Buildings
Buildings are structures that are placed into the world for
Beavers and
Bots to build and use, and are the primary game mechanic that the player interacts with.
They are separated into 14 Building Groups, each dealing with a different aspect of the game.
Buildings can have special shared Characteristics which mainly determine construction and usage restrictions. Certain buildings are also restricted by Faction.
Some buildings require Power to function, and/or need to employ
Workers.
- Most buildings cost varying amounts of
Science Points to unlock.
- The majority of buildings that require
Workers may also unlock the ability to employ
Bots, at the cost of additional
Science Points.
- Most buildings require
Materials to be built.
Unlocking
Science Points is the currency used to unlock buildings. Certain buildings cost 0 science points to unlock, and are available to build from the start. Check the Building List below for individual costs.
Once Bots are unlocked, it is possible to spend extra
Science Points to allow them to work in a building, with the exception of
Beaver-only buildings such as the
Power Wheel,
Large Power Wheel,
Inventor and
Observatory. See the
Bots page for more details.
Construction
With the exception of Paths and the
District Center (which are built immediately upon placing) along with the
Gatherer,
Lumberjack and
Scavenger flag (which lack a material cost), all buildings require time and
Materials to build.
Once a building is placed, it will appear as a construction site, allowing Builders (
Beavers or
Bots employed at a
District Center or
Builders' Hut) to begin construction.
It is possible to place further buildings on top of any Solid buildings under construction, excluding
Terrain Blocks. These buildings will also appear as construction sites, but will not be worked on until all buildings beneath them are fully constructed.
During construction, materials are brought to the construction site, and the site itself is worked on.
Materials
Each construction site has an inventory where required Materials are deposited. If a builder is available and there are required materials that have not been reserved by other beavers available in accessible
Storage buildings, the builder will take as many of a single construction material as it can carry (not exceeding the number of materials still required) from the appropriate building, and carry them to the construction site to be deposited.
Construction Site
As more materials are brought to the construction site, more of the construction site can be built, with progress represented as a percentage bar.
The amount of progress that can be made is dictated by the amount of materials brought to the site, with discrete steps at amounts dependant on which building it is. For example, the Observatory, which needs a total of 120 materials, can be worked on in increments of 10% for every 12 materials deposited.
Construction sites that lack materials have a File:Construction lacks materials icon.png Construction lacks materials flag displayed.
The act of materials getting deposited on the construction site does not increase the construction progress (which is separate).
Once all materials have been deposited and construction progress has reached 100%, the building finishes construction and becomes available for beavers to interact with.
A construction site can also be paused / unpaused using the UI or a keybinding. The pause / unpause button is the same button that turns on / off a building.
Notes:
- All constuction sites can be paused
Construction Order
The execution order of building jobs (both bringing materials and construction itself) is determined by the following factors:
- Sites that are turned off, inaccessible, or are on top of other construction sites will not be worked on.
Terrain Blocks that have another terrain block construction site behind its arrow facing direction will also not be worked on.
- Sites with higher construction priority are worked on before ones with lower priority.
- Of these sites, buildings will be worked on in the order that they were placed.
As beavers can pass through building sites but not through most buildings, managing execution order is important, both to prevent unfinished buildings becoming inaccessible, and to prevent beavers from becoming Stranded.
Notes:
- When using the priority tool, setting the priority of a building also sets the priority of everything else the building supports on. For example, high prioritising Wooden Stairs that are built on top of a
Platform also causes the platform to be high prioritised.
Demolition
Demolition can be done using the UI, a keybinding (N
), or through the "Demolish Buildings" tool.
- It is not possible to demolish a building that has more buildings or paths on top of it.
- When demolishing a building, some of the resources will be returned back as
Rubble. This amount changes based on the difficulty selected.
- Demolition is instantaneous, even if the game is paused.
- Demolition is done using the
N
key, or by usingShift + N
to bypass the confirmation page. - When demolishing a building, a demolition confirmation window will open asking to confirm demolition of the building. Pressing Enter demolishes the building, pressing Escape cancels the demolition. The confirmation window also shows the amount of resources that will be returned in the rubble.
- Note that
Rubble does not count towards
Storage.
- On Easy mode, 100% of the construction materials are returned.
- On all other modes, 75% of the construction materials are returned. The number of materials to be returned is rounded up to a whole number.
- Builders will prioritise building over collecting rubble.
- If a
Storage building is demolished, all goods it contains are deposited in the rubble without any loss (regardless of the difficulty level).
Classification
Buildings can be classified by their Building Groups, by which Factions have access to them, and by special characteristics displayed within their in-game descriptions.
Building Groups
Timberborn separates its buildings into 14 categories, with each group dealing with a different aspect of the game:
Paths and Structures contains buildings which facilitate
Beaver movement, as well as foundations for
Vertical Architecture.
Landscaping contains buildings used for manipulating
Fluids, the powered
Explosives Factory and
Dirt Excavator buildings, as well as
Terraforming.
Storage contains buildings used to contain Goods, such as
Food and
Materials.
District Management contains buildings used to manage infrastructure within and between
Districts.
Housing contains buildings where Beavers can meet their Sleep and Shelter Needs, as well as breed new beavers.
Water contains buildings used for the management of the
Water and
Badwater goods, as well as their respective
Fluids.
Food contains buildings used to farm and process crops.
Wood contains buildings used for forestry, as well as processing wood.
Metal contains buildings used for the harvesting and processing of metal from
Ruins and
Underground Ruins.
Power contains buildings which generate and distribute mechanical power.
Science contains buildings which generate
Science Points, along with buildings for producing and maintaining
Bots.
Leisure contains buildings which beavers can interact with to satisfy various Needs.
Decoration &
Monuments contain buildings which satisfy the Needs of beavers in their proximity, as well as some decorative buildings which serve no mechanical function.
Factions
Although both Factions have access to most buildings, certain buildings are restricted to a specific faction, or have a variant for each one such as the
Efficient Farmhouse
and the
Farmhouse
. This is to give each faction a distinct theme, with
Folktails favouring comfort and nature, and
Iron Teeth favouring industriousness. This is also reflected in the shared buildings having distinct visuals for each faction.
Characteristics
Certain characteristics which are shared between multiple buildings are given their own keyword, styled in yellow, within their descriptions:
Solid: Other buildings can be built on its top. However, not all of the
Carousel or
Roof 3x2's top can be built upon.
Ground-only: Must be built on the ground.
Mines and
Domes have the extra restriction of being limited to their specific source block.
Above-ground: Must be placed atop other buildings. Currently only the
Rooftop Terrace has this characteristic.
Water-dependent: Requires access to water. Buildings with this characteristic have specific tiles in their model which must not be built onto anything else. The building will not function while there is no water beneath these tiles.
Beaver-only: Only beavers are allowed to work in this workplace.
Bots are not allowed to work buildings with this characteristic.
Requires haulers. Buildings with this characteristic require
Materials to function, but do not have workers to collect them. Without haulers to provide these resources, the building will not function.
Wonder: The pinnacle of beaver technology. Each
Faction has their own unique Wonder, and building one to completion can be considered beating the game. Doing so on each map also allows you to start a new game on that map from any position.
Although the Dirt Excavator does not have a special characteristic, it cannot be built with its drill directly above any other building, to any depth. Also,
Dynamites cannot be build on the bottom layer of the map.
List of Buildings