Crafting games are quite something different right? The sudden understanding that you can literally create anything you want and need in-game feels empowering to say the least. Crafting games are often heavily related to the survival genre as the crafting mechanic can more or less be considered as the grounding on which the survival genre builds upon. Sure, you can add a post-apocalyptic setting, tons of varied enemies, and countless narrative twists but all these parts are interchangeable while crafting stays firmly intact!

The rise of Minecraft is considered by many as the beginnings of the Crafting-based games, and so, naturally, our top 5 best survival crafting games will have some similarities to the king of the genre. Minecraft game has aged exceedingly well and despite walking its eight years of existence, the game is still considered as an example when it comes to crafting subtilities. But today is not about Minecraft, and we’re not even including the game in our top 3 best survival crafting games listing! The reason is simple: we know Minecraft, you know Minecraft, and everyone you know – knows Minecraft. However, there are a few survival crafting games which might not have reached upon your ears just yet, up until today!

Prepare to immerse in the three most-engaging, explorative, and creative games in the world! We wholeheartedly apologize if your favourite survival crafting journey didn’t get featured here. We do acknowledge the fact that the gaming industry holds plenty more than three resource gathering, success building, and innovation-generating gems, however, we’ve chosen the format of three, and three we shall deliver! Brace yourselves for you are about to leave your cosy whereabouts and enter the discomfort of the top 3 best survival crafting games! Butt-naked, bare-handed, penniless, alone, and without any knowledge of your environment… Your survival journey starts anew – thank God there’s crafting.

Top 3 best survival crafting games – Terraria

Welcome to Terraria, this awesome 2D open-world sandbox game was released back in 2011 and for those that know nothing about it, it’s best described as 2D Minecraft! The adventures in Terraria are based on four gameplay features. These are fighting, scavenging, crafting, and of course, exploration. Unlike some other crafting-based survival games, Terraria can in a sense be completed, however, don’t expect us to tell you how!

Your Terraria experience starts in a procedurally generated world and as in other games featured on our top 3 best survival crafting games list, you’ll start with but a few tools, low-grade pickaxe, sword, and an axe. By exploring the unfamiliar lands you’ll soon find out that the night brings misery and misfortune to those unsheltered, and as such, building a safe-haven is a must!

You can experience everything that Terraria has to offer either solo or online with up to eight other players. If you choose to walk down this adventurous road alone, that’s not really a problem as Terraria is a lively and welcoming place with tons of NPC characters that are ready to aid and side with you on your quest! Terraria is on our top 3 best survival crafting games list for a great many reasons indeed.

One, in particular, is that this crafting game also has three available game modes to choose from. If you want to be all realistic about it, go hardcore and avoid death at any coast – as death will wipe your character and your progression completely. If you’re of the sentimental type and cherish your character that much, ‘mediumcore’ mode is yours for the taking: here death will only result in the loss of inventory items. And if realism doesn’t concern you much at all, go softcore and leave out all the stress behind!

Top 3 best survival crafting games – Don’t Starve

Don’t Starve launched in 2013, and up until now, it’s an innovative and ingenious open-world crafting-based survival game that we’d recommend with utmost certainty for every gamer alike! Don’t Starve is amazing in many ways, one of which is that the game even takes such traits as mental health into consideration! Understandably, hunger and thirst concerns are not the least bit less important – these are in the very title for a reason!

Our featured top 3 best survival crafting games have quite a few things in common, one, in particular, is that the player’s character is dropped into the world with very little guidance, instructions, or even a defined goal. For some, such fact may look like a real deal-breaker at first, however, by spending some time in the surrounding setting, a sudden realization strikes – it’s entirely the opposite.

Of course, the main goal of Don’t Starve is to survive as long as possible, there’s even an on-screen counter that marks the days survived! But how you plan to survive falls entirely on your shoulders. You’ll spend most of your daytime by exploring, gathering various resources, and crafting the things you need to extend your livelihood. And the night-time, same as in Terraria, will present creatures with only one interest in mind – stopping the survival counter from ticking!

Top 3 best survival crafting games – 7 Days to Die

7 Days to Die is an open-world survival horror masterpiece of a game published back in 2014. The game’s background revolves around the events that follow the end of the Third World War that has extinguished the life from almost an entire world. Some areas weren’t destroyed completely, and your in-game character was lucky enough to survive. Same as the two previous games, there’s no pre-determined storyline and once again, the pleasure of creating it befalls unto your shoulders.

Out of our Top 3 best survival crafting games, this one is the scariest and the most unwelcoming, honestly, by a large margin. Swarms of zombies surround you, and on top of that, the wildlife like wolves and bears are also out to get you! The game also presents a shifting day and night cycle which affects the zombies’ behaviour and stats, and you’ll also have to monitor such bodily traits as hunger and thirst. The most important factor on why we explicitly chose 7 Days to Die to complete our top 3 survival crafting games listing is in the title.

The game is titled 7 Days to Die for a reason, and that reason happens once every 7 days. Once every 7 days because of some unknown reasons, zombie legions march unto your location and that’s where crafting comes into play! You have exactly six days to prepare for battle. Craft your way to safety, build structures, traps, and tons of other defensive measures to assure your likelihood to survive! If you manage through the seventh day, congratulations, however, the real trials are just beginning!

Honourable mentions

So, these are the top 3 best survival crafting games that we are presenting today, however, the truth must be told, there are some honourable mentions which we simply couldn’t skip by. If you’re into survival and crafting, you should also check ARK: Survival Evolved, Rust, RimWorld, Stardew Valley, StarForge, and Project Zomboid! And as always, you can buy every single one of these, as well as thousands of other games you may feel like playing on our Eneba Store!