One of the biggest problems with Early Access - and pre-release alpha access in general - is that it's now possible to buy a game that doesn't include a grappling hook. Sure, to some extent you can be comforted by the knowledge that, as a game, the developers will eventually add a grappling hook. But what are you supposed to do before that unknown milestone? Luckily, for owners of Starbound, that question has been resolved as of today's major update. Oh, and it's also rebalanced everything in the game and added a significant amount of other new stuff.
Here's the change list, courtesy of the Reddits.
HUGE balance patch, every item, creature, armour and weapon rebalanced. Levelling system entirely rewritten
Added early implementation of creature taming (more features coming soon)
Added new mining items
Added new weapons
Added new throwable items
Added grappling hook
Added new boss and new sector of the galaxy
Added a stance system to weaponry, not currently used but will allow us to add secondary attacks to weaponry very soon.
Tons of new sounds
Guns more common in tier 3
Underground detached/rare biomes more common
Underground random encounters more common
Underground chests more common
Ore rebalance (probably way way too much ore at the moment, will be fixed later, enjoy it)
Baby monsters
New monster palettes
Added pixel compressor for high cost banking (idea from Ncrpts)
Disable using the beam-axe to light caves underground
Added new hats
some monsters now graze on grass (can look ugly, needs finishing)
Small bipeds now socialise with each other
All the monsters behave smarter and are less likely to get stuck
You can no longer attack through blocks
Fix the game on XP (hopefully)
Tons more fixes and smaller additions
While it's still early in the balancing process, the new levelling system has been designed to more easily allow for improvements over time. Expect a long adjustment period, then. Not that it should be a problem, as long as the game still lets people do cool stuff like this:
Now we just need to wait for other Early Access titles to get their grappling hooks. Come on GODUS.
