Games like Ship Graveyard Simulator

The Squirrel's verdictThe Last Caretaker puts you in charge of a mobile ship-base that you sail between platforms and wrecks to strip for materials. Power management replaces hunger or thirst as the survival mechanic, and crafting, exploration, and combat against small moving targets layer on top of the scrapping. Median playtime is 61.2 hours, rated Very Positive at 85.8%, though some reviewers flag performance issues under extended sessions.

Not for you if you want scrapping without survival systems, base management, or frequent combat against small, fast-moving enemies.

The Squirrel's verdictRecycling Center Simulator is built around breaking objects into sorted materials, selling them, and using proceeds to hire workers and unlock automation — a loop reviewers rate Very Positive overall. Automation unlocks arrive gradually but some players report the full unlock tree runs out in around 10 hours, leaving manual collection still required. Median playtime is 25.6 hours.

Not for you if you want deep automation or long unlock progression — reviewers say content exhausts faster than comparable simulators and object variety runs thin.

The Squirrel's verdictOstranauts shares the loop of scavenging derelict ships for sellable materials, but wraps it in inventory management, ship systems, and survival mechanics rather than a hammer-and-collect grind. Ships here stay procedural rather than scripted set pieces. This suits players wanting depth and consequence around the salvage, not a quicker breaking loop.

Not for you if you want a finished, polished experience rather than a deep, janky simulation with rough edges.

The Squirrel's verdictSpace Trash Scavenger puts you in open space collecting debris fields with tractor beams, then feeding salvage through conveyor belts to process raw materials for sale. The automation systems exist but reviewers say the conveyor belts have too little to work with — resource scarcity keeps the loop manual and repetitive regardless. Rated Very Positive at 83.9% with a median playtime of 19.8 hours, it suits players drawn to the physics-based debris-collection premise specifically.

Not for you if you expect conveyor automation to reduce grind — reviewers say resource scarcity keeps manual gathering dominant throughout.

The Squirrel's verdictThe Last Starship is a modular starship construction and crew management game from the Prison Architect developers: you design ship layouts system by system, manage crew roles, and handle combat rather than breaking anything apart. Median playtime is 29.2 hours across PC and Mac, rated Mostly Positive at 75.4%. Reviewers writing after the 1.0 release describe missing endgame content and bugs that survived the version bump.

Not for you if you want a complete endgame — multiple reviewers describe the 1.0 release as unfinished, with quest content marked WIP and no working late-game loop.

The Squirrel's verdictStarminer wraps resource gathering in flight, ship-building, and combat systems rather than a prop-smashing loop. Mining is a sub-component of flight rather than the main event; reviewers describe the core as build-mine-build with some combat layered on. At 23.6 median hours and a Mostly Positive rating, it suits players who want mechanical depth around the gathering rather than a simple collect-and-sell cycle.

Not for you if you want mining as the primary focus — reviewers say flight, building, and combat dominate while mining itself stays shallow.