Best Indie Survival Crafting Games for PC

Why it's here: The best indie survival crafting game on PC, and the one I would put in front of somebody new to the genre. You wake in a Norse purgatory where progress is gated by bosses rather than by a level number, and every roof, dock and stairway goes up beam by beam with a hammer. The recurring complaint in Steam reviews is the later biomes, where the difficulty jumps and solo resource runs turn into a chore. 94% positive across 541,178 Steam reviews, the largest corpus on this list. Best with two or three people on a shared server.

Why it's here: The one to play on your own, and the pick I would reach for at the end of a long day. You land on a dead orange rock with an oxygen meter counting down, and you slowly turn it into somewhere with rain, grass and fish, watched over by a terraforming index that never stops climbing. The recurring complaint in Steam reviews is the back half, where the challenge falls away and the pacing goes slack. 96% positive across 73,300 Steam reviews, the highest score on this list. Very chill, and the easiest start here.

Why it's here: The hardest thing on this list, and it tells you how the story ends before you have taken a step: This is how you died. A single scratch can turn into an infection that finishes a character a week of game time later, with no undo, which is exactly why people keep starting over. The recurring complaint in Steam reviews is the interface, which stays clunky and offers a newcomer almost no help. 94% positive across 477,563 Steam reviews, the second-largest corpus here. Not restful, and I would still keep it installed.

Why it's here: Get four people together for this one, because alone it is a different and much worse game. You crew a submarine under the ice of Europa, one of you steering, one minding the reactor, one patching wounds, and the reactor will happily melt down if everybody looks away at the same moment. The recurring complaint in Steam reviews is how much it asks of a newcomer before any of that clicks, with almost no guidance to get there. 94% positive across 89,471 Steam reviews. Chaotic fun with friends, and not worth it without them.

Why it's here: One developer, and it folds settlement management into a top-down survival game better than anything else here. You clear a dungeon, come home, and hire settlers who then farm, mine and craft on their own while you head back out, so the base keeps growing while you are elsewhere. The recurring complaint in Steam reviews is the inventory screen, which players call awkward enough to break the rhythm of a good run. 93% positive across 28,917 Steam reviews. The gentlest start on this page if the bigger 3D worlds put you off.

Why it's here: The frightening one, and the reason is Kelvin. Your companion took a head injury in the crash and cannot hear a word, so you write his orders on a notepad and hope he is still upright when you get back, while the cannibals outside watch from the treeline and change how they behave as the seasons turn. The recurring complaint in Steam reviews is the story, which players find thin and over quickly next to everything built around it. 88% positive across 318,269 Steam reviews. Bring somebody with you if you scare easily.

Why it's here: The pick for people who want the fighting to be good rather than merely survivable. Combat has real timing and a skill tree behind it, the terrain is voxel so you can carve a house into a cliff instead of stacking boxes against it, and the shroud is a timer: step inside and you have a fixed window to get out. The recurring complaint in Steam reviews is performance, naming long shader compilation and stutter once the world opens up. 86% positive across 105,080 Steam reviews, the lowest score on this list. Worth it for the building freedom.

Why it's here: Take this one only if the systems themselves are the appeal. You build a base on the Moon or Mars by piping gases by hand, mixing a breathable atmosphere and wiring logic chips to hold it steady, and a bad pressure calculation will kill you long before anything outside does. The recurring complaint in Steam reviews is the tutorial, or the absence of one, alongside an interface players describe as a fight in its own right. 88% positive across 9,239 Steam reviews, the smallest corpus here. Not relaxing, and not trying to be.