This Frozen Flame Building Guide will teach you the basics of Building and explain why you need to have a roof over your Workbenches.
How Frozen Flame Building Works
Frozen Flame Building should be fairly familiar to fans of survival games -- you collect resources and go into a "Building Mode." You then use those resources in order to make a structure such as a house or a weird statue to Branchy-ka, the Elder God of Crafting Materials.
Building is pretty much available right from the start of the game, and there's a reason for that. While Frozen Flame is not as hardcore as some of the other survival games out there, the environment can definitely kill you if you're not careful.
You can't just make a massive skyscraper all willy-nilly, either -- as the below picture shows, there's a structural integrity system in the game that limits the size of your Buildings. Pay close attention to your design as you work so you can be confident in completing it properly.
Environmental Decay (or, Why You Need a House in Frozen Flame)
You can't just plop any Workbench down on the ground in Frozen Flame without any problems. Aside from enemies potentially attacking it, you'll have to deal with environmental decay.
Basically, Frozen Flame simulates what would happen if you left things outdoors for too long -- they gradually lose health. Anything that is not properly Sheltered (that is, under a roof) will lose a little Durability every day until it's eventually destroyed. You may be able to recover some of the materials used to make it, but you won't get 100% back.
You'll gradually collect more and more stuff as you progress through the game, and you'll also unlock new Workbenches. It's a good idea to have a safe place where you can store all of those -- and that's why you need a house. If you see the "Sheltered" icon pop up on the left, you (and your Workbenches) are safe from decay.
It should be noted, also, that Early Access v0.61.1.0.30205 has an odd bug -- Doors appear to spontaneously break regardless of whether or not they're sheltered. If you notice your door is missing and there is no evidence of enemy attack, it has likely fallen victim to this bug.
Best Place to Build in Frozen Flame
The best place to build in Frozen Flame should match three criteria:
- Away from any enemy spawns
- Near a Teleporter
- Near useful resources
Note the location I've chosen for my home. I will very, very rarely encounter a lone Cursed throwing rocks at my house; otherwise, it is completely free from enemy attack.
There are several trees and other harvestables nearby, providing ample resources for Building, Crafting, and Cooking. And if I don't have something I need nearby... the Teleport is just a short walk away.
We've reached the end of our Frozen Flame Building Guide, but there's plenty more to explore -- have a look at our other guides below!