Spillage

Spillage is a map-level term in Timberborn describing lost or spilled resources that appear on the ground and can be collected by haulers. Spillage is not a building or unit but an environmental resource state tied to the game’s logistics: when goods are dropped, destroyed, or otherwise removed from storage/transport, they become spillage items that occupy the map and can be reclaimed. Spillage interacts with the hauling and storage systems and affects how much usable material the colony actually retains.

Spillage is collected by the colony’s haulers and by District Crossing workers when storage buildings are configured to actively gather goods. Haulers on their normal routines will pick up nearby spillage and deliver it to the nearest storage building unless that storage is set to refuse the good. Storage buildings have toggles that alter their behavior: they can Accept Goods (the default), Supply (use haulers to collect and redistribute items between warehouses while still receiving new goods), or be set to Empty (stop accepting goods and have inventory moved elsewhere). When a storage is set to actively collect a good, the colony’s haulers prioritize filling that storage from other warehouses and from spillage on the ground.

Practical notes and interactions:

• Haulers automatically collect spillage as part of their standard hauling behaviors; placing storages nearby or configuring storages to Accept or Supply can reduce the time spillage remains on the map.
• Use Supply mode on important warehouses to have haulers and district workers pull spilled goods from other storages and reclaim spillage, improving resource availability.
• If a storage is set to Empty, its inventory will be cleared and moved elsewhere; this can lead to temporary spillage if receiving storages are full or unreachable.
• Spillage behaves like any other loose good: it occupies tile space and must be physically carried to a storage by haulers or district workers.
• Managing storage capacity (piles, tanks, warehouses) across districts reduces accidental spillage from overflows and simplifies haul routes used to recover spilled resources.