Clarification on Boulderbough Regrowth

[sharkyaya]

I am currently playing on a long term world created in 2022. The fumarole biome is retrofitted in mine and is extremely small in comparison to worlds I’ve seen that were generated after the Ancient Echoes update. 

I’ve almost depleted every single tree/seed in the biome and after several hundred days, I’ve only seen two boulderboughs regrow as part of that mechanic. I know it takes a while (50 days via wiki) but my question is does the area have to be loaded for it to happen? And if so, how long do I have to be in the biome for regrowth to start happening? 

Since it’s an island in the middle of the void, that area is just never loaded unless I purposely go there and there’s currently no reason to. Because of boulderbough’s unique loot table depending on the biome they’re planted in, it makes sense that most people will plant them elsewhere but people like me only have a small amount of seeds to play with. I know you can get more seeds from giant depth worms but I’ve only encountered four after 5k days. Any advice is appreciated, thank you! 
 

Edit: I play on PS5 so no console commands. 

Edited January 30 by sharkyaya

[Kacpert25]

21 hours ago, sharkyaya said:

does the area have to be loaded for it to happen?

No, it doesn't need to be loaded. You don't even need to be in caves to boulderboughs regrowth work.

[linabagel]

Boulderbough will regenerate even if it is not out of loading range. It's normal in my world and I go there to harvest every two winters.

21 hours ago, sharkyaya said:

I know you can get more seeds from giant depth worms but I’ve only encountered four after 5k days.

Can you change World Settings on PS5? If possible, you can try to make GDW always. I used this method and now I have 60+Boulderbough Seeds. 

[sharkyaya]

On 1/31/2026 at 11:58 AM, linabagel said:

Boulderbough will regenerate even if it is not out of loading range. It's normal in my world and I go there to harvest every two winters.

Can you change World Settings on PS5? If possible, you can try to make GDW always. I used this method and now I have 60+Boulderbough Seeds. 

Thanks for the information. I will check again after a full in-game year, maybe I’m being impatient. And yes, when all else fails, I will have to farm GDW. 😊

[CrimsonStrider]

@sharkyaya

Is the regrowth part of the current PS5 version or are you waiting for that update too?

The GDW has changed, I see it spawn at different intervals on Switch. When we had your issue in a previous update, we had to set Worms to more and GDW to always.

Then spend time in the caves long enough to get 2 waves. First would be normal and second would be GDW. Shutting down the world resets it, so if you get dced or something between the two waves, you have to wait again for a normal wave first.

I also wasn't sure if leaving the caves messed it up. Honestly just sat in the caves trying  not to get software errors because each attempt usually took about 2 hours.

It might not work that way anymore, but worth a try if that'll help get you a few more seeds.

[sharkyaya]

4 minutes ago, CrimsonStrider said:

@sharkyaya

Is the regrowth part of the current PS5 version or are you waiting for that update too?

Yes it is, we received the update for boulderbough regrowth several weeks ago. That’s why I was wondering about the mechanics as I’m not sure whether it’s working as intended or there’s bug for retrofitted worlds. I’m currently doing a test to see if they will regrow at all and how long. If not, I may have to report it as a bug. 

Thanks for the advice on GDW, I’ll keep it in mind and test it for PS5 sometime.