Underkeep Beginner Guide (2026)

The opening path the posts agree on

The demo, and the launch review of the full game, both start in a forest approach and then enter a dungeon. Food sits in its own bar in the demo shot: meat, bread, an apple. A camp control is part of the same interface family as the turn buttons. Exact hunger math is not printed, so this page will not tell you how many apples equal a rest.

Difficulty and the crate

Three difficulty settings exist, and you can change them during a run. They mainly change fights. After the February 2026 Next Fest, the studio said many players got stuck destroying a wooden crate, and that the release would teach that action more clearly. If the first room feels obtuse, that crate is the documented stumbling block, not a secret.

Controls and comfort

Keys can be rebound. You can turn off animations, impact sounds, camera shake, and the delay before a tooltip. Saves are available without a timer, and the store categories include mouse-only and touch input. Naming a hero on a controller: launch Big Picture, stand on the name field, and press Y for the on-screen keyboard. That tip is from the developer FAQ.

Controller support itself is a conflict, written up on the platforms page: Steam says partial, the studio’s own copy says full. I am not telling a new player “the pad works completely”.

Party building, if you want roles before you commit four names, sits on the party page. Class spellings that disagree between the developer and a review sit on the classes page.