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Drill Core
Corporate greed meets strategic planet-mining in Drill Core! Drill to the heart of planets while managing workers, researching cutting-edge tech, and fortifying against alien attacks. Will you prioritize efficiency and risk your workers' safety, or focus on defense for survival?
What players say
Steam review score and the most-helpful voices, which may include critical ones. Score via Steam as of 2026-09-04 · quoted reviews as of 2026-05-13.
What reviewers agree on
53 of the 80 reviews raise this.
“Good game. The core loop is split between mining and preparing during the day to survive the night with a tower defense style system. Great range of turrets to choose from and use. the meta progression grind is LONG and…”
“Honestly, wasnt expecting to like this game as much as i did. Figured itd be good for a playthrough or two instead its been addicting. At the time of writing this they are working on a major patch and a DLC so im…”
“Drill Core, developed by Hungry Couch Games and published by tinyBuild, is a cleverly designed strategy hybrid that merges base management, roguelite progression, and tower defense into a cohesive and highly engaging…”
9 of the 80 reviews raise this.
“Fantastic little game with lots of depth, the final difficulty level especially is cruel but in a way that really forced me to internalize the mechanics which I found very satisfying. Even if you don't get to that…”
“Overall great game It won't blow your mind or be a major life changing experience, but it sits comfortable as a game I can boot up and have a quick run in when exhausted after work, though also able to give me a…”
9 of the 80 reviews raise this.
“very replayable and addicting”
“Fantastic little game with lots of depth, the final difficulty level especially is cruel but in a way that really forced me to internalize the mechanics which I found very satisfying. Even if you don't get to that…”
“A fun resource collection tower defense with a lot of variety and personality!”
6 of the 80 reviews raise this.
“Honestly, wasnt expecting to like this game as much as i did. Figured itd be good for a playthrough or two instead its been addicting. At the time of writing this they are working on a major patch and a DLC so im…”
“This game is a lot of fun to play! It starts you out on the easiest difficulty while you learn but every time you finish a contract at a certain difficulty you unlock the next difficulty tier - there are a lot of tiers…”
5 of the 80 reviews raise this.
“Highly recommended game! especially the game design. like the strategy we have to keep both drilling during the day. and fighting the monsters at night which also should be strategized. At times feels a bit difficult to…”
“If you like rogue-likes and micro-management, this game is your jam. Cool art style, witty writing, and well-polished.”
“Yes, good autobattler, base builder, mininging game in pixel graphics.”
9 of the 80 reviews raise this · 3 of them still recommend the game.
“I hate to say it because I really want to like this game but it's not doing for me. Also, i got 17 hours out of it so far so I guess it's not all bad. anyways - It's very similar in structure to "the king is watching"…”
“if the first level is indicative of the game: it's way too prescribed. too difficult: doesn't allow for any player Agency to try different play styles. You have to build units and buildings very specifically or you just…”
“Looking at the screenshots, I was expecting something akin to 2D survival crafting. That is absolutely not what this is. It's some bizarre mashup of mining for mats for tower defense set in a roguelite. It's dull and…”
6 of the 80 reviews raise this · 3 of them still recommend the game.
“if the first level is indicative of the game: it's way too prescribed. too difficult: doesn't allow for any player Agency to try different play styles. You have to build units and buildings very specifically or you just…”
“I only played a bit over an hour, but the game seems interesting and has a good premise. However, I can’t recommend it because of the save system. The game only saves when you successfully complete a stage and move the…”
“Good game. The core loop is split between mining and preparing during the day to survive the night with a tower defense style system. Great range of turrets to choose from and use. the meta progression grind is LONG and…”
4 of the 80 reviews raise this · 1 of them still recommend the game.
“if the first level is indicative of the game: it's way too prescribed. too difficult: doesn't allow for any player Agency to try different play styles. You have to build units and buildings very specifically or you just…”
“Game especially in harder difficulties is heavily influenced by RNG to the point you would be unable to complete them unless every star aligns and you get everything at the correct time while making every correct…”
“Highly recommended game! especially the game design. like the strategy we have to keep both drilling during the day. and fighting the monsters at night which also should be strategized. At times feels a bit difficult to…”
3 of the 80 reviews raise this · 1 of them still recommend the game.
“if the first level is indicative of the game: it's way too prescribed. too difficult: doesn't allow for any player Agency to try different play styles. You have to build units and buildings very specifically or you just…”
“I only played a bit over an hour, but the game seems interesting and has a good premise. However, I can’t recommend it because of the save system. The game only saves when you successfully complete a stage and move the…”
“Since i got addicted to roguelikes or lites this year, i enjoy a lot of different ones. Drillcore is one of kind which take longer to play a round but its biiig fun, also gonna buy the new dlc which is quite cheap”
Counted across 80 English reviews, sampled to match this game's 84.9% positive rating · as of 2026-05-13
“I was struggling to settle on something to play when I picked this up on sale and after unlocking the final achievement and over 100hrs playtime I'm happy to recommend. Drill core was a brilliant experience for me. It's simple enough to grasp and can be really unforgiving on the…”
— a player, Steam review · 114 hrs played“Don't understand Mixed reviews, as charming and fun as any other Tiny Build game, nice idea and well executed. Kinda reminiscent of Steam World dig with a (very) simple Dwarf Fortress style mechanism. I got it on 50% special, definitely a good special buy”
— a player, Steam review · 4 hrs played“I liked the game a lot when it launched. But the more new things they implement, they take a turn away from what I liked about the game. I like strategy, planning and making choices. But the changes just gave stress elements and semi-hidden difficulties. I want more (much more)…”
— a player, Steam review · 88 hrs playedPlayer activity
Monthly average concurrent players. Live data self-collected from the Steam API · history through 2026-06 via SteamCharts.
Achievement stats
Global completion rates across all Steam players — a data view of how far people actually get. Source: Steam official stats · as of 2026-09-05.
Price tracking
US-region pricing (USD), sampled twice daily by our own tracker since 2026-07-25. Steam prices vary by region — always confirm your local price on Steam.
Regional prices at last sample, in local currency — Steam sets each region's price independently.
Cheapest → most expensive, converted to USD at ECB reference rates (2026-09-04). Relative comparison only.
Latest official news
Developer announcements via the Steam news API — links go to the original posts. More across all games on the news hub.
V1.254 PATCH IS LIVE
Fixed a bug where, in rare cases, two identical negative events could occur on the same day. Fixed a bug where the double damage chance turret upgrade had a 100 percent chance always. Fixed various is
V1.253 PATCH IS LIVE
Fixed a bug where a flying guard could fly out of the mine after a teleport-retreat. Potentially fixed a bug that could not start drilling on the morning when drilling was supposed to start. The spawn
Today, Hungry Couch turns 7 years old!
We’ve been through a lot over the years, and we’re truly happy that you’ve been with us. Playing our games, supporting us and being part of this journey. To mark the occasion, we’ve prepared a small u
V1.251 PATCH IS LIVE
Potentially fixed a performance issue where the game could launch without using the GPU. Fixed a longer initial video skip. Fixed a bug that could crash the game when loading a the Dwarves Platform sa
V1.250 PATCH IS LIVE (A potential solution to the performance problem)
Potentially fixed a performance issue where the game could launch without using the GPU. Fixed a bug that crashed the game if the Projector Block had to be moved.
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Screenshots
Official Steam store screenshots — click any shot to enlarge.
Facts & details
From the Steam store record, snapshot 2026-05-13.
| Genres | Indie, Strategy |
| Player tags | Early Access · Strategy · Colony Sim · Rogue-lite · Exploration · Tower Defense · Side Scroller · Rogue-like · City Builder · 2D · Base-Building · Action (SteamSpy community voting) |
| Features | Single-player · Steam Achievements · Full controller support · Steam Cloud · Steam Leaderboards · Family Sharing |
| Languages | English * , French, German * , Spanish - Spain, Portuguese - Brazil, Russian * , Simplified Chinese * , Ukrainian, Japanese, Korean, Serbian * |
| Controller | Full support |
| Achievements | 83 |
| Official site | https://hungrycouchgames.com/ |
Minimum system requirements (PC)
Minimum: OS: Windows 10 or newer Processor: Intel Core i5-2400 or AMD FX-8350 Memory: 6 GB RAM Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GT 710, 1 GB or AMD Radeon R7 240, 1 GB Storage: 1 GB available space