Our picks, beyond the numbers
5 games like Valheim we would recommend for different reasons
The best Valheim evenings tend to start small — gather some wood, patch the roof, maybe take the longship out for a quick look around — and end somewhere unplanned, with the weather turning and the supplies still sitting back at base. Whether you play alone or with a crew, it is a survival game that makes the stretch between one shelter and the next feel like an event in itself.
We picked games that carry forward different pieces of that feeling rather than ones that just look like Valheim from a distance: the pull of the open ocean, the satisfaction of a settlement that keeps growing, or the simple fact that everything out there is trying to kill you.
These are the games like Valheim we would recommend to a group deciding where to sail, dig or build next.
Raft
Our first choice for a home that travels with you
Raft turns the journey and the base into the same thing. You start on a tiny platform adrift in open ocean, pulling debris out of the water to expand it plank by plank, and every supply run doubles as a chance to improve the place you actually live.
We would send a Valheim crew here first because it keeps the same rhythm of gathering, building and sailing toward the next landmark, just with the base itself doing the sailing. Online co-op makes it an easy group project, with one person steering while others fish or build.
There are no Norse bosses or mythology here, and land is something you visit rather than settle permanently. Choose Raft when the appeal of Valheim was specifically the boat and the horizon, not the forests you keep returning to.
Necesse
For a settlement that actually grows
Necesse left early access and reached full release in October 2025, after years of development built around a top-down world you explore while a settlement of villagers grows behind you — assigning jobs, defending the walls, and watching the place change as you bring back new resources.
We like it for a Valheim player who enjoys the building half of the loop as much as the fighting, and wants that settlement to feel like a living project with its own population rather than a base that only you occupy.
It supports both online and LAN co-op, and its 2D pixel-art perspective is a real change from Valheim's third-person forests and fjords. Pick this one when you want base-building to carry real weight, with Viking-style raids and bosses swapped for dungeons and a procedurally generated world.
Grounded 2
For a familiar place turned dangerous
Grounded 2 shrinks you down again and drops you into a much larger version of the overgrown backyard from the first game, where insects are genuine threats and a safe campsite starts to feel like a real achievement rather than a given.
We would recommend it to a Valheim group that likes the core loop of gathering, crafting and defending a base, but wants a setting where the danger comes from something ordinary made strange, rather than Norse myth and longships.
It released into early access in July 2025, so expect some rough edges and more content on the way. Online co-op is supported, and the first-person-leaning perspective and horror-tinged insect threats give it a tenser, more claustrophobic feel than Valheim's open fjords.
Enshrouded
For a fantasy world built around your base
Enshrouded sends you into dangerous, mist-covered territory to gather materials and fight enemies, then rewards every trip with the ability to shape a base of your own in increasingly elaborate ways, using a flexible voxel-based building system.
We like it for a group that wants Valheim's mix of risky expeditions and satisfying construction, but with a more action-RPG feel to combat and a wider range of building pieces to work with once you are home.
It is still in early access, and its online co-op lets a group tackle the Shroud's dangers together. Its handcrafted world and character progression give it a different structure from Valheim's procedurally generated islands — choose it for dangerous trips home to a base worth showing off, not for Norse mythology specifically.
Green Hell
For survival that demands real attention
Green Hell drops its emphasis on a single, unforgiving location: the Amazon rainforest, where injuries, parasites and your own deteriorating mental state matter as much as what you manage to craft or build.
We would choose it for a Valheim group who wants the survival half of the equation to feel genuinely demanding rather than a backdrop for building — wounds need real treatment, and the jungle rarely lets its guard down.
Online co-op lets friends face that pressure together, and its first-person, photorealistic presentation is a sharp departure from Valheim's stylized third-person Viking world. Pick this one when you want the danger of the environment itself to be the main event.
