# Building, decay & a lasting camp

HTML source: https://asciilandsguide.com/building

Canonical HTML: https://asciilandsguide.com/building

Checked: 2026-10-23

Mechanics were reviewed on October 23, 2026 against the official website, FAQ and published in-game help. This was a documentation review, not independent gameplay testing. Follow the live game when recipes or rules differ.

A useful camp starts with access, a stable foundation and a maintenance plan. Add the impressive roof after those pieces work.

## At a glance

Build with B and start on dry, level ground. Wilderness structures begin decaying after a day. Maintain repairs pieces; claimed town land connects building to town permissions and upkeep.

## Start with a small, usable shelter

Green placement feedback means the location is allowed; red feedback explains a blockage. Read that message before moving a piece around at random. R rotates floors, roofs and stairs, while walls align with their attachment edge. Escape leaves construction mode.

Our suggested first build is deliberately compact. Each extra floor or distant outbuilding creates another thing to maintain and another route to remember. Expand when you can explain what the extra space will do.

1. Choose dry, level ground close to the resources you actually use. Open B and inspect the placement preview.
2. Place a foundation, then walls and a doorway. Keep an entrance you can still reach while building.
3. Add a roof and leave enough room to interact with your stations. Test the route between the entrance and workbench.
4. Add a camp or campfire and set the rest point with Z. Verify the confirmation rather than assuming placement set it automatically.

## One day starts decay; it is not a demolition clock

The current game help says buildings outside towns start decaying after one day. That describes the onset of decay, not a guarantee that every piece vanishes at exactly 24 hours. The published overview does not establish a universal time-to-destruction for every material and condition.

Use Maintain in Build to repair a worn piece. Bring a wooden hammer and the materials shown by the interface. Check more than the most visible wall: a weakened supporting piece can matter more than a decorative part above it.

Claimed town land is an alternative to leaving a build in the wilderness, but the town itself has upkeep. A treasury that stays empty can eventually cause the claim to lapse. Treat maintenance and town funding as related responsibilities, not two unrelated checkboxes.

Note: Do not rely on “persistent world” to mean “a building lasts forever.” Persistence, decay, combat damage and possible future world wipes are separate rules.

## Understand what carries the next floor

Stone supports allow third and fourth storeys. The current help also calls out upper floors at stair landings. Build upward in small steps, checking that the support and access remain valid before enclosing everything.

Upgrade to stone is available for wooden pieces and requires a wooden hammer plus the listed stone materials. Work from the parts that support the structure. The practical reason is simple: a stronger roof is not much help if the piece beneath it fails.

When dismantling, reverse the construction order. Remove the highest dependent parts first, clear chests and furnishings from a support, and only then remove the support itself. Breaking a supporting piece can collapse the connected walls and floors above.

## Choose removal instead of destruction

The X salvage label appears in the build controls, while the current help describes Disassemble in the Build menu. Follow the selected mode and its confirmation in your version. Never experiment with removal on the support beneath a stocked room.

| Action | Current published recovery | What to consider |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Disassemble your piece | Half the materials, rounded down | Clear dependent pieces and furnishings first. |
| Destroy a piece | One quarter of materials, rounded down | Supports may collapse; a broken chest spills its contents. |
| Maintain | Repairs with the listed materials | Requires a wooden hammer. |
| Upgrade to stone | Converts an eligible wood piece | Check the material quote before beginning. |

## A chest is not a private vault

Anyone within reach can take from chests and stations according to the current help. Town membership does not turn a chest into a private storage container. Doors instead use ownership and town building permission to decide who may open them.

Keep valuable storage behind a closed entrance and think about reach through openings. The official help specifically warns about open windows. Test access from the outside while planning your layout; walls that look enclosed do not necessarily mean every container is out of reach.

Discuss storage expectations before building with others. Decide which containers are shared supplies and which hold someone’s personal project materials. This is cooperation advice, not a claim that labels can override the game’s access rules.

## Share the region’s building budget

The published regional limit is 4,096 placed pieces across all players, including stations, doors and chests. The Build interface displays the Region Cap. When the limit is reached, new placements are rejected without a cost, while existing pieces can still be edited or removed.

If placement fails in a developed region, check that cap alongside the terrain and permission messages. For a group project, remove genuinely unused structures before planning large extensions. Coordinate with owners rather than assuming an apparently abandoned building is yours to clear.

## Source topics

Building; Crafting & pack → Chests and doors; Towns & friends → Starting a town

Published help in the [official game](https://asciilands.io/play/).

## Related guides

- [towns](https://asciilandsguide.com/towns)

- [crafting](https://asciilandsguide.com/crafting)

- [faq](https://asciilandsguide.com/faq)

## Contact and primary references

support@asciilandsguide.com. Contact the guide editors for corrections or questions about this website. For game account help and game bug reports, use the official game community.

- [Official website and FAQ](https://asciilands.io/)
- [Official game and help](https://asciilands.io/play/)
- [Official Discord](https://discord.gg/JwpvBG4p5V)