Update 5.0: New Horizons is Live

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: The Last Caretaker

THE SHORT VERSION FOR HUMANS

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.

THE NOT SO SHORT VERSION FOR CARETAKERS

PROJECT EDEN BEGINS

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 WAKE UP

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.

PROJECT JONAH SURFACES

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.

CULTURAL MEMORIES

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.

RESEARCH OUTPOST THETA-9

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 TOOLS FOR A DEEPER WORLD

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.

THE BOAT GROWS

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.

ROUGHER SEAS, STRONGER SYSTEMS

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.

UPDATED DEMO

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: The Last Caretaker

FEEDBACK

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.

ONE ASK

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