I still recall the first time I fell into the void. Just a broken statue and endless walls of dirt, me. Core Keeper does not make it easy for you. It throws you into a procedural hole and expects you to dig your way out. So having killed every Titan, and clocked a base spread across 3 biomes, let me share with you what makes a man from meat to tombstone. This is more than a collection of tips. This is how you win underground.
The Early Game Grind and Smashing People’s Faces In
Your first hour is critical. Do not wander aimlessly. Punch the roots. Gather wood. You need a Workbench and a Furnace, that’s your priority then. You spawn near the Core. This is your safe haven. Build your base right there. I built too far and I regretted it every death.
In this game you do not choose a class. You build one through action. Swinging a sword increases your Melee skill. Running skill levels up with each step. It feels natural. You grow stronger by doing the thing you want to be strong at.
I blundered early on in my game and neglected the Gardening skill tree. I thought this was only for food. It was wrong. With the high-end gardening perks, you get poison resistance and thorns damage. This is important for the lategame.
Overall, you will want to prioritize some basic skill trees for a jack-of-all-trades survivor.
- Vitality is non-negotiable. This you level by killing things. The benefits here are straight-forward health increases and damage resistance. It takes you from being a squishy explorer to being a tank.
- Running is the most undervalued skill. The map is infinite. Half your time will be spent point A —> B — the top-tier perks reduce hunger drain during running. It’s a savings of hundreds of food throughout the course of long play.
- Mining isn’t only to get resources . A talent that does give you your mining damage to melee attacks. By the time you’ve dug it out with a high-level drill or pickaxe then, you’ll be able to slap someone and deal a tonne of personal damage just for being good at mining.
Food is your number one enemy in the beginning. And starving is what happens if you just disregard those mushrooms. But here is what the veteran players know. You do not just eat raw material. Cook everything. A Cooking Pot is relatively inexpensive to craft. Mixed Heart Berry with Bomb Center and you get movement speed + health regen. That speed buff comes in handy for avoiding attacks of the first boss.
Hold your torch in your off-hand while you explore. You have to be able to see the glint of ore in the walls.” Copper is plentiful starting from the Dirt Biome. Mine it all. You must have had a full set of Copper armor just to fight the first big enemy even!
Conquering the First Challenge
The first of these is the giant orange slime. He jumps He smashes He is annoying! You can find him by following the loud booming sound coming from around the Core.
You need specific preparation here. Take a Copper Sword or Slingshot with you. Wear a full Copper set. Consume a Heart Berry Pudding to heal and speed. The second most important thing to do is scratch out and remove the slime floor with a shovel or hoe. You move slower on slime.
The fight is a rhythm game. He jumps and you move. He lands and you tag him twice. Repeat this loop. When he is low on health, he enrages and jumps at a faster rate. Do not get greedy. Better one hit-and-run than two hits and kill. Killing him will get you the Glurch Eye and also activate the first statue. You can then use this to make the Tin Workbench.
Moving into the Clay Caves
You go to the Clay Caves after you get Tin. This biome is full of larvae. They are fast and they swarm. You’ll need Tin Spike trap or a decent Tin Sword. This is where the game gets more difficult. The walls are tougher. They require a Tin Pickaxe.
Below is a list of the most essential ores and where I’ve been able to locate them in abundance during my playtime.
| Ore Type | Biome Location | Best Tool to Mine | Primary Use |
| Copper | Dirt Biome | Wood/Copper Pickaxe | Basic tools, Workbench |
| Tin | Clay Caves | Copper Pickaxe | Tin Workbench, Railway |
| Iron | Forgotten Ruins | Tin Pickaxe | Iron Workbench, Weapons |
| Gold | Clay Caves / Ruins | Iron Pickaxe | Jewelry, Key crafting |
| Scarlet | Azeos’ Wilderness | Scarlet Pickaxe | High-tier Drills, Armor |
The Hive Mother is the big threat here. She is stationary but spews acid and calls up minions. Don’t try to melee her. I’ve experimented with that and been killed immediately. Use a Slingshot or Flintlock Musket if you were lucky with drops. Construct walls around yourself to protect against her acid spit. Focus the minions when they close in but stay damaging the boss.
Dealing with the Forgotten Ruins
The Stone Biome/Forgotten Ruins are very dangerous. Cavelings here have weapons. They will stun you. You need Iron armor. The sparkling walls here are of iron. It looks like silver chunks.
There is a giant worm here that circles the entire map. You don’t search for him, he searches for you. Or rather, you discover his enormous tunnel. He won’t attack you unless you block his way. He just runs.
You will need a trap method to kill this monster. Lay 50 or 60 Spike Traps in his way. Let him run over them. Kill him with a sword when he pauses. It feels cheap but it works. Well-known YouTuber GamerZakh also showed off a trap technique just like this in his early access let’s play and it’s still the easiest way to handle the mobile threat.
The Epic of Bardics a.k.a. Rune Song Hunter
Let’s craft the most powerful weapon before we forge ahead into the game. It is called the Rune Song. It is a ‘Indestructible sword’. Once you have it, there’s no need to go to a mechanic station. It also regains health for you every time you damage an enemy.
Getting it is a journey. It does not drop from a boss. You have to build it. You need three parts.
- First is the Broken Handle. This is obtainable by the meanie cavelings outdoors. It’s a rare drop, so you might have to farm some enemy camps.
- Second is the Chipped Blade. It’s tucked away in a small temple within the Azeos Wilds. To unlock the door you need to have a Glow Tulip. B) I wasted half a day wandering the green biome until I found the correct temple structure.
- Third is the Clear Gemstone. This is the hardest part. It lies somewhere in the stone labyrinth of the Forgotten Ones Ruins. It is hidden miles beneath the rock.
If you take these two from a Rune Parchment to combine them, you will receive the weapon. The minute I brewed Rune Song the game was different. Even though I’m sure I’d die before I’ve explored as far as possible and had my weapon wear out. It had healing associtated with it, so I consumed fewer potions. It is the one best time investment you will ever have.
Transition to Mid-Game: Azeos’ Wilderness
The first three major threats already removed, the Great Wall is lowered. You can now access Azeos’ Wilderness. This is a lush green biome. It is beautiful but deadly. The Mold dungeons here are hell. Poison is everywhere. You have to done on Mold Ring or anti-poison food.
You are searching for Scarlet Ore. It is bright red. This unlocks the automation era. You can construct Drills and Conveyor Belts. Stop mining manually. Place drill stope on broken down ore. Let the game be beating itself while you look around.
The Sky Titan here is a bird. He heals himself using crystals. You need to bring a pickaxe if you want to break the crystals instantly. If he cures the fight is endless. His lightning beams are relatively easy to dodge if you keep running.
Animal Husbandry and Base Management
You’ll never survive the endgame without farming. You need buffs. I made a gigantic automated farm. Sprinklers are your best friend. They water crops automatically.
Farm Heart Berries for HP pots. Plant Pewpaya for movement speed. Play the Golden Plant for gigantic stat upgrades.
Paws & Claws update introduced a new dimension to the base management side of things. There is a sub-biome known as the Meadow now available. It is easy to identify as the music becomes a serene tone and the ground is lined with bright grass.
Here are your Moolins and Bambucks. They resemble cows and sheep. You can’t just walk them home. You must feed them to gain control of them. I constructed a pen near my core just for them. Moolins give milk from which you can make cheese. Strings also make some of the craziest good base items just defensively speaking that a cooking item can be due to how much it stacks high neutral defense food buffs. Bambucks produce wool. You need wool to craft some of the more advanced decorations and armor sets.
They are a world obtainable egg. Place these eggs under a sitting hen or in an incubator. They will hatch into pets. My favorite is the Subterrier. It’s a dog that is actually an enemy that stuns. When you have a pet fighting takes the pressure off you. They take aggro and give you time to heal or relocate.
Magic and Ranged Combat
Melee is more fun, but magic is safer. Later on in the game’s development, it added on both staffs and mana. Your health is displayed as a blue bar (mana) at the bottom of your screen. It ‘grows’ back by itself very slowly.
You need to be a mage have certain food. You got to make some fish that give mana regen. The Arcane Staff is an excellent weapon for beginners. It shoots bolts that slightly curve towards enemies.
The secret of the magic build is a surprise attack. You can empty your whole mana bar into a boss in five seconds, then run away while it recharges. I beat those slippery foes in the Sunken Sea with a fire staff. They were unable to escape the exploding AOE.
And if you favor physical ranged the blowpipe is really really good. It applies poison. You’ll be able to hit an enemy once and see their health tick down as you cower behind a wall. It’s a cowardly method, but it works like a charm in the Mold Dungeons where getting near means you’re dead.
The sunken sea and marine perils
The water biome is huge. You need a boat. You can use the Boat Workbench to create a Speeder. Don’t use your slow wooden boat. So you will be shot by tentacles.
The enemies here are slippery. Crabs and Tentacles hit hard. The source of this land is octarine. It’s the best armor you’ll get outside of endgame.
The Sea Titan is a bullet hell fight. He spawns tornadoes and whirlpools. You fight him on a boat. It is chaotic. Those of you have been able to forge the Rune Song sword, I suggest taking that with you. It provides healing on hit.
The Railway Network
Being as the map is procedural and walking for hours gets to be a pain. You need a railway. I mean I spent a whole weekend just tracking records.
You will want to make a central hub at the Core. From there, build four main lines: North, South, East and West. So then that divides the world up into quadrants.
Minecarts are faster than boats or running. The engine update included faster carts. With a decent track rotating bit of the ocean to sunken sea edge is like 2 minutes. Without it that trip is ten minutes. Label your stations. I simply use signs to identify where the biomes start. It’s easier when you play with friends who don’t know the map like you do.
Advanced Battle and The Desert of Beginning
The desert is the latest obstacle. It is hot. You need heat protection. Galaxite is the ore here. The foes are assassins and bomb scarabs.
The Sand Titan is tough. But the true challenge in finding those rare items. The Phantom Spark bow is a game changer. You just have to collect scattered pieces of it across the map.
Here’s a list of my optimal accessories that I kept prepared for the highest damage output.
| Accessory Name | Stat Boost | How to Obtain |
| Polished Gold Crystal Ring | +Range Damage, +Crit Chance | Crafting (Jewelry Bench) |
| Ivy’s Ring | +Crit Chance, Set Bonus | Boss Drop (Ivy) |
| Azeos’ Beak Necklace | +Health Leech | Boss Drop (Azeos) |
| Mold Ring | Immunity to Mold Infection | Mold Dungeon Chests |
| Omoroth’s Necklace | +Armor, +Dodge Chance | Boss Drop (Omoroth) |
Competition and Where Core Keeper Fits In
One cannot discuss this game without talking about the genre titans.
- Terraria is the closest cousin. Both games are heavily centered on boss progression and gear improvement. But Terraria is also a lateral side scroller game. They have a big problem there of verticality. Core Keeper is top-down. This is great for building bases and farming because you don’t need to care about gravity or falls.
- Minecraft is the great grandfather of them all. But Minecraft is very open-ended. You have to entertain yourself. Core Keeper sets simple targets for you. You have a boss to kill. You have a wall to lower. It gives some direction for players who want a mission.
- Valheim shares the food mechanic. In both games you scarf down some food to grow your max health bar. But Valheim is a punishing 3D physics experience. The new game Core Keeper maintains that loop of survival and exploration, but it has charming pixel art that makes all the same activity feel a lot less stressful.
- Fans of Stardew Valley will find the farming familiar. The mechanics of hoeing and watering are nearly the same, except for all being in 3D. But Stardew is a social sim. Core Keeper is an action game. You ain’t getting married to the villagers here ok. You’re going to sell them slime.
Console-Friendly Fit With its controller-friendly design, the Razer Kraken Pro is the perfect choice for console gamers.
Playing on PC, I wouldn’t know but this game is best played on a console like the PS5. Controls are for gamepad, DirectInput compatible. When you attack, it plays like a twin-stick shooter. The left stick moves you; the right aims your mining or shooting.
You feel the pickaxe swings in the vibration feedback. Buttons for quickly stacking are useful and it makes inventory management a nightmare, as it often is on controllers. If you have a PS5 and enjoy survival type games this is an absolute hidden gem in the library. It is smooth and sharp on a large screen.
My Verdict on Core Keeper
I have played Terraria. I have played Stardew Valley. Core Keeper lands right in the middle. It’s got the meaty combat and progression of an action RPG, but maintains that cozy base-building loop of a farming sim. The lighting engine is phenomenal. The way shadows flicker when you set a torch adds life to the underground.
My only complaint is about inventory management: You’ll have chests of junk. But that’s just par for the course. If you like digging holes and fighting gods, or exploring the best horror games, Notice: This is a 9 out of 10 overall.
Also check the Reddit community. User Morgalo shared one amazing map of the infinite labyrinth that really explained me how does the biomes generate in circles for no reason. Now you can locate the biomes missing from your world, knowing the map is a wheel and needs to be “filled in”.
The underground is vast. The challenges are real. But when you’ve got a dandy pickaxe in your grip and ya belly full of pepper wraps there’s nowt that lurks in tha dark what yer can’t face down. Grab your lantern. The Core needs you.
