The best semi-cooperative board games 🤝 2025

Forgotten Waters is a captivating board game that plunges players into the whimsical and unpredictable world of pirate adventure. Blending storytelling and strategy, this game stands out for its immersive narrative and engaging gameplay.

Embark on an epic journey through the Marvel Comics universe with Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game. Assemble your team to combat infamous mastermind villains such as Magneto, Loki, Dr. Doom, and Red Skull. Customize the game by selecting hero decks from iconic characters like Spider-Man, Hulk, Wolverine, and more. The dynamic gameplay evolves as players recruit powerful hero cards, enhancing their decks to face the ever-growing threats.

Strange things are happening! Someone is trying to disrupt the agents' joint missions. In this "almost" cooperative trickery game, 3-5 players aim to complete as many missions as possible while the insider gathers information and sabotages the team's efforts.

Nemesis is a semi-cooperative, survival horror board game set in a sci-fi universe, offering an intense and immersive experience as players navigate a spacecraft infested with hostile alien organisms.

Hellapagos is a game of survival and treachery, aptly termed a "co-opetition," where players must cooperate to some extent but ultimately look out for themselves. Stranded on a desert island with limited resources, up to twelve players must negotiate and strategize to gather supplies, build a raft, and escape before a looming hurricane destroys everything. However, not all players may make it off the island due to the scarce availability of food and water.

Castle Panic is a cooperative, fantasy-themed board game where players unite to defend their castle against an onslaught of monsters from an encroaching forest. This family-friendly game combines elements of strategy and luck, requiring players to work together to survive the monster attack. The game is designed for 1 to 6 players, suitable for ages 10 and up, making it an accessible yet engaging experience for a wide range of players.

Taverns, motivated merchants, and magical items are all you need to become the richest merchant. Choose wisely between the Howling Owl Tavern, where paladins and mages compete with wealthy traders, and the Black Cat Tavern, home to treacherous rogues and cunning wizards.

Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game is a semi-cooperative game that captures the tension and intrigue of the acclaimed Sci-Fi Channel series. It combines elements of mistrust, survival, and strategic gameplay.

Dead of Winter: A Crossroads Game immerses 2-5 players into a chilling post-apocalyptic world where a dwindling colony of survivors faces threats both from the relentless undead and the darkest corners of human nature. As leaders of survivor factions, players must grapple with their group's well-being while harboring personal secrets and objectives that may conflict with the common goal. The game is part of the "Crossroads" series by Plaid Hat Games, offering an intense psychological survival experience that tests the bonds of trust and cooperation.

Shadows over Camelot is a unique blend of cooperative and semi-cooperative gameplay set in the legendary world of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. It combines hand-management and deduction, suitable for 3–7 players.

A semi-cooperative game of intrigue and survival in space, players must work together to restore energy before oxygen runs out, all while disguised traitors sabotage their efforts. Each player randomly chooses an agenda, having either a loyal crew member role, a deadly threat, or a coward switching sides to survive. The dynamics revolve around hidden actions and strategic plays, with suspicions leading to potential votes to reveal true identities, making every decision critical for survival.

Bloodborne: The Card Game draws inspiration from the video game Bloodborne, specifically the Chalice Dungeons beneath the city of Yharnam. This competitive game challenges players to defeat monsters, collect blood, and manage risks, all while considering whether to continue fighting or bank their blood to save progress. The game emphasizes tactical play, upgrades, and cooperative yet competitive gameplay as players simultaneously choose their actions to defeat monsters and avoid death.

Legendary: Villains – Marvel Deck Building Game turns the tables on the typical superhero narrative by allowing players to embody some of Marvel's most iconic villains. In this standalone game, players become characters like Venom, Magneto, and Loki, strategizing against superheroes such as the X-Men, the Avengers, and Spider-Friends. This twist on the original Legendary deck-building format offers a unique perspective, where players work collaboratively and competitively to defeat the heroes defending the city.

Your last adventure has taken you to the Underworld, where you must flee and find a boat to safety. In the semi-cooperative game, players help each other navigate the board while avoiding Cerberus, who intends to keep them forever. Each card offers a small personal effect or a powerful group benefit, but not everyone can fit on the boat, leading to tough choices about sacrifice and strategy. With ten different board layouts and adjustable difficulty, every game experience is unique.

A tactical quiz game with lots of interaction and fun for 3-8 players, ideally 5-6. It features cooperative and competitive rounds where players ask the right question from their hand cards. Players must gauge their opponents' knowledge accurately to score the most points.

Bag of Dungeon is a tile-based dungeon crawl that evokes the thrilling days of exploring dungeons, slaying monsters, and stealing treasures. Up to four players guide a group of adventurers through ever-changing catacombs in search of the Ring of Creation, but once discovered, trust among teammates may falter. Encounter monsters, uncover treasures, and use items strategically to escape before the dungeon seals shut, trapping the remaining adventurers forever.

Nemesis: Lockdown is a standalone expansion to the popular board game Nemesis. This expansion transports players to an entirely new setting: a secret multi-level base on Mars. Lockdown maintains the semi-cooperative, highly cinematic gameplay of the original Nemesis, while introducing an array of new mechanics and features. Players will engage in exploring the base, gathering items, crafting, running, and fighting against other species, all while trying to fulfill their secret objectives - which may conflict with the goals of others.

AuZtralia is an adventure and exploration board game set in an alternate 1930s, inspired by Martin Wallace's A Study in Emerald. In this unique setting, players are intrepid adventurers colonizing Australia after the northern hemisphere has been devastated by war and the Old Ones. Gameplay involves building ports, constructing railways, mining, and farming, all while preparing for the awakening of the Old Ones and their human armies. Time is a crucial resource, and as the game progresses, the Old Ones awaken and become active, posing a significant threat. Players must strategically prepare for their arrival, possibly cooperating with others to fend off these nightmarish beings using military units and recruited personalities.

Players aim to keep their score as low as possible in Allegra, which is based on the public card game "Golf." Each player starts with twelve face-down cards arranged in a grid, and gameplay involves drawing cards and strategically swapping them to form groups of three identical cards, which are then discarded. At the end of three rounds, the player with the lowest total score wins.

Fog of Love is a two-player board game that uniquely simulates the twists and turns of a romantic relationship. It is more than just a game; it's a narrative journey into the dynamics of a relationship, offering a mix of strategy, role-playing, and storytelling.

Tiny Epic Zombies is a fast-paced, action-packed game set in a modern-day zombie outbreak at the Echo Ridge Mall. Designed for 1-5 players and lasting about 30 minutes, it offers five different modes of play, including both cooperative and competitive options. Players can take on the role of either survivors, desperately trying to complete objectives and fend off zombies, or control the zombie horde themselves.

Cutthroat Caverns is an intriguing blend of cooperation and betrayal set in a dungeon crawl environment. The game challenges players to work together against deadly monsters while competing to be the most prestigious hero.

Goblins have succeeded in driving out the scum of the Five Realms from the Hiddenlands. Now the land is theirs to spread destruction and chaos at will, but living with other dirty Goblin clans is challenging due to various dangers. Players recruit and play Goblins to complete tasks quickly and efficiently, earning rewards that contribute to their points at the end of the game, culminating in a reveal of their hard work when winter arrives.

Dead of Winter: The Long Night is a standalone expansion for the popular Dead of Winter: A Crossroads Game. This expansion adds new dimensions to the base game, enhancing the gameplay experience with fresh challenges and elements.

After a mysterious plane crash, players are part of a group of survivors stranded on a deserted island. They must pool their resources to build a raft large enough for escape, but food is scarce, and desperation grows. As survival instincts kick in, the struggle leads to a chilling choice: resorting to cannibalism, while an unsettling supernatural presence looms, ensuring they never leave the island.

Axia is a land with a glorious past, an uncertain present, and an unpredictable future. It faces economic, social, and political crises, marked by the longest recession in its modern history and rising inequality. Players step into the shoes of businesspeople to rebuild their companies and create value in this challenging environment, leveraging their resources and navigating local bureaucracy to thrive where others may falter.

Live the life of a 70s soft rock musician in Southern California. In Yacht Rock, you aim to create the best combination of clothing and music styles to score points while recording singles and attending stylish parties to network. The player who collects the most points within three rounds wins.

Players face hordes of monsters and must defend a remote village for three days and nights, either cooperatively or semi-cooperatively. The game blends character creation, set collection, a tower defense mechanism with puzzles, and daily quests to earn glory, ensuring each session offers a unique experience. A diverse array of interacting monster effects and a sophisticated system for managing fatigue, health, and wrath create a challenging puzzle to solve for victory.

Old habits die hard. When a disaster strikes the town and its residents begin transforming into hordes of hungry undead, a growing number of zombies lines up outside a small pub. Inside, a group of patrons realizes the night will be more than just beer and snacks, and they must arm themselves to avoid becoming a snack for others.

Munchkin Panic combines semi-cooperative gameplay with elements from a tower defense game and the competitive nature of Munchkin. Players must collaborate to defeat monsters attacking their towers while also trying to outscore each other. Surviving players can earn trophies from defeated monsters, but greed may lead to their downfall if they become too focused on competition.