I ran into a really annoying issue in Dying Light: The Beast where the game kept showing a Network Connection Lost error, even though I was playing in single-player story mode.
The error message looked like this:
Network connection lost
Please make sure your internet connection is working.
The strange part is that I was not trying to play co-op or join anyone online. I just wanted to play the story mode, but the game kept interrupting the session with this connection warning.
After checking the settings, I found a simple fix that worked for me.
The Fix That Worked
Go to the game settings and open the Online tab.
Then change:
Online Game Privacy
to:
Single Player
In my game, the menu language is Turkish, so the same setting appears as:
Çevrimiçi Oyun Gizliliği → Tek Oyunculu
In English, it should be something like:
Online Game Privacy → Single Player
After changing this setting, the network disconnect error stopped for me.
Step-by-Step Fix
- Open Options / Settings
- Go to the Online tab
- Find Online Game Privacy
- Set it to Single Player
- Save the setting
- Return to story mode and test the game again
Why This Seems to Happen
My guess is that the game still keeps some online features active even when you are playing solo.
If online privacy is not set to Single Player, the game may still try to keep online discovery, co-op availability, rescue calls, voice chat or matchmaking-related features active in the background.
That can probably trigger the connection error even when you are not actually playing multiplayer.
So the issue may not be your internet connection at all. It may simply be the game trying to use online features during story mode.
Extra Things You Can Try
If the setting above does not fully solve it, you can also try these:
- Restart the game after changing the setting
- Restart Steam / Epic Games launcher
- Check if the game has a pending update
- Disable VPN if you are using one
- Allow the game through Windows Firewall
- Try wired internet instead of Wi-Fi if the issue continues
- Verify game files from your launcher
But in my case, the main fix was simply changing Online Game Privacy to Single Player.
Final Result
This was a small setting, but it completely changed the experience for me.
Before changing it, the game kept breaking immersion with a network error even in story mode. After setting the online privacy option to Single Player, the disconnect message stopped appearing.
So if you are getting the Dying Light: The Beast Network Connection Lost error while playing alone, try this first:
Online → Online Game Privacy → Single Player
It is quick, simple, and it may save you a lot of frustration.