Besiege Super Beginner’s Guide to Blocks and Parameters

This article is meant to be a primer for brand new Besiege players trying their hands at making something they can be proud of. There isn’t a ton to the game just yet, but there definitely is enough to confuse anyone tinkering with the game with no prior help.

Besiege is, as you know, a physics-based building game challenging players to destroy while attempting to keep their creations intact. They keyword here is “attempting”, because chances are your machines are going to break apart often.

You need to learn to deal with the game’s finicky physics, which means keeping in mind how parts interact (and how they might collide) as you are building.

Before pressing forward with the basics, let’s cover the super-basics: The controls. You can remind yourself of these in-game via the Control button at the top right of the screen.

There are three keys in particular you should absolutely remember that are going to make your life easier:

• R – Rotates a block 90 degrees. This must be done before you place a block. Hover over where you want to place the block and press R to see the rotated version before placement.
• F – Currently flips the following parts, so they rotate in the opposite direction: Motor Wheel, Powered Medium Cog, Steering, Steering Hinge, and the Spinning Block. They must be flipped after placement.
• X – Deletes the block you are moused over. Much faster than clicking on the delete icon, then clicking the block.

One tip for those of you looking to build something large:

You can click the cube icon at the top right of the screen to remove the default building boundaries. This allows you to build machines of massive sizes.

Blocks and their uses

Let’s go over the blocks you’ll find in-game at the moment and their standard uses. Considering the type of game Besiege is, there are tons of uses for most blocks. Your imagination is the limit! Well, that and the game engine.

You can do much more than what’s mentioned here, but then we’re veering into territory beyond the basics. Let’s not do that, so you’re not overwhelmed.

Making friends with the Key Mapper and Parameter Tuning tool

The Key Mapper and Parameter Tuning tool is a handy helper for both new and experienced Besiege players. If you’re new to the game, you may be so pensive and confused about the game’s keys and wealth of blocks, you may not even touch it. But you definitely should.

This tool has two functions in one:

1. It allows you to change key mappings for individual parts (if they have keys to use them).
2. It allows you to change the speed at which some blocks move, as well as how heavy Ballasts are.

If you’re looking to make a complicated machine, making friends with the Key Mapper and Parameter Tuning tool is a must. If you’re looking to just have fun with the game, it’s also a must. It’s just indispensable.

To use the tool, click the wrench icon seen in the image above and click on the block you want to adjust. From here, you can either use the slider to adjust speed or change that block’s key bindings (if applicable).

Now, here’s something fun:

Let’s say you have four Cannons and you want to be able to fire each one individually. You can click on each one with the tool and change the key used to fire a single Cannon.

You could set each one to something as simple as a number — so let’s say you set each one to keys 1 through 4 on the keyboard. So 1 for the first Cannon, 2 for the second, and so on.

These types of tricks are something you should try to get used to, as it adds a lot of flexibility to building. If you’d like to give this a shot on something simple, the very first machine in my simple steering machine guide provides a very easy entry into playing with the Key Mapping and Parameter Tuning tool.

Key and parameter cheat sheet

Below is a relatively “cheat sheet” showing what blocks can be adjusted using the tool. Some only allow you to change their function keys, while others allow you to only change their speed or can have both adjusted.

The default function keys are mentioned in parenthesis next to their function. These can be adjusted using the Key Mapper and Parameter Tuning tool.

• Note 1: The Holder block mentions being able to explode, which one can assume would be to detach. This does not work at the moment.
• Note 2: The Ballast block, which functions as a weight, has an adjustable mass range of 0.20 to 2.00. The higher the number, the heavier it is.
• Note 3: The Balloon block, which can lift blocks and structures into the air, has an adjustable buoyancy range of 0.20 to 1.50. The higher the number, the more/higher they will float.

There is much more to say about this game, but this covers the most basic things you need to know to get started. Along with all of the above, here are four snippets of advice:

• Always pay attention to what’s in the vicinity of a moving part. Example: Try not to build turning wheels right next to your machine’s body, otherwise the wheels will collide with other blocks and destroy your machine.
• Weight does play a big part in the movement of most machines, especially in terms of stability. If one side of a land machine is raising off the ground during movement, consider either building more on that side or simply putting a Ballast there. Ballasts have adjustable weight.
• Most machines are not going to be fully stable. You can make adjustments and get them closer to your ideal, but don’t stress if your creations are more wobbly than you might like.
• The Brace is great for keeping your machines from breaking apart during movement.

If you’d like to learn some simple builds to get the basics down, I’ve written guides for building four simple steering machines, two simple catapults (with two bsg files), and one relatively easy to use flying machine (with two bsg files).