Timberborn - Land Irrigation

Only green, irrigated land allows you to grow crops. You need a great amount of such land, and building up along a river is not always possible. Fortunately, any area, even on hills, can be irrigated effectively. 

For flat areas, or those that can be leveled with a small amount of dynamite, you can use irrigation tunnels. Otherwise, mini water tanks, which can be refilled with the help of a worker, or with an energy-powered pump, will also work well.

To irrigate the land, you need to create any water reservoirs, and preferably one that will last during a drought. To do this, you need dynamite - it is a very important part of the game, because only after unlocking it can we shape the terrain. The ability to fill in the terrain is not so important, because at the very beginning you can build Levees, which are almost equivalent to regular terrain. Almost - because you can't plant crops on them. 

However, there is one way without using dynamite, and we will start with it.

Irrigating the area early in the game - small reservoirs

It will take some time before you unlock the dynamite. This doesn't mean that you can't irrigate the area right away. There is a building in the game: Irrigation Tower, which allows you to do this, but it is not efficient and there is a much better way.

Just create at least one square of water and you can do it without blowing up with dynamite. 

Build 4 blocks using the Levee as shown in the graphic below, and on one of them build a Water Dump. 

Finally, connect the building with a path, stairs will also be necessary.

The worker will bring water and pump it to the designated place. When the water reaches the maximum level, you can stop the building to release the worker. If the water level drops significantly, start the building again.

Irrigation will cover a circle with a diameter of 15 fields. The building will also store up to 15 units of water, so as soon as the water level drops and you assign a worker back, it will immediately fill the reservoir. You can build a taller structure, then the water will last longer. 

As you discover dynamite, you can replace the Levees by blowing up one block of land, but it doesn't make much sense because at this stage of the game, it's much better to create irrigation tunnels already.

Irrigation with tunnels

The ideal way to irrigate is to create tunnels filled with water. Therefore, an important priority in the game is to produce dynamite. Don't be in a hurry to do this, as it requires a lot of research points and metal. The reason I mention this at the very beginning is that it's worth having a village development plan in your head so you don't tear down buildings later.

One square of water, irrigates about 15 fields of land. This number decreases, depending on how deep the water is.

15 fields are irrigated, and the number decreases depending on the depth, so I do not recommend sticking exactly to this spacing. Creating tunnels with the assumption of irrigation at 10 fields is a sufficient distance, and many players create much smaller ones. So we can keep the green area even at low water levels as low as -3.

Since we assume irrigation at a distance of 10 fields, we create tunnels with a distance of 20. After all, we irrigate the area from both sides. Of course, such a tunnel must start from the river itself, so that the water can flow freely without pump irrigation.

At the place where you plan the tunnels destroy the path, lay dynamite and detonate it as soon as the beavers finish their work. 

You will reduce the ground level at this point by 1. To create a tunnel with a depth of 2, you need to lay dynamite again. If the tunnel has a connection to the water outlet, it will be filled immediately:

Tunnels don't have to take up space for construction, because they can be built under paths. Depending on the depth, all you need to do now is to build the right platforms in that area and the paths on them:

The platforms are 1,2 and 3 levels. So you have to choose the right one depending on the depth of the tunnel. The platforms can also be built on top of each other, so if for some reason you don't unlock all of them, you can only use the first one.

I recommend building a Power Shaft on the bottom right away, so you can connect to it anywhere.

You don't have to destroy buildings to create irrigation tunnels. If you plan right away where they should be by building paths in the right place, you can tear them down later, create tunnels and put up the path from scratch.

Planning at the very beginning of the game

Then we have two options - small tanks and irrigation tunnels. Tunnels are the final version of what should be in your settlement. If you plan the paths at the beginning of the game then you will implement them easily at each stage. 

A tunnel with a depth of 1, irrigates 15 fields. This number decreases depending on the depth so assume a safe number of 10 for deeper areas. Therefore, as soon as you start the game, create main paths, which you will turn into tunnels in the future. Arrange them 20 fields apart, so each tunnel will irrigate half the land in between. 

When you plan where the fields and trees will be, then build temporary water tanks for irrigation (described at the very beginning) right away in the central areas. 

After unlocking the dynamite, turn the paths into tunnels with pieces. Remember to do this efficiently, have raw materials available on hand and have free builders. Demolishing key paths can cut off access to important buildings, so sometimes it's worth making a workaround in the form of an alternate route.

Tunnels drying out

Drought comes and unfortunately tunnels will dry out. How to take care of the water supply, you will learn from the guide:

By planning your tunnels accordingly, you can extend the amount of time that water lasts, and significantly so.

If you dig tunnels 2 fields deep and have water pumps running all the time to extract water, instead of drying out, the water will simply be collected by you. That's why it's a good idea to make a large stockpile of water for beavers in separate stores before a drought, and at some point you can just turn off the pumps.

Another way is to deepen the tunnels to 3 fields. Water pumps work for the Folktails fraction at a maximum depth of 2. So when the water drops to the lowest level, it will continue to irrigate the crop fields, but extraction will stop.