In Lethal Company, players obtain and sell scrap from abandoned, industrialized exomoons while avoiding traps, environmental hazards, monsters, which are often referred to as "anomalies", "entities", or "creatures", and the hostile fauna.

As employees of "The Company", players must sell enough scrap to meet a series of increasing profit quotas until they inevitably fail and the game starts over.

[2][3] At the end of each deadline, if the players sell enough scrap to reach the required quota, they will begin another three-day cycle with a higher profit goal.

The terminal may also be used to view the positions of other players, open security doors, or temporarily disable landmines and turrets inside the facility.

[6] Moons may randomly have dangerous weather conditions or hazards such as fog, quicksand, lightning storms, flooding, or solar eclipses that hinder players' progress.

[8][9][10] The game's monsters include the Thumper, a two-legged beast that can reach high speeds but is bad at making tight turns, and the Bracken, a humanoid creature that stalks its prey before snapping its neck, but runs away when spotted.

[25][26][27] Kelsey Raynor of VG247 noted that the game "...might not look like much given its grisly cel-shaded graphics, but fans are wholly obsessed with Lethal Company, and its gruesome aesthetic is clearly just another part of its charm.

"[14] Gabriel Moss of IGN said that "Lethal Company already instills a sense of wonder", and that the game's co-op loot hunts "manage to transcend its limited content and missing systems.