A fan made multiplayer mod for The Last of Us Part II is aiming to recreate the competitive Factions experience that many players hoped to see return after Naughty Dog cancelled The Last of Us Online. The project is still in development, but recent gameplay footage shows that it has progressed from a small technical test into a playable one versus one multiplayer mode.
The mod is being created by Speclizer, who began experimenting with local multiplayer in January 2026. The original idea was simple: run two separate Ellie characters inside the same game world and control them at the same time. Since then, the project has expanded into a much more ambitious attempt to build multiplayer systems inside The Last of Us Part II from scratch.
The developer is currently aiming for a September 2026 release, although the project remains unofficial and could face technical or legal problems before then.
The Mod Now Includes Core Multiplayer Features
Early development focused on making two players appear correctly in the same world. That meant synchronizing character models, movement, weapons, inventory, and interactions between two game instances.
The latest build includes systems that are important for a proper competitive multiplayer mode. These include sprinting, weapon switching, backpacks, doors, interactable objects, map selection, loadouts, respawning, and player deaths.
The project also uses a custom menu system built inside the game’s own interface tools. This gives the mod a more complete multiplayer presentation instead of relying only on technical debug features.
| Multiplayer Feature | Current Progress |
|---|---|
| Character movement | Synchronized |
| Weapon switching | Synchronized |
| Inventory and backpacks | Synchronized |
| Doors and interactions | Working |
| Sprinting | Working |
| Hit detection | Working |
| Death and respawn | Working |
| Loadouts and map selection | Added |
| Full public release | Planned for September 2026 |
Hit Detection Was One of the Biggest Technical Challenges
One major problem was making bullets hit the other player correctly. The original game’s collision system is designed for a single player campaign, so player characters are not treated as normal targets for bullet raycasting.
That meant shots could pass straight through the second player. To solve this, the developer changed how the remote character is classified by the game. The second player is treated more like an enemy NPC for collision purposes, allowing bullets to register hits.
The mod also includes custom handling for death states so the game does not end the level when one player dies. That was necessary to make competitive matches possible.
The Goal Is to Recreate the Factions Feel
The new multiplayer mode is inspired by Supply Raid, the core competitive mode from the original The Last of Us Factions. Players have limited lives, radar support, spawn points, and respawns built around small competitive matches.
The original Factions mode became popular because it combined stealth, scavenging, crafting, teamwork, and tense gunfights. It had a slower pace than many online shooters, with every bullet and resource carrying weight.
Naughty Dog’s own The Last of Us Online project was cancelled because supporting a long term live service game would have required major resources from the studio. That left fans without an official follow up to Factions.
This mod may offer a way to revisit that style of multiplayer, but it will only be available on PC if it reaches release. Sony or Naughty Dog could still take action against the project because it uses The Last of Us Part II and its game systems without official approval.
For now, the project remains an impressive example of how much work is required to turn a single player game into a multiplayer experience.
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