Building comparison
head to head
Bad NorthvsRaft
Neither is meaningfully harder - they pose close to the same test. The widest gap is variance, and it is a single point.
Bad North
Optimization · Systems & Chaos
A minimalist real-time tactics roguelite about defending tiny procedural islands.
Raft
Optimization · Pure Optimization
Growing a floating base by solving resource chains and research order against scripted ocean threats.
Bad North leans Optimization (Systems & Chaos); Raft leans Optimization (Pure Optimization).
Bad NorthRaft
Axis by axis
Execution2 vs 2
Same score on execution - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Bad North
Real-time orders need only light micro.
Raft
Shark hook-attacks require minimal timing
Reads0 vs 0
Same score on reads - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Bad North
Viking waves random, not adaptive.
Raft
Shark and seagull AI are scripted with no player modelling
Variance5 vs 4
Bad North leans a little harder on variance, though the gap is small.
Bad North
Procedural islands and enemy compositions.
Raft
Island loot tables and resource drift introduce randomness
Optimization7 vs 7
Same score on optimization - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Bad North
Unit positioning and upgrade choices solvable.
Raft
Raft expansion, food chains, and research order are solvable systems
A matching score does not mean a matching test. Two games can both sit at 10 on execution and demand completely different things of you - which is why the reasoning above matters more than the number beside it.