Hearths

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A Hearth Fully Upgraded

Overview

Hearths are the heart of the settlement. Every settlement starts with an Ancient Hearth and can construct other Small Hearths from the City Buildings menu. Hearths are buildings with  Warmth Specialization that employ a single Firekeeper to keep the Hearth lit by burning fuel. Fuel can also be Sacrificed in the Ancient Hearth. Every villager takes their breaks at the nearest Hearth to warm themselves, eat, and fulfill their needs. By upgrading the Hearth with decorations, housing, and Service buildings, you can unlock up to 3 tiers of stackable benefits. The Ancient Hearth can get corrupted at Veteran Difficulty and higher.

Hearth Types

Ancient Hearths

The heart of the colony is protected by the Holy Flame. Villagers gather here to rest, eat, and receive clothing. If the fire goes out, people will lose hope. No Hope Resolve effect: -20 Resolve.

Small Hearths

Small Hearths cannot be built too close to the Ancient Hearth or to each other - the ranges of your Hearths (approx. radius of 9 squares) may never overlap.

Small Hearths are identical to Ancient Hearths, except you do not receive a Firekeeper bonus and you cannot Sacrifice fuel. It is OK if Small Hearths go out, but villagers will be unable to rest or fulfill their needs at an unlit Hearth and will instead travel to the nearest available lit Hearth.

Fuel

There are 4 fuels that can be burned in Hearths: Coal, Sea Marrow, Oil, and Wood.

You can decide which type of fuel will be burned in each Hearth using the checkboxes next to the fuel types in the Allowed Fuel menu. All Hearths share this setting. If you have multiple fuels selected, the leftmost one will always burn first. There are also options in the settings that allow you to customize which fuels are automatically enabled when starting a new settlement.

Fuel burn time

Fuel	Base burn time	With Beaver Firekeeper	With all Upgrades	With Beaver Firekeeper and all Upgrades
Coal	40 seconds	50 seconds	52 seconds	71 seconds
Sea Marrow	40 seconds	50 seconds	52 seconds	71 seconds
Oil	25 seconds	31 seconds	32 seconds	44 seconds
Wood	12 seconds	15 seconds	15 seconds	21 seconds

Firekeeper bonus

Every settlement starts with an Ancient Hearth which must always remain lit. If the fire goes out, all villagers will lose 20 Resolve. To keep the flame burning, a Firekeeper and a steady supply of fuel is needed. Your choice of Firekeeper in the Ancient Hearth will grant your settlement a species-specific bonus. Small Hearth Firekeepers don't provide any bonuses.

Species	Bonus	Effect	Description
Beavers	File:Firekeeper Bonus Beaver.png Pragmatic Frugality	Fuel burns 20% longer	Beaver firekeepers know a lot about burning techniques.
Foxes	Forest Affinity	-2/3/4/6 Hostility from opened Glades. Scales with Difficulty	Fox firekeepers have an unusual ability to calm the forest.
Harpies	Light as a Feather	+5 to global carrying capacity	Harpy firekeepers can teach villagers how to be more nimble and agile.
Humans	Beacon	Queen's Impatience grows 25% slower	Human firekeepers create a special link with the Citadel.
Lizards	Sacred Pyre	+1 to global Resolve	Lizard firekeepers are very adept at ancient rites.

Villager Breaks

Main article: Breaks

Every few minutes villagers have to return to a nearby Hearth for a break, to eat, rest, and satisfy needs. All consumption happens during breaks. Villagers of different species take breaks at different Intervals.

Species	Beavers	Foxes	Harpies	Humans	Lizards
Break Interval	02:00	02:00	01:40	02:00	01:40

Hearth upgrades

Decorations Needed

Level 1 Hearth upgrade is available from the start. Upgrading to level 2 and 3 requires you to unlock levels 2 and 4 of the Brass Forge respectively.

Click on the Hearth to see what is required to upgrade. As seen on the image on the right in the Upgrade Requirements section, we still need 4 Comfort Decorations and 4 Aesthetics Decorations before the Hearth upgrades to level 2.

• Housing, Decorations, and Service buildings need to be placed fully within the Hearth Radius for them to count towards upgrades.
• The Hearth upgrades itself automatically once all the requirements are fulfilled.
• Both Ancient and Small Hearths can be upgraded.

Upgrades	Name	Requirements	Bonus	Description
Base Level	-	-	-30 Hostility	-
Level I	Encampment	8 Housed villagers	+1 Global Resolve	Gathered around the blazing fire, folks keep each other's spirits high.
		4 Comfort Decorations	+150 Corruption Resistance
Level II	Neighborhood	14 Housed villagers	+1 Global Resolve	Some viceroys say aesthetics don't matter out in the wilds, but you know better than that.
		8 Comfort Decorations	+150 Corruption Resistance
		4 Aesthetics Decorations	+10% global production speed
Level III	District	20 Housed villagers	+1 Global Resolve	The town is booming with activity and industry thrives.
		1 Service building	+150 Corruption Resistance
		16 Comfort Decorations	+10% global double production chance
		8 Aesthetics Decorations
		4 Harmony Decorations

Sacrificing

Sacrificing aura

Fuel can be sacrificed in Ancient Hearths to temporarily gain powerful positive effects. Sacrificing is extremely resource intensive and requires significant labor investment, or even restructuring of the whole settlement, should you wish you keep it up for an extended period.

You can Sacrifice up to 3 stacks of Wood, Coal, Sea Marrow, or Oil. Each fuel's Sacrificing stacks are independent. To choose how many stacks you want to Sacrifice, use the green arrows next to the fuel type. Activating Sacrifice immediately consumes 1 unit of fuel, even if you are paused. If you only have 1 unit of this fuel to begin with, you will keep the effect for as long as you are paused. If you don't have any fuel of one type, its green arrow is going to appear grayed out. Do not forget to reset the stacks to 0 once the need for Sacrifice has passed - you will quickly run out of fuel otherwise. There's also a checkbox to Stop after storm.

There are 3 visual indicators of Sacrificing taking place:

• An orange aura around the Ancient Hearth.
• A Perk in a gray outline with the number of stacks in the Perk section on the bottom left of the screen.
• An exclamation mark in a yellow diamond next to the fuel Resource Category in the upper section of the UI. It says "You are sacrificing fuel in the Hearth." if you hover over it.

Each fuel type grants different boons:

Sacrifice effects

Fuel	x1 Stack	x2 Stacks	x3 Stacks
Wood	-50 Hostility	-100 Hostility	-150 Hostility
Coal	-80 Hostility	-160 Hostility	-240 Hostility
Sea Marrow	+25% Glade Event working speed	+50% Glade Event working speed	+75% Glade Event working speed
Oil	+25% global production speed	+50% global production speed	+75% global production speed

There are 2 modifiers that affect Sacrificing efficiency, outside of Cornerstones:

• Sacrificial Flame: resources sacrificed in the Ancient Hearth burn 10% longer. A Monastery of the Vigilant Flame level 7 upgrade.
• Prestige 18: the Ancient Hearth seems to have a defect. No matter how hard the firekeeper tries, sacrificed resources are burning 35% quicker.

The table below shows how much fuel you need to Sacrifice per stack to keep the effects, depending on your upgrades and Difficulty:

Sacrificing efficiency per stack per minute

Fuel	Base	With Sacrificial Flame	With Prestige 18	With Sacrificial Flame and Prestige 18
Wood	40	36	62	53
Coal	20	18	31	27
Sea Marrow	20	18	31	27
Oil	15	14	23	20

Perks and Cornerstones influencing Sacrificing

1 Perks mentioning 'Baptism of Fire'.

Perk	Rarity	Description	Source(s)
Baptism of Fire	Legendary	"Every 3 burnt Blightrot Cysts lowers Hostility by 10. While the Hearth is corrupted, you’re unable to sacrifice resources."	as a Cornerstone

1 Perks mentioning 'Fiery Wrath'.

Perk	Rarity	Description	Source(s)
Fiery Wrath	Epic	Resources you sacrifice in the Ancient Hearth burn 5% longer for every Impatience Point you have.	as a Cornerstone

1 Perks mentioning 'Firekeeper Letters'.

Perk	Rarity	Description	Source(s)	Price
Firekeeper Letters	Epic	The exchange of knowledge between firekeepers can be very beneficial. The maximum number of sacrifice stacks in the Ancient Hearth is increased by +1 for every 2 ongoing trade routes.	purchased from a Trader	30

1 Perks mentioning 'Mark of the Sealed Ones'.

Perk	Rarity	Description	Source(s)
Mark of the Sealed Ones	Legendary	"A faint image of an underwater landscape shimmers inside the ancient jewel. While the Ancient Hearth is being corrupted, resources sacrificed within it burn 50% longer."	as a Cornerstone

Corruption

Corruption bar in the Ancient Hearth

See also: Blightrot

Blightrot infects Hearths. The more Blightrot Cysts a Viceroy generates from Rain Engine use or Glade Events, the faster their Hearths get corrupted during Storm Season, when Blightrot Cysts open up. Once the Ancient Hearth reaches the Corruption limit, it triggers Voice of the Sealed Ones. Voice of the Sealed Ones sends out 3 ghosts from the Ancient Hearth that seek out and kill 3 random villagers. As soon as the Hearth discharges, Corruption is reset to 0 and starts rising again.

Lowering Corruption

The only way to lower Corruption during Storm is to employ the help of Blightfighers in a Blight Post. Blightfighters search for Cysts and burn them with Purging Fire. Every Cyst burned lowers Corruption by 50. Once all Cysts have been burned, any new ones will not open up till next Storm Season. Any Cysts left close and Corruption resets to 0 as soon as the year ticks over and Drizzle Season starts.

Corruption Resistance and Corruption rate

Corruption Resistance or Hearth Resistance is a measure of how high the Corruption limit is. The higher the Corruption Resistance, the more time it will take for Voice of the Sealed Ones to activate. An Ancient Hearth that hasn't been upgraded has 1000 Corruption Resistance. Every Ancient and Small Hearth level raises Corruption Resistance by 150. It can also be raised with different Effects.

The Corruption rate per Cyst is 60 Corruption/minute up to Prestige 10, and 90 Corruption/minute from Prestige 11 onwards.

Assuming a Hearth upgraded to level 2, you will reach the Corruption limit of 1300 at least once without burning any Cysts:

• At 60 Corruption/minute in a 2-minute Storm with 11 Cysts.
• At 60 Corruption/minute in a 4-minute Storm with 6 Cysts.
• At 90 Corruption/minute in a 4-minute Storm with 4 Cysts.

Perks and Cornerstones influencing Corruption

1 Perks mentioning 'Queen's Gift'.

Perk	Rarity	Description	Source(s)
Queen's Gift	Legendary	A mysterious amber orb with a magical flame trapped within. Increases the Ancient Hearth's resistance by 150 for every woodcutter in your settlement.	as a Cornerstone

Perks and Cornerstones influencing Hearths

1 Perks mentioning 'Safe Haven'.

Perk	Rarity	Description	Source(s)
Safe Haven	Legendary	Hostility is reduced by 40 for every Hearth upgraded to: Neighborhood (Level 2) (or higher).	as a Cornerstone

1 Perks mentioning 'Secret Techniques of the Firekeeper' from Order.

Perk	Rarity	Description	Source(s)	Price
Secret Techniques of the Firekeeper	Rare	An old manuscript detailing long-forgotten burning rites. Fuel consumption in Hearths is decreased by 25%.	from Glade Event rewards from Order rewards purchased from a Trader	21

Hearth Tips

• Use Beavers as Hearthkeepers when you are running low on fuel and Wood, especially on Marshlands and the Sealed Forest.
• Harpies are nifty as Hearthkeepers before and after Glade Events to carry goods to and from these Events.
• Foxes are excellent during the Storm Season as Hearthkeepers to keep Hostility down and stop Forest Mysteries from triggering.
• Humans are invaluable when playing World Modifiers like Land of Greed to slow down the Queen's Impatience.
• Lizards as Hearthkeepers will help you in achieving Resolve - based Orders.
• Since Firekeepers in Small Hearths don't offer a species-specific bonus like they do in the Ancient Hearth, you can take advantage of its  Warmth specialization synergy with Lizards.