Valheim’s been a mighty contender to Minecraft ever since it came out to Early Access. The game has a lot of cool features, and the biggest one of all is the ability to create various builds based on what players want. However, it can be a bit overwhelming to decide which Valheim build to do. Maybe just a normal house with some walls for cover? Perhaps a full-stop castle? Before that though, we need to talk about how to build things in Valheim.
Check out: Valheim Weapons Guide!
Valheim Builds: What Are They?
Valheim is pretty much a Minecraft clone set on a Viking aesthetic. Thus, it makes a lot of sense for players to be able to build their bases each with their unique designs. Of course, this depends on what materials they have on hand. Building things on Valheim is one of its greatest and most simple joys after all, and depending on what’s available, players can create some pretty awesome stuff. However, in addition to aesthetics and various other utilities, players create bases for sheer bragging rights. After all, if you have the best base around, why wouldn’t you brag about it to friends?
First off though, how exactly can you build things in Valheim?
What Do You Need To Build your Valheim Base?
First off, players can use various woods, stones, and even metals to create their dream Valheim house. However, they require specific places to be used.
For example, to use wood as a material to build a base, players require both a hammer and a Workbench. Once players have both of these things, they have a 20-meter area to create their dream Valheim base with their unique design. To use metal, players need to have a Forge, and to use Stone, they need Stonecutters. These are the 3 materials that are going to be used on a lot of Valheim building ideas: Wood for the first initial builds, metals for walls, and finally, good sturdy stone.
Getting these materials is usually pretty easy: wood is found everywhere and can be harvested with a good ax. Metals can be gained from various ores or even scrap piles and require a Smelter to create ingots. And lastly, the stone is used to create paved roads, arches, and sturdy walls. Valheim buildings can get pretty big too, with a maximum build height of around 36 meters, which needs iron poles to do so.
Best Place To Build Valheim Builds
If we’re being honest, practically anywhere is the best place to build in Valheim. So long as you can plop a Workbench in an area, you’re pretty much good to go. Usually though, staying near a river or the sea is a good idea, as water is an easy source of food and other necessary materials. In addition to this, the game’s spawn area is also an option, as players can use the spawn area as a way to fast travel. Do make sure that you have ample defense though.
Because even if enemies can’t spawn in the area around a base due to Workbenches (We’ll talk about that later); they can still destroy your base.
However, there’s one fundamental rule when building in Valheim: make sure the area the build is on is as flat as possible. This is especially important when a stone is used as a building material, as having even the slightest incline in the middle of a stone build will immediately cause the stone to crumble and collapse.
Why Are Bases Important?
Well, we already talked about one of the biggest reasons why building a base in Valheim is important: Bragging Rights. After all, the best Valheim Builds are the ones that take some time to create, and they can get pretty elaborate once the materials are available in ample amount. However, the biggest reason why building a house in Valheim’s important is because of safety.
Valheim is a pretty unforgiving place, and danger is always around at every turn. Thus, it’s a good idea to have a place to go to just relax for a bit and to do maintenance on weapons and armor. When playing on multiplayer, having a forward base near a boss is useful to have an area to restock and then get back into fighting the boss in question.
What Can You Build on Valheim?
In Valheim, the sky’s the limit when it comes to bases players can create. It’s kinda like Minecraft in that sense if we’re being honest. Valheim’s various materials can be created into unique building parts that can then be used to create beautiful, and functional bases. Hell, some players even created entire villages for other players to use each with unique buildings and places to stay. Pretty dope.
How Do You Create Valheim Builds?
The first thing the players need to create to make various Valheim builds is a Workbench. They’re used not only to craft things but also to build various structures in a 20-meter radius. The building aspect of a Workbench is active immediately, but they need to have a roof atop it as well as a 70% cover to craft and repair stuff. Another nifty thing to take note of is that Workbenches are used to define the player’s base. Thus, monster spawning is prevented. This makes it a good idea to have multiple workbenches around the area of your base while building at the center.
Once a player has a Workbench, they can then use a hammer to begin construction. Creating any kind of house, building, or base in Valheim requires both a Workbench and a Hammer as well as having the materials inside your inventory. Once you have all 3, players can create some of the various builds that require wood. However, to create builds that need metals or stone, the player must have both a Forge and a Stonecutter. Both are easily created through the use of copper and iron.
Once you have them though, the world of Valheim is your oyster, and the game’s build variety becomes available to you.
Houses
Houses are the first things that players can create on Valheim once they have the materials to do so. However, they’re also the most complicated of the bunch. After all, there are a lot of ways to create various house builds on Valheim and they can get pretty overwhelming. Thus, it’s usually a good idea to just create a normal 4 by 4 house that just has the essential things like storage and a bed when starting.
Once you have sturdier materials like stone and steel, in addition to a Forge and a Stonecutter, all bets are off. This is the moment when you’re going to need a few tricks to create bigger and better houses and buildings. For example, creating 2nd and 3rd floors and beyond tend to need additional support beams to become viable. This, however, would mean that there are going to be wooden beams inside the house’s interior, which can be pretty annoying. But, if the player reinforces the wooden beams outside with stone or even steel beams, more options become available. Some players were able to create complete stone houses and buildings thanks to this technique.
Last but not least is adding in the various chests, furniture, and other miscellaneous things. Due to the wildly successful Hearth and Home update, a lot of new improvements were added to the game. Among these additions are changes to the game’s shelter mechanics and additions to the game’s furniture. There are a lot of cool things added into the game thanks to Hearth and Home which improves the quality of Valheim’s house builds tremendously.
Walls
Next on the list are walls, and this one depends on what the player uses to create them. For one, there are many ways to create walls on Valheim, and you can use almost all of the materials available in the game to do so. However, stone and wood are the most common materials that players use, for 2 main reasons. The first is the fact that wood and stone are found everywhere, and the 2nd is that they’re pretty sturdy.
However, it’s usually the walls that combine both materials that stand the test of time and enemy waves better. Thus, having additional wooden supports in addition to the main stone battlements is a pretty good idea. If the player has access to Iron though, stone walls can become way stronger, and can take way more punishment.
Overall, the same principles of creating houses also apply to walls. Have good support, make sure the area you’re making the wall is flat. And lastly, ensure that there’s decent coverage of Workbenches and various other things like a Forge or a Stonecutter. If you have those 3 things, you’re pretty much golden.
Other Types Of Buildings
However, there are also several other building types on Valheim that can be used to create some monumental and awesome builds. These range from wood and stone arches to wooden and steel gates, and a whole lot more. These add additional spice to the build that the player’s creating, and make it so that each build doesn’t look like a wooden or stone box that comes straight out of Minecraft.
How Do You Strengthen Buildings?
Strengthening buildings is pretty easy but requires a metric ton of resources. For example, if the player wants to create a stone house, they may want to add several wooden or even steel beams to strengthen the building. A lot of base builds in Valheim require this technique to be created. Why? Because this not only strengthens the building from attacks but is also necessary if the player wants to create buildings with multiple floors.
The reason for this stems from the way Valheim tackles buildings, in that it’s pretty similar to real life. To create buildings, players need to have solid foundations. This usually means adding several wooden or steel beams into the construction of a building. If this isn’t done, the building will immediately collapse when too much weight is added in, and we don’t want that, at all. When placed together though, the building can handle pretty much anything, and a lot of cool things can be done. This includes building some pretty wacky builds, buildings, and ideas on Valheim. Speaking of which, let’s talk about various build ideas that players can create on Valheim, shall we?
5 Valheim Build Ideas Made By Players
Now that we’ve talked about how to create various Valheim builds, let’s talk about builds that are created by other players. Maybe taking a look at the builds possible in the game will help in inspiring you to create your build on your Valheim world. That or just straight-up copy it for your use, either of the two works. Without any further ado, here are 5 Valheim build ideas for your perusal:
Villages
For those that want to go on a multiplayer playthrough of Valheim, it’s usually a good idea to build extra houses and other essential buildings for efficiency reasons. Thus, building a full-on village might be a good thing to do in this case. This is usually a pretty easy affair because there are a lot of abandoned villages scattered in a Valheim world. Once players find one, it’s a pretty easy affair to modify the village for the player’s use. Of course, this is after adding Workbenches and Forges to stop mobs from spawning.
Once that’s done, the building part of Valheim’s gameplay begins. Usually, this is done by adding extra walls to stop enemies from charging into the village interior. However, this also applies to creating new buildings or modifying old ones. The sheer amount of things that players can create in Valheim is virtually endless even with the materials added into the game. A hardcore Valheim builder will shudder at the idea of new materials added in because they can herald new building blocks for usage.
Overall, villages are a universal Valehim build an idea to go for because of the sheer amount of versatility that they can have. The rest of the additions on this list can easily be added to a village. Either created by yourself or with friends to give it additional oomph and style while also having practical functions.
Portal Hub
The 2nd Valheim build we’re going to talk about is a Portal Hub, which is one of the most useful things ever. Imagine having the ability to teleport to a predetermined location to kick ass before returning to base to chill out and relax. Now imagine that there’s a hub of these with each portal going to different locations and places with unique materials and areas. That’s what the Portal Hub is for, and it’s pretty glorious.
However, creating portals is pretty expensive, requiring 20 Fine Wood, 10 Greydwarf Eyes, and 2 Surtling Cores. And that’s for one portal. To create a Portal Hub, players require 2 portals per location. However, it’s worth it given that players will no longer have to walk or boat to get to the destination.
In addition to this, players can usually create exit portals on areas like other villages, colosseums, and for the next part of the build list, castles. Let’s talk about castles, shall we?
Castles
It’s usually not necessary to create a huge castle on Valheim. However, there is some pretty dope Valheim castle builds available. For example, one absolute chad was able to create the whole of Minas Tirith on the corner of a mountain with a bridge that leads to a village. That’s… usually not possible on Survival mode without a metric ton of materials though. However, some castles are way more accessible to build rather than the full splendor of Minas Tirith, and there are even some mini castles as well, just one tower with a town being the main show.
Still, the whole build is pretty worth it even though the materials for a build like this are pretty exorbitant. However, for those that not only want to go all out but also want to have a place to fight other players in? They need Arenas and Colosseums.
Arenas and Colosseums
For those that want to beat the ever-living crap out of each other, having a safe place to do so is paramount. After all, interruptions via enemy mobs are not cool in the middle of a duel. Thus, having an arena or a colosseum to fight on is a pretty big vibe. There are a few Valheim builds that are arenas and colosseums for players to duel on. However, given that Valheim isn’t a player vs. player game, they’re not that necessary. Still, having one of these in the player’s tone is yet another huge flex and a show of how far the game server’s come overall.
One thing to take note on, to access PvP, the server needs to allow PvP. Thus, creating an arena or colosseum on a server with no PvP is a waste.
Seaside Port
Last but not least is a Seaside Port for all the player’s maritime needs. After all, the sea is home to many bounties, like food via fish, and various sea monsters to kill. The sea is also a good way to go around the map, with sailing being way faster than just walking. Ergo, getting access to a seaside port with a few boats already there is a great Valheim build to consider.
These seaside ports would usually have a village in it as well, especially if it’s the main base. However, Having a seaside port with a link to a portal is a good idea. This is true for the first few stages of the game.
Start Your Valheim Builds Today
All in all, the only thing that stops players from creating a lot of great Valheim builds are their imagination and lack of materials. Once the players can get the resources, the sky’s practically the limit to creating great Valheim Builds. So if you’re playing Valheim either by yourself or with friends, go let your creative juices flow when building your base.
