Careful building around frost caves, I've noticed the ground constantly shifts height - either burying structures possibly to the point of destruction or leaving them in mid air to fall apart.

Start from the ground up, mark it all out before you start, and don't build in the mistlands.

LOL how would you not start from the ground up? Even if the ground is a tree in the swamp, still ground(ish).

Originally posted by Foxglovez:

LOL how would you not start from the ground up? Even if the ground is a tree in the swamp, still ground(ish).

When alignment hates you honestly lol. I have built structures from top down before, but in all fairness it was stuff like a dock where I knew what height i needed to be but still had to adjust depth as required, plus it was still attached to the side of a structure (with a raised ground pillar built into it for stability) for the actual support needed to do that top-down approach.

Ahh, I see what you are saying. I make sure everything that is supposed to be on the ground actually is, and is blue. The game is a bit glitchy that way. Saves headaches later on, don't want any of that single piece breaking when all around it are fine.

Stakewalls and roof pieces (including cross beams) ignore rain damage - wooden gates do not, becoming a weak point on a basic perimeter. It can be difficult to get a cross beam to sit on top of a gate, but a horizontal beam clips on just fine. Then you can place a cross beam - or go nuts and make your fence double high (blob event proof your crops & boar). Then you can remove the beam again.

Placing stuff just to get clipping and then removing it again is a decent amount of my valheim building, though I'm pretty novice. E.g. you can get a half roof length eve by using tiny wooden bits off the top of you wall down and out, stick an angled beam off of that to start your roof and it should touch the top edge of your wall in the middle of the roof piece.

If you want to make a sturdy roofless boar pen, you can half sink palisade walls into the ground with beams.

Place 2m beam vertical on the ground, then snap a 45 degree beam to the top of the vertical beam. Then, aim under the 45 degree beam to get the palisade wall to ''sink'' into the ground, creating a shorter outer wall for the pen. I usually line the inner wall with roundpole fence parts, with a single small wooden door with a thatch 26 degree roof over the top of it to protect from rain damage.

You can also cultivate the centre to grow turnips, onions or carrots at the save yourself time & space if needed.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2914657938

Also, I do this with all my builds now, I use roof overhangs on all new structures.

On the corner of a wall intersection, I snap in the middle a 45 degree roof cross to the upper section of the roof or upper wall, then go around the other side of the cross (side of building) and snap a 45 deg roof, so there is a half metre overhang.

For the front, I simply snap from the existing half metre overhang, and snap another full roof piece for a further 2 metre overhang at both the rear & front of structure, supported with core beams usually. Looks really pronounced & imposing when you see it, regardless if the structure is smaller or larger.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2813351584

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2885155067

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2790243410

As you can see I alternate the overall design a bit here & there, but for the most part the skeleton & framework for the house is usually the same if similar floorspace.

Build where the bird flies high and your not afraid to flip off gjall the haters. Middle Finger your stamina to a light stroke so you do not come to a hard corpse run prematurely....

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2915281366

There's uh, a lot of tips players here can offer depending on the context you mean. I'm far from the best this community has to offer for generally making a base pretty but there are some tips I figured out the hard way over time that maybe I can spare you the pain of (no idea how long you've played, this might not be new to you at all).

-It's easy to forget to eat when putzing around your base in seemingly total safety, but don't make this mistake. If the fall damage from your own building efforts doesn't end up claiming your life a time or two, an unfortunately timed raid might instead...or the delightful occasional ranged enemy that wandered in from a nearby biome while chasing other mobs (*sarcastic* always love getting knocked off a 2+ story building by an arrow out of nowhere while Im arguing with my chimney up there).

-Moats and earth walls are technically the best defense, but they also aren't always the prettiest or most immersive approach to base defense. If you do forego these, DO NOT put your defensive walls right up against your actual structures. This will be deceptively effective for most the enemies you are used to like those pestering little greylings but there are enemies that will remind you exactly how much range they have...by bashing your skull in through your walls while you are obliviously cooking your dinner or something. Give your defenses some space to actually defend you.

-Never underestimate the power of your rested bonus, seriously. All you technically need is to sit down next to a currently working fire for about 30 seconds and that's enough get like 8 minutes of rested i think? 8 or 10, but i want to say 10 is when you have fire + sheltered but both are so easy to accomplish I can't actually recall specifically. Adding additional items that grant comfort, like a rug or a banner for example, will increase how long this effect lasts before you need to rest again to get it back. Either way, you regain your health and stamina faster while rested and im fairly certain you also get a global xp gain boost as well (admittedly i dont tend to watch the skills that closely). Technically not specifically about building, but the stamina recovery helps with building and you use building to increase your comfort so your rested bonus lasts even longer (not all decorations count towards comfort but most of what counts, are decorations. Things like your bed also contribute, and you cant rest/sleep at all if not in range of a fire. Though you can respawn at a bed without a fire near it).

-When you get far enough to be exploring continents and going on long sea voyages, I recommend always bringing extra food, at least 10 wood (for a workbench, +2 and another 5 stone if you also want to drop a fire for that previously stressed rested bonus), and a portal kit (the materials needed to create a portal, presumably with an unconnected one already back at your home to pair it with. So: 10 greydwarf eyes, 20 fine wood, and 2 surtling cores). Yes, a bed to respawn at is nice, but its even nicer to actually be able to go back home and try again if everything goes horribly wrong (boat broke, cant find the nails in the water to name a common example.

You can build a little oval stake wall and roof in front of burial chambers and frost caves. Then you are nice and snug with your portal and a chest inside. Set this up towards end of day, explore around that area a bit, go home for night and do the bc the next morning, strip down the set up and move on to the next one.
On burial chambers that are all above ground there is an overhang on the side your workbench fits in that makes it usable and noone ever attacks it, even angry trolls.

Stick your portal and even make a base on top of sunken crypts. Abominations wont attack you or the setup you build up there. I have been attacked by a wraith once on top of a sc but that's it.

There is (somewhere) a great video on understanding how building works, the progression from beefy blue to broken red build items that is really important. There are specific things to look for as you build and it's too long and involved to go into here. Google is your friend. Oh, and most of the most amazing builds are done in a special mode, not in vanilla game.