The Last Caretaker has had numerous updates and support since it launched into Early Access on the 6th November 2025, and now, Channel37 has launched what could be its biggest yet. Featuring a new progression system, a new whale encounter, new tools, and more besides, it’s the game’s most revolutionary update yet, and one of its best. Full details below:
Per Channel37:
Channel37 released Update 5: New Horizons, the next major Early Access update for The Last Caretaker, available on Steam and the Epic Games Store discounted by 20% to $27.99 / €23.99 / £21.59.
At the center of the update is Project Eden, a new progression path that turns committee progress into visible change within the world. As restoration seeds are returned from orbit and committee efforts grow, Eden rises from the sea: a stepped garden slowly rebuilding a future that once seemed impossible.
INCOMING DIRECTIVE: WATCH UPDATE 5 – NEW HORIZONS
Update 05: New Horizons highlights include:
- Project Eden introduces a new progression system built around construction, crafting, skills, quests, unlocks, and committee-driven restoration.
- The Committees Awaken, creating new ways for humans in orbit to influence the future through long-term development goals.
- Project Jonah introduces a new whale encounter, questline, lore, rewards, and a dedicated encounter location.
- Cultural Memories expand the world’s history through Cave Paintings, HoloMemories, Samples, and new discovery systems.
- New tools and systems include TideRipper™ Hand Jets, the Rhino Dismantler, Recovery Grinder, PECO Grid Scan 2000, Data Recovery Deck music playback, and Rocket Payload fabrication.
- Enhanced localization: Italian and Spanish in-game text translations added
Update 05: New Horizons marks a shift in the player’s role. Previous updates focused on survival, recovery, and preservation. Project Eden begins the next stage: rebuilding.
Players can now gather Samples and send discoveries to space, recover fragments of lost culture through statues and cave paintings, construct Eden modules, cultivate new plants and trees, and unlock progression systems tied directly to humanity’s long-term future.
The update also expands exploration with the Research Outpost Theta-9, a sealed facility built to study Roth’s Anomaly, alongside new questlines, additional progression content, and broad improvements to existing locations.
Alongside its new content, New Horizons delivers a major technical and quality-of-life update. Weather and wave systems have been upgraded, memory consumption reduced, HDR support added, controller and UI improvements expanded, and performance optimized across gameplay systems, weather, vehicles, physics, cables, and large save games.
The Last Caretaker is available now in Early Access on Steam and the Epic Games Store, currently discounted by 20% $27.99 / €23.99 / £21.59
Have you played The Last Caretaker? Will you be jumping in thanks to Update 5: New Horizons? Let us know in the comments below?
Luke Addison is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Thumb Wars. Having previously been a part of multiple outlets over the years, including building an entire gaming team from nothing to something, he thought it best to forge his own path and answer only to himself. As likely to be found playing the latest game as he is in the kitchen relaxing (by cooking), he always brings the same bold and brash attitude to everything he does, with a heavy leaning on sarcasm and dry wit!
