Update 7 - Ziplines & Tubeways is live!

Hello, everyone!

The wait is over, and the next major content update for your favorite beaver city-builder is now live! Watch the new trailer below for the cool stuff we have prepared for you.

Timberborn Update 7 - Ziplines & Tubeways features:
🚡 Beaver transportation: Ziplines and Tubeways (duh)
🌉 Three-dimensional terrain
🚇 Tunnels
🪣 Updated layer tool
⚙️ Adaptive power shafts
🛠️ Modding tweaks, map reworks, and more

We’d like to thank everyone who played the update on the experimental branch and contributed their feedback. With multiple changes to the game’s core systems, we had to iterate quite a bit!

Patch notes 2025-05-08 (Update 7)

Note: Saves created on Update 6 or before should load just fine, although due to the addition of 3D terrain, there might be some small quirks and surprises. Maps on older saves are also not updated to their revised versions, so… maybe it’s time for a new playthrough?

Ziplines

As colonies grow, the need for efficient transportation of beavers, bots, and resources also increases. In Update 7, both factions get a speed boost with unique means of mass transit, offering the dwellers several advantages over treading the dirt paths or swimming.

Our nature-friendly Folktails enjoy high-speed thrills and get to ride Ziplines. Created with Stations, Pylons, and Beams, zipline networks easily cover large distances and elevation differences. Setting them up is a matter of choosing the connections with a few clicks.

• New feature: Ziplines (Folktails-only). Beavers and bots use Ziplines like paths, except they allow for travel above terrain while moving 2,5 times faster. Each Zipline connection requires at least two Stations, and any number of Pylons and Beams in between.
• Each building in the zipline network can be connected to up to two other structures, selected at any time from its panel. All connections are two-way. A single connection can be up to 30 metres long and have a maximum inclination of 50 degrees.
• New building: Zipline Station (20x Log, 40x Plank, 20x Metal Block, 700 SP). Bots and beavers use this building to hop onto and off a zipline. Within a single zipline network, all Stations must belong to the same district.
• New building: Zipline Pylon (20x Plank, 10x Gear, 10x Metal Block, 500 SP). Use these tall structures to route your ziplines around the settlement without colliding with terrain, buildings, and other ziplines.
• New building: Zipline Beam (20x Plank, 10x Gear, 10x Metal Block, 600 SP). The beams' role is similar to that of the Pylons, but since they’re smaller and the zipline is hooked to the side, they help in tight areas with large height differences.

Tubeways

The Iron Teeth’s new transport method requires a little more careful setup than Ziplines but rewards you with extra flexibility and can be integrated into the city as it grows. Our industrious faction builds Tubeway networks, consisting of Stations serving as endpoints, and the 1x1 modules that connect them - Tubeways and Solid Tubeways. Notably, the modules are water- and badwater-proof, and they can be joined just like regular paths… but also vertically.

• New feature: Tubeways (Iron Teeth-only). Beavers and bots use Tubeways to travel significantly faster (think: four times as fast) than on paths. Tubeways are built using the two 1x1 adaptive module types that adjust their shape as extra lines are connected. Tubeways can be submerged in water and badwater. Oh, and here’s a tip: it is possible to build things from inside Tubeways.
• New building: Tubeway Station (40x Plank, 20x Gear, 20x Metal Block, 700 SP). This is the entrance to the Tubeway network. Tubeways can be connected from the sides or from the bottom.
• New building: Tubeway (2x Plank, 1x Metal Block, 500 SP). Use this module to create Tubeway lines. Modules placed next to each other connect automatically.
• New building: Solid Tubeway (4x Plank, 1x Metal Block, 600 SP). Use this module to create Tubeway lines that go upwards or are built directly below buildings and terrain. Modules placed next to each other connect automatically. Vertical intersections are also possible.

3D Terrain

While the in-game terrain has always been made of little 3D cubes, you could only place them one atop another. With Update 7, terrain blocks go on all Solid surfaces - roofs, platforms, and overhangs. This gives you much more flexibility in reshaping maps and choosing where to grow your fields and forests. You can finally cultivate crops on top of lodges and warehouses. You may create extra-compact hanging gardens where plants grow on multiple levels. You might even hide your beavers’ settlement in a cave, with a river irrigating its green dome.

Speaking of caves, it is now also possible to overhang terrain blocks. The overhanging terrain needs to be attached to another terrain block and you cannot have more than three unsupported blocks protruding sideways, but it is still regular terrain that can be irrigated and contaminated.

• The terrain system is now truly three-dimensional, allowing you to put terrain blocks on all Solid surfaces.
• Added the ability to overhang terrain, up to three blocks to the side. To add overhanging blocks, start dragging the cursor from a vertical surface.
• As soon as you remove supporting terrain further than the allowed limit of three overhanging blocks, everything beyond that limit is destroyed. This also applies to buildings. Please be careful.
• Tweaked the models for Natural Overhangs.

Tunnels

Your beavers now finally know how to dig into walls, building tunnels of any width. Need to transport something, but there’s a huge landmass in the way? Just cut through. Want to move your beavers into a cave? Find a mountain and dig a hole!

• New building: Tunnel (2000 SP; 1x Explosives, 1x Extract, 6x Plank). With the power of explosives, beavers remove a terrain block from the side and install a Platform to support the ceiling. Use the layer tool to easily plan out larger digging areas inside landmasses.

Layer tool

We’re expanding the usability of the layer tool since terrain is now three-dimensional and you can turn your beavers into moles build tunnels.

• The layer tool (Alt+mouse wheel, remember?) now uncovers terrain in addition to buildings and water, allowing you to look inside areas like caves, tunnels, and complicated structures.
• When using the layer tool, all ground-only objects now display a shadow on the terrain layer they occupy.
• Added the ability to select a particular layer by clicking any tile on that layer with a new keybinding (by default: Alt+middle mouse button). Click that layer with the keybinding again, and the layer visibility resets.
• When trying to delete buildings in a way that causes objects on layers hidden by the Layer tool to also be deleted, the terrain is temporarily uncovered so that you don’t accidentally delete too much of your beavers’ livelihood.

Adaptive Power Shafts

Similarly to the Tubeways, the good ol’ Power Shafts are now also adaptive. We’ve replaced the existing fixed-shape Power Shafts with two new, adaptive modules - Power Shafts and Solid Power Shafts. As you expand and update your power grid, you no longer need to delete old connections, causing outages for entire districts. The new Power Shafts simply change their shape as new connections are added or removed. And yes, that also enables vertical junctions!

• New building: Power Shaft (No SP cost; 1x Log)
• New building: Solid Power Shaft (40 SP; 2x Log, 2x Plank, 1x Gear; Solid)
• Removed old, fixed-shape Power Shafts from the game. Setups on existing saves are still compatible - the old shafts have been automatically converted to Power Shafts and Solid Power Shafts.
• Removed the "Blocked power connection" status displayed while placing Power Shafts, as it was not very helpful.

Quality-of-life

One cannot argue Adaptive Power Shafts are a big W here, but it’s also the smaller things!

• When using most area selection tools - to plant trees, build multiple platforms, plan out a tunnel etc. - the size of the selected area is now displayed in the middle of the screen (for example "5x5").
• Plants’ drought resistance is now displayed in their description.

Maps

With the addition of 3D terrain, Ziplines, and Tubeways, we’ve reviewed all built-in maps to incorporate, and give you opportunities to play with, the new features.

• Revised 12 out of 13 in-game maps to a varying degree. The only unchanged map is Diorama (yes, it’s that perfect).

Map Editor

The map editor itself now also has more tools toys to play with.

• In the map editor, it is possible to use the terrain brush on Natural Overhangs.
• Added a new tool for sculpting overhanging terrain to the map editor.
• Added the layer tool to the map editor.
• Underground Ruins, Water Sources, and Badwater Sources now require continuous support from the bottom of the map. In other words, you can't dig tunnels under them, or place them on a terrain that has some gaps on lower layers. All that water and metal has to come from somewhere, right?
• In the map editor, brushes now only spawn and delete resources on the initial level.
• In the map editor, the relative terrain brush shows grayed out tiles if they’d end up outside of the map’s limit.
• The terrain tools are no longer blocked by objects like trees, ruins, or water sources. They now simply replace them with terrain blocks or, if the terrain is lowered, remove them outright.

Balance

With Update 7, we’re reducing the amount of downtime the players experience, and that - paired with the new content - required a significant rebalancing. This includes changes to mines and metal production, platforms, and tweaks to the effects of well-being. Also, Birches should now be meta better in the early game.

• Changed Mine’s and Efficient Mine’s basic recipe. The input is now Treated Plank 1x, the output is now Scrap Metal x5.
• Folktails’ Mine no longer has an extra recipe for Science Points.
• Iron Teeth’s Efficient Mine’s second recipe now has an input of 1x Treated Plank, 2x Extract, and an output of Scrap Metal x10.
• Mines and Efficient Mines now have 10 workers enabled by default, up from 5.
• Smelter now produces Metal Blocks twice as fast.
• For a small fee of 7500 SP, bots can now work in the Observatory. Just don’t come to us when they revolt.
• Power Wheel - lowered the cost from 40 Logs to 20 Logs.
• Large Power Wheel - lowered the cost from 100 Logs to 50 Logs.
• Mechanical Fluid Pump and Deep Mechanical Fluid Pump - lowered the cost from 100 Gears, 50 Treated Planks, and 50 Metal Blocks to 50 Gears, 25 Treated Planks, and 25 Metal Blocks. Lowered the SP cost from 5000 SP to 2500 SP.
• Lowered the unlock cost of Forester from 70 SP to 30 SP.
• Lowered Birch growth time from 9 days to 7 days.
• Slightly decreased planting and harvesting times for Birches and Oaks.
• Slightly increased harvesting times for Pines.
• Lowered Underground Pile’s capacity from 1800 to 1000 to make it less OP when combined with 3D terrain. But don’t fret, we also lowered its cost from 20x Logs, 80x Planks, 40x Gears to 20 Logs, 40x Planks, 20x Gears.
• Updated Platform’s cost from 2x Log, 4x Plank to 6x Plank.
• Updated Double Platform’s cost from 4x Log, 4x Plank to 8x Plank.
• Updated Triple Platform’s cost from 6x Log, 4x Plank to 10x Plank.
• Work speed now always increases by 20% with each well-being milestone.
• The work speed bonus at maximum well-being is now 260%, up from 170%.
• The base work speed bonus for bots is now 65%, up from 45%.
• Bots' Condition 1 work speed bonus is now 110%, up from 90%.
• Bots' Condition 2 work speed bonus is now 170%, up from 120%.
• Increased all attractions’ need gains to 0.6 per hour.
• Beaver Statue (Iron Teeth) - lowered the cost from 30 Metal Blocks to 20 Metal Blocks.
• Tweaked how much the needs satisfied by decorations and attractions deplete each day. For advanced attractions, their needs go down by 0.1, and for basic ones, by 0.2. For advanced decorations, their needs go down by 0.3, and for basic ones, by 0.4.
• Slopes’ and Stairs’ effect on range lines is now significantly lower.
• Excavator no longer needs Extract to operate.

Visuals and audio

Everyone likes pretty shadows. No RTX needed!

• On the Ultra preset, in-game shadows now use 8K resolution.
• As the above affects the game’s performance, the default graphics quality is now set to High rather than Ultra. If you have never changed anything and are on Ultra by default, the game will switch to High which is the equivalent of the old Ultra.
• Changed the maximum number of objects affected by light sources to 6 on Ultra and to 4 on High.
• Updated the collider system for beavers and bots to make them easier to select.
• Cleaned up some unit animations.
• Buildings’ ambient sounds now fade out at larger distances.
• Optimized explosion particles.

Performance

• Made tweaks to save files to make them smaller and improve saving times. We expect savefiles to be about 20% smaller and saving times to be about 20% shorter.
• The loading process no longer gets suspended in the middle if the Run in background checkbox is unchecked when the game is out of focus. So when you Alt-Tab back to the game, the loading process should now be 100% complete instead of taking a few more seconds to wrap up.
• The loading screen now always disappears after loading, even if the Run in background checkbox is unchecked.
• The game now loads 1 second faster. 💪

Misc.

• Barriers placed next to each other now form a more seamless, larger structure, similar to how in-game fences work.
• Barriers no longer block relevant ground effects when placed in a diagonal line. This is communicated by the new visuals, as the corners of the barriers aren’t connected.
• Water Source is now Ground-only.
• On the toolbar, Spadderdock now comes before Cattail.
• Decluttered the bottom right corner of the screen by moving the version number to the game menu and removing the Bug report button. And no, that does not mean the game won’t have any bugs anymore. You can still send bug reports at [email protected], report them on Steam, Discord, and Feature Upvote, and use the post-crash screen.
• Capped the number of entries in the in-game console to 20,000 characters.
• Added a keybinding to switch worker type in workshops (not assigned by default).
• Added a keybinding to reset the camera (Shift-Z).
• The game no longer displays a game over pop-up right after loading if there are no live beavers in that saved file to begin with. Press F to pay respect without interruptions.
• Units now calculate the time needed to reach their destinations more accurately.
• On macOS, in keybindings, renamed Alt to Option.
• In key bindings, removed localizations for Shift/Ctrl/Alt/Cmd.
• Tweaked the format of descriptions for bonuses provided by buildings, such as carrying speed.
• Added the Build-a-Map Contest #4 winners to the in-game credits.
• Moved the tutorial’s window higher so that it doesn’t overlap with the looongest of toolbars.
• Changed the tree planted as part of the tutorial from Pine to Birch. This change is sponsored by the Balance section somewhere above.
• Cleaned up building tooltips to be more consistent.
• Removed the “Click a single tile or hold the button to select an area.” bit from several tooltips, as it cluttered them too much.
• Slightly shrunk that Hauling Post’s thingamabob at the top to fit the building under Overhangs.
• Replaced "Water-dependent" with "Badwater-dependent" in badwater buildings' descriptions.
• Underground Pile now informs about its underground depth (2).
• Keybindings used to control in-game speed are now correctly distinguishable on the key bindings screen.
• Renamed the "Pause/unpause selected building" to simpler "Pause selected building".
• Made some tweaks to the Polish translation.
• Added the new Update 7 key art to the main menu.
• Made minor tweaks to the tutorial’s text.

Modding

We are continuing our efforts to make creating mods for Timberborn easier and today’s release brings a few important changes.

• New features were added to our mods repository, such as: built-in code publicizer, zip files builder, and directory browsing controls.
• Added the Bootstrapper (global) context for the purpose of configurator installation.
• Removed PrefabConfigurators support which is now replaced with [Context] attributes and blueprints.
• Numpad Enter can now be used as a confirmation button in the Mod Manager.
• The Timbermesh plugin now supports newer Blender versions.
• In Update 7, we continue the changes you could see in the last patches of Update 6. The remaining prefab components have been simplified and renamed to "Spec". There is still a "Fix prefab components" button inside our modding tools, which should help with the rename slightly (remember to make a backup, though). On top of that, Specifications are now called Blueprints and can have multiple components, also called Specs.
• Our example mods - including Shanty Speaker - are now fully compatible with Update 7.
• Workplaces no longer softlock themselves if a mod adds a new recipe and then you remove that mod.
• Crash reports are no longer sent when the game is modded. Broken mods have always been the most common crash cause, making it harder to identify the issues broken on our end that we can actually fix.

Bug fixes

• Fixed units breakdancing when traversing and rotating multiple sets of stairs.
• Fixed Alt-Tab and Shift-Tab (Steam Overlay) breaking keyboard input.
• Fixed the incorrectly looped animations for stranded beavers. They are already in a pickle, why make it worse?
• Fixed range indicators overlapping incorrectly.
• Fixed character attachments (such as builders’ hammers) not highlighting upon selection.
• Fixed a bug with most workshops animating too fast at higher game speeds.
• Fixed a rare situation with rubble disappearing after reloading the game.
• In the map editor, the “Relative height" brush no longer displays a green preview after reaching the map’s height limit.
• In the map editor, the irrigation now correctly reaches its final state without reloading.
• Selecting a construction site for a bridge or stairs now displays the range lines, similar to when selecting a building in construction.
• In the construction mode, warehouses’ and tanks’ entrances no longer light up.
• You no longer need to press Enter twice in dialog boxes with input fields, for example when renaming units or districts.
• Buildings that cut out terrain - such as Motivatorium - no longer also cut out shadows when being placed.
• Fixed beavers disappearing randomly while moving the camera.
• Key bindings in the map editor tools are now displayed correctly.
• Restored sounds to buildings placed on high elevations.
• All area selection tools should correctly select objects on the layer chosen initially.
• Settlement Panel now correctly updates its numbers as new buildings are added.
• Fixed the Farmhouse’s prioritized action working only on the prioritized resource.
• Fixed floodable buildings that were becoming flooded even if their entrances were above water.
• Fixed the incorrectly calculated building ranges.
• Impermeable Floor now correctly blocks contamination and moisture.
• Removed the random shining pixels from some models. Beavers like it fancy but come on.
• Fixed the Scarecrow’s crooked base.
• Fixed the too-deep entrance to the Hauling Post.
• Fixed the incorrect shading on ropes in Double and Triple Floodgates.
• Range previews for buildings in construction are now correctly displayed on the preview of unfinished terrain.
• Rubble no longer loses its assigned priority after moving to another tile.
• Selecting Lido while it’s in the construction phase now works correctly.
• Bases for the Lido and Swimming Pool no longer clip through terrain and objects below.
• Fixed some carried goods clipping with the entrance to the Underground Warehouse.
• Key bindings that cannot be changed are now displayed as such.
• Impermeable Floors no longer become invisible in certain situations.
• Added the missing contamination reminder to the Deep Water Pump’s description.
• Beavers who lost their jobs upon loading the game due to backward incompatibility no longer keep their outfits.
• Fixed the lag occurring when drawing paths, connecting new buildings to existing paths, and selecting such buildings.
• Fixed beavers’ models stuttering when moving along paths.
• Beavers under platforms should no longer block their construction.
• Contaminated beavers are now correctly cleared from the Bee sting condition, and the poor victim’s model reflects that.
• Fixed a bug with Water Wheels’ direction not affecting how connected Power Shafts rotated.
• Ruin models no longer stick outside of their tiles.
• Fixed a bug with crops being dry or contaminated when they shouldn't be, after loading the save.
• It's now possible to build Teeth Grindstones under overhangs.
• The district-wide beaver/bot setting is now correctly applied to workplaces that were not connected to a built path (but were connected via stairs in construction, for example).
• Fixed a tiny typo in the Maple Pastry need.
• Fixed the game hanging around in Processes when closed with Alt+F4.
• Limited the number of used threads to 8 to prevent crashes and stuttering. We keep working on this.
• On Apple Silicon, the game no longer uses halved amount of threads for physics simulation.
• Fixed the flickering Ruins preview in the map editor.
• Fixed terrain texturing at low camera angles.
• Fixed the incorrectly looping building animation.
• In the map editor, some objects - such as Berry Bushes - can no longer be overridden by other objects - such as Water Sources.
• In Windowed mode, the cursor's tooltip no longer clips with the cursor itself.
• Pressing RMB while selecting an area with a tool no longer exits that tool as it should only cancel the current action. The Demolish tool was the worst offender here, as it also broke in half when you did that.
• With the Flexible Start unlocked, the starting district's default name is now always District 1 rather than increasing by 1 with each new start location. Just imagine what would happen after getting to "9".
• Fixed the map editor's relative terrain brush showing terrain blocks even if they’d end up outside of the map’s limit.
• Added the missing “ov” “of” to the Metal Fence’s description.
• Some panels in the map editor no longer open twice, doubling the number of clicks needed to save a map.
• Fixed the crash upon deleting a settlement.
• Fixed the crash upon uploading a map to Steam Workshop.
• Fixed a crash caused by deleting a District Center in an unfortunate moment.
• Fixed a crash caused by placing a District Center in an unfortunate moment.
• Fixed a crash caused by Badwater Sources vanishing due to compatibility reasons.
• Fixed a crash occurring when you removed mechanical buildings from really big networks. Like really, really, really big networks.
• Fixed a crash caused by loading a save with a District Crossing that wasn’t backward compatible.

Known issues

• We’re aware of some persistent issues related to multi-threading, especially on the i9 CPUs. These issues are experienced only by a small percentage of players, and range in severity. We’re working on a fix but in the meantime, should you experience serious crashing even after disabling all mods, consider switching back to the Update 6 branch as explained here.