The best cooperative board games

Adventurers exploring a map and battling monsters in The Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-earth.
(Image credit: Fantasy Flight Games)

Disowned by a friend or loved one because you traded sheep for wheat? You aren’t alone. Many of us have embraced the best cooperative board games either out of necessity, or just the sweet taste of shared triumph and common misfortune. The idea of cooperative games is bread and butter to PC gamers, whether it’s questing together in an MMO, surviving the undead hordes of Left 4 Dead, or finishing yet another contract in Deep Rock Galactic—and it’s a trend that’s thriving in the world of board games as well, with countless new entries each year.

But how is the discerning gamer to know which games are worth the investment, and which ones will have them regretting a set of instructions so arcane they feel like a classic adventure game puzzle? Because of our love of gaming together, we’ve put our collaborative heads together and conjured up highlights in each appropriate category. If you’re stuck for what to try out first, you can graduate on up from beginner games into whatever strikes your fancy next, and avoid arguments and fisticuffs in your playgroup at the same time. Just be sure you’ve got the fridge stocked and snacks on hand—surviving the villains board game designers can cook up always works up an appetite.

Best beginner co-op board game

Hanabi

PC Gamer's got your back Our experienced team dedicates many hours to every review, to really get to the heart of what matters most to you. Find out more about how we evaluate games and hardware.

The box for board game Hanabi, showing fireworks going off over rooftops.

(Image credit: R&R Games Incorporated)

Work together to create the perfect fireworks display

2-5 players

$8.80 at R&R Games Incorporated

As if orchestrating a fireworks display isn't tricky enough, Hanabi wants you to do it with a pretty significant handicap. With only a handful of cards, you’re trying to play your colourful explosions in the correct sequence, with any incorrect plays costing you one of your precious fuse tokens. Run out and the display is over!

While that sounds relatively simple, the catch is that you hold your hand of cards facing everyone else, and can never look at your own cards. Other players can give you hints about what is in your hand, but never specific enough to give you all the details, making Hanabi a delightful deductive reasoning puzzle.

Alternatively... If you'd prefer a more traditional board game experience with a horror twist, try Horrified.

Best family co-op board game

Forbidden Desert

(Image credit: Gamewright Games)

Explore and survive an ever-changing desert

2-5 players

$24.85 on Amazon

You play a group of survivors stranded among the dunes, trying to piece together an ancient flying machine to escape. Each turn, sand tiles will pile up on the different spots you need to search, and you’ll have to take turns prioritizing the different parts of survival: removing sand, searching for parts, and finding water to stay alive. Really easy for even new players or kids to learn and play, Forbidden Desert randomizes each time you play it, keeping it fresh each time.

Alternatively... If you’ve got slightly more experienced players, or older children, 5-minute Dungeon is a great step up.

Best campaign co-op board game

Arkham Horror: The Card Game

(Image credit: Fantasy Flight Games)

Delve into the world of the occult

1-4 players

$45 on Amazon

A campaign game where your chosen investigators attempt to solve Lovecraftian mysteries without being driven mad or ripped to shreds. As you'd expect from the name, it's all about cards, with your heroes represented as a deck but also the scenarios you take on, the locations you explore, and the enemies you fight.

Each mission puts its own clever twist on the action. In one you might be exploring a town and trying to root out secret cultists, while another might be a desperate escape from a burning building, or a tense battle against the undead. Your successes and failures in each will follow you, modifying both your own deck and subsequent scenarios, adding further wrinkles.

If you enjoy your descent into darkness, numerous expansions allow you to keep the adventures going. Just beware that collecting them all can become a dangerous obsession...

Alternatively... Take to space and explore new worlds, or just try to keep your ship running with ISS Vanguard.

Best co-op board game under $50

Star Realms Frontiers

(Image credit: Wise Wizard Games)

Build a fleet of spaceships and battle in the stars

1-4 players

$24 on Amazon

A spin on classic deck-builder Star Realms, Frontiers adds additional cards to support more players, and changes the game to support cooperative play against special new nemesis enemies, each of which has their own unique rules. You’ll draft starships and starbases to improve your deck, and each card can help you afford to draft better ones, attack the enemy, or provide special abilities. It’s a portable and accessible take on a deck-builder, and compatible with all the existing Star Realms expansions, so you can add piles of options if you want a grander experience.

Alternatively... If you like space but not deck-building, how about mission based trick-taking game The Crew - Quest for Planet Nine?

Best co-op dungeon crawl board game

The Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-earth

(Image credit: Fantasy Flight Games)

Explore Middle-earth and push back the forces of Sauron

1-5 players

$88 on Amazon

Step into the boots of an iconic hero from The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit, gather their deck of cards (customising it by changing their class and gear, if you like), and set out on a series of story-rich campaigns.

Play is guided by an excellent companion app for phones, tablets, and PC, which cleverly streamlines play. Forget flipping through the manual or painstakingly playing out enemy turns, all the tedium is handled for you.

Each mission sees you either exploring a map by placing tiles and moving your miniatures across them, or taking on a challenge on a simple battle map. It's a simple set-up, but creative scenario design keeps it fresh and exciting. An exploration map might be a stealthy journey avoiding patrolling orcish sentries, or a desperate search through ancient ruins for a powerful artifact. A battle map might herald a tense tactical combat against a brutal boss monster, or a spot of mystery solving as you try and root out a traitor in a cosy inn. It's like a tabletop RPG campaign with the app as your diligent Dungeon Master.

Alternatively... If Tolkien isn't your bag, you can enjoy similar adventures in the world of Star Wars with Imperial Assault.

Best co-op puzzle board game

Dorfromantik

(Image credit: Pegasus Spiele)

Place tiles with precision to build an idyllic landscape

1-6 players

$45 on Amazon

Just like the original videogame, this tabletop adaptation is all about creating a beautiful tableau of rolling hills, rivers, and quaint little towns.

You have two stacks: the normal tiles and the task tiles. Task tiles ask you to build around them in some way, like surrounding a town with more town tiles. There are points to be won for completing these, and each normal tile does have some restrictions (you can only place the connecting sides of river and railroad tiles against connecting tile edges, for example), but Dorfromantik doesn’t have any way to lose. You and your friends are simply shooting for the high score each time, and the real reward is just a soothing experience ending in a beautiful map.

To make sure you still have something to strive for, Dorfromantik offers milestone rewards at different point totals, allowing you to open a series of sealed boxes and add more pieces to the game. It's a lovely way of gently increasing complexity and granting a sense of progression in a non-campaign experience.

Alternatively... For a quicker and more intense experience, check out The Mind, which turns a deceptively simple task (placing numbered cards in sequence) into a fascinating challenge by forbidding all verbal communication.

Best co-op survival board game

The Grizzled

(Image credit: CMON)

Work together to survive WWI

2-5 players

$25 on Amazon

Truly a game of pushing your luck for everyone involved, The Grizzled casts you as soldiers in the trenches of the Great War, all of whom just want to make it out alive. Each round, the current leader will choose a number of cards for all players to draw from the deck, and then players must take turns either playing a card or ducking out on the mission, at the end of which more cards are added to the deck.

Cards might be threats, where too many at once will cause the mission to fail, or cards that represent the fears and worries of the soldiers, so players have to be careful when they choose to play or back out—because the ultimate goal is to deplete the draw deck to win. The lack of shared information about what cards each player has creates a sense of anxiety that’s perfect for the theme, because any wrong move could doom the group's mission to being their last time over the top.

Alternatively... Take on zombies and the bitter cold in Dead of Winter, but be careful: not everybody on the team has your best interests in mind.

Sarah Richter
Contributor

Sarah is a contributor for PC Gamer, formerly of TechRadar Gaming. With five years of experience writing freelance for several publications, she's covered every genre imaginable and probably a few she made up. She has a passion for diversity and the way different genres can be sandboxes for creativity and emergent storytelling, and loves worldbuilding. With thousands of hours in League of Legends, Overwatch, Minecraft, and countless survival, strategy, roguelike, and RPG entries, she still finds time for offline hobbies like tabletop RPGs, wargaming, miniatures painting, and hockey.

With contributions from
Read more
Divinity: Original Sin 2
The best co-op games to drag your pals into
Hades
The best games on Steam in 2025
Journey - a hooded character stand sin the desert
The 20 best cozy games on PC that aren't farm sims
Monster Hunter Wilds - a player in armor cheers
The best PC games right now
Best Free Steam Games - Marvel Rivals - Black Widow aims down a sniper scope.
The best free games on Steam
Armed combatants in the apocalypse
The best survival games on PC
Latest in Board Game
Image of 2001 a space odyssey the board game
There's gonna be a 1 vs many board game based on 2001: A Space Odyssey
Image of GHQ, a board game by Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut's lost board game is back in stores after 70 years of obscurity and one sold-out print run
A dark elf with a spider-shaped staff, flanked by giant spiders who crawl over the statue of a dwarf king
WotC has published a handy guide to upgrading your D&D campaign to the 2024 rules
The wizard Mentor, his white hair illuminated by magical fire
HeroQuest: First Light turns the classic board game into something I could actually imagine kids playing today
Cyber monday board games header
The best Cyber Monday deals on board game adaptations that will lure your beloved gamer away from their screen
A party of adventurers faces a green dragon
5E's original Starter Set, Lost Mine of Phandelver is still a great way to start a D&D campaign
Latest in Features
Fragpunk characters with weapon drawn
The latest big game on Steam is Fragpunk, or as I like to call it, 'kitchen-sink Counter-Strike'
Screenshots from Half-Life 2 RTX, showing the various new effects delivered by full ray tracing and enhanced assets.
I just played Half-Life 2 RTX, a fully ray-traced overhaul of the original, and its meaty headcrabs have me hankering for more
In a world of WoW Classics and Old School RuneScapes… could Final Fantasy 14 ever do the same?
A child stands on top of a dinosaur exhibit, hugging the nose of a dinosaur skull.
As a real life museum employee, I'm a bit confused by the amount of pirate ghosts in Two Point Museum—but it's not going to stop me trying to make the most realistic exhibits I can
Honey B Lovely
The state of Final Fantasy 14 in 2025: It's in a weird spot, huh?
A hunter grins and throws two peace/victory signs while wearing a Mimiphyta helm in Monster Hunter Wilds.
Monster Hunter Wilds' best change is to its layered armor, letting me finally run amok with dressup the way I should have always been able to