Timberborn Factions: Folktails And Iron Teeth Explained

At the time of writing, there are two Timberborn factions to play as if you fancy taking on the beaver apocalypse. Each faction has slightly different structures available to them, so learning how each faction in Timberborn plays can help you get a head start and ensure the success of your colony. Here's your one-stop beaver-shop for everything to do with the Folktail and Iron Teeth Timberborn factions.

• Before learning all about the Timberborn factions, make sure you know which of the Timberborn maps to play on

Timberborn Factions: Folktails

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“Easy going but hard-working, Foxtails are expert farmers. They respect nature and it rewards them with plentiful bounties.”

The Folktails are the easier of the two factions to play as, and as a result they're the faction recommended for new players, especially since they're automatically unlocked from the start of the game. Their focus is primarily on agriculture and producing large amounts of food quickly - allowing them to support large colonies with a hefty number of workers. This does mean that the Folktail require a large amount of arable land to really thrive, although they do have a unique building in the Irrigation Tower that can help with this. The Folktails also have a significantly easier early game as they can support their industry with windmills, which means that even during droughts, the Folktail can keep their buildings powered.

Timberborn Factions: Folktails - How To Get More Beavers

Unlike the Iron Teeth, the Folktails must reproduce the old-fashioned way. This means that to get more beavers you need spare housing slots and happy beavers. This can be achieved by ensuring that they have access to enough supplies like food and water, and leisure activities like a campfire.

Timberborn Factions: Folktails Unique Buildings

Beehive

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• The Folktails have access to beehives that they can place around their farmland to boost the growth of nearby crops. They affect a 7 x 7 square around the building.
• The effects of this do not stack, so there is no bonus in overlapping these areas.
• Costs: 400 science to unlock, 10 logs, 15 planks, and 20 paper

Lodges

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• The unique housing for the Folktails faction, the lodges come in a number of sizes that fit different numbers of beavers. These are the basic lodge (3 beavers), the mini lodge (1 beaver), the double lodge (6 beavers), and the triple lodge (9 beavers).
• The lodges satisfy the sleep and comfort requirements of your beavers.
• Other buildings can be built on top of them, allowing you to build vertically and save space.

Underground Warehouse

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• The unique storage building for the Folktails, the underground warehouses have a huge capacity of 4000 (four times the standard large warehouse). This allows you to store significantly more goods and require fewer storage buildings. However, unlike other storage buildings, other structures cannot be built on top of the underground warehouse. 
• Costs: 1000 science to unlock, 20 logs, 80 planks, and 40 gears

Windmill

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• One of the most useful unique buildings, the windmill provides power for the Folktails buildings via wind power. This can be very useful in the early game, providing power without requiring running water or a worker, however, the windmills are inconsistent so aren’t always producing power - it depends on when the wind is actually blowing, which currently isn’t indicated in the game. You'll only notice when the windmills just stop turning.
• The windmills come in two different sizes with the larger of the two being more consistent at producing power. 
• Small (produces 120 power) - costs: 120 science to unlock, 20 logs, and 20 planks
• Large (produces 300 power) - costs: 1400 science to unlock, 40 planks, 20 gears, and 30 paper

Irrigation Tower

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• The irrigation tower does exactly what you might expect, it irrigates the ground around it making the land arable and allowing you to grow things - this can be useful in the dry season or extend into dry land without creating canals. They affect a circle 10 squares from the centre.
• One limitation of the irrigation tower is that it requires a constant supply of water. This can severely limit the usefulness of the irrigation tower as it is very water-hungry. This means that it is only really viable in the late game when you have a large number of reservoirs and water pumps.
• Costs: 200 Science to unlock, 15 logs, and 20 planks

Scarecrow

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• While the scarecrow claims to “scares birds”, it really only satisfies aesthetics for the beavers. This is important for improving beaver happiness. 
• Costs: 200 science to unlock, 5 logs, and 10 paper

• Learn all about how Timberborn power works in our dedicated guide

Timberborn Factions: Iron Teeth

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“Defectors of the traditional timber ways, they mastered iron and science to build advanced machinery. They achieve progress through ingenuity, efficiency, and disregard for the environment.”

The Iron Teeth faction has a focus on expansive industry and rapid population growth. The majority of Iron Teeth structures are efficient and compact, making them especially good at building tall colonies which can be useful when trying to save space. The Iron Teeth also have access to engines that enable them to effectively power their industry buildings non-stop. This means that the Iron Teeth are less restricted by the dry seasons but engines do require a constant supply of logs for fuel.

Timberborn Factions: How to unlock the Iron Teeth

To unlock the Iron Teeth you must first reach level 8 population well-being with the Folktails faction. The well-being of your beavers can be increased by providing the beavers with housing and comfort, a full night's sleep, improving nutrition through better food (carrots and potatoes instead of just berries), providing spirituality by building a temple, and providing social life by building a campfire.

Timberborn Factions: Iron Teeth - How To Get More Beavers

Compared to the Folktails, the Iron Teeth have a harder early game due to the fact that they can only reproduce through their unique breeding pods. These pods require a constant supply of berries and water to actually pop out any baby beavers but once set up they can produce a steady supply of new beavers - this is especially useful when starting new districts as you don’t need spare housing or even happy beavers.

Timberborn Factions: Iron Teeth Unique Buildings

Breeding Pods

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• The Iron Teeth use breeding pods to produce new beavers. This is the only way that the Iron Teeth can produce new beavers.
• Costs: 10 logs, each new beaver takes 2 water and 2 berries to produce

Metal Platform

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• A unique structure buildable by the Iron Teeth, this platform can be built upon allowing you to save more space by building vertically. They are available in two sizes:
  
  • Small - costs: 500 science to unlock and 200 metal blocks
  • Large - costs: 500 science to unlock and 500 metal blocks

Industrial Log Pile

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• The industrial log pile provides a larger capacity to store logs (180) than the standard log storage. One other benefit of the Iron Teeth’s log pile is that they can be built on top of, enabling you to save space by building multiple log storage buildings on top of one another.
• Costs: 12 logs

Barracks and Rowhouse

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• The unique housing options for the Iron Teeth are the barracks and rowhouse. The variations available are the barracks (10 beavers), the large barracks (16 beavers), the rowhouse (5 beavers), and the large rowhouse (8 beavers).
• These barracks satisfy the sleep and comfort requirements of your beavers.
• Like the Folktail lodges, other buildings can be built on top of the barracks. However, the housing for the Iron Teeth is significantly more compact allowing you to house more beavers in smaller buildings. 

Deep Water Pump

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• Another unique building for the Iron Teeth, the deepwater pump can reach 6 squares down, significantly further than the standard water pump. These water pumps are much better for deeper water as they can keep pumping water even when the water levels drop. 
• Costs: 12 logs

Engine

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• Probably the most useful unique building for the Iron Teeth, the engine burns fuel (logs) to produce power. Each engine produces 200 hp. Once you have a steady supply of wood the engine can permanently produce power for your colonies as they are not limited by flowing water or the wind. However, the engine does take a while to unlock, needing a large amount of science and metal blocks (from processing steel).
• Costs: 400 science to unlock, 20 logs, 25 gears, and 20 metal blocks

The Folktails and Iron Teeth Timberborn factions both play slightly differently thanks to their unique buildings, and each faction has a slightly different focus. The Folktails are the farmers of Timberborn with unique buildings like the beehive boosting the output of their farms. They are also able to use irrigation towers to extend their available farmland.

The Iron Teeth are the industrialists of Timberborn using their unique buildings like the engine to keep their industry chugging along during the longest draughts. Another faction was briefly shown as greyed out during the beta period of the game, but has has since been removed from the full game. We've heard no word from the developer, but perhaps another faction could be just around the corner.