Construction – ICARUS

Learning how to construct a shelter is a crucial skill to possess if you plan on surviving more than a night or two on-planet. In this guide on construction, we’ll go over the basics of creating shelters and other structures in ICARUS.

This guide is an overview of the controls and basic concepts of ICARUS construction. If you’d like specific, step-by-step instructions on creating a shelter, we’ve got guides for that:


Rather than using a tool to create structures, construction in ICARUS is accomplished by right-clicking a building piece in your inventory and selecting Place.

Crafting construction pieces within Tier 1 Planetary Tech can be done anywhere — no crafting bench required. Higher-tier construction requires creating your building pieces at the appropriate crafting bench.

Construction Type
Crafting Table Required
Planetary Tech Tier
Notes
Thatch
None
1
Wood
None
1
Interior Wood
2
Carpentry Bench requires Crafting Bench
Stone
Masonry Bench
2
Masonry Bench requires Crafting Bench
Glass
Glassworking Bench
3
Glassworking Bench requires Machining Bench
Concrete
Machining Bench
3
Aluminium
Machining Bench
3

Instead of right-clicking a piece in your inventory and selecting “Place”, you can drag crafted construction pieces from your inventory into your hot bar and then use the number hotkeys to select the pieces. If you hit the number hotkey of a piece you don’t currently possess — and you are holding the required elements — you’ll automatically craft that piece.

Some construction peices can be rotated. If it is a piece with two sides, like a wall, a yellow arrow points the direction that the outer side is facing. To rotate a construction piece while placing it, press [R].

Many construction pieces have variants. Some key variants include doorways for walls, and the left/right variants of Roof Corners. To access variants, hold [R] while placing a construction piece, then select the variant you want and

It’s very easy to fix mistakes or reuse construction pieces in ICARUS. Pressing [Y] while looking at any placed construction piece will deconstruct it, placing it in your inventory. Rather than simply refunding your materials, the entire piece is returned, removing the need to recraft things you deconstruct.


We hope this guide on construction in ICARUS was helpful! If you have any questions or suggestions, just use the comments below to let us know.

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DanielD
DanielD

Unabashed FromSoftware fanboy still learning to take his time with games (and everything else, really). The time he doesn't spend on games is spent on music, books, or occasionally going outside.

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Alex
Alex
3 months ago

How come no one ever anywhere explain what the building symbols mean? When holding something against a wall or floor for example you can see either arrows pointing all directions or a sort of square symbol. Take a wooden beam and hold it without placing it against the floor and you’ll see some square symbol showing up in green or blue color. Against a wall you see many arrows pointing outwards.

Anyone know what these mean? I cant be the only one wondering. No one ever mentions these and they are not 100% clear to me.

Also, how come structural integrity doesnt go up when you for example place wooden beams all around a wall, floor, ceiling? You would think it would go from green to blue when reinforcing with several wooden beams, but nothing seems to happen.

Thanks.