There is no fixed “official completion time” on the Steam store page. What we do have is launch-week player reporting and multiple full-release runs.
Main completion: several hours, not dozens
Current full-release videos reach the ending in a several-hour play session, and Steam Community already has players asking about length or saying they completed the available game quickly.
That makes Sludgineers a short incremental campaign by design, not a 40-hour management sim.
We deliberately avoid turning one creator’s edited runtime into an exact “3h 47m” promise. Video cuts, prior demo knowledge and route efficiency can move the number a lot.
Why 100% takes longer
The ending is not the same as finishing every system. The finale footage explicitly keeps the game open after completion so the player can continue:
- finishing quests;
- opening safes and collecting diamonds;
- buying remaining upgrades;
- fully upgrading the Vacuum, Jackhammer and Air Filter;
- finishing drone and refinery-related achievements;
- buying everything for Completionist.
Late-game Draxine was also a launch bottleneck, although Patch #1 reduced some Draxine costs and increased refinery/safe throughput.
A realistic way to think about your run
- Story / final cleanup: several hours for an experienced incremental player.
- Blind first run: longer if you experiment with weak upgrades or farm inefficient maps.
- Achievement / Completionist run: longer again because you must keep the refinery, safes, diamonds, tool upgrades and every remaining node moving after the ending.
If you only want the satisfying cleanup loop and finale, the game is compact. If you want every checkbox, the post-ending grind is where most of the extra time lives.