Rootbound

Civilization

Rolling green hills where the trees are people who have never seen the other side of the hill they grew on.

At a glance

Kind of world	Civilization
Serum in the arrival Box	2 ampoules
Native Serum stand-in	Amber Sap
Quests	Yes: see your Traveler's Guide

Screenshot comingrootbound-arrival

The meadow at the Box, ringed by old trees with carved faces in their bark, all slowly turning to look at the door

What happens when you arrive

The Box opens in a meadow on rolling green hills, and every tree round it is looking at you. They have faces in the bark, and the faces turn, slowly, with a groan like a ship, until they are all facing the door. The trees here are people. They can't walk, so not one of them has ever seen the other side of the hill it grew on, and someone who can walk is the most extraordinary thing that has ever happened to them.

A sapling about as tall as your knee is the first to speak. That is Pip, and it wants to know absolutely everything about walking.

The rule: the trees are people

Rootbound has no hostile weather, no strange physics and no natural monsters. What makes it different is who lives here.

• The trees talk. Right-click a speaking tree to talk to it. They speak slowly: the words appear at a normal pace, but the mouth in the bark takes its time over each syllable. A tree's leaves shiver when it is scared, droop when it is sad and flare when it is angry.
• The grove folk without conversations still say things in passing, each grove in its own manner. The ancients of the Old Wood say one word a day, a single sentence spread across many days.
• You may cut logs. It is allowed. Every tree in sight will be furious about it.
• Saplings grow by visits. A seed planted in Rootbound grows one stage each time someone arrives.

The lie of the land

The Box sits in a meadow, its door facing south.

Direction	What's there
North, the highest hill	Grandmother Ash, looking south over the meadow. Behind her hill, a stream runs between mossy rocks.
West	Oak Hill, home of the oaks.
East	The Birch Ring.
South, between them	The valley the Oaks and the Birches have shouted across for three hundred years.
Further south	The river, running past Mother Willow at the Willow Bend. Beyond it, the Old Wood (south-east) and the grey Bare Field (south-west).
North-west	Pine Ridge, where Old Needle stands.
North-east	The Orchard, Pippin's home.
Far west, past Oak Hill	Where the Woodcutter makes his camp.

Your quest: The Speaking Hills

The story runs in five chapters: Arrival, The Feud, The Bare Field, The Woodcutter and Thanks.

Step	What to do	Who
1	Talk to Pip. It sends you up the highest hill.	Pip
2	Talk to Grandmother Ash. She asks what is on the other side of her hill.	Grandmother Ash
3	Walk over her hill and really look: at the grass, the little stream and the rocks.
4	Go back and tell her. You can only describe what you actually saw. She gives you 3 Amber Sap and a Bark Letter for Mother Willow.	Grandmother Ash
5	Take the letter to Mother Willow at the river bend.	Mother Willow
6	The Feud. Carry 4 messages across the valley between Old Barkley of Oak Hill and Lady Silverleaf of the Birch Ring. Each time, pass the insult on word for word, or a little kinder.	Barkley, Silverleaf
7	Squash 6 bark beetles chewing Barkley's oaks on Oak Hill.
8	Cut 4 strangler vines off Lady Silverleaf's birches in the Birch Ring.
9	If you were kind at least 3 times, Barkley finally says what he meant three hundred years ago. Carry his Oak Pollen up to the Ring.	Barkley, Silverleaf
10	Plant the Heartseed in the valley between Oak Hill and the Birch Ring: a wedding.
11	The Bare Field. There's smoke on the river. Old Rowan, the last rowan of the grove that burned, tells of the fire.	Mother Willow, Old Rowan
12	Put out 5 fire sprites dancing on Pine Ridge. Water kills them.	Old Needle
13	The Woodcutter. Someone with an axe has made camp west of Oak Hill. Go and meet him.	Tobin the Woodcutter
14	The trees beg you to do something. Decide how his story ends.	Grandmother Ash, Tobin
15	Thanks. The groves give you their gifts.	Grandmother Ash (or Pip)

Be kind in the feud

The wedding only happens if you softened at least three of the four insults. A screen message tells you "You softened it a little" each time. The best ending needs the wedding.

Screenshot comingrootbound-feud

Old Barkley on Oak Hill and Lady Silverleaf across the valley, both turned to glare at each other

The Woodcutter's endings (spoilers)

Tobin is polite, tired, and carrying an axe. He came over the hills from a village that burned, and he needs wood. He can't be hurt: this is a moral question, not a fight. The first player to decide settles it for the whole world, for good.

Ending	What happens
Peace (only after the wedding)	He stays, and the groves leave him their fallen wood. His camp fills with their gifts of deadwood.
Away	He walks off west and is gone. His camp stands empty, cold ashes and a torn tent, on later visits.
The bargain	Grandmother Ash says goodbye to the meadow and goes with him first, to be his house's front door. Her hill keeps an amberwood stump with flowers round it. You also get GAGrandmother Ash's Acorn.

After the wedding, the valley's children come up on their own, two more each visit: tree-people who are something new.

Side quests

Pip's First Seed

Pip gives you Pip's Seed. Plant it somewhere in Rootbound with good soil and room to grow. It becomes a sapling as excitable as Pip and grows one stage every visit.

Pippin's Errand

Pippin is a young apple tree in the Orchard, cheerful and a little anxious.

Step	What to do
1	Pour a bucket of water on each of the Orchard's 4 parched patches.
2	Carry Pippin's BOBasket of Apples up Pine Ridge to Old Needle, the oldest pine, dry as his needles.
3	Wrap a Sap Bandage round Old Needle's split limb. Pippin gives you one.
4	Walk to the river, then come back and tell Old Needle about it.
Reward	8 Amberwood Planks and a TTTalking-Tree Sapling.

Pests

These only appear while the story needs them.

Pest	Where	What to know
Bark Beetle	Under the bark on Oak Hill.	A glossy black shell the size of a rabbit. Only bites when bothered, and squashes easily.
Strangler Vine	Wound up the birches of the Birch Ring.	Doesn't walk, but lashes anyone in reach and tangles their ankles. An axe or shears cut it twice as fast.
Fire Sprite	Pine Ridge, during the dry spell.	A tiny dancing flame that darts at you and sets you alight. It dies in water or rain: splash it with a bucket or lure it into the stream. It never lights the ground.

Screenshot comingrootbound-sprites

Fire sprites bobbing over Pine Ridge at dusk, Old Needle's face lit orange

The groves' thanks

When the story is done you receive:

• A Walking Seedling
• A TTTalking-Tree Sapling
• 3 Sap Bandages
• 16 Amberwood Logs
• GAGrandmother Ash's Acorn, if she went with the Woodcutter

Gift	What it does
Walking Seedling	A little sapling on two root-legs that follows you into every world. It grows a stage every day it walks with you (four stages in all), and when anything hostile comes near you it sends its roots through the ground and holds the thing in place. It can't be hurt and can't be lost. Use the pot to call it, crouch and use to send it home; it's on your Companion Wheel too.
TTTalking-Tree Sapling	Plant it at home. It grows into a speaking tree with opinions about the place.
GAGrandmother Ash's Acorn	Plant it at home. It grows into a little tree with her voice.
Sap Bandage	Use it to heal 4 hearts (one every 3 seconds at most).

Saplings planted at home grow one stage every half day.

What to bring home

Find	Where	Why it's worth it
Amber Sap	Use an Amber Seep on the ancients of the Old Wood. It goes dry, then fills again slowly.	Serum ingredient and Sap Bandages.
Amberwood Log	Only ever given, never cut.	The red heart of fallen elders. Four planks each.
Charred Wood	The stumps round the Bare Field.	Two charcoal each.

S

➜2

Sap Bandage (Crafting Table)

➜4

Amberwood Planks (Shapeless: any arrangement)

➜C2

Charcoal (Shapeless: any arrangement)

Serum and getting home

• The arrival Box's cache holds 2 Serum Ampoules.
• Native stand-in: Amber Sap. It replaces Somnium Powder in the Synthesizer. Ash gives you three, and the amber seeps in the Old Wood refill over time.

Tips

• Don't cut the trees. You can, but everyone will hate you for it, and amberwood is only ever given.
• Soften the insults. It costs nothing and it's the only road to the wedding and the peaceful ending.
• Carry a water bucket before you go up Pine Ridge.
• Bring shears or an axe for the strangler vines.
• Plant Pip's seed near the Box so you see it grow each visit.

Birds

Birds you can photograph for your bird log here. Open one to turn it round, watch it move and hear its call.

• Rumour Jay: common
• Rootwalker Crane: rare

The traveler's tape

Every arrival Box has a chest by its door holding a cassette: the last traveler reading their journal of this world aloud. This is what they say. It gives a lot away.

Read the journal (spoilers)

The Box opened in a meadow, and every tree round it was looking at me. Not in the way trees seem to look at you in a dark wood. They had faces in the bark, and the faces turned, slowly, with a groan like a ship, until they were all facing the door. A sapling about as tall as my knee asked if I could go over there, and come back, and tell it what it was like over there. They cannot walk. None of them has ever seen the other side of the hill it grew on, and somebody who can is the most extraordinary thing that has ever happened to them. Grandmother Ash, the oldest, has stood on the highest hill for four hundred years wondering what is behind it. When I told her, she was quiet for a long time, and then she said: "I always hoped there were rocks." When you have seen enough, step back into the Box with the Serum still in you and shut the door.