Today I deep dive into a major update for the game Everholm that’s out NOW. This post is not sponsored, I was just so eager to talk about it!
Everholm is a cozy RPG/farming sim game – released for PC only – that was originally released in November 2024. You play as Lilly, who just arrived in the town of Everholm looking for your missing sister Melanie. What’s weird is that even though Lilly doesn’t remember anyone, everyone knows her. As you make this new place your home and uncover the mystery of what happened, you can farm, forage, fish and do other typical things from games in this genre.
I played the game for the first time last year for about 50 hours. Even though I enjoyed my time with it – kind of obvious from my playtime – I felt that it didn’t fully live up to its potential and I ended up not finishing the story. Not to give away any spoilers, but while the farming mechanics were solid, the story progression was not straightforward, and one of my main complaints were that the NPCs felt one-note, with very basic dialogue. There were so many things I loved about Everholm, though, so I wished there would be more updates to the game to tweak the things I didn’t enjoy.
Needless to say that I was stoked when Chonky Loaf announced that they were working on a major update that addressed some of the complaints from the community.
In this post I’ll be going over some of the changes coming to Everholm with the 2.0 update that is out since February 19. Plus, Mike from Chonky Loaf answered some of my questions about the update and the future of the game – stick out to the end for this short interview! There are no story spoilers in this post.
By the way, if you’re interested in getting the game, it’s currently 40% off on Steam (€11,09 on my local store) until the 4th of March.
What I’m most excited about in Everholm 2.0
I’m looking forward to some changes more than others, so to have a full overview I recommend checking out this developer log update from Steam. Just a side note that I haven’t played the new update yet, so I’m basing myself off this log.
- More NPC depth
NPCs, or Everfolks, got character portraits which they didn’t have before. In my opinion, this really helps to get a better feel for each character individually, since it was hard to rely on just the pixel-art sprites for that.
New dialogue options were introduced, including more references to Melanie and Everholm. I can see this motivating players to interact with NPCs out of curiosity more often (and not just to fulfill quests).
2. Newly introduced Everholm Archive
Now it’s possible to donate some items found in the Underworld to the newly introduced Everholm Archive. But apparently that’s not all that there is to the Archive. According to the dev log, “The Everholm Archive is now a central part of the narrative, connecting lore, exploration, and progression”. I’m super curious to see what this means exactly.
3. Miscellaneous fun stuff
A broom upgrade was introduced, plus a broom minigame. It’s also possible to fly over objects with it now. Flying was one of my favorite mechanics in the game – it feels so relaxing and so unique in a game of the farming sim genre.
New item bundles: a fun part of playing Everholm for me was completing different item bundles (similar to the Community Center in Stardew Valley), so I was glad to read that new ones were added.
Underworld loot progression updated: deeper levels unlock new items. And boss fights seem to have changed as well. There are no other details in the log so I can’t tell what this means for certain, but I felt these parts deserved a little revamp from the previous version of the game, so I wanted to include them in my overview.
There is also a cryptic note from the updates: “one new secret waiting to be discovered”. Please, the suspense!!
4. The Tree of Everholm
Well, I just NEED to know what is this, and why it’s not explained in the log!
Mike from Chonky Loaf answers my questions about this update and the future of the game
I reached out to Mike from the studio that developed Everholm and he was kind enough to answer some of the questions I had. And they were really fascinating to me! Thank you Mike for sharing this glimpse into the background of the game.
Luna: Everholm has quite a compelling story that catches the player attention right from the start, but it also features so many polished mechanics when it comes to the farming sim gameplay. What has inspired you to combine both of these two worlds, rather than choosing to develop solely a farming sim or an RPG?
Mike: Everholm started from the idea of mixing two things I love: the calm, satisfying loop of a Stardew-like farming sim, and the pull of a good mystery.
I didn’t want the story to feel like optional flavour text, or the farming to feel like a side activity – admittedly this was poorly done and rushed for various reasons for the 1.0.
The cozy routine gives the player a sense of home and attachment, and the darker, more intriguing narrative gives that routine weight and purpose. Also, the story isn’t just for the player, it’s for Lilly. You’re stepping into her grief and her search, so the game needed both: a place to live in, and a reason to keep going.
Luna: For the 2.0 update, you dedicated a lot of time to many improvements to the game, some of which had been asked by the player base. What was your process when deciding what would be included in this major update that still matched your vision for Everholm?
Mike: Honestly, most of the feedback we received wasn’t really asking Everholm to become a different game, it was players just pointing out the some gaps we already wanted to fix. At the time we had to ship with limited resources, so 2.0 became our chance to bring the game up to the standard we had in mind from the start.
The process was basically a mix of three filters:
First, we looked at what was blocking enjoyment or clarity the most, things that affected many players and showed up repeatedly.
Second, we prioritized changes that improved the core loop without compromising the tone of Everholm: cozy daily life, but with mystery and narrative weight.
And third, we asked: will this make the game feel more like a complete experience, not just more content?
That’s why 2.0 focuses so heavily on polish, readability, and deeper story delivery. It covers a lot of ground, and yeah, it took way longer than I hoped, but I wanted the update to feel meaningful rather than rushed.
Luna: Is there anything you’d like to tell the players about the 2.0 update and the future of Everholm?
Mike: I’m super excited, and a little nervous, to see how people react to 2.0 because it’s the closest Everholm has been to what I originally pictured. If there’s one thing I’m most proud of, it’s how the Archive, the Everholm Tree, and the expanded dialogue system now connect into a much clearer and stronger sense of what the game is really about. The mystery feels more present, and the characters feel a lot more personal.
And this is only the foundation. After 2.0, my goal is to keep expanding in a way that makes sense for Everholm: more character stories and cutscenes, more dialogue depth, more customization, new areas and islands, achievements, language support and new characters.
I want the base game to feel solid and complete first, and then keep growing Everholm for as long as I can. Most of all, thank you for the patience and the feedback. It helped shape this update in a really direct way, and I hope players can feel that the moment they jump in.
A big thanks to Mike for taking the time to answer these questions!
Have you played Everholm or are you considering picking up the game? Let me know in the comments!
Thank you for reading,
-Luna
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