Build Gun

The Build Gun is a tool pioneers can use to place, dismantle and customize buildings and vehicles. It projects a hologram showing where the buildable structure will be placed, and highlighting key features such as Conveyor and Pipeline inputs, outputs and power connectors. Valid placements appear blue, hard clearance appears red and soft clearance yellow, the colors for all placement validities can be freely customized in settings.

It is also the same tool that does resource scanning. The pioneer will equip the tool before exiting the drop-pod. The tool is not craft-able and will still be equipped even after the pioneer respawns or dies.

The construction and dismantle range is 100 meters (12.5 foundation lengths). Buildings can be rotated with by default, in increments of 10°, or 45°/90° when placed on Foundations. The Build Gun cannot be used while swimming, but buildings can be placed submerged or completely underwater freely.

Construction mode
Construction mode allows buildings to be constructed using materials in the inventory. There are four possible ways of entering construction mode:
 * Selecting a building from the build menu
 * Selecting a building bound to a hotbar (–)
 * Copying a building using the building eyedropper ( click) while already in construction or dismantle mode
 * Searching for and selecting a building in Quick Search

It is unlocked after the pioneer has hand-mined Iron Ore for the first time, or if Onboarding was skipped, is always available.

Select structures require multiple clicks to be built, such as Conveyor Poles, Ladders or Flood Light Towers. The first click confirms the location, allowing the structure to be raised (extended), rotated and/or angled.

Quick Switch allows similar buildings (such as Foundation sizes or Conveyor marks) to be cycled through by holding or pressing.

Build modes, available for for most structural buildables such as Foundations, Walls, Conveyors, Pipelines and Hyper Tubes can be switched by holding or pressing.

Conveyor Belts, Lifts, Pipelines, Power Poles and Miners can be upgraded or downgraded in place by selecting the new variant and aiming on the existing building. Walls have the same functionality, but has to be held.

Build menu
The build menu is opened with the key by default. All the buildings the pioneer has unlocked are listed here, sorted into tabs. Left-clicking a building selects it for construction, right-clicking shows additional options, such as viewing them in the Codex or adding them to the To Do List.

Hotbar shortcuts
Buildings can be bound to hotbars by hovering over them in the build menu and pressing the respective – key. Each building can only be bound to each hotbar once, but the same building can be bound to multiple hotbars. Once a building has been bound to a hotbar, it can be overwritten anytime, but a hotbar can never be cleared once anything has been bound to it. Inventory equipment cannot be bound to hotbars.

Buildings already bound to hotbars at the bottom of the screen can be then selected with the respective key. There are ten total hotbars, which can be cycled through by + scrolling.

The default binds on the first hotbar are, , and , while the other nine hotbars are empty.

Building eyedropper
While already in construction or dismantle mode, aiming at any structure and pressing will copy the building. Note that any configuration data, such as selected recipe or clock speed, is not copied.

The fastest way to use this method is to simply enter into dismantle mode, this also previews which building is about to be copied.

Quick search
Quick search, accessed by, allows any buildings to be searched up quicker than from the build menu. It additionally functions as a simple calculator, see controls for details.

Dismantle mode
Dismantle mode allows player-built structures to be deconstructed without the loss of any resources used to construct them. It can be accessed by.

Aiming at any building shows the items about to be refunded, which is useful for telling what is stored within Storage Containers. Holding down for one second will dismantle the selected building. Dismantling structures with anything stored within them refunds the contents as well. If there is not enough room in the inventory, a crate with the resources will spawn instead.

It is unlocked soon after the pioneer steps out of the Drop-pod, as dismantling the Drop-pod is required to obtain HUB Parts, or if Onboarding was skipped, is always available.

Mass dismantle

 * By holding down, up to 50 structures can be selected at once.
 * By letting go of and pressing it again, aiming at selected buildings deselects them instead
 * can be held to only select buildings of the same type as the initial selected building, or if pressed before any building was selected, only the most common building types

Invalid dismantle targets

 * Deployed placeable equipment, such as Portable Miner, Statues, Beacons, but not the Factory Cart
 * Integrated sub-buildings, such as HUB Biomass Burners, the HUB Terminal, Train Station and Freight Platform Integrated Platform Track or Railroad Switch Control
 * Crates
 * Crash Sites and surrounding wreckage
 * Moving Trains
 * Dropped items
 * All non-buildings

Customizer
The Customizer allows to edit and apply color swatches, which affect the visual appearance of buildings and vehicles, apply materials to Foundations, Walls and Roofs and apply Patterns to Foundations. It is accessed by and unlocked in Tier 2 - Resource Sink Bonus Program.

Trivia

 * When exiting the drop pod at the start of the game, the pioneer fastens a partly loose sticker on the Build Gun/Resource Scanner. The sticker is a picture of Box Boy from Coffee Stain Studios' very first game, I Love Strawberries, released in 2010.
 * The Build Gun has numerous lines of text printed on its casing.
 * SN: 0987654321
 * RU1F-M40
 * 41PH4-BUILD 1.0
 * 54L-T
 * Snutt made the mass dismantle feature.