This guide will teach you the basics of the building mechanics in foxhole so that you will be able to competently build bunkers, knowing what the general mechanics are. This guide does not cover advanced building techniques or meta building, that will be covered in another guide.
Foxhole Building Guide
So, you’ve downloaded foxhole, you spawn in on the frontline, and you see these shiny buildings that shoot back at the enemy. And you think to yourself, “Oh that’s cool, I wanna try building that!”. Congratulations – You are now a builder! Yes, I have co-opted you into one of the most grindy aspects of the game, but it, we need help, and ain’t no one going to convince Sgt ‘TwinkleToes’ to put down his shovel for once to help the team by not digging more trenches. So here we are.
Controls, Equipment, and Resources:
Controls:
In order to build in foxhole, you’ll need either a hammer or a shovel. Once that is equipped, press B in order to access the build Icon.
In the BUILD icon are a list of different things you can build. If you hover over them an Icon will come up describing what those structures do. You can build different things depending on whether or not you have a shovel or a hammer equipped.
With a shovel you can build:
-Bunker Pieces: Standard Bunker Piece.
-Bunker Corners: A corner piece to make your bunker look nice.
-Foxholes: A hole dug in the ground to provide cover.
-Trenches: It’s a trench kid.
-Trench Connectors: A special trench that lets you connect trenches together however you want. Regular trenches can only be connected in a straight line whereas these bois got some customization options.
-Octagon Trenches: A big octagonal trench which lets you put into it.
With a hammer you can build:
-Pillboxes: Rifle Pillboxes, Machine Gun Pillboxes, and Anti-Tank Pillboxes, although the MG/AT pillboxes are not teched right away. They shoot at the enemy, that is, unless you it up. pretty simple.
-Watchtowers: Watchtowers give us info on any kind of intel, including enemy locations which are shown on the map (press M to view), so make sure you build a lot of these.
-Medical Tents: Medical Tents let us take the uniforms of dead soldiers to give to our new recruits. 1 critically wounded soldier equals 4 soldier supplies. As they say, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!
-Fences: Gotta keep the enemy out you know.
-Storage Boxes: Perfect for putting anything you scavenge on the frontline into.
-Signs: Allows you to write a message, good for naming your bunker base
-Campfires: During winter, allow you to defrost vehicles and warm yourself up.
-Boats: You can build boats on a beach to maneuver on water
-CVs: Can be used to construct certain types of buildings and structures, needs to be built close to a Town Hall, Relic Base or Landing Ship.
-Crane: Can be used to lift and move containers, palettes, and small vehicles.
Resources:
Now, some kinds of things need resources to build. There are a couple kinds of resources but the only two you need to worry about are Bmats and Concrete, but ignore concrete for now, we will cover that later.
Bmats stand for basic materials, and you are going to need a metric ton of them if you want to build. Check to see if they are in the place you first spawned in and put them into your inventory. If there’s nothing there (which is a lot of the time), ask someone to deliver them to your location in the game logi chat, or get them yourself (although how to do that is beyond the scope of this guide).
Absolutely everything you build with a hammer is going to require bmats . When you place a blueprint down, and start building it (by holding down the left mouse button), each hit magically consumes the bmats from your inventory. Different things require different amounts of bmats to make, so keep track of how many bmats you’ll need and how many you currently have in your inventory. When you’ve used the required bmats to build a structure, it will turn from a blueprint of the item into the real thing.
Upgrading:
Some items, like bunker pieces, can be upgraded after they are placed. In order to upgrade something, Press F to switch to upgrade mode, and then press E while hovering over the structure you want to upgrade (When done upgrading press F again to switch back to building mode). This brings up a list of things that can be upgraded similarly to the build icon. Some basic things you can do are to upgrade a tier, add garrisons, or add modifications to the structure.
The Construction Vehicle (CV):
Some things require the use of a Construction Vehicle (abbreviated CV) to build. A construction vehicle is easily able to be made for 100 bmats at a nearby Town Hall or Relic base. A construction vehicle will require fuel to drive like all vehicles. Operating a construction vehicle is the same as building with a hammer, except you will need to hold mouse2 to move the construction arm (similarly to a crane).
New things that can be Built with a CV:
-Town Halls
-Relic Bases
-Town Buildings: Ghouses, Seaports, Stockpiles, Mortar Houses, Coastal Guns.
-Fences
-Encampments
New things that can be Upgraded with a CV:
-Bob Cores: Requires 6 or more required bunker pieces in order to build.
If anything that was built with a CV can be upgraded, that upgrade will also require the CV to build.
Town Halls, Relics, FOBs, and Bunkers:
AI:
Before truly starting this section, AI in foxhole needs to be explained. Any player-built defense is operated by AI in order to shoot the enemy. However, AI is not guaranteed. In order for AI to be active, it needs to be within AI coverage. AI coverage is given by certain spawnable locations such as TH, Relics, FOBs, and Bunkers.
Town Halls/Relics:
In Foxhole there are spawnable locations on the map, which contain stockpiles of items, and are key points which determine who owns a region. They also provide AI coverage in a 150m radius around the Town Hall. These spawnable locations are predetermined and do not change between wars. There are two types: Relics, and Town Halls..
Relics are a simple structure with no surrounding buildings, and are generally located on minor regions in a hex. They do not have any surrounding buildings. Town Halls, on the other hand, cover major points in a hex, and are located in the center of towns. Both Town Halls and Relics are built and upgraded with a CV (300 bmats to build, and 100 bmats to upgrade). The longer you hold a town hall or a relic, the more upgrades you unlock for them.
Town Halls come with additional buildings that are pre-placed which can also be built with a cv for a bmat cost. Towns do not all have every building, and each town is unique. Possible buildings include:
Ghouses – Garrison Houses provide AI defenses for the town.
Stockpiles – Land based logistics hub that allows the stockpiling of crates
Seaports – Sea based logistics hub that allows the stockpiling of crates, with a dedicated area to unload from ships.
Mortar Houses – A house which has a mounted mortar that a player is able to enter and fire.
Coastal Guns – A gun which fires on enemy ships within a certain radius.
Refinery – Refines resources into materials
Factory – Produces equipment from materials
Garage – Creates vehicles from materials
Mass Production Factory – Allows the mass production of certain items, vehicles, etc.
Construction Yard – Allows the production of emplacables, pallets, crates, and concrete mixers.
Safe Houses – Additional spawning locations in towns which are notoriously difficult to kill, but do not control regions.
Forward Operating Bases (FOB):
Forward Operating Bases (also called encampments) are player buildable structures which have stockpiles, and provide AI range for 80 meters. They cost 300 bmats to make, do not require any bunker pieces, and are very easy to destroy. As such, they are most often used to extend the AI range of Bunker Bases without needing to build a second Bunker Core. FOBs can be built and upgraded with a CV.
Bunker Bases (BoB):
Bunker Bases are player buildable structures which have stockpiles, and provide AI range for 80 meters. They are much more resilient than FOBs and allow players to build bunker garrisons and upgrades to other bunker structures that are connected to the core via trenches.
In order to build a bunker base you need to have a bunker structure that is at least 6 bunker pieces large. Then, with a CV, you are able to go into upgrade mode, and select the ‘bunker core’ upgrade to build for 300 bmats.
Upgrade Trees and Unlocks:
All player-spawnable locations contain Upgrade Trees which have unlockable things When a player-spawnable location is held by a faction, it is able to unlock things from its upgrade tree. The available upgrade trees depend on the type of spawnable location being built.
Tech trees unlock over time. You can specify which you’d like to prioritize to be unlocked by setting your spawn, and then clicking on the upgrade which you would like to vote for. An icon will slowly fill up over time, when it is fully teched, anything within that upgrade is now available for use, and the next upgrade will start teching in the tree.
FOBs/Relics:
FOBs and Relics have the simplest upgrade types. There are three upgrade trees which are unlocked in succession, and have no requirements in order to be able to vote for them.
Provisional Garrison – Allows for AI should 10 people set their spawns.
Small Garrison – Gives permanent AI, allows structures to be maintained and prevent decay, allows the upgrading of the structure to T2 (gives more health to the structure and resistances)
Large Garrison – Reduces the cost it takes to maintain structures in the vicinity. Allows the upgrading of the Structure to T3 (Gives more health to the structure and resistances, for Relics/THs makes the Relic/TH or any garrison shoot ATR rifles).
Town Halls:
Town Halls contain Provisional, Small, and Large garrison, however they also contain these additional upgrades:
Industry – Allows refineries, factories, construction yards, garages, seaports, stockpiles, and mass production factories to be built
Occupied Town – Allows Ghouses and Safe houses to be built.
Fortifications – Allows Mortar Houses and the Coastal Gun to be built.
Safe Houses:
Safe Houses contain Provisional, Small, and Large garrison, however they also contain these additional upgrades:
Radio Station – Allows the safe house to provide map intelligence
Artillery Structure – Reinforces the walls of the safehouse, which prevents all damage past a threshold unless the safehouse’s critical supports are hit
Bunker Bases:
Bunker bases by far have the most complex upgrade tree out of all the buildings and are the only type to have additional requirements to be able to unlock certain upgrades. Bunker bases contain Provisional, Small, and Large garrisons, however, they also have two additional upgrade paths: Garrison and Command. These paths require a certain amount of either garrison or command bunker modifications to be built in order to be able to tech the path. Once the garrison/command tree is fully teched, the modifications for that unlock are no longer required and can be removed.
A bunker modification can be placed on any normal bunker piece or garrison piece that is at least T2. You can access these from the upgrade menu. They can be placed on the wall of said bunker piece.
Upgrades under the Garrison Tree are as follows:
Infantry Garrisons – Allows Rifle and Machine Gun Garrisons to be built. Requires 4 total Garrison Modifications
AT Gun Garrison – Allows the Anti Tank Garrison to be built. Requires 12 total Garrison Modifications
Howitzer Garrison – Allows Howitzer Garrisons to be built (Since howitzers are a T3 structure in order to build them the concrete upgrade in the command tree is also required). Requires 24 total Garrison Modifications.
Upgrades under the Command Tree are as follows:
Observation Bunkers: Allows Observation Bunkers to be built. Requires 6 total Command modifications.
Concrete: Allows bunker pieces to be upgraded to T3 (concrete). Requires the use of concrete materials instead of basic materials to do so. Requires 12 total Command Modifications
Deployment Point: Allows players to deploy to the bunker from the home region similarly to that of Relics/Town Halls, so long as activity requirements are met. Requires 24 total Command Modifications
Advanced Construction: Allows players to build Storm Cannons and Intel Centers. Requires 40 total Command Modifications.
Bunker Bases:
Bunker bases are the de-facto type of player built defensive spawn point in foxhole. Compared to other types like encampments, they have a much larger resistance to enemy fire. However, they are also the most complicated to build.
Bunker Garrisons:
Bunker garrisons are defenses that can be placed on normal bunker pieces as an upgrade. They are unlocked with the bunker’s Tech Tree. Bunker Garrisons require AI to function, and as such need at least Provisional Garrison with 10 players having set spawn. Garrisons cannot be placed adjacent towards each other. They need at least 1 bunker piece in between them.
Rifle Garrison (RG):
Rifle Garrisons are a basic defense upgrade. It contains AI which shoots standard rifles in a 360 degree radius at the enemy. It also can be manned with a single player that can use their primary weapon while inside to shoot at the enemy in addition to the AI.
Rifle Garrisons takes 50 bmats to upgrade from a T1 bunker, 75 bmats for T2, and 30 concrete for T3. Keep in mind that if you put a rifle garrison on a T1 bunker first and then upgrade it to T2, it will save you 25 bmats compared to adding RG to T2 bunker.
Machinegun Garrison (MGG):
MGGs are similar to RGs but limited in terms of area coverage (They can only shoot at around a 120 degree angle). However, its advantage is that it has slightly longer forward range than RGs and also shoots a Machine Gun. MGGs can also be manned just like Rifle Garrisons.
Machinegun Garrisons can be upgraded on a T1 plain bunker for 75 bmats. Tier 2 costs 100 bmats to, and T3 costs 30 concrete.
Anti-Tank Garrison (ATG):
ATGs are a defense structure that shoots a 68mm cannon that has a radius of 180 degrees. It will automatically fire at any enemy vehicle that is closer than 30m and retaliate (when it is hit by a vehicle) at a range of 55m. ATGs cost 150 bmats to upgrade from a T2 plain bunker and they cost 40 concrete to upgrade to T3.
Howitzer Garrison (HG):
Howitzer garrisons are an anti-artillery garrison that shoots High Velocity 120mm shells with greater accuracy (the same type of shells as a gunboat). Howitzer Garrisons cannot be manned by a player, and. will only retaliate against heavy explosive type damage (When it is hit by mortars, 120mm, and 150mm). Howitzer Garrisons are a T3 exclusive Garrison. Its Horizontal Range is approximately 160 degrees (although there is no visual indicator of its range), and its vertical range is between 20-400m.
*note: Howitzer Garrisons do not gain benefits from being powered.
Bunker Upgrades:
In addition to Garrisons, there are other types of upgrades that can be built similarly to Garrisons. These are:
Bunker Corner:
Allows you to upgrade the existing standard bunker piece into a corner piece, which can fit in more places, as well as allowing your structure to be compact. In my opinion it also gives a better visual aesthetic. However it does limit a lot of the modifications and further upgrades you can put on it. Corners cannot have any garrisons placed on them.
*You can use Bunker Corners to make storm cannon platforms more compact.
Bunker Ramp:
Allows players to easily access the bunker system via a ramp, however this also comes at the cost of being able to add certain upgrades or modifications. You cannot put Garrison/Command modifications on this type of piece.
Engine Rooms:
Engine Rooms are T2-T3 upgrades that can provide power to garrisons and other structures When connected to power, AI has better visibility at night (Because night lowers the effective range of ai, and power negates that). A single engine room can be built for 150 bmats or 50 concrete. It provides 3000W of power when fueled (with Diesel – walk up to the bunker with diesel equipped and fuel it like you would a truck). You can connect engine rooms to a grid with pipes. When two engine rooms are connected together in a grid, there is 6000W going through that pipe system.
How power is split is determined by how many garrisons or upgrades that could take power are connected to the grid. It splits all the power equally between all the garrisons. A single garrison only needs to take 600 power, but if you have a single engine room powering it, the garrison will be receiving all of the 3kW of power. In order to optimize it, you’ll need to have a total of 5 garrisons per engine room. Engine rooms will provide power only in the range of 20 pipe pieces.
You can view your power grid by going into upgrade mode. Hovering over a garrison will show how much power it is receiving. Visual indicators indicate whether or not something is receiving power. Green is fine, Orange means no power is going through. If you see orange on the pipes under an engine room, that means it is no longer producing fuel and needs to be refueled.
Ammo Rooms:
Ammo rooms are a T3 upgrade which allow you to store 100 shells of either 120mm, 150mm, and 300mm. They cost 10 concrete to make and are the only upgrade that takes concrete that does not need to dry. You can submit crates to the room, and shells can be retrieved without any pull times.
Observation Tower:
Observation Towers are a bunker upgrade that acts similarly to a watchtower with greater endurance and range. They are a tier 2 / tier 3 upgrade which requires the OBS bunker command tech unlock in order to build. It costs 1kW power to run. Its cost to build is 125 bmats or 20 concrete. Its range for T2 is 130 meters, and for T3 is 180 meters but this can be expanded by some bunker modifications.
Storm Cannon / Intel Center:
The storm cannon and intel center are two upgrades that require the Advanced Construction Tech unlock and at least a 3×3 tier 3 platform with no additional upgrades. They both require 35kW power to operate, and slowly charge up when connected by engine rooms. The storm cannon operates as a giant gun that shoots 300mm shells between 400m-1000m (Up to 1400m depending on the wind). The Intel Center gives intel from enemy watchtowers in a roughly 120m radius. Its range to fire is between 500-2000m Both the storm cannon and intel centers require concrete to use and must completely dry before being able to be used. The SC is 400 concrete, and the IC is 250 concrete.
Bunker Modifications:
Bunker Modifications are modifications that can be placed on existing bunker pieces via the upgrade menu, which instead of needing to be hammered out are built immediately after a short delay should you have the materials needed to build it. You may only place modifications on structures that support them, those which cannot be built are grayed out in the upgrade screen. You can use the scroll wheel to adjust the placement of a given modification if applicable.
Regular Modifications:
The regular modifications are as follows:
-Doors (20 bmats) – Allows players to enter the bunker structure from a trench
-Firing Point (20 bmats) – Allows player to fire outside the bunker structure from within
-Pipes (30bmat)- Used to connect power to structures
-Interior Firing Port (10 bmats) – T3 modification that gives cover to fire from inside the bunker structure
-Stairs (30 bmats) – Allows a player to walk up onto the roof without climbing
-Sandbags (10 bmats) – Gives players on the bunker roof half cover and prevents players on the ground from climbing onto the bunker or firing past it
Garrison/Command Modifications:
Garrison and Command Modifications work slightly differently to regular ones. They each cost 50 bmats to make and you can only place one of them per structure. They contribute to the requirements to unlock the tech tree and they also provide additional buffs to the bunker system it is attached to.
Garrison Upgrades are as follows:
-Bunkers/Lockers/Latrine – Gives a 1% chance for a person who spawns in to not consume a shirt maxing out at 10%
-Latrine/Wash_Station/Kitchen – Gives a 2% increase to AT Guns and howitzer Garrisons with a limit of 40% speed increase. Requires 10 existing Garrison Upgrades to place.
Command Upgrades are as follows:
-Workstation/Computer_Module: – Reduces SC/IC power cost by 1% with a maximum of 20%
-Radio_Station/Chalkboard/Strategic_Map: – Gives a 1% range increase to Observation Bunkers up to 20%. Requires 10 existing Command Upgrades to place.
Trenches / Trench Modifications:
Trenches provide cover for infantry in order for them to maneuver along the battlefield without getting caught. When designing a bob, trenches are used in order to connect bunker pieces.
There are three Types of trenches:
Trench
This is a normal trench which can go in a straight line. It costs 75 bmats to upgrade to T2. A Trench has several modifications that can be put on it for bmat cost:
-Barbed Wire: – Slows down enemies walking into the trench
-Sandbags: – Blocks line of sight and prevents people from shooting or climbing outside the trench from within.
-Stairs – Can be put at the end of trenches to allow people to go in/out of the trench without having to climb out.
-Trench Bridge – Allows Vehicles to pass through Trenches
-Pipe – Transports power through the trench
-Trench Cover – A T3 upgrade that covers the trench completely so that people can not get in or out
Trench Connector
This is a special kind of trench that allows the player to change the angle by which the trench faces. It can be diagonal and the ends can be rotated. However it’s shorter than a regular trench The modifications that can be used on this type are:
-Barbed Wire
-Sandbags
-Trench Cover
-Pipes
Trench Octagon
The Trench Octagon is a large trench with a lot of room for people to stand in it. It has 8 ends and allows for up to 4 trenches to connect to it at once (A side that has a trench cannot have other trenches connected to its adjacent sides). In addition, Artillery, EATs and EMGs can be placed inside the octagon, increasing their health by 3x. Modifications that can be placed on this trench are:
-Barbed Wire
-Sandbags
-Pipes
Concrete
Upon the teching of the concrete upgrade, players will be able to upgrade all structures connected to the core to T3. Concrete is made via a Concrete Mixer (75 rmats) and takes components at a 10:1 ratio to mix into concrete.
Once concrete is placed, it takes 24 hours to dry. During this time, no modifications or additional upgrades can be placed. When concrete is wet, it is extremely vulnerable to any damage. It takes about 6 hours before it reaches the stage where it is as resilient as Tier 2 structures. At 24 hours, it reaches its maximum sturdiness and can be modified or upgraded again.
Tech Tree Tech Times
Different Tech Trees Upgrade at Different Rates when prioritized by voting. The approximate Upgrade Speed is as follows:
Provisional Garrison – 10 to75 minutes
Small Garrison – 8 to 72 hours
Large Garrison – 2 to 3 days
Infantry Garrisons – Variable but always under an hour.
AT Gun Garrisons – 5-15 hours
Howitzer Garrison – 1.5-2.5 days
Observation bunkers – Variable but always under 24 hours
Concrete – 24 hours
Deployment Point – 3 days
Advanced Bunker – 3-4 days
Tech times are based on several things. Tech can be sped up by activity at or around your base – building things nearby, things being destroyed nearby. Setting spawns speeds things up, and prioritizing/voting on a certain upgrade also speeds it up. Tech that is not being prioritized will tech at a much slower rate.
Maintaining Bunkers
After you build a structure, there is a grace period depending on the type of structure, but after that grace period ends a structure will start to decay by losing HP slowly until it is destroyed. In order to prevent this, you need gsups and bsups which can be created in a factory for 300 bmats per 4 crates (a full queue)(150 sups a crate). Bsups prevent decay from only bunker structures, whereas gsups prevent decay from any structure.
At minimum in order to prevent deacy you need to have small garrison unlocked. When you deposit bsups/gsups into a TH, a SH, a Relic, an Encampment, or a BoB, it will prevent decay with those sups only in the area equivalent to its AI range. With Small Garrison, the sup cost per structure is 2, and with Large Garrison per structure is 1. You can see how many sups are being used in the menu where you deposited it.
The Grace period for T1 structures is approximately 6 hours before decay starts. For all other structures the grace period is 24 hours. Gsups/bsups do not prevent decay in the rapid decay zone.
Structural Integrity
Structural Integrity is basically how Sturdy a bunker is. In game when you hover over a piece of a broader bunker structure in upgrade mode, it will tell you the integrity of that structure. The integrity will either be: High, Medium, Low, or Critical.
When Bunker pieces are connected together, the HP of the structure increases, but the Structural Integrity is lowered. The lower the structural Integrity, the less HP is added for each bunker piece in the structure. Some structures lower Integrity more than others. For instance RGs/MGs lower by more than regular pieces, AT more than RGs/MGs, Howitzers more than ATG, and Engine Rooms more than Howitzers. Take this into consideration when constructing a bunker.
In General, the rule of thumb (excluding garrisons / engine rooms) of how many pieces you can fit on each tier without lowering structural integrity too much is: 3 for Tier 1, 6 for Tier 2, and 40 for Tier 3.
Reserving Bunkers
If you are the builder or are in the squad of the builder of a structure, you are able to reserve that structure for 50 hours by selecting that piece via the upgrade menu and clicking the reserve bunkers option (There is also a button to reserve all connected structures). When reserved a structure is not able to be modified, or any additional structure connected to it except by those in the builder’s squad. You can refresh this reservation as well. If the reservation expires, you cannot re-reserve a piece again.
Reserving is important to prevent grief. Sometimes people will build structures you do not want to try and ruin a piece or a core. The core should *always* be reserved, and surrounding structures should be reserved if they are very important.
Improvised Structures:
Sandbag Palettes:
Sandbag pallets can be built at construction yards for 100 bmats. The Sandbag pallet comes with 75 sandbags. With all pallets You can transport them via a flatbed and unload them with a crane. The pallet has an inventory where you can select an item to carry.
With a sandbag equipped, you can press B to access new build options – a sandbag wall. Place the blueprint and then move your mouse to drag the wall in place, use your scroll wheel to change angling, then click again to set the blueprint. The blueprint costs three sandbags to make. You can upgrade a sandbag wall to tier 2 by switching to upgrade mode and upgrading the sandbag wall for another 3 sandbags.
Sandbags provide half cover at T1, and Full cover at T2. A common use is to have a wall of T2 sandbags in front, with a wall of T1 sandbags right behind it. This lets people stand on the T1 wall to be able to shoot over the T2 wall. Sandbags can be destroyed immediately if a vehicle runs into them.
Barbed Wire Palettes:
Barbed Wire pallets can be produced for 100 bmats at a construction yard. They contain 75 barbed wire There are two options to build with them. The first is Barbed Wire (Cost of 3) which slows down people who try to cross through it, and can be dismantled with a wrench. The second is a barbed wire wall (Cost of 3), which can stop vehicles but can also be destroyed by them if enough damage is dealt.
Metal Beam Palettes:
Metal Beam palettes can be produced for 100 bmats at a construction yard. They contain 75 metal beams. Metal beams can be used to produce two things – Tank traps (3 Metal Beams), which have large hitboxes that block vehicles from passing through and can be dismantled with wrenches, and Field Bridges, which is a bridge that allows players and small vehicles to cross.
Walls and Gates:
Walls and Gates are structures that prevent enemy movement. They can be upgraded to T2 and T3. Tier 1 walls allow players to shoot through them and are destroyed if a vehicle runs into them. Tier 2 walls are solid and do not, and Tier 3 walls are strong but need to dry. Gates require a CV to build, and can block enemy vehicles from passing through (Only members of your faction can open/close them). The tiered structure applies to gates as well except they cannot be destroyed by a vehicle at tier 1.
