After three straight hours of getting farmed in ranked, I would rather spend a Saturday arguing with a friend over who forgot the oxygen tank in Barotrauma. Competitive multiplayer has its moments, but there is something much better about co-op games where the only thing you are competing against is the game itself. These 10 are worth pulling out when you want multiplayer without the salt.

Start with We Were Here, a two-player puzzle game that turns communication into the entire mechanic. One player gets information the other desperately needs, and neither of you can simply look up the answer on the other screen. Operation: Tango takes the same idea in a more chaotic direction, splitting players into Agent and Hacker roles and forcing you to coordinate through voice chat. Both games are short enough to finish without turning your weekend into a second job.

For something more physical, try Bread & Fred, where two permanently tethered penguins have to swing, jump and climb their way upward. It launched in 2023, and the physics are exactly as funny and frustrating as that setup suggests. KeyWe is the gentler alternative, putting two players in control of kiwi birds working inside a chaotic post office. Typing messages, sorting parcels and keeping the place running sounds mundane until the clock starts ticking and your friend accidentally launches the mail across the room.

If you want something with more teeth, Full Metal Furies deserves more attention. This four-player action RPG mixes brawler combat with RPG progression and puzzles that actually require the party to cooperate instead of simply stacking damage. Void Crew goes bigger, putting up to four players aboard a spaceship where everyone has a job, from piloting to repairing systems to dealing with whatever has just exploded. It scratches the same co-op itch as a chaotic raid without demanding a permanent schedule.

Then there is Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime, one of the best couch co-op games hiding in plain sight. Up to four players run around a single spaceship, jumping between weapons, shields and engines while trying not to get the whole thing blown apart. Unrailed! turns coordination into railway panic, with up to four players chopping trees, laying track and keeping a constantly moving train from reaching the end of the line. Neither game needs competitive matchmaking to create absolute chaos.

Finally, give Monaco and Ship of Fools a shot. Monaco lets a group of up to four players pull off heists where choosing the right specialist matters almost as much as improvising when everything goes wrong. Ship of Fools shrinks the scale to a two-player-friendly roguelite where you defend a ship, fire cannons and repair damage while sailing through increasingly nasty encounters. With October already throwing huge releases like Gears of War: E-Day at players, this is a good month to skip the leaderboard and play something where your friend’s terrible plan is at least terrible with you.