Hi, hey, hello!
The full version of our beaver city-builder launches in exactly three days - at 5 PM CET on March 12, 2026. To make the final wait easier and give our new player an extra introduction, here's a preview gathering some of the most important info about our two beaver families!
But first - if you haven't, be sure to add Timberborn to your wishlist!
In Timberborn, we have two playable factions: the nature-friendly Folktails and the industrious Iron Teeth. While both are skilled engineers who tame water, terraform the land, and grow their cities vertically, each faction is unique - not just in the lore and visuals, but also in their architecture, production chains, available buildings, and more. Let’s take a closer look.
Folktails
Comfort, food, and sturdy wood. ~Folktails’ motto
Beavers have tails tales, and Folktails were first to tell them. If you’ve been following Timberborn since the very beginning, you may even remember their ancestors from the olden demo days - back then, they were called Beavers of Demoria. But let’s focus on our modern-day beavers!
Folktails are light-furred folks who live in accordance with the laws of nature. It even guides their ultimate goal - to make the world greener. Just look at the endgame building for this faction. The Earth Recultivator, because that’s how it’s called, once built and launched, distributes tree and crop seeds across the planet.
Being “eco-friendly”, Folktails don’t use traditional fuel. They only use the renewable power of water, wind (if it’s windy at the moment), their own muscle, and geothermal energy. They can also speed up crops’ growth with Beehives! Be careful, though - bees sting!
Speaking of crops, Folktails are known for their culinary skills. What is a beaver's life without a full belly?
Gathering berries it’s certainly a good start, but they are not very nutritious, and Folktails have more refined taste buds. That’s where all the various crops come in. For example, Carrots and Sunflower Seeds can be eaten raw, Potatoes and Spadderdock are best served grilled, and Wheat is ground into flour in the Gristmill, ready to be turned into bread in the Bakery. And of course, there’s something for those with a sweet tooth - how about the delicious Maple pastries?
With a full belly, some leisure time is in order - and in the case of Folktails, this could range from a quality time in the Campfire to a dance-off in a Dance Hall or some heated, philosophical discussions in the Agora or a Mud Pit. Or, if you’re in for a very different kind of thrill, you could ride a Carousel.
Keeping your beavers happy is key in Timberborn in general, but with Folktails, some extra care is in order - their population increases after work, when they and their significant others spend time in their cozy lodges. A little magic and pop, a small beaver - a kit! - appears.
Now you could say: oooh, everything Folktails-related is so pleasant and warm. Not so fast - while they are the nature-friendly faction, they’re still post-apocalyptic beaver engineers. One of the key examples is their bots - machine beavers that work 24/7, running on Biofuel refined from crops and boosted with Catalyst and the Punch Cards.
Folktails are capable of turning grand designs into reality - and with their unique mass transportation system, the Ziplines, it’s certainly easier to cover large distances. Zipline Stations - forming a network of connections with Zipline Pylons and Beams, make moving and transporting goods across the settlement quicker. Just be sure to create a collision-free course.
Iron Teeth
Work hard, work hard. ~Iron Teeth's motto
These are Folktails’ hard-working, industrious cousins. Right from the start, the atmosphere and color palette of their settlement are on opposite sides of the scale. Progress is their driving force, shared among the society. 20-hour shifts? Phew, easy. They can rest… some other time.
With buildings such as stackable Industrial Piles, the narrow, tall Rowhouses, or the Deep Water Pumps with extended pipes, their living space is meant to be squeezed (and stacked) to make room for more important uses, such as industrial areas. With the focus on mechanical production, there is no such thing as too much power - hence the faction's Large Power Wheels, Large Water Wheels, and the timbertech at its finest - the Steam Engines that use logs and water to generate lots of energy.
Iron Teeth took industrialism to the heart, to the point that they even produce breed kits in Breeding Pods. The whole colony cares for them, raising the strongest and bravest for future generations. To Ma' Ngonel's horror, you could even go the fast-forward route and create beavers that are adult right off the tank - they might be slightly confused for a second, but they’ll get to work right away.
Growing in a tank might help prepare the Iron Teeth for the slightly claustrophobic experiences of the faction’s unique mass transportation system - the Tubeways. These sealed, metal pipes can even go into water - or the dangerous badwater - and they make your beavers go fast. Oh, and they also go up straight vertically.
The metal requirements are a recurring theme for Iron Teeth, especially in 1.0, where they received their unique Metalsmith building and the Metal Parts good.
But don’t get us wrong, the Iron Teeth are still living beavers, not some kind of cyborgs. This means they do have their own crops and cuisine (although the Folktails chefs would probably object to the use of this word). The Iron Teeth’s diet consists of raw Kohlrabi, fermented Soybeans, Mushrooms, and Cassavas, or mass-produced food rations made from Corn, Eggplants, or industrially-grown Algae. To wash all that down, they drink copious amounts of Coffee.
For the cyborg-ish needs, they have their wound-up bots - unlike the Folktails counterpart, these require being in range of the Control Tower signal to operate efficiently, and can have their stats boosted with the Grease.
Stat-boosting is a common theme for the Iron Teeth - even their attractions focus on keeping their society in top shape. Swimming Pools and Exercise Plazas help maintain physical fitness, Motivatorium ensures no revolutionary ideas spring to mind in between shifts, and the totally safe Wind Tunnels prepare for what the Iron Teeth’s wonder is for, which is...
...yeeting beavers away into the wasteland in single-use planes. The idea behind the Earth Repopulator is to bring life back to the more remote areas. They say that some of the pioneers even return with their stories.
And here’s the final Iron Teeth-related detail. We’ve just kicked off our second-ever Makeship campaign that allows you to adopt a very fancy, limited Iron Teeth plushie. Find it HERE!
Makeship Iron Teeth plushie
