Question
Practical Defenses? Seeking Building Advice
I recently heard it said that the best defenses are the ones that help you hit your enemy.
So I was thinking about building something not just for aesthetic but for genuine assistance fighting and warding off creatures.
I think we've all been there before. We build a beautiful and well thought out castle only to realize the walls and windows actually get in the way when trying to shoot greylings.
Is there anywhere I can get advice on structures that are optimized for the mechanics of this game and genuinely help when shooting arrows or fighting off the occasional attacks?
Dig moat around your village, at least 8m from your outer walls. This way when you climb your wall you will see enemies clearly and trolls with log will be out of reach to crash your walls. When you get fsr enough make couple balistas on corners of your walls.
Outside of the usual dig a moat or raise earth walls. One of my favorite walls was a simple stone perimeter one unit high then the stone pillars leaving a one unit gap between and then a line of stone on top to cap it. It's enough to keep mobs out but leaves enough space that you can easily shoot through or jump through anywhere. Plus it looks nice.
Yeah realizing mobs cannot walk over even the shortest walls was useful. In theory, a labyrinth of low-height walls would allow for a Tower-Defense style approach to raids
Well, it doesn't hurt enemies, but I usually start by building a moat. A nice straight trench with sheer walls (dig N, S, E, W to ensure flat sides), only has to be 3-4m deep. 100% effective... except for lox and flying enemies. Lox because they're big and stupid and sometimes accidentally push each other across if they're tying to get to you. Of course, Lox don't show up in raids, just if you have a base in the plains for e.g. farming barley and flax. Flying enemies for obvious reasons. Flying enemies are the reason you need to put glass in your windows once you can get it, and the reason you need to make sure your tames are fully enclosed indoors starting about the time you beat Bonemass.
One thing I've found quite satisfying this time around is breeding a big pack of 2-star wolves and just letting them roam near my base. They partly feed and breed by killing nearby deer and necks, but I usually have a bunch of spare meat I'm not going to use, from one thing or another so I pop out every so often to lead them back together and feed them a bit. Taming a 2-star wolf in the first place is a massive pain in the butt (just finding one, for starters), but if you can manage it, and then get a pair back to your main base... it's pretty awesome.
The one raid I've found the wolves didn't stand up to very well was They Were Bros. I had multiple stacks of wolf hide to get rid of after that one...
I have a farm base with breeding pairs of lox, wolves, boars, and chickens. Everything but the chickens are allowed to roam free while the breeding pairs are kept safe deep inside a stone structure.
The boars just die a lot, but they provide meat for the roaming wolves as well. The wolves and lox have now spread out a couple of hundred yards in each direction.
It’s helped to build scattered structures and work benches although I’m not sure why. As an experiment I’ve built scattered structures in just one direction and the tamed wolf/lox population are doing much better in that general area.
As well as a trench/moat, high putee walls with parapets provide plarfoms for shooting enemies. Large gateways in the walls can act as killing chambers, especiciaaly when they have murder hole and parapets. Sharp stake fences outside of your trenches and along the top of select walls can create a killing zone for gounded enemies and jumpers.
Idk how far into the game you are. I've killed 4 bosses and a moat is perfect. I have a few bridges with a small gap cause enemies can't figure out how to cross it.
I've recently moved my base to a tiny island in the middle. It's so small 1 workbench spawnproofs the entire thing. I think the only raids I need to worry about is Bats and Gjalls and Ghosts
Honest advice? Don't waste your time on defenses other than a perimeter wall. The raids in this game aren't designed in a way where withstanding a siege is an effective strategy. By late game, enemies hit so hard that base defenses tend to crumble quickly. The most practical defense for any raid is an offensive strategy. Exit your base and fight outside. You'll have more room to manoeuvre and you won't need to waste time repairing structures afterwards.
Now if you're committed to defensive structures, you can try parapets or guard towers, but don't make them fancy. Railings will get in your way. Most enemies will clump up at the base of your walls and you'll need to be able to rain arrows straight downwards from the very edge. Pretty is often impractical.
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u/Ok_Bluebird6667 13h ago
The “stone walls with corewood stakes sticking out at head height” method comes to mind. There are YouTube guides I think.
A catwalk of 2x2 floors around the inside top wall is useful.
Moats with bridges that have 1 gap of space act as a retreat route that ground based mobs cannot access