The Best Survival Crafting Games With Expansive Tech Trees

The Best Survival Crafting Games With Expansive Tech Trees

Summary

  • Survival games emphasize overcoming odds, either solo or with friends, against harsh environments or other players.
  • Building thriving communities or advancing technology are key metrics in popular survival games like Rimworld.
  • Various survival games offer unique and expansive tech trees, from primitive tools in Green Hell to futuristic tech in Ark.

Survival games are often a testament to overcoming incredible odds, either alone or alongside friends, and persisting against harsh environments, lethal enemies, or even other players looking to get ahead. Like some other popular genres, the difficulty is the main draw to survival games. How players can not only match the odds set against them – but overcome them – has been the core feature of many popular titles today.

Related

9 Best Survival Games Inspired By Real-World Locations, Ranked

These excellent survival games deliver compelling and immersive gameplay in rich settings inspired by real-world locations.

So how can players track how well they’re faring in a survival title? Building a thriving community, or really any kind of functioning base, might be a start. For some games, however, the main metric for how well a player is doing is how technologically advanced they are. These survival games, in particular, have incredibly expansive tech trees – either spanning a set of ‘eras’ from the Stone Age to the Space Age or keeping to a more consistent theme – but with loads of options for players to research and explore.

8

Rimworld

The Path To Space Flight Is Arduous

My Favorite Games My Played Games My Games Wishlist

Systems

Released

October 17, 2018

Developer(s)

Ludeon Studios

Publisher(s)

Ludeon Studios

Few survival or management games offer the difficulty and immersion that Rimworld does. Hardly a game for the faint-hearted, Rimworld is constantly pushing players to their limits with grueling events and ever-shifting environments to adapt to.

Part of this adaptation is steadily progressing in technology. Rimworld is an interesting spin on typical tech trees as players tend to start in the ‘middle’ of it. If it means a better-defended settlement, ancient crafts of metallurgy or herbal medicine can be researched right alongside robotic and technological innovations that push players closer to finally building a ship.

7

Green Hell

A Plethora Of Unique Tools To Craft

My Favorite Games My Played Games My Games Wishlist

Released

September 5, 2019

Developer(s)

Creepy Jar

Publisher(s)

Creepy Jar

Taking a much more focused and tense approach to survival than most games in this genre, Green Hell instills in the player early on in the main campaign that surviving in the Amazon is a temporary affair – only needed while searching for the protagonist’s wife.

This means players won’t be researching a tech tree that includes high-tech prefabs, air-conditioning, or anything beyond what could feasibly be strung together with fiber and wood. Within these constraints of an ‘improvised’ technology tree, however, Green Hell still manages to offer an incredible amount of variety and individuality to what can be researched and crafted.

6

Ark: Survival Ascended

Master A Host Of Engrams

My Favorite Games My Played Games My Games Wishlist

Systems

Released

October 26, 2023

At the opposite end of the spectrum to the focused style of Green Hell‘s tech tree is the colossal collection of engrams that comprises Ark: Survival Ascended‘s technology tree. In Ark, wooden palisades will give way to stone walls and eventually a colossal, high-tech steel base.

As players level up and learn new engrams, these technologies will underpin everything they do, from clothing themselves to taming animals, to engaging in combat. Few games have a tech tree that encompasses the same breadth of technologies as Ark.

5

Palworld

From Primitive Tools To Modern Firearms

My Favorite Games My Played Games My Games Wishlist

Open-World

Shooter

Survival

Systems

Released

January 19, 2024

Developer(s)

Pocket Pair, Inc.

Publisher(s)

Pocket Pair, Inc.

Taking clear inspiration from Ark, as well as Breath of the Wild and Pokémon, Palworld has risen to be one of the gaming industry’s favorite legally distinct amalgamation of the most recent trends to come out of the last decade – survival, open-world exploration, and, of course, an incredibly expansive technology tree.

As Palworld‘s features continue to grow, the title’s tech tree has also become more expansive, hosting a surprising amount of firearms, technologies from several different eras, and plenty of tools to help befriend more Pals.

4

Icarus

Progress From Basic Subsistance To Futuristic Technology

My Favorite Games My Played Games My Games Wishlist

Released

December 4, 2021

Standing out as an incredible title among some stiff competition in the sci-fi survival genre, Icarus has players explore a warped, failed terraforming experiment while building up an expansive tech tree.

A great game for those who love hard sci-fi, Icarus doesn’t encompass different ‘eras’ of technological progression like Rimworld or Ark but instead goes from low-tech to high-tech sci-fi as players continue finding more resources to craft.

Related

8 Best Survival Games To Try If You Are Not Into The Genre

Survival games have become very popular, but they can seem inaccessible at times. Here are some great survival games for non-genre fans.

3

Valheim

An Immersive, Fantastical Tech Tree

My Favorite Games My Played Games My Games Wishlist

Systems

Released

February 2, 2021

Developer(s)

Iron Gate AB

Exploring a fantastical, Norse-inspired world, there is a myriad of crafting benches that players can use in Valheim to improve their combat and defense capabilities, and each of these benches expands the tech tree with tiered products based on what resources are used.

It’s a classic survival formula and one that Valheim utilizes perfectly. This tech tree is oriented towards combat, in a similar fashion to something like Terraria, as many of the magical beasts in this land are not in a talking mood.

2

7 Days to Die

A Staggering Variety Of Craftable Gear

My Favorite Games My Played Games My Games Wishlist

Systems

Released

December 13, 2013

Developer(s)

The Fun Pimps

An incredibly immersive – and incredibly difficult – zombie survival game, 7 Days to Die has a huge tech tree that rewards dedicated players with increased modes of traversal, defense, and sustenance, allowing them to eke out a comfortable living in the apocalypse.

Crafting is paramount to survival in this title. Players might be able to scrape by on scavenged gear and hastily crafted weapons for the first six days, but the seventh day brings a level of intensity that the unprepared won’t be able to handle.

1

Terraria

Progress From Copper Axes To Godly Relics

My Favorite Games My Played Games My Games Wishlist

Platform(s)

PC , Xbox 360 , Xbox One , Xbox Series S , Xbox Series X , Vita , iOS , Android , macOS , Linux , 3DS , Stadia , PlayStation 3 , PlayStation 4 , PlayStation 5 , Nintendo Switch

Released

May 16, 2011

From the humble beginnings of the copper shortsword and tin pickaxes, Terraria swells to encompass a truly staggering amount of gear within its tech tree. High-tech, futuristic weaponry, fabled artifacts of myth, and weapons forged from the very flesh of gods wait in the higher tiers of this technology tree.

Players can follow this tech tree in a non-linear fashion, with plenty of ‘horizontal’ options to specialize in instead of just continually working upwards to the next, objectively best tool for their class. It’s an incredibly broad, satisfying experience for new Terraria fans and veterans alike.

More

22 Most Brutal Survival Games

There are many survival games on the market, but not all of them are as brutally difficult as these examples.

Source link