Deathloop Protect the Loop: How to Unlock Multiplayer Invasions and Play as Julianna

The story of Deathloop mostly revolves around breaking the time loop, but players can also choose to protect the loop and play as Julianna. The game has a multiplayer invasion mechanic where a real player can take control of Julianna when she invades Colt’s world, and this can lead to some incredibly tense games of cat and mouse (as we noted in our Deathloop review). While you can see the Protect the Loop option on the main menu, you cannot choose it from the beginning. Here’s how to unlock the Protect the Loop game mode in Deathloop.

How to Unlock Protect the Loop in Deathloop

To unlock the Protect the Loop mode, you must first play through the introduction of the single-player story. To do this, choose Break the Loop at the main menu and play through the first few quests. You have to complete the first two missions, “The Longest Day” and “Ubiquity,” before you unlock invasions.

These two missions can take quite a while as they teach you everything you need to know about Deathloop. The Longest Day teaches you about the time loop and how to play the game, and Ubiquity unlocks the Infusion mechanic so you can carry things over from day to day.

How to Play as Julianna in Deathloop

Once you unlock Protect the Loop, you can choose it from the main menu to play as Julianna. This will allow you to invade other players’ games and attempt to take them out before they accomplish their objective. Julianna has a completely separate loadout from Colt, granting her access to more powerful weaponry right off the bat.

When playing as Julianna, you can choose to either invade a random timeline, which places you in the world of a random player, or invade a friend’s timeline, which allows you to embark on a more personal assassination mission against someone on your friend list. You cannot invade players that are playing offline though, and there are certain restrictions that prevent players from getting invaded several times during the same loop. You shouldn’t have any trouble finding someone during the first few weeks after launch, however.

Julianna’s progression system is separate from Cole’s, but playing as her does have a few benefits. Invading other players and leveling up as Julianna will unlock bonus outfits that you can equip for both her and Cole. There are a ton of costumes for both characters, and there’s no way to buy outfits with real money, so this is the only way to customize your characters in Deathloop.

Deathloop is available now on PC and PlayStation 5.