Gather, build, and claim your ground

This is a big one — DEADCLAIM gets two whole new pillars at once. Harvest raw materials out in the world, then turn them into a base you actually build, piece by piece.

Gather the frontier

Equip a Felling Axe and swing at a tree for Wood, or a Pickaxe and swing at a rock for Stone — bind a tool to a hotbar slot and the key pulls it out and swings. A swing locks you in place mid-chop, so plant your feet and pick your spot.

Chop a tree down and it falls and leaves a stump; break a rock apart and it clears out. Worked-out spots regrow after a few minutes, so keep moving between them. Two new skills, Chopping and Mining, level as you work — push them to earn the Lumberjack and Miner titles. Axe hits throw wood chips with a solid thunk; pickaxe hits kick sparks off the stone.

Build a real base

Carry a Building Hammer and use it — or press B — to enter build mode. Modular pieces snap together gap-free on a shared grid: foundations on the ground, walls on foundation edges, floors and roofs locking onto wall tops, plus doorways, windows, stairs, and pillars. Aim at a placed piece to upgrade its tier or demolish it; demolish inside the grace window and you get the full cost back.

Tiers are paid for with what you gathered, and the cost climbs as you go: Wood, then Stone, then Metal, with higher tiers far tougher to breach. (Metal ingots come from loot and smelting, not the pickaxe — mining gives stone.)

Drop a Tool Cupboard to claim the area. It sets your build privilege so strangers can't raise pieces on your ground or tear yours down.

Decorations now live with the Furniture Merchant — seating, storage, kitchen, lighting, and decor. Structural pieces like walls, floors, and roofs are built with gathered materials instead of bought.

Read up in the field guide

Two new entries — "Gathering: Wood & Stone" and "Building: Structures" — are in the in-game field guide. Press O or open it from the Tab menu; it's searchable and cross-linked to everything else.

Fixes

Fixed a fog-rendering bug that could spam errors and break fog color grading.

Both systems are fresh out of the gate, so kick the tires and tell us what breaks.