by I’m pretty sure that most of you have already got your hands on Minecraft and/or Terraria. Either as a beginner who just loves exploring, or perhaps a pro who makes their own resource farm. Do you enjoy working on in-game projects hours-on-end with your friends? Then Corekeeper may be the game for you!
Who are you?
This is the struggle of every gamer ever, the character creation screen. Like other survival games, this one starts off by asking you what kind of character or player are you? Will you be keeping it close to real life, or will you design it the way you want to? There is also the question of what kind of character job are you making? Each with its pros and cons.
Here is the current list of backgrounds with their perks in Corekeeper.
Nomad
- “An ordinary person without starting equipment but all the possibilities.”
- You start off with nothing.
Explorer
- “An experienced traveler who always brings a few torches.”
- Starts with +3 Running Skill, +1 small lantern, +3 rations.
Miner
- “A veteran miner, knowledgeable about breaking down walls effectively.”
- Starts with +3 Mining Skill, + 1copper pickaxe, +3 food rations.
Fighter
- A fighter with great self-defense and the power to defend their allies.”
- Starts with +3 Melee Skill, +1 copper sword, +3 food rations.
Chef
- “A culinary expert who prepares food for anyone in need.”
- Starts with +3 Cooking Skill, +1 cooking pot, +8 mushrooms.
Gardener
- “A seasoned farmer with green fingers eager to turn some soil.”
- Starts with +3 Gardening Skill, +1 copper hoe, +1 watering can.
Fisherman
- “A patient fisherman with a fishing rod at hand and an eye on the lure.”
- Starts with +3 Fishing Skill, +1 wood fishing rod, +3 food rations.
However, these backgrounds are just mere bonuses, you can always end up maxing all skills. It will take time, but it is well worth the trouble.
There is also a choice of playing in Standard mode or Hardcore mode. While not directly affecting the difficulty of the game, each mode will however affect how you play. Standard mode assures you that you will be resurrected when you die, meanwhile hardcore means that your character dies permanently.
We Live in a Simulation
The world you live in is also randomly generated, every part of the game’s mapping different from the last. But it does follow a certain layout of areas wherein the difficulty grows. To access these different areas, you need to have someone who has a high level of mining. Crafting better pickaxes and using bombs also help in accessing these areas.
Dirt Biome
The centermost part of the map, this is where your journey starts. You will encounter your first enemy here, the regular slime, and the spiked slimes. You will also encounter your first main boss Glurch the Abominous Mass, a massive slime that can easily be beaten. This biome also has copper, which is the first metal that you’d need to gather to craft advanced tools.
Clay Caves
One of the two biomes next to the Dirt biome, you need to make bridges to access parts of it. Here you would encounter Larvae which act as this biome’s enemy. They are harder to spot and will make sure of that by destroying any light source you put. Make sure to bring a lot of food or potions as some areas are drenched in acid. You would also encounter the second main boss The Hive Mother in this area. Keep a lookout for Tin as well, as this area is abundant with it.
Forgotten Ruins
Located on the opposite side of the clay caves. this area is abundant with random ores and resources. You could find a lot of ore nodes that can be mined using drills (unlocked at a later stage). The area is full of monsters called Cavelings, be careful as they can easily gang up on you. There are also Shaman and Brute variants which will hit a lot harder. There is an optional boss called Malugaz the Corrupted, which can be summoned, be careful as it has two forms.
Encompassing all these biomes is a huge slime trail where the third main boss Ghorm the devourer can be found. It circles these biomes in a counterclockwise motion. We suggest that you’d level up your ranged attacks and cook speed buff foods for the battle.
Azeos’ Wilderness Biome
After beating the three main bosses, you can now access Azeos’ wilderness by talking to the core. Afterward, this biome will be available for you to explore. You can find the scarlet ore here, just have a lot of pickaxes ready as they are harder to mine. The enemies here vary between cavelings and the new poison slimes.
You can find the main boss Azeos the sky titan here, which can grant you its soul once defeated. The soul provides a special attack that takes effect in every few melee attacks. The optional boss Ivy the poisonous mass can also be found here.
Skills and leveling up
Every action in Corekeeper brings experience, yes even by moving you gain experience. However, this experience goes into certain categories, and not your overall character level. By leveling up certain categories enough, you earn skill points that you can distribute.
You could potentially level up all skill categories, and there is stopping you from doing so. A fun trick to do is join different worlds and games as you could carry over any character. Even if the world is newly made, you can use your high-level character and level it up there.
Mining
The concept of mining here is as simple as that of Minecraft, for it is the core mechanic in Corekeeper. The wooden pickaxe will be your first pickaxe (unless you choose to be a miner). Mining can also be improved by mining harder materials and ores more often.
Aside from leveling, equipment and food will also increase your mining as there is a mining damage modifier. Mining damage affects how fast and easy you could mine different materials.
Ore nodes
On the other hand, there are ore nodes that cannot be mined using pickaxes. Mining these will require drills and other mechanical mechanisms. Acquiring ores, however, take a long time but it is worth the wait as they produce hundreds of ores before depletion.
Crafting
Another essential part of Corekeeper is crafting. It isn’t as complicated as the one on Minecraft though, so don’t be discouraged. However, the ingredients needed may be hard to come by from time to time. Crafting also grants experience which you can use to level up and unlock skills under crafting. Such skills giving you bonuses on your weapon or armor craft or bonus product outputs.
Running
You read that right, there is also a running skill tree in Corekeeper. Basically, you gain experience for every move you make in the game. Every WASD movement corresponds to an exp point, and the more you move, the more exp you get. To make the most of it, you can use food buffs which makes you move faster.Â
Gardening
This is still a survival game, which means there is a hunger or thirst meter aside from the health bar. Like any other game, there will always be a scarcity of plants and meat in this one as well. That is where the Gardening skill tree comes in, equipped with skills to help grow plants faster and in better quality. There is even a skill that can produce gold fruits which can heal or feed a lot more than the normal variant.
Fishing
Another source of food is fishing, although catching fish is a bit hard at first. To catch a fish, you must first create a fishing rod to use. Afterward, you could just cast the line and play a mini-game wherein you try to reel in the fish. Although fishing doesn’t always guarantee a fish, sometimes you just get valuables which can be sold to NPCs.Â
Cooking
So what do we do about all the gathered Fish and plants? Of course, we cook them for better stats. You can mix and match all the available fish, meat, and plants for a better stat food. By cooking such things you also gain experience in cooking. Gain enough experience and you can even unlock skills that gives you better stat foods, or an extra dish. You also get to keep the recipes of finished products.
Melee and Ranged Combat
You’re not alone in this world, so how do we handle these threats? By fighting them! Corekeeper rewards experience in combat as well, although it is cut into two categories: melee and ranged. Each has its pros and cons. We all know that melee weapons require close encounters, while ranged depletes the weapon’s durability faster.
Boss Hunting
Hunting bosses is another important part of Corekeeper as it helps you power up and traverse new areas. Currently, there are 6 known bosses in the game, four of which are essential to the game’s story. Defeating the first three bosses (Glurch the Abominous Mass, Ghorm the Devourer, and the Hive Mother) will unlock Azeos’ wilderness.
Aside from that, you can bring specific drops from the main bosses to the core, this will unlock special items for you to purchase. You could also summon specific merchants by using monster drops, these merchants sell items and weapons to upgrade your home and arsenal.
That is pretty much my initial impression of the most used mechanics in the game. We do hope that you find this interesting enough to try spelunking in Corekeeper. Well, see you all later! I’m off to dig!
You can grab a copy of Corekeeper here.
