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://v1.steam.hlxgame.cc/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.