Core Keeper Tips and Game Mechanics

Difficulty and Character

Game Modes: creative, standard, casual, and hard. In hard mode, enemies generally have more health, deal more damage, and may be faster. Drops are also better and more abundant, but there are no exclusive items for hard mode. Once the world is created, its difficulty cannot be changed.

There are customization options to generate your world in a specific tab, allowing you to alter the density of ores, rivers, caves, etc.

Character: It is independent of the world you play, meaning you can use a character in more than one world. Items can also be transferred from one world to another if they are in your inventory. Characters can be created in normal or extreme mode, where dying in extreme mode deletes your character. In any difficulty, upon death, you leave a gravestone with everything that was in your inventory.

Context gives you options to start with some items in your inventory and extra skills.

Starting the Game and Your Base

Building your base near the Core has several benefits: lower monster spawn rates, a good source of light for the beginning, and your initial spawn point if you die and do not have a bed.

NPC Spawns

Certain requirements must be met for them to appear:

Have the NPC's summon item.
Have a space completely enclosed by walls of at least 2x2 (not necessarily with a floor covering the ground).
Have a bed.
Have a door.
Have a space with no items on it.

Minimum space for an NPC to spawn.

List of NPCs

There are 6 NPCs in total:

Bearded Merchant: spawns with Slime Oil from Glurch.

Cloaked Merchant: spawns with Mysterious Idol from Ghorm. Can also be found while exploring Forgotten Ruins.

Spirit Merchant: Spirit Merchant NPC appears above each Ancient Hologram Pod.

Fishing Merchant: spawns with Pile of Chum from Azeos. Can also be found while exploring Azeos Wilderness.

Seasonal Merchant: spawns with Seasonal Calendar, craftable at the carpentry table with 5 wood + 8 fiber.

Brave Merchant: spawns with Nuclear Battery, found in the sub-biome of Shimmering Frontier, in Azeos Wilderness, Sunken Sea, and Desert of Beginnings.

NPCs can share a room, as long as there is a bed for each and adequate space.

Biomes and Map

Each biome represents an area and has unique materials, bosses, and stories. They are generated based on the world's seed and follow the pattern of the image below, with the closest to the Core being Dirt, Stone, and Larva, where the first 3 bosses for game progression are found.

Biomes

Dirt
Clay Caves
Forgotten Ruins
Azeos Wilderness
Sunken Sea
Desert of Beginnings
The Passage

Sub-Biomes

Meadow
Larva Hive (in Clay Caves)
Mold Dungeon (in Azeos Wilderness)
Forlorn Metropolis (in Sunken Sea)
Molten Quarry (in Desert of Beginnings)
Shimmering Frontier

Ores (and progression)

They vary according to the biomes and the distance from the Core. The chances of finding each type of ore also vary according to the type of biome. To break walls and collect ores, you need mining power, which is obtained with better material pickaxes, your mining skill, and equipment. Bombs also have mining power.

Resource progression: wood > copper > tin > iron and gold > scarlet > octarine > galaxite > solarite > pandorium
Biome progression: Dirt > Clay Caves > Ruins > Wilderness > Sea > Desert > Passage

Mining Tips

Workbenches and anvils also progress according to ores, but you only need the most advanced one to access the previous things.
If you place a chest in the center and workbenches around it, they will work using the items contained in the chest.
Boulders are large clusters of an ore but can only be mined by drills connected to electricity generators. Each type of boulder has a chance to be found in a certain biome.

Name	Dirt	Clay	Stone	Jungle	Sea	Desert
Copper	Frequent	Common	Common	Rare	None	Very Rare
Tin	None	Frequent	Rare	Rare	None	Very Rare
Iron	None	None	Frequent	Rare	None	Very Rare
Gold	None	Common	Common	Very Rare	None	Very Rare
Scarlet	None	None	None	Frequent	None	None
Octarine	None	None	None	None	Frequent	None
Galaxite	None	None	None	None	None	Rare

Chance of finding a certain type of boulder according to the biome.

Optimized automatic mining setup.

Bosses

Currently, there are 14 (?) bosses in the game. Occasionally, defeating them drops useful items or NPC spawns. Numbered according to progression, the rest are optional.

Glurch: in the Dirt biome, usually the first to be defeated.
Ghorm: circles between the Clay Caves and Forgotten Ruins biomes.

Hive Mother: in the Larva Hive biome (has a Halloween-exclusive variant).
King Slime: from the Terraria crossover, can be spawned using its specific item on a slime summon rune.

Malugaz: in the Forgotten Ruins biome, you need to craft an item to spawn it.
Azeos: in the Azeos Wilderness biome (has an Easter-exclusive variant).

Ivy: in the Azeos Wilderness biome.

Omoroth: in the Sunken Sea biome.

Morpha: in the Sunken Sea biome.

Ra-Akar: in the Desert of Beginnings biome.

Igneous: in the Molten Quarry biome.
Atlantean Worm: around the Sunken Sea.
Urschleim: in The Passage biome.

To defeat the last 3 mandatory bosses (the Titans), you need an item to spawn them on the map.

Farming

To start your Stardew Valley in this game, you need a hoe to till the soil and a watering can. They are easy to make at the beginning, but try to make your farming area near water to avoid going back and forth to fetch water. Automatic sprinklers are a bit further in the progression.

Upgrade your hoe and watering can whenever possible, as this helps speed up the process, allowing them to work on multiple blocks.

All vegetables mature at the same time, and when ready to harvest, they emit a glow from their leaves.
They only have three growth phases: seeds, sprouts, and mature.
It takes 10 minutes for a watered seed to mature.

Plant root seeds as soon as possible to avoid running out of wood. You still need to till the soil, but you only need to water it once. As long as you do not break the main block where the seed is planted, they will keep growing continuously.

Vegetables Requiring Specific Terrain

Some vegetables need to be planted on specific terrain types to grow. To get this terrain, you first need a shovel strong enough to dig it up and then place it where you will set up your farm.

Stone: Carrock
Beach Sand: Coral Wood, Pewpaya, Pinegrapple
Fungus: Puffungi
Crystal: Gleam Wood, Sunrice, Lunacorn

Cooking

Although there are many ingredient combinations, the buffs of each ingredient remain in the dish regardless of what you mix it with, so choose the ingredient that provides the biggest buff you need and cook it with another useful buff of your choice.

Gold quality has a chance to appear in planted vegetables when you have the Expert Gardener talent.
The Master Chef talent can enhance the buffs that foods provide.
Adding a gold-quality ingredient already raises the food's status to rare.
You get hungry when running or moving, not when standing still.
You cannot die of hunger, but penalties are applied.
Recipes are saved; just click the green book in the pot interface and on the dish you want to make, and if you have the ingredients, it will start cooking.

Animal Husbandry

There are 4 types in the game, appearing in different biomes, and producing resources over time when fed or dropping meat. They can be directly fed or using a feeding tray. Holding the food they like in your field of vision makes them follow you, and they eat the item if they get too close. You can also rename them.

Feeding and Item Production

Each animal can "store" up to 4 units of food in their stomach, with 2 needed to produce their respective item.
A baby can be born if two animals of the same species are fed enough over time and are close together.

Animal Transport

Leash: craftable at the livestock workbench, used to "lasso" and guide animals.
Cattle Transport Box: craftable at the livestock workbench, a consumable item to capture animals and transport them wherever you want.

Animal Types

Moolin: found in the Meadow. Produces milk and can eat any plant.
Bambuck: found in the Meadow. Produces wool and can eat any plant.
Strolly Poly: found in Forgotten Ruins and Desert of Beginnings. Produces strolly poly plate and eats insects (except glowbugs).
Dodo: found in Azeos Wilderness, produces eggs and eats any type of insects.
Kelple: found in the Sunken Sea. Produces kelp dumpling and eats any type of algae (kelp).

WARNING! Enemies will try to eat your animals unless they are protected by fences or walls.

Fishing

To fish, you first need a fishing rod. Casting the line in a spot with bubbles guarantees you only catch fish, while in other spots, you may catch other items. The type of water and biome determine which types of fish/items can be caught in that location. To catch something, your fishing power must be greater than the location's. Each time you catch something, you gain fishing XP.

Baits

Baits are crafted at the bait workbench, which is made from the tin workbench. There are 4 types of baits, made from basic materials that are easy to find; each 01 material yields 05 baits.

Spicy Bait: fish bite 9% faster.
Sweet Bait: 10% more chance of a fish biting the hook instead of catching an item.
Glowing Bait: 10% chance of catching an item instead of a fish.
Sticky Bait: fish start 7% closer to the fishing rod.

You can also buy 3 other types of baits from the Fishing Merchant, but you cannot equip both crafted baits and his baits together, as they occupy the same slot space on the character.

Pets

To get one, you need an Egg, place it in the incubator, and use the new item after the egg has incubated to hatch your pet. There are 9 types of eggs and pets, each with its respective buffs. The maximum level for a pet is 10. You can rename your pet to whatever you like. Every 2 levels up, your pet gains a talent point that can be spent in their own menu.

Pet Types:

Subterrier: from the Loyal Egg. Has melee attack. Found digging in X spots on the ground.
Embertail: from the Curious Egg. Has ranged attack. Bought from the Bearded Merchant.
Owlux: from the Lively Egg. Does not attack. Found by breaking crates.
Fanhare: from the Nimble Egg. Has ranged attack. Found by destroying yellow flowers in the Azeos biome.
Pheromoth: eggs found in the Fungus sub-biome in Azeos Wilderness.
Snugglygrade: eggs found in The Passage.
Jr. Orange Slime: from the Oozy Egg. Has melee attack. Chance to drop from Glurch.
Jr. Blue Slime: from the Oozy Slippery Egg. Has melee attack. Chance to drop from Morpha.
Jr. Purple Slime: from the Oozy Poison Egg. Has melee attack. Chance to drop from Ivy.
Jr. Lava Slime: from the Oozy Lava Egg. Has melee attack. Chance to drop from Ivy.
Prince Slime: from the Oozy Royal Egg. Has melee attack. Drops from King Slime.

Pet Food:

Helps them level up faster.

Pet Pellet: gives +50xp.
Rare Candy: gives +500xp.
Beast Booster: gives +5000xp.

Vehicles

The underground world where the Core is located is vast, and the maps after the final three biomes are generated infinitely. Therefore, for better and more comfortable exploration, as soon as possible, start looking for ways to traverse the world more quickly.

Minecarts are crafted at the railway forge and used to travel on rails. We have the Wonky Minecart with a maximum speed of 500 and the Minecart with a maximum speed of 800. Boats are crafted at the boat workbench and also have two versions: Boat and Speeder, with the latter being 30% faster. Go-Karts are land vehicles crafted at the Go-Kart workbench and have three versions: Primitive, Renegade, and Speeder. This workbench is made from galaxite, so these are end-game items.

Portals are made from octarine. They take 20 minutes to charge before the first use, and you can place as many as you like. They are an almost end-game item.

Useful Commands

Some shortcuts to speed up your game:

Hold shift to automatically equip the torch.
Press Q when opening a chest to deposit all items from your inventory that are already in the chest.
Press R in the inventory to organize it.
Press shift+left mouse button to quickly transfer an item from the inventory to the chest or equip an item.
Open your map and select an icon, use the middle mouse button (or press the scroll) to set this custom icon wherever you want, and it will always remain visible.