Games Like Conan Exiles: The Best Similar Games (2026)

Conan Exiles occupies a specific corner of the survival genre: a brutal open-world sandbox with free-form building, human NPC followers, base defense and a Conan-flavored fantasy setting. Most survival games do one or two of those well; very few combine all of them. This guide is the honest version of the "games like Conan Exiles" question — the games that genuinely overlap with what you do in the Exiled Lands, what each one does better, and which ones only look similar.

Here's what you'll learn:

• The four pillars that define the "Conan-like" genre
• The closest matches: Enshrouded, Valheim, ARK, Nightingale
• The PvP branch: Rust, Soulmask and the raid-cycle games
• The NPC/building branch: Medieval Dynasty, V Rising
• Which games to skip (and why they're not actually similar)

What Makes a Game "Like Conan Exiles"?

Before recommending anything, it's worth defining the recipe, because the search term covers a huge genre. The four pillars Conan Exiles players actually care about:

1. Open-world survival — big persistent world, resource gathering, hunger/thirst, base-building.
2. Human NPC followers — thralls who work stations and fight with you. This is the rarest pillar: most survival games give you animals or nothing.
3. Free-form building — Conan's building system (foundation grids, 1,075+ building pieces, 24 sets) is one of the genre's best.
4. Combat with weight — melee-heavy, stamina-driven combat rather than shooter mechanics.

Games that hit all four are the true recommendations; games that hit two are "if you liked X about Conan."

The Closest Matches

Enshrouded (2024, Keen Games) — the community's most-cited "modern Conan-like" on the Funcom forums. Co-op survival with free-form building, a large hand-crafted world, and combat with real weight. The catch: no human thrall system — you get summons and a base NPC that unlocks crafters, but not a follower army. If your favorite part of Conan is building + exploring + combat, this is the top pick; if you live for the thrall economy, it's not.

Valheim (2021, Iron Gate) — Viking survival with the best-in-genre building feel and brutal exploration. Progression is boss-gated; combat is stamina-based like Conan. No NPC followers, and multiplayer co-op rather than persistent servers. See our Valheim biomes guide for what its world offers. It's the pick if you want the survival-and-build loop with a tighter, more focused world than Conan's.

ARK Survival Ascended (2023, Studio Wildcard) — the dinosaur-adjacent comparison everyone makes. ARK replaces Conan's human thralls with tamed dinosaurs — a much richer creature system (taming, breeding, stats), similar base-building weight, and similar hardcore PvP servers. If you want more creature depth and less human NPC economy, ARK is the direct upgrade path; our ARK Survival Ascended updates guide covers its current state.

Nightingale (2024, Inflexion Games) — worth naming for a very specific reason: Inflexion is the studio that co-developed Conan Exiles Enhanced. Nightingale is a gaslamp-fantasy survival game with realm-hopping (procedurally-arranged realms), building and co-op. It's the closest thing to "the same developers' other survival game," though the setting and travel mechanics are quite different.

V Rising (2022–2024, Stunlock) — vampire survival where you build a castle, recruit human servants (a genuine NPC workforce — the closest thing to thralls in the genre), and fight through an ARPG-style world. If the thrall economy + base-building combo is your draw, V Rising delivers it with tight combat and a shorter, denser progression.

The PvP and Raid Branch

If your Conan experience is dominated by raid cycles, wipe servers and PvP paranoia:

• Rust (2018, Facepunch) — the definitive raid-cycle survival game. No thralls, no fantasy, but the most refined base-raiding meta in the genre, with weekly wipe servers. See our Rust beginners guide for the onboarding reality check.
• Soulmask (2024) — a newer survival game with a tribal setting and NPC tribespeople you recruit — the closest modern competitor to Conan's follower system, wrapped in a more polished action-combat package.
• Savage Lands / Smalland / SCUM — the forums' deeper cuts: Savage Lands is an older fantasy survival with rough edges; Smalland is tiny-folk survival with building; SCUM adds heavy simulation systems.

The NPC and Building Branch

• Medieval Dynasty (2020+, Render Cube) — the community's standard answer to "I want the NPC-village half of Conan." You build a village, recruit villagers, assign jobs and grow a settlement — no survival combat loop, but the deepest human-NPC economy in the genre.
• 7 Days to Die (2013–2024, The Fun Pimps) — zombie survival with building and a horde-night base-defense loop. No NPC followers; the forum verdict is that it drifted toward looter-shooter over the years.
• Palworld (2024) — monster-taming survival where the "followers" are Pals that work your base and fight alongside you; a much lighter tone than Conan but a direct hit on the "NPCs do your labor" fantasy. See our Palworld 1.0 guide.

Which Games to Skip (The Trap Recommendations)

• Minecraft / Terraria — building sandboxes, but the survival and combat loops are a different genre. Terraria is 2D and combat-first; the building is great, the "Conan experience" isn't there.
• The Forest / Sons of the Forest — horror survival with building, but story-driven and small-scale; no persistent server economy.
• New World / MMO-survival hybrids — an MMO, not a sandbox; you can't shape the world the way Conan lets you.
• Dune: Awakening — frequently mentioned, but it's an MMO-survival (persistent Arrakis shared by thousands), which changes the sandbox promise fundamentally. Watch for launch before committing.

FAQ

What games are most like Conan Exiles? Enshrouded and Valheim for building + exploration + combat; ARK Survival Ascended for creature taming; Nightingale for the same-dev studio take on survival; V Rising for a vampire-castle twist with an NPC servant economy. Medieval Dynasty covers the NPC-village half specifically.

Is there a game like Conan Exiles with NPC followers? V Rising (servants), Soulmask (tribal NPCs), and Palworld (Pals) are the closest to Conan's thrall system. Medieval Dynasty has the deepest human-NPC economy but no combat loop. No game fully replicates Conan's thrall + base-defense combination.

Which game is better, Conan Exiles or ARK? Depends on what you want: ARK has the deeper creature system (taming, breeding, stats) but no human NPC economy; Conan has thralls, better melee combat and the fantasy setting. ARK players miss Conan's NPCs; Conan players miss ARK's dinosaurs. Pick by which pillar you value.

Is Enshrouded like Conan Exiles? Yes, for the building + exploration + combat pillars — it's the most-cited modern comparison. It lacks Conan's thrall/follower system, so if the NPC economy is your draw, pair it with something like V Rising instead.

What is the best survival game for building like Conan Exiles? Valheim has the best building feel in the genre; ARK Survival Ascended has the most comparable building scale; Enshrouded is the closest modern all-rounder. Conan itself still has the largest building piece library (1,075+ pieces across 24 sets).

Related Guides

• Conan Exiles Cross-Platform: Crossplay Guide (2026)
• Conan Exiles Armor Guide: Best Sets & How Armor Works
• Conan Exiles Enhanced Guide: The UE5 Upgrade Explained
• Valheim Biomes Guide
• Rust Beginners Guide

Official resources: Conan Exiles Steam store page · Official Conan Exiles site · Official wiki — Conan Exiles · Enshrouded on Steam · Nightingale on Steam

Last Updated: August 13, 2026