A Governor's Guide to Whiskerwood: How to Serve Your Cat Overlords
So, you're the new Governor. Let's make sure your mouse colony doesn't get eaten.
Welcome to Whiskerwood. Your job is simple: establish a colony on some godforsaken island, keep your citizens (who are mice) alive, and, most importantly, generate a fat profit for your new feline masters, the Claws. I'm your advisor, and my job is to make sure you don't get your royal charter revoked.
Colony Setup: Your First 10 Minutes
Before you can start disappointing the Crown, you've got to set up your game. When you see the "Colony Crew" screen, don't just accept the first five mice. Click the dice and reroll them. Your starting Whiskers have traits and Guilds, and getting a good mix is vital.
Once you're in, your first act is to place your Export Dock, preferably near some trees and berries. A ship will drop off your crew, you'll build a warehouse, and then you'll sign your "Charter". This is the contract. This is when the tax clock officially starts ticking. Don't panic; just follow the starter quests.
Understanding the UI
The User Interface is... busy. Here's the cheat sheet, moving clockwise from the top-left:
Upcoming Events: Shows your next tax payment, the amount due, and any mission objectives.
Citizen Elements: A quick-look at your population, your "Approval" (which is a resource, not just a mood), and your food supply.
Warnings & Resources: The "uh oh" icons (low food, no housing) and your stockpile of basic materials.
Colony Menus: Deeper dives into your Whiskers, tax reports, and quests.
Time Management: Your mice only work so many hours a day. You can speed up or pause time here.
Colony Construction: The build menu, broken into categories like "Transportation" and "Housing".
Weather & Views: Shows the current weather (which matters, a lot) and your map toggles, like the heat view or the "slice" view for seeing underground.
Meet Your Subjects (And Their Demands)
Your citizens are Whiskers. They aren't mindless drones. Each mouse has a ton of stats, but these are the ones that matter.
Guild Association: Every mouse is in a Guild (Explorer, Miner, Farmer, Engineer). This makes them way more efficient at jobs in that Guild. Don't make a Farmer work in a mine; it's just stupid.
Expectations: Shown by stars. A 1-star mouse is happy with a bed and a berry. A 3-star mouse is a diva who wants luxuries.
The School: You can build a School to train your mice. You need a "Craftsmaster" to be a Teacher. You can use it to change a mouse's Guild, or upgrade them into an "Apprentice" or "Craftsmaster".
The Catch: The more you educate a Whisker, the higher their Expectations get. Smart mice are divas.
The T-Word: Taxes & The Claws
This is the real game. Your ultimate goal is to pay taxes to the Crown. A Tax Collector (a cat) arrives every three days to collect.
Here's the trick: You don't just pay what's due. You can overpay. And you should. Underpaying, even a little, loses "Trust." Lose too much Trust, and it's game over.
Overpaying builds Trust and gets you rewards, like extra supplies, new schematics, or "Diplomacy Seals" (which let you reroll those rewards). This is how you prosper.
Approval is a Resource, Not a Feeling
At the end of each day, you get a report. The most important part is your Approval.
This is not a "happiness meter." It is a resource. You spend approval to do things, like call in more Whiskers to your colony or enact policies. You can even use it to physically pick up a stuck mouse, which pisses them off but is sometimes necessary. If your approval is maxed out, you are wasting it.
Research, Building, and Winter
Research: To get new buildings, you need a Research Lab. This building requires an "Educated" Whisker to work. Unlocking new tiers in the tech tree costs a ton of planks, so plan ahead.
Vertical Construction: Your islands are small. You will run out of flat land almost immediately. Whiskerwood demands vertical construction. You must stack buildings on top of each other. Use stairs, ramps, and slides to create multi-level production chains.
Winter is Coming: The seasons matter. Spring and Summer are fine, but Fall brings the cold, and Winter will kill your mice. Your Whiskers can and will freeze to death if they're too far from a heat source. Press 'H' to toggle the heat overlay and make sure you have Campfires (and later, better heaters) placed everywhere.
Governor's Tips & Tricks
You've got the basics. Now, here's how to actually get good.
Forget Hoarding Food
Your city-builder brain is telling you to hoard food and wood. Stop it. It's often better to prioritize mining and ship massive payments of valuable metals to the Claws. The rewards you get back (like food, luxuries, and favors) are worth more than a stockpile of berries.
Use Your X-Ray Vision
Don't just mine what's on the surface. Hit 'Z' to use the slice view. This lets you see what's under the first layer. You'll often find a huge vein of resources just one tile down, or even deeper.
Build More Warehouses
Your main warehouse will fill up, and it will fill up fast. The Claws don't accept every resource for taxes, so junk piles up. Do yourself a favor and build extra, smaller storage buildings near your big resource sites to improve your logistics.
Optimize Your Mouse's Day
At the end of the day, your Whiskers need to eat, and then they need to sleep. Do not put the mess hall on one side of the island and the housing on the other. They will waste all their time walking.
Prepare for the Winter Freeze
Winter is coming. The cats, in their infinite wisdom, hate the cold and will stop visiting. This means no tax collections... but your debt still builds up. Stockpile goods during the fall, because when spring hits, that first tax bill is going to be a monster.
Expand Your Horizons (Literally)
You can build out over the sea, not just up. It costs a ton of logs for support structures, especially as the water gets deeper, but it's valuable real estate. Later, you can use the Earthworks building to fill in those gaps with Stone, which is way more efficient.
Micro-Manage Your Whiskers
A mouse's Guild isn't a final verdict. Some Whiskers have personal traits that make them great at a job, even if it's not their "Guild Specialty".
Demolition is Your Friend
Bulldozing (the 'B' key) gives you back some of the resources. This is perfect for building "makeshift" paths or scaffolding to reach a mining spot, then demolishing it when you're done.
Alright, Governor. That's the briefing. Your citizens are waiting, and the Claws are... expectant. Don't screw this up.
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