Quick answer
Title: How to Build the Perfect Dock Valheim 1.0 So, you've built a ship and started exploring the world beyond your starter island, but now you're convinced you need a dock. I feel like building a cool base right here with a bunch of like farms and stuff under it and a dock at the bottom. Valheim and castles are a perfect match. Of course you can prevent all these shenanigans by destroying your boat after docking.
In this instance, dock your ship, break it with an axe and carry the materials across the land for a quick portage. I built out a small dock and spawned in a large ship for ultimately building out and connecting the walkway to the other side of my castle. I knew you guys couldn't stay away after the fun we had in the last video committing arsonist war crimes, weaponizing deforestation, and summoning the might of Thor. Well, don't worry, because I've designed an organized boat dock that you can use that gives you everything you'll need to make your expeditions a little more convenient.
That is why today I am building castles for all seven Valheim biomes currently in the game. Typically building a ramp up onto the boat is your best bet for boarding the ship and for undocking, simply destroying the ship might be the path of least resistance. Well, we're going to keep it going with the mid-game biomes: swamp, mountains, and plains. And by the end of it, you'll have a boat dock just like this.
Building basics
We're talking fresh designs, new ideas, and months of building and planning, all compressed into one video for your enjoyment. Starting off with the swamp, we've got the Ignis Aeternus, which apparently means really hot fire that will burn your skin. It's around 24 meters from the front to the dock edge and then around 18 m from side to side. I'll take you through my process behind each project, but you got to promise you'll comment your favorite build down below.
Anyways, when you think of the swamp, what comes to mind? Then I can come all the way up until we have nice little extension onto our dock. As always, this build file will be made available for download on the Smitty Survival Patreon page. Dark, wet, miserable, filled with muddy piles everywhere you go?
Just gives you that little bit of depth taken off so that if you are struggling to get onto the dock, you have an option. And a huge thank you to those who continue to support the content. Yeah, it's basically nature's way of telling you that you shouldn't be here. I've seen a lot of method for people building docks, but I think that this way that I use is much easier than the other ones I've seen.
How to build it
Without further ado, grab a snack, grab a drink. So, naturally, who in their right mind would think to live in this ghastly biome? And then once you've connected them up, you're going to want three rows sort of behind these dock bits here. Vibrant, peaceful, and in my opinion, the heart of the Valheim build world.
Let alone use fire to solve their issues. And then this is going to be where the structure starts and the sort of dock itself ends. Taking on the task of building castles in every biome is something that is a bit intimidating at first. Luckily, he quickly discovered that the local Surtling fires make for some excellent natural defense systems.
So, one thing which isn't necessary to do, but I do think it makes it look a little bit nicer is to put a sort of curve around these edges at your dock. Nevertheless, it's important to work on different creative muscles, and my castle building skills definitely needed some work. And of course, the Surtling fire doesn't discriminate. And then finally once more do the same thing back at the sort of dock level.
Best layouts
For this meadows castle, I decided to keep it more humbly designed, utilizing a lot of rough stone and wood, limiting its footprints, but wanted to fit in with the more classic feel of the meadows. It'll even set trees on fire. Of course, we're going to need to do the exact same thing on the other side with the dock being symmetrical. One thing that I actually really like about this castle is how the various segments of the castle aren't all parallel or perpendicular to each other.
Who would think fire could do that? Then going to tie up the rest of the dock just using the darkwood beams. Makes things a little bit more tricky to get all the different segments to blend, but it does make the overall composition look a little more interesting, even if it's not that big. Ignis Aeternus has great effectiveness and is quite creative, but it does require you putting your face in the most muddy biome directly up against a blatant fire hazard.
And then just to sort of tie up the rest of the dock, I'm going to come these three rows in. before moving back to the front and making the decision to build a wall around my keep. Now, before moving on, you might want to pick up a personal space violator from your local lion turtle. And depending on how visible your dock is from this angle, you'll either use a darkwood pole 4 meters or 2 meters.
Common mistakes
Again, not a huge keep and nothing too flashy here, but wanted to make sure it felt lived in. This thing will come in handy for future defenses. Just place them basically all the way through the structure, but they're just going to act as a sort of smaller gate to get into the boat dock. So, I took some time to flush out a throne room, kitchen, and then some bedrooms.
For those not quite comfortable settling in the swamp, we have the blood bank. Finally, as some last touches, I took some time to work on the landscape around the castle and just added some fences here, a couple trees, and just made the whole scene really come together. This neat little water moat requires several generous donations of blood before you're allowed to pass. With that, my meadows castle was complete.
Simply fill your moat with a healthy population of leeches, and they'll take care of the rest. We'll call this castle Hearth Glenn Hold. And don't worry, they take all blood types as long as the donor has a pulse. A modest castle set in the rolling hills of the meadows.
Tips
Unfortunately, the leeches are rather fragile, so I recommend getting some starred versions from your local swamp. His cozy halls were a perfect spot for a humble lord to spend his days in peace. And even then, they may have difficulty with anything bigger than a great wolf. Meadows served as a good warm-up, but now the challenge is to create something with a bit of a different feel to it.
You can even recruit a local danger noodle to guard your moat, but I can't promise it will fare much better. Selecting the right location is always important, but terraforming is also an incredibly powerful tool that should never be ignored. Just beware that they will make your pool quite dirty. In this case, I wanted to highlight the hill even more by digging out a massive trench around it to stage the castle in a more dramatic way.
But hey, speaking of cleaning up messes, I want to introduce you guys to the janitor. Additionally, I had the idea that the only way to enter this castle was going to be over a bridge that spanned across the trench. Whenever your base is under attack, simply welcome your enemies in, slam the door behind them, then open your broom closet. singular choke point that would be easy to control and defend.