What does the Catalyst do in Timberborn

Back in my day, the giant barrels in Timberborn only held water. For a while now, they’ve held all manner of helpful liquids, such as canola oil and maple syrup. But a few of these liquids are somewhat mysterious in terms of their usage. Especially, perhaps, Catalyst.

Catalyst is created in Refinery, which is a building only available to the Folktail Tribe. It was initially added in Update 2 of Timberborn’s Early Access period. It is created by combining 2 parts sunflower seeds to 1 part maple syrup. Sunflower seeds are harvested as a crop using Farmhouse. Meanwhile, getting maple syrup requires that you grow maple trees and have a Tapper’s Shack nearby.

Once processed, you should then store it in a fluid tank. You can tell it apart from other fluids by its purple color.

So what is Catalyst? It’s an extra fuel source for your timberbots that gives them a hypercharged boost. One thing to note is that it’s completely optional. It raises your timberbots’ condition and, therefore, makes them more productive, but it isn’t required for them to function properly. Likewise, you only need this far later in the game when you start using bots. If you don’t have any of the mechanical beavers walking around, then maple syrup and sunflower seeds are best used as food sources.