Just to recap:
There were early backer tiers that granted special items:
- Explorer granted the Explorer’s Fist weapon
- Wayfarer granted the Wayfarer’s Totem tool
- All early backers got free access to a special mask (“craftable wearable”) in the Exchange
After 1.0 was went live in August 2018 I could craft the Explorer’s Fist and the Wayfarer’s Totem because I was an early backer.
When Boundless went GA in September 2018, the devs announced the Digital Deluxe edition, which came with a special weapon, the Golden Fist. Shortly it was discovered that there was a snafu with some of the early backer upgrade keys on Steam and there was a kerfuffle. As a result, Digital Deluxe subscribers ended being treated essentially like the early backer Explorer. I suspect some kind of internal enumeration or bitmap clash, but at this point they’re essentially the same in terms of benefits down to the tag you can display beside your name. Note that other perqs were adjusted for backers at the same time.
In short, if you buy the DDE you can feel like an early backer, but without the experience of being a block of cheese running around whacking headless turkeys or the ability to fall off the edge of the world. You can craft the Golden Fist, and evidently the Explorer’s Fist because you’re treated as an Explorer early access backer.
To make it more confusing, if you’re an early-access Explorer, you still need to purchase the DDE to be able to craft the Golden Fist.