Friend pass and solo: what the store actually says
There is no friend pass and no solo mode. Two players need two licences: $39.98 today, after the two-week launch discount closed. The Referral Bonus achievement only credits an invite to someone who already owns the game.
You are here for one of two reasons: someone told you We Were Here Tomorrow has a friend pass, or you already own it and your partner does not. Both questions have the same answer, and it sits in the store listing rather than in an interview. Two players, two copies, no pass. Below is the evidence line by line, what a pair actually pays on the day you read this, and the honest options if you are currently one player with nobody to invite.
Official Steam screenshot, Total Mayhem Games — promotional material used for identification.
Pairs with: Price, editions and specs · Co-op setup · Crossplay · FAQ
The six answers, before the evidence
| Question | Answer | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Is there a friend pass or buddy pass? | No | The Steam DLC array lists two items: the Soundtrack (5202800) and the Fan Edition (5202830). A pass would be a row there. |
| Can an owner invite a non-owner for free? | No | The store note says the game is co-op only and that both players need a working PC-compatible microphone and an internet connection. |
| Does Steam Family Sharing cover a pair? | No, not at once | Family Sharing is in the category list, but it is a library licence, not a second seat. |
| Is Remote Play Together supported? | No | It is not among the store categories, and Steam only shows it on games that support it. |
| Is there a solo mode? | No | No single-player campaign, no bots, no split-screen. |
| What do two copies cost today? | $39.98 / €39.98 / £33.98 | Two list prices. The 10% launch discount closed on 3 November 2026. |
The achievement that keeps this question alive
The single biggest source of the friend-pass rumour is an achievement, not a store offer. Referral Bonus (51.2% of players) reads: "Invite a friend to play We Were Here Tomorrow."
That sentence does a lot of damage. "Invite" sounds like "let them in without buying", and "Referral Bonus" sounds like a referral reward. What it actually measures is the in-session invite: you open the in-game friend list, you send the request, your partner accepts, the achievement fires. The friend has to own the game first, because there is no lobby you can enter as a guest.
The percentage deserves a second look, and what follows is an inference from the number rather than a stated rule. 51.2% is roughly half of the players who reached the Cargo Elevator (66.2%). That split fits a two-player game where only the person who presses invite is credited: in most pairs one player hosts every session, and the other never triggers it. If you have been playing for fifteen hours and your partner has Referral Bonus while you do not, nothing is broken — you accepted instead of inviting.
What the store listing actually says, row by row
This is the audit that settles the argument, because the categories are machine-readable and public. Read today, the listing carries nine entries:
| Category on the listing | Present | What it means for a pair |
|---|---|---|
| Multi-player | yes | more than one player, no seat count given |
| Co-op | yes | the whole campaign is shared |
| Online Co-op | yes | no LAN, no local play |
| Cross-Platform Multiplayer | yes | a PC player and a console player can share a session |
| Steam Achievements | yes | 37 of them, one of which is the invite one above |
| DualShock / DualSense support | yes | controller support is listed once per pad family |
| Partial Controller Support | yes | some menus still want a mouse |
| Family Sharing | yes | library sharing, one licence at a time |
| Remote Play Together | no | you cannot stream your copy to a second player |
Two absences do most of the work. Remote Play Together is Steam's feature for exactly the situation people hope a friend pass solves: one owner, one guest, streamed. Valve adds it to a store page only when a game supports it, and this page does not have it. Shared/Split Screen Co-op is absent too, which is why a single PC with two clients is not a supported configuration — the pair is meant to be on two machines with two microphones, and the design depends on that.
The crossplay row is the other half of the misunderstanding. Cross-Platform Multiplayer is real and it works: a PlayStation 5 player can sit in the same session as a Steam player. It says nothing about purchases. Each shop bills its own copy, and a console purchase unlocks nothing on Steam.
What a pair pays, dated
| Market | One copy today | Two copies | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| US | $19.99 | $39.98 | launch price was $17.99, so a pair was $35.98 |
| EU | €19.99 | €39.98 | same −10% logic applied during the window |
| UK | £16.99 | £33.98 | console stores price independently |
The developer's launch post promised the discount "during the first two weeks", and the game released on 20 October 2026, which puts the end of the window on 3 November. Checked on 4 November, the store response shows the full list price and no discount line. If you are budgeting for two people this week, budget the full pair price, and treat any page quoting $17.99 per copy as one written in October.
There is one cheaper-looking option and it is a trap. The Fan Edition (appid 5202830) is a $6.99 add-on, not a bundle: the store lists it as DLC attached to the base app, so it carries the soundtrack, a digital artbook and wallpapers and no game licence at all. It cannot stand in for a copy, and its audio is the same album sold as the standalone Soundtrack (appid 5202800). A pair needs two base copies before either of them can buy the extras.
Family Sharing, in practice
Family Sharing is on the listing, and it is the reason people think one copy might stretch. It stretches to a second person, not to a second player.
Under Valve's family library rules, a shared copy can be used by one account at a time. When the other member launches the game, the licence is already in use. Two people who both open Tomorrow from one shared library do not end up in a lobby together; one of them ends up looking at a "game is in use" message. The feature is genuinely useful for a household that plays on different evenings, and it does nothing for a co-op pair that has to be online at the same time by design.
Solo: the honest answer
There is no way to play We Were Here Tomorrow alone, and the design is not coy about it. The store note is written in the imperative — co-op only, both players, a microphone each — and the campaign is built on two different views of the same room. A single player would be missing half the information the puzzles are made of, which is why no bot mode exists to fill the gap.
Three practical notes if you are one player right now:
- Do not buy yet. This is not a fifteen-hour single-player adventure with a co-op option; it is co-op with no other mode, and the store page documents an invite flow rather than a matchmaking queue.
- If you already bought it alone, Steam's standard refund rule (under two hours played, within fourteen days of purchase) is the clean exit. The clock is on playtime, so do not leave the client idling on the menu while you think about it.
- Two clients on one PC is not a solution. There is no split-screen category, no local co-op, and the audio design assumes two separate microphones in two separate rooms. Even when it starts, you are playing one half of a conversation with yourself.
What works is the boring version: find the second player first, confirm you are on the same version of the game, and buy the second copy before the session rather than during it. The co-op setup page covers the invite flow and the five connection failures in the order worth trying them.
Before you buy the second copy
- Confirm the platform each of you is on, and that crossplay covers the pair — it does for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
- Confirm both machines have a working PC-compatible microphone; it is a minimum requirement, not an optional extra.
- Confirm both installs are on the same patch. A pending update fails the invite before any error message appears.
- Check the disk: 25 GB per machine, so 50 GB across the pair.
- Buy the copy before the session starts. Nothing in the invite flow sells you the missing licence.
Does my friend need to own We Were Here Tomorrow?
Yes. There is no guest seat, no pass and no shared session. Your friend needs their own licence on their own account, and if they are on console, their own copy on that console's store.
Is there a friend pass for We Were Here Tomorrow?
No. The DLC list holds the Soundtrack and the Fan Edition, and the store note states that both players need a microphone and a connection. Nothing on the listing offers a free second seat, and the developer's FAQ does not describe one.
Can two people share one copy through Steam Family Sharing?
Not at the same time. Family Sharing gives a second account access to the library, but a licence can only be in use by one account at once, and co-op requires both of you online together. It is a good feature for a household playing on different evenings and useless for a pair playing the same evening.
Can you play We Were Here Tomorrow solo?
No. There is no single-player mode, no bots and no split-screen. The store page describes the game as co-op only, and the campaign gives each player a different view and a different tool, so a solo run would be missing the second half of the information.
How much does it cost for two people right now?
$39.98 in the US, €39.98 in the EU and £33.98 in the UK, at list price. The 10% launch discount ran for the first two weeks after the 20 October release and ended on 3 November 2026, so the pair price is back to two full copies.
Does the Fan Edition include a second copy?
No. The Fan Edition adds the soundtrack, a digital artbook and wallpapers to a single licence. If both of you want the soundtrack too, the standalone Soundtrack is the cheaper way to add it to a second account.
What this page cannot tell you
Whether a pass will be added later. The only place that would show up first is the DLC array, and today it holds two entries. If you are reading this months from now, re-check the store page before treating these numbers as current — the discount window is already in the past, and the DLC list is the one row that would change the whole answer.
