Berries

Berries are a renewable, early-game food resource produced by naturally spawning berry bushes. They fully satisfy a beaver’s immediate hunger but provide no nutritional value beyond hunger reduction. Berries regrow automatically on bushes and survive most droughts, making them a reliable short-term food source during settlement setup and drought events. Each harvested berry bush yields three berries per harvest.

Berry bushes appear as natural structures on most maps. Collecting berries does not destroy the bush; after harvest the bush immediately begins to regrow berries. A newly planted berry bush requires an initial growth period before producing its first harvestable berries: it takes about 12 days to grow into a mature bush and then another 12 days for the first berries to appear, so the first harvest is available around day 24. Subsequent harvest cycles take approximately 12 days. Fully grown berry bushes with berries have a chance to spawn a new bush on an adjacent free tile unless a forester was assigned to plant that tile; newly spawned bushes begin as seedlings. Builders can remove berry bushes. Berry tiles dry out in roughly nine days if water is a factor.

Game data extracted from files provides additional numeric attributes: a berry bush occupies a 1×1×1 volume, has a growth time and harvest cycle of about 12.2 days, a planting time near 0.37 hours, a demolition time near 0.8 hours, and a base drying time of 9 days with a small random variation. The file data also lists a low chance per tick for spontaneous reproduction and other display-related randomization ranges. These values are drawn from game files and are not always shown in-game, so they may change with updates.

• Use berries as an early food source to prevent starvation while you build farms and more nutritious crops. They are especially useful for starter settlements and during the first droughts.
• Because berries do not provide nutrition, replace berry-based diets with farmed crops once you have stable workforce and drought-resistant farming infrastructure, particularly for Folktails who can access more advanced agriculture.
• Plant and harvest berry bushes to maintain a steady supply: each planted bush yields three berries per harvest, first harvest in roughly 24 days after planting, subsequent regrowth every ~12 days.
• Leaving mature berry bushes unassigned to foresters allows them to occasionally spawn nearby seedlings, enabling passive expansion of berry patches.
• Berry bushes are fragile to deliberate removal by builders; protect or replant bushes if they are important to your food plan.