Permafrost Base Building: Shelters, Beds and Renovation

Quick answer: press B for the build tool and right-click for the build menu. Pieces snap on a grid — foundation first, then walls, a doorway with a door, and a roof. Claim your bed to set your respawn. You can build almost anywhere except settlements and cold zones.

Building basics

• B equips the building tool; middle mouse or Q switches between construction, deconstruction and repair; R rotates pieces.
• Green preview = valid. Red = invalid, with a reason: missing resources, area obstructed, foundation required, or no-build zone.
• Workstations like the workbench need a foundation underneath and a roof overhead.
• Deconstruction refunds only part of the material cost (roughly 60% reported) — plan before you place.
• Structures decay over time; repairing a piece costs one unit of its material. The developers are reportedly considering a decay toggle.

Material tiers

Building pieces come in three tiers that differ in both durability and heat retention:

Tier	Wall HP (reported)	Notes
Wood (T1)	~500	cheap, everywhere
Scrap/Tin (T2)	~750	mid-tier, better insulation
Quality Metal / Armored (T3)	~1000	endgame, needs quality metal

A minimal starter cabin

A proven first-night build: 2 foundations, 5 walls, a doorway + door, 2 roof pieces (about 36 wood total), then a bed (5 wood + 5 cloth) and a small chest (2 wood). Add a campfire (2 stone) inside or just outside the door — a fire under a roof warms you far faster than one in the open.

The wooden structures set (2 blueprint points) is the first unlock worth buying; an advanced wooden set adds beams and balustrades for reaching high platforms.

Beds, respawns and death

• Claim a bed by interacting with it — that's your personal respawn point. In co-op, claimed beds are personal.
• Sleeping skips to morning (~8 AM); you can't sleep with enemies nearby. Sleeping bags and tents are temporary field respawns.
• When you die, your backpack drops where you fell — build near your usual hunting grounds or keep a bed close to dangerous projects.

No-build zones

You cannot build inside NPC settlements (Horizon itself is a no-build zone), around quest areas, or inside cold zones — the deep-blue foggy areas with the best loot. Need shelter in a cold zone? Build outside the boundary and make short trips in.

Renovation zones

Ruined buildings marked with blue "ghost" outlines can be renovated with the building tool instead of built from scratch — cheaper, and the shell blocks wind immediately. Renovating certain buildings reportedly attracts NPCs and traders.

The house-camp questline asks you to renovate 4 walls and 2 gates (10 scrap + 1 wire per wall) while the Moon Cult attacks in waves. The collapsed bridge near the start can be repaired (52 logs reported) to shorten the trip to Horizon — easy to miss, worth doing.

Defense and placement

• Build near natural resources with a bottleneck entry; bandits and wildlife occasionally raid.
• Under-snow traps and the windchime decoy cover the door.
• Enemy AI pathing is currently exploitable (an Early Access quirk) — chokepoints work better than they should.

Known building bugs (Early Access)

• Middle ceiling tile won't place: build a temporary wall or doorway under it, place the tile, then dismantle the support.
• Half-built bridge state: restart the game and repair again.
• Items crafted at benches can fall through badly placed floors — build on foundations.

FAQ

Can I move my base later? Deconstruction refunds only part of the cost, so moving is expensive — pick a decent spot first.

What's the biggest base location? The City Mall in the White Hell biome is described in roadmap material as the largest base-suitable site — that's future content, not the current build.

Related: Stay warm · Workbench · Early-game walkthrough