Summary
Survival games feel so at home on the Nintendo Switch because nothing is more relaxing than laying back and grinding resources, building a nice base, and farming in handheld mode. This gets even more fun when friends are thrown into the mix! With that being said, the Switch has many more options thancasual survival-lite games.
Whether a gaming group is looking for ahardcore survival gamewith all the mechanics they’re used to, or they want something a little different — either through a unique genre mix or via the setting of the survival game — the Nintendo Switch has plenty of options available.
6Portal Knights
Sandbox RPG Survival Made Better With Friends
Most survival games focus entirely on resource management, combat, anda lot of base building.Portal Knightstakes the formula a step further and adds many RPG elements. Players get to choose from classic RPG classes like Mage, Warrior, and Ranger and head to randomly generated islands where they can fight bosses, gather resources, and explore the world.
Survival game groups will feel right at home inPortal Knights, because it has a focus on resource gathering and base building. It isn’t as survival-intensive as some games, though, so it’s more suited for groups that want a more casual survival experience — especially if they love RPG mechanics and boss fights.
Players looking for the classic survival mechanics like resource gathering, grinding, exploration, and base building will loveARK: Survival Evolvedbecause it has all that with the added benefit of dinosaur companions!ARKis one of the best survival experiences on the Switch — especially for players who want more hardcore and grindy gameplay.
There’s still plenty of fun to be had beyond grinding inArk: Survival Evolved,though.There are many biomes to exploreand dinosaurs to train. Playing with friends makes the game even better because it lets everyone focus on their own objectives without having to worry about spreading their time across multiple tasks. It’s also justfun riding dinosaurswith a group of friends!
Groundedoffers a fantastic twist on the survival genre. Instead of dropping players off on a remote island or throwing them into an apocalypseto rely on their FPS skills,Groundedplaces players in a place much more mundane and familiar: the backyard! However, it also shrinks players down to the size of insects and creates obstacles that no survival player has ever thought about (like climbing a baseball).
The best part about playingGroundedwith a group of friends is being able to explore the story together and enjoy a unique survival experience. Instead of chopping down trees, players will chop down mushrooms. It has all the classic survival tasks that groups are familiar with such as base building, resource gathering, and crafting, so players will feel right at home while still enjoying a fresh twist on the genre.
Dragon Quest Builders 2is a mish-mash of building games likeMinecraftalong with colony management games likeRimworld. Players get to travel to various islands and rebuild the cities there while uncovering the story — which of course is great, since this is aDragon Questgame!
Groups looking for a game likeMinecraftwith a little more direction are going to fall in love withDragon Quest Builders. It’s simplyone of the best co-op games available on any platformbecause, just likeMinecraft, players can always find something to do and let their imaginations run wild. There are infinite things to build and places to explore together, and nothing is more satisfying than building an elaborate town with some friends.
Don’t Starve Togetheris technically a 2D roguelike game, andone of the best ever made at that! However, it’s a survival game at heart and in its mechanics. It just happens to have permanent death and no respawns — at least in the beginning. Players will need to find food, build shelter, and explore the world while trying to survive night after night of shadowy danger.
A lot of the charm of theDon’t Starveseries is in its artwork, but its gameplay does a great job of keeping players hooked. It’s fantastic for groups that want an eerie and solemn atmosphere with hardcore survival mechanics.Don’t Starve Togetheris one of the best co-op games ever made, let alone on the Switch. Players can expect to die and restart many times over, but with a little luck, groups can find themselves playing a single run for weeks.
At this point, everyone has played or at least heard ofTerraria. There’s a reason that its fans continue to sink thousands of hours into the game, even in single player. There’s so much to do, from finding and fighting bosses, to building complex bases, to recruiting NPCs, to min-maxing awesome builds — players will literally never run out of things to do.The graphics are also amazing for fans of pixel art, and they come to life on the Nintendo Switch.
Terrariahas a number of distinct survival mechanics like hunger, base building, and resource gathering. While there aren’t many resources to manage beyond hunger and health,Terrariastill scratches the survival itch for players who don’t want a game 100% focused on the survival mechanics. The great part about playing with friends, though, is that one player can run and gather food, while another gathers resources for the base, and another collects items needed to summon a boss. Everyone will have something to do, and exploring the world is just a blast.
