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Paralives Field GuideParalives Field Guide

Terrain & landscaping

Paralives terrain tools — sculpt, paint and plant

Terrain in Paralives is two passes: sculpt the height with contour-guided brushes, then paint textures and foliage on top. This guide walks both passes with screenshots from the official terrain demo and a community build walkthrough.

Start the walkthroughFull build tutorial
Paralives terrain paint mode brushing a winding brown dirt path through long grass and wildflowers beside a house
Paint paths last — sculpt first, textures second, plants third.

The short version

Landscaping lives in the tree icon on the left toolbar. Sculpt tools reshape height with visible contour rings; paint tools replace the default grass with gravel, flowers or paths; foliage brushes cluster plants when you drag instead of clicking one at a time.

  • Flatten uneven ground before walls — misaligned terrain breaks wall snaps
  • Brush size and strength sit in the floating panel while sculpting
  • Paint weeds away before laying gravel or paths
  • Hold and drag on foliage to scatter clusters, not rows

Before you build

Empty terrain vs town: the New Game choice

Every terrain question starts here, because the two maps give you different amounts of ground to work with. New Game offers exactly two starting maps, and the community wiki documents the empty one down to its size — which is why “why is the empty terrain so small” has a numeric answer.

Town — Melino

The basegame town: pre-built lots, fixed roads, districts, shops and neighbours. You buy an existing residential lot and sculpt inside its perimeter. The terrain tools behave the same as on the empty map — what you cannot do is move a road, add a lot that was not there, or edit commercial and public lots, because world editing tools are still a planned feature.

Melino lots and places

Simple Empty Terrain

One blank residential lot of about 5,691 m² with 30,000 Paradimes to spend, no household and no neighbours — the wiki’s own phrasing is “a sandbox-like environment”. It is a single lot sitting in a void, which is exactly why it reads small next to a whole town map.

Split it into lots: create a world

Both maps are picked once, on the New Game screen — no source documents switching an existing save’s starting map, so treat that as unverified. What the empty map can become is better documented: the create-a-world guide covers dividing it into several lots with the developer town-edit command, the limits of that route, and how fragile it is.

Step 1–3

Sculpt the height

Raise, lower, smooth and flatten change the lot mesh itself. White contour rings show how steep the slope is — use them to judge when a hill is tall enough before you paint over it.

  1. 1

    Raise a hill with the sculpt brush

    Open Landscaping → Terrain Tools and pick the raise brush. Click and hold on flat ground — white contour rings appear as the hill grows. The official demo builds a gentle mound in three or four passes; bigger brush size covers more area per click.

    Paralives raise terrain brush building a grassy hill with white contour elevation rings visible on the lot
    Contour rings = height readout while you sculpt.Watch at 0:05
  2. 2

    Read the contour rings while you shape

    Each ring is a height step. Tight rings mean a steep face; wide rings mean a gentle slope. Switch to smooth or lower if a face gets too sharp, then raise again to add a plateau on top.

    Multiple white contour lines on a Paralives hill showing elevation steps while sculpting terrain in build mode
    Steep slope = rings close together.Watch at 0:25

Step 4–6

Paint textures

Once the height is right, terrain paint replaces the default grass with long grass, wildflowers and dirt paths. Paint these layers before gravel aprons and foliage.

  1. 3

    Lay a second grass texture

    The paint palette includes short grass, long grass and dry variants. Layer a longer texture on top of the base coat around the foundation — the official demo paints the mound with lush grass before adding flowers. Brush strength controls how opaque the overlay is.

    Paralives terrain paint mode applying long grass texture over a sculpted hill beside the build toolbar
    Mix textures — short grass under, long grass on the mound.Watch at 0:50
  2. 4

    Add wildflower patches

    Select a wildflower swatch and paint patches on the long-grass areas. Yellow, pink and white clusters are separate textures, not individual plants, so you can drag a loose border rather than placing flowers one at a time.

    Wildflower terrain texture painted in patches across long grass on a Paralives lot during landscaping
    Flower swatches are textures — paint them like grass.Watch at 1:05
  3. 5

    Paint a winding path last

    Pick a dirt or paving swatch and draw a curving path through the flowers down to the street or porch. Paths go on last so they sit on top of the grass and flower layers. Vary the brush size to taper the trail at the doorway.

    Winding brown dirt path painted through wildflowers and long grass leading to a Paralives house entrance
    Path last — it cuts through the textures underneath.Watch at 1:18

Step 4–9

Paint and plant

Once the height is right, terrain paint replaces the default grass, and foliage brushes scatter shrubs and flowers. A gravel apron and a painted path are the fastest way to make a new build stop looking like a box on a field.

  1. 6

    Lower, smooth and flatten the footprint

    The same terrain panel offers lower, smooth and flatten beside raise. Flatten is not just cosmetic — walls on uneven ground often refuse to connect, so level the footprint before you draw rooms. Lower digs sunken patios; smooth blends harsh seams between sculpted sections.

    Paralives terrain height tools panel showing raise, lower, smooth and flatten brushes beside a finished house
    Flatten before walls; sculpt hills after the shell is done.Watch at 9:12
  2. 7

    Brush away the default weeds

    Terrain paint mode lists grass, weeds, dirt and paving swatches. Crank the brush size up and paint plain grass over the default weed mix around the house. Clearing the lot edge first makes every texture you lay afterwards read more deliberately.

    Paralives terrain paint brush clearing default weeds from grass around a brick house foundation
    Large brush + plain grass = clean canvas.Watch at 8:41
  3. 8

    Swap grass for gravel near the house

    Gravel, dirt and stone paving sit in the same paint list as grass. Brush a band along the foundation instead of leaving the default turf against the walls — it reads as a deliberate apron and stops rain-streak dirt from clipping the siding.

    Gravel terrain paint brushed along the foundation of a Paralives house replacing the default grass apron
    Gravel against the walls sells the landscaping faster than more furniture.Watch at 9:43
  4. 9

    Cluster shrubs and flowers with the foliage brush

    Trees, shrubs and potted plants live in the landscaping catalogue. Hold and drag on the ground and the game scatters a natural cluster instead of a straight line. Individual plants can still be selected afterwards to resize or recolour.

    Paralives foliage brush placing clustered red rose bushes along a house foundation in landscaping mode
    Drag to cluster — click only when you need one precise pot.Watch at 10:13

Terrain paint

Terrain paint, ground textures and the lot limit

“Terrain paint” searches land on two separate things the studio shipped in one patch: the landscaping brush you paint the lot with, and a set of floor textures derived from it. The 0.1.7 notes are the only official text on either, so both are quoted in full.

Patch Notes 0.1.7 — New Ground Textures
“Players can now decorate their homes with a variety of natural floors inspired by our terrain painting tools.”

Official patch notes, 10 August 2026. Note what it says and what it does not: floor swatches taken from the terrain palette, no list of textures, no count.

Patch Notes 0.1.7 — Lot Painting Limits
“We have lightly extended the limit of lots to allow terrain painting that goes slightly out of bounds. This is mostly to make sure players can connect their lots to the sidewalk.”

Same patch notes. This is the official answer to “terrain paint will not reach the edge of my lot” — the limit was raised, not removed.

Read together, the two lines define the workflow: terrain paint stays an outdoor lot-surface tool with a perimeter, and its textures crossed over into interior floors from 0.1.7 onwards.

The catalogue splits sculpt from paint

Build Mode’s landscaping block lists Terrain Sculpting as four named tools — Elevate Terrain, Lower Terrain, Smooth Terrain, Flatten Terrain — with Terrain Painting as its own entry beside them. That is the structure the wiki’s Build Mode table documents, and it matches the two passes the steps above follow.

Paint to the lot line, then hand over to the sidewalk

Since 0.1.7 you can push terrain paint slightly past the boundary on purpose, and the notes give the reason: connecting your lot to the sidewalk. Painted gravel meeting the public pavement is what stops a lot reading as a floating square.

Natural floors are a floor, not outdoor paint

The new ground textures go on the interior floor surface — “natural floors inspired by our terrain painting tools” — so a gravel-look hallway is a floor job on the construction layer, not terrain paint that leaked indoors. The floor guide covers that side.

Floors: finishes and paintingCreate a world on empty terrain

What the notes leave open

The 0.1.7 entry is one sentence long and the wiki documents terrain tools at category level. Still unresolved:

  • Which textures the New Ground Textures set contains, and how many. Neither the notes nor the wiki enumerate them.
  • The numeric terrain-paint limit before and after 0.1.7 — “lightly extended” is the only figure given.
  • Whether terrain paint behaves differently on Simple Empty Terrain than inside Melino. No source compares the two.
  • Whether you can paint over roads or public pavement in Melino — the notes describe connecting a lot to the sidewalk, not repainting it.

Beyond the lawn

Garden ideas with terrain tools

A garden in Paralives today is pure landscaping — there is no planting, growing or harvesting system (the wiki lists gardening as a future activity), so the sculpt, paint and foliage passes above are the entire toolkit. Treated that way, the same three passes produce most garden looks:

  • Wildflower borders — drag flower swatches in loose fringes along paths and fences; the textures are clusters, not plants, so irregular edges look intentional.
  • Gravel and paving aprons — a pale band against the foundation reads as a tended bed and keeps the default turf off the walls.
  • Layered meadow — long grass over the short base coat, then wildflowers punched through, keeps big lots from looking flat.
  • Sculpted beds — raise a low berm along the garden side before painting; the contour rings keep the slope gentle enough for walls to stay safe.

Finish with the landscaping catalogue — trees, shrubs and potted plants cluster naturally with the foliage brush, and individual pots mark corners and doorways. When you want structure over paint, decking and patios are the other half of outdoor design.

Decks & patios guideAll build guides

Terrain questions

Where are terrain tools in Paralives build mode?
Click the tree icon on the left toolbar, then the terrain-tools sub-icon. Sculpt brushes (raise, lower, smooth, flatten) and paint swatches (grass, gravel, flowers) share that panel. Foliage plants are one icon further down the same landscaping section.
Should I sculpt terrain before or after building the house?
Flatten the footprint before you draw walls — uneven ground is a common reason walls refuse to connect. Decorative hills and paths can wait until the shell is done so you do not accidentally bury a doorway.
Can terrain paint go inside rooms?
Terrain paint affects the outdoor lot mesh. Interior floors use the floor paint tool in the construction section. Outdoor patios can use either depending on whether you raised a platform first.
Do terrain changes cost money?
Sculpting and terrain paint are free. Individual trees, shrubs and potted plants from the foliage catalogue deduct from the household budget the same way furniture does.
Can you sculpt terrain after the house is built?
Yes, but flatten the footprint before drawing walls — uneven ground breaks wall snaps. Sculpt hills and paint paths after the shell is done so you do not bury foundations.
Should I start in Town or on Simple Empty Terrain?
For building without an audience: Simple Empty Terrain — one blank lot of about 5,691 m², 30,000 Paradimes, no household in it. For a build inside the game’s systems — shops, jobs, townies, Garbage Day — start in Town and buy a residential lot in Melino. The terrain tools work identically on both; the difference is everything outside your lot line.
How big is the Simple Empty Terrain?
About 5,691 m²: a single blank residential lot, per the wiki’s Main Menu article, which also gives the 30,000 Paradimes it starts you with. Big enough for one house and its grounds, small enough that nobody mistakes it for a town map.
Can you make the empty terrain bigger in Paralives?
Nothing shipped does it from a menu, and world editing remains a planned feature. Two documented workarounds: Steam Workshop mods that enlarge the default terrain — they apply only to saves created after you enable them — or subdividing the existing lot into several smaller ones with the developer town-edit command. Both are walked through on the create-a-world guide.
Is there a terrain paint tool in Paralives?
Yes, and it is separate from sculpting. The wiki’s Build Mode table lists Terrain Painting as its own entry beside Terrain Sculpting’s four tools (Elevate, Lower, Smooth, Flatten Terrain). Paint replaces the lot’s surface texture; sculpting changes its height.
Why will my terrain paint not reach the edge of the lot?
Because terrain painting stops at the lot perimeter — by design. Patch 0.1.7 raised that limit slightly, “mostly to make sure players can connect their lots to the sidewalk”, so painting up to and slightly past the boundary is now possible. No source documents painting across roads or onto a neighbouring lot.
Can you put grass texture on indoor floors?
Not by painting terrain indoors — terrain paint is an outdoor lot-surface tool. Since 0.1.7 you get the look another way: the patch added “a variety of natural floors inspired by our terrain painting tools” as floor finishes, which you place on the interior floor layer.

Keep building

Full build tutorial

Terrain paint and foliage also appear in the seventeen-step first-house walkthrough.

Decks & patios

Raised outdoor floors when you want stone or wood decking instead of painted grass.

Create a World

What the unreleased world editor can and cannot sculpt at map scale.

Hill house build

Terrain tools put to work on a slope: cutting a bench into the hill, raising a pad and cantilevering the view — a full hillside house, frame by frame.

Custom city build

Terrain at town scale — shoreline terraces, autumn forests and a working waterfront across the lots of a self-built city.

Custom world from scratch

A full world built with the terrain tools on this page — layering, paint and painted hillside roads.

15 build tips

Separator porches, colour codes and the other tricks that pair well with landscaping.

All build guides

Split-level, curved walls, garages and the rest of the build cluster.

Pond build

Dig a garden pond with the lower, smooth and paint brushes this page explains.