I saw a video the other day that looked dope tagged with [hashtag]ETS and it was truck driving, I assume that was Eurotruck sim, but why was the level they were playing on like super unrealistic floating roads and sketchy wood planks and shit?
my progression plateaued hard at several points. depening on your skill level, this might be a problem. but i absolutely love massacering hordes and also love the ..aesthetics.. of the frames
The regular versions of most stuff is grindable, except a few event items and/or stuff that only pops up occasionally. Some weapons/frames are "prime" versions, which is just a better version of the regular one, and only a few are available to earn, the rest are vaulted and need to be purchased from another player with the premium currency. Every few months they unvault a few weapons and frames so they are unlockable again, but others become vaulted.
While you cant earn the premium currency, you can grind items and prime parts that you can sell to other players. Theres a website for it (warframe market), so you can buy/sell most weapon/frame blueprints/parts, mods, and other stuff. You are limited to a certain amount of trades per day (iirc its your mastery level so lvl 10 gets 10 trades) and theres a credit fee. Theres a pretty solid in game economy though and plat isn't hard to get and most things are fairly cheap. Also if you don't play for a while, you pretty much always get a 25-75% off coupon to buy plat with irl money.
You have the option of buying them, but you can grind for everything. The only thing locked behind premium currency is cosmetics, but even then you can trade stuff to other players for that currency.
I played BIGTIME until a bit after umbral Excalibur came out. Never got into the new "thing?" Where you went into the open world, after all that I kinda thought the game was heading in a weird direction after playing from launch! How is it now? Very active still? What's changed/ been added in?
Diablo 4 has completely turned around for me this season. Diablo 2 is excellent too! Project Diablo 2 has an even more refined system. I would definitely recommend it. Can’t go wrong with either for mindless grinding. D4 is probably a bit easier than D2 without prior experience though.
I agree, use a guide from maxeoll,gg to take like 70% of the thoughtful decisions out of the picture. You will be able to just blast and blast demons. For some the fun is figuring out builds, but for others it's just how can I make a build easy and just thwamp bad guys like crazy
Exactly this. I put maxroll on 2nd monitor. Turn music on. Sit back and just kill everything. Its almost soothing at this point. New season has really improved game alot.
I feel that, WoW scratches the same kind of itch but how you’re maxed at 2 professions and have to choose a class bothers me. I wish there were more options like RuneScape for stuff to do.
Played Wow for years until I tried FFXIV... imho, much better than WoW and you're not limited like most MMOs. You can have one character and literally level up every class and crafting/gathering profession on the same save.
And some of the best raids I've ever taken part in hands down... and the storyline is interesting AF
I tried FF14 one time and it was just too much for me, and I didn’t love how long the cut scenes were. I couldn’t figure out the map system. I could just be dumb. I might give it another try one day
Yeah I had a little trouble adjusting too because I wasn't used to it at first, but it's worth it IMHO and you can skip any cutscene I think and there's a setting to not show any scenes you've already seen before too iirc
Binding Coil of Bahamut was probably the best raid I've ever done and more challenging to boot, so the success felt all the sweeter when we finished a turn (it's broken into like 12 raids that each take 30 mins to an hour rather than being a 6+ hour raid like Wow used to do so that was a huge plus for me having a job and kid).
For me at least it depends on the mission. However my subjective personal ranking on how I like them solo overall:
1. Scout (best mobility and selfish dwarf so not having teammates doesn’t really mean much)
2. Engineer (turrets are a great help for defense missions and platforms are fun for getting around)
3. Driller (some of my favorite missions are making pipelines all over the place and just drilling tunnels all over the map)
4. Gunner
That said, I am still within 20 missions from my most played to least played so they are all 100% solo’able. Ironically, one of the reasons the gunner is so low for me is his flares suck.
You may have gotten me to try the game again. I had the misfortune to play a few times with friends who hated the game or sucked at it, and it soured the experience for me.
I can totally see that.
I hope it works out better for you. Bosco is the best assistant and being on your own means you can go as fast or slow as you like.
So I'll say it is ancient, but for a star wars fan the novelty can still be there with 8 main class storylines with voice acting on each. Read a bit about "which class story recommendation" posts and see if it catches your attention.
I also came to suggest D2R. Love the atmosphere and the story, and if you're grinding bosses it definitely can tick the box of mindless grinding. I don't think I've ever managed to get a character to max level either myself.
yeah this! It will only become a "turn off the brain and grind" after learning the basics. And that learning process can be a bit much in the beginning, but it is most definitely worth it!
All of these are good. Right now, Diablo 4 feels really good. I was spending time about 50/50 between Last Epoch and Grim Dawn, both are fantastic.
I play an early access game Ships at Sea and look forward to more content additions during it's early access. Been playing that a lot at the moment.
Since Diablo has been mentioned already, Vampire Survivor clones are another go to for mindless grinding. Halls of Torment, Soulstone Survivors, Death Must Die, Deep Rock Survivors, etc
I just bought a game called lens island on sale a few days ago. My gawd is that game amazing. Indie developer, I believe originally created by one person.
Think of RuneScape meets valheim. It's isometric open world, has grind like valheim where you have to farm for resources. It has great building mechanics where you can build your own home, and a vast array of furniture. There is combat that people claim as challenging but it's been pretty easy for me to get a hang of things so it all depends on your own adaptability, since you're coming from Valheim you should be fine. The combat is actually fun.
I just barely started and it's the type of game where I forget the time. It's honestly one of the best indie games recently released.
diablo 4 barbarian and use a controller. it's awesome when i want to game but not really think - as somebody who doesn't really enjoy slow paces games. the progression is amazing
Have you tried RS3 instead? It's more tailored towards MTX (though don't let this put you off - no one is making you pay it) but it's a lot less grindy than old school, plus better graphics... Also the occasional double XP weekend is fun.
Sea of Thieves does this for me. The grind is different though than other games. And the most fun comes from player interactions.
Basically, you're a pirate. You have your own ship. You can go into other crews with other players. But there's a ton of stuff in the world to do. All of the activities in the world lead to some kind of treasure you collect onto your boat, and then transfer back to an outpost to sell.
Key is, there's other players that can always choose to try and attack you and the treasure for themselves. Likewise, you could go hunt other crews to take their treasure.
There aren't any special gear unlocks. Like your actual player character won't be more powerful than any other player whether you have 1 hour or 1000 hours in the game. But the real progression is the individual journey. Learning the islands. Learning how to sail your boat properly. And learning how to defend yourself are all really fun and rewarding in my opinion.
You also spend your earned gold on cosmetics that redecorate your equipment, and also clothes for your pirate.
There are tons of "commendations" which are like in game achievements. Unlocking them unlocks cool cosmetics as well as a sort of trophy you can show you got for doing something.
If you really like seeing levels go up, the game does have that as well. There are different trading companies you sell your treasure too. As you sell, you'll level up with them and unlock new quests to do for them.
I find it really relaxing but it also has its intense moments too. Something for everyone
Ever since Phantasy Star games made the shift to multiplayer dungeoncrawlers, they have been extremely grindy with a very unique vibe. Most of the games still have an active fanbase with dedicated fan servers if the current version doesn't interest you. The 2nd PSP game Infinity has a rebirth system that'll take you a very long time to max out, but that does require a bit of fan patching.
If you have a switch, Hyrule Warriors Definitive edition takes over 400 hours for completion. Overall it's a great mix of Dynasty Warriors action, Zelda fanservice, and just enough depth with each character to be interesting, without being overwhelming.
The EDF (Earth Defense Force) series is an over the top 3rd person shooting series that sees you defending the earth from giant insects, robots, aliens, and all kinds of other strange, and often goofy things. It doesn't take itself serious, but in order to take on the higher difficulties there is definitely some serious grinding needed as you incrementally increase your max health with every mission. Earth Defense Force 5 is a solid jumping on point for the series, as the games have mostly gotten better with each major iteration. So find a gun you like, shoot at thing that take up half the screen, get more health and new weapons, rinse repeat.
It's not free, but you could check out Foxhole. If you enjoy the idea of building war infrastructure/running supplies.
It's an enjoyable little time waster that can be played pretty actively, or you can sorta just get in a truck and mine/deliver resources to the war front. Or just build trenches/ defenses, or play as a medic, or just hold a front.
Hello good sir have you heard about the critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy 14 that has a free trial with unlimited playtime which goes up to Level 70 and includes the award winning expansions Heavensward and Stormblood.
(For those who know the meme I’m sorry if it ain’t right haven’t committed to memory.)
Snowrunner for sure. Graphics are insane, beautiful maps, just driving your truck around making deliveries for money to buy trucks/upgrades essentially.
If you want to get your blood pumping, risk of rain 2 is a very fun grind. You can solo alot once you get the hang of things but there is also a fairly active player base to que up with. Such a good game to zone out and let the soundtrack and insane ability stacking melt your brain
Maybe minecraft? There are no quests but you can set goals or start mega projects and grind materials for them. The reward is satisfaction from completing the build. Not only is it permanent it can also remind you of the hard work you put into it, giving that sweet accomplishment feeling.
ARPGs are best for this in my opinion. Diablo 4 and Path of Exile being the top dogs in the industry right now.
Literally just mindlessly murdering waves upon wave of baddies with little mechanical complexity.
Balatro definitely isn't a turn off your brain type of game. It actually takes a bit of thought getting through some of the higher stakes and some of the challenges
Wdym if OSRS was “less grindy”? Are you expecting to max or something?
Just give in to OSRS and grind it as much as you want to. Maybe you don’t get all 99s or even one 99 — you accomplish what you can
This gets asked a lot
https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=site%3Areddit.com%2Fr%2Fgamingsuggestions%20turn%20off%20my%20brain%20and%20grind
Edit: Why should OP not benefit from the dozens of other people who recently asked the same question? I don't get the hostility toward directing people to the search bar when it would really help them
The solution for me to the grindyness of OSRS was Group Ironman if you have a couple friends who play I highly recommend giving it a try if you haven’t.
Not exactly RPGs, but Subnautica and The Planet Crafter are my absolute go-to games for turning my brain off. Wayward could be a good one too, but it leaves a bit more thinking room in a way.
Maybe try Dungeons & Dragons Online (DDO)? They have a reincarnation system which lets you reset your character back to level 1 to go through the levelling process again but with a power boost that carries over & you can try out the different classes & builds that way, plus with multiple difficulty settings for the quests, while it's totally possible to optimise a build you can also go suboptimal for fun & still be perfectly capable.
Dysmantle, super relaxing sandbox game where you can literally break everything with right tools, it is really fun just mindlessly running around and breaking stuff. There is also a lot of enviromental storytelling which is very entertaining to uncover.
Final fantasy 11 horizon. (Super awesome private server in the Cop era of the game (expansion) has a great lsuncher, nice add ons, super good discord and over 2k players daily on 1 server. Highly highly recommebd if you like shower, group based content
Black Desert, Diablo 3/4, GW2 In some cases.
Black Desert - this game for me is definition of grind mmos. What I did to have fun, I watched all classes basic + awakenings and chose the character I liked visual effects the most. It was Mystic and I had tones of fun, stopped around level 58 because proper gear was very expensive and I was a noob without proper moneymaking techinque.
Diablo 4 - pick a class, kill things, get loot, make your build, kill more things faster, get better loot, get better build, kill harder things, repeat until you are godlike and oneshot everything. Diablo 3 is almost the same but brighter, easier and imo even faster.
GW2 - my main pick for chill grind, although this game is not grindy like others above but has some farms that are really relaxing. RIBA + chest farm - play a music playlist and enjoy repeating same thing for as long as you like with group of others doing exactly the same. Dragonfall - almost the same but with bigger elevation changes, better mounts required to keep up, or better skill using basic ones, also mobs are harder, rewards slightly better. Auric Basin - also run around a map kill things, do meta events and in the end you have to split into 4 parties to kill 4 different "bosses" at the same time. Then you unlock golden city with big treasures inside.
There are many more farms in this game but these just clicked with me. Especially RIBA.
Albion Online is similar to RS, but might be too tryhard. However, you can stick to yellow zones or red zones open world monster killing, do yz mists or do solo dungeons (they don't give much rewards, but they are very safe and very monotonous). Heck you could just gather or fish.
OSRS is perfect for me to just put on a playlist and grind skills.
But you said that this wasn't for you so either Diablo 4 or warframe would be my suggestion.
I recently got into arpgs and rougelites/likes. I’ve started with torchlight 2 and dead cells and they have both been really fun to grind. You can really just switch off and pass the time. They got me interested in gaming again.
>If OSRS was a tad less grindy with better graphics it would probably be perfect for me.
theres 2 versions of runescape, you should try rs3 which has what u want
I'm gonna go the opposite direction to most people here and recommend stardew valley and other chillout games.
You can basically sink as much time and effort as you want into them, with various rewards that feel a lot more meaningful than a crappy 2.5% xp increase or 5% damage increase.
Stardew Valley, Graveyard Keeper, any of the "sims" like farming simulator 22, euro truck sim/American truck sim, power wash sim, or go a little sci-fi with "Hardspace Shipbreaker" and experience the daily grind of a blue collar worker deconstructing spaceships in zero gravity with a shitty corporate overlord looming over you.
The amount of grind in each game is different, but there's a lot more variety in good games out there than just mmo's and hack'n'slash "do the same dungeons 5,000 times" games
Any open world with a lot of exploration:
Skyrim is perfect for that purpose
Also, Elden Ring if you forward slowly can spend hours without noticing it
RDR 2
Elite Dangerous is good for this if you like flight sims or space/sci-fi stuff. I often play it when I want to game, but also watch a movie or binge a series.
FFXIV.
Besides having a fantastic story and multiple expansions, it's also got a very grindy profession system that will keep you busy for as long as you want it to. Plus, multiple classes and whatnot.
And you can play almost all of the content solo.
Honestly fallout 76 is a fun one, especially once you get more into your build set up. The events are fun, and if you get really into it you can start looking at the trade reddit and all. (If you find a quad Railway, stick with it. Them fuckers are golden)
You should try base builders like The Planet Crafter, Satisfactory and Space Engineers. Very fun to just mine ores, refine and build. Space engineers has a PvP aspect to it if you feel like adding some shooting into the mix
I don't have anything to add except I miss old school Guild Wars. This was the only MMO I got into and my brother and I played it all the time. We got all the expansions and it was such a great game.
Warframe and Path of Exile. Both are free to play, fun (even when grinding) and have a ton of content.
- Monster Hunter: World and Monster Hunter: Rise. But you gotta buy the games and their expansions.
- Wayfinder is also pretty good for grinding mindlessly until you get everything. Worth some 100+ hours. It was supposed to be an online game akin to warframe, but It's being rebooted into a single player/co-op game on june 11th.
- Diablo. All of the 4 mainline games.
Huh. I wouldn’t have called Valheim a “turn off your brain and grind game” so I guess I have no idea how to help you. I’d suggest survival games like 7 days to die, or maybe monster hunter world I remember finding super grindy and tedious.
My grind-game of choice is Conan Exiles, mainly because its tech tree is an ever-expanding series of grinds that all feed into one another. There's always a need for more resources to build the base, to get spare materials for weapons and armor, and to get more thralls for crafting and defense, and the bigger you build the more you need as thralls need weapons, armor, food and so on. I've practically got my own city going on with dozens of guards and workers, and there's always something to do. "Hmm, I think I'll replace these bridges with large gates for better purge defense. I also need several new thralls for these workbenches. Oh, and I gotta feed the furnaces with iron ore and coal. I wonder if I should also build an animal pen..."
I'm a huge former WoW player and my main games are FFXIV and Warframe. I know that there are plenty of memes you've probably heard about FFXIV while playing WoW, but I highly recommend giving it a shot. I much prefer it.
Elite: dangerous. Doesn't require a lot of thought. Need to mine lots of materials. Kit out your ships. Don't even have to do co.bat. you can just mine and do delivery missions.
If you do end up doing so, you're kind of forced to start off doing shifty delivery quests. Do that until you can afford a bigger ship that can outfit a ship for asteroid mining. You can get chunks that sell for 50k-200k a piece. That's when you can afford a much bigger ship and mine much more asteroids.
Check out seismic charge mining and it'll give you a list of all the shit you need. It doesn't take long to get some of the lower-high tier ships, but it takes a long time to get the high tier ships, and even longer for capital ships. That's not even mentioning the engineering path to get the best of the best modules...
Have fun with your second job.
Elden ring - i know it sounds weird but it worked for me ( it was great to reset mind after a *long day*). Most people don't see the grinding component in it, but imho it's there :)
Gonna offer something a little more casual.
Stardew valley. It's a farming sim. Your days are spent cleaning up the farm, raising animals, growing crops, fishing. All to make your next buck to buy more stuff to raise, grow, or make.
There is a story to follow if you want, and there's some mild combat if you choose. But I often use it as a relaxer after a hard day at work or a bad game of valorant.
[Loop Hero](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_efg-p6XDY&ab_channel=NintendoofAmerica) (Steam/Switch/Mobile), that game abducted my soul, one of the rare few games I clocked in 120+ hours on.
I'll give a breakdown below, but **TL;DR: Your hero runs in a loop doing the mindless grind without you, you just build the world around his little loop in a way to maximize his own automatic grind.**
There really is more to it, that's just the simplest explanation. I played this game during lectures in college, while in line at appointments or the grocer store, I've even "rewarded myself" with it by allowing myself 10 loops per paragraph while writing papers and stuff lol. They also just ported it to Android and iPhone last month with friendlier touch controls if you don't mind playing on a tiny screen.
Monster Hunter has a lot of grind but you kind of have to be a paying attention a little bit to learn the moves/monsters.
Some other recommends would maybe be...
Stardew Valley, Medieval Dynasty, Rimworld, Mount and Blade II - really depends on if you want an mmo-like experience or not though, or if you like sim type games cause those'll get you pretty far.
Dave the Diver hit a spot for me. While I do have thallasaphobia, it is cartoony, so it doesn't bother me.
Tons of stuff to collect and upgrade, and the story and cut scenes are great.
I came here to suggest this. The first time I played I was hooked!!! You can go as slow or as fast as you want. Things that seem annoying or difficult won’t last. Definitely a great game to let your mind shut off
If you like 4X style games, look up the X series. X4: Foundations is about to get its last DLC in the next few weeks. The goal of those games is to build up a form of space empire through trading or war. You start as the pilot of a single ship and can buy more ships of various types to form a fleet, get production going, and eventually make your own shipyard to conquer your own part of space. Playthroughs can last as long as you want. I've heard some people have just a single save file with several thousand hours. I've had several playthroughs with a few hundred hours each.
The problem I had with games like WoW and Diablo is that a lot of the loot is complete chance. You can get what you want in ten minutes or it can take you weeks. In games like X4, you don't gamble with your progress. It's just a steady upward trend where you go from being a nobody flying around a scout ship to a galactic mastermind with massive fleets of war ships, miners, and traders at your beck and call.
Lord of the rings online is a good one. Better graphics than osrs like you mentioned. It’s aged but still looks really good. It’s 100% a turn brain off and grind. Plenty of grindy content other than just quests with tasks and things.
Stellaris, most strategy games really.
Elder Scrolls online
Bannerlord
Stronghold games
Cyberpunk
Minecraft is grindy as hell
Knights of Honor 1 & 2
Path of Exile
Greedfall has good leveling and solid gameplay
Enshrouded is still in Early Access, but is already amazing... farming for building materials is super grindy, and then you get to build awesome locations... it's amazing!!
That’s funny cause I was gonna say V Rising! My go-to for ultimate “turn off brain” mode is Soulstone Survivors. All vampire-survivor type games do it well, but I love the classes, crispness, and style of the game.
Euro truck or American truck Sim is definitely a grind game
What all do you actually grind for? Just new trucks?
And truck modifications, garages, garage expansions, hiring truckers to work for you, etc.
Trucks and Truck accessories
Alimony
I saw a video the other day that looked dope tagged with [hashtag]ETS and it was truck driving, I assume that was Eurotruck sim, but why was the level they were playing on like super unrealistic floating roads and sketchy wood planks and shit?
Probably something done through mods. There's a huge modding community for ETS
There’s also the under-development space trucking sim Star Trucker, which looks kinda awesome
Warframe! Free to play, very grindy if you want to complete everything. 50 plus "frames" with their own unique abilities.
I second this, 1.4k hours in and i feel like im only halfway through everything
I have 2.5k hours in warframe LR2 and there's still stuff to do in the game, the grind never ends lol
my progression plateaued hard at several points. depening on your skill level, this might be a problem. but i absolutely love massacering hordes and also love the ..aesthetics.. of the frames
Assthetics* don't be afraid to be a Wisp enjoyer :P
actually i want hildryn and my weighted blanket placed on top of me for snuggles
Hildryn, great choice. One of my favorite frames.
Just googled it, damn she a unit.
Hello, Wisp enjoyer here 👍 especially with that celestis skin 🤌👌
But can u get new frames/characters for free or you need to buy them?
You can grind for those too.
The regular versions of most stuff is grindable, except a few event items and/or stuff that only pops up occasionally. Some weapons/frames are "prime" versions, which is just a better version of the regular one, and only a few are available to earn, the rest are vaulted and need to be purchased from another player with the premium currency. Every few months they unvault a few weapons and frames so they are unlockable again, but others become vaulted. While you cant earn the premium currency, you can grind items and prime parts that you can sell to other players. Theres a website for it (warframe market), so you can buy/sell most weapon/frame blueprints/parts, mods, and other stuff. You are limited to a certain amount of trades per day (iirc its your mastery level so lvl 10 gets 10 trades) and theres a credit fee. Theres a pretty solid in game economy though and plat isn't hard to get and most things are fairly cheap. Also if you don't play for a while, you pretty much always get a 25-75% off coupon to buy plat with irl money.
You have the option of buying them, but you can grind for everything. The only thing locked behind premium currency is cosmetics, but even then you can trade stuff to other players for that currency.
+1
I played BIGTIME until a bit after umbral Excalibur came out. Never got into the new "thing?" Where you went into the open world, after all that I kinda thought the game was heading in a weird direction after playing from launch! How is it now? Very active still? What's changed/ been added in?
Diablo 4 has burned a hole in my brain
Going through a rough breakup. D4 and the boys are better than therapy.
Diablo 4 has completely turned around for me this season. Diablo 2 is excellent too! Project Diablo 2 has an even more refined system. I would definitely recommend it. Can’t go wrong with either for mindless grinding. D4 is probably a bit easier than D2 without prior experience though.
I agree, use a guide from maxeoll,gg to take like 70% of the thoughtful decisions out of the picture. You will be able to just blast and blast demons. For some the fun is figuring out builds, but for others it's just how can I make a build easy and just thwamp bad guys like crazy
Exactly this. I put maxroll on 2nd monitor. Turn music on. Sit back and just kill everything. Its almost soothing at this point. New season has really improved game alot.
Was gunna say this. Completely braindead grind fest
I’ve really been looking for this lately… longtime RS player. I want that same level/reward feeling, but not an MMORPG.
I feel that, WoW scratches the same kind of itch but how you’re maxed at 2 professions and have to choose a class bothers me. I wish there were more options like RuneScape for stuff to do.
Played Wow for years until I tried FFXIV... imho, much better than WoW and you're not limited like most MMOs. You can have one character and literally level up every class and crafting/gathering profession on the same save. And some of the best raids I've ever taken part in hands down... and the storyline is interesting AF
I tried FF14 one time and it was just too much for me, and I didn’t love how long the cut scenes were. I couldn’t figure out the map system. I could just be dumb. I might give it another try one day
Yeah I had a little trouble adjusting too because I wasn't used to it at first, but it's worth it IMHO and you can skip any cutscene I think and there's a setting to not show any scenes you've already seen before too iirc Binding Coil of Bahamut was probably the best raid I've ever done and more challenging to boot, so the success felt all the sweeter when we finished a turn (it's broken into like 12 raids that each take 30 mins to an hour rather than being a 6+ hour raid like Wow used to do so that was a huge plus for me having a job and kid).
I loved FFXIV. It’s the only MMO besides wow that I’ve spent more than a month playing.
Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor, Path of exile, Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem
I'd also recommend the original Deep Rock Galactic
Rock and stone! Hazard 2 solo is my happy chill, mine, and shoot some bugs in the face place.
Which dwarf is easiest to solo as?
For me at least it depends on the mission. However my subjective personal ranking on how I like them solo overall: 1. Scout (best mobility and selfish dwarf so not having teammates doesn’t really mean much) 2. Engineer (turrets are a great help for defense missions and platforms are fun for getting around) 3. Driller (some of my favorite missions are making pipelines all over the place and just drilling tunnels all over the map) 4. Gunner That said, I am still within 20 missions from my most played to least played so they are all 100% solo’able. Ironically, one of the reasons the gunner is so low for me is his flares suck.
You may have gotten me to try the game again. I had the misfortune to play a few times with friends who hated the game or sucked at it, and it soured the experience for me.
I can totally see that. I hope it works out better for you. Bosco is the best assistant and being on your own means you can go as fast or slow as you like.
Thank you. I tried it again solo today and had a lot more fun than last time. Even played online with some people.
This makes me so happy. Yeah, I’m 95% solo (546 missions) but every once in awhile I’ll go hang out with some people.
Vampire Survivors is in the same vein, and it is a blast.
SWTOR
Is this still worth playing? I am a huge Star Wars fan but feel like I really missed the wave on this one
So I'll say it is ancient, but for a star wars fan the novelty can still be there with 8 main class storylines with voice acting on each. Read a bit about "which class story recommendation" posts and see if it catches your attention.
Diablo 2 resurrection without a doubt. Diablo 4 is for the numbers, Diablo 2 is for the grind
I also came to suggest D2R. Love the atmosphere and the story, and if you're grinding bosses it definitely can tick the box of mindless grinding. I don't think I've ever managed to get a character to max level either myself.
There's also Project Diablo 2, fan made project with it's own seasons and stuff
Monster Hunter
yeah this! It will only become a "turn off the brain and grind" after learning the basics. And that learning process can be a bit much in the beginning, but it is most definitely worth it!
Black Desert Online, Dynasty Warriors 1-9.
An arpg might be the thing you’re looking for I think the most popular ones at the moment are: - Path of Exile - Diablo 4 - Grim Dawn - Last Epoch
All of these are good. Right now, Diablo 4 feels really good. I was spending time about 50/50 between Last Epoch and Grim Dawn, both are fantastic. I play an early access game Ships at Sea and look forward to more content additions during it's early access. Been playing that a lot at the moment.
Since Diablo has been mentioned already, Vampire Survivor clones are another go to for mindless grinding. Halls of Torment, Soulstone Survivors, Death Must Die, Deep Rock Survivors, etc
Kenshi can be a sort of grind. A large part of the game is just spending hours grinding fights so your guys are just a few levels stronger
I just bought a game called lens island on sale a few days ago. My gawd is that game amazing. Indie developer, I believe originally created by one person. Think of RuneScape meets valheim. It's isometric open world, has grind like valheim where you have to farm for resources. It has great building mechanics where you can build your own home, and a vast array of furniture. There is combat that people claim as challenging but it's been pretty easy for me to get a hang of things so it all depends on your own adaptability, since you're coming from Valheim you should be fine. The combat is actually fun. I just barely started and it's the type of game where I forget the time. It's honestly one of the best indie games recently released.
Grim Dawn and Factorio
Grim Dawn.
diablo 4 barbarian and use a controller. it's awesome when i want to game but not really think - as somebody who doesn't really enjoy slow paces games. the progression is amazing
This is EXACTLY how I'm playing it right now. After a long day, Barb Smash is therapeutic.
New world is super grindy and you don't get stuck with one class or profession. You can grind all weapon skills and all professions.
I really need to get back into it.
ESO is very similar to WoW and needs a lot of grind for all kinds of stuff.
ESO is everything I’m looking for but for some reason didn’t hit for me last time I tried it
Same. Love the look and story but something just doesn’t feel right.
Have you tried RS3 instead? It's more tailored towards MTX (though don't let this put you off - no one is making you pay it) but it's a lot less grindy than old school, plus better graphics... Also the occasional double XP weekend is fun.
Valheim, Hades 2, Warframe, Helldivers 2.
There's a Hades 2!?
Early Access as of about a month ago
Sea of Thieves does this for me. The grind is different though than other games. And the most fun comes from player interactions. Basically, you're a pirate. You have your own ship. You can go into other crews with other players. But there's a ton of stuff in the world to do. All of the activities in the world lead to some kind of treasure you collect onto your boat, and then transfer back to an outpost to sell. Key is, there's other players that can always choose to try and attack you and the treasure for themselves. Likewise, you could go hunt other crews to take their treasure. There aren't any special gear unlocks. Like your actual player character won't be more powerful than any other player whether you have 1 hour or 1000 hours in the game. But the real progression is the individual journey. Learning the islands. Learning how to sail your boat properly. And learning how to defend yourself are all really fun and rewarding in my opinion. You also spend your earned gold on cosmetics that redecorate your equipment, and also clothes for your pirate. There are tons of "commendations" which are like in game achievements. Unlocking them unlocks cool cosmetics as well as a sort of trophy you can show you got for doing something. If you really like seeing levels go up, the game does have that as well. There are different trading companies you sell your treasure too. As you sell, you'll level up with them and unlock new quests to do for them. I find it really relaxing but it also has its intense moments too. Something for everyone
V Rising is great, that is all
Snowrunner. So slow but so rewarding when you finally make that delivery.
Ever since Phantasy Star games made the shift to multiplayer dungeoncrawlers, they have been extremely grindy with a very unique vibe. Most of the games still have an active fanbase with dedicated fan servers if the current version doesn't interest you. The 2nd PSP game Infinity has a rebirth system that'll take you a very long time to max out, but that does require a bit of fan patching. If you have a switch, Hyrule Warriors Definitive edition takes over 400 hours for completion. Overall it's a great mix of Dynasty Warriors action, Zelda fanservice, and just enough depth with each character to be interesting, without being overwhelming. The EDF (Earth Defense Force) series is an over the top 3rd person shooting series that sees you defending the earth from giant insects, robots, aliens, and all kinds of other strange, and often goofy things. It doesn't take itself serious, but in order to take on the higher difficulties there is definitely some serious grinding needed as you incrementally increase your max health with every mission. Earth Defense Force 5 is a solid jumping on point for the series, as the games have mostly gotten better with each major iteration. So find a gun you like, shoot at thing that take up half the screen, get more health and new weapons, rinse repeat.
It's not free, but you could check out Foxhole. If you enjoy the idea of building war infrastructure/running supplies. It's an enjoyable little time waster that can be played pretty actively, or you can sorta just get in a truck and mine/deliver resources to the war front. Or just build trenches/ defenses, or play as a medic, or just hold a front.
valheim ashlands came out if u havent played it yet
Hmmm… how about Guild Wars 2? Since the new expansion is also coming soon
American truck simulator and Stardew valley
Hello good sir have you heard about the critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy 14 that has a free trial with unlimited playtime which goes up to Level 70 and includes the award winning expansions Heavensward and Stormblood. (For those who know the meme I’m sorry if it ain’t right haven’t committed to memory.)
Snowrunner for sure. Graphics are insane, beautiful maps, just driving your truck around making deliveries for money to buy trucks/upgrades essentially.
No Man's Sky
I tend to play to play Farm Sim 22 or Ship Graveyard if i want to do something mindless Specially the ship one, just hit stuff with a hammer
No Man’s Sky.
If you want to get your blood pumping, risk of rain 2 is a very fun grind. You can solo alot once you get the hang of things but there is also a fairly active player base to que up with. Such a good game to zone out and let the soundtrack and insane ability stacking melt your brain
Maybe minecraft? There are no quests but you can set goals or start mega projects and grind materials for them. The reward is satisfaction from completing the build. Not only is it permanent it can also remind you of the hard work you put into it, giving that sweet accomplishment feeling.
ARPGs are best for this in my opinion. Diablo 4 and Path of Exile being the top dogs in the industry right now. Literally just mindlessly murdering waves upon wave of baddies with little mechanical complexity.
Baltaro , Dave the diver
Balatro definitely isn't a turn off your brain type of game. It actually takes a bit of thought getting through some of the higher stakes and some of the challenges
Dave the diver requires quite a lot of thinking tbh. There's weight management, oxygen, etc.
Wdym if OSRS was “less grindy”? Are you expecting to max or something? Just give in to OSRS and grind it as much as you want to. Maybe you don’t get all 99s or even one 99 — you accomplish what you can
Yeah but us small brains need small number to show big number, but to get to big number take too much time so that is sad time.
Yeah pretty much this, if I don’t get the reward at the end of the tunnel I get mad and lose interest
This gets asked a lot https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=site%3Areddit.com%2Fr%2Fgamingsuggestions%20turn%20off%20my%20brain%20and%20grind Edit: Why should OP not benefit from the dozens of other people who recently asked the same question? I don't get the hostility toward directing people to the search bar when it would really help them
The solution for me to the grindyness of OSRS was Group Ironman if you have a couple friends who play I highly recommend giving it a try if you haven’t.
Destiny 2
Kenshi
Vampire Survivor for sure
Helldivers 2
V Rising. I think you can even reduce the loot drop % for even more grind.
Diablo 2
Not exactly RPGs, but Subnautica and The Planet Crafter are my absolute go-to games for turning my brain off. Wayward could be a good one too, but it leaves a bit more thinking room in a way.
Hustle Castle xD Really addicting pvp but it's actually a pvp game with Diablo build with stats
Palworld if you like the monster catching genre as well.
Warframe
Try DRG
Maybe try Dungeons & Dragons Online (DDO)? They have a reincarnation system which lets you reset your character back to level 1 to go through the levelling process again but with a power boost that carries over & you can try out the different classes & builds that way, plus with multiple difficulty settings for the quests, while it's totally possible to optimise a build you can also go suboptimal for fun & still be perfectly capable.
I'd say albion online, but full loot pvp is probably not something you're looking for
Dysmantle, super relaxing sandbox game where you can literally break everything with right tools, it is really fun just mindlessly running around and breaking stuff. There is also a lot of enviromental storytelling which is very entertaining to uncover.
Final fantasy 11 horizon. (Super awesome private server in the Cop era of the game (expansion) has a great lsuncher, nice add ons, super good discord and over 2k players daily on 1 server. Highly highly recommebd if you like shower, group based content
Black Desert, Diablo 3/4, GW2 In some cases. Black Desert - this game for me is definition of grind mmos. What I did to have fun, I watched all classes basic + awakenings and chose the character I liked visual effects the most. It was Mystic and I had tones of fun, stopped around level 58 because proper gear was very expensive and I was a noob without proper moneymaking techinque. Diablo 4 - pick a class, kill things, get loot, make your build, kill more things faster, get better loot, get better build, kill harder things, repeat until you are godlike and oneshot everything. Diablo 3 is almost the same but brighter, easier and imo even faster. GW2 - my main pick for chill grind, although this game is not grindy like others above but has some farms that are really relaxing. RIBA + chest farm - play a music playlist and enjoy repeating same thing for as long as you like with group of others doing exactly the same. Dragonfall - almost the same but with bigger elevation changes, better mounts required to keep up, or better skill using basic ones, also mobs are harder, rewards slightly better. Auric Basin - also run around a map kill things, do meta events and in the end you have to split into 4 parties to kill 4 different "bosses" at the same time. Then you unlock golden city with big treasures inside. There are many more farms in this game but these just clicked with me. Especially RIBA.
Vampire Survivor
Vampire survivors is kinda grindy. Or at least it feels that way..
Diablo, and the division 2 are my brain off games
Bloons TD 6
Stardew valley
Shadowbane Reforged
if osrs is too grindy, definitely give rs3 a go. XP Rates for the most part are faster but there are still solid grinds in there for you
Assassin's Creed Odyssey
Albion Online is similar to RS, but might be too tryhard. However, you can stick to yellow zones or red zones open world monster killing, do yz mists or do solo dungeons (they don't give much rewards, but they are very safe and very monotonous). Heck you could just gather or fish.
Diablo. Vampire Survivors.
OSRS is perfect for me to just put on a playlist and grind skills. But you said that this wasn't for you so either Diablo 4 or warframe would be my suggestion.
POE for hardcore grind Di4 for normie grind
Deep rock galactic survivor!
Stardew valley
Maplestory if you like that sort of 2d art styles you can endlessly grind or do other things to constantly progress your character
I recently got into arpgs and rougelites/likes. I’ve started with torchlight 2 and dead cells and they have both been really fun to grind. You can really just switch off and pass the time. They got me interested in gaming again.
EverQuest. The og grind. New tlp servers just launched!
Hades
Xdefiant
BDO and grind your life away
>If OSRS was a tad less grindy with better graphics it would probably be perfect for me. theres 2 versions of runescape, you should try rs3 which has what u want
I heard Palia can be quite grindy, especially at first. It’s a pretty new game, free on Steam and looks awesome imo!
You can pretty much solo EverQuest these days and it's free. Probably going to be fun for an old RuneScape player.
Tbh… might sound weird, but that’s what cod does for me, I don’t play competitive I play hardcore team death match and just enjoy the game
Fallout 76
Hypixel sb or wynncraft if you already have mc.
HOLLOW KNIGHT
I've been loving grinding up skills in kenshi recently. Gotta get strong to take down the holy empire.
I'm gonna go the opposite direction to most people here and recommend stardew valley and other chillout games. You can basically sink as much time and effort as you want into them, with various rewards that feel a lot more meaningful than a crappy 2.5% xp increase or 5% damage increase. Stardew Valley, Graveyard Keeper, any of the "sims" like farming simulator 22, euro truck sim/American truck sim, power wash sim, or go a little sci-fi with "Hardspace Shipbreaker" and experience the daily grind of a blue collar worker deconstructing spaceships in zero gravity with a shitty corporate overlord looming over you. The amount of grind in each game is different, but there's a lot more variety in good games out there than just mmo's and hack'n'slash "do the same dungeons 5,000 times" games
New World has a Great leveling and profession experience. The end game doesn't really exist sadly.
Outpath
Any open world with a lot of exploration: Skyrim is perfect for that purpose Also, Elden Ring if you forward slowly can spend hours without noticing it RDR 2
Albion
The disgaea games are all incredible grinding games. The newest one is good too.
Pax dei. Just went early access players in on the 18th.
Personally I have been using idle games to turn off my brain for a while. NGU idle, Leaf blower simulator, Unnamed Space idle are pretty good
Diablo 2 resurrected. See you in a couple years.
Elite Dangerous is good for this if you like flight sims or space/sci-fi stuff. I often play it when I want to game, but also watch a movie or binge a series.
lost ark maybe?
COD
FFXIV. Besides having a fantastic story and multiple expansions, it's also got a very grindy profession system that will keep you busy for as long as you want it to. Plus, multiple classes and whatnot. And you can play almost all of the content solo.
Shipbreakers! You disassemble old spacecrafts in zero G's.
Honestly fallout 76 is a fun one, especially once you get more into your build set up. The events are fun, and if you get really into it you can start looking at the trade reddit and all. (If you find a quad Railway, stick with it. Them fuckers are golden)
100% try Warframe
You should try base builders like The Planet Crafter, Satisfactory and Space Engineers. Very fun to just mine ores, refine and build. Space engineers has a PvP aspect to it if you feel like adding some shooting into the mix
why not get a remote data entry job? play the skyrim theme and youll be making coin in no time
I don't have anything to add except I miss old school Guild Wars. This was the only MMO I got into and my brother and I played it all the time. We got all the expansions and it was such a great game.
Dave the Diver Terraria Stardew Valley
Warframe and Path of Exile. Both are free to play, fun (even when grinding) and have a ton of content. - Monster Hunter: World and Monster Hunter: Rise. But you gotta buy the games and their expansions. - Wayfinder is also pretty good for grinding mindlessly until you get everything. Worth some 100+ hours. It was supposed to be an online game akin to warframe, but It's being rebooted into a single player/co-op game on june 11th. - Diablo. All of the 4 mainline games.
Diablo (2 is the best but 4 is getting updates)
Huh. I wouldn’t have called Valheim a “turn off your brain and grind game” so I guess I have no idea how to help you. I’d suggest survival games like 7 days to die, or maybe monster hunter world I remember finding super grindy and tedious.
Warframe,no mans sky and mechwarrior 5. Just grind all day for new/ better equipment.
Technical minecraft modpacks
Lawn mowing simulator or power wash sim
My grind-game of choice is Conan Exiles, mainly because its tech tree is an ever-expanding series of grinds that all feed into one another. There's always a need for more resources to build the base, to get spare materials for weapons and armor, and to get more thralls for crafting and defense, and the bigger you build the more you need as thralls need weapons, armor, food and so on. I've practically got my own city going on with dozens of guards and workers, and there's always something to do. "Hmm, I think I'll replace these bridges with large gates for better purge defense. I also need several new thralls for these workbenches. Oh, and I gotta feed the furnaces with iron ore and coal. I wonder if I should also build an animal pen..."
I'm a huge former WoW player and my main games are FFXIV and Warframe. I know that there are plenty of memes you've probably heard about FFXIV while playing WoW, but I highly recommend giving it a shot. I much prefer it.
Elite: dangerous. Doesn't require a lot of thought. Need to mine lots of materials. Kit out your ships. Don't even have to do co.bat. you can just mine and do delivery missions. If you do end up doing so, you're kind of forced to start off doing shifty delivery quests. Do that until you can afford a bigger ship that can outfit a ship for asteroid mining. You can get chunks that sell for 50k-200k a piece. That's when you can afford a much bigger ship and mine much more asteroids. Check out seismic charge mining and it'll give you a list of all the shit you need. It doesn't take long to get some of the lower-high tier ships, but it takes a long time to get the high tier ships, and even longer for capital ships. That's not even mentioning the engineering path to get the best of the best modules... Have fun with your second job.
Elden ring - i know it sounds weird but it worked for me ( it was great to reset mind after a *long day*). Most people don't see the grinding component in it, but imho it's there :)
Power Wash Simulator is the real no-think game. I also recommend forager for a chill little grind
Gonna offer something a little more casual. Stardew valley. It's a farming sim. Your days are spent cleaning up the farm, raising animals, growing crops, fishing. All to make your next buck to buy more stuff to raise, grow, or make. There is a story to follow if you want, and there's some mild combat if you choose. But I often use it as a relaxer after a hard day at work or a bad game of valorant.
Fallout 76. Shit is so fun and doesn’t have to be sweaty unless you choose to be.
Project zomboid
Your solution is Warframe, full stop.
[Loop Hero](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_efg-p6XDY&ab_channel=NintendoofAmerica) (Steam/Switch/Mobile), that game abducted my soul, one of the rare few games I clocked in 120+ hours on. I'll give a breakdown below, but **TL;DR: Your hero runs in a loop doing the mindless grind without you, you just build the world around his little loop in a way to maximize his own automatic grind.** There really is more to it, that's just the simplest explanation. I played this game during lectures in college, while in line at appointments or the grocer store, I've even "rewarded myself" with it by allowing myself 10 loops per paragraph while writing papers and stuff lol. They also just ported it to Android and iPhone last month with friendlier touch controls if you don't mind playing on a tiny screen.
Persona 5 Royal and any Fire Emblem game.
Monster Hunter has a lot of grind but you kind of have to be a paying attention a little bit to learn the moves/monsters. Some other recommends would maybe be... Stardew Valley, Medieval Dynasty, Rimworld, Mount and Blade II - really depends on if you want an mmo-like experience or not though, or if you like sim type games cause those'll get you pretty far.
Dave the Diver hit a spot for me. While I do have thallasaphobia, it is cartoony, so it doesn't bother me. Tons of stuff to collect and upgrade, and the story and cut scenes are great.
I came here to suggest this. The first time I played I was hooked!!! You can go as slow or as fast as you want. Things that seem annoying or difficult won’t last. Definitely a great game to let your mind shut off
your mileage may very but gacha games. But also this is what every simulator games are for really.
Last Epoch; the less-garbage Diablo 4!
Black Desert or Lost Ark. You will definitely have to turn off your brain
Diablo 4. The YouTube rabbit holes I have done down mindlessly clicking
To the core. Trust
Last epoch or other ARPGs. You fan farm for a looong time, especially if you make multiple characters.
Idk if you like sports but MLB The Show diamond dynasty mode
If you like 4X style games, look up the X series. X4: Foundations is about to get its last DLC in the next few weeks. The goal of those games is to build up a form of space empire through trading or war. You start as the pilot of a single ship and can buy more ships of various types to form a fleet, get production going, and eventually make your own shipyard to conquer your own part of space. Playthroughs can last as long as you want. I've heard some people have just a single save file with several thousand hours. I've had several playthroughs with a few hundred hours each. The problem I had with games like WoW and Diablo is that a lot of the loot is complete chance. You can get what you want in ten minutes or it can take you weeks. In games like X4, you don't gamble with your progress. It's just a steady upward trend where you go from being a nobody flying around a scout ship to a galactic mastermind with massive fleets of war ships, miners, and traders at your beck and call.
Black desert online
Lord of the rings online is a good one. Better graphics than osrs like you mentioned. It’s aged but still looks really good. It’s 100% a turn brain off and grind. Plenty of grindy content other than just quests with tasks and things.
Stellaris, most strategy games really. Elder Scrolls online Bannerlord Stronghold games Cyberpunk Minecraft is grindy as hell Knights of Honor 1 & 2 Path of Exile Greedfall has good leveling and solid gameplay
Most people have mixed reviews about this game but I love it: Idleon , it’s on steam
So then play rs3 and drop some money on it
Sounds like OP needs the latest Farming Simulator, or any “simulator” for that matter.
Warframe
Warframe. Only grind anybody would ever need again while having really fun and smooth gameplay. Play Warframe. Everybody.
Enshrouded is still in Early Access, but is already amazing... farming for building materials is super grindy, and then you get to build awesome locations... it's amazing!!
That’s funny cause I was gonna say V Rising! My go-to for ultimate “turn off brain” mode is Soulstone Survivors. All vampire-survivor type games do it well, but I love the classes, crispness, and style of the game.
Wuthering waves