🗺 World size, modifiers and challenges
World size
When creating a world — “Normal” 100×100, “Large” 150×150, “Huge” 200×200. A bigger world’s island isn’t stretched: hills, forests and ridges are the same size, there are just more of them. Ruins, caches, deposits, herds and rivers scale with the area, and the start at the landing site is as usual. But there is farther to walk: put a 🪵 Lumber camp and a 🧱 Mining camp by distant work (they both take deliveries and feed people there) and pave roads. “Huge” is for powerful devices.
Modifiers
When creating a world you can choose modifiers — they change the map and the rules.
| Modifier | What it changes |
|---|---|
| Harsh winter | Winter is almost twice as long: more firewood for heating, fields stay under snow longer. Store bread and firewood in autumn. |
| Dense forests | Forest covers more of the plains: plenty of wood, but you’ll have to clear it for fields and houses first. |
| Fertile land | Fields give 30% more wheat — bread is easier and the colony grows faster. |
| Fast forest | Clearings regrow twice as fast: wood never runs out, but the forest also takes back cleared land faster. |
| Abundant game | More herds of deer and boar, and they breed faster: hunting feeds better, more hides. |
| Rocky shard | One and a half times more rock: plenty of stone and ore, but less flat land for fields, forest and houses. |
| Trade route | The shard lies on a caravan route: caravans, orders and antique traders come twice as often. |
| Deep ruins | Ruins go deeper: each has one more dig level, and the finds below are richer. |
| Restless land | From chapter 4 bandits come more often and stronger. For those who want defence in earnest. |
Colony challenges
Challenges unlock after the chapter 10 finale, together with New Game+. When founding your next story colony, you can choose at most one challenge. It lasts for the whole game and is shown on the colony card; you can also play normally without one. Completing the finale with a challenge earns a special name frame. Challenges are not available in the sandbox.
| Challenge | Rules |
|---|---|
| ❄ Eternal winter | Winter never ends: fields and apiaries do not work, and homes always need heating. Elders and expeditions need smoked meat instead of honey and bread. |
| 👥 Only six settlers | No more than six people may live in the colony. The chapter 3 population goal is reduced to six settlers. |
| ⚖ No Trading post | The Trading post cannot be built. Caravans, travelling merchants and neighbours remain available. |
This guide is built from the data of the game “Oskolki” — a browser colony simulator on a floating shard among the ruins of the ancients. Play for free in the browser.