Softwood Trunks
Softwood is the wood you use by the stack: crafting stations, building blocks, tool handles, furnace fuel. It's the first resource you gather and the one you never stop gathering. Across the Emerald Grove — Zone 1, where Early Access starts — softwood trees are the common forest tree, standing between Kweebec clearings and Trork territory.
Which trees give Softwood
Softwood comes from the lighter forest trees of the Emerald Grove — the pine-like trees common across the zone's forests. In practice you identify them by contrast: darker broadleaf trees are hardwood, the straighter, lighter conifers are softwood. Once you've compared the two trunk types once, telling them apart is automatic.
Softwood is abundant in the Emerald Grove's forested areas, so the constraint is never finding a tree — it's gathering efficiently.
Gathering it fast
- Any axe works; better axes work faster. A stone axe gathers softwood noticeably quicker than a starter one. Don't wait for a metal axe to start stockpiling, but do upgrade when you can.
- Chop the whole tree. Trunks higher up the tree drop when the base is cut; walk the pile afterward so nothing despawns behind you.
- Plant or mark a grove near your base. The classic mistake is clear-cutting a forest a ten-minute walk from home and then repeating the trip daily. If the current build's sapling/replanting mechanics are available to you, use them; if not, at least build near standing forest.
- Fuel note. Softwood burns in furnaces when you're out of coal — not the best use of it late game, but a lifesaver mid smelting session.
What Softwood crafts into
Trunks process into planks and building blocks, and from there into nearly everything with a wood component:
| Use | Notes |
|---|---|
| Building blocks | Walls, floors, roofs — the bulk of any base. |
| Crafting stations | Early and mid-game stations need softwood components; the chain is in the crafting guide. |
| Tools & handles | Most tool recipes include a wood component. |
| Torches & furniture | The constant small drains on your wood reserve. |
| Furnace fuel | Emergency option when coal runs dry. |
Softwood vs. other woods
Harder woods from other tree types fill different roles — typically more durable building material or distinct visual styles — but nothing replaces softwood's role as the general-purpose volume wood. New players should treat a softwood surplus as the normal state of affairs; you will burn through it when you least expect to.
How much wood things actually cost
The reason every guide says "gather more than you need": wood costs are front-loaded and repeating.
| What you're building | Wood appetite | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| First hut (5×5, walls + roof) | A full session's gathering on day one | The reason the beginner guide says "walls and a door", not "a house" |
| Crafting stations, early set | Constant small drains | Every station has a wood component; see the crafting guide |
| Animal pens and fences | Larger than people expect | Fence perimeters add up fast — the farming guide sizes them |
| Ongoing: torches, tools, repairs | Forever | The standing tax on every base |
| Emergency furnace fuel | Spike demand | When coal runs out mid-smelt, wood is what saves the session |
Keeping the supply running
- Designate a gathering grove — one forest area you return to, between base and mine, so wood collection piggybacks on trips you're making anyway.
- Store in stacks near your stations. A chest of trunks next to the crafting area beats a pile in the woods every time.
- Top up on every trip. The habit that matters: never return to base empty-handed from any direction. Trees are everywhere; five extra trunks per trip compounds.
- Replanting. If the current build's sapling mechanics are available to you, use them — and check the update tracker when patches touch growth or gathering rates, because they belong to the same family of balance changes as crop and resource yields.
Related pages
- Crafting guide — stations, recipes and the wood→plank chain.
- Beginner guide — first-day priorities, wood first among them.
- Silver Ore — the next resource on your progression list.