Quick Answer: Solo matchmaking exists only on Hallowgrove, the first map, in Normal and Chaos difficulty. The second map, Brandrgarde, is trio-only — and parts of the main quest chain route through trio content, which is the single loudest complaint about the game. But "solo players are locked out of progression" is only half-true as of the July 30 build: the community has verified that the contested quest steps can be done solo on Chaos-difficulty Hallowgrove, and you can enter Brandrgarde alone by queueing trio with fill slots turned off (or with randoms, fill on). What solos genuinely cannot touch yet: Cataclysm difficulty and its Holy weapons, and there is no duo mode — officially ruled out "in the short term." Everything below is the detail.
Solo Weavereach: one map, all of the tension. (Screenshot: Bellring Games)
Version note: Written on the July 30 launch build. Solo/duo access is the most likely thing in the game to change — the developers have left the door open to limited-time solo Brandrgarde during Season 1. We'll update this page when any of it moves.
What Solo Actually Gets You
- Hallowgrove, the first map, has a true solo queue — you fight other solo players, AI monsters and bots. It runs in Normal and Chaos difficulty; Chaos is where the better loot and the quest-relevant boss fights live.
- The entire camp/progression layer is identical for solo players: warehouse, Auction House, talents, forging, camp building, seasonal Battle Pass. Nothing meta-side is squad-gated.
- Ranked ("Path of Glory") works solo — enabling it is an individual choice per player, and per the official DevNote you only lose rank points when you fail to extract.
- The game is openly balanced around trios first. The developers' AMA says solo and trio get separately tuned balance passes, and community consensus is that solo fights are more rock-paper-scissors as a result — worth knowing before you tilt.
The Quest-Chain Breakpoints
This is the part the game doesn't explain, assembled from player reports (community-tested, not officially documented — the main thread is this 100+-upvote report, whose author later posted the workarounds in an edit):
| Quest step | Status for solo players |
|---|---|
| Early steps on Hallowgrove | No issues — designed for solo |
| First Mist Lord requirement | Appears trio-gated at first, but completable solo via Chaos-difficulty Hallowgrove bosses |
| Otto / Harald / Salmar steps | Player-confirmed doable solo by farming Chaos-mode bosses ("General Harald" is the boss fight the July 30 patch touched) |
| Einherjar (hard-mode) Salmar | Gated until the early-August update — the official August 1 announcement opens the Einherjar Mist Lord and starts dropping the required Dried Flower Knot |
| Cataclysm difficulty / Holy weapon parts | Trio-map only — the launch announcement lists Cataclysm as Brandrgarde content, and officially "the most common way to obtain top-tier gear is by defeating Mist Lords on Cataclysm difficulty" |
Two practical notes that follow from this:
- Don't abandon a quest just because it names a boss — check whether the target spawns on Chaos Hallowgrove before assuming you need a squad.
- Camp upgrade materials that only drop on Brandrgarde can be bought on the Auction House. Solo players pay a markup, but nothing in camp progression is hard-locked — see the Market & Warehouse Guide for how not to overpay.
Getting Into Brandrgarde Anyway
The trio queue has fill slots, and that gives solo players two very different doors into the second map:
Option 1: Fill on — play with randoms
You'll be matched into a full trio. It works, and it's how most solo players see Brandrgarde — but go in with genre-honest expectations: random teammates loot whatever they reach first ("loot ninjas" are the subreddit's most upvoted complaint category), wander off alone, and extract on their own clock. The community etiquette threads boil down to: stay near the team, ping before you commit to a fight, and treat anything a teammate loots as gone. If a quest step needs a specific objective, say so in chat at the start — some randoms do cooperate; task progression in a trio is shared when you're grouped.
Option 2: Fill off — enter alone (community-tested)
Turning fill slots off puts you in Brandrgarde alone against full squads. That sounds suicidal; a well-received community report argues it's actually the most reliable way to grind trio-map quests without a coordinated squad, and several replies corroborate. The playstyle that works, per that thread:
- Avoid full teams entirely — this is a stealth run, not a war. Third-person camera and the mist are your friends; one player specifically praises sneaking past squads in high-traffic areas (and the prop-disguise tactical item).
- Take 1v1s only against stragglers who've split from their trio — and win fast, before teammates rotate in.
- Farm elites and high-loot areas the trios haven't reached, then get out. You don't need to win the map, only the extraction.
- Task objectives are tuned for three players — a solo who completes them keeps all of it ("you can't go wrong getting 3 task nodes or 3 chests," as one reply puts it).
- Class-wise, that thread's author runs Seer and recommends Shadowstrix for the same style — stealth-leaning kits suit fill-off runs. (Player suggestions, not a tier list.)
The honest counterpoint from the same thread: some players report being chased relentlessly by trios every run. Fill-off is a real option, not a free lunch — bring gear you can afford to lose, and use your safe pocket well (see what survives death).
Duo Status: Officially "Not in the Short Term"
The question every extraction player asks first has an unusually clear official answer. From the developers' pre-launch community AMA:
- No duo matchmaking in the short term — their stated reasons are matchmaking balance and, above all, not splitting the player pool, which would lengthen queue times across all modes.
- Brandrgarde solo "may open for a limited time during the season" — the closest thing to a concession solo/duo players have.
Community pressure is substantial — the top duo request threads sit at 230+ and 113+ upvotes with hundreds of comments, and duo demand shows up in a large share of negative Steam reviews. Nothing about the official position has changed as of August 4. If it does, this page gets updated the same day.
If You're Struggling Solo
Three community-endorsed pressure valves, from the subreddit's most practical tips thread:
- Use combat bags (from Twig at camp) — cheap preset loadouts that make deaths sting less while you learn. Pair with your safe pocket.
- Losing streaks soften your lobbies — players consistently report that after repeated deaths you're placed into bot-heavy matches (community-tested; the developers officially confirm bots exist to pad lobbies, but not the streak rule). Use those matches to practice combos and fill your safe pocket with valuables.
- Reframe the loot math — "it's not your gear, it was just your turn to use it" is the mindset the genre demands. Gear you're afraid to wear is gear doing nothing; if you have good equipment, use it.
Sources: developer statements from the official community AMA, launch announcement (Cataclysm/Holy weapons), and August 1 announcement (Einherjar Mist Lord, Dried Flower Knot); community reports from r/MistfallHunter (quest breakpoints, fill-off strategy, tips thread) and the Steam solo-progression thread. Quest-step details are community-tested on the July 30 build, flagged above; no invented numbers. Written August 4, 2026. Not affiliated with Bellring Games or Skystone Games.