Timberborn – Tips and Tricks

I’ve seen a lot of people confused about some of Timberborn’s mechanics and systems, so I figured I’d create a guide to help dispel some of that confusion.

Beginners Tips and Tricks

All credit goes to kyeudo!

So, You Just Got Timberborn…

For those who are just starting out, there’s a lot to digest and a lot of easy traps to fall into.

• You currently start with a Builder’s Hut, which defaults to only having two job slots open. Increase those open job slots to four to get more beavers working quickly.
• The first thing you should build in a new game is a Log Pile, followed by a Water Pump. Lumberjacks won’t cut down trees if they don’t have a Log Pile to store the logs in. Meanwhile, beavers won’t show that they are thirsty until day 2, but by then you’ll have sunk your first batch of logs into other things such as housing, making it much harder to recover.
• Beavers won’t cut down a tree unless you mark them for harvest.
• Early on, you need a lot of logs to build important structures, so placing a second Lumberjack Flag early and then reducing the number of builder jobs available to force your beavers to crew it is a great way to get the ball rolling.
• You start with some food, but you need to get a reliable food source into production before it runs out. A Gatherer Flag will help you extend your food supply, but berries grow too slowly to sustain your colony. You’ll need to build a Farmhouse and start a field of carrots and you will want to start it before building housing for all your beavers.
• The first dry season shows up around day 20. During the dry season, the water sources (they look like piles of black rocks, usually on one of the edges of the map) stop producing water, which causes all of the water in the river to flow away. Before that happens, you’ll want to be prepared. There are two ways to do this: dam the river or stockpile food and water. You’ll pick one of these methods for your first dry season and use a combination of them for later dry seasons.
• Damming the river is the most straightforward solution on most maps, but it takes a lot of logs for all of the Dam segments. If the river is too wide or you are playing on an island map, this can take too long to be feasible. Also keep in mind that as you build more Water Pumps to supply your growing population that it will become possible to pump the river dry.
• Stockpiling food and water requires you to build three or four Small Water Tanks, an extra Water Pump, an extra Small Warehouse, and an extra Farmhouse. Later dry seasons will be longer and your population will be bigger, so preparations like these will become ever more important.
• The next big challenge you will run into will likely be a lack of logs. You can delay this by gradually spreading your colony out to reach for new stands of trees, but you will need a Forester and an area to farm trees in eventually. To accomplish this, you’ll need an Inventor’s Hut, a Carpenter, and a source of power, such as a Water Wheel or Power Wheel. The power source and the Carpenter will produce the planks you need to build the Forester, while the Inventor’s Hut will produce the science points you need to unlock the Forester. Once you have a forester beaver, he can start planting trees.
• Be careful spending research points. Some structures require resources that come from other research-locked structures in order to be useful, such as the Large Water Tank requiring gears to construct or the Explosives Factory requiring paper to operate.

Common Questions (FAQ)

How do I get my beavers to build what I want them to build?

Beavers build things in the order you place them down. Even if you don’t have enough resources for the structure, they will deliver all of the resources they can to that structure before they move on to the next structure to build. As such, you can force your builders to work on a structure you placed down later by pausing or deleting the structures you placed down before the one you want to prioritize.

If you have multiple Builder’s Huts or Builder’s Flags, each one will work on the earliest thing they can reach.

Why does my building site say that it can’t get all of its required resources?

There are three things that need to be in range of a building site before it can be completed: a builder to work on it, a Log Pile to supply logs, and a warehouse to supply any planks, gears, or metal the structure needs. If you are seeing that message, check the nearest Log Piles to see if they are in range of the site, then look for a nearby warehouse. If both of those things are in place, you simply need to wait for haulers to move the planks, gears, or metal into the warehouse for the builders to use.

I have jobless beavers and buildings that need workers. What’s going on?

A beaver has to live within range of a job in order to work at the job. Build a Lodge near the job site and the problem should go away. If you can’t afford to build a Lodge right away but you have homeless beavers, you can try deleting some Sleeping Mats; the homeless beavers may build their new Sleeping Mat closer to the job site.

My farmers won’t harvest my crops. What’s going on?

All of the warehouses within range are full. Build another warehouse and they’ll get back to work.

My farmers don’t replant until they are done harvesting everything. How do I get them to replant as they go?

Set at least one of the Farmhouses to prioritize planting. Those beavers will plant the empty plots before moving on to harvesting.

My Water Wheel isn’t working. What’s wrong?

Water Wheels require a minimum amount of current before they will turn. If it isn’t the dry season and this Water Wheel was previously working just fine, you may now be pumping enough water out of the river to drop the current or new Dams or Levees may have altered the way water is flowing through the river.

What is the difference between a Dam and a Levee?

The difference is in how water overflows each. A Dam will let water flow past once the water level reaches just below the top of the Dam, while a Levee will hold water back until the water level rises above the top of the Levee. When building a dam across a canyon to create a reservoir, only the topmost layer should be made of Dams. All other segments should be Levees.

How do I release water from a reservoir?

Currently, the only way to release water from a reservoir is to delete sections of the dam. Start from the top most level and delete each layer only when the last is done flowing out in order to prevent flooding or wasting water.