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:

How Construction Works in ICARUS

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 Crafting Benches

Construction Type	Crafting Table Required	Planetary Tech Tier	Notes
Thatch	None	1	–
Wood	None	1	–
Interior Wood	Carpentry Bench	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	–

Placing Construction Pieces

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.

Rotation

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].

Variants

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

Deconstruction – How to Remove Walls and Other Construction Pieces

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.