Redwood

Lore & Background

In the world of Tribes, the redwood forest is a vast, ancient biome where competing tribes clash over resources and dominance. The trees grow impossibly tall, their canopies filtering the light into a warm amber glow that bathes the forest floor in perpetual late-afternoon gold. The river that threads through the map is a natural boundary that both tribes have fought over for generations, its banks worn smooth by countless skirmishes.

The forest floor is a patchwork of moss, fallen branches, and shallow ditches where wounded fighters go to hide. The redwoods themselves are not merely scenery; their thick trunks break line of sight, their root systems create natural cover, and their height offers vantage points for players who can scale them. The overall atmosphere is one of quiet, sun-dappled tension—until the first shot cracks the air and the canopy erupts in a storm of tracers.

Hidden Path Entertainment built the map around the idea that every angle matters in a space where the vertical axis is as important as the horizontal. The redwoods create a three-dimensional battlefield where a player on the ground and a player perched in the upper branches are fighting in two different combat zones simultaneously.

In Their Own Story

The river smelled of wet bark and old rain. Kael pressed his back against the rough trunk of a redwood, feeling the faint vibration of footsteps on the far bank. Three of them. Maybe four. The amber light filtered through the canopy in slow, lazy columns, and for a moment the forest was just a forest—no tags, no streaks, no countdown. Then a branch snapped. The silence broke like glass. He rolled left, boots skidding on moss, and the world became a tunnel of brown trunks and the sharp, stinging crack of a round passing close enough to singe his ear. The river roared. The trees stood still. He was still standing.

Reader's Guide

Redwood rewards players who think vertically. The redwood trunks are the single most important tactical element: they break line of sight at chest height, meaning a player crouched behind one is nearly invisible to someone at the same elevation, but fully exposed to anyone who has climbed higher. This creates a constant pressure to contest the upper canopy, especially near the river crossing where the trees are denser and the horizontal sightlines are shorter.

The river is the map's central spine. It splits the arena into two halves and creates a natural chokepoint at the narrow crossing. Holding the bridge or the shallows lets you control the flow of the fight, but it also makes you a predictable target. Flanking routes along the banks are slower but safer; the dense undergrowth on the far side of the river punishes players who rush without cover.

The open clearings between tree clusters are where the real damage happens. There is no cover in a clearing, so engagements there are decided in seconds. Experienced players use the trunks as stepping stones, hopping from trunk to trunk to break up a line of fire, while less experienced players tend to push through the open ground and get shredded.

The map is compact enough that a round can start and end in under ten seconds if both teams are aggressive. It punishes passive play—standing still in a clearing is a death sentence—and rewards players who constantly reposition, use the vertical space, and force the enemy to commit to a direction before striking from an unexpected angle.

Did You Know?

• The entire Tribes: Volumes 1 & 2 game is set within a redwood forest; Redwood is one of the arena maps within that single biome.
• The game's distinctive art style uses a warm red-and-amber color palette that gives the forest a perpetual golden-hour look, a deliberate contrast to the cooler greens of later titles in the series.
• Hidden Path Entertainment, the developer of the original Tribes, went on to create the popular MMO Path of Exile.
• The small-team format (typically 3v3 or 4v4) and the 'tag' marking mechanic made Tribes a frequent subject of community speedrun and competitive play long after its initial release.