In The Planet Crafter, a survival and terraforming game, you turn Planet Prime, where the air isn't safe to breathe, into a livable place. You play a convict sentenced by a corporation called Sentinel Corp, and you wake up in a crashed spacecraft with only a few supplies. Each session is mostly about staying alive while you gather: you mine ore and ice with your multi-tool, then craft the tools, gear and food that keep your oxygen, water and health up. Your base is where you refill and store what you collect, and since oxygen and water drain over time, it pays to restock before you venture far.
The long-term goal is terraforming, which means changing a planet's air, heat and pressure until it can support life. Drills, heaters and oxygen machines push those numbers up, and the Terraformation Index tracks your overall progress. As the planet changes, moss and insects appear first, followed by forests and animals.
Prime is only the first stop. Once a planet is finished, you can build an Extraction Platform and an Interplanetary Travel Rocket to fly to the free moons Aqualis, Selenea and Skeo, and you'll need a second rocket to get home, though your items and blueprints come along for the trip. Aqualis is water-rich with new plants and animals, Selenea is a gray, rocky moon you can also pick as an advanced fresh start, and Skeo can only be reached from a save you've already played. The paid DLC planets, Humble and Toxicity, can be reached by rocket or picked as a fresh save; Humble is an icy world about half the size of Prime, and Toxicity is a slightly smaller wasteland with unusual fungal plant life.
- Developer
- Miju Games
- Publisher
- Miju Games
- Release
- Windows PC Early Access (Steam): 2022-03-24 · PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S: 2026-07-21 · Windows PC full release (Steam and GOG): 2024-04-10
- Platforms
- Windows (Steam and GOG), PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S
Game data
Materials
Materials are the ores, gases, water, organic items, quartz, rods, rocket parts and Toxicity items you gather and craft in The Planet Crafter. Basic ores such as cobalt and iron come from the world around you, while refined items like super alloy are crafted at the Advanced Craft Station. Quartz, rods and rocket engines drive the late game, and the Toxicity planet adds its own chain from toxic goo to purification gel and tungsten.
Equipment and Fuses
Equipment is the gear your character wears, including oxygen tanks, backpacks, jetpacks, boots, exoskeletons, filters, microchips, vehicle chips and spacesuit skins, and most of it comes in tiers that build on each other. Fuses are placed into machine optimizers to boost nearby machines of the matching type. Energy fuses matter most, since the portal generator and the extraction platform need them.
Seeds and Food
Seeds and food cover farming, oxygen and animal care in The Planet Crafter. Crop seeds grow into food in a Food Grower or Outdoor Farm, flower and tree seeds feed your oxygen machines, and animal food boosts what your animals produce. Food restores health, and cooked meals add short-term effects, which ties it all into survival and terraforming.
Eggs and Larvae
Eggs and larvae in The Planet Crafter are the young stages of fish, frogs, butterflies, bees and silkworms. Most are hatched in an incubator, then placed in farms, aquariums or hives to add to the planet's animal and insect biomass. Wild larvae and frog eggs can be found around the map, while the rarest exotic butterfly larvae only show up in the wild and give some of the biggest boosts.
Planets and Moons
The Planet Crafter's worlds include the planets Prime, Humble and Toxicity and the moons Selenea, Aqualis and Skeo. Prime is the base game's starting world, and the rest are reached by rocket or, where the game allows, started as a new save. Humble and Toxicity come from paid DLC, while the moons come from free updates. Each world has its own terraforming goal and its own resources.
Planet Crafter Controls
| Action | Desktop |
|---|---|
| Move | W, A, S, D |
| Sprint | Shift |
| Jump | Space |
| Action | U or left mouse button |
| Switch tool or rotate object | R or mouse scroll wheel |
| Inventory | Tab |
| Construction menu | Q |
| Pause menu | Esc |
Planet Crafter gameplay tips
- Gather as much cobalt as you can carry on your first trips out of the landing pod. Oxygen starts very low, and cobalt is what you use to craft oxygen capsules at the pod's crafting station. Each capsule refills your oxygen when you use it, so you can explore longer.
- Place a few wind turbines before your first pressure drill. Drills need power to run, and power reaches every building without wires, so a turbine can go wherever you need it.
- Craft the oxygen tank and backpack early. The tank raises how much oxygen you can carry, and the backpack adds inventory slots for ore. Movement speed upgrades and the jetpack are also among the most important early unlocks, so get them once you can.
- Carry spare food, water and oxygen capsules, and restock as soon as you use them. Resources drain fast early on, and running dry far from base can strand you.
- Build a living compartment when your oxygen runs low away from base. Each one costs 2 iron and 1 titanium, and standing inside refills your oxygen. Because it works on the spot, it saves a long trip back to base.
- After a death, go back for your dropped items. On the default difficulty, dying drops some of your inventory into a chest that you can collect after you respawn, so head there before you gather anything new.