Stability works both vertically and horizontally. Wood has a very short overall height limit, but that can be expanded with iron beams or stone quite a fair bit.

If all else fails, use the hoe! Sadly that's only partially a joke. The closer a structure is to ground the more stable it is, general rule...that includes if you happen to bring the ground up to it as well. There's a max height you can raise or lower terrain from it's original height though, and if it's at it's max you aren't going to have the wiggle room to flatten it out and make it a bit prettier, but it is effective. Also worth noting this also applies to already high terrain or...set pieces i guess? Not sure what exactly you'd call things like the giant ancient trees or the rock spires you can also build off of. Bonus that earth walls also make effective base defenses (be aware some enemies have a pretty extensive reach and others fly, so it's not fool-proof but it helps in like 90% of cases).

It's also possible to raise terrain on (technically next to,) already built pieces without moving the pieces. They will just sink into the ground or float respective of whether you are adding or lowering terrain height (floating pieces will update their new structural integrity and may break in the process). I personally do enjoy doing this with my outer walls and the large stone pieces, partly because i also tend to put my pathways (preferably roofed, which i often build off of those stone walls built into the earth wall) around the inner edges of my outer walls to give it a bit more buffer space for when i do get a troll raid or something. Nothing that important or difficult to replace ever gets damaged (except maybe a buried ward i have to dig up to fix, not hard, just have to remember where the heck it was for spawn blocking reasons).

The strongest thing in the game is iron. If you have it, you can hide it inside walls to go quite high. You can also hide raised terrain inside walls to go quite high. I have a many, many floor tower that uses every trick in the book; its in the plains but it goes so high the roof has snow.

No mods. the wider bottom is hidden terrain in the walls. That puts the next narrower level at 'ground', and from there, it goes up with iron as far as I could. I also dug it out to bedrock and flattened it, so it has a very deep basement. I like 3M walls inside, I think it has close to 15 floors, been a while since this one... Also when stone goes red, you can pile wood on another 2-3 floors.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2799499765

Originally posted by Gladi8er65:

Building in Valheim is totally NOT based on real world physics. Pillars, beams, trusses etc, do not provide support like RL counterparts would.

Valheim has a structural "stability" system and the following video can maybe help understand it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gD3YQGufXgA

"Totally" is clearly an exaggeration. The fact that objects have limits is based in physics, that they fall to the ground is based in physics and there are cases where supports are needed, specifically when building with stone and using the arch.

Originally posted by Capt. Slappy:

Originally posted by Suzaku:

You can use core wood to make superior support beams, but if you really want to flex your building capabilities, wait until you have access to iron. With that, you can craft iron wood beams and the stonecutter for making stone structures/flooring.

Or there's always the modding route. Just download a mod that disables building integrity requirements and go nuts.

Gotta go for the flex. This is my 1st run, so it has to be pure vanilla.

Respect on the vanilla run.

The structural integrity is a bit annoying, there are times when it seems a bit too off from physics. However, I get that making modestly real would be really hard so no hate on my part to the team. just have to understand the mechanics as others have mentioned. good luck and have fun.

Originally posted by Suzaku:

You can use core wood to make superior support beams, but if you really want to flex your building capabilities, wait until you have access to iron. With that, you can craft iron wood beams and the stonecutter for making stone structures/flooring.

Or there's always the modding route. Just download a mod that disables building integrity requirements and go nuts.

Gotta go for the flex. This is my 1st run, so it has to be pure vanilla.

Check everything at the bottom. It has to be grounded (blue).
It is not god enuf if its green.

Originally posted by Capt. Slappy:

Building a rather tall fort but none of my pillars seem to be doing anything. Every thing is red and breaking.

I recommend watching various building videos on youtube about how structures can hit red.

There are limitations on structures depending on the materials used. Seemingly you're exceeding those limitations in some capacity.

one more thing - if it touches ground even ground raised with a hoe it will start at blue.

Or connected to a tree. You can use a tall pine or oak tree to make an impressive treehouse.

Building in Valheim is totally NOT based on real world physics. Pillars, beams, trusses etc, do not provide support like RL counterparts would.

Valheim has a structural "stability" system and the following video can maybe help understand it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gD3YQGufXgA

Red means the build piece doesn't have a high enough stability to support their weight. You need to reinforce what is supporting the weight or switch to wood to build higher.

You might want to check out a guide about structural integrity for the game, but the TL;DR version is the more pieces you are away from the ground, the lower your integrity becomes. Certain materials are better than others, but they will all fall eventually if you try to get too big.

I was hoping joists and beams would be good enough, plus they look tits imo.

You can use core wood to make superior support beams, but if you really want to flex your building capabilities, wait until you have access to iron. With that, you can craft iron wood beams and the stonecutter for making stone structures/flooring.

Or there's always the modding route. Just download a mod that disables building integrity requirements and go nuts.