Building is the primary activity in Dragon Quest Builders. You spend the majority of the game either gathering materials or building with the materials you gather. There are two types of building. The first type requires raw materials and a crafting station. The second type, placing blocks to create rooms, is covered later in this chapter under the section Building Your Base.
Gathering Raw Materialsand Blocks
The enemies you defeat in battle sometimes drop raw material. Most enemies have two possible items they drop, so you may need to hunt down a few of a certain enemy before you get the desired item. Fishing is the final source of raw materials.
To gather blocks, attack them to knock them loose from surrounding blocks. Trees and veins turn into harvestable items when destroyed. Plants are the same, but can also be pulled up intact with a shovel. Not all items are created equal. More powerful weapons are required to break down increasingly stronger material. In the case of blocks, some weapons will destroy a block, but more powerful weapons are required to keep the same block intact.
The following table lists weapons by strength. If you encounter something that you can’t break with your current weapon, switch to a weapon from a higher strength level. Strength level applies only to blocks, not how much damage a weapon inflicts on enemies.
| Strength | Weapons |
|---|---|
| 1 | Fists, cypress stick, oaken club |
| 2 | Stone sword, copper sword, falcon blade, giant mallet, stone axe |
| 3 | Iron broadsword, iron axe, sledgehammer |
| 4 | Steel broadsword, aurora blade, fire blade, war hammer, battleaxe |
| 5 | Sword of Kings, sword of ruin, Erdrick’s sword, Hela’s hammer |
| 6 | Hammer of the Builder |
Building Items
Items cover everything you can build at a crafting station, including building blocks, food, equipment, and much more. Item building requires materials, a crafting station, and a recipe.
Materials
This category includes both raw materials that you gather and the materials (an item classification) you create from raw materials. Crafting a key illustrates how the process works. A key has two components: one is a raw material (rusty nuggets) that is dropped by enemies; the second is a material (liquid silver) that is created by combining two other raw materials (silver and slippery goo).
Crafting Stations
Crafting stations are special objects that allow you to create certain items, including other crafting stations. Interact with a crafting station (or select Recipes from the Main menu) to see what it allows to be built. You start every chapter in Story Mode with at least one crafting station already in place.
Recipes
Before you can make an item, you need to know what is required to make it. Some recipes are known when you start a chapter in Story Mode. Others are learned when you accept a quest. You pick up additional recipes when you gather materials or build items. Whenever possible, build what appears as NEW to see if it inspires learning additional recipes.
An “Additional Recipe” list appears at the start of each chapter of Story Mode. Use it as a checklist to ensure you learn everything possible during each chapter.
Equipment
Equipment is a special class of item that covers everything you wear or wield. Equipment is what protects you from enemy attacks and abilities, and what you use to attack. Another trait that sets equipment apart from other items is that equipment items degrade with use.
Weapons, armour, and shields degrade as they either inflict or absorb damage. Equipment has a health meter that appears when viewed in the Equipment tab. Watch for red icons under your HP bar. These icons indicate that your current equipment is about to break. There’s room in your inventory to carry spares. Never leave the base unprepared!