Once Human Building Guide | How to Set Up Your Base

Our Once Human Building Guide will tell you how building works, how to power your base, and how you can move your territory to anywhere in the world.

As a survival game, Once Human gives you the opportunity to set up a personal base of operations where you can safely cook food and store your precious gathered resources. The building system isn't entirely intuitive, though; in this guide, we'll tell you everything you need to know about building a base!

How to Unlock Once Human Building

You can unlock Once Human building by constructing a Territory Terminal. The Territory Terminal is made available to you once you've completed the Tutorial and landed in the world. The Territory Terminal defines the borders of your Territory; you can only build within your Territory.

How Building Works in Once Human

As with many other survival games, building in Once Human requires you to spend resources to make structural pieces such as foundations, walls, and doors. You'll need to unlock these building pieces by purchasing Memetics in the "Building" Memetics tree.

You can only build within your own Territory. The sole exception to this rule is the Camp; a Camp serves as a temporary crafting station and respawn point that can be set up nearly anywhere in the world. The Camp also allows you to cook basic food.

Your Territory is limited to an area of 8 tiles wide, 8 tiles deep, and 8 stories high. You can expand the size of your territory by purchasing certain Memetics.

All structures and crafting workstations have durability and they can be damaged by enemies or hostile players. Take care with where you decide to build your base as you risk suffering damage from enemy attacks if it's too near a dangerous area.

How to Power Your Base

You can power your base in Once Human by unlocking the "Solar Generator" Memetic in the Logistics tree. Unfortunately, you will also need resources found in Level 20+ areas such as Steel Ingot (made with Iron Ore), Refined Part, Fireproof Plastic, and other items.

Once you can build Solar Panels, you must then connect them to each other and to the devices that require power with wires. Wires can pass through walls and floors, and you can extend the range of wires by building Circuit Modules on the walls.

How to Move Your Base

You can move your base by entering building mode with "B" and pressing "Z." Your base can be placed anywhere else in the world as long as it's a valid building location and it isn't in a space already occupied by another player.

Moving your base has a 10-minute cooldown, so make sure you're happy with your new spot before you decide to move it!

How to Defend Your Base

Eventually, you'll gain the ability to build a "Stardust Resonant Filter." This device allows you to convert certain items into other resources, such as changing an Eclipse Cortex into Starchrom.

Unfortunately, the conversion process comes with a price: you'll have to fend off a base raid from a variety of monsters for a period of several minutes. These creatures will try to get to the Stardust Resonant Filter to destroy it, and they'll smash any building pieces or crafting station that are in the way.

In the early game, you can most easily defend your base by building several layers of wooden walls and ensuring that the Stardust Resonant Filter is in the center of your base. Stand on a high location and shoot enemies as they approach. Make sure you have cover since some enemies have ranged attacks.

You will eventually be able to unlock passive and active defenses such as traps and turrets as you earn more Ciphers and unlock more Memetics. Bear in mind that many of these defensive tools require Steel; don't expect to be able to build them right away!

How to Expand Your Territory

You can expand your Territory by purchasing the "Territory Expansion" Memetic in the Building tree. While you may be tempted to get more space, you should consider building a taller structure and using multiple floors; there are many better things that you can spend your Ciphers on before expanding your building space.

Thanks for checking out our Once Human Building Guide. Have a gander at our other guides below!