Cozy gamesare a great way to relax after a long day. With soft soundtracks, cute visuals, and calming subject matter, it can be easy to unwind with a few hours of playing anything within the genre. However, some cozy games manage to implement grind as a way to keep players engaged.
Grind isn’t all that bad. Sometimes it is part of the natural gameplay loop, where a bit of grind now can mean cozier rewards later. This can be in the form of upgrading your cozy in-game home or unlocking new features that give you a sense of accomplishment.
If you love gingerbread cookies and worlds where every flavor is personified, then the Cookie Run franchise has your back. This cozy mobile game has you producing resources and upgrading your Cookie’s skills so you’re able to do battle.
The game is cute, cuddly, and has stories that make you smile just as much as they can make you feel hyped for the next update. Along the way, you’ll need to grind battles against other players to get better upgrades and run through levels multiple times to complete challenges.
Stardew Valley is the poster child forthe cozy farming genre. You can grow crops, clean up the town, and even get yourself a bit of a romance going on. However, if you want to go far, you’re going to need to dedicate plenty of time to upgrading your skills and grinding your farm.
This means enhancing the quality of your crops so that they sell for more. Then you may use the extra funds to get better equipment that will help you improve everything you produce little by little. Farming in gaming can be tough but cozy.
Terraria is a cozy game to play, especially when you have others to play it with. However, despite the cute pixel graphics and stylized enemies, the game is actually quite grindy. There are many different weapons and tools that make exploration easier, but you’ll need to work hard to get enough ammo to make use of them frequently.
Going deeper through the tunnels also means there will be troublesome enemies. You’ll need to grind if you want to gather enough equipment to get past them, whether it means fighting them or having enough illumination tools to brave the darkness.
Palia is one of the coziest farming MMOs but also one of the grindiest if you want to make the most of it. You can hunt, cook, grow crops, fish, or collect bugs with the added fun factor that you can do it all with friends.
However, this can be time-consuming, especially when you want to make enough dough for a few upgrades. Sometimes to have the coziest farm, you’ll need a helping hand as you work your way towards creating the perfect home.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet is one of the easier titles in the franchisedue to the fact that you can skip trainer battles and EXP share is always on. However, there is plenty to do around Paldea, such as training your Pokemon or trying to grind raids.
Raids in Pokemon offer unique ways to team up with friends or with strangers in a bigger challenge. This can mean the difference between finding the perfect Pokemon with a desired Tera type or trying to find items to make your team competitive.
Maintaining your own cult is no easy feat. You need to make sure your believers are constantly satisfied, whether it means keeping your camp tidy, your flock fed, and the non-believers purged.
Being defeated while tackling the randomly generated dungeons will cause your flock to lose faith in you, while victory strengthens your cult. This, in addition to all the resources that need to be gathered to upgrade your camp makes it a cozy game that needs plenty of time dedicated tothe dungeon crawling grind.
Bear and Breakfast may look cozy, but there’s plenty of grind to be had as you make progress managing your side business. You’ll need to forage for supplies, cook, and organize your little inn to attract more customers.
This can get a bit grindy when you need to factor in the score of every item in the room to maximize comfort levels and gain good reviews. So, while sometimes you might need to stay on your land to tend to your crops, other times you will have to venture around the world each day to find anything of value to add to your inn.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons isthe definitive cozy game on the Nintendo Switch. However, like most Animal Crossing games, it has a bit of a grind before you’re able to truly make your island completely reflect your artistic vision.
Not only are there plenty of fossils, fish, and bugs that you need to collect for the museum, but events are happening every day. This means that you’ll need to keep coming back if you want to experience everything there is to do. However, if you dedicate yourself to the grind, you’ll have an island worth showing off.
Wytchwood hasfantastic 2D visuals that remind you of the paintings in a storybook. After all, it is heavily inspired by fairy tales. As a witch, you’ll need to gather resources from across the land to craft powerful spells and potions.
While it might be a grind to keep crafting potions, the story is what drives you to push forwards. As a witch, you are tasked with collecting 12 souls from various characters to fulfill a pact. This will require some clever puzzle-solving and character interactions to get to know their full stories as well as the best method of tricking them out of their souls.
Moonlighter is a cozy dungeon crawler that has you defeating enemies to gather resources you can sell. There are also tough bosses that will give you plenty of trouble if you don’t upgrade your equipment. So prepare to get knocked out of the dungeon frequently.
Dungeon crawling is only half of the grind. In the shop, you need to set prices that the townspeople find agreeable. This can help you make more sales. However, your success also dictates the market, so an item that sold for plenty yesterday might not be as lucrative the very next day.
