How to Build With Stone in Valheim

Millions of Vikings are joining the fun round the world in Valheim. In a game with so much to do it is hard to figure out where to begin. One of the things you can do in this Viking Sandbox is build! To begin with you will only be able to build with wood and simple materials. You will eventually unlock the ability to build with stone and this page will show you how!


When Will I Unlock Stone Building in Valheim?

Before you are able to build using stone materials you will have to first unlock the ability to do so. Once you have beaten the second forsaken of the game, The Elder, you will receive an item called the Swamp Key. With this swamp key you will be able to open up the sunken crypts that are found throughout the Swamp biome.

Inside the sunken crypts you will find old dirt piles known as scrap piles. By mining these piles you will be able to find scrap iron, which can then be processed in a smelter in order to get iron, which can be used for a variety of different things. One thing that you can use Iron for is building an object called a ‘Stonecutter’ which can be found in the ‘crafting’ tab of the hammer’s build menu.

a stonecutter in valheim.
You will first have to build a stonecutter to be able to build with stone

Once you have placed the stonecutter in a place under a roof away from the elements you can interact with it with the E key in order to craft there. You will see the only thing you are able to craft from the Stonecutter is an upgrade for the workbench. Once you have placed down the stonecutter you will unlock the ability to build objects and building pieces using stone instead of wood.


How to Build Stone Walls and Floors

Now that you have unlocked the ability to use stone as a building objects you might be wondering how exactly you go about building it. As with the wooden building pieces, you will be doing all of your building with the hammer. Go to the building tab of the hammer and you should see a bunch of new options at the bottom of the menu available to you.

The stone building menu accessed by using the hammer in Valheim
You will be using the Hammer to do all of your stone building

Be careful when placing these stone floors and walls as they follow a different integrity system to wooden objects. You will see that you can’t really make bridges from stone unless you build all the way up from the ground. Stone objects are considerably heavier than their wooden counterparts so you may have to experiment with different placement locations and even manipulate the terrain using the hoe tool.

Stone is great for getting that castle look or just in general building a different style of house than a wooden one.


Why Build With Stone Over Wood?

Apart from simply the aesthetic value that stone brings there are a number of advantages that come with building with stone instead of wood. One of the main things you will notice is that stone has a larger health pool than wood. Enemies will take a lot longer to break down a stone wall than they would with a wooden one, so obviously when it comes to defense, stone is king.

Wooden objects also, if exposed to the rain, will degrade down to 50% of their total integrity. Buildings will never break down when exposed to rain but it is pretty dangerous leaving your walls and floor pieces at 50% integrity when the rain comes. Stone pieces take absolutely no damage in the rain so you are save to use them out in the elements wherever you want.

Sometimes you might just find stone more aesthetically pleasing. For example a lot of players over on the Valheim subreddit are recreating castles and buildings from their favorite games and shows. Using stone gives you a greater range of pieces to use so let your creativity run wild with stone! Besides, who wants to live in a wooden castle?


All of the Stone Building Pieces Available in Valheim

There are a variety of different stone building objects that can be used in the construction of bases and houses in Valheim. They are all listed below with images. All of the stone building objects in Valheim require you to be within the building radius of the stonecutter. When you are trying to place down a stone building piece you will see the circle’s radius. You do not need a workbench around in order to build with stone.

Stone Wall 1×1

This is a simple 1×1 stone block that can be used as a wall, floor, roof or wherever you see fit. This one is just a stone cube which is limited only by your imagination! It requires 3 stone in the inventory in order to place down.

A 1x1 Stone Building Block in Valheim
A 1×1 Stone Building Block in Valheim

Stone Wall 2×1

This is the same height as the first stone wall, however it is twice as long. To build the 2×1 stone wall, 4 pieces of stone are needed. If you plan to build a rather large wall you will save more stone by using the 2×1 piece rather than using 2 of the 1×1 blocks.

A 2x1 Stone Wall in Valheim
2×1 Stone Wall

Stone Wall 4×2

This is a larger version of the first 2. It is twice as long and twice as high as the previous building block. The 4×2 Stone wall requires 6 units of stone. Great for that defensive perimeter or for building a large stone castle.

building a stone wall in valheim
4×2 Stone Wall. The largest stone wall available

Stone Pillar

Pillars are usually used in order to keep other objects stable. The stone pillar is considerably worse in terms of strength than a Iron Pillar although they to look pretty cool. Great for that cave aesthetic and for keeping your stone house up. You will need 5 stone per pillar piece.

the stone pillar in-game in Valheim
The stone pillar

Stone Arch

The 5th stone piece available is the stone arch. With this you will be able to create some nice corner pieces. You will need 4 stone to place down a single stone arch.

a stone pillar in Valheim
A stone arch shown next to the player

Stone Floor 2×2

The next piece is the stone floor. Using this will create a nice smooth floor for your stone house. It is a stable floor piece which will probably need to be placed directly on the floor as they are very heavy. You will need 6 stone per piece.

A stone floor in Valheim for building stone houses and castles
2×2 Stone Floor piece

Stone Stairs

The last piece available to build is the stone stair. These function much better than the wooden ladder and stairs as they seem to have more and smaller steps to walk up. 8 pieces of stone are need to craft one of these making it the most resource intensive stone building piece in the game.


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