Building
Floors, walls, roofs and everything else, what it costs, and the rules.
Open the Build menu, pick a piece and tap where you want it. You need to be close by, and it takes a little while depending on how big it is. Every log or stone in a piece adds to the time and the Building xp you get for it.
You don't have to carry everything. Building pulls from your pack plus any pile, log rack, stock yard bay or cart within a few metres of you, so stack your logs at the site and work from there.
Everything you can build#
| Piece | Costs | What it's for |
|---|---|---|
| Bridge deck | 9 logs, 1 iron fittings | A deck on log pilings, high enough to row under. The deeper the water, the longer it takes. Needs Building 10. |
| Plank floor | 3 logs | Lay it first. Upper floors rest on walls. |
| Log wall | 6 logs | Stands on a tile edge. Holds back water. |
| Window wall | 10 planks | A sawn frame, glazed. Glows warm after dark. |
| Door | 10 planks, 1 iron fittings | Sawn planks on iron hinges. You can walk through it. |
| Water gate | 16 planks, 1 iron fittings | Stops water when shut. Tap to open it. |
| Field gate | 3 logs, 1 hide | Split rails on rawhide hinges, for a pen or a yard. Tap to open it. |
| Pitched roof | 3 logs | Face two together for a ridge. |
| Sod roof | 3 logs, 2 dirt | Flat, with grass on top. |
| Gable end | 3 logs | Fills the triangle under a pitched roof. |
| Stone chimney | 16 stone, 4 clay | A hearth that keeps you warm. Clay is the mortar. |
| Fence section | 3 logs | Mark your yard. |
| Cobblestone path | 3 stone | Cobbles, set by hand. Walk faster on it. |
| Flagstones | 3 limestone | Big flat slabs of limestone, laid close. |
| Marble paving | 3 marble | Pale squares of marble. Hard to come by. |
| Gravel path | 1 stone | A stone broken small and raked level. |
| Sand path | 2 sand | Sand tamped down. Soft underfoot. |
| Packed earth | 2 dirt | Dirt stamped hard. Cheap, and it keeps the mud down. |
| Boardwalk | 3 logs | Split logs laid side by side. |
| Garden bed | 1 log, 2 dirt | Good soil in a log edging. Plant flowers or crops in it. |
| Log rack | 6 logs | Somewhere to stack wood. |
| Stone crib | 3 logs | A log frame to stack stone in, course on course. |
| Bin | 6 logs | Three log walls to tip ore, coal or earth into. |
| Woodpile | 1 log | Split wood stacked under a little roof of bark. A stove beside it feeds itself from the pile. |
| Lumber rack | 3 logs | Bearers to stack sawn planks or iron bars flat and dry. |
| Campfire | 3 logs, 6 stone | Warmth and light. Keep it stoked. |
| Cookstove | 3 stone, 1 cookstove | Cast iron, on a stone footing. Cooks a third quicker than a campfire and burns half the wood. |
| Lantern post | 3 logs, 1 lantern | A lantern on a post, to light a path or a field at night. |
| Forge | 3 logs, 12 stone, 3 clay, 1 hide | Smelt iron ore with coal into bars, and work them. |
| Saw pit | 6 logs | Saw logs into planks for doors, windows and boats. |
| Well | 3 logs, 8 stone, 2 clay, 1 iron fittings | Water to drink and fill canteens, wherever you dig it. Needs Digging 5. |
| Claim stake | 3 logs | Stakes out a settlement. Nobody you don't trust can dig, build or take anything inside it. |
| Wagon | 36 planks, 4 iron fittings | Holds 1,500 kg. Needs a horse in the shafts. |
| Toboggan | 6 logs, 1 hide | Bent boards on the snow. Pull it by hand; it holds 250 kg and glides where a handcart would bog down. |
| Horse sled | 15 logs, 2 iron fittings | Heavy runners shod with iron, for hauling logs over the snow. Holds 1,200 kg. Needs a horse. |
| Handcart | 12 logs | Pull it to haul logs, stone and ore. Holds 400 kg. |
| Bench | 3 logs | Sit and get your breath back. |
| Hitching post | 1 log, 1 iron fittings | Tie your horse up and it stays put. |
| Water trough | 8 planks | Water for the horses. Fill it with feed and your farm animals eat from it. |
| Signpost | 1 log, 1 plank | A board on a post. Write what you like on it. |
| Root cellar | 6 logs, 4 stone | A cellar dug into the ground, with a plank door and earth heaped over it. Food keeps a long time in the cool, and nothing in it freezes. Needs Digging 5. |
| Icehouse | 9 logs, 4 planks | A plank shed with thick walls, for blocks of lake ice packed in sawdust. While there's ice in it, food keeps a long time, right through the summer. Needs Building 8. |
| Barrel | 8 planks, 1 iron fittings | Coopered staves and an iron hoop. Keeps things out of the weather. |
| Market stall | 12 planks, 1 hide | A counter under an awning for selling things. Put a price on each in gold and anyone can buy, even while you're away. |
| Hay bale | 6 wheat | Straw, bound tight. |
| Scarecrow | 1 log, 2 wheat, 1 hide | Old hide and straw on a cross of sticks, to watch the field. |
| Birdhouse | 2 planks | A little box on a pole for the swallows. |
| Arbour | 6 logs | An arch of poles over a path. You walk under it. |
| Bed | 6 planks, 2 hide | Sleep here and wake up well rested. |
| Chair | 3 planks | Sit down and get your breath back. |
| Stool | 1 log | A round of log on three legs. You can sit on it. |
| Table | 6 planks | Somewhere to eat that isn't your knee. |
| Chest | 6 planks, 1 iron fittings | Holds 300 kg. Only you and the people you trust can open it. |
| Cupboard | 9 planks, 1 iron fittings | Shelves behind a door. Holds 200 kg. |
| Shelf | 3 planks | A plank shelf with a few things on it. |
| Hide rug | 2 hide | Warm underfoot. |
| Antler mount | 1 plank, 1 antlers | A deer's antlers on a board, for the wall. |
| Moose antler mount | 2 planks, 1 moose antlers | A moose's great flat antlers on a board, for the wall. |
| Bearskin rug | 1 bearskin | A whole bearskin, head and all, laid out on the floor. |
| Vase | 2 clay | A clay pot. Put cut flowers in it. |
| Washstand | 3 planks, 1 clay | A basin on a stand. |
| Hanging lantern | 1 lantern | A lantern on a hook. Lights the room. |
How a house looks#
A house has one look, all of it at once. Every house starts out as plain logs: bare logs with chinking between them and a post at each corner. That needs nothing but logs, so it's where everyone starts.
Once you have a saw pit going you can finish it. Tap any wall, window, door, gable or roof of the house and choose Finish the house. That gives it round logs on a stone footing, log ends crossed at the corners, sawn trim round the windows with shutters and flower boxes, a planked door, and a cedar shake roof with deeper eaves. The sawn work takes 1 plank for every wall, window, door, gable and roof in the house, from your pack or piled nearby, and the bigger the house the longer it takes.
| Look | What it is | Costs |
|---|---|---|
| Plain logs | Bare logs, chinked, with posts at the corners. Logs and nothing else. | Just the pieces |
| Finished | Round logs on a stone footing, crossed at the corners, with sawn trim, shutters, flower boxes and a cedar shake roof. | 1 plank more for each wall, window, door, gable and roof |
Pieces that touch at a corner count as one house. Anything you add to a finished house comes out finished too, and costs the extra plank. You can take a house back to plain logs any time for nothing, but the planks don't come back.
The rules#
- Lay a floor first. You can't build a floor on a spot that's under water or where something's in the way.
- To build out over water, use bridge decks. They go out from the bank one tile at a time, and a bridge is a real job. See Bridges.
- Walls, windows, doors and water gates sit on the edge between two tiles, not on a tile.
- Walls hold back water. A water gate lets you open and shut it, so you can build ponds and canals.
- An upper floor needs walls under it, or another floor beside it on the same story. Same goes for a roof.
- Face pitched roofs toward each other to make a ridge, then fill in the ends with gable ends. However deep the house is, a row of roofs that face both ways makes one roof with one ridge down the middle. If they all face the same way you get one long slope instead, like a shed.
- Paving, fences, fires, racks, chimneys, workshops and the things in your yard only go on the ground floor. Furniture goes on a floor, upstairs or down.
- A stone chimney stands on open ground just outside the house, not on the floor. Its hearth turns to face the house it's built against, and if there's a log wall between them, the wall gets a fireplace opening so you can see the fire from inside. With nothing beside it, the hearth faces south.
- You can take down anything you built and get the materials back, paving and campfires included. Only whoever built a thing can take it down. Trusting someone lets them use your things, but not pull them apart and walk off with the materials.
- You can't build inside someone else's settlement, and building there can't use their piles.
- Take down a log rack or a stock yard bay and whatever is in it comes back to you along with it. What you can't carry gets stacked on the ground where it stood.
- Fences, racks, fires, lantern posts, workshops, wells and carts each need a tile of open, dry ground to themselves. They won't go on a floor, in the water, or on top of something else.
Sleeping under your own roof is the easiest way to have a home. It counts for staying warm too.