The very game made for a computer, ever, was named Spacewar! This proves that as long as humankind has been playing computer games, space, and science fiction have been consistent themes that game developers leverage. Over the years, certain features have become tried and tested core features of space games: ship combat, trading, exploration, and mining, for example.
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Mining is an iconic activity in space games. Some players love it, others wouldn’t be caught dead sucking on an asteroid. Space mining in games ranges from simply blowing up asteroids with a weapon, to building specialized mining vessels, or mining alongside a large group of other players.
7 Starfield
Mining So Basic It Can Be Overlooked - Metascore 83
Starfield
- Released
- September 6, 2023
- Developer(s)
- Bethesda
- Platform(s)
- PC, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
Starfield is a visually stunning game and demonstrates Bethesda’s skill at building visually stunning worlds, even if its procedurally generated environments have been the topic of rightful criticism. However, with space as the background rather than the playground, many Starfield players never realize that they can actually mine the asteroids they come across in space.
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Space mining in Starfield is incredibly simple. All the player has to do is shoot the asteroid with any weapon until it becomes lootable. This is why Starfield comes at the bottom of this list. Bethesda could have added some more depth to the space-mining mechanic.
6 Dual Universe
First One Must Find The Ores - Metascore N/A
- Platforms: GeForce Now, Microsoft Windows
- Released: September 19, 2022
- Developer: Novaquark
- Genre: MMORPG, Space Simulation
Dual Universe is a space-based MMORPG that does space mining in a slightly different way. Mining is done on foot, or using a mining installation, but a ship with suitable equipment is needed to track down the lucrative asteroids when they spawn. Sure, the player can sit on their local moon sucking up basic materials, but they will soon need advanced ores.
All advanced ores are found away from the starting moon. The player will first need to build a ship that can get them into space, and then track down the best mining veins to exploit. Overall, worthy of an entry on this list, but low down, because this is one janky game.
5 No Man’s Sky - Metascore 71
Basic Mining In The Asteroid Belt
No Man's Sky
- Released
- August 9, 2016
- Developer(s)
- Hello Games
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC, Nintendo Switch 2
Despite a terribly rocky launch, No Man’s Sky has gone on to become one of the most respected sci-fi survival, open-world titles around. So it comes as no surprise that this space game has asteroid mining. Indeed, this is the best way to farm fuel for a ship’s FLT drive.
However, the space mining in No Man’s Sky is very simple. Shoot, blow up asteroid, repeat. This is why NMS earns a place on this list, but quite low down, as this is a very simple space mining mechanic in an otherwise fantastic sci-fi game.
4 Space Engineers
If You Build It You Can Mine - Metascore 98
Space Engineers
Space Engineers is an open world sandbox game defined by creativity and exploration.
It is a sandbox game about engineering, construction, exploration and survival in space and on planets. Players build space ships, wheeled vehicles, space stations, planetary outposts of various sizes and uses (civil and military), pilot ships and travel through space to explore planets and gather resources to survive. Featuring both creative and survival modes, there is no limit to what can be built, utilized and explored.
Space Engineers features a realistic, volumetric-based physics engine: everything in the game can be assembled, disassembled, damaged and destroyed. The game can be played either in single or multiplayer modes.
Space Engineers concentrates on construction and exploration aspects, but can be played as a survival shooter as well. We expect players will avoid engaging in direct man-to-man combat and instead use their creativity and engineering skills to build war machines and fortifications to survive in space and on planets. Space Engineers shouldn’t be about troops; it should be about the machinery you build.
- Released
- February 28, 2019
- Platform(s)
- PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
- Genre(s)
- Simulation, Sandbox
It probably comes as no surprise that a game with a name like Space Engineers has some pretty deep space-mining gameplay. What makes it complex, is that certain ores are only available in certain places. For example, uranium is only available from asteroids or the moon.
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But what makes Space Engineers mining really complex, is that the player needs to design and build a mining ship before they can mine ores at a decent volume. If a player spawned on an Earth-like planet, the simple process of climbing out of the gravity well, and leaving the atmosphere, is a significant challenge in its own right, with catastrophic consequences if a mistake is made. Space Engineers is an unforgiving game at times, and often poses what look like simple challenges that can take days to overcome. Finding and mining rare ores is one of these.
3 ELITE: Dangerous - Metascore 80
Complex Ship Loadouts For Mining
Elite Dangerous
- Released
- December 16, 2014
- Developer(s)
- Frontier Developments
- Platform(s)
- PC, PlayStation 4
- Genre(s)
- Flight Simulator
Space mining in ELITE: Dangerous can be incredibly profitable, and a good way to farm certain materials. The downside of this is that the player needs to put together a complex ship loadout for mining. Most sci-fi games simply require the player to equip some form of mining turret such as a laser or a drill, but this is not the way that ED does things.
A mining ship in ELITE: Dangerous needs to be equipped with a refinery, special drones called limpets to collect ores, a special scanner, and of course, enough defenses to keep it safe while it is mining. This is why ED gets a place so high up this list. The enjoyment of putting together a perfect mining loadout for a ship is almost as good as the huge amount of credits the player will make mining rare ores.
2 EVE Online
The Original Spreadsheets In Space Game - Metascore 69
EVE Online
Space mining in EVE Online is a life choice. This is not a casual game. Groups of dozens of players will organize mining parties that will strip entire asteroid belts bare. But this is why EVE Online gets an entry almost at the top of this list. It takes space mining and turns it into a fun group activity.
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EVE Online is a brilliant, open-world MMORPG that lets players travel through space. However, it's a very different experience compared to other MMOs.
Of course, mining in EVE is a pretty relaxed affair, so there is not a lot of fun involved in flying a mining ship or anything else. But EVE has managed to tie space mining back into the economy in a way that means it will always be profitable, always be needed, and will never be smirked at by other players, as if no ores are mined, no ships are built and sold.
1 X4: Foundations
Player Or AI Mining - Metascore 59
X4: Foundations
X4 is a living, breathing space sandbox running entirely on your PC. Thousands of ships and stations trade, mine and produce, all realistically simulated. In this universe, you can grow from being the lone pilot of a fighter ship, to managing a vast empire, commanding your fleets and designing colossal space stations. Transition seamlessly from first-person action, boarding ships and visiting their bridges, to an expansive strategy and management simulation. Choose your own path at your own pace. The decisions are yours. Trade - Fight - Build - Think.
Start your journey
In X4, you can start your journey from a number of different gamestarts and as a number of different characters, each with their own role, set of relationships and different ships and technologies to start with. No matter how you start, you are always free to develop in any other direction. Focus on exploration, make money with illegal trading and theft, command large battle fleets or become the greatest entrepreneur ever. It's all up to you to decide.
Fly every ship
X4 allows you to fly all ships personally. From small scouts over a wide range of ship classes up to the biggest carrier, everything can be piloted from the cockpit or an external view. A big focus in the development of X4 has been to achieve a seamless and immersive experience when moving between ships. You can leave a ship, climb down a ladder, walk over the dock of a large space station into another ship you may have parked there and replace the pilot that was working for you just by clicking on his chair.
Build space stations and upgrade your ships
Building space stations and factories has always been a foundation of the X games. After gaining enough money through fighting or trading, most players want to establish their own economy and start influencing the universe on a larger scale. In X4, it is now possible to be completely free and creative. Stations can be constructed from a variety of modules, be it production modules, living sections, docks or many other types of parts. The powerful new map system allows you to drag and connect modules using a connection system to design your own unique creations. Ships also offer a variety of upgrades. Engines, weapons and other equipment can be added in a graphical editor and actually seen on the ship.
Experience the most dynamic X universe ever
X4 is the first X game to allow our races and factions to freely build and expand their empires; the same flexibility the player enjoys in creatively designing space stations from modular building blocks is also available to them. Races expand their empire based on supply and demand, which leads to an extremely dynamic universe where every action the player makes can influence the course of the entire universe.
Manage your empire with a powerful map
Once you have more ships and many NPCs working for you as pilots, crew or station managers, the map will be your preferred method of managing it all. Ships can be ordered with simple clicks and through drag-and-drop operations to set their future path and commands. Graphically plan your trade routes, coordinate attacks with your entire fleet, manage the hierarchy or send ships on remote exploration missions.
Dive into the most detailed X economy ever
One of the key selling points of X games has always been the realistic, simulated economy. Wares produced by hundreds of stations and transported by thousands of ships are actually traded by NPCs and prices develop based on this simulated economy. This is the foundation of our living and breathing universe. Now with X4, we have taken another, massive step. For the first time in any X game, all parts of the NPC economy are manufactured from resources. Ships, weapons, upgrades, ammo and even stations. You name it. Everything comes out of the simulated economy.
Research and teleport
The seamless change from ship to ship and from NPCs controlling your empire for you continues on a higher level. Once you own a larger fleet, you will be very interested in researching a technology from your HQ: Teleportation. Once you've unlocked teleportation, you can jump from ship to ship a lot quicker and experience all the critical situations your NPCs encounter first hand. Every order you have given to a ship before turns into a mission objective when you pilot the ship yourself. The moment you leave again, your pilot takes the helm and continues with their previous orders.
- Released
- November 30, 2018
- Developer(s)
- Egosoft
- Platform(s)
- PC
- Genre(s)
- Simulation
X4: Foundations takes number one on this list for a very important reason. It raises the idea of space mining to whole new levels. Firstly, the player can fly a ship and mine asteroids themselves, which is good fun, and requires a suitable equipped ship. But there is more.
The player can equip whole fleets of mining craft, and recruit captains to fly them. These fleets can be set to mine ores automatically, then deliver them to the player’s station, or simply sell them at the most profit. Some players have hundreds of automated A.I.mining ships doing this, earning millions of credits every few minutes. Put simply, X4 provides multiple ways to exploit space mining in a single game, some of which can run perfectly if the player goes AFK for days at a time.
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