Terraria is an action-adventure sandbox-style game that was developed by Re-Logic. It features tons of exploration, building, crafting, combat, and even painting.
It keeps you on your toes and just around every other turn, there’s another surprise waiting. In fact, it’s so well-done that you might say it defines its genre. Steam gave the title a 10/10 rating and Metacritic gave it a score of 83%; pretty impressive, if you ask us.
If you’ve played Terraria and you fell in love with exploring the expansive worlds, crafting new weapons and tools, mining for resources, and the like and you’re looking for similar games, you’re in luck! There happen to be several other games that incorporate these elements, and below, you’ll learn about 15 excellent options.
Terraria Game Features
 Release Date: | May 16, 2011 |
 Developer: | Re-Logic |
 Publisher: | 505 Games |
 Platforms: | Windows |
 Genre: | Action-adventure, sandbox |
 Setting: | Procedurally Generated Viking Land |
 Game Modes: | Single-player, multiplayer |
1. Minecraft
If you’re familiar with Minecraft, it should come as no surprise that Minecraft is the first title we selected that’s a great alternative for Terraria. That’s because Minecraft really shaped the action-adventure genre of gaming. It popularized survival and mining, and ever since it came onto the scene, it’s been extremely popular.
In fact, a lot of people who started playing Minecraft when it first came out still play it today, and new Minecrafters are introduced to and quickly become huge fans of the game every day.
The mining, survival, action-adventure theme that Minecraft first introduced has been adopted by so many different games, and Terraria is one of those games.
Minecraft uses classic block-like graphics. While this style of graphics may not be as visually pleasing as the graphics that other 3D games use, they’re certainly unmistakable and have become synonymous with the game. The gameplay is immersive and super-fun, too.
A sandbox, survival, action-adventure game that mixes in awesome RPG elements, Minecraft will be sure to grab your attention and hook you for quite a while – especially if you’re a fan of Terraria.
If you enjoy building new structures, mining for resources, hunting wild animals, farming, solving puzzles and challenges, combat, and just survival, then Minecraft is definitely a game that you’re going to want to try.
2. Craft the World
Craft the World is another great game that’s similar to Terraria. In this game, dwarves are attempting to survive in a world that’s full of horrid monsters.
As they plunge into the earth (as dwarves do), you’ll encounter a variety of challenges, including finding resources, exploring the wondrous word that sits just below your feet, and of course, avoid your own demise.
In addition to digging, forging, and engaging in combat, you’ll also need to complete certain missions, as well as adhere to the crafting directions that you’re given.
In terms of graphics, Craft the World does an outstanding job. While the concept is pretty simple and straightforward, the amount of detail is really quite mind-blowing.
Just be forewarned, however, that while the graphics and activities are excellent, there are so many little things happening at the same time that you really do need to stay alert and pay attention to the visuals.
That said, if you’re looking for a game that’s similar to Terraria, Craft the World definitely won’t disappoint.
3. Stardew Valley
A life SIM game, Stardew Valley was inspired by Terraria, so it totally makes sense that it would be a great alternative to the action-adventure game. In fact, Stardew is such an impressive game that it has pretty much taken the gaming world by storm.
In this game, you’ll take over a dilapidated family farm and after applying hard work, logic, reason, and skill – as well as trial and error – you’ll nurse it back to life.
That said, however, there’s an unexpected twist; in addition to building, moving different things around, and ensuring that other people and animals are content, you’ll come across a dungeon area that has a dark secret: You need to go in and unearth mysterious secrets while combating monsters; but don’t worry, because you’ll have access to plenty of different weapons that you can choose from to defend yourself.
Keep in mind, though, that you’ll need to keep your cool and maintain your farm while trying to avoid being taken out by evil creatures when you venture out into the wild.
Throughout the game, you’ll interact with NPCs, construct buildings, and take missions and smaller quests head-on. The gameplay, action and adventure, surprises, and graphics are so good that you’ll definitely become a fan of Stardew Valley if you’re a fan of Terraria.
4. Alchemage
If you’ve ever been curious about alchemy, then Alchemage is the game for you! As the name suggests, it’s based on alchemy. You’ll play as an aspiring alchemist who unexpectedly finds himself in a new world after making an error with your attempts at wizadry.
While alchemy may not be related to Terraria, Alchemage boasts a lot of features that are reminiscent of the game.
Firstly, the graphics and the overall look and feel of Alchemage looks very much like Terraria. The fact that you’ll be exploring the interesting world around you and that you’ll be crafting neat new things also make Alchemage similar to Terraria, as does the mining, building, and bringing the creations that you make to life.
On your journey throughout the game, you’ll have to find scrolls, which will increase your magical abilities. You’ll also take part in some good old-fashioned alchemy, including making potions that will enhance your skills or hit your adversaries in their faces, thus improving your chances of winning battles.
5. Treasure Adventure Game
An epic action-adventure game, Treasure Adventure Game is set in a 2D open world, and it’s completely free to play. While there aren’t a lot of building elements, the exploration-style gameplay is quite exciting and very enjoyable.
Of all the different 2D games, Treasure Adventure Game is one of the best exploration-style games. It offers a huge, open world, complete with changing seasons and weather, varying terrains, unique settings, interactive NPCs, and a gameplay experience that offers lots of depth that makes it very enjoyable.
You’ll play the game as a young adventurer who ventures on a journey. Throughout the game, you’ll encounter and need to accept and complete quests, and you’ll explore the expansive open world in search of treasures.
6. The Blockheads
Very similar to Minecraft and Terraria with some bonus features that up the interest level, The Blockheads is another excellent action-adventure game. It features a bigger simulated block world than the world that you’ll encounter in Terraria and Minecraft, complete with a climate and weather system.
Throughout the game, you’ll get to craft cool things, mine natural resources, and combat scary, hungry monsters. Your objective is to help the blockheads survives, and in order to do that, you’ll need to give them food, water, shelter, rest, and pretty much anything else that you can think of that one would need to survive.
The Blockheads offers such an expansive world and there are so many different things that you can do that you’ll only be limited by your imagination.
7. Asteria
An thrilling, fast-paced independent game, Asteria mixes platformer elements and delivers them in a sandbox-, sci-fi like open-world, where virtually anything and everything you see and encounter can be mined, collected, crafted, created, or destroyed.
Asteria is a totally new spin on the mining, crafting, action-adventure gameplay genre, as it incorporates science fiction into the action. There are tons of space caverns throughout the world just waiting to discover and explore, and you can mine for goods and craft handy items for yourself in these caverns.
Additionally, the game offers a multiplayer mode, where you can test your mettle, adding another level of excitement when you’re playing with or against friends or online players.
Asteria also supports modding and encourages those who make modes to do so, so if you’re a part of the modding community, you’ll have the opportunity to put your content into the game.
8. Epic Inventor
Offering Terraria and Minecraft-inspired elements, as well as some awesome sandbox elements that will be sure to impress, Epic Inventor is an action-packed game that we’re pretty sure you’ll enjoy.
Action, RPG, and side-scrolling platformer elements are all incorporated into Epic Inventor, which makes this title’s gameplay super fun.
Epic Inventor is a completely free to play game and offering open source code specifications. The game supports single player and multiplayer modes, too, and allows you to explore, roam about, and mine on a huge world that’s been randomly generated.
The visually-pleasing 2D graphics will invite you to explore the vast world, gather resources, construct awesome structures, and craft various items.
9. Deep World
Another great alternative to Terraria is Deep World. An outstanding sandbox game, Deep World offers excellent crafting mechanics and aesthetically pleasing graphics. The game also features an exciting adventure and in-depth gameplay. The steampunk vibe that this game offers really sets it apart from the crowd.
Because Deep World’s core gameplay is multiplayer, you’ll be able to interact with other players when you’re in online gameplay, which makes the game even more immersive and adds another layer of fun.
Deep World is cross-platform, too, so you can play with others who are using different platforms, which gives you a lot more options and a larger community to interact with.
10. Subnautica
Developed by Unknown Worlds Entertainment, a small indie studio, Subnautica is the developers entry game; and they really did a great job with it.
Since it was first introduced, several updates, upgrades, and expansions have been released, which definitely confirms that it’s been a huge hit. Subnautica is an Early Access game; however, the development team releases updates on a constant basis; almost once a month.
An open-world, survival-style craft game that is situated completed underwater in an alien ocean world, Subnautica is quite a unique game. You crash land in this alien ocean and the only way you can get out is by diving deeper and deeper into the water.
As you might expect, the underwater world is quite dangerous, and in order to survive, you will have to gather resources so that you can craft bases, machinery, and gears.
You’ll have the freedom to explore the map, but you’ll have to complete the primary quest that unravels the mystery surrounding your crash landing and the world that you landed on.
As if the above doesn’t sound challenging enough, because the game is played underwater, you’ll need to maintain your oxygen levels, pressure, and your depths as you dive into caves, swim through forests of kelp, explore reefs, plateaus, cavities, lava canals, and other mysterious formations that you might expect in an underwater world.
Subnautica’s map is bursting with life; there are literally dozens of life forms. Some of these life forms are friendly and willing to help provide you with food and other resources; however, there are unfriendly life forms, too, and they’ll hunt you down and kill you in a matter of seconds.
The gameplay loop involves exploring, crafting, and scavenging. As your tech tiers advance, you’ll be able to go deeper and deeper so that you can access more and better resources, and encounter more challenging experiences.
When you aren’t exploring, you’ll have the opportunity to build advanced underwater habitats, complete with unique technologies. The bases are pretty complex and you’ll need to maintain their depth, manage pressure increases, and so much more.
11. Valheim
Yet another great game that is similar to Terraria is Valheim. It’s an action-adventure, open-world exploration, survival game, which makes it really exciting. What really makes this game unique from other titles in this genre is that it offers smooth, even, and really enjoyable combat; the dodge/parry/block attack system, in particular is really awesome, in our opinion.
You can either play in single-player mode or you can play with as many as 10 players in a PvE world that’s procedurally made. The game takes place in Valhalla, the Haven in Norse mythology. You’ll play as a servant of Odin, the god of this world.
The goal of the game is to improve your character by acquiring new and improved technologies and gears as you progress. There’s a story to play, too, and that story is actually quite good; however, you do have the freedom to explore and travel wherever you want to within the world, which adds another dimension of excitement.
The gameplay loop, as you might expect, includes exploring, engaging in combat to collect loot, and using the loot that you acquire to build new gear, supplies, and structures. As you slay your foes, you’ll prove your abilities to Odin, which will allow you to access new and improved adventures.
Norse mythology was inspired by the Vikings, so the game takes place in a Viking world. As such, you’ll have the chance to build unique Viking longhouses, ships, forts, castles, armor, weapons, and more.
You’ll also have the ability to customize pretty much anything and you can progress through constructing tiers in order to continue the expansion of the options that are available to you.
Furthermore, you can grow your own crops, which you can use to prepare your own food, make and share meals, and create your own potions, as well as unlock new gear.
12. Rust
A first-person sandbox survival game, Rust is a multiplayer game that offers tons of action, adventure, and excitement. In this game, you’ll have the opportunity to launch yourself into servers with as many as 60 (yes SIXTY) players, which you can do either solo or with a group of friends.
When you’re in the servers, you’ll encounter all types of entities that want to kill you, including human NPCs, animals, and other survivors. You can choose to either help other players or kill them.
If you decide to help them your chances of surviving might increase; however, if you decide to kill them, you can acquire all of the loot that they were carrying.
Of all the different crafting games we’ve tried, Rust really is one of the biggest. You can construct so many different things, including weapons, helicopters, and even full-blown, fully functioning power grids! Of course, you’ll need to acquire the resources and blueprints in order to create whatever it is that you want to craft.
You also have to construct shelters, as well as forts, which you’ll use to stow your resources and gear in. That said, however, other players have the opportunity to steal your loot, even when you’re offline, so you’ll need to prepare accordingly.
Turrets and traps are the only defenses that you’ll have to protect your loot from sticky fingers. Other players in your clan can protect your stuff, too.
In the eight years that Rust has been online, there have been more than 300 content updates to the game Rust. With each update, however, the gameplay loop has remained pretty much the same; that is, you explore, loot, shoot, craft, and survive.
That said, the developers of the game have made some great improvements to the graphics, as well as the maps, the AI, and the amount of things that you can craft.
13. Grounded
A survival multiplayer action-adventure game that was developed by Obsidian Entertainment exclusively for Xbox Game Studios, Grounded shares a lot of similarities with Terraria; it’s also similar to other games that the developer created, such as Outer Worlds-not Outer Wilds, and Fallout: New Vegas.
In this game, you’ll play as children who were miniaturized to the size of ants and are stuck in their own backyard (if you’ve ever seen the movie Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, it’s kind of the same premise).
Either via first- or third-person, the characters have to find their way back into their regular bodies; but, as they attempt to do that, they’ll encounter a lot of challenges that they’ll need to survive in the wide expanse of their backyard, where danger lurks around every corner.
Furthermore, you will have to maintain your hunger, thirst, and health in order to stay alive.
You’ll encounter different types of bugs along the way, and each of these bugs has a purpose; for instance, spiders are apex enemies, while ladybugs are a source of food. Moreover, you can cut grass in order to gather dewdrops, which you can then drink to keep yourself hydrated.
Since tools, shelters, and supplies are all essentials for survival, the experience that Grounded offers is similar to Terraria. As such, you’ll explore an expansive world, collect resources, and stay at your base while you craft whatever it is that you’re making.
14. Trove
A free-to-play action-adventure block builder and an MMO game, Trove is another title that shares similarities with Terraria. You join the game as one of the available classes, known as Cubulars, and you then engage in never-ending sandbox experiences, which you can do either solo or with a group of buddies.
In regard to lore, in the game of Trove, you’ll fight against the forces of Shadow. You’ll be taken to lots of different dungeons, where you will engage in battle in an attempt to win your glory.
In these dungeons, you’ll be able to hunt for treasures, collect loot, advance your character, and acquire new skills. Additionally, you will be able to build structures, craft items, and trade things with other players.
The open-world style and the pixelated graphics featured in Trove are reminiscent of Minecraft, the first title featured on this list.
The world offers an endless range of dungeons that are generated at random. Furthermore, you’ll have the opportunity to explore and/or destroy anything that you see. The characteristics of this game are similar to Terraria; however, they’re simpler and are in 3D.
15. Hollow Knight
Finally, we have Hollow Knight. In our opinion, it’s one of the most aesthetically –pleasing scrolling games you’ll ever encounter, and it features a strange plot line, too. If the zombies and floating eyeballs in Terraria were crazy, then wait until you experience Hallow Knight!
A classic Metroidvania-like game with underground antics that make you feel as if you are diving in and exploring Terraria elements with one major difference: the bosses feel like they suddenly appeared out of the R-Type.
As you progress through the game, you’ll have the chance to explore a mushroom jungle, lurk within a bone city, and acquire powers that will boost your strength.
Conclusion
If you’re a fan of Terraria and you’re looking for titles that offer a similar experience, you can’t go wrong with any of the 15 games featured on this list. No matter which one you pick, you’ll have the chance to explore, craft, mind, build, and enter into combat while maintaining your survival. All of the games featured here are similar to Terraria, yet they also feature unique elements that make each one its own game.
