The best Minecraft board games

Minecraft: Builders and Biomes is a light strategy board game that’s suitable for players of all ages. You don’t have to be a Minecraft fan to enjoy this tabletop title – the gameplay is strong enough to entice newcomers to the videogame. However, if you are a seasoned player, you’ll appreciate how the mechanics of Builders and Biomes translate the source material.

As with many of the best board games, you’ll win by scoring the most points. In Builders and Biomes, there are two key ways to do this: build structures on your player board or defeat monsters. You’ll need to move your Minecraft character between different stacks of cards if you want to do either.

Once you move, the top cards of nearby piles are revealed. You can build a structure if you’ve already collected the 3D wooden blocks that represent the right resources, and you can attack a revealed monster with your pile of weapons. It’s also possible to collect new weapons so you can take on bigger baddies.

There are three scoring rounds in Builders and Biomes, and these trigger when a layer of the big resource cube has been depleted. You’ll score depending on the different biomes and resources shown on your completed buildings, and defeated monsters help push your score up too.

Builders and Biomes is thematic and engaging, and its core gameplay offers enough complexity to engage older fans as well as young players. The quality of the game’s components and rulebook are a little disappointing, though. That last one, at least, we can help you with – above you’ll find a handy Watch It Played video that can take you through the rules.

If solo board games or co-op board games are your preference, then we recommend Minecraft: Portal Dash. This is a simple dungeon crawler where up to four players work together to escape one of Minecraft’s most dangerous locations, the Nether.

On your turn, you can perform two actions, depending on the bit of equipment you use. Move around the board, gather blocks, and do battle with the mobs you meet along the way. You’ll gain strength as you traverse the different areas, and eventually you’ll be ready for the game’s final boss fight – as long as you’re still alive and you’ve collected enough portal stones along the way.

Portal Dash is one of the most flexible Minecraft board games. You can play alone or in a small group, and you can adjust the difficulty of the adventure to suit your group. Unfortunately, the rulebook and component quality detract from the game’s value for money somewhat.

If the Minecraft fans in your house are very young, we suggest a simple gateway game rather than anything too complex. Minecraft: Heroes of the Village is just the board game for this situation. Its simplicity means it’s not much of a board game for adults, but children can easily pick up and play the easy card game.

Like many other Minecraft board games, this is a game about exploring biomes, mining resources, and battling monsters. Players work together to prevent an Illager attack and restore three village buildings, each performing two actions on their turn. Draw resource blocks from a bag to help rebuild parts of a village under siege, or roll dice to make attacks. You’ll even have animal companions on the adventure to help you out.

Minecraft Card Game? is simple and fast-paced, perfect for bite-sized gaming sessions. All you need to play is some shuffled, face-down piles of cards, and you’ll only have three actions to choose from on your turn.

Firstly, you can ‘mine’ resources by drawing a card from one of the piles. You can then ‘craft’ helpful one-off items by discarding the cards shown on a recipe card. And if you can’t afford to craft an item yet but you really want to in future, you can choose to reserve that item card.

Simple, right? But watch out for Creepers and TNT – these force you to discard valuable resources. The first player to reach the game’s score goal (which changes depending on how many players there are) wins.

There’s a lot to like about this Minecraft card game, but the way it handles its theme is a little disappointing. Knowledgeable fans will spot that item recipes don’t match those from the original videogame, for example.

If you know how to play Uno, then you already know how to play Uno: Minecraft. Everyone starts with a chunky hand of cards, which they deplete by playing matching numbers or colors on top of a communal pile. When you’re down to your last card, shout ‘Uno!’ to secure a shot at winning the game.

But beware of those pesky cards that make you pick up new ones. Uno: Minecraft even comes with a Creeper card that forces you to add three to your hand. There isn’t much else different about this version of the classic card game, so you can pick up and play pretty swiftly.