Once you’ve crafted the cooking pot at the workbench, you can combine ingredients to make dishes that increase your speed, max health, and even make you glow while they fill your health bar back up.

Ferocious bosses and cutthroat invaders lie at the heart of Keeper’s Toll and its perilous lands. All of the bosses, mini bosses, and invaders you will encounter feature their own unique battle mechanics and twists on the core gameplay.

We’ll be focusing mostly on the single-player game to get started, but we’ll also take a quick look at the multiplayer as well.

It seems that for now this game ID is necessary. You can’t currently drop into a stranger’s game or just open your own game to other players.

Early on, I adored this simplicity, even as a solo player. It was ideal for a two-screen PC setup with YouTube or Netflix playing on the side. Toward the end — and admittedly, in Early Access, there isn’t really an “end” — I started to feel tapped out.

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Slow-moving slimes may not seem like much of a challenge, but if you stumble across a good-sized bunch, things can take a turn quickly. Not only do they do a surprising amount of damage, but if you die, you’ll also need to head back to that area to reclaim just about everything you had in your pack (only equipment and whatever was in your quickbar will respawn with you).

My character’s level-ups were too few and far between, the enemies and biomes became overly familiar, and the trips back out to the edge of the world took too long even with a minecart.

Explore diverse biomes with unique ecosystems and long-forgotten lore. From the living walls of the Clay Caves to the crystal caverns of the Shimmering Frontier, discover more about this mysterious world as you uncover the secrets of the Cavelings.

Chris has a love-hate relationship with survival games and an unhealthy fascination with the inner lives of NPCs. He's also a fan of offbeat simulation games, mods, and ignoring storylines in RPGs so he can make up his own.

Minimap: This shows you the map of the area immediately around you. Icons for bosses that you have located will also show up on this map, giving you an idea of which direction you need to go in order to reach them.

Copper can be found throughout the Dirt Biome, and getting a full set of Copper Armor is enough to give yourself a chance against fighting Glurch. However, you can also progress to Tin and Iron before you even take on your first boss if you want to.

You’ll get little XP bonuses for pretty much all the actions you’re already doing, like mining, running, and crafting. But when you see a message that says you’ve got a new skill point, go assign it in your skills menu right away.

Core Keeper is a strong survival game that can easily chew through the hours, providing a great balance between adventure and homesteading. There's a sense that pelo idea was left out, whether that be a constant pet companion or minecart rail lines, and while these may not get fully fleshed out, this is a rare occasion where quantity manages to make up for depth. The pet levels up and sometimes enemies drop treats that give it a nice Core Keeper Gameplay experience boost, and that's all it needs to do.