# Zero-K

9 Hacker News commenters recommended Zero-K and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Free open-source RTS on the Spring engine, praised as a polished StarCraft and Supreme Commander blend; critics say cheaters and racists hurt its community.

## Why people recommend it

- Polished, strong Spring-engine RTS (3 comments): "Zero-K is worth checking out, its excellent. The best spring derivative imho" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46717695)) "Zero-K is another great RTS based on this engine" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47121863)) "it's the most polished game of its kind imo" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48621266))
- Preferred over Beyond All Reason (2 comments): "I do prefer Zero-K over Beyond All Reason" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50048077)) "The non slop version would be Zero-K" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50047002))
- Open source game from Spring engine (2 comments): "Personally I preferred the foss games spawned out of the spring engine" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50046682)) "I play Zero-K (a related open source game) a few times a month" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48619384))

## What people warn about

- Community hurt by cheaters and racists (1 comments): "awful players (racists, cheaters, tactical pausers) really ruined the community" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50048478))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Beyond All Reason](https://hackerapproved.com/p/beyond-all-reason.md): 76 recommend
- [Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness](https://hackerapproved.com/p/warcraft-ii-tides-of-darkness.md): 51 recommend
- [Total Annihilation](https://hackerapproved.com/p/total-annihilation.md): 48 recommend
- [StarCraft](https://hackerapproved.com/p/starcraft.md): 36 recommend
- [StarCraft II](https://hackerapproved.com/p/starcraft-ii.md): 32 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Zero-K", https://hackerapproved.com/p/zero-k/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).