Building and expanding your tribe’s village or “base” by constructing different buildings is a major component of Populous gameplay.

The eight major buildings take the form of primitive wooden huts of different shapes and sizes, with various embellishments like torches or fences to distinguish them from one another. Each hut serves a specialized function, in many cases allowing for the training of Braves into more advanced followers like Warriors, Preachers and Spies.

All buildings are constructed by Braves, who must harvest the necessary raw material (lumber) from the trees that dot the landscape of all the various worlds. Buildings must be placed adjacent to your reincarnation site initially; subsequent buildings can be placed adjacent to completed buildings, thus allowing for the gradual expansion of your buildable area.

Guard Towers are the only standalone structure (meaning they can be placed anywhere on the map at will). Once a Tower is constructed additional buildings can then be placed around it, creating a much greater opportunity for expansion.

Buildings

	Hut The Hut is the most basic building you can construct, and is the one that you will build the most of. Huts are necessary for population growth, mana generation, and the expansion of your buildable territory. All Huts begin as small huts (pictured), but can be upgrade twice (first to a medium hut, then to a large) by gathering and depositing wood outside of them.
	Warrior Training Hut The Warrior Training Hut is a specialized hut allowing regular Braves to be trained to become Warriors.
	Fire Warrior Training Hut The Fire Warrior Training Hut is a specialized hut allowing regular Braves to be trained to become Fire Warriors.
	Guard Tower Guard Towers are defensive buildings used to guard vulernable access points to one’s base. They can hold one unit at a time, and confer a range benefit upon their occupant. Fire Warriors in towers have increased range for their fireballs, and the Shaman’s spells have an increased casting radius.
	Spy Training Hut The Spy Training Hut is a specialized hut allowing regular Braves to be trained to become Spies.
	Temple The Temple is a specialized hut allowing regular Braves to be trained to become Preachers.
	Balloon Hut The Balloon Hut is a specialized hut allowing for the construction of hot air balloons, craft which are capable of conveying up to two units at a time over land and water.
	Boat Hut The Boat Hut is a specialized hut allowing for the construction of boats, craft which are capable of conveying up to five units at a time over water.

Structures

	Reincarnation Site The Reincarnation Site is fixed structure consisting of eight monoliths arranged in a circle. When the Shaman is killed in battle, she will reappear inside this ring of stones after a fixed amount of time, provided there are enough followers remaining in her tribe.
	Tree Trees are the only natural resource used in Populous, yielding the lumber used to construct the various kinds of huts. Each tree can be harvested multiple times and will replenish itself quickly, however a tree chopped completely to the ground will take much longer to regrow, thus making careful tree management a key aspect of gameplay.
	Woodpile Woodpiles are gathered by braves by harvesting wood from trees and are used in the construction of huts. Placing woodpiles in front of basic huts will also trigger their upgrade to larger huts.
	Campfire Campfires can be created anywhere on the map and are only visible to the player that created them. They are essentially visible patrol points on the map, and followers can also be made to dance around them.
	Idol Idols are megalithic statues that can be worshipped by your followers in order to gain access to certain spells. Idols come in many different varieties including totems, vaults and stone heads (pictured). Certain idols will only confer their wisdom when worshipped by the Shaman.