Region Spotlight: The Overgrowth
Hey everyone,
Last time we gave you a quick tour of all five regions and promised to dive deeper into each one. So let's start where every adventure in Reclaimed begins: right outside the hatch of Shelter 9, in the Overgrowth.
Stepping outside
The first thing you see when the hatch opens is green. A lot of green.
The Overgrowth used to be a quiet suburb with neat lawns, cul-de-sacs and a little playground at the end of the street. Twenty years later, nature has moved in and made itself comfortable. Ivy covers the walls, trees have pushed straight through the driveways and the swings are tangled in flowering vines.
We wanted this to be the place where you take a deep breath and think: oh, this isn't so bad. The world didn't end here. It just grew over.
How it looks
The art of the Overgrowth is all about soft, warm colors. Lots of greens and yellows, with the faded pastel paint of the old houses peeking through. In the morning there's a light mist between the trees, and in the evening everything turns golden.
Some of our favorite little details:
- Garden gnomes that are still standing guard, now wearing moss hats.
- A trampoline that has turned into a small pond, complete with frogs.
- Wind chimes on the porches that play a tune whenever the wind picks up.
- Fireflies that come out at dusk and gather around your campfire.
Who lives here
You're not alone out there. The Overgrowth is full of critters that have gotten very used to having the place to themselves:
- Deer wander the streets and nibble on whatever used to be someone's hedge. Leave out some berries and they'll stop running away from you.
- Raccoons are everywhere, and they will steal from your chests if you leave them open. We're sorry. It felt right.
- Hedgehogs roll around in the leaves and sometimes leave seeds behind.
- Mossbacks are turtles that grow small gardens on their shells. Nobody knows exactly why. They're very slow and very friendly.
Most creatures here won't bother you at all. It's the perfect place to get used to the world before things get a little wilder further out.
What you'll do here
The Overgrowth is where you learn the ropes. You'll gather wood, stone and berries, build your first campfire and workbench, and plant your first crops in the remains of someone's vegetable garden.
As you buy more plots, you'll open up the rest of the neighborhood: the old school, a corner shop with half-empty shelves, and a community garden that's absolutely bursting with seeds. By the time you leave for Rust Valley, your camp should feel like a real home.
The first survivors
You'll also meet your first neighbors here. We don't want to spoil too much, but here's a little preview:
- Juniper lives in a treehouse and knows every plant in the neighborhood. She's happy to trade seeds for interesting things you find.
- Old Walt has been fixing the same lawnmower for about fifteen years. He's convinced it'll run one day.
Help them out and they might just move into your camp.
Letters from before
One thing we really love about this region: the mailboxes. All over the Overgrowth you'll find letters that were never delivered. Birthday cards, postcards from holidays, a complaint about a neighbor's barking dog.
They don't give you any loot. They're just small pieces of the lives people had before the Collapse. Some of them connect to each other, so if you collect enough, you might discover a little story or two.
What's next?
The Overgrowth is the region that's furthest along, so a lot of what you see here is close to final. We're still tweaking the critters, adding more letters and polishing the day and night cycle.
Next time we'll head east to Rust Valley and show you what happens when an entire region is made of scrap.
Got an idea for a letter, a critter or a weird little detail you'd love to see in the Overgrowth? Drop it in our Discord. Some of our favorite details came from you.
See you by the campfire!
The Reclaimed team