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Core Keeper
Explore a vast cavern of creatures, relics and resources in a mining sandbox adventure for 1-8 players. Mine, build, fight, craft and farm to unravel the mystery of the ancient Core.
In short, Steam reviewers most often praise “engaging exploration, building, and combat” (91 of 101 reviews) and “more fun exploring with friends” (28); the most common complaint is “uneven balance and damage spikes” (15). What reviewers agree on ↓
What players say
Steam review score and the most-helpful voices, which may include critical ones. Score via Steam as of 2026-09-29 · quoted reviews as of 2026-05-12.
What reviewers agree on
91 of the 101 reviews raise this.
“Absolutely love this game! If you liked Stardew Valley's mine areas and wished you could spend more time in them, this will scratch that itch for sure. Tons of customization and freedom to build whatever you want,…”
“It's a really fun game, it's a lot like Terraria but from a different perspective. I think the game is more flawed than Terraria with this game having some balance issues and generally the map being quite big with…”
“Another time I wish Steam had an "eh" rating. I'm giving it a thumbs up because it IS well-made and you could tell it was made with a lot of love, too. The graphics, music, gameplay and all that is good and fine, but…”
28 of the 101 reviews raise this.
“A solid underground base-building adventure experience that can be played solo or in a party! I will say though if you're exploring biomes and your screen starts shaking, you better run unless you're confident because…”
“got it for free cuz my friend alrdy had a game n got a redeem code so she gave it to me (thanks a lot!) i played with my brother n we had a great time playing it. the game is mix of minecraft n terraria, where u start…”
“This game is more fun if you play it with friends, but that isn't to say that you're not going to enjoy it solo. I've spent countless hours in my solo world just building, grinding seasonal stuff and playing with world…”
19 of the 101 reviews raise this.
“Absolutely love this game! If you liked Stardew Valley's mine areas and wished you could spend more time in them, this will scratch that itch for sure. Tons of customization and freedom to build whatever you want,…”
“This game is more fun if you play it with friends, but that isn't to say that you're not going to enjoy it solo. I've spent countless hours in my solo world just building, grinding seasonal stuff and playing with world…”
“Honestly, could not stop playing this game. It is HUGE, and for a solo run it may seem a bit overwhelming, but sticking with it was 1000% worth it”
18 of the 101 reviews raise this.
“Another time I wish Steam had an "eh" rating. I'm giving it a thumbs up because it IS well-made and you could tell it was made with a lot of love, too. The graphics, music, gameplay and all that is good and fine, but…”
“Very comparable to Terraria but a lot better. More interesting fighting and less boss rush nature. Definitely has issues with balance, class differences especially, and world exploration, you should be able to zoom out…”
“It's an okay game tbh. The first 4-5 hours were great, but soon the game felt repetitively. On the other hand, the visual and sound are phenomenal, one of the best one that I have ever played, sadly, that is the only…”
12 of the 101 reviews raise this.
“I'm typically a cozy gamer and I don't enjoy games where I die a lot. This game is lots of fun to play with friends, and challenging enough to be satisfying but not difficult to the point of frustration. I really enjoy…”
“recommend. fun with or without friends. has a little bit of everything and everything is equally as fun and rewarding”
“The game is fun, polished, and contains many of the QoL features I like from other games of the genre, alongside a few of their own. I played on the hardest difficulty and once I understood the combat, it was easy.…”
15 of the 101 reviews raise this · 13 of them still recommend the game.
“Game isn't super bad or anything but like The later you get the less fun you have. I think the challange mode is no where near as interesting or well balanced as it should be. Classes are unbalanced in terms of…”
“It's a really fun game, it's a lot like Terraria but from a different perspective. I think the game is more flawed than Terraria with this game having some balance issues and generally the map being quite big with…”
“TLDR: 7/10. Would've given it a higher difficulty if the difficulty didn't revolve around getting one shotted by random mobs more than fighting the actual bosses. Overall a fun 'survival' crafting game. I'd recommend it…”
14 of the 101 reviews raise this · 10 of them still recommend the game.
“Game isn't super bad or anything but like The later you get the less fun you have. I think the challange mode is no where near as interesting or well balanced as it should be. Classes are unbalanced in terms of…”
“It's a really fun game, it's a lot like Terraria but from a different perspective. I think the game is more flawed than Terraria with this game having some balance issues and generally the map being quite big with…”
“Another time I wish Steam had an "eh" rating. I'm giving it a thumbs up because it IS well-made and you could tell it was made with a lot of love, too. The graphics, music, gameplay and all that is good and fine, but…”
8 of the 101 reviews raise this · 5 of them still recommend the game.
“Game isn't super bad or anything but like The later you get the less fun you have. I think the challange mode is no where near as interesting or well balanced as it should be. Classes are unbalanced in terms of…”
“Another time I wish Steam had an "eh" rating. I'm giving it a thumbs up because it IS well-made and you could tell it was made with a lot of love, too. The graphics, music, gameplay and all that is good and fine, but…”
“Tried playing this across the years I had it, and the gameplay loop just isn't engaging. The gear in this is beyond a joke and is not something you will feel excited about finding or crafting. Progression is mostly…”
5 of the 101 reviews raise this · 4 of them still recommend the game.
“Great fun, especially with playing with a friend. Game play was smooth, only encountered one bug that required us to move to a different world to complete the achievement (procedurally generated our map with an…”
“Absolutely recommend! It's like a mix of Stardew, Minecraft and Terraria all in one cave-crawling adventure. It's a wonder to explore in your first playthrough, and it's incredibly fun to try and overcome all the…”
“After the update it said that my world/character were made on a more recent version. But this game is great and lasts a long time”
5 of the 101 reviews raise this · 4 of them still recommend the game.
“the progress could be a little slower with more content between. you level through the workstations so fast and then it becomes pointless to upgrade the in betweens and just wait for end game. really fun regardless”
“This game enjoyable and fun cause like terraria progression bos but the bosses is not that much as like terraria”
“Got it for console then saw how easy it was to do stupid stuff on PC so I bought the game twice. Never really got into Terraria but Core Keeper is definitely fun. It really helps that the game gets basically yearly…”
Counted across 101 English reviews, sampled to match this game's 92.9% positive rating · as of 2026-05-12
“It's a fun game with a reasonable amount of content and mild grind, overall a 7/10, worth during sale and more enjoyable in multiplayer. Pros: 1. A moderately wide array of talents and equipment sets that creates different build options. 2. Talent system that is fun to come up…”
— a player, Steam review · 126 hrs played“Do it! I play solo daily. It is very terraria, and with soothe your soul...Buy it...You won't regret it 😊”
— a player, Steam review · 257 hrs played“Terraria but 2.5D and you kill lots of bosses like terraria and then you build a cozy home for yourself and an appartement for your npc's like terraria and its a really cool game but its not terraria. 10/10 but it's not terraria guys”
— a player, Steam review · 46 hrs playedPlayer activity
Monthly average concurrent players. Live data self-collected from the Steam API · history through 2026-06 via SteamCharts.
Achievement stats
Global completion rates across all Steam players — a data view of how far people actually get. Source: Steam official stats · as of 2026-10-24.
Price tracking
US-region pricing (USD), sampled twice daily by our own tracker since 2026-07-11. Steam prices vary by region — always confirm your local price on Steam.
Regional prices at last sample, in local currency — Steam sets each region's price independently.
Cheapest → most expensive, converted to USD at ECB reference rates (2026-10-23). Relative comparison only.
Latest official news
Developer announcements via the Steam news API — links go to the original posts. More across all games on the news hub.
CK 1.3.0.6 - Hotfix
CK 1.3.0.6 - Hotfix Bug Fixes Fixed an issue that would prevent Steam Free Weekend players from entering a world.
Core Keeper’s Free Weekend – Your Adventure Starts Here!
Grab your pickaxes and get ready for a Free Weekend filled with exploration, base building, boss battles, farming, fishing, magic, and secrets to uncover! Howdy, new Explorers, and welcome to the unde
1.3.0.5 - Stability Patch
1.3.0.5 - Stability Patch Modding Water painted in the ModSDK's custom scene editor now uses its in-game color, making it easier to tell water types apart. Tiles without an icon in the ModSDK's custom
Community Wrap-Up - September 2026
Happy autumn, Explorers 🍂 We hope you're loving our latest update, Riders of the Underground! September has been a busy month for us, but we're so excited to be able to share all our hard work with yo
1.3.0.4 - Hotfix
1.3.0.4 - Hotfix Bug Fixes Fixed spike traps, drills and certain other hazards not dealing damage. Fixed some traps and other continuous damage sources having a short delay before doing their first da
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Screenshots
Official Steam store screenshots — click any shot to enlarge.
Facts & details
From the Steam store record, snapshot 2026-05-12.
| Genres | Action, Adventure, Indie, RPG, Simulation |
| Player tags | Pixel Graphics · Open World Survival Craft · Online Co-Op · Sandbox · Survival · Adventure · Crafting · Exploration · 2D · Building · Mining · Dungeon Crawler (SteamSpy community voting) |
| Features | Single-player · Multi-player · Co-op · Online Co-op · Full controller support · Steam Cloud · Family Sharing |
| Languages | English, Simplified Chinese, Thai, German, Japanese, Korean, Spanish - Spain, French, Italian, Portuguese - Brazil, Traditional Chinese, Russian, Ukrainian |
| Controller | Full support |
| Achievements | 55 |
Minimum system requirements (PC)
Minimum: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: Windows 10 64-bit Processor: Intel Core i5-2300 / AMD Ryzen 3 1200 Memory: 8 GB RAM Graphics: GeForce GTX 460 / Radeon HD 5850