Attention fellow base-building ghouls and survival masochists, I've got good news and bad news. Starting with the good: Some of the best survival crafting games are no longer in early access, and have hit their 1.0 milestones. The bad news? Three of them piled into the same one-month window.
I've seen a million posts all asking the same advice: "Should I get Valheim, RuneScape Dragonwilds, or Enshrouded first?" And as someone who can't stop sinking hundreds of hours into mining the same three types of rock, I'm qualified enough to help you decide. I've also recruited my colleague, Chris Livingston, who is always up to in-game riffraff resulting in funny animal encounters or injuries like some sort of bizarre, survival-crafting Jeff Corwin.
We've got our own opinions on who's who among the recent survival crafting 1.0 launches, but maybe you just need something to compare features before getting into recommendations. It's by no means everything included across all three games, but here's a quick comparison of the differences and similarities between features and default settings in Valheim, RuneScape: Dragonwilds, and Enshrouded.
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Feature
Valheim
RuneScape Dragonwilds
Enshrouded
Map
Procedurally generated
Handcrafted
Handcrafted
Fast travel
Player-crafted portals with item limits
Player-crafted portals that require runes as currency
Unlockable fast travel points and limited player-crafted bases
Thirst and starvation
No thirst or starvation mechanic, but food buffs are vital
Adjustable thirst and starvation mechanics with food buffs (enabled by default)
Adjustable thirst and starvation mechanics with food buffs (disabled by default)
Inventory capacity
Slots and weight
Slots and weight
Slots only
Death penalties
Skill XP/levels lost; leave behind a gravestone with inventory to retrieve
No XP loss; leave behind a gravestone with inventory to retrieve
No XP loss; leave behind a gravestone with inventory to retrieve
Item durability
✔️
✔️
✔️
Crafting from storage
❌
✔️
✔️
Structural integrity
✔️
✔️
❌
Sleep through nights
Skips nighttime
Skips nighttime
Speeds up nighttime
Comfort/Rest
Provides rested buff through furniture and decor with comfort values
Requires sleep to replenish rest meter; separate cosiness buff requires a bed
Provides rested buff through furniture and decor with comfort values
Dynamic weather
✔️
✔️
✔️
Grid snap
✔️
✔️
✔️
Terraforming
✔️
❌
✔️
… Trimmed for readability. Visit the source for the full article.
Extracted and lightly reformatted for readability. · Source: pt