Hearth

Hearth is Tideward's settlement trade, the slow, sprawling sink the rest of the game pours into. Where every other trade produces, Hearth consumes: logs, ore, food, herbs, bars, and gold flow in, and a living coastal town grows out. Renamed from RuneScape and Melvor's "Township" during the May 2026 rebrand. It runs on its own clock, not your taps, raise and repair buildings across several biomes, then come back hours later to a settlement that carried on without you.

How Hearth works

Hearth is organized into biomes, distinct regions of your settlement you develop one building at a time. Each building costs resources drawn from across the rest of the game (logs from Woodcutting, ore and bars from Mining and Forging, food, herbs, and a stack of gold) plus upkeep to keep it from falling into disrepair. The action button reads "Repair" for a reason: a settlement is never finished, only better tended.

The loop is tick-driven, not click-driven. Buildings and tasks resolve on a clock, so Hearth advances whether the app is open or closed, the same offline-first contract the rest of Tideward honors. You set the settlement's direction, then leave; the town keeps working while you train another trade or close the app entirely. Completed tasks pay out Hearth XP, gold, and resource yields, and traders pass through to move goods you would rather not haul yourself.

What makes Hearth the late-game anchor is its two living stats, Happiness and Education. They rise as the settlement matures and they raise what the town returns in turn, so the real progress bars are not the level number but the health of the place you built. It is the trade most players are still expanding at the very end of a long career, by design: the one corner of the Almanac that is genuinely never done.

Tips for training Hearth

1. Hearth is the resource sink for your whole bank. Don't hoard surplus logs, ore, and bars, feed them into buildings.
2. It runs on a tick, not your attention. Queue what you can, then go train a hands-on trade or close the app.
3. Happiness and Education are the real progress bars. Treat them as the goal, not decoration.
4. Repair before a building decays too far, upkeep on a well-kept building costs less than rebuilding a neglected one.
5. Balance your gathering and artisan trades to feed it. A lopsided character starves the settlement of one key resource.

Skills that pair with Hearth

The 24 trades aren't isolated. Hearth works best alongside these:

Frequently asked about Hearth

Is Hearth the same as Township from RuneScape and Melvor Idle?

In spirit, yes. Hearth is Tideward's settlement-building trade, renamed from "Township" in the May 2026 rebrand to sidestep a trademark clash with an active App Store game. You develop biomes, raise and repair buildings, run traders, and complete tick-based tasks, all of it feeding on resources from the rest of the game.

Does my settlement keep going while the app is closed?

Yes. Hearth resolves on a clock, not on taps, so tasks and growth advance with real time. Like the rest of Tideward, it rewards the player who checks in over the player who grinds.

Why does Hearth need every other trade?

By design it is the sink that ties the game together. Buildings and tasks call for logs, ore, bars, food, herbs, and gold, the output of your gathering and artisan trades, so a balanced character feeds the settlement fastest. That is why most players treat Hearth as the long-tail goal.