Core Keeper News

Beloved survival game Core Keeper has a free trial ahead of Steam 1.0

When Core Keeper was released into early access back in 2022, it debuted to great success, with over 30,000 players jumping in on Steam and earning itself a 'very positive' 92% review score. It's been a long road since then, with tons of updates and improvements over the past two years. Finally, though, Core Keeper will be releasing version 1.0 in the coming days. To celebrate the occasion is a tasty discount and free trial, alongside early access to the anticipated update - though time is running out.

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Play Core Keeper For Free This Weekend!

There’s no better time to set off on your expedition into the underground, as we’re giving everybody the chance to try out Core Keeper for free with our Free Weekend! As if that wasn’t exciting enough, we’re also giving all players the opportunity to get a head start with some of Core Keeper’s brand new 1.0 content ahead of the 1.0 update next week!

Okay, you got us, our Free Weekend is actually starting on a weekday, but we’ve checked in with the folks at Steam, and they don’t mind 😉. From Thursday, August 22nd, to Monday, August 26th, you can play Core Keeper for free in a Classic World OR start your 1.0 worlds early to enjoy a whole host of new content including custom world generation, new enemies, equipment, armour, and more - all for free!

You’ll be able to play up to a certain milestone in any 1.0 Worlds created during the Free Weekend (more on this later), with the full content unlocking for anybody who owns the game on our official launch date of August 27th. We know how much you’ve been looking forward to the full game and we’ve been overwhelmed with the support you’ve shown on Discord, X, and in the Steam Discussions during development, which is why we’re so thrilled to be able to offer you this early look at 1.0 ahead of the full launch. Alternatively, If you want to enjoy all of the content currently available in our Early Access version, you can start a Classic World during the free weekend period.

PLEASE NOTE: Classic Worlds will not be compatible with critical 1.0 content following the 1.0 launch on August 27th. A new 1.0 World will be required to experience everything the 1.0 update has to offer our Explorers. We have more information on this below.

[h2]Important Information About Core Keeper’s Free Weekend[/h2]

Core Keeper’s Free Weekend starts at 6pm BST on Thursday, August 22nd and finishes at 6pm BST on Monday, August 26th. For the first time ever, you’ll be able to create a 1.0 World to give you a head start on some of our exciting new 1.0 content, and that will officially carry over as a 1.0 World at launch. If you’d like to, you can also choose to play a Classic World to experience all of the content currently available in Early Access.

1.0 Worlds created during the Free Weekend will include early-game 1.0 content and be playable up to when The Core is activated. From here, players will have to wait until the full launch so that they can progress with the game, but anyone who already owns or purchases the game during the Free Weekend will have the option to continue with their new 1.0 World and discover the full 1.0 experience on August 27th!

We’ve also included the option to play Classic Worlds, which contains all of our Early Access content currently available to players, but it’s important to note that Classic Worlds will not support critical 1.0 content.

If you start a Classic World during the Free Weekend for the full experience of Core Keeper’s current Early Access version, you will be able to continue playing in your Classic World following the 1.0 launch if you purchase the game. However, these worlds will not include support for critical content included in next week’s 1.0 update, including the conclusive chapter to the game’s story.

We have included Classic Worlds as an option for players looking to experience all of Core Keeper’s current Early Access content during the Free Weekend, but we strongly recommend that players start with 1.0 Worlds to be able to continue the story following the launch of 1.0.

[h2]What Happens to Early Access Worlds During the Free Weekend and at 1.0?[/h2]

If you already own the game, your Early Access worlds will function as normal during the Free Weekend, and they will still be playable when Core Keeper launches into 1.0. However, we strongly encourage all players, including existing Early Access players, to start a new 1.0 World during the Free Weekend.

From August 22nd, Early Access worlds will transition to Classic Worlds, and will not include support for critical content included in next week’s 1.0 update, including the conclusive chapter to the game’s story. To experience the full 1.0 content following the launch of the 1.0 update, all players must start new 1.0 Worlds during the Free Weekend or after the 1.0 update has launched on August 27th.

It’s been an amazing two-year journey in Early Access, and we’re so excited for our full 1.0 launch next week. We’re looking forward to welcoming lots of new players to the underground as well as hearing what all you veteran Explorers think of the new content! That’s all from us for now. We hope you’re looking forward to getting a first look at 1.0 during our Free Weekend! Don’t forget to join our Discord to meet the community and discuss all things Core Keeper.

Free Weekend - 0.9.9.9 Patch Notes

[h2]Gameplay:[/h2]

Added two new combat playstyles: Mage and Warlock. These have been added to the game through new equipment, weapons, skills, talents and character backgrounds targeted towards these new playstyles.
New world generation.
The game has a new world generation that will be used for any new worlds created and we strongly recommend players to create new worlds to get the full experience the game has to offer both during the 1.0 launch and moving forward.
Old worlds can still be played as of now but are not intended to be supported long term. Following are the more significant improvements new worlds will offer:
New worlds are no longer infinite, and even the outer biomes will have a maximal extent.
This makes the world more dense with content and makes exploration more rewarding. It also allows the world to be more easily expanded with new areas in future updates.
New worlds are now created using a seed.
Worlds created with the same seed will contain the same generated terrain, and boss arenas and unique items will appear in the same locations. The exact location of non-boss dungeons and custom scenes may differ even if the same seed is used
When creating new worlds there is now a new world generation parameters option that gives players control over key features, such as the amount of water and ore that is generated, how chaotic the biomes should be, and more.
This will allow players to tune the world to their preference but also to create interesting challenges, can you defeat a sea world?
The world layout has been improved with more structured tunnels, rivers, chasms etc to create a more interesting journey through the world.
The Hivemother statue has been replaced by a statue of Malugaz the Corrupted who is now the third story boss, while Hivemother has been changed into an optional boss.
Along with this change the difficulty of Malugaz has been adjusted as well as the crafting options unlocked in the statues.
Waypoints. These are a new method to teleport through the world. Can be occasionally found in key-locations.
Along with all the new items we have also changed the stats on some of the old items such as equipment, weapons and food to utilize the new stats that come with the new mage and warlock playstyles.
New enemy: Shrooman Brute. Located in the Dirt biome.
Mining skill “Self-mending alloy” replaces “Night vision”
Breaking a wall containing ore will replenish some durability of the mining tool.
Gardening skill “Feast for the eyes” replaces “Bottomless watercan”
Harvesting plants restores some hunger.
The fishing minigame has been removed to make fishing a better experience. Stats related to the minigame have been changed to other fishing-related stats throughout the game. Opening the inventory will no longer disrupt fishing.
Fishing skill “Chewy Bait” replaces “Throwing Expert”
Bait has a chance of not being consumed when fishing.
Fishing skill “Angler’s advantage” has been changed to give increased chance of higher rarity fish to bite instead.

[h2]Graphics:[/h2]

Improved the visuals of The Core and the statues surrounding it.
Improved the visuals for tree trunks.
Improved the visuals of multiple hairstyles while a hat is equipped.
Improved the visuals of seeds by adding a bit of color to them to make them more distinguishable.
Improved the visuals of the character creation UI.

[h2]Balancing:[/h2]

Food buffs that have a duration of 5 minutes have generally been increased to 10 minutes.
Increased the duration of Enrage Potion, Keen Potion and Unusual Potion to 1 min.
The health and damage reduction on walls as well as the mining damage done by mining tools has been balanced throughout the game so that it generally takes fewer hits to destroy walls in order to make the game feel less grindy.
Reduced the amount of hits required to max out the mining skill.
Reduced the amount of catches required to max out the fishing skill.
Changed starving and well fed buffs to no longer affect movement speed and the damage and max health conditions has been merged into one condition to make it more readable. Max health reduction from starving is also reduced to be less punishing.
Increased the damage gained from the “Taking a step back” and “Charging in” talents.
Reduced the values gained from the talents “Meticulous miner” and “Poison coated weapons”.
Increased the value gained from the “Not so picky” talent to make it more balanced versus the “Healthy diet” talent.
Increased the amount of materials and potions gained from chests throughout the world.
Increased the visibility distance of ores on the Core Iris offhand since the talent with the same effect has been replaced.
The drop chance for valuables that are common to find has been reduced throughout the whole game to avoid bloating the player inventory too much and also to increase the chance of finding useful items such as equipment or crafting materials.
Nature and Mold Walls no longer drop any valuables or other loot to avoid bloating player inventory.
Increased the drop chance of the Cipher Parchment from Igneous the Molten Mass.
Adjusted several items in the game such as the Glow Tulip, the Scholar set and the Fireball Staff to use magic related stats instead.
Some weapons projectiles now bounce a few times on walls, objects and creatures causing the projectiles to deal damage and then change direction instead of being destroyed.
Sticky Stick projectiles now bounce up to 3 times.
Galaxite Chakram projectiles now bounce up to 4 times.
Throwing daggers have a windup attack that adds up to 10 bounces.
Moved some of the crafting options between the Alchemy Table and Distillery Table to allow accessing Keen Potion earlier in the progression and to group together the explosives crafting options. Also adjusted the materials required for some of the potions.
Increased attack speed overall on equipment and consumables to be a more competitive stat.
Reduced charge up time of portals to be half of its previous duration.
Recall idols now drop from more destructibles throughout the world.
Buffed damage of all melee weapons to make them more competitive with range weapons.
Slightly increased the minimum amount of items bosses are dropping.
The stack size has been increased to 9999 per item slot.
Reduced the amount of hits it takes to max out the melee skill.
Reduced the amount of melee damage gained from the Miner’s equipment set bonus.
Adjusted the durability of weapons and tools to better match their attack speed. An implication of this is that weapons and tools from old saves may become reinforced or not have full durability when starting the game after the update as they keep their current durability while the max durability has changed.
Reduced amount of seeds dropped by destructibles in Azeos Wilderness and Desert of Beginnings.
Increased amount of seeds dropped by enemies and crates in the Dirt biome.

[h2]Audio:[/h2]

Increased the volume of several ambient sounds.
Changed the sound effect for harvesting crops.
Improved audio for hitting explosive walls

[h2]Bug Fixes:[/h2]

The game now uses a server-authoritative networking model with client-side prediction. This solves a slew of multiplayer bugs, especially when multiple players with poor network connectivity interact with the same objects.
Fixed a bug where the text from the Core speaking would sometimes appear behind objects adjacent to the core.
Fixed an issue where the shortcuts window would not show the shortcuts correctly in Thai.
Fixed a bug where quick moving non-helm items using shift click would appear in the wrong slot for a few seconds in Skeletons before being corrected.
Fixed a bug where the A Good Life achievement would trigger for other players instead of the player feeding the cattle.
Fixed a bug where Mold Tree received its own shadow when under ceiling light.
Fixed a bug where certain objects (mostly pillars and other square, shadow-casting objects) appeared very dark when under ceiling light.
Fixed a bug where boss damage reduction would have no effect on some projectiles shot by bosses.
Fixed a bug where no error message was shown when a non-existing Game ID was provided.
Fixed a bug where a Game ID that was too short caused an error.
Hoed nature ground no longer appears on the map just like other hoed ground types.
It is now possible to open cracked eggs by right-clicking on them in the hotbar.
Fixed an issue where map markers would sometimes not be positioned on a pixel perfect position causing them to render a bit weird.
Fixed an issue where the wrong colors on player clothes would be shown when eating a Spooky Pop Candy.
Fixed an issue where enemies would sometimes attack murals with melody signs.
Fixed an issue where breaking the Crystal Snail shell would not drop any ore in casual mode worlds.
Fixed a bug where players could dodge and parry at the same time causing unexpected behavior. Parry now takes priority over dodge.
Players are no longer stunned if parrying an attack that would otherwise stun the player.
Fixed a bug where conditions on creatures would show up while hovering them in the players inventory while in creative mode.
Conditions that are triggered when mining wall blocks such as the “Pick and run!” talent no longer triggers if 0 damage is dealt to the wall block.
Fixed a bug that made some areas in the Wilderness spawn with normal tilled dirt ground instead of tilled grass.
Fixed a multiplayer issue that happened when players would use rotated beds, causing them to look like they were sitting on the bed.
Removed an evil stray pixel that was present in the Lava Rock Block sprite.
Fixed a bug that would cause certain tiles to be visible through water in the Water Well and in the Mold Well.

[h2]Other:[/h2]

A loading indicator was added to the bottom right of the screen that appears whenever the game is loading.
Credits have been updated.
The wall category in creative mode has been renamed to “block” and the base building walls have been moved to the base building category.
The craftable Skeleton decor now also has 2 slots like the Deceased Explorer.
Added an inventory sort button to the players inventory UI.
Players will now unlock the souls UI directly when talking to the Core after activating the statues and don’t need to wait for the full dialogue to finish.
Shrooman enemies no longer attack cattle.
Added Ancient Coins to the creative mode under Other/Currency category.
The scene containing the Thread of Fate is now guaranteed to spawn in the Desert biome for new worlds.
Beach Blocks and Desert Blocks can now be put into the Glass Smelter.
Implemented rumble on controllers to be triggered by several sources in the game.
Items in the hotbar can now be used/consumed by right clicking on them.
Made Glowbugs placeable on pits.
Changed the tiles that the Grubzooka and Burnzooka can destroy.
Ping value will show only the network round trip time to the host or server instead of the full processing and network delay.
Reworked the pick-up system for a more stable animation when players pick up items.
Added the option to show keyboard numbers on hotbar in the UI Settings.

Hotfix 0.7.5.5

Fixed an issue with mod loading causing mods to fail and resulting in potential crashes.
Fixed an issue where the user admin setting would sometimes be assigned incorrectly.

5 Things to Know About Core Keeper PC 1.0!

Happy August, Explorers! Can you believe it’s launch month already? Naturally, we’re ecstatic, and we’re loving the positive energy and excitement you’re bringing to our community spaces. As we approach full launch, there are a couple of things we wanted to communicate with you about PC 1.0.

[h2]We Strongly Recommend Starting a New World[/h2]
We’ve been developing Core Keeper in PC Early Access for over two years now and it has been an incredible journey. We had so many ideas for the game and our amazing community provided so many incredible suggestions, that Core Keeper is looking bigger and better than we ever imagined.

One of our more ambitious goals was to create a whole new world generation system so that players could influence the way their worlds look – from the way biomes overlap, number of caverns, and ore density, all the way to things like how many rivers and lakes appear in the game. This brand-new system will also allow players to generate world seeds so that they can share their worlds with other players.

New world generation is just one of a handful of new features that rely on mechanics that Early Access worlds will be unable to support. We appreciate that many of you have been playing in the same worlds for a very long time now, and we’ve done our best to ensure that players can still enter and enjoy their Early Access worlds once the game launches, but things like The Passage biome and some of the game’s new story content will only be available in worlds created at 1.0. Because of this, it is our recommendation that players start new worlds to access the full Core Keeper story, and for the full 1.0 experience.

[h2]Early Access Worlds Will Become ‘Classic’ Worlds[/h2]
As mentioned above, we know Early Access worlds hold a lot of meaning and fond memories for our community, which is why we want to keep these available to play at 1.0. To that end, Early Access worlds will be re-named ‘Classic’ worlds and you will still be able to enter them and enjoy the Early Access sandbox experience, however it should be noted that these worlds will be considered “unsupported” from 1.0 onwards. In practical terms, this means that 1.0 worlds will be the main focus of development after full launch.

For many of you, this is not your first experience with Early Access, and the opportunity to participate in and influence the development of a game offsets the risk of running into bugs or the possibility that your Early Access worlds might not be evergreen. Equally, we know the idea that your worlds will no longer be supported may come as a disappointment to some. Your continued support throughout Core Keeper’s development has been instrumental in getting the game where it is today and we hope the 1.0 version of the game and subsequent support will be just as magical to experience.

[h2]We’ve Added Two New Combat Styles to Master at 1.0[/h2]
You’ve likely seen by now that there are two new combat styles coming to Core Keeper – Warlock and Mage – but we wanted to share a little more info about those with you. Both of these combat styles use our new magic system, which relies on a resource known as mana. You’ll spot your blue mana bar in between your health and hunger bars and, just like your health and hunger, mana can be buffed by various things throughout the underground – including crops like the Glow Tulip!

Along with adding new armour and equipment relevant to the Mage and Warlock, we’ve also updated existing items in the game to work with mana, such as the Fireball Staff. These combat styles will come with new skills and talent trees in the form of Magic and Summoning. The Magic talent tree focuses on things like mana regeneration, barriers, and damage, whereas the Summoning talents focus on things like minion life, attack speed, crits, and so on.

The community has been requesting magic for as long as we can remember, and this was something we were very excited to start working on. We’ve been refining this system for around six months now to ensure it blends nicely with the rest of the game, and we’re looking forward to hearing what you think!

[h2]New Content Doesn’t Stop at 1.0![/h2]
We’ve mentioned this before across X and Discord, but we thought it’d be helpful to make an official announcement about it. We will be continuing to add to Core Keeper after 1.0. Core Keeper is a sandbox game, so the adventure doesn’t end once you’ve experienced the game’s main story arc, and it is our intention to build upon this wonderful underground world with new content, quality-of-life improvements, and more.

We’ll have more information for you on exactly what our future plans are for the game once we’ve launched in 1.0, but we wanted to make it super clear that we’ll be showing Core Keeper plenty of love after its full launch. In the meantime, there’s plenty of exciting new content coming your way, and you can get an idea of what to expect at 1.0 by reading our content reveal post here.

[h2]We’re Updating Multiplayer to Support PC Crossplay[/h2]
There’s some cool, behind-the-scenes changes coming to Core Keeper around 1.0 that we wanted to share with you. Core Keeper currently uses a networking solution known as Steam Datagram Relay to support multiplayer.

Well, we’re currently in the process of testing a new networking solution called PlayFab Party, which will enable multiplayer with friends playing on Microsoft Store, GOG, and Epic Games Store versions of the game. While PlayFab Party will be the default for multiplayer, Steam users will still be able to opt out and instead use the Steam Datagram Relay (which is currently in use) if they choose.

[h3]Help Us Test PlayFab Party![/h3]
We’re currently still in the testing phase when it comes to PlayFab Party, and we’re looking for a small number of Explorers to help us stress test this solution before 1.0. If you’d like to participate in testing, please follow the instructions below and report your feedback here.

Launch the Steam client and navigate to your Steam library.
Right click on Core Keeper and select properties.
Click on ‘Betas’ and then click the drop-down menu next to ‘Betas Participation’.
Select ‘Network Testing’ to opt into the testing branch then close this window.
Launch the game and play in online, player-hosted multiplayer as usual.
When you’re ready to report back, submit your feedback to us here.
To return to your regular branch of Core Keeper, follow the steps above, but under ‘Betas Participation’ select ‘None’.

We hope these will answer some of your frequently asked questions and provide you with the information you need to have the best possible experience when Core Keeper leaves Early Access, Explorers! You can catch up with us in the official Core Keeper Discord for news, updates, information, and to ask any additional questions you might have.