Mindustry
Overview
Mindustry is a free and open-source factory-automation, tower-defence and real-time strategy game by Anuken. You start with a small construction ship deployed from a central core: drill ore, run conveyor belts, feed smelters and assemblers, then turn the output into turrets, walls and units to survive wave after wave of enemies. It began in 2017 as an itch.io game-jam entry (ranked first of 15) and has grown into one of the most widely played open-source games on desktop and mobile.
Key Features
- Factory building and logistics — drills, conveyor belts, routers, junctions and sorters move materials through production lines you extend as the map demands.
- Tower-defence combat — 18 turrets on Serpulo and 10 on Erekir, from cheap Duo guns to long-range beam and artillery defences, against enemy pathfinding that probes your weakest gaps.
- Two planets, two tech trees — Serpulo (16 materials, 138 blocks, 35 unit types) and Erekir (10 materials, 102 blocks, 15 units) play quite differently.
- Logic blocks — an assembly-like language lets you automate units and buildings, and “schematic” blueprints can be saved and reused across maps.
- Campaign, sandbox and editor — conquer sectors region by region, export materials between them, or build freely in sandbox mode with the built-in map editor and custom maps.
- Multiplayer — co-operative and team or free-for-all PvP servers, with dedicated server support and in-game chat.
- Unrestricted modding — players can mod the game and its client without restriction; community mods add blocks, units and entirely new content.
- No ads, no in-app purchases — development is funded by donations and store sales rather than by monetising players.
Why Use It
Mindustry sits in the same family as Factorio but swaps pure logistics for combat pressure: every factory you build is also a defensive position, and every defence needs a supply chain. The 2D pixel-art engine is extremely light — it runs comfortably on old laptops, single-board computers and phones — and the same game plays on desktop and mobile. Current stable release is v8 build 160.7 (8 October 2026).
Use Cases
- Building and optimising conveyor-belt factories while holding off escalating enemy waves.
- Long co-operative or PvP sessions on public or self-hosted multiplayer servers.
- Sandbox and editor play for designing your own maps, sectors and factories.
- Learning game logic and automation through the in-game logic-block scripting language.
Platforms
Windows, macOS and Linux desktop builds plus Android (Google Play, F-Droid and Google-free builds) are free to download. The game is also sold on Steam and the App Store for players who prefer store integration and automatic updates — the game itself is the same.
Licence
Free and open source — released under the GNU General Public License v3.0, which lets players study, modify and redistribute the game and its client without restriction. There are no ads and no in-app purchases.
Similar Tools
- Zero-K — free and open source real-time strategy with a deep economy and base-building layer.
- OpenTTD — the open-source transport and logistics simulation, if you enjoy the factory side more than the fighting.