Hello everyone!

Two years ago, on September 15, 2021, our incredible beaver journey began with the release of Timberborn Early Access. It’s our studio’s debut title and back then, we had little idea what reception to expect. Today, we’re very proud to announce that over one million players picked up the game so far!

We thank you for your continued support, as it allows us to polish the gameplay and add more cool new features ahead of Timberborn’s full release. You’ll get a taste of that in the near future, as the work on the game-changing Update 5 is well underway.

To celebrate today’s milestone, we’ve prepared a new gameplay trailer. Timberborn has evolved a lot in the past two years, after all! Beaver bots and terraforming are now a thing. Both Folktails and the Iron Teeth received lots of unique buildings, and their food production chains are now completely different. There are many new crops and trees. The game had its share of reworks and tweaks, too - districts are now unlimited, the storage system was fully replaced, and the framerates are up to 80% higher. The fresh trailer allows us to show at least some of that!

By the way: in our headcanon, the launch video was narrated by Ol’ Kazko, so this time, it was Ma’ Ngonel’s time to shine. And it happened, thanks to the amazing Elle Newlands! You might recognize her voice from Diablo 4 or Apex Legends, among other titles.

Enjoy!



Once again, we thank you for these exciting two years and all the feedback you sent us. We’re looking forward to sharing with you what comes next, in Update 5.

Until then,
Mechanistry a.k.a. Team Timberborn

Hello everyone,

We're proud to say that our second map-building contest on Mod.io generated quite a buzz! With 250 entries, picking the winners was a difficult task, but thanks to the people’s vote held within the studio, we managed to narrow the selection with some extra insight from our Game Designer Adrian!

The three maps we liked most will earn their makers 1000 EUR each (as well as an eternal place in the game's credits). The competition was fierce, with single votes deciding victors, so we’ll also have three honorable mentions in each category.

On top of the usual criteria of originality, visuals, and gameplay value, this competition had a theme of verticality. We opened that to interpretation and saw the creators develop many different approaches. We’ve seen height jumps that required investing in stairs, the verticality revealing itself after water levels dropped, steep hills that encouraged building on platforms, and all kinds of narrow valleys with cascading rivers where stacking buildings helps expand across limited space.

Without further ado, here are our favourite maps of Build-a-Map Contest 2! Follow the links to download them from https://mod.io/g/timberborn?tags-in=Build-a-Map+Contest+2 (or check out the Mod Manager to do that within the game).


This map creator has taken verticality to their heart, filling the limited map area with extreme height differences and allowing for interesting water circulation using the aqueduct-like walls. We have seen several similar designs across all map sizes, but this one came ahead in the team's voting session with its varied, semi-symmetrical setup that turns out to be quite a challenge with weak water sources.


Described by its author as simply as "the map I've always wanted to play", the canyon features a flat oasis-like starting area and a waterfall that leaves a trough behind when all else dries out. The relaxed vertical expansion will be rewarded aplenty, however, with metal deposits, irrigated farmlands, and more.


Images of the Colosseum spring to mind here, with the round central structure surrounded by columns and slopes that resemble seats for the audience (and roofs outside). It's great to see in-game objects used in such a creative way, especially when it's more than just for looks.


This is one of the best Diorama-like creations from the contest - we really like how the water spirals down over an uneven riverbed, covering a wide area. The metal sources are also on elevated areas, requiring some climbing.


After being placed on the list honorably mentioned in the previous contest, Aniqua88 returned to conquer our studio's hearts with this rectangular map of unusual dimensions. With limited room at the start, your beavers must climb upstream and push forward, immediately prioritizing green land for crops and placing buildings on the raised parts. Just don't break the barriers to guarantee your beavers are being fed!


The Pit Cave's "get yourself out of this pit you dug" scenario splits the playthrough into two stages. First, you must stack the buildings and stairs to escape the chasm with limited access to arable areas. This opens up access to multiple more beaver-friendly sections of the map, with extra challenges from reaching new metal sources.


We love this highly detailed setup inspired by a real-life national park in China. The meticulously placed plant life, the deep canyons, and rivers cascading down over dead trees toward the open water area at the far end enable city building with a massive dose of exploration (and deforestation).


Beavers will indeed test their climbing skills here. The contained starting area with a small spring opens up to several possible expansion routes. The narrow, deep, and walled riverbed behind the hills becomes a prime target, leading to an even more tempting set of underground sites in the desert.


Like in the previous contest, the biggest challenge on the large maps proved to be using the space to its fullest potential - this time, with the need to go vertical. Terrace Valley shined here by offering a landscape with multiple spread-out points of interest and enchanted us with different takes on the titular terraces. You will start in a reasonably peaceful corner where you can set up your settlement before exploring further, naturally gravitating towards the eye-catching ruined isle in the center.


Pillars upon pillars with dried trees are scattered across this map, one acting as the starting area. On top of encouraging some hardcore bridge-building, Vargares has managed to build a rich, realistic landscape with rocky riverbeds and naturally formed stairs not just for descending.


We appreciate the concept behind this map (be sure to read the description!). Instead of going for a typical river starting at the map's edge, totrider opens up with three adjacent wells in the starting area. They're dammable at different heights, gradually " unlocking" further sectors of an otherwise dry map. By demolishing barriers scattered around, you can control the otherwise natural navigation across the varied landscape.


With a name like this, we expected three giant pillars with a forest of Fangorn between them. The "towers" however are the elevated areas that freely spill water onto the areas below, leading to an exciting challenge. Once you take care of the initial area, the further damming business should require some clever planning/

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Once again, congratulations to the winners and the honorably mentioned, and big THANK YOU to everyone who participated in the contest. There will be more in the future, that's for sure, but in the meantime, https://mod.io/g/timberborn/r/build-a-map-contest-2 to check the full selection of participating entries.

Hello everyone!

With the launch of Timberborn’s Mod.io hub, a lot has changed in the world of Timberborn mods! Today, we’d like to take a fresh look at the beautiful - and sometimes quirky - add-ons created by our talented players. Expect a custom rat beaver faction, a random map generator, ladders, and more.

Please note that modding Timberborn is not officially supported, and all add-ons we show today are community-made. According to our limited testing, they should work on the current main branch version (a.k.a. Update 4) when installed separately, but every new patch has a chance of breaking them. Also, launching the game with too many mods may easily crash it, so we suggest you go slow.

In other words, install the mods at your own risk, preferably one at a time, after you back up your saves. And if you’re still unsure how to start, visit the #modding-basics channel on our Discord first.

With that out of the way, here are some of our favorite Timberborn mods!


Here’s where you should begin. The three mods above unlock access to most other creations, and make it possible to modify the game. (For that, we want to give their creators a big shout-out: you never cease to impress our coders).

After you install BePinEx and the Mod Manager manually as described here, adding mods and custom maps becomes a matter of a single click. Simply open the Mod Manager available from the main menu, install TimberAPI, and you'll be ready to go deeper.


Easily the most expansive mod on the list, this one adds an entirely new playable faction. It also plays with the game’s mechanics and aesthetics in a big way. As soon as you start a new game and find your Labrats Whitepaws around a broken cart rather than a regular district center, you know you’re in for a ride. Browse the toolbar, and you will get dizzy.

Whitepaws use all their workshops and storage as dwellings, adding to the population control challenge. Many of their buildings, lodges included, are “Watertight” - they act like levees. Some buildings can now be upgraded. Food production chain and factory workings are all changed, with tens of new resources requiring figuring out - how about feeding your beavers sauerkraut, growing brambles, digging up salt in the mine, or penning multi-resource blueprints to build advanced structures? Round that up with other additions, such as billboards or the balloon landing pad used to “trade” with other factions, and you have a monstrosity of a mod.

Water Beaver Overhaul quickly makes for an entire new playthrough or more, although with the sheer amount of content included, be prepared for creatively reused assets, work-in-progress iconography, and some balance woes - but hey, that’s what makes it beautiful!


Right now, this is the closest you can get to randomly generated maps. With the mod installed, open the map editor and click the new “Random Map” button. Then, adjust several settings such as the map’s size, terrain amplitude, native flora, or how “bendy” the included river body will be.

After the map is generated, you will probably want to iron out some kinks such as interestingly placed water sources prone to overflowing - but R-T-B’s tool is an excellent way to get the initial work out of the way if you don’t want to start by staring blankly at the empty canvas.


Can’t decide whether our studio favors Folktails or the Iron Teeth? That’s not a problem! Simply download this mod to unlock several faction buildings to be used by both factions. Canola and corn grown with the help of Folktails’ bees? Sure. Gristmills powered up by smoking engines? Right on. This only applies to the buildings and resources that are of use to the other faction, though - your Folktails won’t taste the eggplants, and the Iron Teeth will not craft Biofuel.

Curiously, this mod depends on Water Extension which is an excellent pick by itself. It adds several buildings expanding on interactions with water such as pipes with integrated pumps (regular and underground), levees that transform power, and stackable water tanks. There's even an Irrigation Tower variant that fixes the building’s issues in a big way.


While the above mods are separate, you probably want to go all-in on Tobbert’s creations that turn your settlements even more vertical thanks to more space-efficient tall designs. If you go with all proposed mods, you’ll see additions such as ladders and spiral stairs. And with overhangs, you can build on structures attached to a cliff or the new reinforced platforms.

You will probably also want to use vertical power shafts. As part of the mod, Tobbert also created a universal shaft module that changes its setup depending on what it connects, no matter the axis.

Spoiler: these mods will probably come in handy on the maps created for Build-a-Map Contest 2: Vertical Edition. Submissions closed yesterday with 250 (!) entries so expect the winner announcement in a few weeks.


We often create time-lapses ourselves, so we can see Yurand2000’s tool is extremely helpful. All you need to do is pick a desired camera position and set a screenshot interval measured in in-game time. Then, without you noticing (sans for micro stutter when a shot is taken), the add-on will start taking UI-free pictures as long as it’s daytime. Then, you can convert them into a timelapse using any external tools such as Ezgif.

All shots are taken as high-quality PNGs, and it’s easy to forget about the add-on, so don’t set the interval too low, or you may discover that the screenshots folder has grown too much. It’s better to use a higher interval and just take extra shots manually using a dedicated button.


This modification is of greatest use for the Iron Teeth enjoyers (or those with Faction Exchange installed). With Smart Power, Engines’ operators are more clever about burning logs, and can be told to charge gravity batteries only to a set degree. This add-on also updates the Charging Stations not to consume energy when there are no bots inside.

Both factions benefit from the mod’s Power Saving Mode added to powered attractions and factories. When there are no visitors or the factory cannot work (either because it’s missing ingredients or its workers are out for lunch), the energy usage drops to 10%. This is a great QoL mod if you do not mind why something similar was not added to the vanilla game - it makes it more difficult to gauge the current power consumption and usage spikes.


Enabling these two add-ons doesn’t add any extra UI elements… but whenever a new in-game day begins, things get optimized, especially in large settlements. Auto Recipe, as the name suggests, updates the recipes in multi-recipe buildings such as Fermenters. To pick an optimal recipe, the mod checks for resources that would allow production to be started, and if the yield could be stored. If yes, it selects whatever currently occupies the least storage. It also auto-picks a recipe whenever a relevant building is attached to a district.

House Optimization is also self-explanatory - each morning, the mod’s greedy (author’s own words!) algorithm relocates the beavers to houses closest to their workplaces. Don’t shuffle the workforce too often, and your colonists will probably be quite thankful for shorter commuting.


If you feel like turning Timberborn into Beaver Train Tycoon, you’ll find the components here. This mod adds train yards, customizable train models, stations, and a set of tracks, including crossings for pedestrians and an elevated track that enables rollercoaster-like setups. The trains can simply turn back on the spot, but you can also set up the tracks to only allow movement in a single direction, effectively setting up a rail network across the map.

Other than being dam addictive, the two basic usages of trains are transporting passengers and resources between stations, including between districts. Sadly, based on our experience, these features often bug out on the current iteration. That’s why, despite the mod's popularity, we only include Choo Choo! as a bonus. As soon as the fixes are in, go get it!

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You can find all mods (as well as custom maps) on the https://mod.io/g/timberborn. From all of us at Mechanistry, we want to thank our fantastic players for creating so many incredible add-ons... and we can't wait to see what you come up with next!

Hello, everyone!

We hope the dry season is treating you well because it's time for a new map-building contest! This time, we’re going with a specific theme - the goal is to create a cool new map that encourages players to use Timberborn's signature verticality!

The stakes are high so you'd better floor us with your ideas. Scroll down for details.




If you don't own Timberborn, don't worry. It's an excellent time to fix that mistake.

Until July 24 (10 AM PST), Timberborn participates in this year's Sim Fest, an event full of amazing simulation-themed games, and you can get ours 20% off. How convenient, you get Timberborn for less and have plenty of time to participate in the contest!




The contest's goal is simple - use the built-in map editor to create a cool new map, and upload it on https://mod.io/g/timberborn by August 20, 2023 with a "Build-a-Map Contest 2" tag. On top of the usual originality, playability, and appearance criteria, we will also consider how the entries adapt Timberborn's verticality.

What this means is up to you. Timberborn features stackable architecture, stairs, platforms, and bridges. In-game water uses physics to adapt to the terrain's topography. The player can terraform the land further, even putting extra land blocks above the map editor’s height limit. And as part of this Build-a-Map Contest, you need to create a map that encourages the player to think vertically.

Our team will pick three winners - one per map size category, 1000 EUR each. You have a full month to participate, so remember - make your submission great, the sky is the limit! uhh

Before participating, please read the updated Terms & Conditions and Frequently Asked Questions, linked below.

🌍Terms & Conditions🌍
🌎Frequently Asked Questions🌎

Most importantly, note that we now require a minimum of three screenshots as part of your submission, including at least one that shows the entire map. And since this contest has a theme in place, we encourage you to put the description field to good use. Feel free to explain your idea behind the map, possible gameplay scenarios you had in mind and so on.

And if, after reviewing the above documents, there are still any unanswered questions, let us know in the dedicated channel on our Discord server.

Good luck!

Hello everyone!

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been collecting your Update 4 feedback, and testing tweaks on the experimental branch. And now, we’re in a position to push them live onto the main branch for everyone to enjoy.

• Fixed the "Reset all to default" button in the distribution tab not resetting all to default.
  
• Added and fixed some Update 4 translations.
  
• The distribution tab now properly includes Breeding Pod, Engine, and Irrigation Tower.
  
• Goods in factory buildings no longer disturb the fill rate in the distribution tab.
  
• Buildings that are not connected to districts no longer display the “Vacant” status.
  
• District Crossing no longer has one half blocked from use when the other half is not connected to a district.
  
• Made several minor optimizations.
  
• Bots no longer use benches. :(
  
• Wandering beavers, for example at the start of the game, are now less scared of the grim future and do not aggressively hug each on the same tile.

• The Timbermesh documentation now features a Timberborn-specific section. If you’re a modder, check it out.
  
• Timbermesh files are now loaded with IAssetLoader rather than Resources.Load.
  
• It is now also easier to specify a new faction thanks to the new BotId and SoundId fields added to the faction specification.

• Fixed farmers sometimes getting stuck while harvesting the last plant in a field.
  
• Deleting settlements no longer causes a crash in certain scenarios.
  
• Deleting District Center no longer triggers a crash in Settlement Panel.
  
• Closing the Entity Panel with the tooltip displayed over the dropdown no longer results in a crash.
  
• Renaming a beaver no longer provokes the Settlement Panel to crash.
  
• Buildings highlighted in the tutorial no longer stay highlighted if clicked at the wrong time.
  
• Fixed the deconstruction tooltip that wouldn’t scale correctly.
  
• Fixed a crash related to building statuses.
  
• Beavers once again eat the food stored in a Gatherer Flag even when there's a bouncer bored beaver sitting at the entrance.
  
• Fixed the “Entrance blocked” warning on Underground Pile not appearing when the entrance was actually blocked by another building.
  
• Made minor tweaks to icons and tooltips.
  
• When the player sets a Warehouses to “Empty” and selects a new good, that good will now be correctly accepted from other warehouses being emptied.
  
• Fixed a bug with Mangrove Trees not self-spreading onto adjacent tiles.
  
• Fixed the water particles in the Mechanical Water Pump.
  
• Fixed a bug with buildings disappearing from finished terrain blocks.
  
• Fixed a rare crash occurring during an autosave.
  
• Fixed a bug with Chestnut Tree to Pine conversion on pre-Update 4 Iron Teeth saves which resulted in twisted Pines-but-with-Chestnuts hybrids.

• Fixed a minor internal logging issue.

• Fixed the "Reset all to default" button in the distribution tab not resetting all to default.

A small hotfix related to farming.

• Fix farmers sometimes getting stuck while harvesting the last plant in a field.

We've got a few experimental tweaks for you today.

• Added missing and fixed incorrect translations.
  
• Distribution will properly include Breeding Pod, Engine and Irrigation Tower demand.
  
• Goods in factory buildings will no longer disturb fill rate in Distribution.

• Deleting settlement will no longer cause a crash in certain scenarios.
  
• Deleting District Center will no longer trigger a crash in Settlement Panel.
  
• Closing Entity Panel with tooltip shown over dropdown will no longer result in a crash.
  
• Renaming a beaver will no longer provoke the Settlement Panel to crash.
  
• Buildings highlighted in tutorial will no longer stay highlighted if clicked at wrong time.

So, how is Update 4 treating you, folks? We've got a few experimental tweaks for you today.

We dedicate these to all the beautiful modders that have come here tonight.

• Timbermesh files are now loaded with IAssetLoader rather than Resources.Load.
  
• It is now also easier to specify a bot faction thanks to the new BotId and SoundId fields added to the faction specification.

• Fixed the deconstruction tooltip that wouldn’t scale correctly.
  
• Fixed a crash related to building statuses.
  
• Beavers once again eat the food stored in a Gatherer Flag even when there's a bouncer bored beaver sitting at the entrance.