The Best Survival sandbox Games for Linux

Update : Nature And Life - Drunk On Nectar added at rank #23.
Here are our 10 Best Survival sandbox Games for Linux:
1

Core Keeper (2024)

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86
Review score
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Linux Xbox One Playstation 4 Nintendo Switch Xbox Series X Playstation 5 PC Windows

Core Keeper is a mining/crafting-adventure game that combines elements from games like Terraria, Stardew Valley, and Valheim. Dive into a subterranean world where you mine, build, and battle in an ever-expanding cave of wonders. Forge your path, unearth relics, and conquer monstrous foes, solo or with friends. It's a sandbox of secrets waiting for you to uncover!


What we like:
  • Infinite exploration with diverse biomes
  • Complete creative freedom in a fully destructible environment
  • Rich in secrets and stunning vistas
  • Varied gameplay with distinct regions
  • Extensive mod support enhances replayability
What could be improved:
  • Challenging navigation without clear landmarks
  • Limited inventory and storage space

  • survival
  • crafting
  • sandbox
  • cooperative
  • mining
  • cooking
  • farming
  • pixel
  • open-world
  • building
  • boss
  • procedural
  • simulation

2

TerraTech (2018)

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90
Review score
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PC Windows Nintendo Switch Playstation 4 Xbox One Mac OS Linux

TerraTech is the perfect game for creative kids who love to build their own vehicles and explore a randomly generated world. Construct powerful machines, bases, and weapons to defend against rival miners, gather resources, and improve your standing with the Mining Corporations. Explore treacherous mountain ranges, luscious grasslands, and huge deserts while building and creating your own unique style. The gameplay is fun and intuitive, and the simplistic graphics don't require high-end hardware.


What we like:
  • Fun and intuitive gameplay
  • Creative freedom with lots of room for your own style
  • Enticing game with interesting mechanics
  • Simplistic graphics don't require high-end hardware
  • Provides a unique and addictive experience
What could be improved:
  • Feels empty with repetitive fetch quests
  • Lack of big updates
  • Multiplayer needs a lot of work

  • sandbox
  • building
  • crafting
  • open-world
  • construction
  • vehicle
  • survival
  • robots
  • physics
  • early-access
  • exploration
  • funny-looking
  • online
  • vehicles

3

Aground (2018)

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93
Review score
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Linux Mac OS PC Windows Xbox One

Aground is a Mining/Crafting RPG with a goal, story, and reason to craft and build. The gameplay is simple, but engaging with tons of features. In Aground, you can raise dragons and launch into space, fight enemies, discover magic, and explore secrets. If you're into crafting games with a lot of exploration, Aground is a thoroughly addictive game with plenty to discover.


What we like:
  • Story is interesting and allows for a lot of exploration
  • Crafting is solid and varied
  • Mod support and community are helpful
  • Gameplay is engaging and controls are good
  • Freedom to choose which islands to visit and play at your own pace.
What could be improved:
  • Item storage can be tedious and requiring a lot of trips
  • Low-resolution graphics may take some getting used to
  • Lack of personal relationships with NPCs
  • Basic tutorial and sometimes requires use of outside resources for guidance.

  • survival
  • crafting
  • dragon
  • mining
  • open-world
  • base-building
  • city-building
  • building
  • post-apocalyptic
  • exploration
  • sandbox
  • 2d
  • choices
  • management
  • story

4

Oxygen Not Included (2019)

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96
Review score
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PC Windows Mac OS Linux

Oxygen Not Included is an innovative and unique colony-building game in which you control a crew of duplicants who start beneath the surface of a procedurally generated asteroid with nothing more than a ration box and cloning device. With its childlike art style and humour, Oxygen Not Included looks like less of a space simulator and more like The Sims in space, but don't let that fool you - it's brimming with complexity and depth.

Buy

What we like:
  • Child-friendly art style
  • Complexity and depth
  • Humor
  • Procedurally generated asteroid
  • Experimenting with contraptions
  • Retconning decisions
What could be improved:
  • Frame rate drops at the start of each cycle
  • AI occasionally getting confused

  • survival
  • simulation
  • colony
  • resource-management
  • base-building
  • management
  • sandbox
  • space

5

Project Zomboid (2013)

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93
Review score
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early access PC Windows Linux Mac OS Android

Project Zomboid is the ultimate in zombie survival. Alone or in MP: you loot, build, craft, fight, farm and fish in a struggle to survive. A hardcore RPG skillset, a vast map, massively customisable sandbox and a cute tutorial raccoon await the unwary. So how will you die? All it takes is a bite..


  • survival
  • zombies
  • sandbox
  • crafting
  • persistent-player

6

Necesse (2019)

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94
Review score
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early access Linux Mac OS PC Windows

Necesse is an open-world, top-down sandbox game with a huge amount of potential. Explore procedurally generated islands, build towns, recruit settlers and complete quests - either on your own or with friends. There are forest, snow, swamp and desert biomes to discover as well as mobs and boss battles to fight. The crafting recipes are intuitive and the base building is fun and easy to learn.

Buy

What we like:
  • Procedurally generated world of islands
  • Mobs to fight
  • Boss battles
  • Intuitive crafting recipes
  • Base building system
  • Online multiplayer
What could be improved:
  • Not much verticality in the build system yet
  • Minimal cosmetic changes for builds
  • Some bullet hell elements during boss fights

  • crafting
  • survival
  • open-world
  • cooperative
  • colony
  • building
  • sandbox
  • pixel
  • exploration
  • survival-craft
  • replay-value
  • 2d
  • multiplayer
  • farming
  • online

7

RimWorld (2018)

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97
Review score
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Mac OS Linux PC Windows Xbox One

RimWorld is a life simulator and management game set in a remote planet in the distant future. It features a unique character generation system to create complex personalities with flaws, drives and needs, as well as a story generator that creates unexpected scenarios for players to face.


What we like:
  • Unique character generation system
  • Story generator creates unpredictable scenarios
  • Tons of mods for everything
  • Includes interaction bubbles to show interactions as they happen
What could be improved:
  • Unintuitive UI
  • Busy work tasks can be tedious

  • colony
  • simulation
  • survival
  • base-building
  • farming
  • pirates
  • sci-fi
  • sandbox
  • management
  • card
  • assassin

8

Starbound (2016)

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85
Review score
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PC Windows Xbox One Android Linux Mac OS

Starbound is a 2D space-based exploration and crafting sandbox game that offers endless possibilities. With a multitude of different planets to visit, you can mine, gather resources, manage your inventory, buy and sell items, farm crops, steal from others, and craft objects. There are three different modes to choose from, and you can play alone or with a friend through Steam for a cooperative experience. The game has a large variety of weapons, and nearly everything in it can be upgraded. Although combat is the weakest element of the game and there could be more customization options for your ship, Starbound is still highly enjoyable, with countless ways to keep yourself engaged for hours or even days.


What we like:
  • Infinite potential
  • Community mods add to the game
  • Aesthetically pleasing
  • Building and farming mechanics are fun
  • Terrarium-like exploration
What could be improved:
  • Stuttering and punishment system can be frustrating
  • Combat mechanics need refining

  • sandbox
  • crafting
  • exploration
  • survival
  • dungeon
  • space
  • farming
  • boss
  • survival-craft
  • open-world
  • adventure
  • cooperative
  • medieval
  • robots
  • 2d

9

Crea (2016)

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82
Review score
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PC Windows Mac OS Linux IOS iPhone super famicom

Furthering the emerging sandbox genre, Crea features combat and crafting in randomly generated, fantasy-style worlds for you to explore, tear apart and build back up. Crea differentiates itself in many ways such as RPG-style character progression, several unique systems, extensive mod support and a charming art style.


  • crafting
  • sandbox
  • survival
  • open-world
  • 2d
  • rpg
  • crafter

10

Lumencraft (2022)

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78
Review score
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Linux Mac OS PC Windows

Lumencraft is an addictive and action-packed game that combines mining, strategy, and tower defense elements. You play as a survivor in a post-apocalyptic world, where you need to mine resources, build structures, and defend against swarms of enemies to find the Lumen crystal, the last hope of mankind. With its destructible environments and multiple game modes, Lumencraft offers a unique and challenging gaming experience that will keep you coming back for more.


What we like:
  • Fun and engaging gameplay with a unique combination of genres
  • Destructible environments add a realistic and immersive touch to the game
  • Multiple game modes and custom maps add replayability
  • Good value for the price
  • Devs are responsive and supportive.
What could be improved:
  • Lack of online multiplayer co-op
  • Limited variety in enemy types and traps
  • Lack of guidance on achievable goals can be frustrating
  • Visuals could use more flair
  • Translation is not perfect.

  • top-down
  • tower-defense
  • shooter
  • base-building
  • sandbox
  • thriller
  • wave
  • mining
  • rpg
  • twin-stick
  • rogue-like
  • survival
  • cooperative
  • horror
  • action

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