Biomes

Biomes are cultivated ecosystems that players grow on the cars of their train in Railborn. Building up a biome produces motes, the currency used to advance the technology tree, and progressively restores that biome's place in a world whose natural environment is in collapse.

Growing a Biome

Every biome starts from a simple plot on a train car. Players sow mote-producing seeds found in the world into the plot. As more crops of a specific biome are added, a natural train-car biome begins to emerge. Players balance space and resource flow across their cars to maintain the conditions each biome needs.

Ecological Elements and Buffs

What players place in a plot, beyond the seeds themselves, affects the output. Additional ecological elements can influence growth and yield. For instance, rather than filling a plot with four common plants, a player might include an element that speeds up overall mote growth. One example shown by the developers is a Coral Buff that increases mote growth by ten percent.

Maturity System

Maturity rewards players who fine-tune their growing conditions. Most mote-producing plants have several maturity levels, and each higher level grants a bonus, usually a higher-quality (starred) mote, but sometimes a different buff such as a plot needing less water.

Reaching higher maturity levels requires meeting additional environmental factors. A plant might need cover, a heater, or a rock placed within its plot. As an example shown by the developers, the Common Lilly requires cover to reach its second level of maturity, which then produces a starred mote.

Relationship to the World

Biomes are a gameplay system grown on the train, distinct from the planet's wild terrain described under The World. Cultivating biomes is presented as restoring fragments of an ecosystem that is otherwise dying. As an in-development feature, the specific biomes, plants, buffs, and percentages may change before and during Early Access.