Going Medieval Guide | How to Build Underground

At some point in Going Medieval, your food is going to start rotting. Underground storage is the fix for that. Cellars work the same way refrigerators do today — they keep things cold and stop food from spoiling in the heat. The game also lets you dig into the sides of mountains and build across multiple levels, which opens up a lot of options as your colony grows. This guide covers how to build a working cellar, how to move between layers, and how to keep larger underground rooms stable.

One thing to know before you start digging: in the current version of the game, you cannot fill holes back in once they're dug. Clay Walls can be used as a placeholder to block off big holes, but the result isn't clean. Think about where you dig before you commit to it.

How To Build A Cellar

Dig The Hole

Open the Mine order by clicking the pickaxe icon in the bottom right of the screen, then queue up a section of ground for one of your citizens to dig out. A 6x6 area works well for a first cellar. How long it takes depends on your citizen's mining skill and what they're digging through. Dirt moves faster than iron. You want the room to go at least two levels down, because the first level underground doesn't get cold enough on its own. The second layer is where the temperature actually drops.

Add A Staircase

Before your citizens can clear out the bottom of the pit or move anything in and out, you need a staircase. To move between the surface and underground layers yourself, use Z and X on your keyboard, or hold CTRL and scroll with the middle mouse button.

Cover The Floor With Wood

Stockpiles work better when placed on wood rather than bare dirt. Putting a wood floor down under the stockpile helps stop food from going bad. Keep in mind that wood raises the temperature of a room, so don't cover the whole floor with it. A good approach is to have a small side room with just a dirt floor. That lower-temperature room pulls the overall temperature of the space down, which helps keep things cool.

Set The Stockpile To Food Only

Most materials are fine sitting out in the open, so the underground stockpile should be set to food and carcasses only. Right-click the stockpile to change what it accepts. When clicking, be careful not to select nearby piles of rock by accident since they can get in the way.

Seal The Top With Wood Flooring

Place wood flooring over the top of the cellar to close it off and hold the temperature down. This also lets your citizens walk across the top of it. It opens up some useful options too, like placing cooking stations directly above the food storage, or adding a table up top so villagers can reach food more easily.

Building Larger Underground Rooms

The process for bigger underground rooms follows the same steps, but there are more things to manage once the space gets large.

Beams are needed to keep larger rooms stable. Place a beam against one wall and it will automatically extend to the nearest wall on the opposite side. For very large rooms, a central pillar with beams around it is a reliable way to hold everything up. If a room doesn't have enough support, it can cave in and bring down nearby terrain with it.

Temperature management also gets more involved as rooms get bigger. Too much wood flooring and the room gets too warm. Small rooms can handle mostly wood, but larger spaces need a mix of wood and dirt to stay cold. Keep that balance in mind as you expand.

Rooms also need to be separated by doors. If two underground areas connect without a door between them, the game treats them as one shared space. That means the temperature and conditions of both areas are combined, and a lower room won't be any colder than the one above it. A single door between sections is all it takes to fix that.

Building into the side of a cliff is worth mentioning as well. It might seem like a good option, but a cliff room sits at ground level and gets affected by the outside air temperature. It won't stay as cold as a room that's properly dug down into the earth.

Also, check our Going Medieval Review and other guides below:

• Going Medieval Beginner's Guide | Gameplay Tips & Tricks
• Going Medieval Guide | How to Raise Animals