How to use the Sawmill in V Rising
Here's how to turn Lumber into Planks with the Sawmill
Confused about how to use the Sawmill in V Rising? V Rising takes a rather different approach to crafting items and refining resources than most survival and crafting games you'll have come across. Much of the labour of crafting new items is done not by you, but by specialised resource-refining buildings which automatically break down the items you give them, and turn them into new items.
The first of these buildings you're likely to come across is the Sawmill, which can be used to turn ordinary Lumber into refined wooden Planks. If you're confused about exactly how to do this in V Rising, which is now out of early access after the release of version 1.0, then you've come to the right place.
Below we'll explain exactly how to use the Sawmill in V Rising, giving you the knowledge you need to use all other similar buildings in the process. We'll also cover how to upgrade the Sawmill and similar buildings to make them even faster and more efficient in Stunlock Studios' survival RPG.
How to use the Sawmill in V Rising
To use a Sawmill, you'll first need to make sure it is powered by your Castle Heart. To do this, add Blood Essence to the Castle Heart by interacting with it. This will power the Sawmill and all other automated buildings you've placed down in your castle. Without Blood Essence, you can't use these buildings, and your Castle Heart will decay.
If the Sawmill is powered, then all you have to do is interact with it, and then place some lumber into one of the "Input" grid tiles for it to start automatically turning the lumber into refined wooden planks.
When you interact with a Sawmill or any other resource-refining building, you'll see a list of recipes at the top of the window, and then the "Input" and "Output" grids at the bottom. Each recipe is made up of two halves: the section to the left of the arrow shows what you need to put into the "Input" grid below; and the section to the right of the arrow shows you what you'll get from the recipe once the building has finished working.
In the Sawmill's case, you can see the first recipe indicates that you need to place at least 20 Lumber into the "Input" grid. For every 20 Lumber you add, the Sawmill will automatically break it all down and give you 1 Plank and 1 Sawdust at the end, which you can collect from the "Output" grid.
All these resource-refining buildings take a bit of time to work through each recipe, so it's a good idea to leave the Sawmill (and other buildings) running while you go off and do other things. Then return to it and pick up everything in the "Output" grid together.
How to upgrade the Sawmill
Look at the very top of the Sawmill interaction window and you'll see three panels:
- Castle Heart Powered
- In Confined Castle Room
- Has Matching Floor
Resource-gathering and resource-refining buildings such as the Sawmill can be upgraded in V Rising by fulfilling certain criteria. The first panel simply indicates whether or not the Sawmill is powered by a Castle Heart. The second indicates that you can speed up the Sawmill's refinement rate by 25% by enclosing it in a confined room made from stone castle walls and floors. And the third tells you that by laying down flooring of the correct type for that type of building (in this case, Workshop flooring for the Sawmill), the cost of all the building's recipes will decrease by 25%, making the building much more efficient.
That's everything you need to know in order to get started using the Sawmill and similar buildings in V Rising. If you're still in the early stages of building your base, make sure you know how to make a roof in V Rising. When you're ready to venture out and test your mettle in combat, take a look at our guides on how to find bosses in V Rising and how to heal.