Single-world MMO Bitcraft Online implements highly requested new control scheme

Two weeks on from its launch, the first Bitcraft Online update brings one of the most-requested features to the new sandbox MMO with the introduction of a new, direct control scheme. Out now on Steam, Bitcraft takes the satisfaction of gathering resources and building a town with your friends in Minecraft, fuses that with the long-form skill grind of Old-School Runescape, and lays it across a singular, shared world to create a truly player-led experience. Now, its first update makes several welcome additions, including the option to switch from its default click-to-move to WASD controls.

While Bitcraft Online allows you to run solo, it's very much designed as a collaborative experience. Even if you're planning to spend most of your time exploring by yourself, joining an empire allows you to work alongside your fellow players and combine your respective skills to build out a settlement you can all be proud of. It's attempting to foster a sense of community that could rival our best MMORPGs, and, in order to do that, developer Clockwork Laboratories wants to ensure it's approachable by as many people as possible.

Even traditionally click-to-move games such as Diablo 4 and Path of Exile 2 have embraced WASD controls to a great response in recent years, and the option is now similarly present in Bitcraft Online. "This is by no means a perfect implementation," its developer cautions, "but it's a cleaned up version of one we had tested internally. We have countless more improvements we will be adding to it if it proves popular, but we opted to get what we had out to you this week [rather] than hold it back longer."

The update also introduces several hair colors, including a blonde option available from character creation and several more flashy options available to buy from the Twins, Bitcraft Online's traveling traders. There are new elixirs available for Scholars to make that apply a range of active effects to benefit gathering and crafting. You'll find additional pavements to use at every tier, and can now quickly see a settlement's tier by right-clicking it on the map.

The marketplace menus have been improved. You should now be able to edit orders, default prices have been made smarter, and you can check what's currently being bought without needing to have it in your inventory. Shops will update their cost to show the total amount when buying in multiples. Quest tracking has been given an overhaul, making it easier to re-track objectives, carts and mounts are now able to travel through swaps, fish won't despawn while frenzied, and you'll gradually earn experience when sailing or riding mounts.

Clockwork Laboratories says it's made some improvements to the issue causing FPS drops when opening and closing the map, but notes that a larger fix is in the works. It's also reduced such drops that could occur when crossing the boundaries between chunks. Holding the climb key as you approach will automatically scale obstacles, rather than needing you to re-press it once prompted. You're able to skip individual onboarding quests rather than being forced into an all-or-nothing approach, and can now mute a player from the context menu without needing to report them.

This first Bitcraft Online update is live now. You can read through the patch notes courtesy of Clockwork Worlds for a full rundown of all the changes, tweaks, and fixes.

Whether you're in the market to explore or expand, we've picked out the best open-world games and the best sandbox games in 2025 to ensure you're rich with choices.

You can follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides. We've also got a vibrant community Discord server, where you can chat about this story with members of the team and fellow readers.