Clearing high-value group content quickly comes down to one thing: having a full party before the timer starts. Whether you're queuing for the Arcane Trials or any other cooperative instance, knowing how to form a party for cooperative content in RF Online Next will save you far more time than waiting on solo matchmaking. This guide covers where to recruit teammates, how to create or join a party in-game, and the best windows of time to get a group together.
Recruiting Members to Form a Party for Cooperative Content
Before you can queue for anything, you need people to play with. RF Online Next offers a few reliable ways to round up a team, ranging from your own guild roster to public recruitment. Here's where most players look first.
Recruit Through Your Guild
Guilds can hold up to 50 members, which makes them an ideal pool for putting together a 5-person party. Every so often, a high combat power player will jump in and help your group clear content far faster than expected. This becomes even more useful at higher levels, where players naturally start forming dedicated teams inside their own guild rather than relying on random matches.
For content with strict level requirements or unusually tough bosses, guild-based parties are typically the fastest route. If you're already in a guild, prioritize the content that seems hardest to find matches for through public queuing — your guildmates are your best shot at clearing it.
Ask Your Friends
If you have a friends list, check who's online and free to join you for cooperative content. Sharing combat power numbers ahead of time makes coordination much easier, since some activities — like the Arcane Trials — have multiple doors of differing difficulty. Knowing everyone's strength in advance lets your group pick the right level instead of guessing.
Recruit via In-Game Chat
If the matchmaking function isn't turning up results, try posting in chat instead. There's a good chance other players are also looking for a group and will jump at the chance to join if you call out what you're trying to clear.
Recruit via Social Media
If you'd rather build a regular group to clear cooperative content with on a repeat basis, post a recruitment notice on social media. A focused post tends to get better responses than a vague one, so cover the basics:
- Your server name
- Your current combat power
- Your preferred play times
Setting up a dedicated channel or group chat also makes it far easier to pull the same people back together next time, instead of starting the recruitment process over from scratch every session.
Use Matchmaking When You're Short on Players
If you've already gathered a few players but haven't hit the full party size, fall back on the matchmaking function to fill the remaining slots. Cooperative content runs on a time limit specifically to keep this kind of matching moving quickly, so you usually won't be waiting long.
Matchmaking is also worth using even if you don't have anyone to team up with yet. Since the queue speed varies a lot depending on the hour, your best bet is either to wait it out while hunting nearby or to time your session around the busier windows covered further down in this guide.
Heads up: you can't enter Battleground or other matchmaking-restricted zones while you're in queue. Top players sometimes AFK-farm in Battleground, but it isn't a valid matchmaking location — stick to fields or other open areas while you wait for a match.
How to Create a Party in RF Online Next
Setting up a party only takes a few taps once you know where to look.
- 1 Select the person-shaped icon in the upper-left corner of the screen to open the party panel.
- 2 Tap "Create Party," then press the "+" button to pull up your friends and guild lists.
- 3 Choose the players you want to invite. If you expect to party with the same group again, add them as friends so future invites are faster.
If someone else has already created a party and invited you, check the "Invitation List" just below "Create Party." Selecting any invite shown there will pull you straight into that group.
If the player you want to team up with isn't a guild member or a friend, you'll need to meet up in person instead. Click on their character directly and select "Party" from the menu that appears.
Note: parties can currently only be formed with players on the same server. If you want to play with someone on a different server, you'll need to wait for a server transfer window, which opens periodically.
Best Times to Form a Party for Cooperative Content
Who's online — and what they're doing — changes throughout the day. Timing your sessions around these windows makes it noticeably easier to fill a party.
Weekends and Public Holidays
Player counts climb on weekends, which makes the matchmaking function far more reliable. If your schedule is flexible, save your cooperative content tickets for Saturday or Sunday rather than burning them on a quiet weekday.
Right After a Boss Battle
The players who log in daily to push their character's progress almost always show up for boss battles. Since they tend to roll straight into group content afterward, lining your playtime up with a boss fight gives you a much bigger pool of active, geared players to recruit from.
Arcane Trials Right After the World Boss
Arcane Trials matchmaking runs from 7 PM to 9 PM, and since the world boss spawns at 7:50 PM, the smartest play is to clear the world boss first and queue for the Arcane Trials right afterward — that's when the most players are simultaneously active and looking for a group.
Right After You Get Matched
For content that's normally hard to fill, players tend to keep re-queuing right after a match goes through so they can burn through their remaining tickets while the momentum is there. If your timing lines up with a group that just finished a run, you may get pulled into the next one much faster than usual.
Forming a party in RF Online Next doesn't have to be a grind. Start with your guild, branch out to friends and chat when you need more options, and lean on matchmaking timed around weekends and boss schedules when you're still short on players. Stack these approaches together and you'll spend a lot less time waiting and a lot more time actually clearing content.
