Nova Lands -

Fans of Forager , Stardew Valley players who want more machines, and Factorio veterans looking for a relaxing weekend vacation.

You cannot unlock better technology just by sitting at your base. To get iron, you must explore the Forest Island. To get sulfur, you must brave the Swamp. To unlock droids that fight for you, you must defeat the first boss.

Nova Lands is designed for players who love the idea of automation but are intimidated by the complexity of the genre’s titans. It respects your time. A full playthrough takes roughly 15-20 hours, compared to the 100+ hours of its rivals. Nova Lands

Enemies drop "Hexes," which are essentially crafting ingredients for magical automation. Want a furnace that smelts twice as fast? That requires Fire Hexes. Want a droid that carries double the load? That requires Gravity Hexes. This forces you to engage with the combat system regularly, blending the action-RPG genre with the factory sim genre seamlessly. Let’s address the elephant in the room: Nova Lands is not Factorio . The logistical puzzles are simpler. The map is smaller. The endgame does not involve launching a rocket or calculating throughput-per-minute ratios.

Welcome to the Nova Lands.

If you have been searching for a "gateway drug" to the factory building genre, or simply want to command an army of robotic bees to strip-mine a beautiful alien world, welcome to your new home.

Published by HypeTrain Digital, Nova Lands launched into Early Access and quickly became a darling of the "cozy automation" niche. Now, with its full 1.0 release, it stands as one of the most accessible and satisfying entry points into the factory genre. The premise is simple: You are a survivor who has crash-landed on a mysterious, ringed planet. You start with nothing but a multi-tool and a droid. Your goal? Build a factory, explore procedurally arranged biomes, befriend alien creatures, and uncover the secrets of the "Nova." Fans of Forager , Stardew Valley players who

This constant push-and-pull prevents the "turtling" that plagues other factory sims. Just as you feel your base is getting crowded, the game opens a new portal, revealing a new biome with a new resource that requires a completely new logistical chain. Combat is simple but satisfying. You wield a gun, a sword, and eventually grenades. However, the combat loop is unique because of the Hex mechanic .

In the crowded world of automation and survival-crafting games, two titles often sit at the top of the throne: Factorio for its obsessive logistical depth, and Forager for its charming, zelda-like sense of discovery. In 2023, developer BEHEMUTT asked a compelling question: What if you took the conveyor belts of the former and the chill, island-exploring vibes of the latter? To get sulfur, you must brave the Swamp

Unlike the sprawling, infinite maps of Factorio , Nova Lands is structured around a hub-and-spoke model. You begin on a central "Home Island." From there, you unlock portals to different biomes: a volcanic foundry, a frozen tundra, a radioactive wasteland, and more. Each island is a self-contained puzzle, offering unique resources and enemy types that must be fed back into your main production line. The most significant innovation Nova Lands brings to the genre is its Droid system .

PC (Steam), Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S