17. Mysterium
If you’ve ever playedDixitand wanted a cooperative style of that gameplay,Mysteriumis what you’ve been looking for.
InMysterium, one player is a ghost who can’t speak at all. They communicate with players by passing out Vision cards, which are vague pictures that represent flashes of imagery.
Each non-ghost player has their own murder mystery that they need to solve, and they use the Vision cards to deduce the location, weapon, and person involved in their case.
Mysteriumis an immersive experience that isn’t difficult to learn, making it a great option for families and casual board gaming groups.
Related:The Best Murder Mystery Board Games That Aren’t Cluedo
16. Letter Jam
Letter Jamis one of the best cooperative word games if you’re looking for something meatier and thinkier than party-style word games.
InLetter Jam, every player has a hidden word that they need to figure out—but they can only work on a single letter at a time.
Players sit in a circle and every player has one letter facing “outwards” toward everyone else, meaning no one can see their own letters but can see everyone else’s letters.
Using the letters you can see, you’ll take turns giving clues to everyone else by using their letters to spell out words—and those other players will need to deduce their own letters based on the words offered.
Related:The Best Paper-and-Pencil Board Games, Ranked
15. Betrayal at House on the Hill (3rd Edition)
Betrayal at House on the Hillis a unique entry on this list of cooperative board games because itstarts offas a cooperative experience, but later the Haunt takes place and one personbecomes a traitor.
In this game, you’ll be exploring a haunted mansion one room at a time, and each room is only revealed as you venture deeper into the shadows. The layout of the mansion is new and random every time.
As you explore, you’ll trigger different Events, face various Omens, and acquire different Items to aid you. After the Haunt, it’s everyone against the traitor—and there are 50 different Haunt scenarios, each with its own gameplay and win conditions.
Note:In 2022,Betrayal at House on the Hillcame out with its 3rd Edition with streamlined rules, smoother gameplay, and improved art and components. It’s the version I recommend.
Related:The Best Board Games Like Betrayal at House on the Hill
14. Forbidden Desert
Forbidden Islandis a solid cooperative board game for newbies to the hobby, butForbidden Desertis the better game. It’s a bit more complex, more difficult, and more satisfying when you win.
InForbidden Desert, everyone takes on a role with special abilities and must work together to survive the blistering sands. Your goal is to locate the four missing airship parts, assemble them, and escape.
This is such a fantastic cooperative game because the sands are constantly shifting—not to mention the devastating sandstorms—so you’re always on the edge of disaster and you really feel like you can’t survive to the end on your own.
Related:The Best Board Games for Three Players, Ranked
13. Flash Point: Fire Rescue
You probably haven’t seen this theme before: you’re all firefighters working together to save people from within a burning house.
Flash Point: Fire Rescueis a puzzly cooperative board game that involves navigating smoke, busting down doors, carrying victims outside, and managing flames to keep them from spiraling out of control.
Things can get pretty intense, especially when fires keep exploding across the house. It really feels like you’re rescuing people and the theme comes through so strongly. If you want a cooperative game where the stakes feel real,Flash Point: Fire Rescueis a solid pick.
Related:The Best Two-Player Coop Board Games for Couples, Ranked
12. Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle
Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battleis a cooperative deckbuilding game where you’ll be using your dynamic decks to fend off the infamous villains.
What’s interesting aboutHarry Potter: Hogwarts Battleis that the game’s cards are split into Game 1 through Game 7, which represent the seven years that Harry spent at Hogwarts—and each set of cards introduces new spells and villains corresponding to those books.
You start with Game 1 and add subsequent Game decks as you win. When you reach the end, you can mix and match them however you want to play the game however you like best.
And whileHarry Potterfans will find joy in all the different references throughout, it’s still a fun game even if you’ve never read the books or watched the movies!
Related:The Best Deckbuilding Board Games and Card Games
11. Marvel Zombies: Heroes' Resistance
Marvel Zombies: Heroes' Resistanceis one of the latest iterations on theZombicidesystem, this time with a Marvel theme.
InMarvel Zombies: Heroes' Resistance, you play as Marvel heroes who are up against a zombie apocalypse. There are several scenarios to play through, each one with its own hazards and win conditions.
One of the biggest complaints aboutZombicidegames is that they tend to be prohibitively expensive.Marvel Zombies: Heroes' Resistanceis far more affordable and a wonderful entry point toZombicidegameplay.
Related:The Best Horror Board Games
10. Horrified
Horrifiedis one of the best cooperative board games for people new to the hobby—it’s easy to learn, fun to play, and it’s wrapped in a theme that everyone can relate to: Universal Monsters!
We’re talking Frankenstein, Dracula, The Wolf Man, and more. Each game ofHorrifiedis played with one or more of these famous monsters, who are threatening your quaint little town of villagers.
Each monster has its own unique gameplay elements and win conditions, which leads to all kinds of replayability based on how you combine them. Plus, you can adjust the difficulty by increasing or decreasing the number of monsters you play with.
Related:The Best Starter Board Games: Must-Haves for a New Collection
9. Switch & Signal
Most train board games are puzzly in nature, butSwitch & Signalis one of the few train board games that’s fully cooperative.
In this pick-up-and-deliver game, trains will be appearing and riding down various rail routes. Your job is to control the various switches and signals along those routes to direct those trains properly.
There are several cities that will need to be visited to pick up goods, and then those goods need to be safely delivered to Marseilles. You have to do this before the event deck runs out (and if trains get stuck or collide too many times, the event deck will deplete faster).
Switch & Signalis one of the best cooperative puzzle-style board games because it encourages teamwork without rewarding “alpha gamer” personalities who want to tell everyone what to do on their turns.
Related:The Best Board Games With Trains
8. Paleo
Paleois a cooperative board game where you play as a small tribe of cavemen living in the wild. Your goal isn’t just to survive—your goal is tothriveby rising up and completing a cave painting.
In this game, you’ll be exploring the environments, hunting animals, gathering resources, and making tough decisions that you’ll be forced to make when unfortunate events befall you.
Resources are used to build tools and develop skills, but players may also need to sacrifice their opportunities to acquire resources in order to help another player and work together on certain tasks.
Paleois truly cooperative in every way, and the efforts of that cooperation shine through at the end when you can stand back and admire the finished cave painting—assuming your tribe has survived.
Related:The Best Puzzle Board Games That Are Thinky and Fun
7. Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion
Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lionis thematically a dungeon crawler, but the gameplay itself plays out like a hand management puzzle. Smart use of cards from your dwindling deck is key to victory.
WhileGloomhaven: Jaws of the Lionis a fantastic solo experience, it’s always more fun with a partner or two. Together, you can advance through the different scenarios and live out your shared story through the decisions you make as a team.
Level up your characters, acquire new loot and gear, and see how well you can progress through the content-packed campaign.
Related:The Best Solo Board Games to Play on Your Own, Ranked
6. The Crew: Mission Deep Sea
If you’re in search of a cooperative game that’s purely cards, you won’t find any that’s better thanThe Crew: Mission Deep Sea.
This is a trick-taking game where you’re all working together to help each other win certain tricks. A random set of task cards are dealt at the start of a hand, which determines how the tricks need to be won.
Maybe you need to win a trick using a Blue 5. Maybe you need to win every 7 card. Or maybe you can’t win any tricks at all.
The catch is that players can’t communicate at all—except by using a single-use token that lets you reveal a card and mark it as either your HIGHEST of that color, LOWEST of that color, or ONLY of that color.
The Crew: Mission Deep Seaelevates the trick-taking card game genre to a new level and forces players to synchronize in ways that few other cooperative board games manage.
Related:The Best Cheap Budget Board Games That Pack a Ton of Fun
5. Just One
Just Oneis a brilliant party-style word game that feels a lot likeScattergories, except everyone is working together.
Every turn, one player is the guesser who needs to guess their target word for the turn. Every other player knows the target word, and they each secretly write a one-word clue for the guesser.
But before the guesser can see those clues, the clues are compared—and if the same one-word clues were given by multiple people, they’re all negated and removed. The guesser only gets the remaining clues.
As simple as it sounds,Just Oneis surprisingly engaging and a lot of fun. Everyone always has something to contribute, there’s often a lot of laughing, and no single person can ever be blamed for losing a turn.
Related:The Best Party Board Games for Larger Groups (8 or More Players)
4. Marvel Champions: The Card Game
Marvel Champions: The Card Gameis exactly that: a cooperative card game where you each play as a Marvel champion.
In this deck construction game, each Marvel champion has a preconstructed deck of action cards, but you’re free to build your own decks using the cards in the base game plus any expansion packs.
Together, you’ll be up against one of several Marvel villains and using your cards to fight off minions and thwart the villain’s master plans.
The base game comes with four champions (Iron Man, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, and Spider-Man) and two villains (Rhino and Ultron). Include all the expansion packs and the possibilities become endless!
Related:The Best Single-Player Card Games That Aren’t Solitaire
3. Adventure Tactics: Domianne’s Tower
If you’ve ever wanted to playFinal Fantasy Tacticsin board game form, this is the game.Adventure Tactics: Domianne’s Toweris exactly that with its tactical grid-based card-centric scenarios and multi-classing character progression.
Together as a party, you’ll be advancing through the campaign and story, earning rewards and leveling up to unlock new abilities that get added to your personal deck of cards.
There are five Basic Classes and you’re free to advance in any of them whenever you level up. Certain combinations of Basic Classes allow you to become Elite Classes with unique powers (e.g. Cleric 1 + Rogue 1 + Archer 1 = Demon Hunter).
While the campaign doesn’t change much with replays, it’s fun to try new character/class combinations to see how well you do. In that sense, it’s very much likeFinal Fantasy Tactics!
Related:The Best Dungeon Crawler Board Games Still in Print, Ranked
2. Tales From the Red Dragon Inn
Tales From the Red Dragon Innis a cooperative dungeon crawl board game for up to four players. You’ll be adventuring across dozens of scenarios, fighting monsters, looting items, and leveling up your characters.
The scenarios are primarily tactical combat encounters that involve moving around grid-based maps and playing cards from your hand to take actions. As you progress through the campaign, you’ll acquire more cards to add to your personal decks.
Based on the characters from previousThe Red Dragon Inngames,Tales From the Red Dragon Innis a wonderfully immersive and engrossing experience that’s great for any board gaming group that can reliably get together on a regular basis.
Related:The Best Strategy Board Games for Tactical Thinkers
1. Spirit Island
To this day, there’s no board game quite likeSpirit Island. It’s definitely not everyone’s cup of tea, but it provides one of the greatest cooperative board gaming experiences of all time.
Spirit Islandhas you playing as elemental Spirits who are trying to fend off invaders from colonizing your island. The invaders are relentless—but if you can strike enough fear into their hearts, they’ll leave.
The beauty ofSpirit Islandis that it isn’t very complex to learn, but it has complex decisions that really make you think. You’re just playing a few cards every turn, but the cards and the game systems are so exquisitely designed that every decision involves many considerations.
Not to mention the Spirits, which each have their own unique mechanics that change how they approach the board, and they synergize with each other in various ways. No two Spirits are alike, no two games are alike.
Spirit Islandis the ultimate cooperative board game because you’re each dealing with your own areas of the island, but your actions directly influence what happens across the island. It’s a uniquely intriguing balance of both solo and group play.
Read next:The Best Island Board Games, Ranked
