Guides · Building and making
Building
A dirt hut keeps the night out. This page is for everything after that: colored glass, painted walls, marble floors, roofs that turn their own corners, fountains that really splash, and a house full of furniture. Everything here is made in survival from things you can find, and every block works in creative too.
The Masonry palette
Many of the fancier blocks come from one place: the Masonry tab of the recipe book at a Maker's Bench. It works like a stonecutter. Along the top is a row of materials. Pick one, and you see what a whole block of it costs and every piece it can be cut into, all at once: stairs, columns, mouldings, posts and more.
Click a piece to make one. Shift and click makes ten. Right click, or a long press on a phone, makes as many as your bag can pay for and hold. The row shows the materials you have, or every material when you have none, so it doubles as a shopping list.
A cut never gives you more than you put in: the pieces of one block are never worth more than the block. And nothing turns a piece back into what it was made from, so cut with care.
Stained glass
Put a block of glass and a dye together and you get a block of stained glass in that dye's color. There are 16 colors. A glass pane and a dye make a stained pane the same way. Light shines through the color, so a window of it throws a little cathedral into any room.
Making a lot of panes? 6 blocks of one stained glass make 4 panes of it in one go.
Dyes
Dyes color glass, plaster, terracotta and more. There are 16 of them. The first ones come from flowers and other things you find in the world. The rest you mix from two others, just like paint.
| Dye | Made from | Makes |
|---|---|---|
| Red Dye | Poppy | 2 |
| Yellow Dye | Dandelion | 2 |
| Blue Dye | Cornflower | 2 |
| Black Dye | 2 Coal | 2 |
| White Dye | Pale Ash | 3 |
| Orange Dye | Red Dye and Yellow Dye | 2 |
| Purple Dye | Red Dye and Blue Dye | 2 |
| Pink Dye | Red Dye and White Dye | 2 |
| Cyan Dye | Blue Dye and Green Dye | 2 |
| Green Dye | Hearthsage | 2 |
| Brown Dye | Brown Mushroom (a builders' dye) | 2 |
| Gray Dye | Black Dye and White Dye (a builders' dye) | 2 |
| Light Gray Dye | Gray Dye and White Dye (a builders' dye) | 2 |
| Lime Dye | Green Dye and White Dye (a builders' dye) | 2 |
| Magenta Dye | Purple Dye and Pink Dye (a builders' dye) | 2 |
| Light Blue Dye | Blue Dye and White Dye (a builders' dye) | 2 |
The 6 builders' dyes color the builders' plaster, terracotta and stained glass. Wool and banners keep the first 10 colors.
Plaster and terracotta
Plaster is the soft, chalky wall of a cottage or a town house. Mix Sand and Clay Ball with any dye and you get 4 blocks of plaster in that color. Every dye works, so there are 16 colors to choose from.
In the Masonry palette, Fine Plaster is dressed from Sand and Clay Ball, 2 at a time, and cut into vaults, mouldings and panels for grand ceilings. Gilt Plaster takes 2 Fine Plaster and Gold Ingot: gold-touched plaster for the room you are proudest of.
Terracotta is fired clay, earthier and darker than plaster. Ring a dye with 8 terracotta and you get 8 blocks of that color back.
Set two blocks checkerwise, each corner to its twin, and you get patterned tiles: Blue and White Tile, Red and Cream Checker, and Star Tile. And Green Glazed Tile comes out of a Forge when you smelt green terracotta.
Marble
Set 4 blocks of Dressed Chalkstone in a square and you get 4 Polished Marble, a clean pale stone for floors and walls.
The grander marbles come from the Masonry palette. White Marble is dressed from 2 Dressed Chalkstone and Pale Ash, and Black Marble from Basalt and Coal. Both cut into steps, columns, statues, mouldings and hearths, which is everything a palace needs except the guests.
Timber frames
A beam is a log laid on its side. Stack 2 logs and you get 2 beams. They come in Oak, Birch, Pine, Jungle, and Dark Oak, and a beam runs the way you face when you place it.
Cut one beam into frame pieces: 4 Frame Beams on their own, 4 Frame Posts with a haft under it, or 4 braces with a haft set corner-wise. Right and left braces lean opposite ways.
Frame pieces stand in the middle of their block, so they sit back from a wall's face. For a classic timber-framed house, build the frame from beams and logs and fill the spaces with plaster.
Roofs
A roof makes a house look finished. There are 10 roofing materials you can craft. Each makes a stack of straight roof slopes at a Maker's Bench:
| Roof | Made from | Slopes |
|---|---|---|
| Oak Shingle | Oak Boards, with Haft underneath | 6 |
| Birch Shingle | Birch Slab, with Haft underneath | 6 |
| Spruce Shingle | Pine Slab, with Haft underneath | 6 |
| Jungle Shingle | Jungle Slab, with Haft underneath | 6 |
| Clay Tile | Brick, with Clay Ball underneath | 6 |
| Terracotta Tile | Terracotta | 6 |
| Slate Tile | Slate | 6 |
| Thatch | Wheat | 6 |
| Copper Roofing | Copper Ingot | 8 |
| Verdigris Copper | Copper Roofing Roof Slope, with Moss Block underneath | 3 |
Straight slopes are only the start. Craft them into 12 kinds of piece in all: Low Roof Slope, Low Roof Slope Top, Roof Ridge, Low Roof Ridge, Hipped Ridge End, Roof Apex, Gable Verge, Low Gable Verge, Low Gable Verge Top, Eaves Board, and Gutter.
Here is the best part: slopes join their neighbors by themselves. Set two at a corner and they become a hip or a valley, so you never hunt for a corner piece. Leadwork and Roof Slate roofs are cut in the Masonry palette.
Fountains
A fountain is one item that sets down a whole fountain at once, water and all. There are 5 kinds, each in Dressed Stone and Dressed Chalkstone. Break it and the whole fountain comes back to you as one item.
| Fountain | Size | Needs |
|---|---|---|
| Tiered Fountain | 5 by 5 blocks, 3 blocks high | The stone, a Copper Ingot and Wanestone |
| Quatrefoil Basin | 5 by 5 blocks, 1 block high | The stone and a Copper Ingot |
| Tall Jet Fountain | 3 by 3 blocks, 1 block high | The stone and a Copper Ingot |
| Wayhost Fountain | 5 by 5 blocks, 3 blocks high | The stone, a Copper Ingot and Wanestone |
| Lionhead Wall Fountain | 3 by 3 blocks, 3 blocks high | The stone and a Copper Ingot |
Give it room. If the game says “It needs flat, solid ground under all of it.”, level the ground under the whole footprint first. The water is part of the fountain, so it never floods your garden.
The Home set: furniture
The Home set is 242 pieces of furniture, lights and decor, all made in the Masonry palette. Each family has its own entry in the row of materials: Oak Furniture, Birch Furniture, Pine Furniture, Jungle Furniture, Dark Oak Furniture, Beds and Soft Seats, Bath and Mirror, Lights, Decor, and Set Pieces.
- Wooden furniture comes in Oak, Birch, Pine, Jungle, and Dark Oak: stools, benches, tables, desks, wardrobes, dressers, cabinets, shelves and bookcases.
- Seats really seat you: use a stool, bench, armchair or sofa to sit down.
- Wardrobes, dressers, cabinets, crates and barrels open like a chest, so your storage can look like a room instead of a wall of boxes.
- Beds are a home you sleep at, just like a Bedroll.
- Candles and lamps give light. Use one to turn it down low for a cozy evening, and again to turn it back up.
Masons' blueprints
Some builds are too big for one item, so the masons drew them for you. Open the Builder's Lens, then Blueprints, and look under From the masons: Grand Cascade.
Load one and paste it like a build of your own. In survival it is paid for from your bag, and anything it can't set, like water and special blocks, is left for you to finish by hand. Or pin it as a guide and build it block by block yourself.
Props and Dress
Two tabs of the Builder's Lens add the finishing touches. Props sets items down as free objects anywhere on a block, so a table can hold a bowl and a wall can hold a sword. Dress brushes moss or gold leaf onto blocks, for a ruin that looks old or a hall that looks rich.
The Lens itself, from boxes to shapes to brushes: the Builder's Lens. Making the basics: Crafting. Moving parts: Machines.
Next: Machines. All sections: the guides.