No introduction needed, let's get straight into it. Here are 5 pretty similar games to Core Keeper that you'll definitely enjoy playing!
1. Necesse
Necesse is a rather new indie game that's extremely similar to Core Keeper. Both games feature linear boss progression, resource gathering and crafting mechanics, similar fighting style and top-down perspective.
A very similar experience
Core Keeper focuses more on exploration, while Necesse prioritizes building a town and protecting its citizens from raiders that invade during the night.
Keep in mind, however, that this game is pretty short. The average playtime sits at about 25-30 hours, compared to Core Keeper's 75+ hours (or even more if you want to collect all the legendary weapons).
2. Stardew Valley
Stardew Valley is a game where you can farm, fish, fight monsters, drink suspicious potions and date the whole town (though you might get in trouble if you do 💀).
A more relaxing game, something to play from the couch
Stardew was made by a single person – ConcernedApe aka Eric Barone, who is currently working on a new game – Haunted Chocolatier (which we’re all very excited about 👀).
Stardew Valley is focused around the farm you’ve inherited in a little town with population of about 30. There are a bunch of secrets to uncover, interesting characters to meet and romanticize, and money to make with your mega cauliflower harvests.
The game basically has no end, though most of the official quests end at year 3-4. The modding scene is also crazy here, you can use a bunch of mods which add new events, characters, game modes and bosses.
The most used mod is Stardew Valley Expanded which adds a whole new dimension to the little town.
It’s similar to Core Keeper in it’s pretty chill gameplay and strive to grind to advance. The farming, mining and combat systems are very close in execution.
Both games allow you to build your base as you like and create the farm (underground, in Core Keeper’s case) of your dreams.
Written by Katie ❤️
3. Terraria
Core Keeper is basically top-down Terraria, if you weren't located underground.
You knew this one would be on the list
Terraria is a rather long game that has a linear boss progression, lots of areas to explore and very strong re-playability. Terraria essentially has 4 classes - Melee, Ranged, Mage and Summoner. Each one gives you a significantly different experience every time you start a new playthrough.
Another good thing about Terraria is it's crazy modding scene. There are lots of big content mods that can triple your playtime with unique and fun content. Let's list a few of them here!
Calamity Mod
Possibly the best Terraria mod. Almost every Terraria player has played this and for a reason. It's the biggest mod in the community that adds about 30+ new bosses, a brand new Rogue class, and THOUSANDS of new items.
Calamity completely overhauls the game's damage curve by the lategame and is meant to be a completely different experience than vanilla.
You can pair Calamity with the Infernum mod which changes world generation and makes the game more difficult, but also more fun!
Thorium
The classic Terraria mod - 2600 new items, 12 bosses and a brand new Bard class.
While Calamity overhauls the whole game, Thorium's goal is to build onto the existing game in a way that feels very natural to the vanilla progression of the game.
4. Crashlands
Crashlands is a little survival RPG based on an alien planet, where you have to start from nothing and collect scattered parts of your ship while exploring the world.
I bet this happens in Dandadan (I haven't read the manga)
This game has a lot of quirky humor and is pretty story-rich. Crashlands also has an unique combat style which consists of dodge-rolling and position-based attacks (kind of like souls games ❤️).
It has a lot of cool quirks like taming creatures you defeat, infinite inventory space and (unlike Core Keeper) easy unrestricted building.
There's actually a sequel planned for the first quarter of 2025, so if you're gonna play Crashlands 1, make sure to wishlist the sequel!
5. Breath of the Wild
This is a rather surprising addition to this article, but BotW has the same aura of a game that's not that difficult, but very charming.
A weird, but welcomed surprise on the list
If we ignore that this game is 3d and it's not based underground, BotW has some pretty cool similarities with Core Keeper.
For example, there are "world bosses" that you need to defeat in order to progress the main story-line (Divine Beasts in BotW). Both games are pretty casual and not very difficult so you can just boot them up whenever you feel like it and chill for an hour or two.
This isn't really a PC game, buuut, you can easily play it with an emulator like Cemu. I've personally played the entirety of BotW on PC and it was a very fun experience (the story is very emotional).
Conclusion
There's plenty of similar games, really. The bonus game for today is be Forager. I haven't played it yet, but it looks really fun.
I personally love survival games like this and the fact that we live in a timeline where new ones keep popping up every year is awesome 🐢