Production Chain Optimization: Resource Ratios and Efficiency

Efficient production chains are the backbone of any successful Timberborn colony. Every advanced resource starts as a raw material (Logs, Scrap Metal, crops) and passes through one or more processing buildings before becoming a finished product. Understanding the ratios, bottlenecks, and power requirements at each stage lets you build exactly the right number of buildings, assign the right number of workers, and place storage in the right locations. This guide breaks down every major production chain with concrete numbers and optimization strategies.

The Wood Processing Chain: Logs to Planks to Gears

The wood chain is the most fundamental production chain in Timberborn and feeds into nearly every other chain. It starts with Lumberjack Flags, where lumberjacks fell trees and produce Logs. Logs then flow to the Lumber Mill, which converts 1 Log into 1 Plank in 1.3 hours, consuming 50 horsepower and employing 1 worker. The Lumber Mill has internal storage for 13 Logs and 13 Planks.

Planks branch into two secondary products. The Gear Workshop converts 1 Plank into 1 Gear in 3 hours, consuming 120 horsepower with 1 worker. It stores 10 Planks and 10 Gears internally. The Wood Workshop combines Planks with Pine Resin (harvested from Pine trees at Tapper's Shacks) to produce Treated Planks, which are required for several advanced buildings.

Throughput calculation: one Lumber Mill operating at full efficiency produces approximately 0.77 Planks per hour (1 Plank every 1.3 hours). One Gear Workshop consumes approximately 0.33 Planks per hour (1 Plank every 3 hours). This means a single Lumber Mill can supply roughly 2.3 Gear Workshops. For a balanced setup, plan on 2 Gear Workshops per Lumber Mill, which leaves a small Plank surplus for construction and other uses. If you are running 3 Gear Workshops, you need 2 Lumber Mills to keep them fed without drawing down Plank reserves.

Power requirements for the chain: 1 Lumber Mill (50 hp) plus 2 Gear Workshops (240 hp total) equals 290 hp. Adding a Wood Workshop brings the total to approximately 350 to 400 hp depending on the Wood Workshop's power consumption. Plan your Water Wheel or Power Wheel capacity accordingly. On a good river placement, 3 to 4 Water Wheels can supply this entire chain.

The Metal Processing Chain: Scrap Metal to Metal Blocks

The metal chain starts with Scrap Metal, a finite resource mined from Underground Ruins scattered across the map. Ruins density varies significantly by map: Meander has only 2.0, while Thousand Islands has 27.0. Once collected, Scrap Metal goes to the Smelter, which converts 2 Scrap Metal into 1 Metal Block in 2 hours. The Smelter also consumes 1 Log per 10 Scrap Metal smelted as fuel. It requires 200 horsepower and employs 1 worker, with internal storage for 13 Logs, 26 Scrap Metal, and 13 Metal Blocks.

The Smelter's construction cost is substantial: 50 Planks, 20 Gears, and 30 Scrap Metal. This means you need to manually gather at least 30 Scrap Metal before you can even build your first Smelter. Plan your early game to include Scrap Metal collection from nearby ruins as a priority.

Throughput calculation: one Smelter produces 0.5 Metal Blocks per hour (1 every 2 hours). It consumes 1.0 Scrap Metal per hour and approximately 0.1 Logs per hour as fuel. For most colonies, 1 to 2 Smelters are sufficient unless you are on a metal-heavy map and building aggressively. Metal Blocks are used in many mid-to-late game buildings, including the Explosives Factory (30 Metal Blocks), the Printing Press (30 Metal Blocks), and various advanced structures.

Since Scrap Metal is finite, optimize your metal chain by: mining all nearby ruins first to build a stockpile, running the Smelter continuously rather than in bursts (to avoid power waste from startup/shutdown), and reserving Metal Blocks for buildings that truly need them. On low-ruin maps like Meander (2.0) or Diorama (2.0), every Metal Block is precious.

Food Production Chains by Faction

Food chains differ between Folktails and Iron Teeth, though both factions can grow the same basic crops. The raw food stage includes: Farmhouses growing Carrots, Potatoes, and Wheat; Gatherer Flags for collecting Berries from Blueberry Bushes and Chestnuts from Chestnut trees; and aquatic food sources like Cattails harvested by specialized buildings.

The processing stage transforms raw food into more efficient forms. The Grill converts raw Potatoes into Grilled Potatoes, providing better hunger satisfaction per unit. The Bakery chain is longer: Wheat goes to a Gristmill to become Wheat Flour, then Wheat Flour goes to a Bakery to become Bread. Bread is one of the most nutritious foods in the game but requires two processing steps and significant power investment.

For Folktails, the farming focus means larger crop fields and more Farmhouses. A single Farmhouse with one worker can tend a moderate-sized field. Plan on approximately 1 Farmhouse per 8 to 10 beavers for a mixed diet. Supplement with 1 to 2 Gatherer Flags for Berries and Chestnuts from natural tree stands.

For Iron Teeth, the industrial approach extends to food. They have access to unique food processing buildings that let them create more advanced food products. However, their higher power consumption means food processing competes with industrial buildings for electricity. Allocate power budget carefully: do not let your Smelter and Gear Workshops starve your Grill or Bakery of power, or your beavers will starve instead.

The Paper and Books Chain: Knowledge Production

The paper chain converts raw Logs into intellectual resources. The Paper Mill takes 1 Log and produces 2 Paper in 1.6 hours, requiring 80 horsepower and 1 worker. It stores up to 10 Logs and 20 Paper internally. This is a notably efficient conversion: you get 2 Paper per Log, making it one of the better resource multipliers in the game.

Paper then flows to the Printing Press, which employs 2 workers and requires 150 horsepower. The Printing Press has two recipes. Books require 1 Paper and take 1.5 hours to produce. Punchcards require 2 Paper plus 1 Plank and produce 2 Punchcards in 0.75 hours. The Printing Press stores 12 Paper, 12 Books, 40 Punchcards, and 12 Planks internally. Its construction cost is steep: 50 Logs, 30 Gears, and 30 Metal Blocks.

Throughput calculation for the Books chain: one Paper Mill produces 1.25 Paper per hour (2 Paper every 1.6 hours). One Printing Press worker produces approximately 0.67 Books per hour (1 Book every 1.5 hours), consuming 0.67 Paper per hour. With 2 workers, a fully staffed Printing Press consumes 1.33 Paper per hour, which is slightly more than one Paper Mill produces. For a balanced setup, you need roughly 1.1 Paper Mills per Printing Press when producing Books exclusively. In practice, one Paper Mill and one Printing Press is a close match, with the Printing Press occasionally waiting briefly for Paper.

For Punchcard production, the math shifts. Each Punchcard batch uses 2 Paper and 1 Plank to make 2 Punchcards in 0.75 hours. Per worker, that is 2.67 Paper per hour and 1.33 Planks per hour. A fully staffed Printing Press on Punchcards consumes 5.33 Paper per hour, requiring over 4 Paper Mills to keep up. This is a very resource-intensive chain. Only invest in mass Punchcard production if you have a large bot workforce that requires them.

Bot Production Chain

Bots are mechanical workers that supplement your beaver workforce. The bot production chain is one of the most complex and resource-intensive in the game, requiring inputs from multiple other chains. Building bots requires Metal Blocks (from the metal chain), Gears (from the wood chain), Planks, and Punchcards (from the paper chain).

The bot assembly process happens at a dedicated production building. Each bot requires a significant investment of processed resources, making them a late-game luxury rather than an early priority. However, once produced, bots do not need food, water, housing, or entertainment, making them extremely efficient workers for dangerous or remote locations.

To sustain continuous bot production, you need all upstream chains running smoothly: at least 1 Smelter for Metal Blocks, 1 to 2 Gear Workshops for Gears, 1 Paper Mill plus 1 Printing Press for Punchcards, and sufficient Log and Plank production to feed everything. The total power requirement for the full bot production chain (including all upstream buildings) exceeds 600 hp. Plan for a dedicated power district with multiple Water Wheels if you intend to produce bots at scale.

Throughput Calculations and Worker Ratios

Understanding throughput ratios lets you build the exact right number of buildings for balanced production. Here is a summary of key ratios for the major chains:

Wood chain: 1 Lumber Mill (0.77 Planks/hr) supports 2.3 Gear Workshops (0.33 Planks/hr each). Recommended ratio: 2 Lumber Mills per 3 to 4 Gear Workshops, with the surplus Planks going to construction and other uses.

Metal chain: 1 Smelter produces 0.5 Metal Blocks/hr consuming 1.0 Scrap Metal/hr. On maps with limited ruins, 1 Smelter is usually sufficient. On metal-rich maps (Helix Mountain, Thousand Islands), run 2 to 3 Smelters to process the abundance before ruins are depleted.

Paper to Books: 1 Paper Mill (1.25 Paper/hr) nearly matches 1 fully staffed Printing Press on Books (1.33 Paper/hr consumed). A 1:1 ratio works with minor occasional idling.

Paper to Punchcards: 1 fully staffed Printing Press on Punchcards consumes 5.33 Paper/hr. You need 4+ Paper Mills per Printing Press for sustained Punchcard production. This is rarely practical; most colonies produce Punchcards in small batches rather than continuously.

Worker totals per chain: the wood chain (1 Lumber Mill + 2 Gear Workshops) uses 3 workers. The metal chain (1 Smelter) uses 1 worker. The paper/books chain (1 Paper Mill + 1 Printing Press) uses 3 workers. Add 10 haulers per Hauling Post for each production cluster, and your total labor allocation for a full industrial district can easily reach 25 to 30 workers before counting farmers, builders, or service workers.

Power Requirements per Chain

Power is often the limiting factor in production chain scaling. Here are the power costs for each chain:

Wood chain: Lumber Mill (50 hp) + Gear Workshop (120 hp each). A standard 1 Lumber Mill + 2 Gear Workshop setup requires 290 hp. Adding a Wood Workshop for Treated Planks adds approximately 80 to 100 hp more.

Metal chain: Smelter alone requires 200 hp, making it one of the most power-hungry individual buildings. Two Smelters need 400 hp, equivalent to the output of 4 to 5 Water Wheels on a good river.

Paper/Books chain: Paper Mill (80 hp) + Printing Press (150 hp) = 230 hp total. This is a significant power draw for a knowledge-production chain and should be weighed against competing industrial needs.

Explosives chain: Explosives Factory (150 hp) plus the Badwater Pump that feeds it. Total dedicated power for terraforming operations is approximately 200 hp.

Full industrial district total: running one of each major chain simultaneously (wood, metal, paper, explosives) requires roughly 870 to 920 hp. This demands a substantial power grid of 8 to 10 Water Wheels or equivalent. Plan your power infrastructure before scaling up production, not after.

Bottleneck Identification and Resolution

The most common production bottleneck is Log supply. Logs feed into the Lumber Mill (for Planks and then Gears), the Paper Mill (for Paper and then Books/Punchcards), and the Smelter (as fuel). A single colony can easily need 3+ Logs per hour across all chains. If your lumberjacks are not cutting fast enough, every downstream chain stalls. Solution: maintain 3 to 4 active Lumberjack Flags per 10 production buildings, ensure Forester buildings are replanting trees continuously, and keep at least 50 Logs in storage as a buffer.

The second most common bottleneck is power. If your power grid cannot supply all connected buildings, some will idle randomly. The Smelter (200 hp) and Printing Press (150 hp) are particularly sensitive because their long production cycles waste significant time if interrupted. Solution: check your total power demand against supply, build additional Water Wheels or Power Wheels, and pause low-priority buildings during power shortages.

Hauling bottlenecks occur when production buildings have full output storage but no one picks up the products. This idles the building until storage is cleared. Solution: build a Hauling Post with 10 workers near every production cluster. If you see buildings showing 'Output Full' warnings despite having warehouse space available, you need more haulers or shorter hauling distances.

Storage bottlenecks happen when your warehouses fill up with one resource type, leaving no room for others. Solution: use resource limits on storage buildings to cap low-priority items. Dedicate specific warehouses to specific resource types near the buildings that produce or consume them. A Large Warehouse next to your Lumber Mill dedicated to Planks, and another next to your Gear Workshop dedicated to Gears, prevents cross-contamination.

Storage Placement for Production Chains

Strategic storage placement is the final piece of the optimization puzzle. The goal is to minimize the distance between a building's output storage and the next building's input. Place intermediate storage (warehouses holding semi-processed goods) between the buildings that produce and consume them.

For the wood chain, place a Small Warehouse configured for Logs between your Lumberjack Flags and Lumber Mills. Place another configured for Planks between the Lumber Mills and Gear Workshops. The Gear Workshop output (Gears) should be stored in a warehouse near construction-heavy areas or near buildings that consume Gears (like the Smelter's construction site or the Printing Press).

For the metal chain, place Scrap Metal storage near your ruin mining sites, and Metal Block storage near the Smelter output and the buildings that consume Metal Blocks. For the paper chain, place Paper storage between the Paper Mill and Printing Press, and Book storage near the buildings that provide wellbeing bonuses (like bookcases and libraries).

In multi-district colonies, remember that inter-district resource transfer adds a time overhead through District Crossings. Whenever possible, keep entire production chains within a single district rather than splitting them across districts. A wood-processing district should contain Lumberjack Flags, Foresters, Lumber Mills, Gear Workshops, and all associated storage. The finished Gears and Planks can then be exported to other districts through crossings, but the intermediate steps should all happen locally.

Finally, always leave room to expand your storage as your colony grows. A cluster of 3 production buildings that works fine with 1 Small Warehouse will eventually need 2 to 3 warehouses as your population and consumption scale up. Building with expansion space in mind from the start saves painful reorganization later.