Highlights

• Survival games on the Nintendo Switch offer relaxing resource management, base building, and farming, perfect for playing in handheld mode.
• The Switch offers a variety of survival gaming options for both hardcore gamers and those looking for a more casual experience with friends.
• From battling bosses and gathering resources in Portal Knights to taming dinosaurs in ARK: Survival Evolved, the Switch has it all.

Survival games feel so at home on the Nintendo Switch because there’s nothing more relaxing than sitting back and gathering resources, building a nice base, and farming in handheld mode. It’s even more fun when friends are along for the ride! That being said, the Switch offers a lot more options than casual survival-lite games.

Whether a gaming group is looking for a hardcore survival game with all the usual gameplay mechanics, or they want something different – be it through a unique mix of genres or the survival game setting – the Nintendo Switch offers numerous options.

6 Portal Knight

Sandbox RPG survival – even better with friends

• Release date: 18 May 2017
• genre: ARPG, Survival
• developer: Keen Games
• editor: 505 games

Most survival games focus exclusively on resource management, combat, and lots of base building. Portal Knight takes the formula a step further and adds plenty of RPG elements. Players can choose from classic RPG classes like mages, warriors, and rangers and head to randomly generated islands where they can fight bosses, gather resources, and explore the world.

Survival game groups feel at home in Portal Knightbecause the focus is on gathering resources and building bases. However, it is not as survival-intensive as some other games, so it is more suited to groups looking for a more casual survival experience – especially if they enjoy RPG mechanics and boss battles.

5 ARK: Survival Evolved

Open world dinosaur taming that will test your resolve

Players looking for classic survival mechanics like resource gathering, grinding, exploring and base building will love it ARK: Survival Evolved because it offers all that and as an added benefit, dinosaur companions! ARK is one of the best survival experiences on the Switch – especially for players who want harder and more arduous gameplay.

There’s a lot more fun than just grinding Ark: Survival Evolved, However, there are plenty of biomes to explore and dinosaurs to train. Playing with friends makes the game even better, as everyone can focus on their own goals without having to worry about splitting their time between multiple tasks. It’s also just plain fun to ride dinosaurs with a group of friends!

4 Grounded

Survive in the garden against ants, spiders and more

Grounded offers a fantastic twist on the survival genre. Instead of dropping players on a remote island or throwing them into an apocalypse where they have to rely on their FPS skills, Grounded takes players to a much more mundane and familiar place: the backyard! However, it also shrinks players to the size of insects and creates obstacles no survival gamer has ever thought of (like climbing a baseball).

The best thing about playing Grounded with a group of friends, you can explore the story together and enjoy a unique survival experience. Instead of chopping down trees, players will be cutting down mushrooms. There are all the classic survival tasks that groups know, such as base building, resource gathering, and crafting, so players can feel at home while still enjoying a fresh twist on the genre.

3 Dragon Quest Builders 2

Minecraft meets Dragon Quest in this epic adventure

Dragon Quest Builders 2 is a mishmash of building games like Minecraft along with colony management games like Edgeworld. Players can travel to different islands and rebuild the cities there while uncovering the story – which is of course great, as this is a Dragon Quest Game!

Groups that are looking for a game like Minecraft with a little more direction will fall in love with Dragon Quest Builder. It is simply one of the best co-op games available on any platform because just like MinecraftPlayers can always find something and let their imagination run wild. There are endless things to build and places to explore together, and nothing is more satisfying than building an elaborate city with a few friends.

2 Don’t starve together

Gothic 2D survival roguelike

Don’t starve together is technically a 2D roguelike game, and one of the best ever made! At its core and in its mechanics, however, it is a survival game. There is only permanent death and no respawns – at least at first. Players must find food, build shelter, and explore the world while trying to survive the dark menace night after night.

A large part of the charm of the Don’t starve The series lies in the graphics, but the gameplay does an excellent job of hooking players. It’s fantastic for groups that want a spooky and solemn atmosphere with hardcore survival mechanics. Don’t starve together is one of the best co-op games of all time, let alone on the Switch. Players should expect to die and restart many times, but with luck, groups can play a single playthrough for weeks.

1 Terraria

Addictive side-scrolling sandbox

At this point everyone has played or at least heard of it Terraria. There’s a reason why its fans continue to pour thousands of hours into the game, even in single-player mode. There’s so much to do, from finding and battling bosses to building complex bases and recruiting NPCs to minifying awesome builds – players will literally never run out of things to do. The graphics are also amazing for fans of pixel art, and come to life on the Nintendo Switch.

Terraria has a number of distinct survival mechanisms such as hunger, base building and resource gathering. Although there are not many resources to manage other than hunger and health, Terraria still satisfies the survival urge of players who don’t want a game that’s 100% focused on survival mechanics. The great thing about playing with friends, however, is that one player can run off and gather food while another gathers resources for the base and another gathers items needed to summon a boss. Everyone will have something to do and exploring the world is just plain fun.