Dice, Dodos, & Hot Dads: Roots of Pacha 1.3 Update is LIVE NOW!

Note: You’ll want to use a completed save file to access everything Roots of Pacha 1.3 has to offer.

Roots of Pacha by indie developer Soda Den is one of my favorite farming sims of all time. I own the game twice—on Steam and Nintendo Switch—so when the PR team reached out to offer me a code, I had to politely decline. But when they offered me early access to the new Roots of Pacha v1.3 update content… now we’re talking! 👀

If you aren’t in the know, Roots of Pacha is essentially “prehistoric Stardew Valley.” And I don’t use the Stardew Valley-like label lightly. Roots of Pacha isn’t just a high-quality farming sim—it works to reinvent the genre, much like Stardew Valley did post-Harvest Moon.

Roots of Pacha does some truly innovative things with the “farming simulation” genre. It does away with currency in favor of Clan Prosperity and bartering, reflecting the familial nature of ownership in pre-capitalist societies. Contribute to the clan, and you’ll gain access to resources gathered and crafted by others. Want to trade with external clans? Swapping local goods will do the trick.

It also introduces a revolutionary “Ideas” system, where you help clan members invent tools we now take for granted—like cheesecloth, composters, irrigation trenches, and casks. Engaging with someone who enjoys fishing might put you on the path to inventing a fishing trap. Talking to someone with an excess of fruit could inspire them to create a jam maker. Or my personal favorite: you don’t know what time it is during the day until you invent and construct a sundial.

Roots of Pacha is also experimenting with an evolution system. You collect seeds in nature, grow wild tomatoes, and through repeated cultivation, watch them gradually transform into the fruit we know today. Similarly, with animal breeding, you might start with some sort of wild game and then selectively breed the best of them until you end up with something resembling a modern cow, chicken, or sheep. That’s the idea on the roadmap, anyway.

This is why I was so excited to try out the Roots of Pacha v1.3 update. It’s not just bug fixes and QoL upgrades—it’s a cacophony of new content, including new areas, new NPCs, a new questline, new inventions, new festivals, and new activities. Plus, a kooky story twist introduces a built-in Completionism Run for anyone looking to 100% the game. (More on that in another post.)

With that being said, let’s take a look at everything new in Roots of Pacha 1.3.

New Tribe Areas: Mograni Tundra & Yakuan Islands

The Mograni tribe and the Yukuan tribe—the two opposing factions you unite at the end of the base game—will each invite you to their camp. The Mograni Tundra lies at the eastern edge of the plains, accessible by climbing the cliffs with a ladder. The Yukuan tribe lives across three islands connected by rafts, which you can reach from the docks on the southern beach.

Each new area features three distinct sub-regions. For example, the Mograni Tundra climbs upward from a lightly forested region to a snowy mountain peak. The Yukuan Islands each have a unique theme, ranging from an old-growth treehouse to a mangrove forest dotted with cherry blossoms. Across these six new sub-regions, you’ll encounter a handful of new NPCs, new outfits, new animals (including panda bears and dodos), and new seeds.

There are also new minigames—one of which is called Dice, and I am simply obsessed. You can practice solo or play against an NPC. Basically, you roll two dice and try to push down the numbers that match your total. So, if I roll a 1 and a 2, I could push down [1 and 2] or [3], depending on which tiles I have left on the board. The game ends when neither player can move any more tiles—either because all of them have been selected or the dice just aren’t giving you what you need.

I chased my high score in circles for a while and—whoops—suddenly an hour was gone IRL.

You’ll also discover a mysterious cave system—the Sun and Moon Caves—which leads directly into the new questline…

Sun & Moon Caves Quest

That’s right—Roots of Pacha 1.3 introduces a brand-new, and quite substantial, questline. The Sun and Moon Caves are located in the Mograni Tundra and the Yukuan Islands, respectively. Each cave features mining spots, doorways sealed by strange glyphs, and murals depicting the tale of the Sun and Moon Siblings’ ancient quarrel.

To unlock the doors and venture deeper into each cave system, you’ll need a sigil that matches the glyph on the door. These sigils are sealed beneath six dying trees, which can only be revived through cross-pollination using bugs found throughout the new regions.

This unlocks a new mechanic: Bug catching!

A fun little physics-lite minigame has you push bugs together so you can scoop them up all at once. The more you harvest, the more varieties begin to appear—including rarer versions of each insect. Keep playing to expand your Bug Habitat Knowledge and catch every species!

Once you’ve brought all six trees back to life, you’ll be able to progress to the end of the new cave systems. But what awaits you there? I’ll leave that for you to discover. It’s a huge spoiler, so I’ll cover it in another article at a later date.

You can also unlock a seedling from each tree by—yep, you guessed it—collecting even more bugs. It’s completely optional, but super cool. I’m currently waiting on my powder pink cherry tree to grow as we speak.

New Romance Options

Roots of Pacha has some of the hardest-to-pronounce but most dearly beloved marriage candidates in any farming or life sim I know. The clans embrace a more free-love philosophy, so you can unite with just one of them (“marriage”) but date around as much as you like. Your significant other will, too, in some cases.

That means even if you’re “committed” in your current save file, you can still meet and mingle with the new characters. Let’s take a moment to meet the strapping singles:

Azkel – from Mograni Tundra

THAT’S RIGHT, YOU GET TO DATE A HOT DAD. Finally, some good friggin’ content.

Azkel is a Mograni mountain dweller with long silver hair and a badass scar over one eye. He is a man of few words, preferring to grunt monosyllabically.

He respects people who help others, enjoys hunting amongst the pine trees, and is very interested in your clan’s brewing invention. He didn’t seem overly impressed by my tomato wine, though I can hardly blame him. He believes the position of leader suits Zeda well even though she’s young, so he doesn’t seem like a “Get off my lawn” Boomer type.

He grunts when I give him gifts, which could just as easily mean Thank You as much as it could Yuck. His daughter’s name is Koli, and she is probably about your avatar’s age. He used to search for raiders and hunt them down, but now struggles with the heavy weight of his past violence.

Sayra – Yakuan Islands

Sayra kept calling me darling, even though we just met. I’m going to be honest… I just went with it. I mean, look at her. Hubba hubba.

She spends her time on various Yukuan islands, though the mangrove one seems to be her favorite haunt. She lingers by the beach, watching the waves.

Sayra is flirty and friendly and fun. She calls people darling and I imagine she says it with a coquettish drawl. She played a lot of ball growing up (a festival minigame that looks like minimalist foosball). She quit after she chipped a nail; which like, mood, girl. She wears all violet, from her dress to the adornments in her hair. Her eyes are red-brown. She finds empty shells on the beach and pontificates about the afterlife.

She always thought she would die young, but her brother did instead. She promised him she’d burn a necklace they shared in a pyre to let him know she was okay after he passed. She has yet to throw it in.

New Festivals: Lune & Quro

There are two new festivals on Spring 8 and Spring 26: one lunar-themed (Festival of Lune) and one solar-themed (Festival of Quro).

The lunar festival is a stunning lanterns-by-the-full-moon spectacle, where you can hang out with the Yukuan tribe, play games, tell stories, and then let the homemade lanterns fly. It takes inspiration from Sky Lantern Festivals in Thailand, where thousands of floating lanterns are released into the sky. These events tend to symbolize letting go of misfortune and making wishes for the future.

The solar festival is a firewalk! A firewalk is a ritual or ceremonial practice where people walk barefoot across a bed of hot embers, stones, or burning wood. It’s practiced by Indigenous Fijians and other Pacific Islanders. Clearly the inspiration here, you’ll watch clan leaders walk across hot coals in a blazing show of courage.

For each event you can chat with everyone around the various campfires, play some festival-exclusive minigames, and then watch the cutscene to wrap up the night. Let me tell you: These festivals might be light on interactive content, but they are rich in aesthetically pleasing scenes that I can’t wait to use for feature images.

Roots of Pacha 1.3 New Content Summary

Here’s a simple list of everything you can expect in Roots of Pacha 1.3:

Mograni Mountains: 3 sub-regions (Plains, Camp, Fire)
Yakuan Islands: 3 sub-regions (Main Island, Mangrove, Mountain)
Two new festivals on Spring 8 and 26
New mini-game called “Dice” + a music/rhythm mini-game
New gatherables: Soaproot, rye seeds, lentil seeds, and rice seeds
New animals to tame: Pandas, dodos, mouflons, and sivatherium
New ideas: Jam processor, fishing traps, fishing lines
New cosmetics like outfits and decor
New activity: Bug catching
A smattering of new NPCs
New romance candidates: Azkel and Sayra
Animal evolution (End of Sun Caves)
Plant evolution (End of Moon Caves)
A Completionism checklist with story components to 100% the game

So, what do you think? Is that enough to make you pick Roots of Pacha back up, or even try this delightfully cozy game for the first time?

Stay cozy, gamers!