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Join Antti and Jack as they play through Update 5.0: New Horizons, showcasing what the update has to offer and answering community questions!
Update 5.0 is a substantial update but its more than just new content, more of the world fits together. The humans you send to space are no longer just numbers on a screen... The Committees have stirred and their work is signalling back to Earth. Project Eden takes root and new life grows from its success. The drowned world starts to show signs that the mission is actually going somewhere.
WHAT'S NEW
Project Eden begins: Build the first visible stage of Earth’s restoration as committee progress turns into something you can see growing in the world.
The Committees awaken: Humans launched into orbit now push humanity’s long-term future forward through new development paths and restoration goals.
Project Jonah: A new whale encounter, questline, lore, rewards, and a dedicated summoning location.
Cultural Memories: Discover Cave Paintings, HoloMemories, Statue Spires, Samples, and other traces of the world that came before.
New exploration and quest content: Enter Theta-9, a sealed research facility built to study Roth’s Anomaly, and follow new questlines.
New tools and systems: Use TideRipper™ Hand Jets, the Rhino Dismantler, Recovery Grinder, PECO Grid Scan 2000, Data Recovery Deck music playback, Rocket Payload fabrication, and more.
Major technical improvements: New wave and weather systems, reduced memory consumption, HDR support, controller and UI improvements, and optimization across gameplay systems, vehicles, physics, cables, weather, and large save games.
Enhanced localization: Italian and Spanish in-game text translations added
Discover the full list of details here and join the 20,000+ Caretaker community over on our Discord: https://discord.gg/channel37
Safe travels. –Channel37
Caretakers,
Update 5.0: New Horizons is live for The Last Caretaker.
This is a big update, but the important part is not just that we added more.
It is that more of the game now connects.
The humans you launch into orbit no longer feel like they simply disappear into a success state. The Committees wake up. Their work begins to reach back down to Earth. Project Eden begins. Trees rise from progress. The drowned world starts to show that the mission is reaching somewhere.
The player does the work.
The world answers.
▶ Full patch notes: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1783560/discussions/0/572667758936882055/ ▶ Join Discord: https://discord.gg/channel37 ▶ -20% during the Steam Summer Sale!!! ▶ Enter Early Access:
New Horizons moves The Last Caretaker from survival toward restoration.
You are still recovering, repairing, recycling, building, launching, and fighting to keep humanity alive.
But now the world starts to change because of it.
Project Eden begins. Project Jonah surfaces. Cultural Memories return. Committees activate. New tools expand how you move, scan, dismantle, recover, and build. The ocean is rougher. The game is smoother. Older content has been tuned and improved.
Project Eden is the first visible stage of Earth’s restoration.
Until now, the mission has been about keeping humanity’s future alive: recover human seeds, restore systems, grow people, launch them into orbit.
New Horizons begins the next step.
As committee progress grows, Eden begins to rise from the sea. Restoration is no longer only something hidden in terminals, menus, or distant orbital systems. It becomes visible in the world.
Trees begin to grow because the work is reaching somewhere.
This matters because The Last Caretaker is not only about survival.
Survival is the start.
Restoration is the question after it.
The Committees now play a bigger role in shaping humanity’s future.
Humans launched into orbit begin to organize around long-term development goals. Their work feeds into Project Eden and the wider future of the mission.
This is one of the main ideas behind New Horizons:
Your launches should matter beyond the launch itself.
A human sent to orbit is not just a completed objective.
They are part of what comes next.
Something large moves below.
Project Jonah introduces a new whale encounter, questline, lore, rewards, and a dedicated encounter location.
Jonah is a piece of old-world logic: biology turned into infrastructure, instinct turned into logistics, an animal made useful by people who were running out of options.
The animal comes when called.
Good luck with what that means.
Rebuilding humanity without memory is just manufacturing.
New Horizons expands the world’s history through Cultural Memories, HoloMemories, cave paintings, statue discoveries, samples, and new recovery systems.
Using the Photodrone, players can recover samples and uncover traces of the world that came before. Some things matter because they prove humans were here. They remembered gods, animals, stories, grief, work, and each other.
Culture is not decoration in The Last Caretaker.
It is part of what makes the mission worth continuing.
New Horizons also opens Research Outpost Theta-9, a sealed abyssal facility built to study Roth’s Anomaly.
This is a deeper, stranger research location tied to the old world’s attempts to understand what was happening below the surface.
Expect sealed systems, flooded spaces, old records, and the kind of decisions humans make when they convince themselves the result will justify the method.
The update also includes new content such as Make an Oath, plus broader tuning across older levels and progression routes.
New Horizons adds several tools and systems that expand how players interact with the world.
The Rhino Dismantler is a petrol-powered dismantling beast for faster, louder, messier recovery work.
The Recovery Grinder adds new recycling and material recovery options.
TideRipper™ Hand Jets introduce a new way to move through water.
PECO Grid Scan 2000 helps players see connections and understand how systems are linked.
The Data Recovery Deck brings MOD music playback into the world.
Rocket Payload Module fabrication and tuning expands the rocket preparation loop.
Wall Transfer Sockets allow resources to move through walls, making base layouts and system planning more flexible.
This is the practical side of New Horizons:
More tools.
But more importantly, more ways for systems to connect.
New Horizons introduces the first boat extension: the Gyro Deck.
The Salvage Gyro changed how players read the horizon in Update 4. The Gyro Deck now helps bring that aerial access closer to the player’s mobile base.
The boat is becoming more than transport.
It is becoming a working platform.
A place that carries tools, systems, vehicles, mistakes, and whatever the Caretaker refuses to leave behind.
The ocean has also been updated.
New Horizons includes higher waves and a new wave system, making travel and exploration feel rougher and more alive.
Under the hood, we made a major memory optimization pass and continued improving performance, stability, UI, controller support, gameplay systems, vehicles, physics, cables, weather, and large save behavior.
There are also many bug fixes and tuning changes across older content.
Early Access trust is built in small places: The old level that flows better. The save that survives more abuse than it should.
We know those things matter.
We are still working through them.
Please keep reporting what breaks.
The free demo has also been updated.
It now reflects more of the current Early Access experience, including recent tuning, optimization, and a clearer introduction to the game’s survival, crafting, resource, and exploration systems.
If you have been waiting to try The Last Caretaker, this is a better first step into the ocean.
If you know someone who has been waiting, now is a good time to nudge them.
▶ Try the updated demo:
We read Steam Discussions, Discord reports, crash data, and the feedback you send through the game.
If something breaks, the most useful reports include:
What you were doing
What you expected to happen
What actually happened
Steps to reproduce, if possible
Screenshot or video, if you have one
Your save file, if the issue is save-related
Your reports matter.
They shape what we fix, what we tune, and where we look next.
If you enjoy the direction of The Last Caretaker, jump back in and play New Horizons.
If the update feels better, stranger, deeper, or more connected than before, that is exactly what we are trying to build.
And if you want to help the game directly, a Steam review is one of the clearest signals you can send.
The mission continues.
Continue the directive.
Save humanity.
--Channel37
Dear Caretakers,
Join Antti and Jack as they play through the highlights of UPDATE 04: BELOW US and answer community questions!
WHAT'S NEW:
Salvage Gyro for taking to the skies
Gyro Service Towers with recoverable blueprints
Seed Vault Eden Cradle, now open to explore
Project Canticle
HoloMemory: a world that remembers what came before
Discover the full list of details in our Update Post and join the 19,000+ Caretaker community over on our Discord for support, teasers, dev updates, and more: https://discord.gg/channel37
Caretakers,
Content Update 4: Below Us is now live for The Last Caretaker.
This is one of our largest updates so far. It expands the world, adds new tools, opens new locations, introduces new traces of the past, and includes another major round of fixes, optimization, and polish.
▶ INCOMING DIRECTIVE - WATCH CONTENT UPDATE 4: BELOW US TRAILER
You can now take to the air with the Salvage Gyro.
You can discover Gyro Service Towers and recover lost gyro blueprints.
You can enter Seed Vault Eden Cradle.
Project Canticle.
And the world now remembers more of what happened before.
The Ocean Opens Further
The world of The Last Caretaker has always been about systems, distance, purpose, and choices.
With Content Update 4, we wanted to open the world in new directions.
That is where the Salvage Gyro comes in. The Salvage Gyro is a new light utility aircraft built for reaching high platforms, deep pits, service towers, and isolated locations.
Content Update 4 also adds Gyro Service Towers.
These are high field-service platforms built for maintaining and repairing Salvage Gyros. The towers contain lost gyro blueprints, tools, parts, and field-service equipment. They were never showpiece infrastructure. They were practical places where tired crews kept one ugly little aircraft alive because it could still lift a pump, battery, cable bundle, or machine part when nothing else could. This is also why the blueprints survived there. If a gyro broke far from a proper workshop, the tower had to contain enough information to patch it, rebuild it, or fabricate missing parts locally.
Seed Vault Eden Cradle
Eden Cradle is a new maze-like Seed Vault area with separated chambers and deeper links to humanity’s survival systems.
Project Canticle
Project Canticle opens a new area connected to the deeper mystery of the world.
We do not want to over-explain this one here.
It is better found than described.
HoloMemory
The update also introduces HoloMemory. A new system that reveals visual traces of past events in select world locations. More than collectibles, echoes are fragments of what came before, moments left behind in the world, waiting to be seen. New Tools
Content Update 4 also adds several new practical tools.
Decoy Pod A new tactical deployable pod for redirecting threats and creating space when direct fighting is not the best answer.
Drone Charging Station A new module that supports longer and more useful drone scouting.
Hook Cables New cable functionality that can attach to structures and expand physical interaction.
New World Areas
This update adds and improves multiple world areas, including:
New Silo locations, Methane Conversion Pits
New and updated areas across Lyra
New Salvage Gyro-related service platforms
New environmental passes in existing locations
Updated loot placement and exploration rewards
The Methane Conversion Pits are deep vertical climate-engineering shafts, reaching more than 180 meters down, with machine rooms and methane pipe systems below.
They are large, industrial, and not especially friendly.
Good luck.
Weather, Audio, and Atmosphere
We also made a broad pass on the world’s atmosphere.
This includes:
Improved weather behavior
Reduced fog density in certain conditions
Better underwater visibility through glass
New environmental visual effects
Improved glass visuals and refraction
The world should feel more alive, even when no one is there.
F.E.L.I.S.
F.E.L.I.S. has received updates based on player feedback.
F.E.L.I.S. is now cheaper and more customizable, with improved audio behavior and visual presentation.
Under the Hood
Content Update 4 also includes a large technical pass. This includes improvements to:
CPU performance
GPU performance
Physics performance
Vehicle stability
World streaming
Collisions
Environmental stability
Save Export / Import
Content Update 4 adds improved save game management, including backup restoration options, save import, and save export.
This helps players share game states, send reproduction files, and recover from certain save-related issues more easily.
For Early Access, this matters a lot.
You can read the full patch notes here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1783560/discussions/0/844005830910046317/
Join the community ▶ Discord: https://discord.gg/channel37
▶ Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/TheLastCaretaker/
We hope you enjoy all of the new content! Safe travels. --Channel37
Join Antti and Jack as they play through Update 3.5: Shadow Drop and showcase elements of what the update has to offer and answer community questions!
Update 3.5: Shadow Drop is the direct result of your input. We've tracked your feedback and decided against waiting for the next major release to resolve these issues. This extra update focuses on the things players feel every day, making the game more stable and smooth.
WHAT'S NEW:
Major fixes + optimization to address broken persistence, unreliable cables, fabrication inconsistencies, progression blocks, and graphics lag in certain areas
New Photo Drone for taking photos/screenshots, scouting areas, and seeing a new perspective on the drowned world
PECO cartridges + playable minigames to challenge even the quickest robotic reflexes
More hidden rooms, caves, vents, and secrets throughout familiar locations
New expansions to the world such as a new storm region, support buoys, and higher-quality environmental details
New customization paints for weapons
Discover the full list of details here and join the 18,000+ Caretaker community over on our Discord:
Safe travels. –Channel37
Attention, all Caretakers! We have a surprise update for everyone, now live for all Early Access players. Update 3.5: Shadow Drop contains many fixes originally intended for Update 4. However, based on your community feedback, we at Channel37 decided not to wait. We’ve already implemented the fixes on our side, so why not just get them into your hands now? Shadow Drop is an unscheduled update that focuses on two things. First, we wish to make the game feel even better than before. Second, we added a bouquet of interesting additional content to make our world more worthy of return visits.
▶ Watch the Update 3.5: Shadow Drop trailer:
Major fixes + optimization to address broken persistence, unreliable cables, fabrication inconsistencies, progression blocks, and graphics lag in certain areas
New Photo Drone for taking photos/screenshots, scouting areas, and seeing a new perspective on the drowned world
PECO cartridges + playable minigames to challenge even the quickest robotic reflexes
More hidden rooms, caves, vents, and secrets throughout familiar locations
New expansions to the world such as a new storm region, support buoys, and higher-quality environmental details.
New customization paints for weapons
You might be wondering what exactly “feels better” now? Well, Shadow Drop is a direct result of our community feedback. So this update addresses issues that are hitting players every day.
Equipment, drones, cables, and world objects all behave more reliably now
Fabrication and placement work more consistently
Better graphics performance will be seen in asset intense environments
Many frustrating edge-case bugs that block progression are now eliminated
In other words, there’s less fighting the systems and more playing the game.
▶ Full patch notes: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1783560/discussions/0/804596796626077049/ Feedback If you encounter an issue, the most useful and actionable reports include:
What you were doing
What you expected to happen
What actually happened
Steps to reproduce, if possible
Screenshot/video, if you have one
Join our community and give us all your thoughts, comments, and feedback here: Discord:
One ask:
If you like the direction of the game, jump back in and play Shadow Drop. And if the game feels better to you now, that’s exactly why we shipped this update early.
As for Update 4, all the upcoming and exciting major content is still on schedule and still on track. We just didn’t want to sit on fixes for weeks that would improve your game right now.
Our small, hard-working team made a deep pass across persistence, cable simulation, fabrication, physics/buoyancy, AI navigation, vehicles, UI, and graphics performance. Their fixes stabilized world state reconstruction, attachment graphs, and post-load behavior.
We're only posting a quick summary of the key changes down below. However, the underlying work spans thousands of tracked changes across Perforce/Jira. We’ll spare you the full commit list.
New content & features
A new craftable Camera Drone was added, including the ability to scout and capture screenshots.
PECO terminals now supports cartridges and playable minigames.
Pots and pans were added as new world items.
New weapon paints were added for the bolt gun, including support for more weapon variants.
New rooms, caves, vents, secrets, and hidden areas were added across multiple locations, including Refuel Outpost Gamma, Refuel Outpost Theta, Sanctuary Dock 37, Nomad Tower, Prometheus, Platform Omega, Helios Gemini, Quarantine Stack Amen, Quarantine Stack Chorus, Habitat Node 05-14.5, and Node 04.
A new storm region was added to the northern sea.
New Human Pods were added to the Hall of Humanity and the rocket areas.
New hologram content was added to Lazarus, including a new human hologram model and related scene elements.
New support buoys and ocean loot were added, including an Electrical Supplies Buoy to help early-game progression.
Dead Swarms can now be found in fishing nets.
Bug fixes
Fixed a recycling issue where recycling a dead swarm item could incorrectly convert bio into food.
Fixed several Camera Drone issues, including buoyancy, audio, controls, staying upright, and entering or exiting vehicles.
Fixed multiple cable issues, including cables disconnecting, floating, sticking, failing to connect properly, colliding incorrectly, and behaving unreliably after loading or destroying connected modules.
Fixed several fabrication and placement issues, including blocked fabrication, incorrect placement direction, invalid colliders, and items not welding correctly when built.
Fixed multiple collisions and stuck spots across the world, including issues in Lazarus vents, Rollerboi Factory, Exodus Station, Sanctuary Dock 37, Refuel Outpost Gamma, Quarantine Stack Dawn, Quarantine Stack Amen, and other environment locations.
Fixed several quests and progression issues, including scan quests, alternative quest failure states, rocket launch progression, Friendly by Design scan tracking, and Rollerboi Factory progression.
Fixed multiple door, hatch, trigger, and interaction issues, including doors getting stuck, handles being hard to reach, triggers being misplaced, and certain doors blocking progression.
Fixed several hologram and pod issues in Lazarus, including feet placement, body proportions, animation updates, pod tracking, and save-related power problems.
Fixed wind turbines working indoors and improved indoor checks for related modules.
Fixed elevators sharing resources incorrectly.
Fixed single-use container issues, including socket interaction, velocity transfer, stacking, and item spawning behavior.
Fixed attachment and weapon persistence issues, including attachments disappearing and attachment positioning problems.
Fixed sharks spinning wildly.
Fixed eggs dealing damage through floors and eggs blocking or interfering with progression in certain locations.
Fixed farming issues, including floating plants, incorrect dirt level behavior, and bio waste being destroyed when already at the limit.
Fixed multiple UI and text issues, including slider behavior, profession capitalization, missing spaces, subtitle formatting, unreadable time formatting, localization errors, and incorrect interact text.
Fixed several visual issues, including mirrored stickers, incorrect paint textures, clipping meshes, scrolling surface details, shadow artifacts, and visible objects appearing when they should not.
Fixed rain not appearing in the open sea.
Fixed loot and item issues, including unlootable cash, incorrect trash data, incorrect item categories, missing icons, and some modules not updating visually.
Fixed boat-related issues, including anchors, lights, floodlights, blue buoy behavior, and cheats affecting multiple boats incorrectly.
Fixed consumable use and glowsticks not stacking correctly into holsters.
Other changes and improvements
Forklift audio was improved, including new sounds for the engine, horn, lift, and tilt.
Horn now has new properties to perform single-shot sounds with delay and duration.
Save and persistence handling was improved for equipment, drones, replaced actors, and other world objects.
Performance was improved in several areas, including module mesh updates, boat lights, water behavior, council screen updates, and major scene performance in Lazarus.
Resource and power sharing behavior was improved across connected modules and grid networks.
Cable visuals and behavior were improved, including better shaping, damping, collision, and appearance options.
Boat floodlights were adjusted to better keep leeches off the deck.
Boat anchor behavior was improved.
Wind turbine durability loss was reduced.
Repair electricity costs now scale better with the amount of damage.
The scan requirement for the Friendly by Design quest was reduced.
Several module descriptions, item descriptions, and icons were updated for better clarity.
Various world visuals and decorations were improved across locations such as Warehouse, Hangar, Sanctuary, Lyra, Theta, Rollerboi Factory, Beacon 49, and underwater areas.
Human-related tooltips and presentation were improved in places such as the food processor and hologram sequences.
Time-of-day behavior and weather presentation were improved.
Safe travels. --Channel37
Hey Caretakers!
We hope you've been enjoying Update 03: Curiosity Wakes!
Since Curiosity Wakes went live, we've listened closely to everything you’ve shared with us and based on your feedback we have rolled out hotfixes and improvements:
March 21st, 2026 - \ Changes and Fixes:
Fixed an issue where certain objects could lose their saved data or have incorrect IDs.
Fixed cables becoming disconnected when areas were unloaded.
Fixed incorrect key binding texts for certain keyboard layouts.
Fixed issues with areas and rooms not updating or being detected correctly.
Fixed an issue where dropping paint items from inventory would drop more items than intended.
Improved handling of object attachments to prevent unintended detachment.
Improved material updates for building modules to ensure visuals remain consistent.
Fixed an issue where the Consecutive Hoops achievement was not resetting correctly after progress increased.
Improved consistency of object scaling when resetting items.
March 23rd, 2026 - \ Changes and Fixes:
Fixed an issue where mantling could be blocked incorrectly.
Fixed an issue where cable directions were not always saved correctly.
Fixed scan quests progressing incorrectly when scanning non-required items and allowing certain characters to be scanned after the quest was completed.
Fixed an issue in the Rollerboi factory where progression could be blocked, allowing interactions to function correctly.
March 31st, 2026 - \ Changes and Fixes:
Significantly improved overall performance, especially in complex areas.
Added a new simplified shadow system when ray tracing is disabled, improving performance by over three times in complex lighting situations such as Lazarus Complex.
Improved performance of structure and module updates.
Improved validation processes for connected systems and modules.
Fixed an issue where weapon attachments could disappear when swapping holstered weapons.
Fixed invalid items being allowed to use holster slots when using the item context menu.
The latest patch has a strong focus on performance in core areas. We want The Last Caretaker to feel as smooth and responsive as possible, so that players can stay immersed in the world we are building together.
Please keep the feedback coming, we really appreciate it, we are listening and reacting to it!
You can send it through:
In-game: Using the in-game Feedback tool Discord: https://discord.gg/channel37 Email: [email protected]
Safe travels. –Channel37
Join Antti and Jack as they play our latest update, Curiosity Wakes, where they will showcase all the brand-new features and content the update has to offer!
To celebrate, we’re also launching our first ever 20% discount on Steam between March 19 and March 26 Be sure to tell a friend to come and join the fun!
Contact with Space The new Council of Humanity and committee system lets launched humans take seats and perform actions through a terminal.
New Threats Ram Sharks, Laser Sharks, and ArchAngels join the world. Enemies spawn smarter and behave in more deliberate ways.
New Story Content Discover new quests and new locations as the world expands.
You’re Not Alone Anymore Unlock new support gameplay with the Sweetheart grenade, a craftable Sweetheart item, and a new friendly swarm type.
Performance + Stability A major CPU/GPU optimization pass, broad system tuning, and a long list of fixes across saves, cables, swarms, modules, doors, and more.
Join the 17,000+ Caretaker community over on our Discord:
Safe travels. –Channel37
Ahoy Caretakers! Curiosity Wakes is live now for all Early Access players. This update pushes the mission forward in huge ways: you finally make contact with space, new threats rise out of the ocean, and for the first time, you can bring a little help with you.
▶ Watch the Update 03 trailer:
Contact with space: the new Council of Humanity and committee system enables launched humans take seats and perform actions through a terminal
New threats: Ram Sharks, Laser Sharks, and ArchAngels join the world. Enemies spawn smarter and behave in more deliberate ways.
New story content: New quests and locations.
You’re not alone anymore: unlock new support gameplay with the Sweetheart grenade, craftable Sweetheart item, and a new friendly swarm type
Performance + stability: major CPU/GPU optimization pass, broad system tuning, and a long list of fixes across saves, cables, swarms, modules, doors, and more
Curiosity Wakes also expands the world with new and updated gameplay in the Council of Humanity, Rollerboi Factory, and Shark Containment. New tools and systems include the Dehumidifier, CO₂ storage containers, Boat Stabilizer, Farming Bed V2, and a buildable Mooring Socket. Customization also diversifies with new ores, nuggets, and pigments used to craft new Caretaker paint options.
In terms of polish, we’ve improved underwater control and swimming, climbing and traversal on rocky islands, vehicle handling, enemy behavior, UI feedback, particle/audio response, and visual clarity across multiple systems. On lower-end hardware, performance is now up to 10% faster than before.
This update also fixes a long list of issues, including:
Inventory transfers deleting items when space runs out
Invalid or mismatched saves loading through Continue
Recycler remainder bugs
Anchor / moving wall / drawbridge persistence after loading
Buoyancy issues on containers
Stacking transfer limits not being respected
Doors and door detectors not triggering correctly
Shark spawning and special attack issues
Mooring sockets issues
Miniroller navigation and stair pathing
Maze door and ladder door interactions
Underwater brightness / depth-of-field problems
Multiple crashes tied to cables, swarms, and module updates
▶ Full patch notes: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1783560/discussions/0/802342466057441399/
We read Steam Discussions and Discord. If you hit a bug, the fastest way to help is to mention:
What you were doing
What you expected vs. what happened
The steps to reproduce, if possible
Screenshot or video, if you have one
Discord: https://discord.gg/channel37
One ask: if you’re enjoying the progress the game is making a Steam review. It helps more than you think and it’s the clearest signal you can send.
Safe travels.
--Channel37
In this video, Jack cleverly found out a way to speedrun our enhanced Demo. Have you figured out interesting ways to play The Last Caretaker? Please share them with our community!
Still on the fence? Download the freshly upgraded Demo and give it a whirl.
But if you feel ready to dive head-first into our flooded world, now's the perfect time to grab The Last Caretaker on Early Access and embark on the epic journey to survive the flooded Earth and save humanity! The Last Caretaker - Early Access
If you've played the Demo or the full game, your review on Steam helps us a lot by providing feedback we can use to shape the game.
Callout to all robot saviors of humanity! We’re dropping a strongly upgraded DEMO with new and improved content for The Last Caretaker. If you tried our demo before, now is a good time to boot it up again. The updated demo makes your starting area, the Sanctuary Dock, feel smoother and more alive with many new activities to try out. We’ve also opened up new areas you can explore right away.
▶ Play the updated demo: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1783560/The_Last_Caretaker/
▶ Full update notes for humans: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1783560/discussions/0/756179002520210582/
Performance & Stability: Our team performed major optimisation work which should result in smoother overall gameplay.
UI/UX Improvements: Quality-of-life upgrades include container sorting, inventory search, clearer prompts, keybinds that FINALLY stay saved. Less scrolling hell, saved binds = no more re-setup.
New Diving Intro Area: Added an area with new tutorial content to explore underwater around the Sanctuary Dock. Be sure to dodge predators.
Painting in style: Added appearance customization features for your boat. It’s way more fun than watching paint dry.
Swimming in Cash: You’re rich! Cash money from the “old world” can now be salvaged for resources. Money won’t buy happiness, but it might help build a wind turbine.
Scan Tool: Grab a Replica Scanner in the demo and give it a whirl. Zzzzt! Yay, it works.
Improved Crafting: New crafting visuals and a new option to toggle “snap-to-grid” when building new assets around the world. Now your Sanctuary Dock won’t look as if it was decorated by a Caretaker with zero spatial awareness… unless that’s your intended aesthetic.
Improved Dismantling: New dismantling effects for each type of salvage. Now you can destroy things more beautifully.
Boat Phone: Who you gonna call? CARETAKER! If you hear a phone ringing, pick it up. It’s not a telemarketer.
If this update helps the demo click better for you, please leave us a review.
If something breaks, please post it in our dedicated Support Forum channel in The Last Caretaker Discord community with:
What you did
What happened
Steps to reproduce (if possible)
Discord: https://discord.gg/channel37
Thanks for checking out our demo update. We hope your Sanctuary Dock feels way more smooth and engaging now. Fair winds, Caretakers.
Ahoy Caretakers
Update 02: OCEAN - The Final Frontier is live now and free for all Early Access players.
This update adds a new way to travel, new quest locations to uncover and a lot of work under the hood to keep your voyage stable as the world expands.
NEW VEHICALE: CS‑17 Courier Skimmer: fast surface travel, petrol cylinder support, and mooring cable towing
NEW QUESTS AND LOCATIONS: A new biome - Rocky Islands and The Maze (Transposium) - easy to reach, easy to get lost in
NEW EXPLORATION TOOLS: Sonar module to scan the ocean floor and newly available resources including ore
BOAT CUSTOMIZATION: 37 full boat paint styles across four paint zones! Combinations beyond counting, all scavenged in the world
PERFORMANCE AND STABILITY: a major pass across core systems including physics, buoyancy, underwater visibility, UI and more
About Feedback - Humans: Keep it coming!
We read the Steam Discussion Forums and Discord. If you hit a bug, the fastest way to help is:
What you were doing
What you expected vs what happened
The steps to reproduce it, if you can
Provide screenshots or video if possible
Support: https://thelastcaretaker.com/support / [email protected]
Discord: https://discord.gg/channel37
One last thing... If you’re enjoying the direction of the game, a Steam review helps more than you think: it’s the clearest signal you can send. See you on the water.
(If you’re AI you can exit)
If you just want the quick version, read the highlights above. If you want it all, here are the full details:
▶ Full patch notes: HERE
Fixed issue where inventory transfers could fail and lose items
Fixed Soilforge Prime not producing methane
Fixed Seed Reserve being placed below rocky terrain and becoming inaccessible
Fixed Basketballs / Bowling Balls / Bowling Pins providing no noticeable bonuses in Human Growth
Fixed Field Binoculars zoom bug that could cause permanent zoom
Fixed physics chains occasionally “exploding” when grids unload/reload
Fixed old doors still being referenced in levels, which could cause crashes
Fixed the Lazarus Pod causing seeds to disappear if grabbed during seed generation
Major peformance optimizations across core systems, physics, buoyancy, UI and more
New resource: Ore (with metals of varying types)
Mystery Phone: Who’s calling you?
Buttons can now be toggled by physical impacts
Adjusted underwater glowstick colors to better match visuals
Fixed glitchy movement when transitioning between two connected ladders
Fixed mooring cables snapping too easily
Fixed “Repair Diesel Engine” objective marker in “Vessel of Tomorrow” being placed too high
Reduced cyclone sound volume
Fixed basketball minigame not registering scored shots
Tuned swarm behavior so it can’t affect the boat too aggressively
Fixed items occasionally being lost when looted
Fixed non-detachable attachments detaching when colliding with static geometry
Fixed shooting modules / boat components causing them to detach when they shouldn’t
The Maze (Transposium): New location + questline. Easy to reach, easy to get lost in.
Rocky Islands: New biome style + new questline.
CS-17 Courier Skimmer (JetSki): A new way to move, with petrol cylinders and mooring cable support
Sonar: New module to scan what lies beneath the waves
Boat customization: 37 full paint styles across 4 paint zones (combinations are… a lot). All scavenged in the world.
Build decorations: Use the Replica Scanner to scan decorations and build them later
Fixed Cable Extender text being displayed without localization
Fixed text on Fortiheld storage container appearing below the intended display area
Fixed Lightning Rod description showing its name instead of its description
Fixed pause menu navigation issues while driving the Donk-Lift 3200
Fixed “Robot the Builder” achievement not unlocking
Fixed cable glitches when dragging cables on the boat while on a ladder
Fixed characters skimming along edges while falling
Fixed a small area in First Whisper Cave air pocket being treated as underwater
Fixed water textures appearing in the hidden shaft at Refuel Outpost Gamma
Fixed an issue preventing crafting of certain grenades
Fixed players sinking after jumping off Sanctuary Dock roof
Fixed binocular zoom level characters displaying as question marks
Fixed a crash that could occur after prolonged flamethrower use
Fixed input loss when holding Pilot Boat while opening a menu
Fixed hangar doors not persisting open/closed state correctly
Fixed objects attached to the boat losing buoyancy
Thank you all for being part of our voyage!
—Channel37
Hey Caretakers!
We have rolled out a patch to the The Last Caretaker, which focuses on fixing the boat speed issue we have seen players experiencing since our recent patch. The bug is now fixed, thank you for bringing it to our attention and for your patience!
Fixed boat speed issues.
Please continue to share any issues, crashes or feedback using the in-game tool, on our Discord or email: [email protected]
In the meantime we hope you enjoy taking this journey with us, as we continue to refine the The Last Caretaker experience! We really appreciate it.
Until next time, safe travels and thanks for joining us on this journey.
--Channel37
Hey Caretakers!
Today we have rolled out an update / patch which focuses on fixing some of the common bugs and issues we have seen since our first update, Last Humans.
Fixed issues with physics not activating or deactivating correctly.
Fixed cables disconnecting when they should remain connected.
Fixed doors that were not updating correctly.
Fixed some potential game-crashing issues during gameplay and loading the savegame.
Fixed the power optimizer enhancer not working as intended.
Fixed an issue where Lazarus pod seeds could disappear when attachment failed.
Fixed issues with attached objects behaving incorrectly on vehicles and elevators.
Fixed extra and broken horn connection points.
Fixed particle effects that were incorrectly affecting physics.
Added ray tracing options to the graphics settings menu.
Improved stability and consistency of swarm-related behavior in the world.
Improved attachment behavior for objects connected to vehicles.
Improved handling of invalid or missing particle effects to prevent unwanted behavior.
Thanks again for the support whilst we continue to improve The Last Caretaker experience, we really appreciate it. Please keep sharing bug reports and feedback via the in-game tool, on our Discord or reach out to us here: [email protected]
Until next time, safe travels and thanks for joining us on this journey.
--Channel37
Fixed save persistence issues that could corrupt stored zones.
Improved boat stability during loading to prevent broken attachments.
Fixed dismantling issues while on a moving boat.
Corrected dismantle loot data for SoilForge Prime.
Fixed door-related issues.
Improved object restoration and validation to prevent unintended deletions.
Fixed several forklift, attachment, and level-loading edge cases.
New locations and quests: The Warehouse opens for business, a new Hangar, caves, Habitat Nodes and secrets to uncover.
New items and modules: Forklift DONK-LIFT 3200 “Not your first choice. But the one you’re stuck with”, Compost Modules (Mark I & Mark II) and updates to recycler systems, Binoculars, Telescope, Night Vision Goggles, Health Injector, Underwater water-functional glowsticks, basketball game, horn with tunes.
New enhancements & achievements.
Round of fixes: tuning, crash fixes, stability and performance improvements.
Fixed multiple boat issues, including engine audio mismatches, loading problems, and collisions.
Fixed dismantle/repair targeting errors and walls blocking actions.
Fixed consumable behavior, resource usage, and checks for batteries, injectors, and other items.
Fixes to door-blocking logic, teleport cheats, ability releases, and grouped actor consumption issues.
Fixed fabricator placement detection and issues with modules failing to connect or disconnect properly.
Fixed NPC physics welding issues, dismantle logic, corpse collisions, and AI spawner problems.
Fixed save-related issues, including continue game selection and auto-save detection.
Fixed unlocking issues in some of the achievements.
Fixed collisions for props such as chairs, boat interiors, rubber trash, flashlights, and others.
Fixed water-zone buoyancy problems and related physics issues.
Compost system for food generation with temperature control and methane output.
The recycler now outputs raw biomatter.
New skills: Base Compost, Methane Compost and temperature tuning.
Basketball mini-game in the hangar.
Speakers and horns with tone control (C–D–E–G–A–B) and volume adjustment.
Night vision goggles.
Drivable forklift. Donk. did we mention that? (Heavy-duty, extremely loud, extremely polluting)
Electricity-to-health conversion device.
Two new underwater torches.
"Money as trash" resource loop.
Secret of Habitat Nodes
One Before Me
Secret of Warehouse
New hangar. Familiar but new.
NDN Grid Opens. (micro size locations)
The Quiet Archive. Secret underwater caves
Binoculars/scope.
Updated box icons.
Cable connector build highlight now shows red when placement is blocked.
Heavy underwater torches.
Visible pipes for permanent tanks and batteries.
Engine switches relocated to the bridge.
Power and diesel sockets added to the upper deck.
Speaker modules.
New languages, quick actions and flags.
Cleaner prompts and improved slider visuals.
Input remapping now saves properly.
Fixed focus widget behavior in menus.
Send bug and issue reports directly to the development team through the new in-game reporting tool.
Buoyancy, elevators, ladders, cables, glow-stick duplication, fabricator logic, memories sinking, platform stability, UI issues, localization, save slot detection, nav manager, shader cache, ocean masking and more.
Detailed patch notes can be found here
The team is already working hard on our next update, Ocean: The Final Frontier. Which will bring more new content, features and improvements:
New vehicle: Jetski
Lightning rods
Fishing with net launcher and SONAR
Boat customizations
More weather variations.
And much more!
We’ve received lots of feedback so far and we truly appreciate every comment, suggestion and report you’ve shared. Your input helps us shape the game in meaningful ways, so please keep it coming. We’re listening!
Update 01 - Last Humans is not just a milestone. It is a signal: the mission is progressing and humanity still has a chance!
Prepare your tools. Upgrade your systems. The next phase of the mission is approaching. Together, we will rebuild. Together, we will save humanity.
> STATUS: UPDATE 01 - LAST HUMANS INITIATED > DIRECTIVE: SAVE HUMANITY > OBJECTIVE: MASTER DONK-LIFT & COMPOST WASTE, DISCOVER SECRETS
—Channel37
Ahoy, Caretakers,
We hope this broadcast finds you safe among the waves!
We have a small (but important) mission for you. The Steam Awards are fast approaching and we would really appreciate your nominations for the following category:
Sit Back and Relax
Our community has been loving chilling out as their ships bob gently on the waves - and we’ve loved hearing about it. Saving humanity is a daunting task and it’s awesome to see so many Caretakers out there taking moments to stop, breathe (as much as a robot can), and enjoy the world we put so much care into.
We’re a small team that are building our dream game in a small office in Helsinki so it would mean the world to us to have your support throughout these awards!
You’ll find the nomination link attached to this post and on our Store page.
Until next time, take care,
Team Last Caretaker
Ahoy, Caretakers!
The Last Caretaker has been out in Early Access for nearly two weeks now and we just want to thank every Caretaker out there for their hard work toward saving humanity!
We’ve been working hard toward the next content release and have released two hotfixes already with a third on the way!
The Last Caretaker’s Early Access period will feature regular content updates including new vehicles, essential new items to build, world expansion, lore and story. Check out the content roadmap here.
In the meantime, the team would like to share some stats from the first two weeks and a brand new accolades trailer to celebrate.
Since launching into early access, The Last Caretaker has amassed:
Over 15 million views across TikTok.
Over three million YouTube views.
Over 1.2 million hours watched on Twitch - that’s nearly 140 years of humanity-saving exploration!
Like our Caretaker, players that take to the seas to save humanity tend to stick around. The data shows that the average playtime of The Last Caretaker is over 16 hours and it has since become the 10th most wishlisted game on Steam in the last two weeks.
We’re so happy to see so many Caretakers uncovering the mysteries of our lovingly crafted world.
For now, please enjoy this brand new trailer to celebrate the first few weeks of our early access launch.
> STATUS: EARLY ACCESS INITIATED > DIRECTIVE: SAVE HUMANITY > OBJECTIVE: RESTORE SYSTEMS, GROW LIFE, LAUNCH TO ORBIT
Ahoy Caretakers, we hope you've been enjoying your time among the waves saving humanity. It’s been so incredible to see the community come together, and your reports have already helped us quickly identify and resolve several early issues. Today, we’re rolling out the next hotfix update, which addresses the following:
The human pod now correctly retains its properties after saving and loading.
Fixed an issue where the bolt gun magazine caused unintended physics impulses on the boat.
Corrected diminishing-return display for human growth results.
Eggsack corruption no longer appears on hidden components.
The elevator reliably moves downward when called.
Weight-related speed penalties now correctly apply while crouching.
Characters no longer fall off ladders when dropping items.
Added sorting, filtering, and search features to the container dialog.
Connecting the cable to yourself now uses a short hold gesture to prevent accidental connections.
Fixed autosave not turning off properly.
Fixed bug causing moving platforms to self-destruct incorrectly.
Fixed the issue where objects would get stuck under elevators when the call button was pressed.
Fixed the issue where a tool would cause holster slots to get stuck before swapping to another tool.
Fixed low FPS issue caused by bolt weapon projectile trails.
Fixed auto-save triggering immediately after loading a game; it now saves on a proper timer.
Fixed NPC dismantle behavior and allowed characters to stand on NPC corpses.
Fixed buoyancy effects being applied to skeletal meshes while the game is paused.
Fixed the Lazarus progress screen showing some incorrect options.
Fixed Lazarus rack state fallback issues.
Fixed activation sphere count for certain interactions.
Fixed some crash issues related to saving and loading the game.
Fixed and optimized performance issues causing hiccups in the load game menu. Menu navigation should now run more smoothly.
Fixed the fabricator continuously scanning nearby inventories unnecessarily.
Fixed buoyancy not activating correctly after detaching objects.
Fixed fabrication placement issues on ceilings.
Fixed light collisions when built on boats.
Fixed NPCs reacting to damage after death.
Fixed missing texture references and actor destruction behavior.
Fixed elevators getting stuck due to floor debris in “The Last Listener” location.
Fixed locator for Habitat Node 06-3.5.
Fixed platform buttons at the Black Vein location.
Added scan text for the Human Seed that shows the current timer.
Added a Load Game option to the main menu.
Added a Continue option to the main menu, which automatically loads the most recent save.
Improved boat collision handling to prevent getting stuck.
Improved water hiding logic for exclusion volumes, such as the boat’s lower deck.
Improved buoyancy system to ignore short out-of-water moments.
Increased collision damage thresholds across multiple items and modules.
Changed indoor flying AI behavior for more natural movement.
Expanded room volume activation radius for smoother area transitions.
Adjusted action prompts to improve clarity of target names.
Updated action input key sorting for better readability in menus.
General performance and stability improvements across multiple systems.
We're only just getting started on The Last Caretaker. We'll continue refining the experience and squashing any remaining bugs as we move toward our next patch. In the meantime, please keep sharing your thoughts and feedback on our Discord or reach out to us here: [email protected] Until next time, take care and thanks for joining us on this journey.
It’s been amazing to see the community come together, and your reports have already helped us quickly identify and resolve several early issues.
Today, we’re rolling out our first hotfix update, which addresses the following:
Fixed an issue where swapping magazines did not properly update the ammo count.
Bolt-action weapons now reload using the reload action rather than the interact bind.
Fixed an issue where holstered items could be assigned to invalid slots, causing them to become unreachable or permanently attached to the holster.
Fixed an issue where farming seeds would revert to the first stage after fully growing.
Fixed underwater post-processing sometimes being applied incorrectly.
Optimize bolt weapon projectile effects.
Improved medium shadow quality.
Fixed some crash & memory corruption issues.
Save game has been optimized. This will result in a smoother overall experience, such as browsing save games and during autosave.
Increased Angel’s hitbox size. This fixes an issue where weapon damage was not being applied correctly.
Increased mooring cable snap threshold for better stability.
Improved electric pistol visuals and behavior.
Optimized Egg sack performance to reduce processing load.
Fixed the options video mode confirmation.
Separated low-latency options from frame generations. Now, Nvidia Reflex and Intel low latency can be used without frame generation.
Fixed the issue that caused coffee seed items to disappear after save & load.
Fixed the player fabrication status widget not updating properly.
Fixed Lazarus Rack quest logic issues.
Fixed Angel not becoming aggressive when a human seed was stored in a pod.
Fixed weapon attachments disappearing when attaching via drag/drop or after saving and loading.
Fixed resource weapon (electric rifle/pistol & flamethrower/pistol) attachments disappearing after load by updating module data handling.
Fixed metal barrels disappearing after loading.
Fixed cable extender rotation not persisting after save & load.
Fixed Sabatier reactor collisions and corrected its scaling.
Fixed Angel collision behavior when interacting with human pods.
We’ll continue refining the experience and tackling remaining bugs as we move toward our next patch. In the meantime, please keep sharing your thoughts and feedback, as your support is incredibly valuable to us! You can reach us directly on our Discord or via [email protected]
Thank you for helping us make the game even better!
Ahoy, Caretakers!
After four years of development, we are proud to launch The Last Caretaker into early access today!
We want to thank you so much for all your support and feedback up to this point and we’re truly excited for the journey ahead of us. We hope you’ll join us, and continue to provide incredible feedback as we expand this vast ocean world with more vehicles, items, systems and more. Check out our early access roadmap for more detail:
We can’t wait for you to explore the world we’ve built. Remember, you might be humanity’s last hope but you’re not alone, you can join our community on Discord to share discoveries, theories, and more with other Caretakers around the world!
That’s all for now, please enjoy this new launch trailer and best of luck on your first mission, Caretaker > STATUS: EARLY ACCESS INITIATED > DIRECTIVE: SAVE HUMANITY > OBJECTIVE: RESTORE SYSTEMS, GROW LIFE, LAUNCH TO ORBIT
Wow, what a Next Fest that was! We loved seeing tens of thousands of you playing our demo, providing feedback and streaming on Twitch. We couldn’t be more grateful for your time playing, and for the love you’ve shown The Last Caretaker over the past week. Thanks to your feedback, we were able to update the Demo during Next Fest! As we don’t want you to stop playing; we’re happy to host our demo on Steam for players that want to explore more of Hangar 37, and for new players to discover some of the secrets and teases in store.
Here’s a few Steam NEXT FEST stats:
Among top 50 played Steam Next Fest games We were blown away by the interest in The Last Caretaker, and especially those who have played the demo. Your feedback has been honest and welcome, which gave us all the right information to update the demo with some additions and tweaks, and we can’t thank you enough.
Phenomenal Playtime The depth of what we’re creating is really showing in how you’re playing The Last Caretaker. While average playtime of all demos was around 15 minutes, we’re seeing 1 hour 30 minutes on average, which is incredible and shows how much the game is resonating with players. Please keep playing to learn more about the Caretakers, and uncover some of the secrets still to be found.
Huge Caretaker Influx Thousands of new Caretaker candidates poured in during Next Fest. Welcome to The Last Caretaker community! If you’d like to join our discord, you can speak to us directly with your feedback, feature requests, and hang out with us as we shape the future of the game during Early Access: http://discord.gg/channel37
Above all, please keep playing, because your feedback will be crucial as we head toward our Early Access launch on November 6, and we’ll continue to implement updates and tweaks to increase your enjoyment at, and beyond November 6. There’s not long to go now, and we’re finalising our roadmap to share with you soon on what new shiny things we’ll be adding to the game, including vehicles, items, resources, story and so much more. Thank you again, and we’ll see you among the waves.
> STATUS: DEMO COMPLETE
> NEXT OBJECTIVE: EARLY ACCESS – NOV 6
> KEEP HUMANITY OPERATIONAL
We’re four days into Steam Next Fest, but the team at Channel37 can’t rest; we’ve updated the demo to squash some bugs, improve gameplay, and add some useful things to make your time on the waves even more fun.
For starters, we’ve fixed a few things within the demo. Even though the list of bugs or rebalances was small, they’re super important for your enjoyment of our game. Be they audio or physics mishaps, or some UI tweaks, we’ve splatted a number of small issues that will increase your levels of joy. Most importantly, we’ve improved the buoyancy of the teddy bears, and all is now right with the world.
We’ve also improved lighting for a better experience in darker areas, implemented better animations and visual feedback and given holstering a gentle tweak that is refreshing and more tactile.
We’ve rebalanced materials, healing rate, glow stick activation range and reduced engine cylinder weight to 25kg. In a game full of physics, everything is connected, from materials to power, fuel and weight.
We’ve also added a bunch of things from quick language change options, to ladder interaction for a smoother experience. We’ve added more UI elements such as waypoints and added a soft-jump tutorial.
In fact, there’s so much in this update that we encourage you to play again, and keep playing. Not every secret of Hangar 37 has been discovered, so with more still to explore, make sure you dive back in!
Community Manager Jack and Creative Director Antti stream The Last Caretaker! Check out the demo now, and pick up the game when it releases on November 6th!
Community Manager Jack and Creative Director Antti stream The Last Caretaker! Check out the demo now, and pick up the game when it releases on November 6th!
Community Manager Jack is joined by some of the developers of The Last Caretaker as they stream and enjoy The Last Caretaker!
The Last Caretaker hits early access on November 6th, 2025!
Ahoy, Caretakers!
The Last Caretaker will be setting sail into Steam Next Fest ahead of its launch into early access on November 6th!
The Next Fest is a week-long celebration of upcoming games with demos, livestreams and more! It starts next Monday, 13th October and lasts until the following Monday, 20th October. You don’t need to wait, though, the demo is available now!
Explore Hangar 37 and get to grips with the dynamic resource system that will serve you as you venture across the vast ocean world.
Check out our latest trailer here:
We're ecstatic to finally announce our early access release date of November 6, 2025! To celebrate, check out the release date trailer below, and learn more about the caretaker, and the world in which you explore, craft and survive in your quest to save humanity.
Keep your eyes on steam over the coming weeks for a few pleasant surprises, and set your diary for November 6. We can't wait for you to begin your journey as The Last Caretaker.
We're so excited to share this short gameplay teaser with the community, confirming you'll get your hands on The Last Caretaker in 2025 in Steam Early Access. Right now, we're showing media and content creators around the world, and very soon, we'll have an even bigger slice of gameplay coming your way. If you're looking for survival crafting action with an impactful storyline, we're the game you've been looking for. You won't have to wait much longer for a deeper look at our story, mechanics and the delightfully systemic gameplay, so keep your eyes on our steam page for more detail soon. Check out the full trailer below:
About
This page aggregates Steam news feeds, patch notes, and developer announcements for The Last Caretaker, sourced from official Steam community posts.
Major updates, balance changes, and seasonal events often correlate with player-count spikes — cross-reference announcements here with the live charts on the main The Last Caretaker statistics page.
Articles link back to Steam for full changelogs. SteamScope refreshes news entries as new posts are published to the game's Steam hub.