An unofficial Alpha 31 build is out on the BETA branch. Check it out if you're an experienced player and want an early glimpse of all the new stuff!

Please post your feedback in this thread or in the comments below.

If you are new to KeeperRL, it is strongly recommended that to stick to the official Alpha 30 patch for now, as this build is very unstable, and the tutorial doesn't work at the moment.

Please also note that until the patch is officially released, the save file format may change at any moment, and you saves may be lost. (although I'll do my best to avoid this).

To opt into the build, please go into the game's properties, BETA tab, and choose the "dev" branch.

I'm slowly wrapping up the Alpha 31 update, and while it won't be nearly as massive as the previous patch, it will bring two very interesting features.


Having to say 'goodbye' to your Keeper when retiring a dungeon can be sad for some players, and I've noticed that a lot of you like to share screenshots of your retired dungeons, and your Keepers' stats. To give your retired dungeons a longer life, I've added a new 'Warlord' mode, in which you once again take your retired Keeper and your minions on an escapade against other retired dungeons.



In this mode you don't have access to your retired dungeon any more, but you assemble a team out of all your minions, and travel between other retired dungeons of your choice.

Since the games will be quite short, the warlord mode will give you an opportunity to come back to KeeperRL in short bursts, without having to start another dungeon or adventurer game. It will also let you visit many more retired dungeons.

The new mode unlocks once you retire your first dungeon.


As I've hinted in the past, I've been working on a scripting language dedicated to procedural map generation. The language is now incorporated into KeeperRL, and several maps in the game already use it. The benefits over the old system, besides moddability, is much faster iteration, since generated maps can be viewed using a command line utility without having to start the game and manually walking to the area that you're working on.



Almost all map generation algorithms currently used in KeeperRL are available in the script, so there is huge potential for modders to customize their own maps.

A testing build of Alpha 31 with the new features will be released on Steam soon, and meanwhile you can take a peek at the very preliminary documentation of the script.

This patch fixes some of the most common crashes and other bugs. Note: parts of this patch had been released in June, but were rolled back due to breaking save file compatibility.

• 64-bit Windows gets a native 64-bit build to avoid hitting the memory limit of 32-bit programs.
  
• Fixed the "too many sprites" issue that happened when installing a lot of mods.
  
• Fixed the "Keeper in danger" warning in the turn-based mode.
  
• Removed the limit of 30000 dug out tiles.
  
• Added an option to perform operations such as loading, saving and world generation on the same thread in order to debug issues with very long saving/loading times. (Please get in touch if you experience unreasonably long saving/loading times)
  
• AI Fighters with restricted movement (immobile, tied up, etc) will not be sent out in raids.
  
• Fixed crash caused by a creature dying when teleported by the Audience effect.
  
• Fixed crash when paying for items while blind.
  
• Added diagnostics to figure out another crash.
  
• Fixed some typos and building descriptions.

You might have noticed a bit of radio silence from me in the last couple of months, and this is because I've been somewhat burnt out after the six-month push for the Alpha 30 patch, and I needed a bit of a break. As KeeperRL has been in development for more than seven years now, I think it's good both for the game and for me to distance myself every once in a while to take a breath.

Alpha 30 was originally intended to be a milestone update, after which KeeperRL was going to transition into a Beta stage, but I ultimately decided against using these official terms to avoid confusion, since nowadays they mean different things to different people. Nevertheless the focus of development has been shifting and will shift even more. If you're interested, these are the areas that I intend to work on the most in the upcoming year or two.


For a while the highest item on my list of new features has been to add more playable factions, and the Gnomes that came in Alpha 30 were part of that plan. There are three new factions that have a 99% chance of making it into the game, and they are:

• Dwarves: focused on equipment and combat tactics.
• Necromancer: summoning 'canon fodder' and researching mutation magic.
• Adventurer guild: exploring and looting, with a smaller base-building component.

Whether a faction is added to the game or not is decided based on my ability to create rich gameplay for it, one that's meaningfully different from what already exists. For the above list this is pretty certain, and there are three more factions in my notes that are a bit more unfinished and 'risky': Dragon, Peasants, and Greenskins. I will also look through some mods to search for new, cool ideas, which I know that clever KeeperRL modders have come up with a lot of :).

The other major area of content that I'm going to work on are new secrets, which I'm a very big fan of, and which I think can work really well in KeeperRL. I also need to start gathering data on how players deal with specific secrets, to make sure their difficulty is right. I haven't received much feedback on what came out in Alpha 30, and I'm very curious how people liked it, so please let me know if you have any comments :).


For a long time players have complained about clunky combat and bad unit AI, which make battles cumbersome as you keep switching between single and full control to stop your troops from doing dumb things. I have a couple of solutions that I think should fix many of these issues, and that are simple enough to add on top of the existing, already complex user interface.

The first is an explicit classification of all units into 'melee', 'ranged', and 'healer' types, which will affect their behavior in battles. The game will offer default choices for all creatures, but the player will be able to tweak them at any point to force desired behavior. Based on their defined type, a creature will attack head on or stay in the back of their group.

The second improvement will be a system of explicit orders in both the real-time and in the turn-based modes, using an extended drag & drop interface. For example you'll be able to order a chosen team member to wait at a spot or to explore a given area without having to control it directly.

Of course these are only some of the improvements that I plan to add, and a lot more will come based on your feedback.


KeeperRL has never had any systematic work done on game balance, which I'm sure greatly affects gameplay. For example there are many ways to structure enemy difficulty: some allow a lot of freedom, but can also be too boring, others make the progress more rigid. The player's development curve can also be tweaked by changing the availability of resources and general difficulty. This can take the game from being mildly boring to very exciting with relatively small changes.

I've been working a semi-automatic tool in the form of a mini text-based game that simulates most strategic choices in KeeperRL, and which uses real content from the game. It would give insights on the difficulty curves, and allow tweaking things without having the replay the full game dozens of times. So far my attempt didn't work out, but I'll put more work into it, as it could potentially allow huge improvements.


Modding has been a big part of KeeperRL for the last couple of years, and there are always improvements and requested features waiting to be added, so I will definitely put more work into this area.

One thing that I've been casually working on is a tool for modding randomly generated maps, which is currently not possible. It involves writing code similar to the current Effects system, which roughly defines what features an area consists of, but leaves it to the game to randomize it. You can find a preliminary version of the tool here.

Since it's an external tool with its own (very simple) map display, it allows rapidly prototyping new levels without having to actually run KeeperRL and manually explore your levels. I expect to be able to use it myself to add a massive amount of new level types with relatively little work compared to the current system.


While we're discussing the future of KeeperRL, it seems fitting to try to answer the most common question that people ask me :). I don't have a date or even a fixed plan for releasing the full version of KeeperRL, since an open-ended style of development has suited me the most so far.

Announcing a 1.0 release has a big symbolic meaning, and it's also a one time opportunity to have a lot of new eyes look at the game, so it makes sense for me to try to make it as complete as possible before taking this step.

Therefore I'm very likely to continue working on KeeperRL for at least one or two more years, which is how long it might take me to work on the features listed above. In any case, a 1.0 release doesn't mean the development stops, and since the game is open-source, and the modding community is very active, you'll likely continue to see new stuff coming out for a long time after leaving Early Access.

The Alpha 30 hotfix patch that went out a few hours ago has been rolled back due to a new critical bug that got introduced by accident. The patch will come out at a later date.

If you have started a new game in this new patch, it will fail to load after the roll-back. Sorry for that!

This patch fixes some of the most common crashes and other bugs.

• 64-bit Windows gets a native 64-bit build to avoid hitting the memory limit of 32-bit programs.
  
• Fixed the "Keeper in danger" warning in the turn-based mode.
  
• Removed the limit of 30000 dug out tiles.
  
• Added an option to perform operations such as loading, saving and world generation on the same thread in order to debug issues with very long saving/loading times. (Please get in touch if you experience unreasonably long saving/loading times)
  
• AI Fighters with restricted movement (immobile, tied up, etc) will not be sent out in raids.
  
• Fixed crash caused by a creature dying when teleported by the Audience effect.
  
• Fixed crash when paying for items while blind.
  
• Added diagnostics to figure out another crash.
  
• Fixed some typos and building descriptions.

KeeperRL Alpha 30 is out! This is a huge gameplay and content update, which took whole six months to produce! Check out the rundown below to get an idea about all the new stuff.

I’d like to thank everyone involved in crash testing this patch, sending bug reports and suggestions. Your help was invaluable!

If you would like to continue your saved game from Alpha 29, you can opt-in into the "Alpha 29 save compatibility" BETA branch under the game's properties in Library. Make sure to opt-out of the branch to go back to Alpha 30 when you're done!




The gnomes, while not combat worthy creatures themselves, are capable of crafting mechanical contraptions that will let you dominate dungeons and battlefields. Enjoy the brand new automaton crafting mechanic!




Minions will feel more unique, and less like expendable cannon fodder. The game will track their kills, and give them titles for killing tribe leaders, along with significant bonuses. The Keeper will also write poems about your minions’ triumphs and failures.




Thanks to the generosity of Archdiggle, the author of the Dig Realm mod, who kindly agreed for some of their sprites to be used in vanilla, the White Knight faction receives new minions and structures. The main addition is a group of angelic minions.




I won't put out too many spoilers, but you will be able to venture deeper into the Earth than you ever imagined. Really! (although it won't be easy)


The modding system has been reworked to allow turning on all your favorite mods at the same time. Go crazy!




Creatures will be able to attack using multiple weapons and body parts in a single turn. This includes multi-wielding weapons if one possesses the appropriate skill and number of limbs, and using extra intrinsic attacks, like poisonous bites, kicks, etc. This feature makes certain creatures, like werewolves and vampires, much more interesting and powerful.

• New mechanic involving assembling automaton minions from different body parts.
• 4 types of corpuses: light, normal, heavy, and helicopterum. Made from wood, iron or adamantine.
• Humanoid, fire breathing, acid spitting and archer heads.
• Melee, drill, crafting, and repair arms.
• No single Keeper creature, all gnomes need to be killed in order to lose the game.
• New traps: "destroy walls" and "trap trigger".

• Some enemies will be retired when they kill the player, and the player's base will be used as that enemy's lair in future games.
• The player can choose any of the 5 existing biomes to build their base.
• Creatures get "slayer" titles and stat bonuses for killing tribe leaders.
• Keepers make paintings and write poems inspired by real game events.
• Guard zone designation that minions will take turns guarding.
• Creatures can fight with multiple weapons if they have the "multi-weapon" skill.
• Zombies have a special "Swarmer" trait, which increases their damage and defense for every other zombie nearby.
• Writing a poem or making a painting has a very small chance of summoning a demon.
• Shamans and other creatures with the "shamanism" skill surround themselves by combat-worthy spirits.
• Keepers abuse their minions to make them work faster.
• Hostility between creatures of the same tribe times out after 50 turns.
• Vampires will sometimes regenerate lost or injured body parts after biting an enemy.
• Minions eat at dining tables instead of killing pigs directly.
• Certain creatures and weapons get special attack and defense bonuses based on the enemy's race, being indoors, only at night, etc.
• Bandits are less aggressive and the minimum gold amount that triggers them is increased.
• Insane minions with the absorption skill are still allowed to absorb.
• Non-prisoner workers can be assigned quarters.
• Ranged damage is taken into account when evaluating how dangerous a creature is.
• Prisoners go back to prison when idle.
• Removed peacefulness and invisibility permanent effects from altar destruction.
• Minions can create moonshine from rats and get drunk.
• Creatures made of fire emit light.
• Added amulets of life saving.
• Brainless creatures don't have morale.
• Undead get brains.
• Friendly creatures don't get angry if attacked by an effect that doesn't hurt them (for example by fire if fire resistant).
• Discovered allies that auto-join don't use up population slots.
• Traveling to other maps is not prevented if enemies are fleeing from the player.
• The game considers an enemy conquered by the player only if he/she killed at least one creature from that enemy.
• Added "Fire trap" spell used by red dragons and other creatures.
• A spying creature's identity is uncovered if items are looted.
• An allied tribe will get angry if items are stolen.
• Some villains, like ants and dwarves will only defend their mineral patches instead of attacking the player, if their minerals are breached.
• Dwarves receive an "unstable" status, which can cause them to become insane if they witness the death of an ally.
• Travel to other maps is not possible when carrying unpaid items.

• New "Hell" hidden dungeon of end-game difficulty with new enemies, special items and other surprises.
• "Black market" hidden level with special equipment.
• "Adoxie Vault" special level.
• New minions of the "less evil" Keeper: angels, galeams, cherubs, cleric, artisan, and recruitable Teutonic Knights.
• Blacksmith location with an artisan of legendary crafting skills.
• The Dwarf Baron enemy contains a blacksmith of legendary crafting skills.
• Wizard tower location.
• Ghost ruins are less common.
• Added random corpses with loot on some maps.
• "Animate weapons" spell added to some enemies.
• Scrolls of Audience, which work similarly to sitting on thrones.
• Added stone bridges, wooden bridges now burn if placed on lava.
• Added an "Ice demon" minion.
• Added a "weaker" dwarf creature that replaces the dwarf fighter everywhere except in the Dwarf Baron settlement.
• Added a yellow dragon enemy with an acid attack.
• Added Naga creatures of various colors and abilities.
• Removed insane orc healer immigrant.
• Added flowers to ground levels.
• Added trees to the arctic biome.

• Loading multiple mods at the same time is now possible.
• All graphics in the game can be reloaded by pressing F8 while playing.
• The size of the campaign map and enemy limits can be increased in mods.
• Creature inventories are moved to creatures.txt.
• Allowed defining custom biomes.
• Allowed defining custom workshops.
• Allowed defining custom resources.
• Enemy dungeons may have branches.
• Mods are moved to the "mods" folder.
• Existing mod or vanilla game elements can be modified or appended to.
• New Effects: TakeItems, RemoveFurniture, ChainUntilFail, AddMinionTrait, ChooseRandom, FirstSuccessful, IncreaseSkill, IncreaseWorkshopSkill, Psychiatry, AIBelowHealth, Name, Description, FixedDamage, ColorVariant, Audience, GrantAbility, TriggerTrap.
• DestroyWalls effect can work with Area and directional spells.
• Filter Effect for applying effects conditionally: depending on creatures's health, enemy/allied status, body material, being hidden, being a prisoner/civilian, being an automaton, being indoors/outdoors, at night/day, creature's race, holding a special item, checking for global game flags, and more.
• Stairs can have custom effects, including Filter, which lets you require certain things before a creature can pass through.
• Custom Effect triggered when chatting with a creature.
• Custom Effect for creature's death.
• Custom Effect for furniture "entry".
• Custom Effect for furniture "tick".
• Custom Effect for furniture usage.
• Summon and SummonEnemy effects have a tweak-able timer for creature to disappear.
• World generation can be tested by running "keeper.exe --worldgen_test" in command line.
• Overriding endless enemies or specifying custom enemies per keeper is possible.
• Can define separate orders for digging and cutting trees.
• Immigrant special traits can include timed LastingEffects.
• Added "gold" body material.
• Enemy dungeons can have custom level names.

• Activities can be disabled for an entire minion group.
• A list of kills can be inspected for every minion.
• When a sprite file is not found, the game will render a random sprite, instead of crashing.
• Poison gas gets a nice particle effect animation.
• When dragging creatures, their shortest path to the target is displayed.
• Whole creature groups can be dragged from the menu to workshops and other furniture.
• Constructions and workshop items that can't be afforded are colored red.
• New Keeperopedia UI with bestiary, items and spells.
• New "keeper in danger" warning UI with options to disable or turn off auto-pause.
• The "keeper in danger" pop-up only warns about recent wounds.
• New glyph sprites.
• New trap sprites.
• Potion sprites have different colors depending on the potion's effect.
• Company logo splash screen while the game is starting.
• Game initialization takes place during the loading screen to avoid lag when game begins.
• Added commas to spell school list in minion menu.
• Forbidden zone is rendered on top of objects if it otherwise wouldn't have been visible beneath.
• Moved the [new team] button to above the team list.
• Time interval between autosaves can be changed.
• Added a mini-menu for scrolling directly to chosen z-level.
• Current z-level depth is shown in control mode.
• Removed "visible enemies" and some mostly unused settings from the minions tab.
• Minion menu shows body description and intrinsic attacks.
• Mod descriptions can be scrolled in mod menu.
• The game asks if you want to start with a tutorial the first time you play.
• Added "cancel" buttons to mod and dungeon downloading progress bars.

• Massive reduction in RAM usage.
• Optimized particle effects animations.
• Building bridges on z-levels is now possible without having first to descend manually.
• Fixed bug involving inability to place structures in some visible areas.
• Fixed mixing messages from different games in message boards.
• Fixed music playback restarting on some computers.
• Fixed wrong cursor position glitch in full screen.
• Ranged attacks don't abuse the "parry" ability.
• Illusions are ignored when AI forms formations.
• Fixed endless enemies saving issue which led to attacks being cancelled after saving and loading.
• Reduced VRAM usage by sprites loaded in mods.
• Wishing for Suicide, stunned, summoned, invulnerable and "turned off" effects is disabled.
• Increased cool down of "ice cone" to avoid infinite freezing loop.
• Removed sprite limit per mod.
• Fixed a rare crash when the wish spell is granted by a piece of equipment.
• Traveling by bumping into the level border is only allowed on the ground level.
• Fixed UI crash when alt-tabbing out of full screen.
• Fixed a rare crash in graphics likely caused by changed system clock.
• Fixed issue with rebuilding triggered traps.
• Fixed crash in direction choice UI.
• Made it impossible to place a trap on up stairs after claiming the tile.
• Items that are already in storage can't be pillaged.
• The "Zoom in UI" is available only if resolution is 1600x1200 or higher.
• Fixed crash when trying to teleport outside of map bounds.

The unofficial Alpha 30 build is now available for Mac and Linux! I would greatly appreciate if Mac and Linux players could confirm that this patch works, as I've updated my release toolchains, and there might be small issues that need fixing.

Note: this build is still unstable and the tutorial doesn't work, so if you're a new player it's better to stay on the official Alpha 29 for now.

To opt into the build, please go into the game's properties, BETA tab, and choose the "dev" branch.

An unofficial Alpha 30 build is out on the BETA branch. Check it out if you're an experienced player and want an early glimpse of all the new stuff! Note: this build is available on only Windows for now.

Please post your feedback in this thread or in the comments below.

Please don't opt in if you are new to the game, as this build is very unstable, and the tutorial doesn't work at the moment.

To opt into the build, please go into the game's properties, BETA tab, and choose the "dev" branch.

Being stuck in self-isolation myself, I decided to release a free download of the Alpha 29 patch, to hopefully sweeten everyone's time a bit! This is the most recent version of the game.

Some strings attached:

• This is only a direct download of Alpha 29, you won't own the game on Steam or anywhere else. You will have to buy the game if you're interested in playing future versions.
  
• Due to a technical issue, online mod and dungeon sharing capability is limited.

Download KeeperRL Alpha 29 here

Have fun and take care!