Owning a house in Archeage Unchained is a fine thing and can be quite useful. There are two ways to get a house, You can either buy a house design from Mirage Isle, find a spot to place it and then build it yourself or you can look around and see if someone is selling their house.
Let’s first discuss how to get a house by building it yourself. The first thing you need to do is to get a house design.
Getting a House Design
To get a house design you need to either get one from the Blue Salt Brotherhood quest chain or you need to find your way to Mirage Isle. If you haven’t yet stumbled upon it, you need to find the odd-looking dudes standing next to a framed gateway with a blueish glow. If you mouse over the gateway it will say “Mirage Isle”. Using that gateway will take you to, well, Mirage Isle.
Once there you need to go to the area where all the little houses are on display. The area is marked on the map as “Nuia homes” and “Harani homes”. When you get to the right spot you will see a bunch of tiny house models. Select the one you think you would like and buy it for Gilda Stars. The cheapest house design will cost you about 15 Gilda Stars.
Finding a Free Spot for Your House and Placing It.
This is the most challenging part. After Landrush it’s usually hard to find an empty spot big enough to squeeze a house design in it. You can sometimes find one for your 8×8 scarecrow farm design, but a house will need more land space, the smallest being 16×16.
To place a house you will also need a certain amount of tax certificates in your inventory. You can see the amount needed in your design. You can make tax certificates at your own scarecrow farm, or anyone’s farm or house.
Landrush Tip: You first place your farm, get it built and use it to make tax certificates for your house.
Finding a Spot for a House
What you need to do is to travel around the areas where you are allowed to place houses. You can see them on the mini-map as a small house symbol. You should start searching for a free spot in the least contested areas of the game. Areas that have lesser trade profit and are not suitable to grow the best crops. If you’re lucky you will find a free spot there to place your property.
What you can also do is search for houses or occupied land that is just about to be demolished. If the player owning the property has not paid his taxes it will enter into a demolition phase and at a certain time of day will be demolished. At the moment the property is demolished you can place yours there. However, many other players could be doing the same thing so there is likely to be competition.
Placing your House
To place your house you just need to right-click on your house design inside an area designated for buildings. You can then see the boundaries of your property and you need to move it so that it does not show up as red, which happens on relatively flat land which is not occupied by any other buildings and is entirely within the property zone.
If you have found a spot and you have the necessary tax certificates in your inventory you can place your house. Afterward, you will get mail that asks you to pay taxes on your property. Do that as soon as possible to ensure that you get to keep your plot for at least two weeks. After you manage to place a house design you then need to build the house.
Building a House in Archeage
The requirements for a house depend on the design you buy. The cheapest ones typically need one or two stone pack and lumber pack. Take note that these are trade packs so once you make them you need to be able to use them soon or be able to store them in a safe place. There is no time limit on building a house. You just need to pay the taxes on the house each week (even when unbuilt) and you will be good.
How to Make a Stone Pack
You first need to get raw stones. These can be mined from stone piles you find in various locations around Archeage. Some areas are far better than others for mining as the stone piles are concentrated in a small area, two good areas the Granite Quarry in ARcum Iris and a circular area around Blackreath Keep in Solzreed Peninsula. Each stone pile costs 10 labor to mine and you will usually get 5 to 6 raw stone from one.
Once you have 300 raw stone you need to make stone bricks from the raw stone. One stone brick requires three raw stone and costs 5 labor to make with 300 raw stone making 100 stone bricks. You do this at a stonemason workbench you can find in most towns.
The stone pack then requires those 100 stone bricks and costs 25 labor to make. The labor cost of a single stone pack is therefore about 1000 labor.
How to Make a Lumber Pack
For Lumber packs, you need to get logs. These can be chopped from trees you find in various locations around Archeage. Each tree costs 10 – 15 labor to chop and you will usually get 5 to 6 lumber from one. Some trees give more lumber, some less. You can also grow your own trees on a public farm or on your own scarecrow farm.
Similarily to the stone pack, you need to make lumber from the logs. One lumber requires three logs and costs 5 labor to make one. The lumber pack then requires 100 lumber and costs 25 labor to make. Meaning that you will need three hundred logs for a single lumber pack.
The labor cost of a single lumber pack is also about 1000 labor.
Putting the House Together
Once you have made a stone or lumber pack, just walk or drive your trade pack (or packs) to your house and use the building interface there to place the pack into the building. You do this by pressing the “G” button. Just be sure that it is your house that you are adding the pack too. Once you have installed all the necessary packs to the building you will finally have a ready house.
Buying a House.
In every region, there is a Community Center. Over there you can look at the “Residents Board” by pressing the “F” key and opening the “Sales” tab. This displays all the houses that are for sale in that region. The listing shows the type of house, it’s location, and the cost of buying it. Unless there are none for sale.
If you have the necessary gold you can then simply buy the house you want.
So that’s about it when it comes to getting a house in Archeage. If you found this guide useful then please share it with your friends and allies in Archeage. I also have a few other guides on Archeage Unchained. Anyway, good luck with getting a house.