Be aware of sites that have plagiarised my guide, and show before Steam on Google results. These are duplicates that have been ripped from Steam without my permission, and may have been altered with harmful links.

I have not and will never give permission to other parties to publish my reviews or guides.

I will be covering all the tiers of building, insofar as to spoil all stages of progression.
Please be advised if you're wishing to play V Rising blind your first time.

If you're brand new to the game, welcome aboard, V Hunter!

• Pressing B will open your Build menu, and that buildings will be stored under different tabs within that menu (ie. Sawmill is under Refinement).
  
  
• Stairs! To build new floors, you need only to build a Stair (either 1x2 or an L-shape), then climb to the top and build a new floor tile. If you're trying to build over the roof of the floor below, use the Invisible Foundations (red tiles) if your floors are acting strangely.
  
  
• Can't make stairs like you used to? Unfortunately while Gloomrot brings extra floors, it changed building to be territory-only, meaning if a natural ramp doesn't have the signifying blue squares, you can't build a ramp to replace it.
  
  
• Want to save the trees? Simply don't build on top of the tile they occupy.
  
  
• Make sure your Castle Heart is always fed with plenty of Blood Essence by interacting with it (F) to check its UI! Castles will automatically repair damage taken if they have Essence.
  
  
• Castle Hearts can now be placed anywhere as of the June 9th 2022 patch, but cannot be anywhere but the Ground Floor! Feel free to place your Heart in any room of your choosing, be it its own area, behind the Throne, or even wobbling menacingly in your Prison.

When joining an Official (or unofficial) server, your strategy will have to change when it comes to your castle. Especially true in PvP, you'll have to largely forgo aesthetic for structure and security.

I won't be deep-diving into details, but here's some barebones basics of building in public worlds.

Priorities:

• Identify an Area
  
• Place down your Heart
  
• Make a starter wooden box
  
• Create Airlocks for Entry/Exit
  
• PvP: doing this within your Combat Protection buff period (if the server has this option applied)

"Area?"
Gloomrot significantly changed the Boundary system; in order to address griefing by blockading (building on roads to block player progress) you can no longer build anywhere you please, only on pre-determined territory areas, denoted by a white fill-in effect when hovering over them on the map. When you place your Castle Heart, the buildable area will highlight in blue (like the old boundary tiles would).

"What's an Airlock?"
A common protective measure against other players simply running inside your base when you open your door to leave. You open one door, step inside to the airlock and close it, before opening the proper Entry/Exit door to move out.

Here's a two-door airlock example, though three-door airlocks are more common on PvP worlds (I'd certainly put more than that one airlock around your Heart).

As you explore, you'll find that certain empty areas are noted with white outlines when hovering over them on the map (default hotkey: M).

These are valid Castle areas that you can build in, and the outline notes how large that territory.



Choosing where to start your journey isn't a permanent one either, as 1.0 brought in the Castle Relocation Heart (as a reward to building the Research Desk); a special "false" Heart with the purpose of relocating your existing supplies to a new area.

It's a fairly self-explanatory process where you place down the Relocation Heart in a new area, interact with it to link it with an existing Castle (the one you want to relocate), then follow the prompts laid out (and read through the Build menu) to start transferring your goods over, which is especially nice considering storage containers will keep their names and items intact.

Anything unused during the Relocation process will simply get stuffed into the temporary Travel Bags that are required to be placed.

The Sawmill is the very first Refinement building you'll make, and it's essential to progress with further buildings, as planks are used from everything to building walls and doors, larger stashes for your loot (storage chests), various equipment, and furniture.

You'll be returning to this room very often throughout the game along with the Forge, so it should be somewhere you can always easily access.


The In Confined Castle Room criteria (closed room + roof + door/archway) gives a 25% buff to the crafting and refinement rate of all applicable stations.
Workshop Flooring is learned after defeating Greyson the Armourer, and reduces the cost of refinement of applicable stations by 25%!

Smallest Floor Plan: 2x2
Roomy Floor Plan: 2x3

The Grinder is now used to turn Gems into Gem Dust (but can be found naturally from gem-laden rocks), which you'll need pretty soon!

* In all honesty you can remove the Woodworking Bench from your Workshop to save space. While it does take some time to craft, it's cosmetic only and not as critical as processing materials that feed into your upgrades.

Right after the Sawmill, the Grinder and Furnace are your two key starting points to both building your castle and (more critically) upgrading your equipment.

You'll be coming back into your Forge pretty frequently throughout your adventure to restock your furnaces with metal to smelt - especially later as it takes much more time - so try not to build your metalworking off in a lonely corner of your castle grounds.


The In Confined Castle Room criteria (closed room + roof + door/archway) gives a 25% buff to the crafting and refinement rate of all applicable stations.
Forge Flooring is learned through the first Tier of Research (T1), and reduces the cost of refinement of applicable stations by 25%!

Smallest Floor Plan: 2x4
Roomy Floor Plan: 3x4
*Possibly the most frustrating thing about the Forge is the Smithy's size. It's juuust a hair too big to be placed in a 1x1 room, which is exactly why your floor plans should always be at least 2 tiles wide.

**Again, frustratingly, is the Ancestral Forge. While this CAN fit into a snug 1x1 corner, the caveat comes in that it cannot be enclosed in a 1x1 space, meaning no more than two corner walls can touch it. Stairs, however, don't count as true walls.

***The Anvil is a deceptively large workstation. While 2x2, it's oriented in a curve, leaving a lot of space to work with, as shown above with the bottom furnace giving it a hug. You can use this design as a pathway around it, or as a cornerstone of your Forge with some storage beside it.

With Keely the Frostbringer slain, you'll have unlocked the Tannery and the ability to turn all that Animal Hide you've been hoarding into bonafide Leather; the key ingredient to your next armour upgrade.

Like the Forge, you'll be jumping in and out of here fairly regularly as you're progressing, so making this room an adjacent one isn't a bad idea at all.

You won't get access to the Tailoring Bench until the final boss of Farbane Woods, but we may as well prepare for it!


The In Confined Castle Room criteria (closed room + roof + door/archway) gives a 25% buff to the crafting and refinement rate of all applicable stations.
Tailor's Flooring is learned through T2 Research, and reduces the cost of refinement of applicable stations by 25%!

Smallest Floor Plan: 2x2
Roomy Floor Plan: 2x3
*The Tailoring Bench is an odd one to build around; while technically a 2x2 station, it fits an L shape, meaning only one half is actually 2 tiles wide.
My example shows this in how the bottom half goes up to the southern door's pillar (and blocks potential walls), but a Tannery (or wall) fits snugly against the top half.

Bagspace feeling a bit tight? Frustrated with managing your resources? You don't have to be stuck with that dingy little stash chest forever!

1.0 brought in some incredibly handy new options that allow for quick and easy organisation: the "specialty" chests (ie. Material/Gem), which automatically take their respective type of item when using the Quick Stack function (E by default, configurable).

I personally recommend making heavy use of the Quick Stack function for a "Quick Loot Dump" space by the entrance to your castle.


* If you're unsure of what "type" an item belongs to, hover over it to display its tooltip. Its type will be displayed just under its name, ie. Grave Dust - Alchemy.

What becomes the largest room in many castles is the Library; starting from the humble and deceptively tiny Research Desk, growing into extremely spacious T2 and T3 stations, combined with the ol' reliable Paper Press.

You won't be returning here all too often, and almost not at all once you've unlocked all research, so feel free to pretty up this space with extra features and furniture. You could connect this to your Alchemy Lab and Garden as a walkthrough area!


The In Confined Castle Room criteria (closed room + roof + door/archway) gives a 25% buff to the crafting and refinement rate of the Paper Press.
Library Flooring is learned through T2 Research, and reduces the cost of refinement of the Paper Press by 25%!

Smallest Floor Plan: 3x3
Roomy Floor Plan: 3x4

Early into your Quest Progesssion comes a strong advantage before you have access to horses and later powers; the ability to teleport to and from your doorstep with a Castle Waygate. These can be used as beautiful centrepieces for a garden, or placed in a nice shady spot by your castle walls.

With Gloomrot, not only can you now have Waygates indoors, but with extra floors you can build right over outdoor Waygates to protect yourself from the sun.




By the time you've felled Goreswine the Ravager and unlocked Tombs and Fences, you may have collected a few flower seeds along the way. Maybe you already have the Alchemy Lab and want to start an ingredient plot?

Try building a Garden close to your upcoming Lab! You could also section off little gardens around your grounds for individual flower ingredient types, especially for Cotton plants as they're only used in the Tannery and Tailor.

Important info for Gloomrot: tree seeds now need the larger stone garden circles to be planted, unlocked by slaying Polora the Feywalker. The Grass Floors she also unlocks can be built on upper levels of your castle, so you can have gardens on ALL levels of your castle!

And in respect to keeping naturally-spawning trees and shrubs, simply don't build a floor tile over the space they occupy. You can build above them without removing them, making for gorgeous balcony views.


There is no flooring type available for the outdoors, or anything that boosts the timer for Tombs or flower/tree growth.

Smallest Floor Plan: 2x2 (for a Tomb and Flowerbed)
Cozy Floor Plan: Whatever you desire!

After you slay Clive the Firestarter, you'll unlock the Alchemy Table, access to crafting potions, and craftable small explosives; used for blowing open doors in PvP enabled worlds, but can be used to blow up large deposits of metal to free up space for your castle (also done with Bear Form).

The Lab is a criminally underused room by many players!
Through the different tiers of research, you'll gain access to powerful healing, buffing, and resistance potions that will make your un-life significantly easier the further you get into the game, so you'll be returning here often.


The In Confined Castle Room criteria (closed room + roof + door/archway) gives a 25% buff to the crafting and refinement rate of all applicable stations.
Alchemy Flooring is learned with T1 Research, and reduces the cost of refinement of applicable stations by 25%!

Smallest Floor Plan: 2x3
Roomy Floor Plan: ?x?
*Vermin Nests are a player-preference type of building; their dominant use is to have a steady supply of Rats for feeding your prisoners and as an early brews ingredient, but they spawn as actual entities you need to pick up, and will only create a few at a time before pausing for you to pick them up.
They also fall into the "frustratingly just too big" category of looking like they'll fit in a 1x1 space, but taking up 2x2. Expand your room as you deem necessary.

Although, I highly suggest having (at least access to) a large room for the third option on the Nest's list..

When you've bested Vincent the Frostbringer, you'll unlock a most vital room for powering up.

Prison Cells allow you charm a weakened human (as you would with bringing in a new servant) and instead put them inside a cell to turn them into blood on tap.
Prisoners don't need to be fed or watered normally, only given food (Rats/Goby) when they need healing.

The more blood you drain, the more Misery they'll be caused, which will cause them to take more damage each time you take more blood, and can potentially kill them.
Misery can be decreased with Rainbow Trouts and Sage Fish.

Alternatively, if they're not 100% Quality, you could always drain a high-percentage prisoner for what they're worth, Charm them out of their cell, and turn them into a new Servant.
You certainly don't need 100% of any blood type to beat the game, it just makes it easier.

It's the best way of securing yourself some high-quality blood types for storage, and to always have good quality blood when you need it. Try and collect 'em all?


Prison Cells don't have the In Confined Castle Room buff.
Prison Flooring is automatically learned, and reduces the damage taken from Blood Extraction by -25%.

Smallest Floor Plan: 2x2
Roomy Floor Plan: However many prisoners you wish to keep!
Werewolf villagers will no longer walk out of their cells at night now!

After getting Iron, defeating Vincent the Frostbringer, and taking a Blood Potion off your first prisoner, the quest Throne of Command will become active. Farm up 4 Greater Blood Essences, and 4 Reinforced Planks; it's time to get to work making your minions work for you!

You'll have to give them adequate gear to send them out on missions, but the rewards can mean the difference when having to farm for one annoying material (or several, Mosswick Village is great if you're trying to get Fish and Fish Oil).

You don't have to put your Castle Heart here, but your Throne can actually clip a bit inside it, making for a beautiful centrepiece.


The Throne unfortunately gains no speed bonus of any kind from any flooring, so decorate to your heart's content! Build a dark cathedral and line it with pews, build yourself a luxurious hovel at the peak of a mountain, it's your throne!

! The Throne takes up extra vertical space, for some ungodly reason. While fitting perfectly into a 1x1 walled square, if you have a floor above it, there must be a 1x2 space minimum hole in that floor. The easiest workaround right now is to simply section off a Throne Room that does NOT have an upper floor above it.

Smallest Floor Plan: 1x1
Roomy Floor Plan: 3x3+

After learning Dominating Presence, you'll gain access to Servant Coffins!

A whole Greater Blood Essence seems a steep price for earlygame, but it's most certainly worth it once you've progressed to getting the Throne Room. So, before you have the Throne or Prison Cells unlocked, keep an eye out and catch those stray 80-100% to turn into your minions! Gloomrot: anything with 90%+ quality Blood now has a red mist hanging around them to make then easier to find and track in a crowd!

Blood Quality determines how much of a bonus a Servant will get depending on their type, but it's still a random chance through a certain percentage, so every Servant will pop out a little weaker or stronger than the other.

They'll patrol your grounds, but won't come with you out for a fight on the road.


Servant Coffins don't have the In Confined Castle Room buff.
Crypt Flooring is learned through your Quest Progression (Throne of Command) through T2 Research and provides an extra 50% speed bonus to the Servant Conversion Rate of any Servant Coffins inside.

Smallest Floor Plan: 2x3
Roomy Floor Plan: ?x? - 1 tile every 2 Servants minimum

A gameplay tip from me to you starts before you even boot the game, or later if your Googlefu's up to snuff (ServerSettings JSON File).
If you're playing solo, please make sure the Servant Conversion Rate and Servant Hunt Loot settings are at max. The base conversion rate is a whopping 1 & 1/2 hours, and Hunts don't progress if you're not connected to your world.

Earned much later into the game, these two tables are solely designed for you to more easily acquire the gems needed for certain weapons and accessories, and craft the latter.
They're also the only buildings for this room type currently available in the game.

It's a very rarely used room given how infrequently you'll need to upgrade this one particular slot on your vampire, so feel free to spruce it up however you like as you tuck it off into a forgotten corner of your grounds.


The In Confined Castle Room criteria (closed room + roof + door/archway) gives a 25% buff to the crafting and refinement rate of all applicable stations.
'Regulus' Pattern is learned with T3 Research, and reduces the cost of refinement of applicable stations by 25%!

Smallest Floor Plan: 2x2
Roomy Floor Plan: 2x3
You DO NOT get Gem Dust from the Gem Cutting Table! You get Gem Dust by feeding gems you don't want to a Grinder as of Gloomrot. The Devourer

So, you've finally beaten one of the last three bosses. Congrats!

I'll save you the headache and tell you they work the same way plants do, where you have to "build" them from your inventory hotbar.

When picked up, they also prevent you from using any Vampire Powers (no Forms for you!), mounting a horse, and using Cave Passages. However, if you're on a world where the Teleport Bound Items option has been turned off, you can freely Waygate your way home.

If this is the case, I recommend for your sanity to build a Waygate close to each Soul Shard Bearer before beginning the death march.

And they're just as annoying as all the "just too big" stations as have come before in your adventure! Despite looking like they'd rather snugly tuck into a 1x1 room, they're just large enough that you need a bit more space.


Did I mention you can have all of your Soul Shard buffs active at the same time? c:

Smallest Floor Plan: 2x4
Roomy Floor Plan: 3x4-3x5

Unfortunately I don't have any DLC, so no DLC items will be included. They're all purely cosmetic anyways.

Certain objects you can build are extremely useful, but don't benefit from (or necessarily belong to) any particular room type.
These are essentially your building wild cards and can be placed anywhere you see fit!

Thanks for taking the time to read over my guide!

Please drop any questions or things I might've missed in the comments!