Turns out that while we weren’t looking the sapient beavers that will succeed us as the dominant life form on this planet have developed functional wood-and-steel robots. These are, of course, designed to accomplish menial tasks so their furry, flat-tailed masters can more easily relax in hot mud baths and ponder whatever philosophies beavers ponder.
I am of course talking about the beavers of Timberborn (opens in new tab), a city-building game where these clever creatures use their mastery of water to make the climatically-devastated planet we left them with into a beautiful-green paradise. Their vertically-stacked cities and tower dams, not to mention clever constructions, are extremely cool. (opens in new tab)
The latest (opens in new tab) update has remade the beavers’ storage system into something a bit easier to manage, and modular, and revamped beavers’ constructible helpers into Beaver Bots, with models for both the Iron Teeth and Folk Tails factions. It’s yet another arrow in their quiver ever since back in 2021 (opens in new tab) the developers decided the beavers should have powerful pumps to make water go up.
“As in the best management games, succeeding in Timberborn is all about a good juggling act. You have to ensure there’s a steady supply of wood while also making sure there’s plenty of housing and storage, while also making progress towards more useful buildings. Picking the right moment to invest in flour production or re-foresting is vital,” said Sam Greer in her look at Timberborn (opens in new tab) just after release, saying she was having “a dam good time.”
Puns aside, the addition of mechanical and increasingly-complex beaver ingenuity to the game has taken it to a new level. Quite literally: Where beavers were good at knocking over mountains and carving channels for their redirected floodwaters, the bots can actually muster the force to make proper earthen barriers.
It’s a cool addition to a chill city-builder whose biggest attraction is playing with your beavers’ environment. You can find Timberborn on the Mechanistry website (opens in new tab), or buy it on Epic (opens in new tab), GOG (opens in new tab), and Steam (opens in new tab) for $25. It’s a smooth 20% off at most of those places, just $20, while their winter sales last.
