Co-op mode is finally here and the brand-new co-op racing mode from Studio 397 is completely unique to the platform and sim racing. It introduces the first real component in Le Mans Ultimate for drivers to race together in an endurance setting, with a tailor-made live points-scoring system, indirectly competing against other drivers online, with a global leaderboard dictating how well you have completed certain events. Here is everything you need to know.
New Co-op Mode
When you update your Le Mans Ultimate game you are greeted with a new co-op mode option on the home screen menu. Clicking this takes you into a whole new world of racing to explore. The new co-op mode is an asynchronous system, meaning you and your teammates will all take turns to complete your stints in the co-op mode events.
This means you won’t all be connected in the same session, but rather complete your parts of the race separately. (Discord screen share could be your friend here in making that a reality, however.) Where you will race against AI, accruing points during the event, to rank on a global leaderboard.
It’s touted that this very system will be used further down the line for such things as qualifying for the Virtual Le Mans Championship.
Co-op Mode Schedules
When on the menu of co-op you will see three events for drivers to compete in, much like the online competition system you have all got to know and love. The main difference is that these co-op events will run on a monthly cycle instead of a weekly cycle, with a timer at the top of the event letting you know when they are finishing. Each event will have a different overview and set-up, including what track, race length, available classes and ruleset, such as track limit points, tyre wear, fuel consumption and damage.
It’s worth noting that here is where you can click on an event to register and create your own team, but is also where you will find any team invites from others waiting for you as well. If you decide to join someone else’s team, you must complete that event with them before being able to participate in an event of your own.
Registering For Events
When you click on the desired event you would like to participate in, it will be time to sort registration. You’ll be greeted with a brief description of the race event you are about to embark on and the highest-scoring team currently in the event. If you are happy to proceed hit the register button. You will then be met with the car selection screen where you can choose to race in Hypercar, LMP2 or GTE. Choose your desired class, car and manufacturer.
Creating Your Team
The final stages are getting close ready for you to hit the race tracks. It’s time to assemble your Avengers. Choose two other drivers who will join you on this quest for success and send out those invites to the two who will join you, add them to your team for the event, give yourself a team name and you are set.
Tip of the day: To add drivers yourself, or for them to add you, you need to be friends with them on Steam, an easy way to do this is by using your Steam friend code and here is how to find it:
- Open Steam
- Click ‘Friends and Chat’
- Click ‘Add a Friend’
- Copy your Friend Code for Others
- Enter a Friends Code here
My Team Tab
The final step before you begin your endurance adventure is to check your team overview via the My Team page. Here you can see the progress of the team in the event, how much driving time each of you has done, set or change your driver order for the rest of the race and adjust the AI difficulty you would like to compete against (remember the higher you make the difficulty the more points you can accrue during the event).
You will also be able to participate in an official practice session before you begin qualifying from this page. You can come back here before each stint to adjust the AI difficulty as well, meaning each driver can tailor their stints to their skill level.
When you are accepting an invitation to race for a team that isn’t created by you, you’ll skip the registration and team creation pages and land straight here on the My Team page, everything is then the same with checking out the team’s progress and leaderboard standings etc.
Time To Hit The Race Track
Now you’ve gone into your official qualifying session of the event there are a few important factors to consider. Firstly, whoever the driver is doing the qualifying session must also be the driver to do the first stint of the race, you cannot perform a driver swap from one session to the next.
The race will then begin with a full formation lap, you can choose to skip this if you wish, but add to that immersion, warm up your tyres and brakes and get that full formation lap under your belt. When the green light flashes and the race begins, it’s your moment to showcase your racing skills. This is where you execute those brilliant overtakes, maintain precision with minimal mistakes, and set blistering fast laps. Every moment and move counts as you accumulate points and climb the global leaderboards, proving you’re a force to be reckoned with.
If for whatever reason you are not happy with your stint, be it you crash out with severe damage, you spin multiple times, or you’re just not feeling on pace, you can pause and restart your entire stint again if you wish.
Make Your Pitstop
Once you have finished your stint and it’s time to make a pit stop to change drivers, complete a pit stop as you normally would. Enter your pit box and make the necessary changes like tyres, fuel and fixing damage. At this point, the game will save the progress you have made and it’s ready for the next driver.
Note that trying to complete an event without having all three drivers do a stint will result in you being disqualified when you reach the chequered flag. So you best make sure all invited drivers who are signed up to race get behind that wheel.
Stint Review Time
During the pitstop phase where you are handing the car over to your teammates, you’ll find yourself looking at your stint review, you will see an overview of the car condition, tyre sets used (and the tread % left on them, which is important for tyre set limited events), AI difficulty and more. Here is where you make the decision to either keep driving for another stint or select to swap drivers.
You can also leave them a message on how the race has unfolded. It can help them figure out where they need to pick up the pieces or continue your great work from the previous stint. The chat history will remain there for all teammates to see as well, so it’s not just messages between each driver. It’s like leaving team notes in the garage for your engineers to pass on that all drivers have access to.
Check The Global Leaderboard
When the race is complete, you’ll first see a results screen showing you how well your team performed which will see you appear on the global leaderboards to see where you rank against the rest. You’ll be surprised by just how many points you can build up during an event. You’ll be able to see where your competition started, where they finished, their average lap time, their best lap time, the car they chose to race with and how many points they have. If you feel like you can improve on your best score, go again!
The Points System Explained
The entire co-op points system is designed to bring life into competitive racing. So you’re not just competing in another race against AI, but you’re actually racing towards a common objective as a team, to accrue the most amount of points on a global leaderboard.
Everything you do during a race will impact you both positively and negatively in earning or losing points. The amount of points you earn or lose is impacted directly by how difficult you have made the event for yourself with AI difficulty and the amount of assists you have turned on being the main factors.
You can earn points by completing fast laps, racing clean, being consistent and making overtakes. You will similarly lose points by running off track, making mistakes, losing control of your car, making contact with others and being overtaken.
You will be able to see how many points your team accrues during an event via the My Team page and you can see how many points each individual driver has earned their team via the leaderboards when clicking on your team via a handy drop-down menu.
