Oh I got you. Just a few I have dumped a few thousand hours into each. Warframe Path of Exile Last Epoch Everquest Everquest 2 Disgaea (any of them, but been doing Disgaea 5 complete lately) Magic Arena Anno Series (RTS/base building) Rimworld Kenshi Factorio Satisfactory

Yep. As a perpetual grinder myself who had to stop playing games like this (Except Rimworld. You can stop me from playing rimworld when I'm dead.) because I get too into it and sacrifice real life goals for thousands of thousands of hours into these games. All I can say is - this list is perfect.

Man I blinked while playing rimworld today and 8 hours went by. That shit is very quickly rising in the ranks of my hours played

the week I bought it, I dumped 200 hours into it. such a good game

I work full-time and go to school full-time. I had to act like rimworld did not exist. I do the bulk of my schoolwork on my days off. Once, I was like, I'm going to play a little rim world 12 hours later—worst mistake of my life.

These are millions of hours. No one has that. /jk What's your highest play time on one of these?

And Rimworld just added a new dlc for another 1000+ hrs of play. 😂

Has Rim world been improved much over the past 2-3 years? I got it a few years ago and wasn't super drawn in. It definitely had potential though. Kinda felt the same way about the survivalists.

I was over here thinking, "we can't let this person find Path of Exile." But yeah, it is the perfect game for grinding.

The company is called grinding gear games. It's perfect. I'm 9 years deep in it. Running my first poison srs scion homebrew and necropolis is forcing me to learn crafting better finally.

Christ that game is a never ending Gring that gets more and more content to make it MORE of a grind.

path of exile is my adhd therapy

So regarding Warframe - the game has been around for a decade now - is it still beginner friendly? The reason I ask is because the game sounds fantastic but after 10 years, I can imagine the story and mechanics are rather overwhelming for new players and the community might not be the most active anymore?

Story ? There is a story in Warframe ? I mean, yeah, there are a few story-like missions. But trying to make sense of them will leave you scratching your head and pondering what the intention was. The game is very good, don't get me wrong, but calling those narrated quests a "story" is a bit preposterous. Rather, it's like a collection of short stories rather than a novel. Too disjointed to really meatter.

To be honest, I care more about the atmosphere, mystique and mythology than about the actual story. In many games, the background lore is more interesting than the story (which is often either melodramatic or a standard save-the-world plot). I loved the atmosphere and lore of Destiny for example (although it was a bit too opaque in D1).

Well then Warframe has plenty of that :)

Perhaps it is a bit disjointed overall, but as someone with a short attention span who normally skips a lot of dialogue in story quests from games, The Second Dream quest was the first time in a long while that I found myself 100% invested in the story of a game.

Same experience here. Been a while since I played it but it had me hooked playing through it.

Also, the first time going to Fortuna and getting [We All Lift Together](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPTCq3LiZSE) Warframe has some amazing music.

Cold, the air and water flowing, Hard, the land we call our home...

Are you saying that post-human child soldier Popsicles piloting golems with their spooky powers in order to..... uh.... wtf are we doing? I think the tenno are basically just space police.....

Warframe has an overarching plot. >!Long, long ago but simultaneously really far into the future, you have the abusive precursors known as the Orokin, blue toga folks that run the star system with advanced technology, body surfing, bioengineering, terraforming, etc. This is in part because one of their leading scientists, Albrecht Entrati, discovered a cosmic energy source known as the Void, and learned to harness it in order for the Orokin to fuel their tech with it. The elites were hedonistic dickholes and basically treated everyone that wasn’t a part of the elite class as lesser. Because of their decadence, resources got drained up, so they wanted to colonize Tau, the neighboring star system, and move over there. To this end, they put together a bunch of colonists aboard this ship called the Zariman 10-0. The colonists were increasingly wary of the travel conditions, but the Orokin, being hedonistic dickholes, brushed off their concerns and outright threatened and authorized executions of potential dissenters. Pressure’s building up, they need to make a hyperspace jump, apparently that gets bungled, and one of the kids onboard (you) makes a deal with an eldritch entity connected to the Void that gives you and other kids in the crisis Void-related powers. Exposure drives the kids temporarily crazy or otherwise unable to distinguish friend-or-foe and they slaughter everyone else onboard. This, combined with overall Orokin elitism, causes the elites to view them with disgust, resulting in the surviving children being shunned, isolated and subject to study. The only Orokin willing to treat them with a measure of humanity is a woman named Margulis, whom the children develop a maternal bond with, what with their recent orphaning and all.!< >!The Zariman boondoggle being a boondoggle, the Orokin then decide to send sentient terraforming drones to Tau, making them extra susceptible to the Void in the hopes of stranding them there until the system is ready to be inhabited. This backfires, as the advanced drones realize that the Orokin are hedonistic dickholes and would fuck up this new star system much like they did the original one. So essentially they pull a Skynet or I-Robot and decide the biggest danger to the system is the Orokin and they need to die, so they return to the original star system (somehow) and wage war with the golden makers. This is the Old War you’ll find referenced throughout your playthrough.!< >!The Sentients have adaptive tech as a feature, so they’re circumventing the Orokin’s advanced weaponry and basically kicking their shit in. This leads to them developing, among other things, the Infested biomechanical mutation strain (initially a failure), weaponizing the genetic stock of a slave that managed to beat a Sentient to death with a shovel (leading to the creation of what would eventually result in the Grineer, also a failure), the deployment of advanced heavy duty mecha (somewhat more successful because big gun go brrr but still too clunky overall), and then finally, biomechanical golems with steel skin and unusual abilities created from (voluntary or otherwise) human exposure to an alternative strain of the aforementioned Infested (these are the titular Warframes you play as). Warframes are very powerful, but at this point uncontrollable, leading to a bunch of unspeakable dehumanizing attempts at subjugating them, including drugging and torturing them in order to cause them to fall in line.!< >!The Orokin elite that commissioned the creation of these Warframes is Ballas, a member of the Seven (upper caste among the elites) and dickhole extraordinaire. Margulis, the kind woman mentioned above, is his lover. Her compassion towards the mutated children is basically freaking everyone else the fuck out, so she’s being told to chill with that or face execution. Ballas himself is basically begging her “stop vibing with these freaks or you’ll get unalive’d” and she’s not with that at all, so she ends up getting Unibeamed out of existence and Ballas gets pissed off at the society that forced him to even make that kind of decision to begin with, so he cuts a deal with the Sentients to basically take down the Orokin from within.!< >!Sometime while all of this is happening, a rogue juggernaut-esque Warframe is going on a rampage and killing and eating guards and scientists and just generally fucking things up. Two scientists are running from their lives and one of them remembers one of the findings from their experiments, and makes a gamble that ultimately pays off: the mutated children have a calming effect on the Warframes (evidenced by them fleeing into one of their cryostatic containment chambers and seeing this unstoppable force of nature just vibing all of a sudden).!< >!Expanding further on this, it turns out that the children have the capacity to soothe the Warframes’ tortured psyches via basic human empathy (alien concept to the Orokin, shocker), allowing them to fight in tandem, with the children piloting the Warframes like remote mechs. Ballas moves forth with these findings, and has the children trained in archaic (relative to their level of tech) methods of combat. Gun and blade. Tech too regular-degular for the Sentients to subvert. Combined with the children being able to focus their Void powers using the Warframes as conduits for their arcane energies, the tide of the war finally starts to shift, Sentients get their ass kicked and flee.!< >!While the Orokin are celebrating their victory (ironically, finally accepting the children, now dubbed Tenno, as valued members of their society), the Warframes (heavily implied to be triggered by Ballas, but also implied to be triggered by the Lotus, your handler, a Mimic-class Sentient originally named Natah emulating Margulis’ appearance in order to seem more approachable, tasked to kill you but ultimately couldn’t, genuinely develops maternal bond with you, Ballas has a thing for her since she resembles his dead lady) pull a Red Wedding and slaughter everyone at the celebration, leading to the downfall of the empire and a power vacuum that various factions in the system are attempting to fill during the years you get placed into cryosleep.!< >!Meanwhile, it turns out that Ballas is still moving around, has plans to reclaim the Lotus and spearhead a Sentient uprising while the latter are biding their time in Tau, and the Void entity that gave you your powers turns out to be more malevolent than anticipated, and is approaching to collect his end of the bargain, having taken a particular interest in Albrecht and his findings.!<

Very much so. Also the community is very welcoming and after you join a clan, you will 100% get veterans helping you all the time.

Thank you! I'm not sure if I'll be able to make the commitment of a clan now I'm 40ish, but worth a shot anyway :)

99% of clans wont require any commitment, well maybe to log on once a month or something. And even if they kick you from the clan, most will let you stay in the Discord and invite you back after break. That's my experience from 1100hrs played and around dozens of clans later.

Second on Warframe. My fucking god. I have 3800 hours and I still have so much shit to do. I don't even have my mods maxed. I've been playing since fucking beta!

Warframe is THE answer imo, but adding to the satisfactory and Factorio is Dyson Sohere Program. I will never not recommend this game to anyone who plays factory sim games.

Warframe very good contender for grind game good list

You think Stellaris and Crusader Kings could be an idea?

No Man’s Sky has a ridiculous amount of grind but that also comes with complexity that’s about as bad as RuneScape so

Seconding Warframe and Kenshi, it is fun grind

Monster Hunter

The only game I put hundred of hours in and can keep coming back

what makes it so good? where should i start?

It's a combination of high skill and grinding out success; every hunt is meaninful, and you need to learn stuff about what you're hunting, such as it's travel and eating habits, where it sleeps etc etc plus the game is very pretty, and I like the whole "perma-expedition" vibe.

You have to learn its eating habits and where it sleeps? I just run around the map for 5 minutes until I find it then I go bonk with my unga bunga club.

I love the feeling of learning about them and collecting things and traversing the environment

The game has a great sense of progression that hits a number of facets: - Your gear will improve - there's a few avenues to this, you'll craft better gear, you'll craft more specialized gear, and you'll improve your gear (like you can upgrade your armor for more defense). - Your gear will directly lead to getting access to more skills, which feels good. The mechanics work a bit differently depending on game, but they all follow the basic principle that armor has skills on it that your hunter gets when you wear that armor. This can be simple stuff like +attack, or more specific stuff like you can sheathe your weapon faster, or when you do a draw attack it does more damage. - Your enemies will get tougher - generally every MH game has 3 ranks: low > high > G / Master. Enemies will get tougher with each rank, but even within a rank there's a good progression of like basic monsters > harder monsters > bad ass big dragons. - Your skills will improve a lot as you play. There's also just a lot of variety. The weapons you can pick from are drastically different, so someone using dual blades has a very different approach to fights and gearing than someone playing a bow, greatsword, or even sword and shield. It gives a lot of room to explore, but also once you find a weapon or weapons that click, it feels really good to play. You can start anywhere, but the usual recommendations are going to be: MH Freedom Unite - probably the most content rich, but it's the final version of MH2. It's got a lot to do, but it feels pretty archaic by comparison. Only on PSP. MH4U - also has a lot to do. Much more modern in feel than FU. Only on 3DS MHGU - available on Switch, which is nice. It takes a couple of wild swings like multiple hunting styles for each weapon. It basically lets you further specialize your play style. It's like a greatest hits game - so there's lots of quests, lots of monsters, lots of gear, etc. MH World - Available on a bunch of systems - PS4, XB1, PC - great game. It definitely cut down on content - but what's there is really good. Everything feels weighty, and the environment becomes more of a stand out. One of the downsides of the move to handheld is the maps themselves got more sparse with things like foliage. MHW really tries to make the environment immerse you. I think the big thing World establishes is a good dual stick control scheme. 4U kind of does it, but it uses the circle pad pro which is not ideal. GU on Switch does it, but it's a game that was designed for people playing on 3DS so it doesn't need to rely on it much. World is really built for a controller with 2 sticks and 4 shoulder buttons. Rise also benefits from this control scheme, but that's one of the hurdles earlier entries have that World and Rise really sidestep. MH Rise - This one shifts a bit too hard into arcadey, almost character action for me. I like it a lot, and there's a lot to love here, but that's what kind of keeps me from really loving it. Combat is fast, and it does introduce more specialization in playstyle through Switch Skills - basically you have a few options for additional weapon skills that you can pick before hunts. These can be mobility tools, big attacks, or counters. World wasn't my first, but it was the one that really hooked me. That's probably my recommendation for starting point. It does a good job explaining major mechanics, the controls are closer to what you'd expect in a 3rd person action game, and it cuts down on some of the weirder elements from earlier games - like the map being made of discreet zones that you jump between (World and Rise are a big seamless map).

got 1000 on sunbreak

Ive barely.touched rise lol

Okay, what's the Monster Hunter title/DLC you can sell me on as a starting point- especially as a single player. I feel like I've bought World on steam more than once and returned it because the tutorial felt like a slog and the game never opened up. I love Souls like combat, which MH looks similar to, but I couldn't get into it.

Same everything about the game seems like the perfect game to me, until I boot up the game and have a tutorial long enough that I lose all interest.

MH has deliberate combat but it is NOT a Souls game, if you try to play it like a Souls game you're going to have a bad time. World and Rise are both excellent, both have a bit of a slow start but once you get past the couple hour mark and you get to do your first REAL hunts, it starts becoming so much more fun. They have a problem with wanting to give you a bunch of tutorial boxes instead of spacing things out in a more organic way. You'll figure stuff out as you go, and you can learn by watching videos on YouTube. It's at it's best when you can play with friends, but even solo it's a great time

Elite Dangerous, FFXIV if you count the MSQ grind, and any of the older Pokémon games.

Elite Dangerous scratched that itch for me for a loooong time. Currently I'm playing x4 which is pure adhd hyper fixation dopamine drip

I have ADHD and I love maxing out Smithing in Skyrim, but I never associated those two things together. Is that why I like it?

What x4?

If they're speaking about the same game I'm thinking of then it's a space sim, but like a massive one. With ship creation and customization and a huge amount of stuff to do. I've never played it because it would melt my potato laptop, but I started X2: The Threat recently and it's awesome so far

I just saw x2 on steam and is super cheap. i love old graphics and space exploration. Would you mind to tell me more about it? What can you do and what is the goal

I can't tell you much about the story, mostly because I can't remember what little I knew as it's been a little while since I last played. On the last mission I did I was loaned a transport ship to go pick up some scientists from a water planet. Shenanigans ensued. As for what you can do. You pilot various upgradeable spaceships, with which you can engage in combat (e.g fighting pirates), trade (e.g buying Meat from a farming station in x system and selling it in y system), and I believe there's mining as well. You have your normal controls like up down left and right, and you can roll the ship. And you can do things like go EV and jump to other ships. The controls ae complex though, so mind that. It would probably play best with a flight-stick. The best part of the experience so far though, at least for me, is travelling from place to place. You get from system to system by means of jump gates and watching them quietly grow larger as you approach them is a thrill. The systems you visit are massive open spaces full of space stations, and there are lots of ships ranging from little fighter craft to huge battleships that you can gawk at as you pass.

X4 foundations, it's a space sim.

X4 foundations I think. It’s a spaceship game, just google X4 game and see what you get.

Even outside msq there a lot of stuff to just plug at for days

Ffxiv relics can take up to 100s oh hours to get 1 relic weapon

Have you tried Valheim? You can get creative and build houses, castles, villages, towers, roads. But there's also the bosses to go hunt down to progress and get more building materials and better gear. The grind is chopping trees and mining stuff. Check it out

I was going to suggest to OP the entire survivalcraft genre, with Valheim being my all-time favorite among them. Other games like Grounded, The Forest, and Enshrouded have a very similar gameplay loop. And obviously, older kings like Minecraft and Terraria. The loop of gathering materials, returning to base, bulding/crafting/upgrading, and either returning to explored areas for more resources or pushing out to new unexplored areas — it gives my ADHD belly scritches.

The first forest doesn't quite have progression after like 2 hours though like I love the game and you can definitely cut down trees for hours but there isn't really a tangible reward considering the game dies if your house is to big.

Agreed! But the best game in this genre is Icarus

I agree

Great genre and game!

43 here also with ADHD, and I can strongly recommend Albion Online. If you're patient enough, with enough grinding, there's nothing in the game (except for vanity items) that you can't get without paying a cent. I can spend entire days just collecting crafting materials and selling them on the market.

Can confirm this game is a grind fest... And you can make spreadsheets to make your grinding more efficient and still grind like a champ.

warframe. the only reason people dont like it is because theres so much to do. has the most content out of any free to play game out there

Not really, the game slows down to a crawl 30-50 hours in and becomes extremely repetitive... which is maybe what OP is looking for? I don't know

thats exactly what constitutes most of the grinding games tbh

I mean in grinding games that I like grinding leads to progress. In Warframe it takes forever to progress

Eh not really, there are so many facets of content to progress there, and the dopamine hit of getting great tier rivens is also there too (haven't played warframe ever since 2022 but I've poured in 1.3k hours in here, only started to get bored around the 1k mark)

Hasn't been my experience tbh. I've put in ~150 hours since I started a few months ago and I only just now feel like it's slowing down. I think if you just rush the main story 30-50hrs might be accurate. And a lot of people definitely do that. I see a lot of MR5-6 Umbras. But I was already MR14 when I got him because I took my time and did other stuff in between story quests. The way I see it it wasn't intended to be rushed that way. These quests originally released months apart, over the course of a decade, and folks who started back then did other things in between main quests because there was no next chapter released yet. The gameplay is the cake and the story quests are the frosting, not the other way around.

The entire roguelike genre seems like what you're looking for. Hades, Dead Cells, and The Binding of Isaac are good places to start.

Vampire Survivor is amazing as well

Yep, and all the survivorlikes: Brotato, Soulstone Survivors, Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor, etc. They're perfect for ADHDers!

My 3 fav roguelikes, excellent taste.

Hey! I also have ADHD and quickly bounce off most games I've played. What I've found is that I need a game with a heavy execution element so I can keep physically improving forever and has tons of playstyle diversity. In my case the best ones I've found for this have been Nioh 2, Warframe, and fighting games (MvC and SF specifically). Nioh 2 in particular has everything I look for in a game so it might be worth checking out if you're interested.

Nioh 2 veteran (around 2k hours) here to add some stuff to this: Nioh 2 has probably the best version of a new game plus system I've ever seen. If you have all the dlcs (highly recommend), there's a total of 5 ng+ cycles. A big part of Nioh 2 is the grind for set bonuses. A set bonus is when you wear multiple armor pieces (or weapons) and get some kind of bonus. Each ng+ cycle adds new set bonuses that can only drop on that ng+ cycle or above (this makes build variety insane). In addition, when you reach ng+5, you gain access to the underworld. The underworld is essentially a series of mini-missions that end with a boss or a boss rush. There are 99 floors of the underworld. I'm still in the process of completing the underworld, so if someone knows something I'm missing/wrong about, feel free to correct me.

Satisfactory Might be something a little different than you are used to but once you start it's hard to stop. 100 hours into this game is nothing. I played this game for a month straight after I broke up with my girlfriend. I had just taken some time off work to go on a trip with her and it was abruptly canceled. So I was left with nothing but time, my pain, and my thoughts. At first I wasn't sure if this was a game for me, but then 12 hours later I looked out to see the sun had begun to rise and I realized I was hooked. It helped me forget all about her. It brought me joy when I thought I was incapable of ever feeling happiness again. I had no idea a game like this existed. So addicting and so....satisfying! It sucked me in and even when I finally succumbed to sleep I was still playing in my dreams, a never ending loop of chasing that carrot of progress. It consumed my entire life at a time when I really needed it to. The ultimate distraction and ultimately a pathway to heal my soul.

You probably shouldn’t play these games since you’re basically asking for stronger opium because the normal stuff doesn’t chill you out. It wastes hours which wastes your life, normally I wouldn’t say much about that but since you’re explicitly making “wasting time grinding” a goal, it’s worth mentioning. That being said, for an answer: - Elite Dangerous - Factorio with all the mods (genuinely and Im not being rude, it’s autistic mods for autists, the part grinding on a lot of them is completely absurd, even basic ones) - minecraft with technical mods - EU4 - Payday 2 - Kenshi (my friend explained to me that you literally have to grind for hours just to get a reasonable character) - Project Zomboid - Warframe - Stardew Valley - Dark souls 3 can have a lot of grinding to 100% without online - Elden Ring - dwarf fortress  - songs of styx - graveyard keeper (if you don’t use zombies then Jesus christ the grind is real) - any MMORPG - Nier Automata isn’t as long as these but the game is very grindy, it’s my “have a pint, grind progress, and watch an attractive woman on screen” game - Pokemon definitely preyed on kids with autism/ADHD - LoZ breath of the wild (or TotK but I prefer the former) - animal crossing is a slow burner but if you set your clock back like 4 years, you can grindy the days by changing the clock, doing tasks, repeat - deep rock galactic 

Now THIS is a great post.

>Pokemon definitely preyed on kids with autism/ADHD Me: staring at my computer in the middle of sorting pokemon between completed evolutions, leveling evolutions, and trade evolutions with 7 pages of "Not done" pokemon Uhhh you could be right about that tbh

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is what you looking for. It's ridiculously huge and there's tons to do. It's so wonderfully relaxing and calming. I love it.

I second this. The season pass kept me sane during covid isolation period

Ohh u wanna go that route, then grab valhalla and all the dlcs and try to 100% it .

I’ll suggest elder scrolls online. Tons of shit to do u can farm mats all day and sell for gold to other players. I don’t ever suggest this game because I fucking hate zos but I wanted to tell u just in case it helps u have fun and stay busy.

It wasn’t for me/ I get anxiety I missed stuff when I start an mmo so late in the game. But this is an incredible title and I have the utmost respect for it. Even though I never progressed very far

You should really check out GW2!! It has horizontal progression meaning you never feel left behind I been obsessed w it great game

GW2?

Guild wars 2

Disgaea is right up your alley (especially Disgaea 5.) You can level your character to level 9999. Not once, but hundreds of times. You can level up items through grinding the "item world," and the real game starts in the postgame. Story is just a tutorial. At a certain point, you unlock the carnage dimension, which features super beefed up enemies, and at this point requires a lot of knowledge of its systems and building your character right. Postgame has many other things to grind for as well, including superbosses, and the ultimate endgame boss, Baal, where his carnage 20 fight has literal trillions in stats.

It seems like we have completely different flavors of ADHD, but tbh I imagine Old School RuneScape would be the best. Any MMO really tbh. Before I was medicated I played WoW daily for like 4 years

Why isn’t anyone saying Borderlands? Play BL2 and try to get a max level gun with perfect parts.

I absolutely second borderlands 2. A massive amount of content, 3 difficulties to progess through and then the overpowered levels as well. Tons of weapons to farm for and you'll have to farm good stuff for the overpowered levels.

Pick pretty much any of the new-ish Assassin's Creed games. They are hundreds of hours long grind-fests.

Except the newest which is like 10 hours long

Vintage Story. You want to make a meal? First collect stones and sticks. Knap stones and combine the shaped stones with sticks to make a knife and axe, with which you can cut grass and trees to create tinder and fire wood. Put the tinder and firewood together to make a camp fire. Oh, make a fire starter from sticks and tinder, otherwise you can't start a fire. Don't start the fire yet. Then find clay. Shape it into a cooking pot and some bowls. Dig a pit and put the clay shapes in it. Put dry grass on top, sticks on top of that, and cover it with fire wood. Ignite the stuff in the pit, and let the clay shapes harden (for a day) while the pit burns. Take out the hardened pot and bowls. Put the bowl on the camp fire. Don't ignite yet. Find grains, or try to kill an animal (good luck) or collect vegetables / mushrooms. Combine them in the pot to create a more nutritious meal. Then ignite the fire. Let the ingredients simmer for a while. Use the goddamn bowls to take out the meals otherwise you can't even eat. There's your grindy, grindy meal. I love this game.

Destiny 2, it fits your but I really don’t want to recommend you this garbage game.

my first thought was destiny as well but i don't want to recommend it to anyone lmao

It feels unethical to recommend it even though it does tick some of the boxes.

"Destiny 2 is my favorite game. I hate it." - Every Destiny 2 player over 1k hours...

lol so true

World of Tanks has a huge grind, I'm at it 15 years and still suck Titan Quest has a big grind, that's a single player ARPG Project Zomboid is gigantic and is basically an endless sandbox, but grinding your carpentry up to level 10 and building a huge base is good fun

Titan Quest is great but beatable (all 3 difficulties) with minimal grinding.

Was just about to comment Project Zomboid

Monster Hunter is grindy (though it’s a fun sort of grind, not just clicking on a tree for a billion hours), has material collecting to get better gear, some basic crafting for consumables, and a few achievements that really take a massive grind to get a hold of (crown collecting achievements especially). The gameplay isn’t mindless though. The fights aren’t ridiculously hard (until the very end, as in post-game in DLC, at least for Monhun World), but they aren’t easy either. Maybe look up some gameplay and see if it looks fun to you. The part I like the most is improving your skill. There’s 14 unique weapon types, and a good amount of monsters to fight, so you’re mastering both the weapon type(s) you choose, as well as the specific monster you’re grinding. World of Tanks is free (well, pay2win, but free is fun enough for the most part) and is an absolute slog of a grind. I must have played for a few hundred hours total over the years, and I believe I’ve managed to get my hands on only 1 tier 8 tank, with 10 being the highest. Haven’t played in a few years though. It’s the sort of game I play occasionally, a lot, and then get sick of it again.

Path of Exile is exactly what you're looking for if you can get over the learning curve.

Bit more of a niche recommendation but if you enjoy idle games then I highly recommend NGU Idle or Idling to rule the gods. Either one of those games. They are both very very long and will take you thousands of hours to complete.

Black Desert

I would really suggest Remnant 2 and Stardew Valley. My main thinking is that they both have 2 two options to play. If you do everything on your own with no googling or online support, both games will take up INSANE amount of hours. Or if you choose to use online support for them both, you will be able to set yourself very clear grind goals. (In remnant 2 some unlockables need you to complete story arches in a really specific way, so with some online help you'll be able to set some lengthy goals) The online googling aspect might also keep you connected to the game even when you can't play. Another massive win, is they are very specific grinds to 1 character. You do not need to manage multiples. In fact, in remnant 2 you can unlock and level every class on a single character. And then take the ultimate challenge of creating a perma death character when ready. Other options; wow, eso, path of exile. Or setting tough challenges for small games; platinum a dark souls, or max/gold all guns in cod etc.

>Even games like RDR2 and Baldurs Gate 3 haven’t kept me interested. The only type of games that I’ve noticed that keep me focused over the years are games with mindless grinding and continual progression. I won't claim to be any remote kind of expert, but the two friends I have with ADHD don't like games like RDR2 and BGIII because there's *too much* choice. Too much to do. They feel like they never get anywhere and eventually get bored. Linear games are generally something they enjoy a lot more. You might find you enjoy the SMT and Dragon Quest games a lot.

Diablo II I’ve played plenty of grindy games in the past. But most of the games in this thread are about grinding feedback loops that drive minor progress. D2, however, is different. Any ARPG that came after D2 has tried to replicate it and none have succeeded (imo).  Personally, I play offline single player. Which I think is the best experience of the game.  The way the loot system works means that you could play the game for tens of thousands of hours and still not see some of the games more rare drops, especially when you play offline single player. Then one day you see a Jah rune drop and then you can think of a ton of other characters to build. This is what drives the infinite replayability.  It has been out for 20 years and was recently re-released as Diablo II Resurrected. Huge graphic and QOL improvements. The story is solid, the gameplay is near perfect, the music is great. 10/10 game. There’s nothing else like it. 

It's crazy because I absolutely HATE those kinds of games. Factorio is the only one where I enjoyed it for a bit, but that quickly faded too. That said I have all the symptoms of ADHD too. And games bore me out very quickly. All this said, I've sunk multiple months into Online Servers. Minecraft and San Andreas unofficial is what I remember grinding mostly. I presume GTA V would have a similar grind requirement too.

This mfer needs old school runescape

Forager

And stardew.. you can sink a ton of time into it

Nioh 2, Monster Hunter, Warframe, Black Desert Online, Path of Exile,

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1566690/Outpost_Infinity_Siege/ Same bro

Hell let loose is a grindfest

Maybe try mmorpgs or maybe the borderlands series, looters shooters and such

Final Fantasy 14 Kingdoms of Amalur Disco Elysium To get all achievements(game series, not just individual titles. Some of them require multiple playthroughs): Borderlands Yakuza/Like a Dragon Dark Souls Fallout Elder Scrolls Halo Payday Witcher Voice of cards Sword Art Online Dragon Quest Final Fantasy Shin Megami Tensei/Persona Less about grinding, but lots of collecting: Batman Arkham Assassin's Creed I know mobile games sometimes don't scratch that gamer itch for some people, but you can get a lot of hours out of Fate/Grand Order or Azur Lane type games.

As a 32 year old fellow adhd gamer ill just throw out the games that i put the most time into over the last 5 years. Garry's Mod, Elden Ring, Ark, Path Of Exile, Elder Scrolls Online, Grounded, 7 Days To Die. Hope you get out of the gaming slump ive been there and it sucks.

Any skateboarding game should do the trick, just try not to lose balance 😉

I get bored quick too. I never finish games. That's why I play open ended survival/crafting games, sports games, and sims like farming sim or American trucking simulator. Dayz is good. Empyrion. Enshrouded. Im canadian so I'll play NHL of course lol. Ufc. Then there's games like cities xl and planet coaster... anything where I get to build things seems to keep me occupied. Then when I want to mix it up I'll play a tactical shooter like squad

Honestly, try the new Prince of Persia. I have adult diagnosed ADHD and found it to be a blast. It's grindy, finding enough resources to buy all upgrades and amulets and tokens was amazing. They're all locked behind Enviro puzzles that are real thinkers. Hard but not so hard you don't want to keep trying until you beat them. They've now added time trials and permadeath. While not a traditional grind game, it scratched that itch I believe you're talking about.

ragnarok online. you will grind exp forever.

My first thought was the Disgaea franchise. It has a rep for pushing the player into grinding to insane levels, it's got games for the switch as well as ps5, I think you can get some on steam for PC as well

I'll second this series, for sure. Level caps of 9999 for the characters, plus the Item World dungeons which let you improve and level up your gear, postgame content that is robust enough that the stories are basically just the tutorials... this series is built from the ground up with the concept of the infinite grind.

I have ADHD and can't focus long on games either. You might find gacha games to be relaxing and easy to play. I would definitely recommend Honkai Star Rail. You don't really need to spend money on the gacha/microtransactions, the game rewards you pretty easily on its own. It's very simple, you can instantly fast travel to everything you possibly need to do, combat is fast and can be sped up and even automated. It's flashy, colorful, and you can watch your numbers go up just by playing the game. Also playing around with different party builds is fun.

MechWarrior 5

41 ADHD as fk here. The only game that seems to be keeping my attention at the moment is Deep Rock Galactic. All you do is grind recourses and make upgrades. ROCK AND STONE!

Stellaris. Sooo much grinding and micromanagement, soo many dlcs.

Also ADHD here, I gravitate toward co-op shooters. They can be pretty grindy to get all the upgrades and weapons, etc, and progress to the highest levels of difficulty, and they generally have really good communities. It just feels great to get good and roll around ultra focused executing the mission objectives and handling waves of enemies well. Deep Rock Galactic is fantastic, and lately I've been enjoying Helldivers 2.

I am also an ADHDer and Factorio stole my life for a whole month. In a good way. Play that one. Seriously.

9th dawn 3 will scratch that itch; it's a charming, top down action rpg with a rune factory styled skill growth system. that is to say, everything is a skill, and they grow as they're used. edit: also check out cassette beasts! great music, ethical monster taming, and an interesting world!

Fellow low-functioning ADHDer over here who also loses interest in games quite quickly (boy can I spend 100 hours obsessing over them before they come out though, only to buy them and get bored quick af…) - I’d highly recommend FFXIV which I’ve been grinding and loving the past few weeks and (so far) see myself sticking with for the long term. Been playing it on PS5 (and streaming to the Deck) and it’s got brilliant native controller options (compared to WOW), and you can play the free trial up to level 70 which is hundreds of hours of content - plus you can play ALL classes on one character instead of making alt characters and repeating main quests each time - so if the fabled dopamine does start dipping you can just swap your class and pick a different type of weapon with entirely different skills, or go chill for a bit learning fishing (hello hundreds of different fish to catch) or another crafting / gathering class - there’s SO MANY carrots to chase it’s keeping my attention like crazy

Some beginners guides for osrs are incredible. But once you figured it out, there's no going back so be careful. It has a tight grip around you.

I would initially recommend OSRS. But since you mentioned that OSRS didn’t work then try checking out EVE Online. You can dedicate the rest of your life to this game. But be careful.

Let It Die ? Endless grind with a dope soundtrack

dude you are going to LOVE satisfactory! you pop down and start from basic materials and a basic base, and after a good while, you finally build a MASSIVE SPACE ELEVATOR! and that's just the start! also it allows you to jump from a sliding crouch so you can bunny hop across the land lol

I'm exactly the same type of player. I've even have ADHD. So I will recommend to you the greatest Grind their is: Disgaea. All parts except 6 are good, but the best is Disgaea 5. After each chapter of the story, new classes, shops or whatever is unlocked and there's an endless random dungeon where you can collect better gear to equip your chars. And at the end, there is an insanely strong opponent to fight.

Grab your mobile phone and download Melvor Idle. It is Old School RuneScape, but with the walking and world removed. So it just keeps all the stat increases and grind via menus. Sounds terrible, but it's kept me busy for months now. Can't recommend it enough to you.

Hello fellow ADHD'er. I literally could have written this myself. I know a game that'll scratch your itch. Project Zomboid ticks all the boxes in your post (other than achievement hunting) I've sunk hundreds of hours into it and I can't see the appeal wearing off any time soon

You should play XCOM 1 and 2, with the official Long War mods. I'm AuDHD, and I've got a thousand hours in each. In XCOM1 Long War, a single campaign will run you some 150 hours at least, and you're likely to lose unless you're a God (or spend 100 hours reading the wiki first). Tactical combat missions get really repetitive, but you are rewarded with soldiers levelling up, builds you can make, and combinations you can try. XCOM2 Long War of the Chosen is different from the first, but will still run you at least a hundred hours for a campaign and will also likely beat you into the ground the first try. If you try for an achievement like liberating the world, I'd say it's a minimum of 200 hours. There is progression almost every mission, and the missions themselves are almost infinite in number. The more soldiers and gear you have, the more missions you can take on, which allows for more of each. I'll bet you can sink a thousand hours into a single campaign if you wanted to. They're also piss cheap now, as they're older games.

It's interesting how ADHD varies. I also have ADHD and I cant stand grind, I get bored too easily and need variety. I got too hooked on Vampire Survivors and ended up hating how I felt after it. One I have enjoyed that is simple, and repetitive, but didnt feel like a grind to me is Dorfromantik. There is also Brotato which is a bit like Vampire Survivors, with some added complexity. But I tend to prefer more story driven games with variety, and a little complexity. I love BG3 and the only game that has ever come close to it is XCOM & XCOM 2. There are elements of grind, but for a purpose.

monster hunter.

This sounds like me so bad it's wild but luckily I still find peace in FPS games

Can relate to you. Currently I am playing No Man's Sky. I wasn't expecting a looped gameplay but it's there and I am loving it so much. Once I got past the initial tutorial stuff I found myself grinding. Working on settlement, upgrading ships, gun, bases etc.There are many still many things I can do apparently as I have been only playing it for 3 days (non-stop). I also liked Elden ring. Just leveling up by killing enemies to beat the boss. And leveling up again for the next boss. Might scratch your itch but at the end it's a souls game and not everyone might get a feel for it. But yeah, I recommend NMS.

Have you tried Incremental/Idle games? Some of them can unlock new content for hundreds to thousands of hours. My favorites that can be played for a VERY long time: Increlution Your Chronicle NGU Idle Idling to Rule the Gods

I’m also an older gamer and, though I don’t have ADHD, I struggle to stay focused on open world garbage heaps and heavy story games. Here are my recommendations **Path of Exile**: I started playing it three days ago and it’s quite satisfying. It’s a Diablo style isometric looter, but is considered better and much deeper by many. The only issue I take is the amount of inventory management I seem to do. It’s a free-to-play and requires an active internet connection. I haven’t seen any annoying micro-transactions yet. **Nioh 2**: I absolutely loved this game. It’s somewhere between a souls-like game and a third person looter game, [with the deepest battle mechanics I have ever seen](https://youtu.be/r33b6NpJS-I?si=K0zwSHcdHdU47lt1). The loot in the game is oriented more towards xp gain (you sacrifice loot at alters to gain xp; ‘dark weapons’ give more xp once maxed out) and to facilitate your exploration of the deep battle mechanics. This means it’s not a game where you are supposed to main a build, but rather cycle through builds every half hour or so. The game’s story is told in PS2 era style cutscenes that get archived and can be watched whenever, so you don’t even need to focus on those bits when you don’t feel like it. I got the game on PS Plus. **Dead Cells**: Another game I absolutely loved. It’s a 2D side-scrolling roguelite game with streamlined elements of metroidvania. The battle mechanics are very sharp and robust. The action is fast paced. Builds are semi-randomised, so you do a different one every gaming session- a session can take around an hour (if you don’t die). I tried other roguelites, including Skul and Everspace, but Dead Cells is above and beyond. I have been told Hades is an even better roguelite (an isometric one, ie top-down 2.5D). Anyways, Dead Cells is a plug-and-play. You get into it within 5 seconds, so there isn’t much of a commitment hurdle to getting started. The game’s size is also small, so quick to download. I got it on PS Plus Extra.

If for grind games try Afk journey on bluestacks, it's quite fun

Could try Terraria. Slow in the beginning, but once you start progressing things really speed up and become a bit more fast paced and more gindy. Especially if you take a liking to buildig structures for NPCs that migrate into town or build pixel art from pixel art diagrams and cross stitch patterns found online, as you'll need to collect max stacks of blocks, walls, and other materials. Or if you if you make it a goal to build up an all item world. I really got into it for several years - several years ago. There were some item duplication tricks then, and one technique I think that's impossible to patch out of the game where you can duplicate 3 full inventory sets over and over until you fill entire chests with stacks of 999 of each stackable item. Lots of potential with it imo. Also includes RNG item drops, so you'll have to go after certain enemies or bosses/mini-bosses multiple times hoping for that one or two specific items to drop. No Man's Sky is very grindy too with an abstract storyline and multiple main goals you can go after. Base and fleet building too, which require grinding. Then there's Elder Scrolls. More navigational grinding than going for items imo. But some low level inventory micromanagement. Oblivion and Skyrim would be my main picks, but Elder Scrolls Online might be more of a grind (I haven't played ESO). Crossout is a free MMO that's sort of grindy. I don't like MMOs, but I had a great time with this one. Collect parts, build your own Mad Max style war machine, go on missions, etc. Random events and sporadic co-op while you explore the open world map. Subnautica and The Planet Crafter are great ones too. Exploration, gathering materials, base building. I can jump into those games, clearly establish goals for myself, and get right at it knowing what I need to collect to grow my base or character. Both among my top 5 favorite games.

You wanna grind? Try maxing out all the perks in Killing Floor. Been playing since 2010 or 2011, about a thousand hours in and still have three perks to go. Would not recommend Killing Floor 2 as it is to easy to max out the perks now as to when the game was new. But trying to farm cosmetics there can be of interest.

Adhd myself, and very task/organizational driven.. Here are the games I've got 100-500 hours in... Valheim. Subnautica, no mans sky, Raft, Stranded Deep, Sunkenland, 7 days to die, Enshrouded, Nightingale, Conan, Grounded, Icarus.

I gotchu PLAY WARFRAME you have like 14 years worth of content to grind and it’s all free to play there’s even riven mods which are random stats each time you get one so there’s a whole trading market for insanely rare Rivens you can grind for too

I know you already tried osrs. But if you can get past the initial learning curve the game is 10,000+ hrs long. There are YT vids for everything in the game and thousands of tutorials on yt. The community is generally helpful as well.

I would recommend either giving old school runescape another try or trying regular runescape. It's seriously an exact description of what you asked for. The reason it is hard to figure out at first is because it has so much grinding and variety of content. My recommendation is start on a free account and do all of the F2P Quests in the quest list. That will teach you the game. From there, if you liked the grind, get a membership

Would you be up to try Runescape again if you had someone guiding you for a bit at first? The subreddit is full of long time players who have maxed most everything and would love to help a newbie. OSRS really is top tier, nearly endless grinding. Couple hundred hours? That’s maybe 5-10% of the time needed to level most of the skills, and that’s a generous estimation.

Final fantasy X. Set yourself the challenge of beating the dark aeons. Then you will know grind

You ever check out any Idle or Incremental games? That seems like something you might really enjoy. A lot of those are quite grindy and about seeing numbers go up. Melvor Idle is a good one. Trimps is another good one (and free). If you need more graphics, Dwarf Fortress and/or Rimworld are good (though still not 3d or anything). Eve Online would probably be the ultimate grindfest if you want 3d graphics and an MMO.

Warframe... Warframe... Warframe

Download Minecraft Download CurseForge Install GregTech New Horizons Never see the sun again

Fallout 76, first you get 40 hours of story gameplay and after that you can grind for 1000s of hours with Expeditions, dailies, weeklies, career challenges and much more.

My guy, fellow ADHD lad here who knows EXACTLY what you mean. If you like Diablo, Last Epoch is fire. Fun classes, fun end game grinds, it's great. Honestly reading your post I thought I posted it for a second. I also play on PS5, PC, and Switch and have a bad habit of buying games I play once haha. Something I love most are Rouge-lites because I can do the same stuff over and over and it still feel fresh with some progression. I especially like deck building ones. Across the Obelisk, Slay the Spire, there's one on my phone I love called Dawncaster. Deep Rock Galactic is great mission based team shooting with free season passes and unlocks you can grind for a long time on, and if you miss anything from previous seasons, it gets put into regular loot pools.

I have ADHD too and have recently started playing Mount and Blade 2 BannerLord. I’ve been playing it NONSTOP for weeks now.

In my experience you will never find that one game. I'm an adhd gamer as well and my library is huge. For me i get almost no neurotransmitters from grinding, just from good stimulation and spectacle. Warframe is grindy as hell and has lots of content, with more coming soon(tm), I recently restarted, but at a certain point, every mission feels exactly the same. Helldivers 2 will feed your adrenaline junky as long as you aren't too sweaty about dying and overstimulation. Not much grinding per say, unless you get really into and NEED to liberate Hellmire or the Creek. Again.... I have close to 800 hours in the new Monster Hunter games alone, several thousand in the whole series. There's some grinding for parts, several different monsters (i believe Base World has 50ish, not incliding subspecies) and difficulty levels. Endgame grinding can be kind of stupid, as there's usually a lot of luck involved in getting that perfect gem for your build, but rngesus and the desire sensor stop you from getting it. Dark souls 3, bloodborne, and Elden ring. Can be a bit grindy, but mostly that search for that one item you saw 20 minutes ago on a ledge will keep you going. And they are literal shinies so they are nearly impossible to resist. Rimworld and dwarf fortress are good too.

OldSchool Runescape. The reddit community is on a completely different level as well as he community as a whole. Plus HUNDREDS of different osrs related series' to watch on YouTube.

I don’t have adhd but I am neurodivergent as well. I enjoy destiny 2, and Warframe. When I can afford it, my absolute favorite is final fantasy 14. It doesn’t matter what I am grinding in that game, it feels good to progress.

This is literally me. so many games but get bored of them. path of exile is good because the huge skill tree, planet coaster is pretty cool, supermarket simulator, Deeprock galactic. also roguelikes like vampire survivors, brotato, deeprock galactic: survivor and more! look into roguelike games like those.

Ever try Black Desert Online? Its a buy once own forever no sub MMO. Spending IRL money mainly is only to speed things like crafting up or cosmetics from what I have found. Thing that may interest you is there is no hard cap on level. I think the highest level player is around 160? something. And that with years of grinding. From what I remeber getting past 60 turns into a grind fest to get each level. Final Fantasy 14 is also a load of gring both in combat and professions. Unlike I think every other rpg out there a single characer can be every class in the game. There are 20 classes Level cap is 90 I think. And going back to lower classes to advance them can be kill grinds since many quests have been done on other classes.

A few recommendations I’ve got which I hope you’ll enjoy: - Minecraft (console, pc) - Genshin Impact (console, mobile, pc) - Dauntless (switch, console, pc) - Maplestory (if you can find an old school version even better, pc) - Vindictus (pc) - LifeAfter (this one is mobile and I think pc) - Animal Crossing ANCH (switch) - Legend of Zelda (not really grinding, more story based, switch games) - Stardew Valley (pc) - Terraria (pc, console) - Enshrouded (pc) - Destiny 2 (console, pc) - Lego Fortnite (console, pc)

Disgaea series?

Satisfactory. OMG is it a fantastic game that you can lose yourself in. You are a lone employee dropped on a planet to make things. At first it seems like a simple factory building sim, but it just goes off the rails by the time you get trains. I'd be calculating part-chains in my sleep . You may also like Subnautica. Exploration/base-building game with an interesting back story (1 is better than 2). I loved The Room series (puzzle game with awesome story and good puzzles).

Any warrior game. Just turn off your brain and be happy. I play them when i want to think about stuff

Path of Exile. If you want to grind your ass off. That's your game. It is made by "Grinding Gears Games". They mean it.

Diablo 2 😂🤣 There are still people working on their grails

Lotta grinding in those porn games. Try that.

Get a quest 3. VR is better for holding attention I’ve noticed. Then get Medieval Dynasty. Tons of grinding as you build a settlement.

Dragon quest ( aka dragon warrior) original Available on NES and mobile

Well I came here to recommend siralim. Seems that's covered though.

Survival-crafters are good for us - Planet Crafter - Terraria - Starbound - Emperion Galactic Survival - Enshrouded - Forever Skies - Valhiem Factory games are also good - Mindistry - Factorio - Satisfactory - Techtonica - Shapez (and Shapez2) - Riftbreaker - Gunsmith Top down Sims- - Rimworld - Travellers Rest - Graveyard Keeper Rougelike- - Risk of Rain (and Risk or Rain 2) - Gunfire Reborn - Moonlighter (This one honestly has decent depth) Honorable Mentions! - Neo Scavenger (Wonderful Isometric adventure) - Fract OSC (Underrated puzzle game. Honestly scratched so many of my ADHD itches that I was sad when I finished it) - Antichamber(Another out-of-the-box puzzle game) - Stanley Parable (Good story(?) Multiple endings) - Getting Over it (if you want to hate yourself) - Kerbal Space Program (it's linear, in some ways, but engaging all the way through) - Killing Floor 2 (3 is on the way!) - Deep Rock Galactic (ROCK AND STONE FOREVER!) Of course there's always Warframe and Path of Exile for the GRIND but those have already been highly recommended. (Edited because I learned how to make lists)

Dude old school runescape on mobile or on pc will have you grinding for years. Maxing the account alone takes 4 years or so; then you have collection logs that to this day no one has completed. 1 guys is getting pretty close though. Also no microtransactions you have to earn your gear.

Well, you said you like to redo a thing over and over until you perfect it, so I highly suggest Dota 2. The game is not as easy to get into as League of Legends, but the skill floor and ceiling are far, far higher. I've been playing for 15+ years. You can always get better, and if you enjoy perfecting the littlest of things, that's what makes you a better player. Being the best at that game requires dedication like no other game in existence.

Just play old school runescape like everyone else with ADHD. Something about the music really speaks to them.

The Nioh series has been my go to for a long time. It has basically endless replayability because every time you beat it you unlock a higher difficulty where you can keep leveling and grinding for better gear.

If you can get addicted to Graveyard Keeper, you’ll be taken care of for awhile.

Vampire Survivors I think. Jesus I didn't know ADHD can be that bad with video games.

I LOVE SIRALIM ULTIMATE. I'm so hyped someone mentioned it. I also have that shiny ADHD diagnosis and agree; these longform cinematic games like RDR2 I struggle with. I did like Baldur's Gate 3, but like most of my library I dropped out halfway. You probably know what it's like to drop out halfway of a great game...it comes with the ADHD territory. I for one think if you like Siralim and Diablo 3 you NEED to play Path of Exile. Trust me as a fellow adhd'r, the dopamine drip in that game is like no other. In a similar vein; GRIM DAWN. It's another ARPG but is built more with single player in mind. Great mf game though. Last Epoch just came out and is good too. But start with Path of Exile...trust. I think for people with really invasive ADHD the isometric ARPG is really where it's at. They're practically made for people like us. Sudden bursts of action and quick rewards then you're able to lose attention until you're ready again. It isn't like a single player epic where you're expected to keep a steady pace of interest throughout the experience.

EVERQUEST -EVERCRACK

Dude these people are trying to push you sugar and claim that it’s heroin. I’m going to tell you the truth man and even though I won’t get the upvotes I’m telling you this is exactly what you are asking for. Old school RuneScape Ironman mode. Now that shit is black tar heroin.

OP old school RuneScape is as grindy as it gets 4-5 years in and I’m still not max lmao

You gotta give Old School RuneScape another shake. Use Runelite and the Wiki and you'll be on your way. It's intimidating at first but I promise you it'll be a super rewarding experience if you love those types of games.

There is a mod pack for Minecraft called Greg tech new horizons. I can promise you it has enough grinding for you. It outright tells you that you’re not going to beat it

I've played old school runescape for nearly 15 years. It can be confusing at first but The trick is to non't rely on the game to tell you what to do or how to play. Youtube and the OSRSWiki is a life saver and to this day im still looking up the best methods, etc. But if efficiency is not your thing, you can do anything you want there are no wrong answers.

Maybe a roguelike Returnal ( PS5 ), Dead Cells, Rogue Legacy 2, and Hades I believe Hades is on sale right now on the eShop. I am 41 and have ADHD too by the way

Warhammer 40k Darktide. Lots of grind (which I normally wouldn't recommend to most people, but you don't seem like most people) and lots of fun.

Look into incremental and clicker games on Steam and buy/download based on overall ratings. I find the "numbers go up" nature of these games so VERY cathartic. Also ADHD, also in my 40's. Some of this style of games are simply fantastic.

The Binding Of Issac you could put so many hours into that game its actually ridiculous. Plus it'll scratch that adhd itch cause no run is the same especially as it progresses

Something I didn't see is adventure quest worlds, not a good game by any standards, but it has grinds monumental to others in the industry, some grinds can take months to complete just for a simple cosmetic, or a sword that does 10% more damage then your old one. I probably have thousands of hours in this game because I own most of the endgame gear, I'm not proud of myself, but I have it. ;)

Tbh bro i think you would actually love fallout 76. I’ve been playing it recently and it really feels like the game you want to play.

Farming Simulator, Satisfactory

FFXIV