Eldkin is an indie side-scrolling RPG adventure that blends creature collecting, real-time combat, exploration, crafting, and building in a vast procedural pixel-art world. Players bond with kin creatures to dig, craft, fight, and traverse layers from floating sky continents down to the Sun Core on PC.
Gameplay
The core loop centers on bonding with kin in a living world where every block can be dug or built upon. Players weaken wild kin before capturing them with orbs, then rely on real-time battles where a partner kin attacks independently while the player calls specific moves, dodges attacks, and repositions the creature. Over 130 kin offer distinct moves, evolutions, and abilities across eight elemental types such as Ember, Flora, Gale, and Umbra, with nearly 100 moves available to learn and swap. Kin can be ridden for traversal options including ground gallops, flight, swimming through submerged areas, and crossing lava flows, while their abilities open paths through environmental obstacles like burning brambles or freezing lakes.
Progression involves ascending kin to one of 19 legendary third forms, each featuring a unique screen-filling ultimate attack. Exploration spans generated biomes from Hearthvale meadows through Glimmer Hollows, Drowned Halls, Ember Deep, and into the Aerie via the Divine Labyrinth. Sixteen dungeons feature traps, keys, puzzles, and arena battles against elite kin, complemented by more than 50 trials involving light beams, water cisterns, ice slides, echo stones, push blocks, magma crossings, star altars, and temple braziers. Over 60 landmarks and hundreds of sites hold rare finds such as shiny kin, mighty alphas, rare eggs, and legendary creatures that appear only after the sun returns.
World events dynamically alter the environment with phenomena like meteor showers, sandstorms, petal storms, lantern nights, eruptions, and kraken surges, each dropping unique materials. Between adventures, the town of Hearthvale expands with new villagers and crafts. Players mine ores to craft tools, gadgets, orbs, and gear at workbenches, the Forge, and the Sun Anvil, including 47 armor sets with set bonuses. Additional activities include fishing, riding mine-cart tracks, hatching eggs at the kin den, completing bounties, and customizing a hero through a character creator with hats, outfits, and a wardrobe system that displays any look over equipped gear.
Game Modes
Eldkin supports solo play or online co-op for up to four players. In co-op, friends join through invites or by opening the world publicly, sharing a single persistent world for joint digging, building, exploration, and guardian fights. Each player brings their own hero along with their kin, inventory, and coins, carrying progress and rewards back to their individual worlds. Experience points are shared among nearby players, and all participants can battle and bond with wild kin together. Six guardians block access to deeper layers of the world, with each defeat unlocking new tools, mounts, and town residents. The journey culminates in confronting the Eclipse Wyrm to restore the sun, after which Eclipse Rifts, guardian rematches, legendary hunts, and the Trial of Ascension become available.
Exploration and Progression
Procedural generation from a seed ensures varied layouts across the massive world, from cloud-top continents to the Sun Core. Rare materials from events feed into crafting and building a personal home with walls, doors, windows, furniture, and lanterns. The town grows organically as players advance, introducing new crafts and opportunities. Controller support covers Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo, and Steam Deck layouts, with full Steam Cloud saves and achievements.
Is It Worth Playing?
Eldkin suits players who enjoy side-scrolling exploration combined with creature collecting, real-time combat, and sandbox building in a single-player or small-group co-op setting. The emphasis on kin bonding, ability-driven traversal, and layered world discovery provides a focused loop of capture, customization, and progression through dungeons and events. Those drawn to procedural worlds with crafting depth and optional multiplayer sharing will find consistent engagement in its systems, while the absence of large-scale multiplayer keeps the experience intimate and self-paced.
