Understanding how the scaling works in Remnant 2 can be pretty confusing. The game attempts to do things differently from other Soulslike games, and it also did this with the original game Remnant: From the Ashes as well. In Remnant: From the Ashes, the game took the player's gear and weapon upgrade levels into consideration and generated the worlds they entered based on that.
This meant that players could basically enter a new world with nothing upgraded, have it generate the whole realm based on that, and then go upgrade stuff to make the whole zone much easier. However, Remnant 2 went about scaling in a new way this time, especially with online co-op, so let's go over it.
How General Scaling Works In Remnant 2
Before getting into exactly how scaling works in the multiplayer section of Remnant 2, let's go over how enemy scaling works, in general, in this game. Because Remnant 2 doesn't have upgradable Armor anymore, they can't just scale difficulty based on gun upgrades alone. So, to replace Armor upgrades, Remnant 2 uses both the player's weighted average Weapon Levels (across all three slots) and their Archetype Level (which is the sum of their two highest Archetype levels), to calculate their weighted average Power Level.
The Total Archetype Level that players can see in the Advanced Stats of the Character screen is, as it implies, the total sum of all their Archetype Levels. This doesn't play into their Power Level, and instead helps determine the level/quality of dropped Relic Fragments.
But, this doesn't mean that players can take off upgraded Weapons or switch to low-level Archetypes to manipulate their Power Level, as this Power Level calculation considers all of the player's Weapons and Archetypes, including those not currently equipped. That Power Level is then used to determine the World Level of worlds players enter for the first time.
How Power Levels Determine World Levels
So, now that the game has the player's Power Level all figured out, when that player enters a new World, it uses their Power Level to determine the 'World Level'. Sometimes the 'Recommended Level' of this world is higher than the player's current Power Level (unclear how the game determines the Recommended Level), and in that case, the World Level might be a bit higher than expected, but not by much.
Also, another aspect plenty of players are a bit confused about is the process of these worlds being procedurally generated. Is the world the player enters for the first time using their current Power Level as the reference for every single zone at that moment, or is each zone generated when the player enters each of them for the first time? To put it simply, it's the second one. Still, this might be a bit difficult to understand without a hypothetical example of how it works:
- A Power Level 2 player enters Yaesha for the first time, and the first zone they spawn into is also World Level 2.
- The player then goes off and does Adventure Mode or helps in other players' games online before coming back to Yaesha at Power Level 6.
- The, now Power Level 6, player then enters another zone, let's say the Faithless Thicket, for the first time. When this happens, the World Level of the Faithless Thicket 'map' will use that Power Level of 6 to calculate its World Level instead of going off the original Power Level 2.
- After entering this zone for the first time and seeing the World Level, players can then leave and explore Adventure Mode or other worlds to increase their Power Level as much as they want before returning, as once the zone is generated, that World Level always stays the same until it's re-rolled.
And as a final note, players should know that every 'zone' in a World won't generate 1 to 1 with their Power Level, these worlds are designed to slowly increase the Recommended Level as players progress through that world so that players feel the need to actually upgrade their guns. This means that a world that started at Power Level 3 can end at Power Level 6 or something similar without the player increasing their Power Level at all. Players can always check the Power Level of the zone they're currently in by looking at the number in the top right of their mini-map in said zone.
How The Scaling System Applies To Co-Op Multiplayer
But, how does all this scaling nonsense apply to Remnant 2's online co-op? It's a bit complicated, but basically, World Level generation for each zone takes the Host's Power Level into account, figures out what it should generate that zone's World Level as, and then scales that up by 1 to 3 more Levels max depending on if there's an ally in the Lobby that's 3+ Power Levels higher than the Host or not. Essentially, it was designed so that players who marathon the game and get to a high Power Level can still join the lobby of their friend who hasn't had much free time and is at a low Power Level without making the game too easy or too difficulty for any of the parties involved.
As an example, if the Host's Power Level is 3 and the zone would have been generated with a World Level of 4 based on that, if they have a friend in the lobby with a Power Level of 20, the maximum World Level for this zone will increase to is 7, not 20.
As seen in the information above, this information is confirmed by the devs in the Remnant 2 Discord. In general, co-op scaling works pretty similar to how it did in Remnant: From the Ashes. All this is to basically say that players who plan to play through the majority of Remnant 2 together don't need to worry too much about making 'second characters' or stopping themselves from Leveling/Upgrading their gear too much in fear of making the game too 'easy' when playing in their friend's campaign.
Remnant 2 is now available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC