Online: 404 Crafting and Building: Recipes, Costs and Controls
Updated 17 Oct 2026 · Game version: June 2026 demo (Steam Next Fest)
The first thing that trips players up in Online: 404: crafting is in your phone’s Notes app, not a separate menu. One streamer spent about 15 minutes looking for a crafting screen before finding it there. New recipes appear after you read the right article on the in-game internet (see search terms).
Demo note: costs are from the June 2026 demo and may change in Early Access.
Known recipes
| Item | Materials | How to unlock |
|---|---|---|
| Hammer | Wood 25 | Search building mallet hammer. “A sturdy hammer for building and repairs. If it doesn’t fit, hit it harder.” |
| Cheap Workbench | Junk 1, wood 10, metal scrap 50 | Search DIY workbench cheap |
| Workbench | Junk 3, wood 200, metal scrap 100 | Search workbench craft cheap spare parts |
| Lock Pick | Metal | Search how to make lockpicks from metal |
| Campfire | 25 wood + 5 stone (from commentary, recipe page not captured) | Known from the start. Place it from your hotbar, add wood, hold to light; you can sit at it, Space stands you up |
| Bandage | Cloth scraps (needs a hammer) | From the note you start with. Stops bleeding |
| Wooden bed | Wood + cloth scraps (from commentary) | Search wooden bed |
| Gasoline wall lamp | — | Search gasoline wall lamp. “Tap to toggle, hold to see more options”; fill it with gas through its storage, and the fuel burns fast |
Some recipes say workbench required. In Notes, an indicator shows whether you’re standing close enough to one.
Building
Equip the hammer (it went in hotbar slot 5 in the demo) to enter build mode. The controls stay on screen at the bottom left:
| Action | Control |
|---|---|
| Choose a piece | Right mouse button |
| Place | Left mouse button |
| Remove | Middle mouse button |
| Rotate | R |
| Hide the preview | H |
| Pick up a placed object | Hold E |
Pieces in the demo: foundation (they snap together), floor, stairs, wall, beam, doorway, wide doorway, wall with doorway, wall with window, wall with two windows, small / flat roof. Every piece we saw costs 10 wood. Placed pieces have a Condition and a Stability rating (a fresh foundation reads Condition 500/500, Stability 100%). There was no actual door in the demo, only doorways; a “Door bolt to lock the door” article exists, so doors are probably coming.
Getting materials
- Wood: chop trees with an axe; each swing drops 2–5 wood and a tree gives plenty, and clearing trees makes room to build. Locals sometimes carry 20–80 wood.
- Metal: melt empty tin cans in a campfire (“Trash in peacetime. Treasure after civilization collapses”), or take metal scrap from Locals.
- Junk: “A collection of random scrap that somehow remains useful”, found in most containers; it doesn’t stack.
- Stone and cloth scraps: the starting area, the motel and the smugglers’ camp. See item locations.
Tips and gotchas
- Build in the woods. Charlie tells you the Locals “mostly hang around familiar structures” and to put your shelter among the trees.
- Don’t drop items inside your own building. In the demo they could fall through the floor and be lost.
- Reinforce wooden walls with scavenged car parts such as doors and hoods (this is from the Steam page; we’ll show it once the Early Access build is out).
- Tool durability bars exist but didn’t seem to drop in the demo.
Sources
- Trapped in a Quarantined Town With Only Our Phone To Save Us! - Online: 404 by ProRogueBear
- Online: 404 DEMO 💠 First Look by Kizmar
- Surviving My First Day in Online: 404 Was Brutal by OutbackBiff
Spotted a step that’s wrong? Tell us and we’ll fix it and update the date.
indiewalkthrough isn’t affiliated with Cornfield Games or Cornfield Games.