Valheim Advanced Building Tips

With more than 306,000 concurrent gamers in a day, Valheim is a game you can't ignore. Described as a "brutal exploration and survival" game, the developers at Iron Gate Studio have given it their all, and it shows.

A primary key to surviving in Valheim is having shelter from the elements (and Deathsquitos), and with in-game updates like Hearth and Home, you can create some fantastic buildings.

If you're keen to get into Valheim's advanced building, in this article, we'll give you some top tips to give your Viking fancy new digs in no time.

Understanding the Basics of Construction

For this article, we're going to be focusing on more advanced areas of building structures in Valheim. As such, we're going to assume you how to play Valheim and know how to make a basic structure with floors, walls, and a roof.

When building in Valheim, you will notice all building pieces conveniently snap together. This makes it easier to line up walls and floors, so everything fits together.

Pro Tip: If an object is not snapping as you want, hold Left Shift to disable snapping temporarily, and you can place the piece with more accuracy

When you've placed a structure piece, the stability of the item is indicated by a color scale:

• Blue
• Green
• Yellow
• Orange
• Red

Blue shows the most stability, while red indicates that the structure piece is very weak, and any additions will likely break down and collapse.

Once you've gathered core wood, you'll notice you have more structure piece options available. These are great for adding support and strength to your building.

Valheim Building Strategy

When planning your buildings, it's good to know what the building will be used for. This allows you to accommodate campfires (don't forget the chimney!) and extra space for more oversized build items like the cartography table.

If you have a valheim building strategy, you can create an entire, fully functioning base complete with a storehouse, dock, portal room, and Valheim comfort buildings like a great hall. While you may be able to combine some of these buildings, creating an extensive base adds to the realism that Valheim works so hard to convey.

Pro Tip: Consider hosting your own server, so your game doesn't lag once you start constructing massive castles and towns

Reinforcing Building Structures in Valheim

It's near impossible to create large, expansive buildings in Valheim if you don't reinforce your structures, which you can do with support beams. If a piece you've placed is orange or red, you're going to want to support it. The best support pieces are wooden beams.

The key to building a solid building is to begin with the frame. Once you've flattened the area and built a foundation, it's time to create the support structure. Using vertical poles, start by placing one at each room corner. If your room is particularly long, you may need vertical support beams evenly spaced between each corner beam.

Your walls can be one or two pieces high, so don't forget to accommodate this when building your frame. Now, using the angled beams, create the support structure for your roof. While this may be tricky to get at first, once you understand the mechanics of a support structure, it allows for a lot of creative freedom.

Pro Tip: Build your firepit in the middle of your building to evenly distribute the comfort radius and add extra support to your roof

Now you can fill in your walls and thatch roof pieces, leaving room for windows if you like. Remember, if any part is highlighted as orange or red, you need to give it more support.

Pro Tip: Horizontal beams don't add any support to your structure, so you can use these purely for aesthetics if you like

Taking the time to construct a solid frame for your building enables you to create larger homesteads than you would have been able to without support. In addition, this allows you to get creative by adding additional rooms, a second floor or a loft, etc.

Valheim Advanced Building: Using Stone

 Once you've reached the iron age and constructed the stonecutter table, you will be able to build stone structures. This is beneficial to your progress for several reasons.

Stone is readily available all over the map so long as you have a pickaxe in hand and a stonecutting table (this opens new stone-building blueprints). While wood decays over time when exposed to elements like rain, stone does not. Stone pieces also don't need support beams as they have complete structural integrity when placed.

Building your structures from stone adds to the aesthetic of your base and allows you to more than double the height of your buildings. However, stone flooring can only be placed on the ground unlike wood floor tiles. Therefore, any additional floors you build will need wood tiles.

An important build mechanic to understand when using stone pieces is that stone floors don't connect like their wood counterparts but sit pressed against one another. So if you want to place them higher up, you'll need to take steps to support them with pillars or archways.

Once you're able to, it's worth upgrading your structures with stone as it takes enemies significantly longer to break than wooden pieces. You can also upgrade your wood beams with iron support beams for even more structural integrity.

Become an Architectural Whiz

Valheim's advanced building can be a lot of fun once you understand how individual elements of the game work together under certain principles. Then, you can really get inventive with your architectural designs, giving your base more realism and flare.

Have fun creating barracks, grand halls, boathouses, and more and if you don't like what you've built, tear it down, reclaim the resources, and begin again. Ultimately, however, the best way to become familiar with advanced techniques is to play around and experiment.

Valheim is best experienced with multiple players, but what if you don't have anyone to game with? We've got the solution! Host one of our Valheim servers and get connected with players from all over the world.