Core Keeper’s Sunken Sea biome update adds boats and teleporters

The first big content update is coming in June

Core Keeper, a subterranean survival game with solo and co-op play, could use more content — a lot more. I say that as someone who was hooked on this cave-carving, base-building, exploration-minded setup for a dozen hours, right up until I hit the point at which I felt truly tapped out. I’ve been wanting a reason to play more, and developer Pugstorm will have one in June — that’s when Core Keeper gets its Sunken Sea biome update.

A big part of the game’s early appeal is finding your place in this underground world, so having a distinct new zone with “large bodies of water and islands” sounds appealing. To make these treks a little smoother, there will be, well, boats. Players won’t need to lay down winding bridges to go island hopping. (Though you can still build them in a pinch.)

Beyond the biome itself, Core Keeper‘s Sunken Sea update also has “more of everything,” in that classic Steam Early Access game sense. Pugstorm posted an overview image.

What’s new with the Sunken Sea update

The lack of enemy types stood out during my time with Core Keeper, and it’ll be fun to track down — and try and kill — another intimidating Titan boss. Having more plants and recipes will help incentivize the game’s farming aspect, especially with sprinklers in the mix. As is, my food supply is kind of on autopilot, and any sort of shakeup would help.

In the quality-of-life category, I’m most excited about teleporters and map markers.

Even with an extensive railway network, far-out trips, like to Azeos’ Wilderness, can really add up. I also think pretty much every game with a map could benefit from some form of markers, particularly a survival crafting game like Core Keeper, which is all about filling in the map — figuring out where every biome generally lives — through exploration.

All in all, this update is what I had in mind for the future of Core Keeper. It’s a cool game; it just needs more. If Pugstorm keeps at it, I’m hopeful for the full 1.0 launch.

Dedicated servers are now an option

The Sunken Sea update is primed for June, but first, a note on dedicated servers.

“From this moment onwards, players will have the option to operate their own dedicated servers for multiplayer worlds that can be accessed at any time without requiring a host to be in the game. If dedicated servers aren’t your thing, you’ll be pleased to know that in-game player-hosted multiplayer is still available at any time, and this now uses Steam’s networking back end when connecting players — solving many of the networking issues users have been reporting. We’ve also added a new admin functionality that will give players the option to kick people from their worlds across both dedicated servers and player-hosted games.

If you’d like to host your own dedicated server you can do so using Core Keeper’s own dedicated server hosting application, which will be available to run from the Tools menu in your Steam Library.”

I haven’t dabbled in Core Keeper co-op yet, but multiplayer is one of the main selling points for this so-called “top-down Terraria” experience. Options are appreciated.