Core Keeper - How To Beat All The Bosses Guide | Unpause Asia (2024)

Core Keeper may look like an underground cave version of Stardew Valley and it is for the most part. But this Early Access co-op survival sandbox also has some pretty tough bosses for you to tackle. And you’ll need to defeat them in order to get their gems and power up the Core.

There are a total of six bosses for you to beat in Core Keeper. And it’ll take a mix of preparation and strategy in order to overcome them. Luckily for you, we have all of that right here. Follow us on this guide on how to defeat all the bosses in Core Keeper.

Glurch the Abominous Mass

Location: Dirt Biome

Core Keeper’s Slime Boss is the first boss in the game, and it’s surprisingly difficult.

In Core Keeper maps are procedurally generated, so you’re going to want to do some exploring before you find the boss. Glurch is pretty close to the starting point however and you’ll know he’s near once you hear a thudding sound. Look for areas with high concentrations of orange slimes, and he’s bound to be nearby in a large chamber.

Don’t get within 3 blocks of Glurchuntil you’re ready to fight, or he’ll aggro.

Recommended Equipment

• Weapon – Slingshot / Ranged Weapon
• Armor – Copper Armor
• Equipment – Shovel
• Buffs – Speed and/or Damage

We highly recommend playing the game a bit before you take on Glurch. As you’ll need quite a bit of material to get ready. Mine a lot of copper ore to make a copper armour set, you’ll need aminimum of 36 copper barsto craft the three pieces of armour. You may need more depending on if you need to craft a copper sword and/or a copper pick to make mining easier.

Glurch Boss Attack Strategy

Core Keeper‘s Glurch is a big blob with a leaping attack, when you get within a few blocks of him he’ll jump into the air and try to land on you. He’s capable of smashing through the solid rock so you’ll want to be able to create an area large enough for you to kite around him. Note that he’ll leave behind slime every time he jumps so make sure you have a running strategy for that.

Prepare by clearing Glurch’s chamber of as much slime as you can using your shovel because stepping in slime will slow you down (30×20). If there are any hostile spiky slimes hanging around, kill them first too.

Once Glurch starts jumping, either move away or run directly under him while he’s in the air. Each time he lands,hit him with your ranged weapon. If you’re using a sword you’ll need to run up to him to hit, then fall back before he leaps again. You should be able to land two swings from your weapon before needing to run. Ranged is probably the easiest way to do this though.

Once Glurch gets to 50% health or so, it will get enraged and start jumping faster. Keep following the same pattern and whittle down its health shot by shot until you’ve killed it.

As long as you move quickly and don’t let him retreat back to his starting spot, you should be able to manage that battle without too many problems. It’s important youdon’t let him retreatall the way back to the rune circle he sits on because he’ll start healing the damage you’ve done.

Glurch Boss Loot

Ghorm the Devourer

Location: Dirt Biome/Clay Caverns

Ghorm is a giant beetle worm thing, which you can see travelling around the map in the Clay Caverns in Core Keeper.

Finding Ghorm isn’t all that difficult. Just start tunnelling in any direction from the core and you’ll eventually run into Ghorm’s wide, slime-filled tunnel. That’s because Ghorm is a mobile boss: It’s constantly moving in a huge circle that surrounds the Core. Just keep your eyes out for a giant tunnel with a distinct texture and material. The area is also likely fitted with a mixture ofslimeand larvae, helping to indicate you’ve found the right tunnel. Also, while in the area, you may hear the sound of something large moving closer to you, indicating the boss is on their way down the tunnel.

If you’re struggling to find it naturally you can make a detector once you’ve killed Glurchusing 5 machinery and ancient gemstones. Using it will ping the location of the boss on the map.

Recommended Equipment

• Weapon – Slingshot / Ranged Weapon
• Equipment – Spike Traps, Shovel, Torches, Swift Ring

To prepare to fight Ghorm you’re going to want to start farming a lot of tin ore. You’re also going to need to farm bomb peppers and slime so you can make bombs from an alchemy lab. The bombs are an important strategy to beat this boss, as the boss follows a direct path, making it easy to plant bombs and create traps. We recommend makingat least 80 spike traps. As the boss can destroy the spike traps, you don’t want to be left in the lurch and waste all that tin in case you can’t kill the boss the first run.

Wearingtwo swift ringsand eating foods like a hearty pepper wrap will increase your movement speed enough that you can keep ahead of him.

Ghorm Boss Attack Strategy

Ghorm isn’t too hard to find in Core Keeper, it’s getting him to stop and kill it that takes some work. Even if you manage to damage it a little as it rushes past, it won’t stop and by the time it circles around the map again, it will have completely healed.

The best way to do this is to use spike traps. It’s going to take a lot of tin and you’ll lose the traps after but it’ll be well worth it to defeat Ghorm.

Head to Ghorm’s tunnel and wait for it to pass by. Then quickly run into the tunnel andset your traps down in the middle of the tunnel. Kill any nearby slimes so they don’t activate the traps before Ghorm completes its circle and returns.

Once Ghorm’s health meter drops below 50%, it will stop running its tunnel circuit and come directly after you. Sidestep when it charges and use a weapon to strike it as it runs past. It will keep turning and coming at you, so you can drop more bombs in its path and strike its side while it passes.

Ghorm Boss Loot

The Hive Mother

Location: Clay Caverns

The best way to find The Hive Mother is by using the Glurch statue at the core. There you can craft a Hive Mother beacon that’ll add an icon on your map showing her location for 5 Ancient Gemstone and 5 Mechanical Parts. Provided you’ve already defeated Glurch.

When you know where she is, you’ll need an iron pickaxe, preferably two, to tunnel your way into her chamber, which is surrounded by durable larva walls.

Once you’re in her chamber,she won’t attackunless you attack her. Kill any larva or other enemies in the chamber and dig up any hive spike traps or acid blobs with your shovel. You’re going to want to widen the area before going in. If you have some spare torches place that around some dark areas too.

Recommended Equipment

• Weapon – Iron Sword, Flintlock Musket / Slingshot
• Armor – Iron / Carapace Armor
• Equipment – Spike Traps, Iron Shovel
• Buffs – Healing Potions, Hearty Pepper Wraps

The Hive Mother is not an easy lady so you’re going to want to have the best equipment possible. I strongly recommend going to The Forgotten Ruins biome and getting enough Iron tocrafttwo Iron Swords. You’re also going to need to bring along a ranged weapon.Cooksome Hearty Pepper Wraps (Heart Berry + Bomb Pepper). You may also want to craft some Healing Potions.

Finally, you’re going to need a Shovel. Yes, a Shovel. 1 Iron Shovel should do, although you can get away with two Wood Shovels or Copper Shovels if you’re low on materials.

Hive Mother Boss Attack Strategy

The Hive Mother’s attack is a powerfulacid spitthat targets you from above. When you see a target marker appear on your character, you need to move. Even if the acid misses you it’ll remain on the block it lands on, and walking through it will hurt you. It can be removed with a shovel, but that’s hard to do during the fight.

The Hive Mother also summons minions from one of the five eggs surrounding her that will rush in to attack you. You can proactively kill the eggs with melee attacks before they spawn if you can do enough damage quickly enough. But it’s not necessary and you’re going to not want to spend too much time, because – acid.

The best strategy to beat theCore KeeperHive Mother boss is a combination of melee and ranged combat. Run in a circle around the Hive Mother, moving in close for a few melee whacks and then backing away to avoid acid attacks. Make sure to use your ranged weapon to take out any glowing yellow larvae that spawn. Because they will explode into acid if they get close enough to you.

The Hive Mother will escalate her attack speed when her health gets low. If you can keep a cool head and keep moving, you’ll be able to kill her using this strategy.

Hive Mother Boss Loot

Azeos The Sky Titan

Location: Azeos’ Wilderness

Azeos is probably one of the more frustrating bosses in Core Keeper from start to finish. Simply getting to his biome requires a lot of steps. First, you need to defeat the first three bosses and used their gems in the boss statues to power the Core. Speaking to the Core will tell you to touch the Great Wall, the impenetrable barrier that lies further out in the world.

Once you’ve tunnelled out and touched the Great Wall, return and speak to the Core again. It will give you a direction to tunnel towards which will lead you to a new biome, Azeos Wilderness. But to find Azeos the Sky Titan, you’ll need to craft two items: a scanner showing his location on the map and a “large shiny glimmering object”.

Craft the Ancient Hologram Pod from the Hive Mother statue in the Core. Then, place the Ancient Hologram Pod down on the ground somewhere safe. This will spawn a hologram that sells two items, one of which is the Azeos the Sky Titan Scanner. The other is the Large Shiny Glimmering Object which requires – 10 Copper Bar, 10 Tin Bar, 10 Iron Bar, 10 Scarlet Bar, 5 Gold Bar and 3 Ancient Gemstones.

Place the Large Shiny Glimmering Object on the ground in Azeos’ arena when you’re ready to commence the fight.

Recommended Equipment

• Weapon – Scarlet Sword
• Armor – Scarlet Armor, Shield
• Equipment – Scarlet Pickaxe, Shovel, Bombs
• Buffs – Healing Potions, Hearty Pepper Wraps

Azeos is a tough fight and you’re going to want to be ready for it. I strongly recommend that youcraftScarlet Armor, a Scarlet Sword, and a Scarlet Pickaxe. You should craft some Healing Potions, too, just in case. It’s also a good idea to bring at least 2 Iron Shovels to prepare the arena.

Azeos Boss Attack Strategy

Azeos will spawn in on an island with a bunch of ruins on it. Start by clearing all of that stuff away. This boss has a total of three attacks and threespecial moves to worry about:

• Crossing Thunder Beam – Lines of energy beams spawn and pass through each other horizontally and vertically.
• Thunder Beam Nova – Energy beams spawn away from Azeos, move towards Azeos to protect it, and then spread back out.
• Random Thunder Beams – Energy beams appear and move in random directions.
• Teleport – Azeos will periodically teleport around the map.
• Spawn Healing Crystals – Azeos will spawn three crystals that can restore its health.
• Healing – Azeos will recharge its health by drawing power from any nearby crystals.

I’d say strategy-wise Azeos requires the least strategy out of all the bosses in Core Keeper. Simply walk up to Azeos and start whacking it with your sword. When it spawns Thunder Beams, avoid them, and then continue attacking.

The tricky part comes when Azeos spawns crystals. Immediately destroy them with your pickaxe or bombs as these crystals will heal him, undoing all the damage you’ve done. Repeat this process until Azeos is dead.

Azeos Boss Loot

Malugaz the Corrupted

Location: The Forgotten Ruins

Malugaz the Corrupted is a hidden boss in Core Keeper. But even if you didn’t know he existed, you’ve probably been collecting an item needed to summon him. Cavelings in the Forgotten Ruins sometimes drop bluecrystal skull shards. When you have 10 shards, put them in your hotbar and right-click to create acrystal skull.

There is no scanner for Malugaz the Corrupted. That means that you’re going to have to search on foot. His arena is well-lit with ancient junk and it’s fairly large (a circle roughly 16 blocks across). You’ll find him in one of the larger underground fortresses where there are a lot of cavelings and a number of rooms with green, unbreakable floors.Keep exploring The Forgotten Ruins on the outside of Ghorm’s tunnel and you should come across him eventually.

Malugaz’s summoning spot is in a semi-circular chamber with a skull rune on the floor in the centre. Before you summon him clear the chamber of pillars and other obstructions to give yourself room to move.Placing the crystal skull on the skull runewill summon Malugaz.

Recommended Equipment

• Weapon – Scarlet Sword or better, Fireball Staff
• Armor – Scarlet Armor or better, Shield
• Buffs – Lots of Healing Potions, Lots of Food

Malugaz does a fair amount of fire damage, and that means you’ll be taking damage over time. Cookingseveral Hearty Pepper Wraps (Heart Berry + Bomb Pepper)is a good idea — they give a nice mix of health regeneration and a speed boost. Alternatively, I would recommend making Mushy Berry Pudding (Heart Berry + Mushroom) and Crunchy Tulip Salad (Glow Tulip + Carrock). Eating both of these will give you a nice mix of buffs. You should alsocraftat least 10 Healing Potions to mitigate the damage over time or recover from direct hits.

Malugaz Boss Attack Strategy

Malugaz’s arena in Core Keeper is littered with junk, you should remove all of it to create a better arena for you to manoeuvre around in. Break all of the walls and destroy all of the Ancient Crates so you have as much room to move around as possible.

Malugaz fights in two phases. In the first phase, he teleports around and will shoot fireballs; he’ll also cause random bursts of fire to spawn within the arena. You can hit him with melee for this first phase.

In the second phase, he removes his hood to reveal his flaming skull head. His attacks shift to dashing punches that explode into a 3×3 area of fire when it lands. I recommend that you run around avoiding the flame and shooting Malaguz from afar.

It’s going to be tempting to use explosives for this fight but I’d refrain from that. Because Malugaz’s arena is very small, it means you run the risk of blowing yourself up.

Malugaz Boss Loot

Ivy the Poisonous Mass

Location: Azeos’ Wilderness

Finding Ivy the Poisonous Mass is extremely tricky and may take a lot of tunnelling and exploring of the biome. There is no scanner for Ivy, unlike the other bosses in Core Keeper. Instead, you’ll have to search for Ivy the same way you searched for Glurch — dig through the Azeos’ Wilderness biome and listen for the thumping sound of Ivy’s continuous jumps. Look for any areas with a high concentration of pink poison slimes.

Recommended Equipment

• Weapon – Grubzooka / Your best ranged weapon
• Armor – Scarlet Armor or better, Shield
• Equipment – Remedaisy Necklace / Grub Egg Necklace, Larva Ring
• Buffs – Healing Potions, Hearty Pepper Wraps / Movement Buffing Foods

You’re going to need the Grub Egg Necklace (acquired from defeatingthe Hive Mother) and the Larva Ring (acquired by killing enemies inThe Clay Caves biome). This set of two items will prevent slime from slowing you down — this is an absolute necessity for winning this fight.

You’ll also want tocooksome Hearty Pepper Wraps (Heart Berry + Bomb Pepper) to keep up your speed.

The Grubzooka can be crafted from the Hive Mother statue in the core and having the Scarlet armor and sword set should greatly enhance your survivability.

Ivy Boss Attack Strategy

Ivy brings Core Keeper‘s Early Access full circle as she bears a lot of resemblance to the first boss Glurch. They’re both giant slimes whoseprimary attack is leapinginto the air and trying to land on you. However, this prink diva’s floor slime doesn’t only slow you down but is also poisonous.

Poison will reduce your healing rate by 75% for 30 seconds when you step in it. So your best bet would be to find a remedaisy necklace, which is occasionally dropped by poisonous slimes. It will render you immune to the poison which will be a major help in the fight against Ivy.

In addition to the leap, Ivy also has a secondary attack, which is torain down slimearound her. The spots the slime will land are targeted with red circles beforehand, so you have a second or two to move before the attacks hit. Ivy will signal this attack by stopping her leaps and growling.

When Ivy is at low health she will no longer pause between leaps and willstart leaping much faster.

Your best bet is to handle Ivy similarly to Glurch, by using any movement buffing items or food you have to avoid being crushed and attacking when she lands.Dashingcan also help you avoid getting jumped on and to get you out of the path of her slime rain.

Ivy Boss Loot

So there we have it, a survivability guide to defeating all the bosses in Core Keeper! Core Keeper is out now on Early Access and is available hereon Steam for PC and Linux.