Our picks, beyond the numbers
5 games like Deep Rock Galactic we would recommend for different reasons
Deep Rock Galactic turns a mining job into one of gaming's best reasons to log on with friends: four dwarves, a dark cave, and a mission that only works if everyone pulls their weight. Finding games like it means figuring out which part of that pulled you in — the teamwork, the digging, or simply the chance to play a gruff little dwarf against impossible odds.
Some of our picks keep the co-op mining intact; others strip away everything but the dwarves, or swap the first-person shooting for something else entirely. We picked for the specific itch, not just the keyword.
Here's where we'd send a Deep Rock Galactic player next.
Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor
For the same universe, solo
Survivor comes from Deep Rock Galactic's own universe, taking the dwarven mining fantasy and turning it into a top-down, solo-friendly bullet-heaven auto-shooter that reached full release in September 2025 after about a year and a half in Early Access.
We'd recommend it to anyone who loves the setting and the dwarves but doesn't always have three friends free to join a mission — it's built to work well alone, with escalating swarms standing in for Deep Rock Galactic's careful squad tactics.
The social, four-player structure that defines Deep Rock Galactic proper is simply absent here, and the camera and genre both shift considerably. Go in wanting more dwarves and mining, not more of the original's specific co-op shooting.
Warhammer: Vermintide 2
For class-based teamwork against a swarm
Vermintide 2 gives you the same four-player, class-based coordination against overwhelming numbers, and it even includes Bardin the Dwarf Ranger — about as direct a nod to Deep Rock Galactic's stout heroes as another studio's game gets.
We like it for players who want the squad-based teamwork dialed up into close-quarters melee: calling out threats, covering a teammate, and surviving a horde together carries over directly, even though the tools for doing it change.
It's a first-person horde shooter set in Warhammer's grim dark-fantasy world, trading Deep Rock Galactic's mining and resource-hauling for near-constant combat against Skaven and rot. Pick this for the teamwork, not for anything resembling a cave to dig through.
Risk of Rain Returns
For escalating pressure with friends
Risk of Rain Returns keeps the same escalating-difficulty, item-stacking tension that makes a good Deep Rock Galactic mission nerve-wracking, with online and local co-op for pushing deeper together before the game's rising difficulty catches up.
We think it's a smart pick for anyone who loves the back half of a Deep Rock Galactic mission — the moment the extraction timer starts and everything gets harder — stretched into the entire run rather than just the final stretch.
Its 2D side-scrolling action and complete lack of mining or hauling replace Deep Rock Galactic's cave-digging loop with straightforward survival against a rising clock. Choose it for that mounting pressure, not for anything resembling a cave to carve through.
The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria
For digging deeper with a bigger crew
Return to Moria sends you and up to seven friends into Khazad-dûm itself to rebuild the dwarven realm, mixing survival crafting and base-building with the same drive to dig deeper and bring resources home that Deep Rock Galactic is built on.
We'd point a Deep Rock Galactic player here for the chance to actually live in the mine rather than just visit it on a mission — building, crafting and expanding a dwarven settlement gives digging a long-term purpose beyond a single extraction.
It's third-person survival crafting rather than Deep Rock Galactic's first-person shooting, and its story beats tie to Gimli and the Fellowship instead of corporate mining satire. Pick this for the dwarven setting and the slower burn, not for mission-based shooting.
Dwarf Fortress
For the simulation Deep Rock Galactic's dwarves come from
Dwarf Fortress is the game that made digging deep with a doomed crew of dwarves a genre unto itself, and its legendarily detailed simulation rewards the same curiosity about what's waiting in the next layer of rock that drives a good Deep Rock Galactic mission.
We think it's worth a look for players who want that curiosity taken to its logical extreme — tracking individual dwarves' moods, relationships and eventual, often grim, fates rather than just managing a loadout for the next drop.
It's a top-down colony management sim with no combat you directly control, a world away from Deep Rock Galactic's first-person co-op shooting. Go in for the depth of simulation, not for anything resembling a four-player mission structure.
