Biomes & Weather

When travelling through the world of Stoneshard, you will explore various enviroments. Thick forests, peaceful fields, flowing rivers, windy steppes, beachy coasts and rocky mountains.

Biomes

Blatant disrespect

Biomes are map tiles that always appear with specific features unique to them. Biomes on the Global Map are randomly generated, but follow a certain gradient - the south will be warm steppe, and the north will be cold forests. These tiles can generate with certain features like Lakes or Rivers. Any biome can be generated with a Grave located in it. Biomes can combine the features of other, adjoining Biomes which will be represented on the corners and sides of the tile.

Currently present biomes are;

Field

Fields are wide open areas with small groupings of bushes. This Biome is a good source of Herbs and Berries. Getting ambushed in an open Field is dangerous.

Fauna:

• Rabbits
• Birds
• Forest Vipers

Forest

Leaf and Pine Forests are currently the most varied Biome. A labyrinth of trees makes for an interesting place to hunt or fight within.

Forests are full of Herbs, various types of Mushrooms and Berries, along with Pine Cones and Acorns (in their respective forest variants) and Sticks.

Forests are home to a wide variety of fauna, and are where the respective animal's hunting grounds will be located.

Passive animals:

• Hedgehogs
• Squirrels
• Foxes
• Deer
• Birds
• Forest Vipers

Territorial animals:

• Boars
• Wolves
• Moose
• Bears

Steppe

Steppes are a warmer variant of fields. Different types of herbs can be found exclusively in the steppe, as well as unique variants of berries.

Fauna:

• Saiga
• Bison
• Gulons

Coast

Coastal tiles feature a strip of sandy beach with waves. Sticks can be found on the beach among other flotsam and debris, as well as occasional shells.

Coasts feature everything a player requires to survive - sea water to drink, crabs to eat, and sticks to cook said crabs.

Fauna:

• Crabs
• Seagulls

Mountains

Mountains are ragged, impassable tiles, and cannot be entered.

Sea

Sea tiles are linked to Coasts, and similliarly to Mountains they are impassable and cannot be entered.

Swamp (in development)

• A development screenshot was shared on Stoneshard Reddit, featuring a Swamp-like Biome.
• An old screenshot from the development version features the players standing in a swamp-like map surrounded by flying bug-type enemies.
• A recent teaser shared via Discord also shows several giant wasp-like hive structures.

Features

Each tile on a map can contain certain features;

Roads

Roads can be randomly pathed through most of the Biome variants, except for the mountains, coasts and the sea. They connect Settlements with each other, their Contract Dungeons and certains Points of Interest. Roads always go through the middle of a tile, and connect to the middle of their respective edges.

There are several road variants:

• Straight roads (only in cardinal directions)
• Curved roads
• T junctions; forks
• X junctions; crossings

Roadside Features

• Roadside Altar
• Abandoned Cart

Rivers

Rivers are several tiles wide, and sometimes have shallows on the banks. Crossing a river requires the player and any other entity to swim.

Where a River meets the Sea via a Coast tile, a small delta with several islands will be generated.

River Crossings

• Ford - forces the player to get wet, but is shallow enough to not require swimming
• Bridge - allows dry crossing of the river, can be wooden or stone, and is a few tiles wide.

Lakes

Lakes fill up most of the interior of their respective tile, and are roughly circular in shape, with a shallow region on its edge, and deep water in the middle.

Page last edited during patch: 0.8.1.8