Timberborn: How to Play Multiplayer – BeaverBuddies Setup

Timberborn does not include official built-in multiplayer. If you want to play with a friend, the current playable route is the community mod BeaverBuddies or Beaver Buddies, which adds real-time co-op on the same map with separate cameras and separate user interfaces for each player. The useful part is that it works as actual simultaneous co-management rather than split-screen or a turn-based handoff. The important catch is that it still behaves like a community-maintained solution, not a polished native feature, so setup and stability matter much more than they would in an official mode.

What Timberborn multiplayer actually is

If you searched for a hidden in-game multiplayer menu, there is no public evidence that Timberborn has one as an official feature. The multiplayer experience players are using comes from BeaverBuddies. Current public mod information points to support for Timberborn version 1.0, which is the clearest compatibility signal available and suggests the project is still being maintained for the modern release line.

That distinction matters because it changes your expectations. You are not enabling a developer-supported online mode with full tutorials, automatic matchmaking, and guaranteed sync behavior. You are installing a co-op layer on top of a city builder that was originally designed as a solo simulation. In practice, that means the core idea is strong, but some systems still need manual coordination between players.

The upside is easy to understand once you are in-game: both players can operate on the same settlement in real time, each with their own camera and UI. That makes Timberborn multiplayer best suited to collaborative planning, resource management, and expansion rather than competition. One player can be zoomed out managing waterworks while the other is deep in production chains or housing layout.

How to get multiplayer in Timberborn

The practical way to obtain multiplayer is through the BeaverBuddies mod listing and its required dependencies. Because public community guidance repeatedly emphasizes stability, the safest first install is the simplest one: use only BeaverBuddies and whatever dependencies its listing requires, and leave every other mod turned off until you confirm your session works.

• Make sure all players are on the same Timberborn version.
• Make sure all players use the same BeaverBuddies version.
• Install only the multiplayer mod and its listed dependencies for your first test session.
• Do not assume a large existing mod list will carry over cleanly into co-op.

This is one of the biggest avoidable mistakes. In single-player, a harmless quality-of-life mod might only affect your local game. In co-op, even a small mismatch can complicate troubleshooting because you will not know whether a join problem or a weird building behavior comes from BeaverBuddies itself or from something else layered on top.

How a co-op session usually starts

A public demo of the mod shows a workflow that is slightly clunky but important to understand: multiplayer can rely on creating or loading a save first, then returning to the menu, and reopening the game in multiplayer mode so the second player can join. In other words, do not expect a one-click “host new multiplayer world” flow to behave like a native online game.

1. The host creates a new save or loads an existing save.
2. The host returns to the main menu.
3. The host reopens that save through the multiplayer flow used by the mod.
4. The second player joins through the supported friend-join method.
5. If the join process stalls, restart from the menu rather than forcing changes mid-load.

Community reports indicate Steam friend joining can work, but reliability improves if you disable the Steam overlay before attempting the join. That is not a universal rule backed by an official manual, but it is one of the more consistent community-tested recommendations. If you are trying to diagnose a failed join, turning off overlay is one of the first things worth doing because it removes an extra layer from the launch and invite process.

What multiplayer is best used for

BeaverBuddies makes the most sense when both players treat the settlement as shared property and divide responsibility. Timberborn already rewards planning across water, food, housing, hauling, power, and later automation. Separate cameras and separate interfaces mean co-op is most useful when those jobs are split instead of duplicated.

A clean division of labor is usually better than both players editing the same system at once. For example, one player can handle district shape, pathing, and population support while the host manages research progression and any automation-heavy changes. This is not just about efficiency. It also lines up with the mod’s current weak points, because research and some configurable systems are the areas community comments most often flag as sync-sensitive.

If you want a competitive sandbox where both players control separate factions or race for independent objectives, current public information does not point to that as the main role of the mod. Right now, the identity of Timberborn multiplayer is cooperative settlement management on one map.

Settings to change before you load the world

Most of the best setup advice is not about convenience. It is about reducing the chance of sync-like hiccups. Community guidance around the mod consistently favors a conservative configuration:

• Disable VSync.
• Cap FPS to the lowest common denominator between players.
• If you want a practical target, 60 FPS is the commonly recommended number.
• Turn off Pause in Background.
• Disable Auto-Save.

You can usually find the first two in Options → Video and the latter behavior settings in the relevant gameplay menus. The exact menu wording may vary by version, but the principle is straightforward: match performance behavior between clients and remove background pauses or surprise save events that can interrupt synchronization.

Disabling auto-save is the one that feels most inconvenient, but it is easy to understand why players recommend it. If you are relying on manual save/load as part of multiplayer housekeeping anyway, a badly timed automatic save is more nuisance than help. Just replace that convenience with deliberate saves before major changes, especially before research unlocks, water-control adjustments, or automation edits.

Systems most likely to cause sync problems

The recurring trouble spots are research, building settings, and automation. Community comments around the mod specifically warn that research should be done by the host, followed by a save and reload. That tells you two things immediately: first, research state may not always propagate cleanly in real time; second, the host should take ownership of tech progression instead of both players treating it as a shared live-edit system.

Some building settings also appear to be unreliable across clients. The fill valve is a specific example called out in community discussion, and broader automation systems are also mentioned as inconsistent. If a setting does not appear to match between players, do not keep stacking more edits on top of it. The safer workflow is:

• Pause the game.
• Let the host make the setting change.
• Confirm both players see the same result.
• If they do not, save and reload the session before continuing.

This is slower than true native co-op, but it is much better than discovering twenty minutes later that one player has been planning around a water-control setting the other player never actually received. The mod can be very playable if you respect these limits; it becomes frustrating when you assume every system is perfectly live-synced.

How to troubleshoot the common failure points

When BeaverBuddies misbehaves, the fastest way to fix it is to simplify aggressively. Do not start by changing ten variables at once. Start with version checks, mod checks, and a clean relaunch.

• If joining fails, verify the same Timberborn version and the same BeaverBuddies version on both machines.
• If invites or friend joining behave oddly, disable the Steam overlay and relaunch.
• If one player sees missing or outdated settings, stop making new edits and have the host save and reload.
• If research unlocks look inconsistent, let only the host perform research and then reload the session.
• If the session feels unstable, remove every non-essential mod and test again with only BeaverBuddies and dependencies.

The key point is that most current fixes are operational rather than magical. You are not usually hunting for a hidden checkbox that permanently solves everything. You are using a stable routine: clean mod list, matched versions, conservative settings, host ownership for sensitive systems, and save/reload when the world state starts to drift.

Maps, community content, and what that tells you

There is already a multiplayer map collection built around BeaverBuddies on the Steam Workshop. That matters because it shows the multiplayer scene has moved past a single experimental proof of concept. Players are not only testing whether co-op works; they are building reusable map content for it.

That said, this still should not be confused with official platform support. The strongest public evidence remains mod listings, workshop discussion, and demo footage rather than a developer-authored multiplayer guide. Confidence in the feature is therefore moderate, not absolute. The mod clearly exists and is clearly playable for many people, but some of the most useful advice still comes from community workarounds.

Bottom line on Timberborn multiplayer right now

Timberborn multiplayer is real, but it is not native. The current way to do it is BeaverBuddies, which supports real-time co-op on the same map with separate cameras and interfaces and appears publicly listed for Timberborn 1.0. It is worth using if you want collaborative city-building and are willing to follow a careful setup routine. Install only the required mod stack, use the host-led save/load workflow, disable VSync and auto-save, match FPS caps, turn off pause in background, and let the host handle research and other sync-sensitive settings. If you expect official-grade reliability, especially around automation and configurable buildings, the current community evidence says to keep expectations lower than the headline feature might suggest.