Building

Building is one of the primary parts of. By chopping down trees for wood and mining stone and other precious resources, you can craft the requirements to build massive multi-leveled structures composed of complex or simple snap-linked parts, from foundations to including walls, ceilings, windows, doors, pillars, gates, among many other types.

Structures you build have a load system, if you build out of the range of your foundation you will need to reinforce it to continue building, so reinforcing your buildings at the foundation is key. You can also place signs and other furniture items as you progress in levels and upgrade your Feats. Shelter is key to reducing the extremes of the sandstorm and provides security for yourself and to protect your stash. Band together with other players to build entire settlements to withstand fierce invasions!

You can rotate building props by scrolling up or down with the mouse wheel while in placement mode. This allows you to switch through all of the available snap points.

Basics

 * See also: Controls.


 * Ownership system with foundations and buildings allow for a radius of about 100 meters claim. If you are a part of a Clan with the owner of any placed foundations, you will be able to build on their foundations. If not you will not be able to place within 100 meters of another player's foundations.
 * Buildings once placed cannot be moved, but they can be manually destroyed and will give back some of the build requirement in items. There are no building width limit, but there is a limit to how high you can go.
 * Work stations can be picked up, providing they are not damaged in any way.
 * Walls can be placed everywhere. Walls on buildings need to be connected to a foundation.
 * You can build fence foundations on the side of foundations to provide an additional layer of protection.
 * Foundations will prevent the re-spawning of Creatures and Resources.
 * Buildings use a support system that needs to be supported by columns or being connected in some way to a foundation. This is called stability. You cannot add to any piece that has a stability of 20 or less.
 * You can craft a Repair Hammer with your first building. Repair hammers will show the stability of any currently placed building piece.
 * Equipping a Repair Hammer will also give you a chance to see the materials needed to repair the structure you're looking at.
 * Alternatively, and if not rebound, holding the down shows the same information.
 * Building close to a Thrall camp will stop the inhabitants spawning. Therefore, the game prevents building too close to these camps.

Building tiers
Buildings have 3 different Tiers of building supplies and materials.


 * Tier 1 Buildings - Sandstone and Flotsam (Stone and Wood) - Steel Weapons, explosives, or orbs to destroy. Sandstone basic building can be unlocked with the Apprentice Mason recipe.
 * Tier 2 Buildings - Stonebrick and Insulated Wood (Bricks, Shaped Wood, Iron Reinforcement) - Brick buildings are not able to be damaged by weapons and require the use of explosives or orbs to destroy. Bricks building can be unlocked with the Journeyman Mason recipe.
 * Tier 3 Buildings - Reinforced Stone and Black Ice-Reinforced (Hardened Brick, Shaped Wood, Steel Reinforcements)- Steel buildings are not able to be damaged by Weapons and require the use of explosives or orbs to destroy. Unlock with the Master Mason recipe.
 * All DLC building components are Tier 3 with the exception of Flotsam.

Environmental Building Effects
Most building materials have an inherent resistance to heat or cold and are appropriately used in zones where protection is necessary. Having chosen where you want to build, the following table will help you decide on protection, and from that, you decide aesthetics. You may choose to select a building type that does not insulate from the existing effect and counter it in a different way, such as armor temperature characteristics, fireplaces, etc, simply for style. If you do choose that approach, be aware you run the risk of offline temperature-related deaths. The sheltered status effect indicates that your character has some form of cover from weather effects, reducing the impact of hot, or cold weather. Being sheltered also provides cover from the sandstorm.

Decay System

 * To prevent the map from being cluttered with buildings from players who have left the server, buildings will decay over time.
 * Connecting more and higher-quality building materials will increase the total available decay timer, up to a maximum of 7 days. To share in the decay timer, structural pieces must be connected.
 * A small building (especially if T1) will not get the full 7 day timer. Try placing a single isolated foundation and check the timer. It will be very low. Keep adding foundations a few at a time and checking the timer (will take a few seconds to update). You will notice the maximum timer gradually gets longer.
 * Altars provide a massive boost to decay time (both limit and time left) on smaller buildings.
 * Placeables will share the timer of a nearby structure if they are within 1 meter. They do not have to be on foundations.
 * Even if pieces were once connected and you take the connecting foundation away, they will still share the same timer.
 * When a player or clan member who owns a structure gets near it, the decay timer will increase up to the max. Upon walking away or logging out, the timer will start to decrease again.
 * Placing an explosive jar on a non-owned structure or damaging part of it will increase the decay timer to the maximum.
 * Equipping a repair hammer or pressing will allow a player to view the remaining decay time on a structure.
 * Subtracting the current decay time remaining from the maximum decay time shows how recently the structure's owner has been in the area. If it is at the maximum, the player is home!
 * After the decay timer has elapsed (decay will read 0:00, the state listed in the event log is called "abandoned"), a 24-hour grace period will begin. During this time, any player may activate it and select "demolish" to destroy the structure for 24 hours. After 24 hours, the structure will disappear. Both only happen if a player is within render distance.
 * Placeables that are mostly under the mesh will lose stability and are removed automatically after some time. This may happen to large structures like Animal Pens..


 * The grace period for single building pieces which are close to each other but not connected may occasionally not trigger, unless the player re-enters render distance or a server restart is performed. This is because the timers of the individual pieces can interfere with each other. This currently seems to be a bug.

Building guides

 * See also: Guide.
 * Feel free to contribute building guides to the wiki. You're welcome!


 * Buildings and Structural Integrity by Steitsch.
 * Foundation Stacking Simplified
 * Castle building (playlist)

Defense
For defending against eg. Explosives.
 * Walls I
 * Walls II
 * Walls III
 * Doors
 * Ceilings
 * Floors
 * Foundation stacking

Staircases

 * Round towers with spiral stairs
 * Round towers with spiral stairs (other examples)
 * Towers with external stairs
 * Open air winding spiral stairs

Advanced

 * 6 Building Tips for Creative Base Designs | No Mods
 * Advanced Building Tips
 * Wall construction
 * Building stability
 * How to disable foundation snapping
 * See also: a guide (outdated) on building and stability.

Themed

 * Creative Building Showcases Playlist (incl. modded builds & builds with no mods)
 * Immersive building (playlist)
 * Playlist by Eradicati0n (includes modded builds)