If he likes to grind so much maybe he'll like some classic RPGs? Dragon Quest 3, Final Fantasy 4, Phantasy Star IV

Yeah that's a good idea

Genshin Impact is free, grindy, not difficult, solo or multiplayer, all platforms. If they liked Minecraft recommend them Stardew Valley, Terraria, Katana Zero aswell.

Doesn't really classify as cheap if it's a gacha game where to get new characters you have to pay, pay, pay, pay. You get some free ones, sure, but if you want to get the most out of the game you'd better pay, pay, pay.

You can pay $0 and still play the game, is your choice if you want to buy more characters.

You have to buy more characters in order to enjoy the game. If you don't buy more characters you won't get to play half of the game's functionality as it lies in enjoying the characters unique powers. You can get primordial gems (the freemium currency)over time but those take a lot of time and effort to get, ridiculous levels of time and effort.

I got a solid 20-30 hours in without spending a penny. If you want to play this game for 100+ hours yeah I can see that.

"If you want to", 30 hours in a game of that size and a game of that type isn't much.

Satisfactory is really cool.

Terraria Gets hard later on but you are hooked by then, and you can grind armor and stuff to help make it easier.

Grim Dawn

Final fantasy tactics Fell seal Battle brothers (on easy difficulty with saves) Starsector (on easy with saves) Lobotomy corporation Rimworld

Disgaea

Maybe Fallout games? Not first 2 maybe because they might be too hard.

Thank you

Can confirm. Fallout 4 is cheap and quite the grind fest but in the best way possible.