| Setting | Easy | Normal | Hard |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starting adults | 8 aged 10% to 70% | 8 aged 10% to 70% | 8 aged 10% to 70% |
| Starting children | 4 aged 10% to 80% | 4 aged 10% to 80% | 4 aged 10% to 80% |
| Food consumption | 40% | 100% | 100% |
| Water consumption | 40% | 100% | 100% |
| Starting food | 300 | 130 | 90 |
| Starting water | 250 | 0 | 0 |
| Temperate weather duration | 16 to 19 days | 13 to 17 days | 5 to 8 days |
| Droughts | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Drought duration | 2 to 4 days | 5 to 9 days | 15 to 30 days |
| Drought duration handicap | 25% for 8 cycles | 38% for 5 cycles | 20% for 12 cycles |
| Badtides | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Cycles without badtide | 5 | 4 | 3 |
| Badtide chance | 40% | 40% | 40% |
| Badtide duration | 1 to 3 days | 4 to 8 days | 15 to 30 days |
| Badtide duration handicap | 30% for 6 cycles | 15% for 5 cycles | 40% for 9 cycles |
| Injury chance | 30% | 100% | 100% |
| Building refund rate | 90% | 75% | 75% |
Game Mode
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The Game Mode, also known as Difficulty, is a preset of values that changes how the game behaves. When starting a new game, you are prompted to select a Faction, a Map and a Game Mode.
Timberborn has 3 base Game Modes: Easy, Normal and Hard. A Custom option is also available.
Settings
The selected Game Mode modifies the range of possible 
temperate, 
drought, and 
badtide days in a cycle, and how much and for how long a season handicap is applied. The settings can be customized during selection.
| Easy | Normal | Hard | Custom (Default) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starting Adults | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| Starting Kids | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| Starting Adults Age | 10% to 70% | 10% to 70% | 10% to 70% | 10% to 70% |
| Starting Kid Age | 10% to 80% | 10% to 80% | 10% to 80% | 10% to 80% |
| Food Consumption | 0.6 (60%) | 1.0 (100%) | 1.0 (100%) | 1.0 (100%) |
| Water Consumption | 0.6 (60%) | 1.0 (100%) | 1.0 (100%) | 1.0 (100%) |
| Starting Food | 300 | 130 | 90 | 130 |
| Starting Water | 250 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Temperate (days)
|
16 to 19 days | 13 to 17 days | 5 to 8 days | 13 to 17 days |
| Drought (days)
|
2 to 4 days | 5 to 9 days | 15 to 30 days | 5 to 9 days |
| Handicap Multiplier | 20% | 38% | 20% | 38% |
| Handicap Period (cycles) | 10 cycles | 6 cycles | 15 cycles | 6 cycles |
| Injury Chance | 0.3 (30%) | 1.0 (100%) | 1.0 (100%) | 1.0 (100%) |
| Building refund rate (Rubble) | 90% | 75% | 75% | 75% |
| Easy | Normal | Hard | Custom (Default) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starting Adults | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 |
| Starting Children | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| Starting Adults Aging | 10% to 80% | 10% to 80% | 10% to 80% | 10% to 80% |
| Food Consumption | 0.6 (60%) | 1.0 (100%) | 1.0 (100%) | 1.0 (100%) |
| Water Consumption | 0.6 (60%) | 1.0 (100%) | 1.0 (100%) | 1.0 (100%) |
| Starting Food | 300 | 130 | 90 | 130 |
| Starting Water | 250 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Temperate (days)
|
16 to 19 days | 13 to 17 days | 5 to 8 days | 13 to 17 days |
| Drought (days)
|
2 to 4 days | 5 to 9 days | 15 to 30 days | 5 to 9 days |
| Handicap Multiplier | 20% | 38% | 20% | 38% |
| Handicap Period (cycles) | 10 cycles | 6 cycles | 15 cycles | 6 cycles |
| Injury Chance | 0.3 (30%) | 1.0 (100%) | 1.0 (100%) | 1.0 (100%) |
| Building refund rate (Rubble) | 90% | 75% | 75% | 75% |
Duration Handicap
Droughts and seasons are designed to get progressively worse over time, to allow cities to establish themselves and gather stockpiles before severe weather events occur. The drought duration handicap and badtide duration handicap control this ramp-up setting in two parts. The first half of the setting is the percentage, which determines the maximum severity of the first bad weather cycle, as a percentage of the event duration. The second half of the setting is the number of cycles it will take for the severity to ramp up to 100%.
As an example, take a save file with Drought Duration as 5 to 9 days, and Drought Duration Handicap as 38% for 5 cycles. The first cycle's drought will be a maximum of 38% strength, so the length of the drought will be between 1.9 and 3.42 days. Because the game only works with whole numbers, the first drought will be between 2 and 3 days long. The following droughts will be incrementally stronger until Cycle 6, where the handicap will no longer apply and so the drought duration will be between 5 and 9 days, as specified.
Descriptions
Easy
You are still learning or want a relaxed city-building experience.
Your settlement starts with an abundant supply of resources.
Beavers consume less food and water.
Droughts are rare and short.
Normal
You want a challenge.
Your settlement starts with moderate resources.
Droughts are milder at the beginning but intensify over time.
Hard
Humans did not make it and neither will you.
Your settlement starts with scarce resources.
Droughts are severe and become even worse over time.
Sharpen your incisors.
Editing existing saves
There are two ways to edit saves:
- Go to the ~\Documents\Timberborn\Saves folder.
- Make a backup of the original file in case you make a mistake in the JSON syntax. This crashes the game on loading.
- Unzip the .timber file. You can change the extension to .zip first if you don't know how)
- Open the extracted .json save file with Notepad or another text editor. See the JSON format reference.
- Press Ctrl + F and find "duration".
- Edit min, & max, temperate, & drought durations for the next cycle.
- Re-zip and change the extension back to .timber if you extracted the file.
The Online Timberborn Save Editor isn't updated for Update 6.
Game Modes
No, not the difficulty ones, actual game modes. There are currently one official game mode and one un-official game mode:
- Survival Mode, Default and official
- Creative Mode, Modded and un-official (download here: https://timberborn.thunderstore.io/package/hawkfalcon/CreativeMode/)