Day and Night Cycle, Time & Speed

Time in Timberborn governs nearly every aspect of gameplay, from beaver work schedules to drought severity. Understanding how the day/night cycle, game speed, and seasonal systems interact will help you plan your colony more effectively and survive increasingly difficult conditions as the game progresses.

How Time Works: Ticks, Hours, and Days

Timberborn tracks time using an internal tick system. Each in-game day is divided into hours, and the game processes actions and events on each tick. A full day-night cycle represents one complete in-game day. Days are numbered sequentially from the start of the game, and the current day count is displayed in the top HUD. The day counter is important because drought duration and badtide severity scale with the number of elapsed cycles, making time progression a core difficulty mechanic.

Game Speed Controls

Players can control the speed of time using the speed controls in the bottom-left corner of the screen. There are three speed settings: normal speed (1x), fast (2x), and fastest (3x). You can also pause the game entirely, which freezes all simulation but still allows you to place buildings, set priorities, and plan your colony layout. Pausing is extremely useful for making decisions during emergencies like droughts. The keyboard shortcuts for speed are typically 1, 2, 3 for the three speeds and spacebar for pause.

Day and Night Cycle Length

Each in-game day consists of a daytime phase and a nighttime phase. During the day, the map is brightly lit and beavers carry out their assigned work and leisure activities. At night, lighting dims and beavers transition to sleep (unless their schedule is configured otherwise). The visual transition between day and night is gradual, with sunrise and sunset effects. One full day-night cycle at 1x speed takes a few real-time minutes, though the exact duration depends on your hardware performance and frame rate.

Beaver Daily Schedule: Work, Leisure, and Sleep

Each beaver follows a daily schedule divided into three activity blocks: work, leisure, and sleep. By default, beavers work during the first portion of the day, take leisure time in the afternoon, and sleep through the night. You can customize these schedules per district, adjusting how many hours are allocated to each activity. Increasing work hours means more gets done each day, but it comes at the cost of leisure time and eventually well-being. Reducing work hours gives beavers more rest and higher well-being but slows production. Finding the right balance depends on your current situation: during droughts, you may want maximum work hours to finish critical projects, while during abundance, more leisure keeps morale high.

Seasonal Cycles: Temperate, Drought, and Badtide

Timberborn features a seasonal cycle system that alternates between different weather states. The temperate season is the default state where water flows normally, crops grow, and conditions are favorable. During droughts, all water sources dry up, crops wither, and your colony must survive on stored reserves. Badtides are a more dangerous variant where contaminated water flows through the rivers, poisoning any beaver that drinks it or any crop irrigated by it. The game alternates between temperate seasons and either droughts or badtides, with the duration and severity increasing over time.

How Drought Duration Scales with Difficulty

Drought duration is not fixed; it increases with each successive cycle. Early droughts may last only 1 to 3 days, giving you time to build up reserves. As more cycles pass, droughts grow progressively longer, eventually reaching 15, 20, or even 30 days on harder difficulty settings. The scaling formula varies by difficulty level: Easy mode keeps droughts relatively short throughout the game, while Hard mode ramps up aggressively. This escalation is the primary source of long-term challenge in Timberborn, forcing you to continuously expand your water storage and food production capacity.

Cycle Tracking and Planning Tips

The game HUD shows your current day, current season, and how many days remain in the current weather cycle. Use this information to plan ahead. When a drought is approaching, make sure all water tanks are full and food stores are stocked. During temperate seasons, focus on expanding infrastructure and growing your population. A useful habit is to check your per-beaver daily consumption rates (visible in the resource panel) and multiply them by the expected drought length to see if you have enough reserves. If your reserves divided by daily consumption is less than the expected drought duration, you need to either stockpile more or reduce your population's consumption through rationing.