Building comparison
head to head
BanishedvsStardew Valley
Neither is meaningfully harder - they pose close to the same test. The widest gap is optimization, and it is a single point.
Banished
Optimization · Pure Optimization
Harsh village-builder; balance population, food, and winter.
Stardew Valley
Optimization · Pure Optimization
A farm-life sim solved by season routing and profit optimization.
Banished leans Optimization (Pure Optimization); Stardew Valley leans Optimization (Pure Optimization).
BanishedStardew Valley
Axis by axis
Execution1 vs 1
Same score on execution - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Banished
no mechanical layer
Stardew Valley
Trivial timing on fishing and combat
Reads0 vs 0
Same score on reads - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Banished
no opponent
Stardew Valley
No adaptive opponent exists
Variance3 vs 3
Same score on variance - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Banished
weather, disease events
Stardew Valley
Crop luck and geode RNG matter modestly
Optimization9 vs 8
Banished leans a little harder on optimization, though the gap is small.
Banished
population ratios and food planning
Stardew Valley
Routing seasons, profit loops, and bundles dominates
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.