Core Keeper is heading deeper underground with Riders of the Underground, a substantial free update that puts a new emphasis on moving through its sprawling caves in style. Available now, the update introduces rideable mounts for the first time, gives explorers a Hookshot for crossing hazardous gaps, and adds a fresh Moss sub-biome to the Forgotten Ruins. New pets, weapons, accessories, armor pieces and quality-of-life additions are also included.
Developer Pugstorm and publisher Fireshine Games have released the update for PC, Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One. For a game centered on uncovering an immense underground world, the headline features promise to change both the practical rhythm of exploration and the ways players can personalize their home beneath the surface.
Mount Up With Tameable Cattle
The most prominent addition in Riders of the Underground is the arrival of rideable cattle. Players can tame these creatures, mount them and give each one a name, adding another companion option to a game already built around gathering materials, cultivating resources and making a base feel like home.
Mounts are not simply decorative additions. Cattle come with behavioral options that allow players to decide how they should act when they are not being ridden. They can be instructed to remain in place, wander freely, or follow alongside the player. That flexibility should make them useful for players who want to keep a carefully arranged settlement as well as those who prefer to travel with a dependable animal companion at their side.
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The feature also gives Core Keeper's underground setting a more lived-in quality. Naming a mount and assigning its behavior turns it into something more personal than a transport tool, while the ability to have cattle roam offers another way to bring activity to a base. Players who have spent their time digging out elaborate chambers and building organized outposts now have additional options for filling those spaces with creatures that can be managed and ridden.
Rideable mounts fit naturally with Core Keeper's cooperative survival-sandbox structure. Venturing into unknown cave systems often means returning home with resources, loot and discoveries, and the addition of mounts gives those journeys a new visual and mechanical identity. Whether players set a mount to accompany them or leave it safely behind, the update offers more control over how companions factor into an expedition.
A Hookshot for Crossing the Unknown
Riders of the Underground also adds the Hookshot, a grappling-hook-style tool designed to help players leap over chasms and pits. Its arrival is especially notable because it opens up a different approach to navigating the terrain. Instead of laying paths or constructing bridges to get across a dangerous divide, players can use the Hookshot to make the crossing directly.
That could be a meaningful change for both first-time explorers and established adventurers. Core Keeper's underground world regularly asks players to think about how they will move through the spaces they uncover. Building routes remains part of the game's sandbox appeal, but the Hookshot creates an alternative when a quick route is more valuable than a permanent piece of infrastructure.
It also has the potential to make scouting feel more immediate. A deep pit or sudden chasm no longer needs to halt momentum while a path is prepared. The Hookshot lets players get to the other side and continue investigating, which suits an update focused on pushing farther into the underground. It is a traversal tool with a straightforward purpose, but one that can influence how players read the world around them.
For base builders, the Hookshot may also help preserve the natural look of certain areas. Not every obstacle needs to be converted into a bridge or covered with a constructed route. Players can retain more of the landscape's uneven character while still having a practical way to travel through it.
The Forgotten Ruins Grow Greener
Exploration is receiving a visual expansion as well through a new Moss sub-biome in the Forgotten Ruins. The area brings greenery into the stony remains found in that part of the world, creating a contrast between ancient ruined structures and more lush underground growth.
The Forgotten Ruins already evoke a sense of history within Core Keeper's vast cave network. Adding a moss-covered variation gives players another environment to discover while moving through the region, and it should help make the journey through the ruins feel less uniform. The mix of vegetation and weathered stone suggests a place where nature has slowly claimed ground amid the remnants of an older civilization.
New sub-biomes matter in an exploration game because the appeal is not just reaching a destination, but encountering a world that continues to offer unfamiliar spaces. The Moss area gives players another reason to head back into the Forgotten Ruins, seek out unexplored sections and see how the new greenery changes the atmosphere of an established location.
More Pets and More Gear to Collect
Alongside cattle mounts, Riders of the Underground includes multiple new pets, each with its own unique ability. The update does not stop at adding animals for players to look after; it also broadens the companion roster with creatures that can bring distinct utility to an adventure. That makes pet collecting more than a cosmetic pursuit and provides another layer for players deciding which companions best suit their current plans.
New weapons, accessories and armor pieces are included as well. For Core Keeper players, additional gear is a key part of returning to the mines, ruins and hostile corners of the map. Equipment expansions offer more reasons to gather resources and seek out discoveries, while also providing new choices for players refining how they approach combat and survival.
The update's gear additions are presented as part of a broader package rather than a separate endgame challenge, but they help round out the mount and traversal features. A player can take a newly tamed cattle mount on an expedition, use the Hookshot to bypass a difficult gap, find a Moss-filled section of the Forgotten Ruins, and come away with new items to support future trips. The individual additions are varied, yet they all feed into the same loop of exploring, collecting and improving.
Quality-of-Life Improvements Join the Free Update
Riders of the Underground also delivers a range of quality-of-life improvements. Specific changes have not all been detailed, but their inclusion is important for a game that can involve lengthy mining sessions, construction projects and repeated trips through the underground. Small refinements can have a major impact when they affect tasks players perform throughout every session.
The update's overall structure shows a balance between headline content and everyday usability. Mounts and the Hookshot are immediately visible additions that change how players travel, while pets, gear and the Moss sub-biome give the world more to discover. Quality-of-life work, meanwhile, is aimed at making those repeated acts of digging, organizing and exploring smoother over time.
For players returning after time away, the free update provides several clear reasons to start a new expedition. For active communities, it adds more ways to shape a personal underground settlement and travel through the world with friends. Core Keeper has always invited players to make their own goals, whether that means steadily progressing through dangerous areas, constructing an ambitious base or simply collecting unusual companions. Riders of the Underground supports each of those play styles.
Available Now Across PC and Consoles
Core Keeper: Riders of the Underground is available now as a free update on PC, Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One. The expansion marks the first time players can tame and ride cattle, while the new Hookshot offers a quicker way to overcome environmental obstacles.
With a greener corner of the Forgotten Ruins to seek out, new pets with individual abilities to meet, and more equipment to obtain, the update adds both practical tools and new points of interest to the underground. Players ready to saddle up, cross a previously inconvenient pit and see what has grown among the ruins can dive into Riders of the Underground now.
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