We added player vs player (PvP) combat to Core Keeper at 1.0, and it’s been an absolute blast hearing about all the fun and creative ways you’ve been using it to cause chaos in your games! Our community manager has also been spending a lot of time thinking about all the wonderful ways that PvP can be enjoyed in the game, and we’ve worked together to come up with a list of 5 PvP challenges that you can play in Core Keeper with your friends (or should we say ‘enemies’?) right now.
Last Explorer Standing
This challenge works best with a group of 4+ players – the more the merrier – and requires a little bit of setup from the host. You’ll need to create your very own battle arena where you’ll fight to the death using a selection of predetermined weapons and armour. Think 'The Hunger Games', but on a much smaller scale. The rules are simple: players cannot leave the arena unless they are killed (you may want to build a spectator’s area for people who have died but want to watch the rest of the battle). The last Explorer standing is the winner!
The base rules can then be expanded upon for extra fun. For example, you could all use fresh characters with the same backgrounds to ensure nobody starts with an advantage. You could bring pets into the mix. You could even hide extra weapons, armour, and healing items within the arena to give players an edge (so long as they don’t get killed while equipping anything). This is one to make your own, and we’d love to see what you come up with!
Labyrinth of DEATH
There are plenty of labyrinths that spawn naturally in Core Keeper that could be modified for this challenge. You could also build a labyrinth from scratch and add your very own traps, twists, and terrors! The premise is simple: each player starts completely unarmed at a different entry point to the labyrinth and, from here, it’s a rush to find a weapon, make it to the centre to collect a designated ‘trophy’ item (we recommend a figurine), and make it back out.
During the labyrinth’s construction, chests containing weapons, potions, and other equipment can be hidden throughout – alongside traps and enemies to make things more exciting. Players can choose to fight anybody they come across or make a dash for the centre. The player who makes it out of the labyrinth with the figurine is considered the winner. We recommend building the labyrinth’s walls using Obsidian blocks in creative mode or setting a no-block-breaking rule to keep things fair.
Battle on the High Seas
Avast ye, me hearties. Weigh anchor and hoist the mizzen! Sorry, we got excited thinking about ocean-based combat. This challenge is perfect for groups of all sizes, whether it’s 1v1, 4v4, or even 1v7 (if you’re feeling brave!). Players split into teams and take to the ocean in boats for a ranged battle where one team will reign victorious. We recommend team members dress in the same clothes/armour so they’re easily identifiable and that you agree upon a selection of ranged weapons to use before combat begins. You can open this battle up to the entire ocean, but you might want to section off an area so it’s easier to cross paths. How you decide the winner is up to you, though we think the last Explorer alive works for deciding the winning team.
Capture the ‘Flag’
This challenge works well across a larger portion of the map. You could even run it across an entire biome, though we do recommend marking the play zone with certain blocks so that nobody accidentally wanders off. Small bases are constructed at either end of the play zone (with beds) and these bases contain 2x pedestals. One pedestal should have an item such as a figurine to act as that base’s ‘flag’ and the other should be empty. The players then split into two teams, each travelling to opposing bases where they can set their spawn points and prepare for combat.
The goal is to capture the other team’s flag (i.e., the item atop their pedestal), bring it back to your base, and place it on the empty pedestal. Players that die can respawn as many times as they want – the game is only over when an enemy flag is captured and placed atop a pedestal. The first team to capture the other team’s flag wins! As always, starting equipment and any additional rules, parameters, and traps are up to you.
Hide and Slay
A fun challenge where one Explorer acts as a seeker and the rest hide. This is very much a one-player vs everyone else battle, but you could alter the rules so that anyone can attack anyone if you’re feeling chaotic. This challenge starts in a “safe zone” at the Core, and the hiders have a short amount of time (30s to 1 min) to travel on foot and hide somewhere across the map. It’s up to you whether you want to allow them to break/place blocks or if you’d prefer it if they hide in plain sight. Once an Explorer has hidden, they are not allowed to move from their hiding place until the seeker has found them.
The seeker then sets off to find as many of the other Explorers as they can within a certain time frame (we recommend 5 minutes for your first time playing). Once a hider is found, the seeker must attempt to slay them and the hider can attempt to run back to the “safe zone” at the Core! If the seeker manages to find and slay everybody, they win, but if there are any hiders left hidden or in the “safe zone” when the clock runs out, they are considered the winners. Play around with the time limits on this one or add hiding parameters (“must not cross water/caverns”, for example) to mix things up and find a version that works for you!
All of these PvP challenges can be augmented to suit your needs, so don’t be afraid to edit rules, add traps, and set parameters to make things more exciting. Your imagination is the limit here, but we hope these will get you started on a fun, multiplayer activity you can enjoy when you’re not exploring the underground or battling bosses!
Oh, and did we mention that we now support map uploads to our official mod hosting platform? So, if you build anything you’re particularly proud of, you can share it with your fellow Explorers! Finally, if you’re looking for players to team up with, don’t forget that we have an LFG-matchmaking channel over on our official community Discord.