Overgrowth

Ruin

Everything grows twenty times too fast, and the vines do not like it when you stop.

At a glance

Kind of world	Ruin
Serum in the arrival Box	2 ampoules
Native Serum stand-in	Heartwood
Quests	None

Screenshot comingovergrowth-canopy

A giant heartwood tree towering over mossy brick ruins in a green-hazed jungle, the arrival Box already furred with moss

What happens when you arrive

Jungle and dark forest have swallowed a ruined land. Giant heartwood trees stand over crumbling walls of mossy brick, and a green haze hangs between the trunks. The Box is already furred with moss. Everything here grows, and grows fast: twenty times faster than at home. And if you stand still for a few seconds, the vines start to hold you. "Keep moving. The green is catching up."

The rule: everything grows, including over you

What changes	How it plays
Growth x20	Saplings, crops, vines, bamboo, sugar cane, cactus, kelp, cocoa, sweet berries, moss and glow lichen all grow about 20 times faster near players. A sapling is a tree before you finish a meal; a field sown at dawn is ripe by noon.
The vines	Stand still (sneaking counts) for 5 seconds and vines sprout around you and hold you: Slowness V for 3 seconds, renewed while you stay.
Breaking free	Move one block away from where you were caught and the vines tear.
Spiders	Spiders and cave spiders are harmless: they never attack.
Creepers	Don't exist here. Nothing explodes.

Screenshot comingovergrowth-vines

A player caught by vines in a jungle clearing, a Thornback rooted beside the path

What lives here

Creature	What it does
Thornback	A thorned plant (8 hearts) rooted beside the paths. It lashes anyone within 3 blocks with a thorny whip that slows them. Left alone for 10 seconds with no one within 12 blocks, it pulls up its roots and shuffles off, then roots again when someone comes near.
Zombies and skeletons	At night, as at home.
Spiders	Everywhere in the canopy, and harmless.
Parrots, and the jungle's usual animals	By day.

Ruins and heartwood trees

• Heartwood trees are giants with a 2x2 trunk of Heartwood Log, about one every two chunks.
• Ruins of mossy and cracked stone brick are scattered a couple to every chunk.

What to bring home

Find	Where	Why it's worth it
Heartwood Log	The giant trees (any axe).	Dark red wood. Grinds into Heartwood.
Heartwood	Grind a Heartwood Log in the Mortar Station: 2 per log.	Grinds again into Lotus Pulp: your Serum stand-in.
Heartwood Sapling	Craft one from Heartwood and a Jungle Sapling.	Grows a giant heartwood tree at home from a single sapling.
Fast crops	Plant anything.	A whole harvest in one visit.

➜Mortar Station➜

2

➜Mortar Station➜

JS

➜

Heartwood Sapling (Shapeless: any arrangement)

Serum and getting home

• The arrival Box's cache holds 2 Serum Ampoules.
• Native stand-in: Heartwood. It replaces the Pale Lotus: grind it in the Mortar Station into Lotus Pulp and brew on from there. One heartwood log gives two Heartwood, so a single tree supplies a lot of Serum.

Tips

• Never stand still in the open. Take a step every few seconds, even while you read a sign or open a chest. If you're caught, step one block sideways.
• Bring a hoe and seeds: plant a field next to the Box and it will be ready before you leave.
• Give Thornbacks a wide berth; three blocks is all the room they need. Kill one at range, or go around.
• With no creepers, the nights here are gentler than at home. Leave your shield up for skeletons.
• Plant a Heartwood Sapling at home for an endless supply of the Serum stand-in.

Birds

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

• Bloomback Weaver: common
• Strangler Hornbill: rare

Everything this world adds

3 blocks and items (click to open)

Heartwood Log

Heartwood Sapling

Heartwood

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 weathered Box I woke beside is already furred with moss, and I have learned to keep it in sight, because here the green swallows whatever stays still. Everything grows about twenty times too fast: a sapling is a tree before you finish a meal, and a field sown at dawn is ripe by noon. The vines are the worst of it, for if you stand still for even a few seconds they creep up your legs and hold you, so keep moving and shake them off. The spiders in the canopy never touched me and nothing here explodes, but the thorned things rooted beside the paths lash out at anyone who strays near, and the giant trees are filled with a dark red heartwood that grinds down like Pale Lotus. When you have had enough of the green, step back into the Box with the Serum still in you and shut the door; it will carry you home to the hallway of doors.