After four years in early access, Timberborn has gnawed within touching distance of a 1.0 release. While a specific date hasn’t been set for the release, developer Mechanistry has revealed what’s coming to the 1.0 version. What’s more, you can get hands-on with some of those new features right now.

In a Steam post, Mechanistry explained that the 1.0 update will be “different from anything we’ve done before.” Rather than targeting a specific area of the experience, the 1.0 version “expands the game across the board” and brings “many other little things that both you and we wanted to see in the game.”

This begins with a wide array of new map objects that you’ll discover as you expand your beavers’ metropolis. These include several natural phenomena like aquifers and geothermal fields, which you can exploit with discoverable tech like geothermal engines and aquifer drills. Other objects being introduced are more hazardous, like brambles that can harm your beavers when they try to clear them, and unstable cores that might explode should your beavers approach too closely.

Elsewhere, the update will add two more maps to play on, each bringing distinct challenges. ‘Pressure’ situates all water sources underground, with Mechanistry stating that “plugging up one outlet could have consequences elsewhere.” ‘Oasis’, meanwhile, starts players off in a small green area surrounded by wasteland, with canny use of aquifers required to revive the landscape.

Other new features include constructable spiral staircases, customisable city banners, and a graphical pass that updates the game’s skyboxes and adds light glare to fluids. Finally, in the unfortunate event that your beavers go to the great log in the sky, you’ll see it happen courtesy of a new batch of animations that includes beaver demises. “It only took us four years (more, actually) to add the animation to beavers’ deaths!” Mechanistry writes, though naturally, the studio “hopes you won’t need to watch it too often”.

Apparently, the breadth of the update is the primary reason why Mechanistry hasn’t committed to a firm release date yet. “The resulting list of changes and additions is long, with even more coming, and they all require heavy testing.” The good news, as mentioned earlier, is that testing has already begun. If you fancy trying out the experimental 1.0 build yourself, there are instructions on how to do so here.

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