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[Aoi]

Any recommendations for an Android game, with 'merge' gameplay,  playable offline, that does NOT have time sink mechanics (a la energy, glacially regenerating resources, etc)?

Basically something idle-adjacent that's marginally entertaining for long redeye flights and layovers that doesn't require one to be firing on... any cylinders.

[Salmeuk]

I'm not sure what 'merge' gameplay is but I have always been fond of the Kairosoft games. Dirt cheap, though I don't know if they are available for the newest android versions....

they tend to revolve around point-based town building placement mechanics mixed with light RPG character growth. they are forgiving in terms of resources.

I really thought they were kind of bad at first but after sitting at work for many hours with nothing to do, or for long flights, they provide just enough mechanical interaction to be idle-adjacent IMO. though some have just straight up stupid mechanics. I enjoyed The Pyraplex, Dungeon Village 2, and Oh! Edo Towns, which felt the most cohesive in theme.

again, they are kind of bad and old school..

[LASD]

Sorry if it's necromancy.

I am looking for a game about balancing political interests while still forgathering your own goal, trying too keep no one too pissed at you to knock you down while still reaching your own goal.

Thought about asking here because Victoria 3 doesn't work  on my computer, not sure why but that not important, and from my memory of playing Victoria 2, it wasn't particularly the focus, but that was long ego so if you have a country where this is the focus I will be interested.

The Democracy series of games from Positech Games might fit this bill. Though they are just very much about working with and looking at numbers, there's isn't really any characters or fancy graphics, just political decisions. You try to keep all demographics happy enough, lest you get assasinated, while also trying to get re-elected and pulling the country from the brink the best you can.

Playing one country takes up to a few hours to play and there's many countries and many ways you can go around running them, though I've had a very hard time getting anything else to work except the type of country I live in. Which seems to tell good things about it's simulation of the nuances of political decision-making.

[Aoi]

Ooh, right, the entire Kairosoft class slipped my mind; I think I have a few oooold ones from Humble Mobiles I never touched...

'Merge' games (for lack of a better term) tend to involve shoving things around on a grid and incrementally upgrading them-- sand combines into pebbles combines into rocks>boulders>mountains>etc.

Triple Town is an example of a more active (more puzzly than idle) sort that was popular a few years back. I was rather partial to Merge Dragons, until they implemented a godawful energy system a few years ago on top of more ads, decreased freebies, and general F2P hostilities.

[King Zultan]

Any recommendations for an Android game, with 'merge' gameplay,  playable offline, that does NOT have time sink mechanics (a la energy, glacially regenerating resources, etc)?

Basically something idle-adjacent that's marginally entertaining for long redeye flights and layovers that doesn't require one to be firing on... any cylinders.

I've tried several of those games and I can't think of any of them that don't have energy or timers, the only up side to the ones I play is that they are offline.

[heydude6]

Do tower defence games count as being idle-adjacent? You place down the towers and wait for them to clear waves to earn money, and then you spend the money on more towers or upgrades to the towers. If you squint, that’s kind of how an idle game works.

If that fits the bill, I’d recommend Bloons TD6. It amazes me that a Bloons game can be so good. There’s just so much tower variety, and if you don’t play on hard mode, you don’t even have to worry about creating an optimal set-up.

[Iduno]

Do tower defence games count as being idle-adjacent? You place down the towers and wait for them to clear waves to earn money, and then you spend the money on more towers or upgrades to the towers. If you squint, that’s kind of how an idle game works.

If that fits the bill, I’d recommend Bloons TD6. It amazes me that a Bloons game can be so good. There’s just so much tower variety, and if you don’t play on hard mode, you don’t even have to worry about creating an optimal set-up.

And I guess Perfect Tower is part tower defense, and part idle. Although I quit that because I couldn't figure out how different parts interacted (multiply? add? best one counts?) let alone figure out the best combinations for different enemies, and felt like I was following a recipe.

[Imic]

I'm looking for something explore-y to play, I've enjoyed Hollow Knight, Rain world, Outer Wilds, BotW, and OMORI I suppose. I also play games like Elden Ring, though my time playing Elden Ring has showed me as plain as can be that boss fights are definitely the part of any given game I'll probably enjoy the least. I'm just looking for something interesting to play, since I just burned through Elden Ring in a month and I'm trying to find something less life consuming but also something I can enjoy in my free time exploring and figuring out the story of.

[Il Palazzo]

I've had these two explore-y games on my wishlist for a while now: Horizon's Gate and Sailwind. Can't seem to find the time to try them, so don't know if either of them is actually any good. Second one is EA. Also, I think they're more sandboxy, while the games you listed all seem to have a concrete story driving the exploration. So YMMV.
If you do end up checking them out, though, let us know here what you think.

[Imic]

I've never heard of either, I'll definitely take a look, thank you. It's true that I veer more towards games with a concrete story though, since sandbox games tend to lose my ADHD brain unfortunately quickly...

[Frumple]

Horizon Gate's pretty fun, imo, but it is very sandbox; what directed plot is there is pretty thin, most of the fun is Sid Meier's Pirates, but magic and SRPG combat. The earlier games by the same dev (Alvora and Voidspire Tactics) get less sandbox/more directed in that order -- HG is an open world, sid meier's pirates style game, alvora is a fairly procedurally built roguelike-y tower climb/dungeon crawl, Voidspire is a fairly straightforward SRPG, little to no procedural content. They're all pretty enjoyable if you're fond of SRPG gameplay -- I've put in a good 200+ hours between the three of them, according to steam. Lot of that was one or another idling in the background, but a lot... wasn't.

Hollow Knights... maybe Valdis Story? It's a metroidvania as well, but the combat is more beat-'em-up, it's pretty neat overall. Baseline difficulty isn't too bad, and while it's explore-y it's pretty directed at any particular point.

[Il Palazzo]

Uh, I remember trying to re-play Valdis Story a few years back, and it would no longer run correctly on my then-current laptop. I don't know what the issue was, if it was just with me, or if it was eventually fixed. But it was all glitchy-like and nigh-unplayable.

If we're talking metroidvanias of some mild vintage, I very fondly remember Aquaria, Sundered, and Waking Mars. Sundered was a bit combat-heavy, and tbh I've never gone far in WM. Aquaria, though, was just lovely. Felt very open and rewarding of exploration, too.

And, speaking of story-driven underwater exploration - Subnautica! That was a gem.

[Frumple]

I'unno, I just fired VS up for a sec and it seemed fine? Sound was stuttery, but I usually play muted so I couldn't tell you if it was like that previously or not (last time I had tried was apparently 2021, heh). Laptop I'm running is only a couple years old, iirc. Seemed to be running okay other than that, though. Might be system specific or somethin'.

[Micro102]

I'm looking for something explore-y to play, I've enjoyed Hollow Knight, Rain world, Outer Wilds, BotW, and OMORI I suppose. I also play games like Elden Ring, though my time playing Elden Ring has showed me as plain as can be that boss fights are definitely the part of any given game I'll probably enjoy the least. I'm just looking for something interesting to play, since I just burned through Elden Ring in a month and I'm trying to find something less life consuming but also something I can enjoy in my free time exploring and figuring out the story of.

In terms of figuring out the story of a game, I recommend "Return of the Obra Dinn". I would say it's technically explorer-y. You'll see why, no spoilers, recommended by Yahtzee from Zero Punctuation so just play it and enjoy.

Another fun, wholesome, laid back exploration and resource collection game I've played recently is Lost Nova.

[Robsoie]

For exploration and lore discovering without "boss fights", i highly recommend Sable.
It's also oddly relaxing at the same time and the world has plenty of areas to explore and discover the lore of the world, along the classic horizontal exploration Sable also feature a lot of vertical exploration as climbing is an important feature of the game.