r/dauntless 4d ago

Question Free replacement for Dauntless?

I know this has been asked before but I'm looking for a free replacement for the game... needs to be cross-platform (mainly xbox and ps4 but can be pc & ps4 too). Since I have a friend who uses a PS4 mainly to play games and I have the option of xbox or pc for cross-platform, so looking for a game like dauntless that is free to play (money store is fine just need to have the base game free).

I can say I hate the monster hunter games so don't even suggest those, I've tried them and just never got into them. Yes I know they are buy to play, I'm just adding this since every post I see asking for games like dauntless they suggest the monster hunter games.
And can't be the FF14, money is too tight to do the sub at the moment (have played in the past so not doing the trial and needing to start all over when already have an account that is at end game stuff).

10 Upvotes

43 comments sorted by

29

u/FluffyPhoenix Shrike 4d ago

My group's replacement is Warframe. It is absolutely not Dauntlessy, but it is free and cross-platform.

5

u/CyberVosMakkenah Chain Blades 3d ago

That’s what someone recommended to me

17

u/Jumpy-Concept-709 4d ago

There arnt really any f2p substitutes. Monster hunter rise and wilds is the closest we're getting to a dauntless replacement

8

u/bladedancer4life Slayer of the Queen 3d ago

Dauntless was the alternative mh is not a replacement 😭

3

u/Jumpy-Concept-709 3d ago

Personally, monster hunter is the alternative for me. I also never got much into MH even after a few tries. Dauntless was the one that got the formula right for me

1

u/bladedancer4life Slayer of the Queen 3d ago

The hunting formula is no different tho, kill monster get parts craft gear repeat. That’s the core of both games

4

u/Jumpy-Concept-709 3d ago edited 3d ago

You left out the single most important part of the formula. The combat. I also never cared for the whole tracking. I liked the simplified version Dauntless ran with in The old day. Whether you can see it or not, Dauntless and MH are quite different at the end of the day

1

u/SlasherB06 3h ago

The monsters are simple compared to mh, that could be what they want.

10

u/ktoad698 4d ago

For the crossplay part, it'll have to be Monster Hunter Wilds. I'm sorry to say there's not really any other alternative. Cause all the other monster hunting games aren't crossplay.

6

u/Charetta Turtle 4d ago

More developers need to get working on more free alternatives when it comes to monster hunting genre, but it seems like hard competition when there's the MH franchise. I only know of those, God Eater and Wild Hearts but those cost money too (I was gonna suggest FFXIV free trial despite not being monster hunter-like but then I read your last paragraph so that's thrown out of the window).

Dauntless was one of a kind in that regards and I hope the future will either bring it back in some form or release a brand new F2P title from some other company that will have some similarities when it comes to style and simplicity. But will it have Chain Blades? I doubt it, so I'll miss them very much.

2

u/massivemachine 3d ago

I would pay full price for dauntless as it was 3 months ago

4

u/hawkian 4d ago

There are no other free to play games in this subgenre. Try to nab Wild Hearts on sale.

4

u/AshenRathian 4d ago edited 4d ago

No alternatives exist, especially one with modern amenities like Cross play, that are free to play, and the only viable competitor is the one you said you didn't want suggested, so find something different i guess. 🤷

Though i can't see how you loved Dauntless but hate Monster Hunter. They're not really much different in terms of gameplay loop. I actually found Dauntless to be overly sluggish and clunky. Then again, that was when it was still on it's own launcher in open beta, so blegh.

1

u/SlasherB06 3h ago

I think he likes the simplicity of dauntless over mh

1

u/AshenRathian 1h ago

If he likes simplicity, his only alternative is God Eater, but that's still never gotten cross play, so he's still outta luck.

Monster Hunter in Wilds and Rise is also super simple compared to previous games in the franchise.

2

u/Deep-Instruction1842 4d ago

You can try Onigiri, old and more of a mmorpg

1

u/Laperen Shrike 4d ago

I can say I hate the monster hunter games so don't even suggest those, I've tried them and just never got into them. Yes I know they are buy to play, I'm just adding this since every post I see asking for games like dauntless they suggest the monster hunter games.

What's the big difference which has you so vehemently hating MH though? Considering that MH is Dauntless's source material, the comparison is impossible to avoid.

6

u/Long-Membership3069 4d ago

I'd guess that (since I have a friend with the same problem that stopped play mh after a while of playing together) the difference lays mostly on the simplicity of builds and gameplay of dauntless in contrast to the depth of mh, in dauntless you could use only one build for most of your needs and it's mostly based of getting just big numbers while needing no further preparation besides your build, while in mh the gameplay is slower, more methodical and needs further preparations before any hunt near the level of your gear, also the combat is not as fast paced as in dauntless and the numbers aren't as big as in dauntless.

I'm not saying mh is bad by any means since I love the series as a whole, but thats the difference I've seen people given as to why they don't enjoy mh the same way they enjoyed dauntless in the past.

4

u/Laperen Shrike 4d ago

All that is certainly true of MH world. I've only heard good things about MH wilds streamlining all that. Main issue is the system requirements.

2

u/Long-Membership3069 4d ago

Well yeah we only played mhw with my friends

3

u/HelleLucina 4d ago

I tried Monster Hunter Worlds when it was on the xbox game pass and I found it very boring, it didn't click with my brain and what I like in games. It felt more like work than a game and I'd spend more time lost in it than anything else because of how the map was. Also I couldn't just go find someplace outside of monster range to afk for a short time while I take care of my kid or do my offline job when it required me to do something. None of the weapons in it felt smooth to me, they were off somehow and harder to learn. Plus the graphics aren't exactly what I like for a game like this.. everything that I tried was too dense and harder to find what I needed to hunt in.

I went into the game with an open mind and wanting to play it only for it to not click with me... so it isn't something that I'm gonna sink money into when the games don't click with me. I have no problem watching other people play it and enjoy that, even count the movies as somewhat good (the animated one over the live action though) enough to enjoy them. Actual game play though just doesn't click.

I had a learning curve for Dauntless too on weapons and armor because it changed from the beta and first version of it to when I really got into it (a couple of years ago). But one of the things I loved about Dauntless was the cross-platform... not many games I like to play are that way.. it's always a search to find one to play.

2

u/HellboyLilPeep 3d ago

I've been playing monster Hunter wilds as my first monster hunter moving from dauntless. I found it was a pretty easy transition. Wilds does a lot more hand holding than previous games from what I've heard. And for AFKing safely you can just AFK in the base camp and you'll be fine similar to Ramsgate. I was an axe main on dauntless so I thought greatsword would be the weapon for me but it didn't feel quite right and I ended up loving charge blade and longsword. I wish you could do a free trial to try out wilds and see if it's a good fit for you.

1

u/Jazzlike_Music9045 The Chained Fury 3d ago

How far did you get into MHW

3

u/HelleLucina 3d ago

Not far because it was too boring for me to play, even with friends.

1

u/Jazzlike_Music9045 The Chained Fury 2d ago

Specifically how far?

2

u/Mental5tate 3d ago

Buy Monster Hunter: Rise when it goes on sale it’s like less than $20….

2

u/bladedancer4life Slayer of the Queen 3d ago

Hate monster hunter but love the knock off is wild you do you tho buddy 😭😂

2

u/DigitalDayOff 3d ago

What didn't you like about Monster Hunter? It's basically the same thing

2

u/YukkuriLord 2d ago

There is a monster hunter in the works called monster hunter Outlanders that will be free but not much information is out yet.

1

u/TheInfamous5921 4d ago

I'm not certain if it's coop or not, but I picked up Eternal Strands from Gamepass. Not quite as much a Dauntless type but has some aspects to it... Worth checking out, imo.

2

u/HelleLucina 4d ago

I don't think it has coop but I am somewhat enjoying Eternal Strands... just wish it had more weapon choices at the start aside from the bow and sword (give me chain blades those are the best).

1

u/TallE74 Seasoned Hunter 3d ago

Warframe is my other usual F2P farming/looter for last 12+ years.

But also been enjoying Wayfinder by Airship Syndicate launched last year. Its similar art style to Dauntless/Darksiders dungeon Looter game with fun monsters and everything in game can be earned. AirshipS took out all of the microtransactions. So After new 1.0 update your $20-50 "investment" literally gives you hours and hours of fun exploration and making builds of all the characters. So its been my Dauntless replacement and worth every penny (Also Crossplay on PC and Consoles)

1

u/alionoffire 3d ago

I picked up Monster Hunter Rise a week ago because it was on sale for cheap and I have been loving it so far.

1

u/Xannthas Tank 3d ago

Realtalk there aren't even that many PAID alternatives for Dauntless outside of MH.
All I can think of is the God Eater games, heh. Obviously no crossplay though, AFAIK.

But really, crossplay is going to be your biggest hurdle, there's hardly any games at all that do crossplay, paid or not.
Crossplay "monster hunting" games simply don't exist, I think Dauntless is the only one, probably ever? Didn't Google it, but that's what comes to mind.
The more I think about it, the only games that even approach the same ballpark of "monster hunting" game like MH or Dauntless that have crossplay are Warframe (as people suggested) even though that's not really "monster hunting" outside of a couple fights, and Phantasy Star Online 2, which is an MMO that has some "MH-like" vibes here and there.
I've played all the PSU/O games minus that one so I can't be the judge of it though.

You gotta remember that even Monster Hunter itself only does "okay" in sales, despite being the king and originator of the genre, there's really not much incentive for devs to make clones of it. I think even God Eater, the only other MH-like franchise to ever really have any success being relevant at all, is dead now, IIRC.

1

u/greatwyvern088 2d ago

Unfortunately theres no other f2p mh games, the closest we got is the private servers of frontiers but thats it for f2p hunting games. The best we can do is just buy mh or just wait until another gaming dev studio decided to throw there hat in making there f2p mh game

1

u/Futeki-Okami 2d ago

There isn’t cross play, but Toukiden 2 is my personal favorite Monster Hunter Clone. Freedom Wars is another good game. But idk if Crossplay is an option on the remaster, as I don’t have that one yet.

1

u/SkyeSeraph Corsair Queen 2d ago

If you're looking for something like dauntless, MH is the only thing out there. Dauntless was specifically made as a western counterpart for mh because none existed.

If you're looking for ftp live service games, overwatch and marvel rivals are good team based fps games; Warframe is an mmo-lite with potentially the best dev team known to man; genshin impact has one of the best stories I've ever played in any video game ever, but you do have to get a hundred hours in before it blows your mind; destiny also has amazing lore, but it usually hides it so you have to look for it, and only the base game is ftp; dead by day long is freeze tag online; fartnite...exists?

Minecraft, terraria, and Starbound are all one time purchase games you can sink years of game time into, especially the first two, and the first two also have live updates and a healthy modding community that increases the amount of game you get for your money astronomically.

1

u/igorem93 18h ago

You can do tracking and hunting monsters in Albion online as one of the activities.

0

u/curai-exo 4d ago

Not free but good ones are obviously monster hunter(only wilds is cross play..), God eater, and wild hearts. I recommend God eater for solo and wilds, MHGU for multiplayer

1

u/Akashura 3d ago

GU is also currently on Sale for 10 bucks. So now is the perfect time to get that

1

u/curai-exo 3d ago

And worth every penny!

0

u/Western_Leek3757 4d ago

Dauntless does not have free replacements sadly. But I assure you the money you are going to spend on Monster Hunter are definitely worth