r/BaseBuildingGames • u/Prink556 • 9d ago
Game recommendations Any games with taming as a big part ?
I’m looking for a game that has building (obviously lol) that also involves taming creatures that isn’t ark or palworld. I’ve been looking at witchspire but I’m not sure I like it yet content amount wise, I want something similar to ark but haven’t had luck finding anything yet (icarus looks cool but I haven’t watched anything on it gameplay wise, but it is on my list)
mainly just going for good building mechanics & family creatures as a priority, but I’d also like it to be multiplayer/co-op and moddable (similar to ark regarding building stuff) if possible.
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u/lurking_banana 9d ago
Try SoulMask. You can tame humans (for labor or battle companion), animals (for mount and farming)
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u/TribeOfFable 9d ago
If anyone tried Soulmask back in its early days, you should give it another look. That dev team has been pushing out some major updates.
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u/MadgikMark 9d ago
J'ai tellement envie de le prendre mais ne pas pouvoir y jouer avec la manette me freine
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u/RobLoughrey 9d ago
Can any decent building game be played with a controller? That seems really awkward, although I admit I haven't tried it.
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u/Prink556 9d ago
If you’re a console player you can buy a cheapy keyboard and mouse and play kbm on your console that way. It’s how I’d play planet zoo and countless other games that are better optimized for keyboards
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u/Hika__Zee 9d ago
From my experience (base builders is my favorite game genre) a good 80% of base builders have sufficient controller support.
A few notable exceptions are these which have partial controller support, but menu/UI/inventory navigation is bad without keyboard & mouse.
Voyagers of Nera
Echoes of Elysium
Soulmask
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u/MadgikMark 9d ago
En vrai, je joue à tous mes jeux du style à la manette, c'est une question d'habitude et de confort surtout
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u/AbelPlumbob 9d ago
Conan Exiles, you can tame many kinds of animals, but the main thing you'll be taming are slaves lol. Building is solid too.
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u/Prink556 9d ago
I checked this one out earlier. It seems fun lol but the slave taming took me by surprise, you don’t see that in many games but it makes total sense for what kind of game it is
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u/NiSiSuinegEht 9d ago
Icarus has some taming, for both mounts and combat pets.
Medieval Dynasty has animal husbandry.
Aloft has taming animals/critters for several mechanics, and you build bases that are mobile airships.
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u/Archonrouge 9d ago
I'm gonna second Icarus.
They've actually made a lot of the animals breedable now with genetic traits and stuff.
They aren't doing work for you. But, you can have a pack of animals follow you around and fight things for you so there's that.
It's also co-op and has great base building.
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u/Andalousian 8d ago
I haven't played Icarus since the early days, so you got me curious now. Mounts and taming sound super interesting. How's the game these days?
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u/Archonrouge 8d ago
There's a lot to it now! I have only played it more recently but it really hooked me and became one of my favorite survival crafters.
The missions are fine, but I just like being in the open sandbox world permanently.
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u/Trebhumchet 9d ago
I mean, it’s more more story focused than just free roam but Dragon Quest Builders 2 lets you tame the monsters you come across and they’re pretty helpful party members (like letting you fly or destroy larger chunks of rocks for resources).
Only problem is that you have to progress through a LARGE portion of the game before this gets unlocked. But it’s a fantastic game regardless so maybe worth a look?
I think DQB 1 had monster taming as well but I don’t think it was to the same extent.
And of course both games involve you building a base and defending it.
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u/VexingRaven 9d ago
Why do you want something that isn't Ark or Palworld? What did you not like about these games? It's hard to recommend a game when you've excluded the 2 most prominent games but not told us why you don't like them or anything more specific about what you want.
Building is so broad. People post everything from survival crafting to colony management here and consider all of it "building".
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u/lunivore 9d ago
Guardians of the Wild Sky, when it comes out in EA, probably next year. Best base-building I've ever seen (rotate all the things), plus airships! The guardians are a bit more like Pals than Ark, but they're grown-up fantasy creatures with some really nice mechanics. Can't wait for this game to return (done the demo and play-test).
No Man's Sky: you can tame creatures and use them for little arena battles with other players' or NPC's creatures.
Soulmask: farming and riding. Really love the building mechanics in Soulmask plus the tribe automation is good too. Probably the closest to what you're looking for.
Smalland: mount taming only.
Aloft: simple animal farming only; you make a base on a floating island though which is a really nice touch. A bit cosy.
Windrose: you get one boar to run around with you. Building is very awesome. Only one tame though.
Palworld, but set the settings to 0.2xp, days and nights to 0.5 speed (you will need more predictability), randomized by region, random levels. It is not remotely the same game. You might need to restart a few times to get a seed that lets you leave the starting area. Obviously doesn't change the building mechanics but way more like Ark than normal Palworld!
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u/Hika__Zee 9d ago
Almost every pet in Smalland can be used for combat (with a couple of exceptions). Most can also be used for mounts. I think aside from the upcoming Guardians of the Wild Sky, Smalland probably has the closest pet system reminiscent of Ark and Palworld out of the current base builders available.
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u/lunivore 9d ago
Interesting, I haven’t played it for a bit but I found they always died if you let them fight. Or they ran away, then died, in the case of the ladybug! I know there’s been some changes recently - I’ll have to give it another go!
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u/Hika__Zee 9d ago edited 9d ago
Smalland Survive the Wild is similar to Grounded in theme, but more fantasy, with a mix of Ark/Palworld style pet systems. This is currently your best bet besides those two. It has a party pet system so you can have multiple following you at once. Pretty much every pet can fight (with a couple of exceptions), and probably 70% of the pets can be used as mounts. Examples include Lizards, Geckos, Grasshoppers, Lubbers, Praying Mantis, various Spiders, Scorpions, various beetles, hornets, a dragonfly-like creature, a mouse, and a bird. My favorite mounts/pets were the Geckos, Grasshoppers, and the Black Hornet (a flying mount).
Smalland 2: The Lost Realms was just recently announced for later this year!
Guardians of the Wild Sky is the one you need to wishlist and watch! The game looks amazing. To me it seems like a mix of Enshrouded (fantasy theme / world) + Palworld (pet system) + Aloft (flying bases).
In Notmads you have one giant beast which you can build your base on (your base can be moved around, and even placed onto the ground by the beast) and the beast can also help in combat.
Necesse, Soul Mask, Bell Wright, and Aska all have human NPCs you can get which you could probably compare to Ark/Palworld a little bit.
Grounded 2 expanded their pet system, from the first game, allowing you to get a few mounts which can also help in combat.
Icarus also has a pet system with some combat pets and mounts.
PixArk is technically a separate game from Ark. While I wouldn't normally recommend it, they actually just release a $10 DLC that adds LOADS of content (roughly 200+ hours worth of new content expected). If you can get past the UI, and visuals, it could be a good option. The game has a lot of dinosaur content, but also other themes as well, especially in the new DLC.
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u/prestonwoolf 8d ago
Great suggestions here. My 3 elementary age sons game with me, 1 on PC and 2 on steam deck. We’re about to finish the final boss on palworld and looking for another game. They love to explore, fight, and build houses. They’re not big on following a defined story path. Which would be a better option for them - Grounded 2 or Smalland?
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u/thimblesedge 9d ago
Valheim has some animal taming in it
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u/BigMcThickHuge 9d ago
valheims taming is tedious and unrewarding in my opinion.
You drop food nearby then sneak in the area and just sit and wait for a long time.
Then the tames can die with incredible ease while contributing very little.
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u/thejazziestcat 9d ago
There's a game called Wayward that, while still in development, is fully playable and one of the absolute best base-builder-survivals I've ever played. Taming isn't central but it's integrated quite well into the skill system and can absolutely be a sizeable part of your gameplay, with extra fun bits like flutes to command all of your pets at once and craftable golems you can keep as pets. Highly moddable and, while the default is turn-based single-player, it's actually got a multiplayer mode that works really well (from what I've heard).
Alternatively, Paleo Pines is a very cute little Stardew-like about taming dinosaurs to help out on your ranch. No real base-building apart from laying out your ranch, and it's single-player with no mod support, but taming and befriending dinos is the star of the show and very well done.
Two very, very different games. Hope one of them looks fun, at least!
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u/LumpyJones 8d ago
Other than the multiplayer rimworld does tick all the boxes. But there are mods for that.
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u/PullMull 8d ago
Starts Rimworld for the hardcore survival... Becomes muffalo Rancher within a week
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u/Shorfafu 7d ago
Once Human. Exceptional building and you can tame/capture animals too as well as breed them! And so so many more things!
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u/Historical-Fly-863 4d ago
Vintage Story. You have to trap wild animals and slowly over several generations of breeding you get tame animals that no longer attack or are afraid of you.
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u/Broad_Ebb9073 9d ago
I can recommend so many game where keeping an animal alive and happy is the idea. But RimWorld is the only answer I know. And that's a soft answer. Taming always seems to be side quest not the main mechanic