Building guide

This is the full guide to the base building system. For the faction side (ranks, raids, decay) see Factions & building.

Opening the build menu

Press F2 (rebind it in GTA Settings > Key Bindings > FiveM, the entry is called “Build menu”). There are three menus and you pick the one you like:

Menu	What it is
Wheel	Click a category, then a piece. Right click goes back, ESC closes
Bottom bar	A bar at the bottom of the screen. Left and right change the piece, up and down change the category, and the ghost swaps live
Catalogue	A full window with search and a 3D preview that spins the piece

Change it in the Settings tab (I, then SETTINGS, “Build menu”) or with /buildmenu wheel, /buildmenu bar or /buildmenu catalogue. /buildcatalogue opens the catalogue once. In the bar, Home (“Inspect selected building piece”) opens the catalogue on the piece you have selected. /buildbarscale 0.75 to 1.35 resizes the bar.

Categories are structure, openings, defense, storage, power, furniture, utility and claim. Every piece shows what it costs and what you are missing.

Placing and snapping

The ghost turns green when the spot is good and red with the reason when it is not.

Key	What
Left click	Place
Right click or Backspace	Cancel
Mouse wheel	Rotate
Left Alt (hold)	Fine steps, 1 degree and 1 cm
Shift	Toggle snapping (surface snap for furniture)
Page Up / Page Down	Raise and lower
Arrow keys or numpad	Nudge
R	Reset height and nudge

Foundations, walls, door frames, floors, roofs, stairs and walkways snap to each other. Doors, gates and windows snap into their slot. By default structure pieces need support: walls, floors, roofs, stairs and doors must sit on a foundation, floor or wall. With instant build on (the default) the materials are paid when you place and a short hammer swing finishes the piece. If the server turned it off you place a frame, put the materials in and hammer it together.

Tiers

Many pieces come in wood, scrap metal and concrete. You place the first tier and then Upgrade the piece in place: look at it, choose Upgrade, read the cost, choose Upgrade again and swing the hammer. Walls and barricades reach concrete, most other pieces stop at metal.

Power

• Generators come in small (4 power), medium (8) and large (16, with lamps on top). Open the generator panel to start and stop it, and to refuel it from a jerrycan. The jerrycan slot tops the tank up by itself when it runs low. Car batteries in the battery slots keep things running for a while after the engine stops.
• Lights need power: lamp (1), work light (1) and tall work light (2). Switch them on and off from the interact menu.
• A running generator powers lights and small devices around it. To go further, build power poles and junction boxes and use “Connect wire” on one, then look at a generator, another pole or a box and left click. Right click cancels. A wire can be 40 m at most, uses one wire item per 10 m, and each pole takes 4 wires. “Cut wires” gives some back.
• Running generators hum, louder the closer you are.

Locks

Doors, gates and storage start with a faction lock: you and your faction can open them. The owner can switch to a code lock (4 digits, anyone who enters the code once is remembered, and changing the code forgets everyone) or remove the lock. Entering an empty code and confirming removes it. Code locks can be cut off with an angle grinder during raids.

Storage and vending crates

Small crates, military crates and shelves hold items and respect the lock. A vending crate sells for you while you are offline: use “Stock crate” to put items in, then “Browse crate” to set a price per item (0 means not for sale). Only stackable items can be sold. Other players buy from the same panel, the money collects in the crate and you take it with the Collect button. You can have 3 vending crates, and the server may add a sales tax.

Flags, rules and refunds

• Flags claim ground. Outpost flags can be raided, safezone flags never can. A faction Leader removes a flag by interacting with it and choosing “Remove flag (base decays)” or “Remove flag and base”. Some of the materials go into a salvage crate.
• You cannot build in safezones or outposts (with padding), in blocked areas, or on another faction’s ground. Some servers only allow building in marked areas.
• Beds, tents, mattresses and sleeping bags are respawn points, with a cooldown between respawns.
• Demolishing a piece refunds everything in the first 10 minutes and half after that.
• The default limit is 150 pieces per player.