Building Tips
This is a "Did you know...?" style checklist with which you can verify your Space Engineers building knowledge, and hopefully also learn something new.
For Beginners
Before you start building, as a beginner, make sure you are aware of the following concepts:
- You start a new game by creating a Scenario or a Sandbox Game.
- You understand the difference between Creative Mode and Survival Mode.
- You prototype in Creative Mode but know that you need to test its power/gas usage in Survival Mode.
- You have memorised the basic Key Bindings.
- You understand how to use the Toolbar and how to find blocks in the G-Menu.
- When you have selected a block from the toolbar, you know you are in Block Placement Mode.
- You understand what a "Grid" is and know basic Building rules regarding power, ports, conveyor system, block size, and mobility.
- When going for looks and creativity, you consider building a hull and filling it with functional blocks. This approach is also common when building very large ships.
- When going for functionality and survivability, you consider building the functional blocks and wrapping them in a hull later. This approach is also common when building compact ships and remote-controlled drones.
- You keep backups of grids by creating blueprints and uploading them to the Workshops.
- In singleplayer, you check the warnings to avoid performance issues. In multiplayer you build within PCU limits.
Tip: You can find definitions of words in the Glossary.
For intermediate builders
An intermediate player has acquired skills[1] such as:
- In Survival Mode, you use cheap, unwelded blocks as quick scaffolding.
- On a planet, you build a static platform so you have a flat surface to work on.
- Or start building a temporary cuboid frame, lay out functional blocks and hull inside, and when the vehicle is finished, you grind off the frame.
- Or you drop an upright Landing Gear onto the ground as the first block of a mobile grid. Building off a landing gear provides stability, and it can be unlocked (or ground off) later in a controlled fashion.
- You plan ahead whether the grid's width should be an odd or even number of blocks. You know that the width influences whether you can place Cockpit blocks in the middle or not, and you understand that you cannot easily change the width later. On the other hand, you understand that asymmetric ships fly just as well.
- You know that asymmetric thruster placement is allowed, because the game prevents tailspinning.
- On planetary-only ships, you know that downward atmospheric thusters can be substituted by the pull of gravity.
- With skilled use of gyroscopes, you can gently rotate the Drop Pod that has thrust in only one direction and pilot it helicopter style.
- When a rover crashes on its back in gravity, you know to use pistons as jacks, or unwelded battery blocks as counterweight, or gyroscope overrides to roll it right-side-up again.
- To transfer items, connect inventory ports together and build a Conveyor system with Sorters and Connectors. If the conveyor system is the defining feature of a new ship/base, build it first and design the ship/base around it.
- You understand the Life Support requirements of your crew and build long-range ships and vehicles accordingly.
- You know you can colorize and texturize blocks for better looks or camouflage.
- When taking over an enemy ship,
- You find functional block in the ship and look at the construction tooltip.
- You hack the block by grinding it below the functional line (blue horizontal mark in tooltip) and then re-welding it, so ownership is transferred to yourself.
- You know to look for enemy-owned (listed in red font) functional blocks in the Control Panel.
While building together with others on Multiplayer servers:
- You don't build excessively big as to not exceed your PCU limit.
- You understand that per-block ownership and faction sharing settings determine whether your faction members, neutrals, or enemies can use a functional block that you added.
In Creative Mode:
- You enable Symmetry Mode to automatically place mirrored blocks along mirror planes.
- Before copying grids, you consider that where you aim the crosshairs determines the pivot point for grid rotation after pasting.[2]
- Before pasting grids, you know to hover the ghost preview over an existing block to make it snap and align.
Some vehicle building tips collected by Kelevra:
For experienced builders
- To help you build very complex grids, or to build the same grid quickly or repeatedly, you use blueprints in a Projector or a 3D Printer.
- You can place blocks while sitting in a cockpit by enabling Block Placement Mode.
- In singleplayer, you use Spectator Mode to build without movement restrictions.
- You can use a Safe Zone force field as building guide[3], for example, to measure a rectangle or radius or to build something spherical.
- You use the Spawn Menu in Creative Mode to get any items, or to even add whole new planets to a game save.
- You use a third Gyroscope on zero-rpm override as automatic stabiliser when flying, driving, or walking.
- You know that multigrids allow for cool mechanical structures. However for some blocks, the hit boxes of the first build states are slightly larger than of their final welded state, which can cause placement issues in survival mode that aren't present in creative mode.
- If the functionality or hitpoints of the block are not essential for your build, you can leave blocks in unwelded build states for different visual aesthetics. In Creative Mode, you grind down blocks to achieve the same effect.
Experienced players also know how to use the Admin Screen to quickly find drifting ships and teleport to them, to delete block debris, and to identify causes of performance issues.
Some more building tips collected by Kelevra:
Which blocks are available to me?
When you watch videos or look at screenshots, you sometimes notice that other players use blocks that are not listed in your Toolbar Configuration.
There are different reasons why this happens:
- Progression is enabled and you have to unlock the block first.
- The block is from a mod that you have not installed.
- The block is from a DLC that you have not bought.
If you cannot find out which block it is, ask on the community forums (Reddit, Steam, Discord, etc).
How to specialize your ships
Why not build one ship that does it all?
Technically, you could build a Swiss Army Knife style ship with everything, atmospheric and hydrogen and ion thrusters and jump drives. Why shouldn't you?
It's because blocks also have mass. In atmosphere, you'd be carrying the dead weight of unused ion thrusters; in space, you could jump only half as far due to the extra mass of unused thrusters. In contrast to station grids (whose mass does not matter), mobile grids get more sluggish with increasing mass.
How to optimise ship performance?
If you build separate ships for separate purposes you can save mass by only including the minimum needed functional blocks. Specialising a grid means that you ask yourself what each grid's priorities and purpose are, and then make it the best at doing that.
Ask yourself questions like:
- "Is this mothership a densely conveyored production facility or a roomy repair hangar?"
- "Is this small-grid ship an atmospheric shuttle or a space-only fighter?"
- "Is this large-grid ship a heavy cargo hauler or a fast-jumping interplanetary explorer?"
- "Is this wheeled vehicle a lightweight racecar, a survivalist ATV, or an armored crew transporter?"
- "Is this ship small and compact to fit though a hangar door, or is its purpose to carry other ships?"
And so on! One grid cannot be everything, certain things are mutually exclusive, make your choices.
| You need this capability? | ...Then add these blocks! |
|---|---|
| more hitpoints at the cost of agility | strategically placed heavy armor blocks |
| interplanetary speed at the cost of weakness | Jump Drive, light armor, low mass |
| more carrying capacity | Cargo Containers and Connectors |
| ore mining | conveyored Drills and Ore Detector and Connector/Ejector |
| docking without item/power transfer | Landing Gears |
| docking with item transfer and power recharging | connectors plus batteries |
| a hitch or joint in a long land vehicle | Hinges and Rotors |
| attack and defense | Block Weapons, decoys |
| self-repairing or 3D printing | Projector and Welder Blocks |
| salvaging and debris clean-up | Grinder Blocks and Collectors |
| a factory producing ingots and components | (Basic) Refinery and (Basic) Assembler |
| a save point or respawn point | a Survival Kit, Cryo Chamber, or Medical Room |
| mechanical arms, foldable doors and ramps, etc. | Rotors, pistons, hinges, sensors, … |
| an emergency failsafe on planets with atmosphere and high gravity | Parachute Hatches with canvases |
| surveillance, static weapon aiming, solar tracking, better view during docking, remote control view | cameras |
| rooms with Life Support | airlocks and Air Vents, plus enclose the interior and pressurise it |
| walkable floors in low gravity | Gravity Generator |
| visibility at night, in craters, in tunnels, among asteroids | spotlights |
| comfort, interior design | interior lights, beds, seats, lockers, doors, windows, furniture, ... |
| hangar labels, ship designation | LCD Panels and Symbols |
For example, it's smart to add hydrogen thrusters to an atmospheric or ion ship; shuttles are often hybrid so they can transition between space and atmosphere. But this means that the ship's specialisation is now "having boosters". Since you need to carry extra hydrogen tanks, you'll have less available capacity for additional specialisations.
See also: An intuitive approach to ship building.
What's the difference between Center of Mass and Grid Pivot?
The first block that you place becomes the Grid Pivot of the new grid. The pivot block is the one around which the grid rotates when you paste it in Creative Mode, or when you project it in Survival Mode.
The pivot is not the same as the Center of Mass. The center of mass is the point around which the ship rotates when pitching/yawing/rolling while flying.
To see the pivot point and CoM of grids highlighted, use the Info Screen.