Core Keeper News

Did you take part in The Great Egg Hunt, Core Keeper’s first-ever seasonal event? From the 13th to the 19th of April, we invited Explorers to scour the underground in search of hidden Easter Eggs that could be used to craft a mysterious Golden Egg. We’ll be taking a closer look at The Golden Egg in this post, so be wary of spoilers if you’re still trying to figure out what it does!

You hunted in the Dirt Biome, the Clay Caves, the Forgotten Ruins, and Azeos’ Wilderness, uncovering four different egg types unique to each area. You even shared your journeys with us on the Core Keeper Twitter and Discord, and we loved seeing where The Great Egg Hunt took each and every one of you.

Image courtesy of Discord user Niloofar#9970

Some of you spent your time collecting as many Easter Eggs as possible, and it seemed a shame that these should disappear. We’d planned on removing the smaller eggs from the game at the end of the event (leaving only The Golden Egg as a permanent feature), but after listening to your requests, we decided to let you keep your Easter Eggs as decorative items all year ‘round!

Image courtesy of Discord user Mayyo#0486

[h3]GOLDEN EGG SPOILER ALERT:[/h3]

Of course, it was The Golden Egg that many of you were after, and it didn’t take long before some of you had uncovered its secrets. For those of you who figured this one out, what was it that inspired you to take The Golden Egg to Azeos’ Wilderness? Was it pure chance or did you make the connection between bird and egg? Whatever it was, by bringing The Golden Egg to Azeos’ arena, many of you managed to spawn the glimmering Awakened Azeos.

Defeating this seasonal variant of the Sky Titan ensures some exciting new loot, including special jewellery, an Awakened Azeos Figurine, and a pair of adorable Radical Rabbit Ears inspired by our very first game, Radical Rabbit Stew!

Image courtesy of Discord user InfinityCorp#5614

These seasonal collectibles are unobtainable anywhere else in the game, and we hope you enjoy them as a reward for taking part in The Great Egg Hunt. Why not use them to become a “bunny lord” like Twitch streamer FederalGhosts did here?

We hope you’re looking forward to more updates from us in the future including plenty of patches/hotfixes and, of course, the Sunken Sea Biome! We’ve not announced a date for this new update yet, but keep an eye on our Twitter and Discord for more info soon.

We’ve got some exciting news, Explorers! We’d like to invite you to join us in testing dedicated servers for Core Keeper, as this is something the community has been asking for since we launched.

Previously, one player was required to act as the world host when playing in multiplayer, meaning that the world would not be accessible unless the host was online. However, many of you expressed a desire for dedicated servers to host multiplayer worlds that players could access at any point, and we got to work on this almost right away.

From now, you’ll be able to opt into testing multiplayer using dedicated servers in Core Keeper. This is something you will need to opt into, and we have instructions on how to do this below. Before you do this, however, we’d strongly recommend backing up your save files.

You can do this by following the file path below, making a copy of your save files, and saving them elsewhere on your PC (we recommend saving them to your desktop or “Documents” folder for now).

Save File Location: C:\Users\<User>\AppData\LocalLow\Pugstorm\Core Keeper\Steam\<Your Steam ID>

[h2]How to Play Using Dedicated Servers:[/h2]

To opt into dedicated server testing, please follow the instructions below. These instructions are exclusive to the testing branch of the game, and we will have a simpler method of opting in to dedicated servers following the testing period. Once again, we’d like to remind you to back up your save files before you do this, and we have provided instructions on how to do this in the paragraph above.

1. If you’re not running the latest version of Core Keeper, please update the game now.
2. Visit your steam library and right click Core Keeper.
3. Select “Properties” and then click “Betas”
4. Under “select the beta you wish to opt into”, simply select “experimental”
5. The game should update in Steam, and you will now be playing on the experimental testing branch.
6. Please visit your Steam library and right click Core Keeper once more.
7. Navigate to the “Manage” menu and then click “Browse Local Files”
8. This will open your computer’s file explorer, please look for a file called “Launch.bat” here. If you are running the game on Linux, this file will be called “launch.sh”
9. Run the game using the “Launch.bat” (“launch.sh” on Linux) file any time you would like to play using dedicated servers.
10. You will still need to provide a game ID to all the users you want to play with so that they can access the multiplayer world. This will be displayed in the window that opens after running the Launch.bat (or launch.sh) file.
11. The ports used by the server are, by default, UDP ports 27015-27016. To be able to access the server from outside the local network, these ports need to be open. This can be achieved by configuring your router to forward the ports to the machine running the server. Please note that your router will need a public IP from your ISP.

Please note that, if you run the game as usual using Steam or from a shortcut on your PC, it will default to player-hosted multiplayer. You must run the game following the instructions above each time you wish to play multiplayer using dedicated servers.

You should also be aware that, when playing in multiplayer, all the players must be using the same branch in order to connect. If you are using the “experimental” branch, but another player is on the default branch, they will not be able to join your world.

[h3]Dedicated server testing will only be running for a period of roughly two weeks (end date TBC), so it is very important that you provide as much feedback as possible during this window.[/h3]

[h2]How to Opt Out of Testing:[/h2]

1. Right click Core Keeper in your Steam library and select "Properties"
2. Go to “Betas”
3. Under “select the beta you wish to opt into”, select “none”
4. The game should then update to the default version of Core Keeper.
5. Please run the game as you normally would in order to play.

[h2]Your Feedback Matters![/h2]

Your feedback has been super helpful throughout Early Access, and we will certainly be needing it to help us test dedicated server functionality going forward! This is a brand-new, experimental branch of the game, so there is a chance you could encounter some unknown bugs. This is why we strongly recommend backing up your save files before testing.

Your bug reports will help us fine tune the dedicated server functionality to ensure the best possible experience for players and they will give us a much better idea of when we might be able to officially launch dedicated servers going forward.

Bug reports can be submitted via our usual bug-report form. Please make sure you select the appropriate game version when submitting your feedback using the bug-report form.

You’re also welcome to provide additional feedback in the relevant channels on the official Core Keeper Discord server.

[h2]Repair Mechanic, Reinforcements, and More[/h2]

We’ve been listening to your feedback on the Steam forums, Twitter, and Discord, and we’ve made modifications to the repair mechanics that we would love to get your feedback on before taking to the main branch. We’ve also added a new item reinforcement mechanic to the salvage and repair station that, when used, will improve the stats and the durability of items. Make sure you check out our patch notes for the full details of our latest update.

We hope you have a great time testing the dedicated servers, and we can’t wait to hear your thoughts!

[h2]General[/h2]

• Dedicated servers are now available.
  
• The repair system has been reverted back to using scrap parts as a result of working together with and gathering feedback from our community. The costs of scrap parts have been rebalanced so higher tier items cost more scrap parts. Scrap parts can be gained through salvaging again. The current materials gained from salvaging are still gained as well. The Bearded Merchant now also sells scrap parts instead of wood.
  
• A reinforcement mechanic has been added that allows players to extend the durability of their items as well as giving the item a small stat boost. Reinforcing an item costs some of the item's crafting materials.
  
• Added scrap parts that can drop from destructibles and some enemies.
  
• Higher tier hoes now cover a larger area. This works for both tilling and gathering plants in larger areas.
  
• Added a digging damage stat to shovels that impacts how many uses it takes to dig up ground. Health of ground has been rebalanced around the digging damage of shovels so that higher tier shovels are more effective against lower tier ground and lower tier shovels are less effective against higher tier ground.
  
• Added a Scarlet Hoe that can be crafted in the Scarlet Workbench.
  
• Added a Scarlet Shovel that can be crafted in the Scarlet Workbench.
  
• Moved the Scarlet Sword to be crafted in the Scarlet Anvil instead of the Scarlet Workbench.
  
• Large Watering Can now covers 2x2 tiles. More watering options coming later!
  
• Fishing rods no longer have durability.
  
• The chance to gain kelp from fishing has been reduced, and we’ve added resources such as ores, wood, fibre and scrap parts that can be gained from fishing.

[h2]Balancing Improvements[/h2]

• Slightly increased damage of Rune Song.
  
• Increased the max health of bosses.
  
• Azeos enrages at a bit higher health percentage.
  

[h2]Quality-of-Life[/h2]

• Other players can be made server admins from the pause menu.
  
• Players can be banned by admins from the pause menu.
  
• Added a button beside the Game ID for admins to regenerate the Game ID.
  

[h2]BUG FIXES[/h2]

• Fixed an issue with water visuals glitching sometimes.
  
• Fixed an issue where the second option in pop ups would sometimes not become highlighted when selected.
  
• Other players no longer play a “take damage” effect when their max health is reduced.
  
• Player health bar no longer blinks when other players max health is reduced.
  
• Fixed placement and digging being blocked by self for a small period after moving away.
  
• Fixed enemies becoming invisible sometimes instead of dying.
  
• Fixed Obsidian Walls popping up sometimes after digging a pit.
  
• Fixed double graves if exiting while dying.
  
• Fixed Recall Idol being able to consume the wrong item if switching equipped item right before teleport.
  

[h2]OTHER[/h2]

• Decreased network bandwidth usage of Azeos’ beams.