Timberborn Beginner’s Guide | Tips & Tricks

Timberborn is a city-building game in which you construct impressive structures using wood and ingenuity. Similar to other city-building games, players must cultivate food, collect resources, and oversee a workforce. 

The game can get pretty complex as you unlock more lines of production, so if you’re struggling, this guide will help you streamline things.

Research takes time

Science points in Timberborn take some time to generate, especially at higher levels. So you would never want to waste your science points. You should make sure you know what research unlocks what and be efficient with them. For example, you should definitely get the stairs early as they’ll let you access higher elevations. 

Similarly, generating power is a must, so dams and their related structures are necessary. However, you generally don’t need to get that many well-being structures or decorations.

You will also be able to unlock every structure whenever you want, as the only prerequisite is having a certain number of science points. This means you may just accidentally research one or two tiers higher, so you would ideally avoid that, too.

Pause Frequently

Pausing is your best friend. As soon as the game starts, you should pause to get a hold of your bearings. Check out your surroundings and plan things out, at least until the initial resources. This includes your first water source, berry picker, and woodcutter. Later on in the game, don’t forget to pause if you’re in a pickle or suddenly have a lot to deal with.

This especially comes in handy when you’re nearing a drought or Badwater Flood and need to either quickly build more water storage or dams or turn off all your water pumps.

Logs, Logs, and More Logs

Logs are pretty much your greatest resource, so you should always try to have as many as you can store. Especially on harder difficulties, you will be bottlenecked by Logs. Logs are easy to obtain early in the game. But during the mid-game, you will encounter a lot of shortages because you will not be able to create districts. So you’ll need to ration your remaining logs or try to get a Forrester.

Forrester & Trees

The Forrester is something you should unlock as quickly as possible, and you may start growing trees through it. This gives you a steady source of logs as well as access to a few other resources.

By far, the most valuable tree to grow is Maple, as maple trees produce the most wood and maple syrup. However, Maple trees require 30 days to grow.

If you’re in a hurry, Pine and Birch are the way to go. Avoid Chestnut Trees unless you want them for food.

Careful Housing

You should always ensure you have careful housing. Housing is what allows the Folktail population to grow, so you should gradually build more houses. The size of the house doesn’t really matter; however, the larger ones provide more value per grid.

Remember that there’s no way to stop the population from growing if there are empty plots. So keep that in mind, or you’ll have a population boom at hand.

Vertical Building

Now, remember that you can build vertically as well. Many buildings in the game also have flat roofs. So you should use that and make things more efficient. For example, having wheat be generated in the same area and then building a Grind Mill right on top of the storage, then a bakery right beside it.

Food

Speaking of bread, they are by far the most valuable food resource to have. They give the most food per grid. However, to get to baking bread, you’ll need to go through many hurdles. So you’re better off with Carrots and Berries in the meantime.

Also, check out our Timberborn Review and other guides on Timberborn below:

• Timberborn Guide | How To Survive Droughts & Badwater
• Timberborn Guide | New Districts Expansion
• Timberborn | Resource Guide