Luigi’s Mansion 3 has taken the Nintendo Switch world by storm since its release a little over one week ago. While reviews have been overwhelming positive and players have enjoyed the single-player story, the ability to play local co-op with a friend for almost the entire game is one of its the best features.
Although the feature was touted as a fun way for two players to experience the game, it is not immediately obvious how to unlock the feature, and it is not available from the beginning of the game. Instead, players will need to progress through roughly one hour of the main story mode before this feature unlocks, but from then on it is available for the rest of the game.
Unlocking the two-player mode comes a little way into the story. First players need to locate Professor E. Gadd. Luckily this is a straightforward task that mainly involves following Polterpup through the hotel, first to locate the Poltergust G-00 to fight off hostile ghosts, and then to pick up the Dark Light. This tool is what is needed to free the professor from his painting, and brings a player one step closer to Gooigi.
Professor E. Gadd will need Luigi’s help, first by escorting him to the garage. Once inside, E. Gadd will get to work on his portable lab, which requires the fetching of his briefcase from the fifth floor of the hotel. Once on the fifth floor, either explore everything first to grab some hidden coins, or head straight to room 508. Inside is a ghost maid who refuses to part with the suitcase, and to prevent Luigi from taking it, she swallows it whole and dashes off through the wall. The chase is on!
Head into room 507 and once near the maid and the briefcase, use your Poltergust to suction it and slam the maid in the same way that normal ghosts are dealt with. She will run off a few times, but the Dark Light will reveal her tracks. Keep at it until she can be captured, which will give you the briefcase.
Handing this back to Professor E. Gadd leads to a brief tutorial on Gooigi, mainly to show players what he can do, and equally as important, to avoid water. Completing this will wrap up the tutorial and allow both weegis to be used at once.
Once Gooigi becomes unlocked, players simply need to select “Co-Op” in the game’s menu, and the option to connect an addition pair of Joy-Cons will appear. From here on out two players can play together. While this should take roughly an hour on a first playthrough, on a second playthrough one can speed through the first part of the game and have access to Gooigi in as little as twenty minutes.