Core Keeper has received its free Riders of the Underground update, adding a major new way to move through—and interact with—its subterranean world. The update is available now for PC, Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
The headline additions are rideable cattle and a Hookshot, but the patch reaches further than raw traversal. It also introduces a new Moss sub-biome within the Forgotten Ruins, several pets with their own abilities, additional weapons, armour and accessories, and unspecified quality-of-life improvements. Put together, it is an update focused on making expeditions feel less like a sequence of obstacles and more like a player-directed journey—with a large animal companion waiting patiently at the edge of a suspiciously inconvenient pit.
Mounts arrive in Core Keeper
Riders of the Underground marks the first time players can tame and ride cattle in Core Keeper. These mounts are not presented merely as background livestock or a cosmetic novelty: players can name them and set behavioural instructions.
The available commands let cattle stay in place, roam freely, or follow the player. Those options matter because they give players a measure of control over where a mount belongs when it is not being ridden. A player preparing to explore may want a companion nearby; someone working around a base may prefer it to remain parked rather than wandering into the middle of whatever carefully arranged operation is underway; and free roaming offers a more hands-off alternative.
That is a small list of commands, but it addresses a familiar problem in games built around player spaces: companions are much more charming when their charm does not require an extended search party. Naming also makes an individual animal feel more like part of a player’s ongoing world than an interchangeable transport tool.
Why the behaviour options are significant
In game-design terms, a behavioural command is an instruction that alters how a companion acts when the player is not directly controlling it. “Stay,” “roam,” and “follow” are simple examples, but they create practical choices. Players can decide whether the mount should be positioned for convenience, allowed to move around independently, or kept close for an outing.
The update does not detail mount speed, combat interactions, limits, or how taming works. It is therefore best not to assume that cattle replace every other form of movement or solve every travel problem. What is confirmed is more straightforward: cattle can be tamed, ridden, named and directed through the three listed behaviours.
The Hookshot tackles the underground’s awkward gaps
The other central feature is the Hookshot, a grappling-hook-style tool that lets players leap across chasms and pits. Its key practical distinction is that it enables crossing these hazards without first laying paths or building bridges.
Related coverage includes Core Keeper's Free Riders of the Underground Update Adds Mounts, Hookshot and Mossy Ruins.
That should change the rhythm of exploration. Rather than stopping at a gap to construct a route across it, players with the Hookshot can use the environment’s divide as a movement opportunity. The appeal is not simply getting from one side to another: fewer preparatory building steps can mean less interruption when scouting routes or pursuing points of interest.
A grappling hook, in this context, is a traversal device that connects the player to a distant point and pulls or launches them across an otherwise impassable space. The supplied details describe it as a tool for chasms and pits. They do not establish whether it can attach to every surface, travel vertically, interact with enemies, or have any other use beyond gap-crossing. Still, even its confirmed purpose potentially reduces the material and time overhead of getting around underground terrain.
Mounts and the Hookshot also support different kinds of movement. Riding cattle suggests a companion-led, ground-based way to travel, while the Hookshot is a direct response to breaks in the terrain. One adds a new travelling relationship to the game’s world; the other bypasses a physical blockage. They are complementary rather than obviously redundant.
A greener corner of the Forgotten Ruins
The update adds a new Moss sub-biome to the Forgotten Ruins. It brings lush greenery into the stony ruin environment, offering another visual variation for players to encounter while exploring.
A sub-biome is a smaller environmental area nested inside a larger biome or region. Here, the broader setting is the Forgotten Ruins, while the Moss area introduces its own greener identity within that ruined landscape. The available information does not specify its exact size, resources, inhabitants, or whether it contains exclusive encounters. Its confirmed role is environmental: a fresh location to discover amid the ruins, marked by vegetation against stone.
That contrast gives the update a thematic fit with its movement features. The Hookshot makes gaps more manageable, mounts make travel more personal, and a new sub-biome provides another reason to keep looking beyond the route already mapped out. New places matter most in exploration-led games when they give a journey a different texture, even before every mechanical detail is known.
Pets, equipment and quality-of-life changes round out the patch
Beyond cattle mounts, Riders of the Underground adds multiple new pets with unique abilities. The update also contains new weapons, accessories and armour pieces. Exact pet abilities and individual equipment statistics have not been detailed here, so players should treat those additions as broader new options rather than assume a particular build or effect.
Accessories generally refer to equippable items that supplement a character’s setup alongside core armour and weapons. Armour pieces are defensive or build-defining equipment, while weapons alter how a player approaches threats and encounters. The presence of new examples in all three categories suggests the update has progression and customization additions alongside its headline exploration changes, even though the precise systems and values remain unconfirmed.
The patch further includes a variety of quality-of-life improvements. That phrase normally describes changes intended to make regular play more convenient, legible or efficient rather than introducing a wholly separate game system. No specific quality-of-life items are named, so it would be premature to claim alterations to crafting, inventory management, controls, performance, or interface design. The useful takeaway is simply that the update combines its new content with refinements aimed at the existing experience.
What players can reasonably expect from Riders of the Underground
The clearest practical case for the update is its emphasis on friction reduction without removing exploration. Building paths and bridges remains a way to shape the world, but the Hookshot means a gap no longer necessarily demands construction before the player can continue. Cattle mounts introduce an additional travel companion, and their commands let players set a basic expectation for where that companion should be. The Moss sub-biome then expands the list of places that may reward a detour.
For returning players, the patch offers several systems worth revisiting: taming and managing a mount, trying a new traversal tool, seeking out the Moss area in the Forgotten Ruins, and examining the new pet and equipment options. For newer players, it means these features are part of the current version of the game rather than additions reserved for a separate paid pack.
The free release is also broad in platform coverage, spanning PC and both current and previous console generations listed for the game, including Nintendo Switch 2. That does not by itself answer questions about cross-platform play, version parity beyond the stated update availability, save compatibility, or individual platform performance; none of those details are provided. It does establish that the update is intended to reach the game’s PC, Nintendo, PlayStation and Xbox communities at the same time.
A travel update with a little more personality
There is an appealing specificity to cattle being the first rideable mounts: this is not a generic vehicle menu dropped into an underground adventure. Players can tame the animals, give them names and tell them whether to wait, wander, or stick close. Alongside a Hookshot that cuts down on bridge-building for every inconvenient hole in the floor, the result is a patch that treats movement as more than a timer between destinations.
It also arrives amid a broader interest in survival-crafting games using environments and tools as the centre of their appeal. For another recent example of that design space, see Of Peaks and Tides’ focus on mythic beasts, weather and player-made contraptions.
For Core Keeper, the immediate additions are clear: a saddleable, nameable cow companion; a way to clear chasms without constructing a crossing; a verdant pocket within the Forgotten Ruins; and new pets and equipment to investigate. The underground remains full of obstacles. It just now offers a more stylish answer to some of them.
