10 Beginner Tips For Core Keeper

Core Keeper is an indie game that dares to dream. It has many different aspects, each done to perfection in its own way. Whether it’s fighting unique enemies with different weapons, exploring the varied biomes of the roofed world, customizing the perfect base, or making the optimum farm, players won’t be disappointed with any of the mechanics.

One of the best things is that Core Keeper doesn’t hold the player back at all, and throws them out into the world with no objectives. It’s not quite as open as a sandbox game, but it comes fairly close. Knowing a little about the game before starting the adventure won’t affect most of the player experience, only prepare them for the upcoming trials and tribulations.

Updated on September 4, 2024, by Huzaifa Haq: Core Keeper recently had its official 1.0 release preceded by a free weekend, giving it a large surge in the player base. The developers of the game have added an entirely new end-game biome. Additionally, it also has five new bosses, and two new backgrounds for players to try out, i.e., Warlock and Mage. It’s great to see more people appreciate the wonders of Core Keeper’s world, filled with a whole new world generation mechanism, and available on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. The previous beginner tips were quite outdated, so this article has been given a full overhaul to give it more relevance for a post-release Core Keeper.

10 Exploration is the Name of the Game

Spread Your Wings and Fly

It might seem like a redundant tip, but exploration is a very important part of Core Keeper. Staying in one place, or even in the same biome, is not conducive to progressing in the game. While it’s important to build a solid base and progress the crafting system, it’s much more important to explore the world and get familiar with the different biomes.

Players should periodically get ready and start long expeditions into the wilds of the world. This will let them build up their material horde, such that they’ll always have the materials they need when it comes to crafting. Additionally, it will keep the game fresh and exciting, since there are quite a lot of biomes and enemies.

9 Craft Gear And Progress Your Tech

A Knight is Better than a Peasant

An important part of a game like this is progressing the tech tree. Players have a few different ways to increase their power. They can invest skill points, unlock perks, they can craft good gear, and they can make powerful bases with complex electrical grids to power useful structures.

Players don’t need to sacrifice one to gain the other, all of them can be advanced together without much difficulty. They should keep advancing further and further ahead in the technology tree, which will raise the level of their relevant skills, letting them gain cool perks, and craft better gear.

8 Find Ancient Waypoints Early On

The Earliest Reliable Method of Teleportation

Many of the bosses in the game come alongside an ancient waypoint, structures that let players fast travel between one another. Core Keeper also has a building, the portal, that the players can build to teleport between, but they are quite expensive and can only be built with an octarine workbench, a late-game crafting table.

Ancient waypoints are the easiest, and earliest, method of teleportation available to players, and it’s completely free. If the player has high enough mining damage, they can even pick up the ancient waypoint and place it wherever they like.

7 Create Multiple Beds

Respawn Where Your Heart Desires

Beds act as respawn points when the player dies, letting them choose where to come back to life rather than always respawning at the start of the game. This mechanic is quite useful, letting players create multiple bases around the world and use the beds as a means of transportation.

Players can die when they need to change locations, dropping most of their inventory but keeping the hotbar items. Though not efficient in terms of goods, it can save players a lot of time running back and forth, letting them explore further and further ahead without worrying about the journey back home.

6 Obtain a Reliable Source of Food

Gotta Keep the Stomach Happy

Having a food source is a cornerstone to exploration, and it is quite useful if you don’t want to die every couple of minutes. The hunger meter in Core Keeper is omnipresent, never letting the player forget the mortal need for sustenance.

There are two good sources of food: fishing and farming. Fishing gives players better quality food overall, though it can be quite boring. On the other hand, farming usually doesn’t give high-quality food items but is easy to perform on a large scale once the player has enough seeds.

5 Torch Your Way to Glory

Let There Be Light

Torches are the unsung heroes in this game. Most of the map is shrouded in darkness, with almost zero visibility. If a region has some glow tulips or glowbugs, it will have light, but the caverns of Core Keeper tend to stay unlit most of the time. Torches are the easiest and most convenient way to light the way in front of the player, and they should always have a stack of them in their inventory.

Players can place torches on almost any surface, they don’t take up a lot of space, and they don’t even have any requirements to work. Having light bulbs for the player’s base might be good, but torches are the universal source of light in the game, especially since they don’t even run out of fuel.

4 Upgrades People, Upgrades

Late-Game Progression

Though the level system for items in Core Keeper might seem a bit redundant, it becomes relevant later. Wood items are typically level 1, copper correlates to level 2, tin to level 5, and iron to level 7. However, these levels aren’t just for show, they can be brought all the way up to 19, even for wood items.

The scarlet workbench will let players make the upgrade station, a furniture item that takes ancient coins and other resources to increase the level of various items that the player has. Upgrading is quite expensive but is well worth the cost in the late game. Some unique items that players can get from locked chests are worth upgrading since they don’t have high-level equivalents.

3 Good Storage Trivializes Deaths

Hello Darkness, My Old Friend

Dying is scary, no matter what game the player is currently playing. However, the only consequence of death in Core Keeper is that the player loses their inventory, not including equipped items and anything stored in their hotbar. It also reduces armor durability by 15%, but it can be easily repaired.

The only downside to dying is losing the inventory items. Thus, if the player has a good storage system, they don’t have to worry about dying at all, treating it as a useful tool rather than something to be feared. Categorize your spoils, label your chests, and put everything you find within them to make sure dying doesn’t make you lose any progress.

2 Build Everything You Can

Da Vinci Got Nothing on Me

Progressing in every way possible is the mantra that the player should always remember. While Core Keeper has many different mechanics, the building remains the central point that lets everything else progress smoothly.

Fighting bosses is important, and so is exploring the biomes, but the core gameplay loop is still building everything that the player can build. They should try out every building and furniture option so that they know what everything is. Having a general understanding of the different buildings will let the player accurately judge what they should do next in the game.

1 Look For Bosses

Easy Fights, Quick Money

Players can easily get lost in their own world when playing the game. The lack of any guidance means there are no set paths. However, they should still try to fight a few bosses relatively early on. The first boss can be found quite close to the initial spawn location of the player.

Bosses can drop powerful items that make the game much easier. They are also the main progression milestones for the story. The early bosses don’t have a high difficulty level either, so there’s no reason not to seek them out. The rewards are plentiful, and the risk is minimal.