Survival Games Where You Must Survive Without Weapons

Survival games without combat are already a rare find, but finding one without any weapons at all is nearly an impossible task. After all, in an actual survival situation, anything can be a weapon if one’s desperate enough for it — a rock, a sharpened stick, even a well-aimed frying pan. But the question is, if a resource can be used for defense, does it still count as just a tool?

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That’s the challenge when looking for survival games that take away weapons from players entirely. While many survival games focus on fighting off threats, some take a different approach. They force players to rely on their inherent and external resourcefulness, strategy, and willpower. This somehow makes these games way more realistic. They prove that survival isn’t about who has the biggest gun, it’s about who plays the smartest — whether it’s outsmarting nature, managing resources, or simply avoiding danger altogether. Here are some survival games where weapons take a backseat — or don’t exist at all.

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Oxygen Not Included

2D Survival Sim With A Unique Premise

Simulation

Survival

Management

Oxygen Not Included is a unique 2D survival sim that focuses on keeping a fragile space colony alive instead of trying to live through some earthly wilderness. The story of the game is just as quirky as its graphics. It basically revolves around the player character trying to manage an entire human settlement inside a space asteroid. The game puts a strong emphasis on science, smart management, and resourcefulness. Of course, like most games on this list, this one also does not have traditional weapons but ’tools’ to operate massive machinery for survival.

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The objectives players are given include ensuring a steady supply of oxygen, food, and power while balancing other life-sustaining factors like temperature, oxygen, and even emotions. Every choice is crucial and can be the deciding factor between survival or — well, the entire colony going down.

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Among Trees

Gorgeous, Almost Surreal, Game With Amazing Graphics And Peaceful Gameplay

Indie

Survival

Sandbox

Simulation

Adventure

Released

November 10, 2021

Engine

Unity

Among Trees is a positively gorgeous game that leaves players to navigate the beauty (and dangers) of nature. It’s a first-person survival adventure that looks and feels almost like a fever dream — but in a good way. The game is so vibrant and bright that it makes even its in-game night-time look neon-esque and alive.

Among Trees revolves around building and exploring, essentially. The main goal of the game is to expand the players’ small cabin into a fully functioning home by converting more land into rooms and basically becoming self-sustaining. Players can craft tools, explore dense forests, and interact with wildlife. There are some ‘dangerous’ aspects of the game, which may include feral animals — but players can override that completely by playing the Zen mode. It’s a game that thrives on solitude and discovery. It’s almost like a uniquely meditative take on the survival genre.

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WolfQuest

Survive As A Wolf In Yellowstone National Park

Life Simulation

Survival

Open-World

Developer(s)

eduweb

Early Access Release

July 25, 2019

WolfQuest strips survival down to its most natural form — living as a wild wolf in what can only be categorized as the abomination that is the wilderness. The game is set in Yellowstone National Park and does a solid job of recreating the area with as much realism as possible. Naturally, because WolfQuest literally puts players into the paws of an actual wolf, there are no weapons, no tools, and no ‘man-made’ advantages — just wolfy instincts and the hard primal realities of nature as a wild animal.

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In WolfQuest, players basically do what a real wild wolf does. They’re supposed to hunt for food, find and claim territory, and defend it from anything that takes a step too close. The eventual goal is to find a mate and expand the pack. Once the player wolf has pups to look after, their work is cut out for them. They have to raise the pups and protect them from other rival wolves, hungry bears, and all the other dangers lurking in Yellowstone. It’s about as close to real wolf ecology as a video game can get.

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Niche: A Genetics Survival Game

Biology-Heavy Animal Survival Game

• Released: September 15, 2016
• Genres: Simulation Video Game, Indie game
• Platform: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows, Linux, Xbox One, Mac operating systems
• Developers: Stray Fawn

There are a lot of games in the industry that try to build up creativity by finding different focal points for their games. Niche: A Genetics Survival Game, however, is one such game that takes things to a completely different level. It’s a unique blend of turn-based strategy and simulation that focuses on…biology?

Well, it revolves around genetics, to be more specific. The entire game hinges on applying real genetic principles to breed different species. Following that, players get to manage their own tribe of strange creatures. Their responsibility is to make sure these new species survive through tough external factors like predators, climate change, and disease. Quite naturally, the game is completely devoid of weapons — since animals can’t use them.

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Astroneer

Outer-Space, Futuristic, Survival Game

Astroneer

Released

February 6, 2019

OpenCritic Rating

Strong

Anything can be a weapon if one’s desperate enough for it — but this can’t be applied more closely to any other game than Astroneer. The game is literally sci-fi with no combat but tools and crafting items that can be fairly lethal weapons if used as such. That said, the game isn’t about that. Instead of dealing with enemies or fending off threats, Astroneer is all about exploration, creativity, and problem-solving in the vastness of space.

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Survival in Astroneer revolves around shaping the environment (alien planets in this case) to player advantage. Instead of dealing with threats or combat, players focus on gathering resources and crafting absurd sci-fi builds that ensure their survival. Everything is possible in Astroneer — from building different power plants to figuring out automatic harvesting machinery.

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The Planet Crafter

Outer-Space, Futuristic Survival With Very Intricate Mechanics

Released

April 10, 2024

Developer(s)

Miju Games

OpenCritic Rating

Strong

The Planet Crafter is another space survival that isn’t about surviving against enemies but transforming unlivable planets into thriving ecosystems. The game features a tonne of different craftable tools, items, and machines — but none of them are intrinsically weapons. The game challenges players to manage oxygen, heat, and pressure while constructing bases.

They are also responsible for deploying machines to terraform the area for better building and living space. Over time, the entire barren landscape would turn not only into a livable, inhabitable area but would also start growing its own flora. The entire game is essentially a steady, rewarding process of turning a dead planet into a new home.

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