Humanity is gone and the appliances are taking over in Gravebound.
Crater Studios’ co-op PvE extraction shooter launches into Steam Early Access today, dropping up to six players into a post-apocalyptic wasteland where household technology has evolved into something scary. We’re talking fridge tanks, sniper microwaves, exploding toasters, and angry vacuums. Let’s just say the smart home revolution got a little out of hand.
Welcome to the Appliance Apocalypse
Every run sends you into the wasteland to fight machines, complete objectives, collect loot, and hopefully get back out with everything you’ve found. The basic extraction rule applies. The further you push, the better the potential rewards. It also means stronger enemies and a much greater chance of losing everything before you reach safety.
You can head out solo or bring up to five other players along, with Gravebound now built entirely around PvE rather than putting squads against one another. That wasn’t always the plan though. Earlier this year, Crater Studios made a major shift away from PvP after testing the game with its community. A March playtest disabled player-versus-player combat completely and pushed Gravebound toward a more social co-op experience instead.
The machines became the problem, including a murderous blender 😦.
Get In, Get Stronger, Get Out
Loot isn’t the only thing you’re chasing during a run. Weapon stations scattered across the wasteland let you upgrade your gear while you’re still out there, improving damage, magazine size, armor, and other stats before the difficulty catches up with you.
Relics and Augmentations provide another way to shape a build, with different combinations changing how your character develops as the run continues. Then there’s the bosses. Crater Studios has already revealed several of the larger appliances waiting around the wasteland, including the Blender, TV, Jukebox, and Freezer. Each has its own attacks and mechanics rather than simply being a larger version of the machines you’ve already been shooting.
Kill them, grab whatever they’re guarding, and decide whether you’ve pushed your luck far enough. Extraction shooters don’t usually reward greed for very long.
Death Isn’t the End of Everything
Not all of your progress disappears when a run falls apart. Persistent progression lets your character continue getting stronger between attempts, with skills and other upgrades opening up more options over time. That means each expedition feeds into the next one even when you don’t make it back with the haul you were hoping for.
The current Early Access build includes multiple playable zones, different weapons and gear, bosses, and an initial faction system. Crater Studios says balancing, progression, and content variety are still being actively worked on, which is exactly why the team is launching through Early Access rather than calling the game finished.
The studio currently expects that period to last somewhere between 10 and 18 months. More maps, factions, weapons, enemies, and extraction scenarios are planned as development continues, alongside possible dynamic events and faction quests.
Gravebound Starts Its Early Access Run Today
Today’s launch comes after months of demos and public playtests that have already changed Gravebound a lot. The public demo was retired back in March so Crater Studios could focus on Early Access development, but testing continued through community events and key drops while the PvE direction was refined.
Now the wider player base gets to see where those changes have landed. The goal is simple enough. Head into the wasteland, get better gear, build something powerful, and extract before the machines take it all back.