Happy August, Explorers! Can you believe its launch month already? Naturally, were ecstatic, and were loving the positive energy and excitement youre 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.

We Strongly Recommend Starting a New World

Weve 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 weve 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 games 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.

Early Access Worlds Will Become Classic Worlds

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 Keepers 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.

Weve Added Two New Combat Styles to Master at 1.0

Youve 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. Youll 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, weve 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. Weve been refining this system for around six months now to ensure it blends nicely with the rest of the game, and were looking forward to hearing what you think!

New Content Doesnt Stop at 1.0!

Weve mentioned this before across X and Discord, but we thought itd 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 doesnt end once youve experienced the games main story arc, and it is our intention to build upon this wonderful underground world with new content, quality-of-life improvements, and more. Well have more information for you on exactly what our future plans are for the game once weve launched in 1.0, but we wanted to make it super clear that well be showing Core Keeper plenty of love after its full launch. In the meantime, theres 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.

Were Updating Multiplayer to Support PC Crossplay

Theres 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, were 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.

Help Us Test PlayFab Party!

Were currently still in the testing phase when it comes to PlayFab Party, and were looking for a small number of Explorers to help us stress test this solution before 1.0. If youd like to participate in testing, please follow the instructions below and report your feedback here. [olist]

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 youre 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.[/olist] 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.