Valheim: Building Guide Valheim guide, walkthrough

This page of the Valheim guide provides useful tips and the most important information about the building mechanics. Valheim features a rather specific building system in which the stability of individual building components is demonstrated by various colors. It provides valuable guidance when erecting tall structures, so it's worth getting familiar with them.

• How to build?
• Colors and stability
• Tips & Tricks

How to build?

You will need a hammer to start a construction. If you don't know how to get one, you can find more information on a separate page of the guide: Crafting.

Once equipped with the hammer, press the right mouse button to open the build menu. The menu is divided into several tabs: Misc, Crafting, Building and Furniture. You can toggle between the tabs using the left mouse button or the Q and E keys.

Once you have selected an element, you can use the mouse wheel to rotate the components around their axis. If you simultaneously hold down the Shift key, it will disable the snapping feature. Most constructions require at least the presence of a workbench, which you will find in the Crafting tab. The range of the table is marked by a dashed white line around the construction preview.

Colors and stability

1. Blue indicates an element that functions as a foundation;
2. Green and its shades represent high stability;
3. Yellow warns of mid-level stability;
4. Red means that the element is unstable and that subsequent elements placed on it will collapse.

Visualization of maximum distances from the foundation

In addition to a fairly clear, yet not entirely intuitive color system, stability in Valheim is also very easy to "count". Wooden elements are subject to the following principles:

1. A maximum of 7 pieces can be connected together vertically (the eighth piece will fall apart);
2. Elements placed perpendicularly may be situated approximately 7-9 elements from the foundation;
3. The length of the elements does not matter here - it is only the number of elements that matters.

In addition, the game features components made of stone. They function similarly to wooden elements, but with one exception. If attached to stone elements, wooden elements will be treated as foundations. This means that you may use stone elements to build twice as high buildings with a stone foundation and a wooden finish. In addition to this, you may want to use some of the following tips.

Tips & Tricks

1. Beams made of core wood are twice as long as a single wooden wall. Thanks to that, they may considerably enhance the stability of a construction and enable you to erect twice as tall buildings while preserving stability

A core wood beam is the same height as two wooden walls.

1. Contrary to appearances, diagonal support beams do not increase stability. In most cases, it does not matter if the floor/roof is supported by such a beam since it stems from the same element as the floor/roof itself.
2. Elements can overlap and interpermeate.
3. Using tips 1, 2, and 3, you can significantly increase the stability of components built parallel to the ground and up in the air. All you need to do is to simply erect a vertical core wood beam (using its length) and connect it to a pendant floor (e.g. a bridge) with a diagonal beam. In this way, the supported floor segment will have a much shorter distance from the foundation element.
4. In most cases, disassembling items returns 100% of the resources. Exceptions are resin and wood used as fuel, e.g. in campfires or standing torches
5. Wooden elements that are not covered by a roof may lose up to half of their durability when exposed to rain.
6. The workbench area block respawning of enemies and animals. Campfires work in the same way but over a much smaller area. This can be used to secure, for example, the interior of a palisaded settlement.
7. Only the roof elements can provide cover - a flat floor does not count as a roof.