Freehold buildings

After you build your house, you can build other buildings on your Freehold. Each building needs the blueprint to start the process. If you have a cosmetic skin you want to use on a building, this is used after placing the blueprint. Once this has been placed, the building will be shown in a non-functional, construction state. Players will need to provide the required materials needed to complete the building construction, for each building on their Freehold. No Freehold has room for every possible option, so players will need to choose how to develop their Freehold by choosing to build specific artisan buildings, business buildings, and creating room for livestock and crops.[3]
Freehold buildings that can be placed on a freehold plot serve three main purposes.[4][3][2][5][6][7]
Freehold buildings require blueprints and materials to construct.[4][3][9]
- Sheds are present on empty freehold plots to provide storage for materials needed to construct freehold buildings.[10]
- Some freehold buildings have multiple tiers, with different footprint sizes.[2][11]
- Upgrading a tier will not change the size of the building in terms of footprint, but may increase in height.[11]
- Basements in freehold buildings are to be decided.[12]
Freehold taxes are calculated based on the number of permits issued for buildings on a freehold.[4][3][13][14][15][16]
- Buildings that require permits will have additional upkeep costs.[3]
Freehold building architecture is based on the blueprint for the building.[2][17]
- Freehold skins are applied to blueprints matching the type of building: housing, artisanship, and business.[3][2][18][19][17][20]
- The freehold building blueprints must be obtained in-game first before the cosmetic can be applied.[17][20][19]
- Players are not locked to the racial appearance of a freehold building blueprint.[21]
- The way we look at it is the freehold is your space so we want you to be able to make it look the way you want it to.[17] – Jeffrey Bard
Homesteads

Your Freehold isn’t your home without a house, and a house is the first building you will be prompted to build on your Freehold. To build a house, you’ll need a Freehold house blueprint, and the required materials for constructing your home. Building blueprints can be acquired in various ways, and each blueprint has unique benefits for the types of services provided through the building. A Freehold can only have one single house building, but house buildings can be small, medium, or large for Freeholds. Bigger houses have more floors, and more room for things like furniture. It is also important to note that the blueprints save the progress made on upgrading a building to higher tiers. If a Freehold ever falls due to the successful siege of the Node in which the Freehold resides, all blueprints for housing, artisan buildings, or businesses are returned to the player, and blueprints save their progression and upgrades.[3]
Homesteads (homes) are a type of freehold building in Ashes of Creation.[3][2][5][6]
- The homestead is the first building that must be constructed on a freehold.[3][2][5]
- The homestead provides the ability to place furniture, including storage.[5]
- The amount of furniture that can be placed is dictated by the size of the homestead.[3][2][11]
- A small house, for example, might only be able to place 100 Furniture items, whereas a medium or large house would be able to place many more; and so that's a balancing factor for players in determining if they want to have a larger house, or have a smaller house and have more farmland, whereas they're sacrificing furniture then for that.[23] – Kory Rice
- A freehold may only have one homestead.[3]
- The vast majority of cosmetic freehold skins are used for the home.[5]
- Mansion sized homesteads may occupy up to 50% of a freehold plot.[11]
Homestead building skins
Cosmetic freehold building skins for homestead buildings.[3][24][2][18]
[ All homesteads ] [ Small homesteads ] [ Medium homesteads ] [ Large homesteads ]
Artisan buildings

If you want your Freehold to play a part in crafting and processing, artisan buildings will be something you’ll want to make room for on your Freehold. Since the highest levels of processing can only happen on Freeholds, having artisan buildings that benefit processing, and the stations associated with those artisan buildings, can make your Freehold an important component of the world’s economic chain. Constructing an artisan building will allow players to place the profession stations related to the profession of that building, and those stations can be placed anywhere on your Freehold where the surface allows. Profession stations do not need to be placed within the artisan building specifically. In addition, artisan buildings provide their bonuses to all stations on the Freehold.[3]
Artisan buildings are freehold or node buildings that give general benefits to the freehold or node and allow the placement of workstations for artisan professions.[25][26][27][2][8]
- Processing stations.[27][5][28]
- Freeholds are the only place that master and grandmaster processing is available.[27][2]
- Crafting stations.[27][5]
- Players can craft up to journeyman level on freeholds.[27][2]
- Freehold building blueprints are required for the construction of artisan buildings on freeholds.[2][8][29][30][31][32][33]
- Currently freeholds have a combined maximum total of six artisan and business buildings that can be placed in addition to a homestead.[34]
- A minimum of two artisan buildings will be required to max out a particular profession.[34]
- Maxing the freehold building tech trees for that profession will grant access to all four of its workstations.[34][35][27][2]
- Artisan and business buildings require permits and may incur upkeep costs.[3]
Processing workstations

Processing stations are of course a necessary component of taking gatherables into usable crafted goods essentially to fulfill what recipes require in order to make items.[5] – Steven Sharif
We're trying to marry the visuals with what's actually going on with the station. So, if you have a job queued and you're trying to do errands throughout the node, or in your freehold or whatever, [you] should be able to look at the station and know what's going on with it: So you know he's there working and once he's done he's going to stop and you can be like, okay there's stuff ready to pick up and have some visuals associated with that. So, as much as we can have stuff rooted in world instead of throwing a bunch of UI in the player's face, that's something that we're trying to do and is important to us.[37] – Kory Rice
Processing stations are workstations that are used to process raw materials into processed goods (crafting materials) at nodes or on freeholds.[3][38][5][28][31]
- Artisan buildings are required to be placed on freehold (and node) plots to unlock placement of processing stations.[3][2][8]
- Each processing profession has four processing stations that unlock as players progress through their artisan building tech trees.[34][27][2]
- Each processing profession will have four stations; and the stations will come online as you progress through the profession. Each one of those stations will make goods that are immediately useful to the economy, to crafters, to other processors; and each processing station will build on itself and into the other stations.[39] – Kory Rice
- Processing recipes allow selectable inputs with differing rarities in the same way as crafting recipes. This was implemented in Alpha-2 phase-2 based on player feedback.[40] This change was originally targeted for Alpha-2 phase-3.[41]
- Processing Stations will give players the flexibility to choose the size of the job they want to process, rather than being restricted to set batch sizes. Processing recipes will also allow mixing and matching different rarity gatherables, similar to Crafting.[40] – Cody Peterson
- Processing job sizes in Alpha-2 phase-2 are no longer restricted to preset batch sizes.[40]
- Master and grandmaster processing can only take place on freeholds.[2][42]
- Processing as it stands for Alpha-2's implementation is that there is a certain amount of prep work that's required first for the industry-specific component, which is the building. That prep work might be finding a certain amount of lumber to light the fire in kiln or whatever, to a certain temperature in order for you to process a certain grade of ore; and that grade of ore being malleable then into an ingot; and that produces that ingot so-to-speak. Now, in that process there's a gathering component, there's a preparatory phase, there is a time-related component.[30] – Steven Sharif
- Processing stations have queue slots that allow jobs to be queued at that station.[44] Processing jobs are processed sequentially for all players in freeholds. Processing jobs in nodes are processed sequentially per player, but concurrently with other player's jobs.[45]
- Q: Can you provide more details in regards to the design philosophy behind why it's a queue system for freeholds but not for nodes?
- A: On the freehold, processing can achieve the highest levels of processing. That's where the highest levels of processing occur. Nodes can only go up to a certain level of processing. Now we want to be able to throttle the amount of resources that can be processed at any given time in response to the fluctuation and flows of the economy. So, we want to make sure that the economy is a bigger ship when turning than being able to immediately start processing everything at once and get new resources out as the flow of supply and demand changes within the world. And because- again that's at the highest levels of processing; and you're sharing the available queues that exist at those stations. It's going to take time and it's going to take a long time for the higher level materials.[46] – Steven Sharif
- There will also be time-related and gameplay elements that require the player to interact with processing stations.[44] These elements act to throttle the introduction of processed materials from raw gatherables into the economy.[30]
- There's also possibilities that the machine you're using itself has some type of gameplay layer- should the kiln get overheated, and you have to throw some water on it or something. There are elements there in that process that we want to mimic this gameplay opportunity for players to interact; and not just be a time-sink. But time-sink is also a component of it as well, because that's the throttle for the introduction of processed materials from raw gatherables into the economy.[30] – Steven Sharif
- Processing times, yields, queue times, and job sizes can increase based on node progression, service building upgrades, node policies, and relics.[47][44][31]
- That's going to be very important as you get to very late game processed materials that are required. Because some of these things might have days to process within a station, but if you have spent the time and done the work to advance that processing station you could cut that down considerably, perhaps even greater than 50 percent; and that's going to have a significant impact on your ability to either control markets or to create goods.[31] – Steven Sharif
- Processing stations are distinct from crafting workstations that are used to craft finished goods.[42][38]
- The developers are considering a decay system for processing stations similar to item decay for gear.[14]
- Q: Do processing stations wear out over time? Do they have to be repaired?
- A: That's something that we're still discussing internally. It is coded in such a way where it's an easy variable for us to change that. There are material components that are necessary to feed the machines to keep them up and running, or it could be based on how you interact with the fuel components. If you overheat- overcharge with fuel, that can create like a system degrade similar to your armor decay, which then you have to feed materials in order to rebuild maintenance-wise. Right now it is not implemented. With that in mind, the only maintenance required is going to be through taxation. And depending on the number of permits that you have placed on the freehold will increase the amount of taxes that are necessary to be paid for the freehold.[14] – Steven Sharif
Crafting workstations
There's going to be a number of different types of selectables that you can incorporate as part of the crafting process; each of them having unique results as part of the stat block for the weapon, but also increasing the quality, predicated on the quality of the selectable that you're contributing.[49] – Steven Sharif
Crafting stations (also referred to as Crafting benches) are workstations located on freeholds or within nodes.[3][38][5][51][52]
- Recipes have slots for required and selectable crafting materials. Adding higher rarity selectable materials increases the rarity of the crafted item.[53][48][54] Choosing different selectable items can also result in crafted items with different statblocks and unique properties.[49]
- Different tiers of crafting stations represent the quality of the items that can be crafted.[51]
- Higher tier crafting stations are unlocked with node progression.[55]
- City (stage 5) nodes may have one Grandmaster crafting station.[56]
- Metropolis (stage 6) nodes may have two Grandmaster crafting stations.[56]
- Players can only craft up to journeyman level on freeholds.[2]
- Upper-tier crafting benches within a node are accessible by its citizens.[57]
- Top tier crafting stations are present at all node types, however Academic nodes offer additional bonuses to crafting performed there.[58]
- Higher tier crafting stations are unlocked with node progression.[55]
- Crafting stations can pull inventory from a player's personal storage and warehouse storage from the node that the crafting station is in.[59]
- There is no limit to the number of players that can use a crafting station at the same time.[44]
- Crafting stations are distinct from processing stations, which are used to process raw materials into processed goods (crafting materials) at nodes or on freeholds.[38][5][28][31]
- Q: Can crafting stations be mobilized / moved and can they be placed anywhere in the world?
- A: It depends on the crafting station. There are going to be different tiers of crafting stations that represent the quality of item you're looking to create within that specific profession. There's going to be crafting stations that can be utilized by players within their freeholds and then crafting stations that are resigned only to the development of particular nodes, within particular areas, or particular buildings... There's a wide variety of those things to make it a more dynamic experience and something that caveat how players decide to build the world and what the value of those things are.[51] – Steven Sharif
- Legendary crafting benches are present in the Academy unique building of Metropolis (stage 6) Academic nodes.[60]
List of Artisan buildings
Artisan building skins
Cosmetic freehold building skins for artisan buildings.[3][24][2][18]
- These skins can be placed on any artisan building, regardless of type.[61][62]
- Artisan cosmetic skins go on artisan buildings and not the individual profession stations themselves.[3]
Business buildings

If you want to offer sales and services to players visiting your Freehold, consider making room for business buildings. Setting up a potion vendor near a popular hunting area of the game may make your Freehold a destination for adventuring players. There are numerous services your Freehold can offer to other players, such as item shops, consumables within taverns, and resting inns. These services can work without the owner being present.[3]
Business buildings are freehold or node buildings that provide items and services to players.[25][26][63][2][64]
- Business buildings can provide services without the owner being present.[3]
- Freehold owners are able to set permissions that grant access to the business buildings' services.[2]
- Currently freeholds have a combined maximum total of six artisan and business buildings that can be placed in addition to a homestead.[34]
- Artisan and business buildings require permits and may incur upkeep costs.[3]
- Maintaining businesses requires licensing and payments to the node your Freehold is associated with. This permitting system allows for a certain number of buildings to be constructed on a Freehold. Permits can be obtained from the same node the Freehold was certified from, and buildings that require permits will have an additional upkeep cost.[3]
List of business buildings
Building | Icon | Type | Profession |
---|---|---|---|
Caravansary | ![]() |
Business | |
Food halls | |||
Hunting Lodge | ![]() |
Business | |
Inn | ![]() |
Business | |
Marketplace | ![]() |
Business | |
Player stalls | |||
Warehouse | ![]() |
Business |
Business building skins
Cosmetic freehold building skins for business buildings.[3][24][2][18]
- These skins can be placed on any business building, regardless of type.[62]
Freehold building placement

On the left we have some farmable animals- some livestock here in pens; and then we have in the middle there's a bunch of crop rows of farmable crops the players can have; and then there's a couple different examples of different freehold buildings you could have on your freehold: one of which is the house on the right and then some other freehold buildings as well, like it looks like there's a mill in the back there as well.[65] – Kory Rice
Freehold buildings and other items/props can be placed on freehold plots (by the land owner).[5][66][67][6][7]
- Freehold building permits to allow for a specific number and type of buildings to be placed on the freehold plot must be acquired from the node where the freehold deed was obtained.[3][13][14][15][68][16]
- Freehold taxes are calculated based on the number of permits issued for buildings on a freehold.[3][14][15][16]
- Currently freeholds have a combined maximum total of six artisan and business buildings that can be placed in addition to a homestead.[3][34]
- On a Freehold you can have your house, and up to six additional buildings. The additional buildings can be artisan and/or business buildings. Larger buildings may take up more room, reducing the total number of buildings that can be built on a single Freehold.[3]
- Space that is not used for freehold buildings can be utilized for other purposes, such as livestock and crop placements.[68]
- Players can manipulate the orientation of freehold buildings and items being placed on their freehold plot.[69]
- There may be a grid-based system that freehold owners can use to place items/props and buildings on their freehold plot.[66]
- Targeting dummies are planned as placeable props with functional mechanics.[71]
- Players are not able to adjust the terrain of their freeholds. Sloped terrain will result in stilts beneath placeable structures (to keep them level).[72]
Freehold building permits
Freehold building permits allow placement of a specific number of different types of buildings on a freehold plot.[3][13][68]
- All Freehold buildings, except for housing, require a permit from a node of a certain level, and that may add an additional upkeep cost to keep the building running.[3]
- These permits must be acquired from the node where the freehold deed was obtained.[13][68]
- Artisan and business buildings require permits and may incur upkeep costs.[3]
- Homestead buildings do not require permits.[3]
- The number and type of buildings that can be placed on the freehold and the way these buildings get placed are subject to change based on testing and iteration during Alpha-2.[34][5]
- Freehold taxes are calculated based on the number of permits issued for buildings on a freehold.[3][14][15][16]
- Mayors can adjust tax rates on freehold building permits on a per-type basis.[73]
Freehold progression
Freehold progression unlocks new bonuses, abilities and capabilities for freeholds.[74]
- Freehold buildings are able to be levelled up based on the length of time and productivity of the freehold.[74]
- We want there to be progression in many systems and part of the freehold progression is that when you establish these base buildings the longer and more productive you are and exist with that freehold, the more opportunity those buildings will have to both level up: offering new bonuses, new abilities, new capabilities; and just surviving in this world is a feat in and of itself, so it's rewarded by allowing progression with those things.[74] – Steven Sharif
Freehold building tech trees
Freehold building tech trees allow freehold owners to specialize their freehold buildings.[75][76]
- Freehold building tech trees are building-specific.[77]
- Freehold building tech trees can be reset/respecced for a cost.[77][78]
- Maxing the tech trees for a particular profession will grant access to all four of its workstations.[34][35][27][2]
- In order to fully spec out a particular tree of one profession, you will need in most cases, at a minimum, two of the buildings for that particular profession. And that also grants you access to have all four of the workstations that profession's building provides; and then you can spec into those territories. So you're occupying additional levels of permits in order to achieve that broad spectrum mastery over that particular profession, as opposed to specializing within the mastery of that profession.[34] – Steven Sharif
Naming buildings
Buildings will be able to be named. The custom name will appear as floating text when it is targeted.[79]
Visuals
2023-07-01
See also
References
- ↑ Livestream, June 30, 2023 (12:11).
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 2.17 2.18 2.19 2.20 2.21 2.22 2.23 2.24 2.25 2.26 2.27 2.28 2.29 2.30 Development Update with Freehold Preview.
- ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 3.15 3.16 3.17 3.18 3.19 3.20 3.21 3.22 3.23 3.24 3.25 3.26 3.27 3.28 3.29 3.30 3.31 3.32 3.33 3.34 Blog: Exploring the Boundless Opportunities of Freeholds.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 Livestream, January 11, 2025 (1:20:26).
- ↑ 5.00 5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 5.05 5.06 5.07 5.08 5.09 5.10 5.11 5.12 5.13 5.14 5.15 5.16 5.17 Livestream, April 7, 2023 (31:49).
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Node series part II – the Metropolis.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Livestream, May 24, 2017 (9:58).
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 Video, June 30, 2023 (15:34).
- ↑
- ↑ Livestream, June 30, 2023 (18:45).
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 Interview, July 8, 2020 (45:23).
- ↑ Livestream, June 28, 2019 (1:09:22).
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 14.5 Interview, July 9, 2023 (54:46).
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 Livestream, June 30, 2023 (1:45:22).
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 Livestream, August 28, 2020 (2:14:06).
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 18.3 Livestream, June 30, 2023 (22:05).
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 Livestream, November 30, 2020 (57:50).
- ↑ 20.0 20.1
- ↑ Livestream, May 26, 2017 (44:11).
- ↑ 22.0 22.1 Livestream, June 30, 2023 (18:26).
- ↑ Livestream, June 30, 2023 (19:41).
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 24.2 Livestream, June 30, 2023 (23:40).
- ↑ 25.0 25.1 Blog: Development Update with Village Node.
- ↑ 26.0 26.1 Livestream, August 31, 2023 (50:25).
- ↑ 27.0 27.1 27.2 27.3 27.4 27.5 27.6 27.7 Livestream, June 30, 2023 (33:26).
- ↑ 28.0 28.1 28.2 Livestream, June 30, 2022 (1:08:02).
- ↑ Livestream, June 30, 2022 (1:09:29).
- ↑ 30.0 30.1 30.2 30.3 30.4 Livestream, February 25, 2022 (1:12:27).
- ↑ 31.0 31.1 31.2 31.3 31.4 Podcast, April 11, 2021 (40:20).
- ↑ Interview, March 27, 2020 (9:00).
- ↑ Livestream, May 5, 2017 (34:15).
- ↑ 34.00 34.01 34.02 34.03 34.04 34.05 34.06 34.07 34.08 34.09 34.10 Interview, July 9, 2023 (33:55).
- ↑ 35.0 35.1 Livestream, June 30, 2023 (41:41).
- ↑ Video, November 30, 2023 (46:59).
- ↑ 37.0 37.1 Video, November 30, 2023 (48:22).
- ↑ 38.0 38.1 38.2 38.3
- ↑ Livestream, June 30, 2023 (37:30).
- ↑ 40.0 40.1 40.2 Blog: The Gatherable Spawning System is Evolving.
- ↑ Interview, January 19, 2025 (25:02).
- ↑ 42.0 42.1 42.2 Video, June 30, 2023 (16:02).
- ↑ 43.0 43.1 Livestream, June 30, 2023 (38:18).
- ↑ 44.0 44.1 44.2 44.3 Livestream, November 30, 2023 (1:26:16).
- ↑ Video, November 30, 2023 (39:15).
- ↑ Livestream, November 30, 2023 (1:28:10).
- ↑ Video, November 30, 2023 (43:43).
- ↑ 48.0 48.1 Video, November 30, 2023 (59:21).
- ↑ 49.0 49.1 Video, November 30, 2023 (1:01:04).
- ↑ Video, August 31, 2023 (45:06).
- ↑ 51.0 51.1 51.2 Livestream, January 30, 2020 (1:38:26).
- ↑ Livestream, May 12, 2017 (1:00:18).
- ↑ Livestream, November 30, 2023 (1:38:47).
- ↑ Interview, October 20, 2018 (17:31).
- ↑ Interview, July 19, 2020 (6:38).
- ↑ 56.0 56.1 Livestream, December 19, 2023 (1:49:28).
- ↑ Podcast, September 29, 2021 (4:43).
- ↑ Livestream, December 19, 2023 (1:50:51).
- ↑ Livestream, July 29, 2022 (1:17:33).
- ↑ Blog: Know Your Nodes - Scientific Node Type
- ↑
- ↑ 62.0 62.1
- ↑
- ↑
- ↑ 65.0 65.1 Livestream, June 30, 2023 (7:36).
- ↑ 66.0 66.1 Livestream, May 29, 2020 (41:27).
- ↑ Livestream, October 16, 2017 (56:42).
- ↑ 68.0 68.1 68.2 68.3 Livestream, June 30, 2023 (1:21:48).
- ↑ Livestream, June 30, 2023 (1:36:52).
- ↑ Livestream, April 30, 2024 (1:03:08).
- ↑
- ↑ Livestream, January 31, 2024 (1:24:57).
- ↑ 73.0 73.1
- ↑ 74.0 74.1 74.2 Podcast, May 11, 2018 (48:29).
- ↑ Livestream, June 30, 2023 (42:37).
- ↑ Livestream, June 30, 2023 (27:52).
- ↑ 77.0 77.1 Livestream, June 30, 2023 (1:23:24).
- ↑ Livestream, June 30, 2023 (31:43).
- ↑ Livestream, October 31, 2018 (46:18).