Gravity Battery

Gravity Battery is a Timberborn building that stores electrical power by raising and lowering a large lifting weight to convert between potential and electrical energy. The building is four units tall and is constructed with the lifting weight at its highest level, so newly built Gravity Batteries start fully charged. The game represents stored energy in hp (hamsterpower hours), and Gravity Batteries release that stored hp to the electrical network when needed.

A Gravity Battery’s stored capacity depends on how far the lifting weight can descend. On a flat surface where the lifting weight stops at the same level as the building’s foot, a Gravity Battery stores 4,000 hp. The theoretical maximum storage is 62,000 hp when a battery is built at the highest possible elevation and the terrain under the lifting weight is dug down to the bottom of the map, giving 29 levels of vertical drop beneath the building. Because Gravity Batteries are four units tall, 29 is the highest they can be constructed. The lifting weight does not experience buoyancy and functions the same in fluids as in air, but the weight’s descent is physically stopped by any structures underneath it (for example levees, terrain blocks, or platforms), which reduces the effective storage capacity.

Gravity Batteries can provide large bursts of power and are useful for covering daily deficits or emergency loads. Example calculations are straightforward because stored energy is measured in hp: a battery rated at 6,000 hp can supply 6,000 hp for one hour, 12,000 hp for half an hour, or 3,000 hp for two hours. Players plan battery capacity by summing network hp deficits over the hours when production is low to determine required stored hp for a schedule.

• The lifting weight begins at maximum height when built, so new batteries immediately contribute stored power.
• To maximize capacity, construct batteries at elevated positions and clear or dynamite terrain under the lifting weight down to the map bottom. Solid structures placed beneath the weight can also allow placement at higher elevations.
• The lifting weight behaves identically in fluids because Timberborn does not simulate buoyancy.
• Building batteries as an on-demand quick source of power is possible, but inefficient because construction time and the resource loss from demolishing a depleted battery generally outweigh the benefits.
• The Power Around the Clock achievement requires 13 Gravity Batteries built at maximum height extending to the bottom of the map.

Real-world notes referenced in game trivia point out that gravity-based storage exists in various forms (for example pumped-storage hydroelectric dams) but is often less efficient than modern chemical batteries; projects experimenting with gravity storage show varied round-trip efficiencies and practical trade-offs.