Are there any good casual/low-stress mobile games that aren’t filled with microtransactions? For example: easy puzzle games, match-3 games, low-difficulty adventure games, or clicker-style games.

So far, the only good examples I’ve found are Monument Valley, Suika Game, and (sort of) Vampire Survivors.

I’m personally looking for games that have more progression or variety, but any suggestions are welcome.

  • A_Very_Big_Fan@lemmy.worldEnglish
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    7 months ago

    If you like the older Pokemon games and can get the ROMs on your phone, PokeMMO is really cool. It’s an emulator that turns the first 5 generations of games into an MMO where you can take the same character across each region.

    There’s a handful of changes to the base game, but most are small: Berry farming is changed, there’s an Exp Share for EVs now, Sweet Scent is used to summon a 1v5 against wild Pokemon… There’s character customization… There’s some QoL stuff like shiny encounters having a sound effect and adding a confirmation box so you don’t accidentally flee.

      • Tarquinn2049@lemmy.worldEnglish
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        7 months ago

        Terarria can be played as casual or low stress. You choose when to advance the difficulty, and how elaborately you contruct your preparations for the next step. But for a largely stress-free casual playstyle, focus on being a summoner. Also, there isn’t much penalty for dying. So if you can wrap your mind around not being bothered by dying, then any playstyle can feel casual really. It’s certainly a tough mindset to achieve for some of us though, lol.

      • bassomitron@lemmy.worldEnglish
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        7 months ago

        Not to mention using touch controls for it is brutal. At least, for me it is. Might be decent if using a controller with your phone.

        • Mango@lemmy.worldEnglish
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          7 months ago

          I’ve tried it even with the razor kishi. No dice. This game was born for mouse and keyboard.

      • xavier666@lemm.eeEnglish
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        7 months ago

        Stardew Valley can be stress inducing if you are that type of player.

        • “Let me do a bit of fishing on the beach OH FCK it’s already 1 AM. Intense cardio session towards my house before JoJo employees steal 1000G.”
        • “I need to give Demetrius a gift by the end of the day. WHERE TF ARE YOU ROAMING ABOUT? Come take your gift!”
        • “Let me visit the shop for some seeds. WHO THE HELL CLOSES SHOP on a Wednesday? Am I the only one working in this town?”
        • “Marnie TF you closing shop at 3 PM! My chickens need hay and you are frolicking in the bar”
      • acetanilide@lemmy.worldEnglish
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        7 months ago

        I agree. I only mentioned it because it was recommended to me as low stress, so I thought it was just me that didn’t get it lol

        • Mango@lemmy.worldEnglish
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          7 months ago

          Oh I knew that at least. I usually turn that all the way up and play on PC. I was thinking more along the lines of Minecraft passive mode or whatever they call it these days. I suppose it wouldn’t make sense in the context of terraria though. Terraria is about the fights.

          • acetanilide@lemmy.worldEnglish
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            7 months ago

            That’s true. Maybe I should try it on PC. I know a lot of people really like it so I would like to give it a fair shot.

    • nieceandtows@programming.devEnglish
      0·
      7 months ago

      Stardew valley stressed me out so much I stopped playing before even reaching that first year party. It looks like a casual fun game, but there are so many characters to make friends (even if it’s optional, it’s stressful because of the implication/expectation). And you need to tend to your garden, and even if you don’t do anything, midnight rolls around and you feel like you didn’t do anything useful and it’s overall very stressful to me. May be it gets easier once you get sprinklers and whatnot, but early game was anything but casual and fun for me.

      • NutWrench@lemmy.worldEnglish
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        7 months ago

        I like “Traveler’s Rest” because the game doesn’t force you to keep regular hours at your tavern. If you want, you can spend the whole day crafting and restocking until you’re ready to deal with customers again.

      • acetanilide@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        7 months ago

        I completely understand. It was very overwhelming for me at first and sometimes can still be overwhelming depending on how my computer is working lol

        If you ever decide you want to try it again I highly recommend modding it (and I would be happy to send you what I use). That said it’s not a bad thing to play other games if you like them better :) games should be fun not stressful imo

        Edit: removed the extra “my”

    • TAG@lemmy.worldEnglish
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      7 months ago

      Note with Stardew Valley: it is not unplayable without a controller, but if you have clumsy sausage fingers like me, the poor touch controls really took me out of the game.

    • Sylveon@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      0·
      7 months ago

      It can be played pretty casually. A run usually takes around an hour but you don’t have to play it in one go. And on the base difficulty it’s pretty approachable. You definitely don’t have to play 500 hours to enjoy it. But you can if you want to :)

      • cRazi_man@lemm.eeEnglish
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        7 months ago

        Slay The Spire is an excellent recommendation. Although a lot of people find roguelites stressful because they get stressed about losing progress. You just have to play with the right mindset:

        No worries

  • Dave@lemmy.nzEnglish
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    7 months ago

    Stardew Valley is casual, low stress, with heaps of content.

    For quick few minutes I’ve recently been into Pirate Solitaire which is on F-Droid.

  • domdanial@reddthat.comEnglish
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    7 months ago

    “0h h1” is a fun, easy logic puzzle game that I find myself going back to when I have a minute to kill.

  • Obi@sopuli.xyzEnglish
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    7 months ago

    Not sure if it fits your criteria but the only mobile game I play is pinball deluxe. If you like real pinball, then you’ll love it, it tries to stay as true to real pinball as possible on some/most tables, it does have small transaction stuff you can buy but I still haven’t bought any including all the additional tables etc after playing it 6 months + and if you did, then it’s just an 8€ one time buy to get all the content and remove the ads, I’m gonna get that once I actually get bored of the “free” tables.

    • verity_kindle@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
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      7 months ago

      Yass, this was a daily driver for six months straight. The missions are actually fun and help you get access to free tables. Nice surprise, graphics are gorgeous.

  • Plagiatus@lemmy.worldEnglish
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    7 months ago

    I liked egg inc for a while, if you’re looking for clicker type games.

    Other than that I can recommend

    • Stardew Valley
    • Peglin
    • Sudoku
    • Nanograms
    • Dungeon Village 1 & 2

    Multiple of these are paid, but I’m 100% on board with paying a small amount for an app rather than paying a multiple of that for in-game Battlepasses and whatevers.

    It annoys me a lot to say this, but Netflix has some excellent games in their roster. So if you have a Netflix subscription, check those out. I personally very much enjoyed

    • Storyteller
    • Into the Breach

    But they also have ports of some very good PC games like Spiritfarer, Terra Nil or World of Goo.

    • verity_kindle@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
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      7 months ago

      Any little casual simulators by Kairosoft, the pay to play “full versions” are pretty cheap. Manage a lil apartment building, manage a tiny sushi restaurant, manage a little Japanese village. 8 bit style, very soothing. The free versions are quite limited in scope and cut you off from further progression after a few levels, but no microtransaction reminders, either. The mention of “Dungeon Village” reminded me, is that Kairosoft?

  • lapping6596@lemmy.worldEnglish
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    7 months ago

    Blooms TD 6 - fun tower defense game with solid progression and everything can be earned by playing what I think is a reasonable amount.

  • Mr. Camel999@programming.devEnglish
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    7 months ago

    I use Privacy Friendly versions of Sudoku and Minesweeper on the F-Droid store. I also really enjoy Nonograms (aka Picross), and haven’t found a good foss app for it, but the app “nonograms.com” has been a good experience for me. I paid like $5 for the ad free version and that’s been it, nothing else.

  • Silverchase@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
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    7 months ago

    Games I know of on Android:

    • Ganz Schön Clever — Digital adaptation of a board game. It’s like bingo except you roll dice and there’s actual skill involved.
    • Knotwords — Crosswords but instead of word clues, each region of the board indicates what letters appear there.
    • Threes — 2048 was a ripoff of 1024, and 1024 was a ripoff of Threes. Threes is the OG.
    • Sagrada — Digital adaptation of a board game. Build a stained glass window by rolling dice and placing them on your board in the right pattern.
    • Simon Tatham’s Puzzles — Big compilation of various puzzle types.
    • Handshakes (by Pet Pumpkin) — “Solo co-op” sokoban puzzle where you try to get two guys to shake hands.
    • inbento — Assemble lunch boxes by sliding tiles around to match the reference picture.