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11 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.
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33 Growing a Biome
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55 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.
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7+The developers write about these growing spaces as plots. In the game itself the built object is labelled a Planter Box, and looking at one brings up its current water level. Watering is a direct action on the box rather than something the train handles on its own, so keeping a biome alive means going round and topping the boxes up.
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79 Ecological Elements and Buffs
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911 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.
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1113 Maturity System
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1315 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.
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1517 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.
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1719 ConceptDetailPlotThe base growing space on a train car where seeds are sown.Mote-producing seedsFound in the world and sown to grow motes.Ecological elementsAdd-ons placed in a plot that influence growth and output, such as a growth-speed buff.Maturity levelsHigher tiers that grant bonus output when environmental needs (cover, heater, rock, and similar) are met.Mote vaultWhere harvested motes are deposited to rebuild the corresponding biome and unlock technology. See Motes.
1820 Relationship to the World
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2022 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.