It’s time for the fourth and final part of our Children of Tarra Update devblog. Today, we’re covering all the exciting additions that didn’t make it into the previous three entries!
Enemy Growth Indicator
You’ll now always be able to see the current level of enemies and how quickly they’re getting stronger. The growth speed depends on the selected difficulty level.
Updated Artifact Descriptions
We’ve completely reworked artifact descriptions! Previously, they were long blocks of text that made it difficult to quickly understand their effects—especially in the heat of battle.
Now, descriptions are split into two sections: • Short Description – Explains the artifact’s core effect. • Parameters – Displays the numerical values of its effects. We’ve also improved Mediator’s artifact descriptions to make parameter changes more visually clear.
Emporium
• The Emporium has been moved to Delta, allowing players to unlock new artifacts mid-run. • You can now ban specific artifacts in the Emporium during gameplay.
Online Play
• A Singleplayer Mode has been added, allowing players to play completely offline. • Many major issues have been fixed, including infinite loading screens, frequent desyncs, and other bugs. Unfortunately, some problems may still occur, so please report them as soon as possible. We’re doing everything we can to ensure a stable experience by the time version 1.0 launches!
What’s New?
• At least four new interactive objects are coming to the new locations, unlocking fresh content. • Some of Tarra’s abilities have been buffed, and she’s gained a brand-new skill. • The length of a full loop has been increased by one extra planet. • Three new soundtracks, composed specifically for the atmosphere of Palium. • 13 new Steam achievements. • Gatekeepers can now burn and bleed!
What’s Next?
We’re now shifting focus to the next major update, which will introduce the final planet—Crustad.
But before that, we’re also planning to: • Update the Arena with more buildcrafting options. • Add new effects for Chaos Wards. • Introduce new Triads. • Overhaul the final stats screen, adding new parameters and allowing players to view their teammates’ stats.
Welcome to the third part of our devblog series about the Children of Tarra Update. This time, we’re diving into Palium, the fifth planet in Gatekeeper.
Palium is a harsh, rocky world where basalt fields stretch endlessly to the horizon. On its frozen side, the massive Elden Tree towers high enough to be visible from space.
Once, Palium was home to the Carrons, explorers who sought to uncover the planet’s secrets. However, their research ended in catastrophe with the awakening of the ancient Siren—Tarra.
Tarra decimated nearly all life on the planet before creating her own beings to inhabit these desolate lands. Now, Palium is more than just a realm of ruins—it’s a deadly arena where survival hinges on the whims of a destructive force.
Who You’ll Face
Palium is home to a variety of creatures, each presenting unique challenges. Here’s a brief look at some of them:
Emberling
• Friendly in nature, these creatures redirect lava flows beneath the planet’s surface. They tend to avoid Gatekeepers but leave explosive traps in their path.
Cave Creeper
• Ancient inhabitants of Palium, these creatures burrow underground and attack with toxic saliva from a distance or their claws in melee combat.
Mourn
• Ghosts of Carrons tormented by Tarra, they hide within the veins of the Elden Tree and often attack from afar with fiery projectiles.
Caldeon
• One of Palium’s primary guardians. It fights in close quarters, scattering magma clusters and leaving burning pools in its wake.
Ashling
• A mysterious entity that teleports to its target, dealing area damage. It also burrows into the ground, scorching everything around it with a devastating beam.
Hulk
• A massive stone juggernaut that destroys everything in its path. It attacks with enormous pincers, devastating large areas.
Gnash
• The result of Carron experiments with Palium’s resources. It spits acid and strikes with its short but incredibly powerful limbs.
Inferna
• A Rampant from the Ethel dynasty, exiled from Aurora for her differences. Inferna is a highly dangerous opponent with a wide array of skills.
Child of Palium
Familiar from the Arena, this cocoon contains a potential child of Tarra. It defends itself—and its mother—with electrical discharges.
Tarra
• The Siren of Palium. We’ve reworked her abilities, adding new elements. What’s changed? You’ll have to find out in the battle!
Palium introduces new interactive objects to diversify your runs and keep you on your toes. We hope you enjoy every detail of this new planet! That’s all for now. In the fourth and final part of our devblog series, we’ll cover smaller additions and share our plans for the future. See you on Palium! Gravity Lagoon
It’s time to share more about the upcoming Children of Tarra update. Today we’re taking a look at Elites - powerful enemies designed to put your skills to the test.
Elites
Any enemy (except spawned) can take on an elite form. This means you could encounter an elite Grouch in the early stages or face an elite Quake (or even a Colossus) later in your run. As of now, there are five types of elite forms:
Aeonic
• Disables the cooldowns of all Gatekeeper skills (except the first) within a large radius around itself. • Periodically places Aeonic traps around itself, which immobilize a Gatekeeper for several seconds upon activation. • Has double the attack and movement speed compared to its non-elite counterpart.
Astral
• Can phase through enemies and obstacles (except for cliffs). • Every 5% of health lost, launches a projectile at the Gatekeeper who dealt the damage. • Any successful hit leaves a Flicker mark on the Gatekeeper, which explodes after a few seconds, dealing additional damage.
Exalted
• Generates an Aura that heals nearby enemies for a percentage of their max health every second. • If an enemy within the Aura’s radius is about to die, there’s a 50% chance it will be fully revived. • Upon death, the Exalted elite leaves behind a firefly, granting nearby enemies the Immune status for 5 seconds.
Searing
• Is immune to burn effects. • Leaves a trail of fire as it moves. • Spins six fireballs around itself, which deal damage and apply burn when they hit a Gatekeeper. • All attacks from the Searing elite inflict burn.
Opaline
• Possesses a shield layer that regenerates over time. • Its attacks apply Bleed to Gatekeepers. • Upon death, it shatters into shards, embedding into random points on the ground. After a short delay, the shards explode, dealing damage and applying Bleed.
In future updates, we’ll be adding more elite types and introducing new challenges to keep you on your toes. That’s all we have for today. Next time we’ll tell (and show!) you what awaits on the new planet - Palium!
We’ve finally decided to start a dev blog, and this first series will be dedicated to the upcoming update, “Children of Tarra.”
A little nervous, but I’ll manage… Ahem.
Today, we’ll talk about a new Gatekeeper and fixes for some critical issues.
1. Void Model
Void Model is our new pride and, we hope, your next favorite melee Gatekeeper.
Currently, it’s the most mobile Gatekeeper, with its key feature being a passive ability to infect enemies with Entropy.
Each stack of Entropy reduces the enemy’s damage and movement speed, making them more vulnerable to the already deadly Void Model.
Skill Set:
Void Claws Attacks with claws at medium range: two quick strikes, followed by a pause, then a powerful attack with a dash forward, applying Entropy.
Ravage Dashes forward, passing through enemies and dealing damage in a line. Gains +3% attack speed for every enemy hit, lasting 4 seconds.
Fade Enters an incorporeal state, dealing damage over time (DoT) to enemies around for 3 seconds.
Entropy Release Deals damage to all enemies infected with Entropy. Damage increases by 20% for each stack of Entropy.
(Passive) Entropy Touch Spreads Entropy. Each stack of Entropy reduces enemy damage and movement speed by 1% (up to 20 stacks).
As Void Model evolves, more options for spreading and controlling Entropy will become available. We believe fans of fast-paced AoE gameplay will find this Gatekeeper particularly exciting!
2. Crashes, Infinite Loading Screens, Softlocks, etc.
Since the major update released on October 7, 2024, we’ve received numerous reports of issues (most notably, the infamous LOADING SCREEN OF DEATH).
We’re happy to announce that 95% of these issues have been resolved!
We’ve been working closely with the developers of the multiplayer plugin we use, and they’ve been diligently fixing the bugs affecting Gatekeeper over the past few months.
Another issue reported by some players is the loss of save files after an emergency shutdown (e.g., power outages or critical Windows errors). We’re redesigning the save system and introducing backups. In the future, if your save file gets corrupted, the system will automatically restore it from a backup.
Additionally, we’ve reworked the controllers for all Gatekeepers, making them more responsive. For instance, you can now start sprinting immediately after an attack rather than waiting 1–2 seconds. We’ve also fixed many minor bugs in their skills.
That’s all we wanted to share today. This dev blog series will consist of four parts. The second part will be released after the New Year and will discuss the new Elite Enemy system.
For now, our team is taking a short one-week break to recharge before the final sprint toward the release of “Children of Tarra” update.
We wish you a wonderful holiday season! Gravity Lagoon
Today, we are excited to announce the release date of the long-awaited second major update!
The CHILDREN OF TARRA UPDATE will launch on February 20th!
Let us remind you what this update will bring:
New Gatekeeper – Void Model. Void Model is a swift and lethal melee Gatekeeper. All her attacks are designed to boost her movement speed and slip past enemies.
New locations for existing planets.
New Planet – Palium. Palium is the home planet of one of the oldest sirens - Tarra. Previously, you could encounter Tarra only in the Arena; now she will be another obstacle on the path to the Heart of Time in the main campaign.
New System: Artifact Ban for a Run.
Elite Enemies System.
Lots of QoL improvements and bug fixes.
A pack of new artifacts, which we'd like to tell you more about today.
Modifiers:
Bloodletter: Chance to inflict bleeding.
Bulwark: When health drops below a threshold, grants a protective shield over your health that diminishes over time and when taking damage.
Tranquilizer: Critical hits slow enemies for 3 seconds.
Blood Mark: Increases bleeding damage.
Ember Mark: Reduces the delay between burn ticks.
Stasis Mark: Increases the duration of slow effects.
Structure Changes:
Berserker's Token: Killing an enemy increases attack speed for 3 seconds.
Catalyst: Using the second skill creates an electric discharge dealing elemental damage to enemies within a radius of 12 units around the Gatekeeper.
Pulsar: On critical hit, has a chance to summon a meteor at the location of the struck enemy, dealing damage in a small area.
Root: On kill, has a chance to root up to 3 enemies within a radius of 15 units for 5 seconds.
Amulets:
Halfmetal Head: Summons golems that fight alongside the Gatekeeper. They can die and will resurrect after a cooldown.
Runes of Creation:
Momentum: A short dash at the start of sprinting that allows passing through enemies.
Cursed Signatures:
Duality Sigil: In even minutes of the run, the Gatekeeper deals reduced damage, but in odd minutes, damage is significantly increased.
Leech: Attacks with skills 2–3–4 restore health to the Gatekeeper as a percentage of damage dealt, but attacks with the first skill deal damage to the Gatekeeper.
We also want to share an update to the mechanics of some artifacts in our game. We have changed the growth type of their effects to logarithmic.
What does this mean for you?
Early in the game, you won't notice any changes: the effects of artifacts will remain the same as before.
With logarithmic growth, each new stack of an artifact will bring benefits, but the incremental effect will slightly decrease. This adds an extra challenge and makes the late stages of the game more exciting.
This decision was made based on a vote in our Discord community, where we would be happy to see you as well.
What do you think about all this? Share your thoughts in the comments
Vote for Gatekeeper in the Steam Awards 2024!
Greetings, Gatekeepers!
This year has been incredible for the game during its early access journey. We've grown and improved in so many ways, and we’re excited for what’s to come!
We’d love your support in nominating the game for the Better With Friends category, as it truly shines when played in online co-op.
A massive thank you to everyone who backs us in this nomination — your support means the world to us!
And don’t miss our brand-new bundle featuring Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor!
Experience non-stop action and cosmic adventure! Don’t miss your chance to grab both games at an extra 15% off!
Join our community
v0.8.5.20 Now Live!
Hello, Gatekeepers!
Today, we have a small update for you that fixes some issues and adds a few QOL features.
General:
Added teammate HP bars to the player UI.
Updated conditions for obtaining the "Untouchable" achievement.
Added DPS dummies to the Quiet Bay location.
Added a shortcut to the Obelisk of Curse on Quiet Bay.
Colossus and Collector no longer appear in early arena rounds.
The "Beware of Souls" event no longer appears along with the Chaos Ward objective.
Added status effect display on the main HP bar of Sirens.
Improved enemy and interactive object spawning.
Slightly increased scroll sensitivity on scrollable UI elements.
Fixes:
Fixed incorrect functioning of certain Hybrid skill evolutions.
Minor reconnection fixes.
Fixed an issue where the host couldn’t start a run if clients left the lobby.
Storm Rods no longer block Ward points.
Some status effects could reapply to mobs when a client reconnected to the run.
Holding TAB immediately after picking up a new artifact now keeps the inventory panel on screen as intended. Previously, it would disappear.
The minimap no longer stays on the final stats screen.
The melee particle for the Sentry could trigger for clients even after the Sentry’s death.
Fixed some minimap artifacts when a player approaches the edge of a location.
Fixed screen effect triggered by Superiority.
Fixed missing chat message for teammate resurrection.
After reconnecting to a run, Pandora’s double-shot evolution stopped working.
Fractal restored an incorrect amount of HP when triggered.
Enhanced Sentry’s melee attack particle played in the wrong location.
We’ve already started working on new content, and we’re also actively addressing issues with crashes and the infinite loading screen during late-game stages.
Thank you for your valuable feedback!
Gravity Lagoon
Roadmap Update
Hello Gatekeepers!
Due to the release of the Interplanetary Store Update, we’re updating the roadmap and making a few changes:
The artifact ban has been moved to the next major update. We need more time to properly plan and integrate this system.
Considering the number of changes in this update, we decided to postpone the creation of new artifacts to the next major update. The new artifacts will come together with new Triads.
The “Pylons of Chaos” event from the second major update has been transformed into a new quest - “Chaos Ward” - and was released in the current update.
The “Stylization of arenas to match all planets” point has been removed from the roadmap, as we decided to reallocate efforts toward new mechanics and content. Cosmetic changes are still planned but will be worked on in our free time.
With the latest update, the game has grown larger and more complex, so we need more time to integrate new content and develop new systems. The update timelines have shifted slightly to ensure we deliver a higher-quality game.
Thank you for your valuable feedback, which helps make the game better!
Gravity Lagoon
Join our community
What do you think of these changes? Anything you’re excited to try out or worried by? Share your thoughts!
v0.8.5.11 Now Live!
Hello Gatekeepers! Today we have a small patch for you that fixes several issues.
Fixes:
Items on the ground were not showing up on the minimap.
Void Traps weren't disappearing in the arena after the round ended.
Fixed a softlock issue for the host after a client disconnected, if the host was dead and the game was paused.
The first strike of Hybrid's External Bios skill was not dealing damage if there were no other enemies near the target.
General:
Added a warning about losing progress in the pause menu when exiting the game.
Reworked the shooting mechanics of Tech Hunter's first skill. Bullets are now more accurate and tighter at medium and short distances. Additionally, Tech Hunter can now aim at a specific enemy, like Hybrid.
Teammates' head direction (where they are looking) is now visible.
The message about resurrecting a teammate is now displayed in the chat as soon as the progress bar is filled.
Added the option to disable Bloom in the video settings.
Thank you for your valuable feedback! We hope your gaming experience improves.
Gravity Lagoon
v0.8.5.09 Now Live!
Hello Gatekeepers!
Today we have a small patch for you that fixes a few issues.
Fixes:
Omni Stones and artifacts on the ground sometimes didn’t appear on the minimap.
Stones from Nidum’s meteorite were moving with him in certain situations.
Artifact tooltips displayed incorrect values instead of MAX.
The text for the Demon Speeding achievement has been corrected. It’s now officially +200%.
When rerolling in the Forge, the artifact cost progress bar didn’t reset.
+ A small adjustment to the environment in Delta to make moving around the location more convenient.
Thank you for your valuable feedback! We hope your gaming experience improves.
