Dumb Ways to Build Beginner Guide: 12 Tips for Day One

Dumb Ways to Build drops you into Hotel Hapless with a nail gun and very little explanation. The tips below come from PlaySide’s support centre, the official store text and videos, the Dot Esports review, and what launch-day crews ran into on stream. None of them depends on a secret route.

Before the first job

  1. Pick the mode on purpose. Host Game is the co-op mode, even if nobody joins you. Solo Play is a separate mode with its own rules, and only Solo Play gives you the freeze trick and Checkpoint Passes. If you are playing alone, choose Solo Play from the menu. See Solo Play.
  2. Turn on Infinite Revives for your first run. It is a switch in Level Select, and PlaySide says it does not stop you earning certifications. It just makes dying cheaper. See revives and checkpoints.
  3. Sort out voice chat. The game uses proximity voice, and PlaySide calls it the recommended way to play. Dead Beans can still talk through a crackly walkie-talkie. If you stream, Streamer Mode (Settings > Gameplay) replaces everyone’s name with Player 1, Player 2 and so on.

Building

  1. Anything not bolted down is material. Planks, chairs, tables, pipes, a washing machine, a fridge: grab it, rotate it, throw it or nail it. Your hands carry things; the nail gun in slot 1 fixes them in place.
  2. Nail things to the world. A nail sticks any two objects together, or sticks an object to the side of a building (Dot Esports). That is how most bridges and ledges start.
  3. Materials run out. Planks fall off roofs and get lost in traffic. One PS5 player lost a steel beam on the overpass, and Dot Esports describes a crew running out of boards after rebuilding the same platform six times. Build it once, carefully.
  4. Use rotate and distance. While carrying something you can hold to rotate it, snap-rotate it, and move it closer or further away (mouse wheel, L1 on PS5). Lining it up before you nail saves time. See controls.

Staying alive

  1. Fall damage adds up fast. Even short drops chip away at you. A Pocket Mattress breaks long falls, and the Cannonbean certification rewards surviving a 50 m drop.
  2. Port-a-loos are everything. They are both checkpoints and revive points. A friend who joins mid-job spawns dead and comes back out of one.
  3. Pop the balloon at the right moment. A dead Bean can float off on a revive balloon, and nobody can steer it. Pop it when the body will land somewhere safe.
  4. Watch what you eat. Popcorn makes you jump much higher. Burnt toast hurts you. The other snacks have not been shown clearly yet; see tools and items.

Progress

  1. Certifications drive the unlocks. Each Job has six: finish it, beat the time trial, finish with zero deaths, finish it on Master Builder, and two hidden challenges. Certifications unlock cosmetics, and finishing all three Jobs on Normal unlocks Master Builder. The time-trial limits read out on stream were 20, 25 and 30 minutes. See achievements and Master Builder.

Where to go next

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More Dumb Ways to Build Guides & Data

JOBSAll 3 Crisis Jobs

Hotel Hapless, Drain Strain and Crane Climb: objectives, hazards, time trials and secrets.

CERTSAchievements

All 25 certifications with Steam unlock rates, grouped by job.

GEARTools & Items

Nail gun, sledgehammer, plunger, pocket gear, snacks and revive items.