Core Keeper News

Core Keeper 1.0 Is Out Now!

It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for. After two and a half years in Early Access, four new major content updates, and plenty of minor updates and seasonal events along the way, Core Keeper is out now in 1.0! We’re thrilled to welcome you all to the underground, whether you’re brand-new to the world of Core Keeper or a veteran Explorer ready to dive into 1.0. So, let’s take a look at what to expect from today’s 1.0 release!

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[h2]The Full Game[/h2]
This is it! Core Keeper’s main story arc is now complete and available to play through in its entirety. That’s not to say there won’t be further updates – we’re still thinking about new content and all the possibilities for the future of Core Keeper – but if you’ve had the game on your Wishlist while you were waiting for it to come out of Early Access, now’s the time to start your adventure.

[h2]New Content for 1.0[/h2]
We’ve added a whole host of new content to Core Keeper 1.0, both early and late game. The first thing you’ll probably notice is our new and improved world-generation system and world seed functionality. This allows players to customise certain parameters when starting a world to determine its features. You can change settings such as the number of caverns, ore density, and even biome chaos (which impacts the way individual biomes overlap).

Our Early Access players will spot some changes to the Core and surrounding areas upon spawning in. We’ve given the Core a little touch up and replaced the Hive Mother statue with a statue of Malugaz the Corrupted. Don’t worry though, the Hive Mother is still waiting in the Clay Caves but, to balance the early-game experience, she is now considered an optional boss battle. As you progress through the Dirt Biome and early game, you’ll encounter new enemies, like the Shrooman Brute, plus tonnes of new loot and equipment!

Delving deeper into the underground, you’ll uncover our brand-new Mage & Summoner combat styles and talent trees, which introduce a magic system for Core Keeper, new to 1.0. Your journey will take you far and wide, but fear not, our new Waypoint system allows for easier travel across the world’s many corners and caverns. 1.0 worlds have also shifted over to a finite model, which means, if you travel far enough, you’ll make it to our new endgame biome – The Passage – an area that enshrouds the underground, full of primordial creatures, threats around every corner, and mysteries to uncover.

All this plus our new PvP functionality, three new hydra bosses, new cuddly companions, cattle, and more! For a full look at what’s been added to 1.0, make sure to check out our patch notes here.

[h2]Will I Still Be Able to Play My Old Worlds at 1.0?[/h2]
Early Access worlds have been re-named ‘Classic’ worlds at 1.0 and, while you will still be able to access these, we strongly recommend that players start fresh new worlds going forward.

1.0 worlds will be the only place to experience significant 1.0 content, including The Passage biome, and these will be the main focus of development now that we’ve hit full launch.

We know that many of you have been playing in the same worlds for a long time, and we’ve done our best to ensure that players can still enter and experience their Classic worlds now the game has launched in full, but for technical reasons, there are new 1.0 features that Classic worlds are unable to support.

Please note that any new worlds created during our Steam Free Weekend are 1.0 compatible and you will be able to continue playing these now that the game has launched in 1.0

[h2]What Happens if I Played Core Keeper During the Steam Free Weekend?[/h2]
If you played Core Keeper for the first time during the Steam Free Weekend, you will be able to pick right back up where you left off if you go on to purchase the full version of the game. For Early Access players who started new worlds during the Steam Free Weekend, these worlds are considered 1.0 worlds, and you will be able to continue exploring beyond the wall now that the game has launched in full.

[h2]What’s Next for Core Keeper?[/h2]
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, we will be continuing to add to Core Keeper beyond 1.0. As a sandbox game, you can enjoy Core Keeper long after you’ve experienced the game’s main story arc, and we’ll be building on this wonderful underground world with new content, quality-of-life improvements, and more! We’ll have lots more to share with you soon, but for now we can tell you that we’re looking into making more objects paintable (doors, anyone?) and considering some updates to everybody’s favourite Sky Titan.

It’s been an incredible journey developing Core Keeper and we can’t believe what an amazing and passionate community we have. We’re very excited to welcome a whole new batch of Explorers to the underground and, if it’s your first time here, make sure you head over to our X page or our official community Discord to join the conversation, meet your fellow Explorers, and get involved in all things Core Keeper. We can’t wait to hear what you think of 1.0!

Core Keeper 1.0.0 Full Launch Update Patch Notes

[h2]Gameplay:[/h2]

3 new Hydra bosses. Defeat them all to gather the remaining soul powers
Urschleim, The Passage boss. A challenge to be overcome.
The ??? boss. The final boss of the current chapter of our story.
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.
Fighting with a mage oriented setup focuses around consuming mana to deal great magical damage whereas the warlock playstyle engages in combat by summoning minions to fight their enemies!
New biome: The Passage.
The Passage is a dangerous place to enter at the edge of the world with roaming enemies and a big looming threat that will consume any adventurer in its path. But any adventurer that can survive the Passage will find great rewards to be obtained.
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.
PvP. PvP has been added as an option that players can enable through the pause menu while playing a game. Teams can be assigned for every player in the pause menu as well to allow for team battles. Who will conquer the world of Core Keeper?
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.
53 new pieces of equipment.
8 new weapons.
1 new legendary weapon.
3 new Summoning Tomes that allow summoning different types of minions.
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.
3 new items that permanently give more max health.
5 new fishes found in the Passage:
Terra Trilobite.
Litho Trilobite.
Greenhorn Pico
Pinkhorn Pico.
Riftian Lampfish.
2 new pets:
Pheromoth. The eggs can be found in the mold biomes within Azeos Wilderness.
Snugglygrade. The eggs can be found in the Passage.
1 new cattle:
Dodo. Dodos roam in the forests of Azeos Wilderness and eat insects to produce Eggs. The Eggs can be used to cook delicious Cakes.
1 new critter:
Drape Ray. The Drape Rays can be found flying around in the Passage.
4 new enemies:
Shrooman Brute. Located in the Dirt biome.
Caveling Mummy. Located inside temples in the Desert of Beginnings.
Sulfur Worm. Located in the Passage.
Colossal Amoeba. Located in the Passage.
9 new figurines for the new enemies and bosses.
3 new materials found in the Passage:
Pandorium Ore.
Calcified Shell.
Cytoplasm.
80+ new hand made scenes can be found in the world. Big thanks to our creative community in the creation of a large portion of these scenes!
7 new achievements.
Two additional colors have been added to the paint brushes: Peach and Teal.
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.
New potions: Arcane Potion and Pact of Power Potion, increases magic damage and minion damage respectively. Can be crafted in the alchemy table.
The fishing minigame has been removed to improve the experience based on player feedback. We will refine the fishing mechanic in future updates, with this as an interim step. Stats related to the minigame have been updated to other fishing stats, and 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.
A Giant Bug Brain now drops from Ra’Akar which can be used to craft the new Hydra Altar in the Solarite Workbench. The Hydra Altar allows crafting items to engage the new Hydra bosses.

[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.
Added Integer Scaling display setting. When enabled, the game image is resized to perfectly align with display pixels, making everything super sharp ("pixel-perfect").
Implemented a new indirect lighting solution that should be more accurate, faster and nicer looking.
Upgraded screen-space ambient occlusion to have a softer look and a smaller performance impact.
Improved the smoothness of the game camera when moving.
Added Integer Scaling display setting. When enabled, the game image is resized to perfectly align with display pixels, making everything super sharp ("pixel-perfect").
Implemented a new indirect lighting solution that should be more accurate, faster and nicer looking.
Upgraded screen-space ambient occlusion to have a softer look and a smaller performance impact.
Improved the smoothness of the game camera when moving.

[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.
Mimites now have a very small chance to drop Jungle Emeralds, Desert Rubies and Ocean Sapphires. This is intended to allow players to get these gemstones even if they have fully exhausted the crystal biome in their world as the world is now finite.
Small Sun Crystals now also have a very small chance to drop Jungle Emeralds, Desert Rubies and Ocean Sapphires in their respective biomes.
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]

The Cloaked Merchant no longer sells the Flintlock Musket but instead sells the summoning item used to resummon the ??? boss. This becomes available for purchase after defeating the ??? boss once.
Can export and import worlds via mod.io.
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.
Improved the ordering of items in the creative mode UI.
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 0.9.9.9.9

Fixed crash because of missing check in the boss summoning system.
Fixed hang when overflowing some text fields like pet name and make sure the text field is not deactivated when moving the mouse away from it.
Fixed crash caused by invalid memory access in netcode.
Fixed authentication error due to Steam authentication ticket being invalidated prematurely.
Fixed map not showing anything on some systems.
Added a prompt to disable crossplay when some common errors are detected.

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.

Read the rest of the story...

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.