and things to try.

A few other lines are status updates, not errors: "(name) has left.", "(name) has joined.", "Returning to lobby." and "Host has ended the session."

Partner talents: Lovers' High and Jolly Roger

Two talents have co-op names. Lovers' High is described as "Health regenerates when near partner" and Jolly Roger as "Copy partner's ability". Both are in the game's text, but the 3DS talent tables on both community wikis leave them off every character, so they don't appear to be equippable. Their strength isn't stored in a readable form in the game data. The talent table lists which talents each character does have.

Pair lines at the start of a stage

Some character pairs swap a line when a co-op stage starts. These are the exchanges in the game, spelled as the game spells them. Characters without a pair line say one of their own start lines instead, such as Jill's "I'm ready." or Norman's "Abandon all hope ye who enter."