The Builder is a key worker in your Colony. The builder builds all the buildings, and upgrades to buildings that is key to creating a vibrant and productive Colony. As the Builder is such an important worker, he is often the first Worker you will want to get.
Items Required
Unlike most Workers, the builder doesn’t require any tools to perform his function, he does however need the building materials to build the buildings you want to construct. This main resources commonly used are: stone, cobblestone, wood, plank, glass, sand, and wool.
The builder will convert raw resources, such as wood, into sub resources that he needs such as wooden fences, doors etc. He can only convert items that could normally be done on a workbench, i.e. planks to doors. He CANNOT perform tasks that require a furnace, i.e convert cobblestone to smoothstone, you must do that for him.
As you upgrade your buildings the materials required will become more and more exotic, and will require some exploration to obtain!
Behaviour
The Builder will complete any build order given to him. To give a build order, open the chest in the building you want to construct, go to the [Information] tab and click “Build House”. This will place a sign on the chest, and the builder will attempt to construct it.
If he runs out of supplies, he will go back to his chest and say what he is missing and how much. (Example: Out of Planks 165) You need to provide him with the necessary supplies, and then he will go back to building. The builder may search nearby chests and if he finds the materials he needs in there he will often take what he needs.
Like all workers, the Builder will require a regular salary to stay operational. This salary is generated by the taxes from Villagers, and is administered through the Town Hall.
Scanning Floorplans
Builders can scan buildings to create a floorplan file of that building. The file is saved in your .minecraft/resources/floorplans folder, along with all of your other floorplans. You can change the name of your floorplan in that folder; just remember to keep the .floorplan extension, or your builder won’t be able to read it.
To scan a building, you must place a sign in front of it, in the center. The first line of the floorplan should say ‘scan’ and the second line will need 3 numbers separated by spaces. The first number is how far to the sides the builder should scan. The second number is the height of the building. The third number is the number of blocks behind the sign. Note: It counts the block the sign is on as the first block.
The floorplan files will be saved with the filename 0.floorplan, 1.floorplan and so on, be sure to re-name these to something more memorable! (but keep it short)
You can then tell your builder to build this floorplan again in the future by manually placing a sign with the text “build” on the first line and the filename (minus the .floorplan extension) on the second line.
Tips
Having all your builders spread out is a good idea, because of their working range (100 blocks by default) – two builders trying to work on the same building can cause problems!
When first constructing a building the general rule is the direction the build sign is placed is the direction the front of the building faces. (i.e. when you give a build order, the front door is to your back. All future upgrades of a building do not need to follow this rule, as the upgrade should check the orientation of the building first.
Upgrading the Builders own house enables the builder to build faster !