Salem

Hi everyone,

I am new to the game. I don't really know what I'm doing yet. Could you please help me with a few questions?

1. Is there any particular cardinal direction in which I should venture for hours to find a suitable location (i.e., is there uninhabitable cold in the north and sweltering heat in the south that should be avoided)?

2. Is it wise to settle on the skirts of the darkness to avoid other players or is this simply where the veterans congregate?

3. When I do set up my base, could it simply be a 5x7 (Pilgrim's Hovel + mine entrance) that will hopefully go unnoticed or, on the contrary, will this attract a lot attention? Does it make sense to have a small but well defended footprint on the surface (with most structures underground)? Braziers are so expensive so I would be interested in setting up a well-defended main base with a small footprint and a more vulnerable aux base with a large footprint for farming and surface activities.

So far I've sold enough savage charms for a Writ of Homesteading. I'm looking for some items that are not available at the blue player stalls near the beach in Providence (i.e., leather and nails) so I'd like to trade directly with other players.

4. Is the forum the best avenue for trades with other sites like http://nsuidara.x14.eu/salem/shop/ being used just as a supplement?

5. I have, among other things, 4 Earthworm Phytons and 1 Cross-Shaped Wood Splinter to sell. If someone on the marketplace is offering to buy phytons @ 20s ea., how can I research whether that's a reasonable price?

I'm not really sure how I should prioritize my advancement with the limited nails I buy from other traders. In my travels I came across a large base that seem to be abandoned. The tilled fields are empty, most of the gardening pots are empty, the fences are smashed up, and the storage containers on the surface have been pillaged. At the center is a tiny claimed area around a claim stone where 2 people are sleeping on leafy beds. The base seems to be abandoned (with the 2 month timer possibly ticking away on the claim stone) but I'm not sure. Do players usually leave these alone or does the motto I've read that "no claim is fair game" apply? There are a lot of unclaimed buildings and structures - all the way up to a Finery Forge - that I could use to get started.

6. If I'm using another base's structures, should I prioritize the purchase of a pickaxe to start my own supply of nails? I would start learning blacksmithing.

7. If I'm starting my own base, should I prioritize the purchase of 7 nails (sawbuck, compost, loom) for a cotton economy? I would start learning cotton planting.

Thank you very much for your help.

1. Head far enough to where you won't see an abnormal amount of random leantos(meaning random new ppl can spawn in that radius with the random guide spawn at start of game)
Try to use natural landscapes as defenses as many people will go around the landscapes and not find your base easily, aka lots of rivers, mountains/cliffs, lakes, etc.

2. Don't settle in the twilight but before it, the twilight is the between of darkness and light and that's where rats will begin to spawn(worrying about curing diseases all the time and avoiding rats while foraging is annoying)

3. Try to make plank/brick walls at the start, lock your gates, and use mini braziers for defenses as pig iron is alot cheaper than wrought iron and should cover your small area temporarily until you can expand properly.

4. Don't expect to make much trades without using the player stalls located in the southeast of providence town or by using the forums.
Nsuidara's shop isn't as popular is it could be right now but its getting there.

6. If you have the time to mine in the mines for iron then go for making your own iron.

7. Farming cotton without a weaving set is a foolhardy task, your best bet is to find goods that other people want to buy on the forums and scavenge for them until you can afford better things.

Sidenote, before investing too much into your base, make sure you save up enough silver and materials to townbell your area so its much safer.

So,basically everything Max said above,plus a few of my own pointers:

your base isn't going to "go unnoticed" so disabuse yourself of that notion now
the game world is pretty massive but also fairly active,it may take days or weeks,but honestly nomatter where you settle SOMEONE is going to wander by your base sooner or later. as Max said you can try to use the terrain to your advantage,as most people will skirt a wide river or steep cliffsides before they attempt swimming/climbing (in most cases). however in the current mechanic the "defender" or base has an arguable advantage.stick to building reasonable defenses per your skill level as you progress and keep your things ALL on your claim and actually you should go relatively unmolested. if you want to try to "hide" or not attract attention, then my advice is get you mine opened and with support beams(even if you arent ready to "mine" yet) and put as much of the builds/storage underground or in your house(s) as possible,even if someone IS strong enough to risk breaching your claim,if they dont see much potential loot,theyre HIGHLY unlikely to risk the bile drain/stocks/death/etc just to peek further.

Speaking on placement,you've guessed it,darkness and twilight is exactly where alot of vets gather/settle,including the witches.
Also,as max alludes there are some nasty "Monster" variants of standard mobs and even uniques,that CAN and WILL kill you,whereas common mobs at worst will knock you out,The rats he mentioned will disease you and thats a huge headache you dont want starting out (in fact,without intervention of some powerful friends,it's also likely fatal) TBH i would advocate setting up shop right outside providence,Yes, you will see more traffic but as previously stated with proper defenses and precautions it shouldnt matter much or at all,and the fruit bushes/small game/foreagables of worth tend to be MUCH more plentiful in and around the town.

A couple of the most important things about base location is access to "natural resources" (building material) you will save yourself alot of time and headache if you build close enough to water so you arent hauling buckets for hours at a trip,and with some trees still standing not only for lumber but to leave a couple standing for branches to fuel your stoves/kilns etc. Speaking of kilns,a clay pit within a few screens of base or so is great,you can make clay yourself out of dirt if not,but it adds ALOT of time and processes to an endeavor otherwise fast and simple. It also takes quite a bit of LIME which brings me to the next item:you MUST build near lime,as you are going to require it for MANY tasks (smelting your ore,tanning skins to leathers,building stone hedge,possibly making clay from dirt,etc) so you CAN opt to deal with an extra chore to circumvent lack of clay,but you MUST have access to Lime,some will argue you can find random spawned pieces of it around the world,this is true,but i would blanch at the thought of trying to sustain your needs in this fashion.

you dont need player stalls to buy nails,they sell em in the game shop stall but the cost is pretty steep,i personally would encourage you to build your own anything wherever and whenever possible,as regardless of other arguments this is going to be most profitable way to do it,period. same with leathers and things,if you can find/build/craft it yourself,thats going to be the cheapest and most efficient way to do it. also,be wary of trading with other players,as scamming is easy and commonplace. even the stalls are not 100% secure,as you may have read elsewhere they do not display "charges" on an item,so you can try to buy a multiple use inspirational,and when you receive it only has 1 use remaining. As to using outside resources like the nsuidara market,i personally don't do it,so the only fair advice i can offer you is this:do so at your own risk.

As far as "fair" pricing,there's no such thing. Some things are more valuable to some than to others,and certain people are after certain things at certain times.you're best bet besides the obvious (which is hit and miss studying of the various trades in forums and stalls trying to get an idea) is to form a couple friendships or at least business relationships with a few TRUSTWORTHY players,to build your own mini trade network of sorts. reasonable folk will try to give you a relative idea of somethings worth,and if you're friends they might sometimes compromise in your favor on price,to help your noobie butt out
Also,sometimes higher level players will pay you reasonable compensation for relatively common gatherables just to save themselves the time and effort of wandering around hunting a specific item.with some luck and timing these "mercenary" chores can fill up your early purses quite nicely.

As far as using "abandoned" bases,i dont discourage it,like you said it could help you get a huge jump at the start,but a few things to consider:
1) beds being slept in mean it may NOT be inactive,and established players are likely to be less than friendly to "squatters"

2)if it has a claim already on,even a tiny one,you arent going to be able to expand your own claim closer then 5 tiles from the existing one,thus effectively foiling your eventual expansion.

3)even if the upkeep has expired on a claim,to my knowledge it continues to function as normal with respect to black bile drain,braziers firing and so on,and you have to have the "Waste" skill to demolish it out of the way anyhow,so this is NOT going to be a viable option for you starting out,or even for quite some time...

4) if you DO find a suitable existing base to "repurpose" be advised that containers and equipment left outside are subject to decay,so your first goal after establishment will need to be running around repairing everything possible so you dont load a box with goodies only to have it disintegrate while youre offline and take the goodies with it...

Finally,as to "rushing" for a cotton economy,just don't do it. the only real lucrative money is in higher tier and purity output,which has to be built over time and careful maintenance. A compost and Loom arent going to get you rolling in the money right out the gate in fact,a far more necessary build for any chance of success right from the start is a scarecrow,and that takes GLASS,so you're going to need your mining operation already running AND producing wrought (for crucible) or else buy from town (a glass pane in game stall is 350s)



I hope this advice helps at least in stimulating your thinking about various mechanics and variables that could be a difficulty to you,and how to surmount them. I'm happy to assist with whatever advice I can so feel free to post follow-up or message me directly with questions. (although be patient for reply,as I tend to spend more time in-game than here in Troll Land.)

Bleuwulf wrote:Finally,as to "rushing" for a cotton economy,just don't do it. the only real lucrative money is in higher tier and purity output,which has to be built over time and careful maintenance. A compost and Loom arent going to get you rolling in the money right out the gate in fact,a far more necessary build for any chance of success right from the start is a scarecrow,and that takes GLASS,so you're going to need your mining operation already running AND producing wrought (for crucible) or else buy from town (a glass pane in game stall is 350s)

- Tier does matter little, yes, you can go make sea island cotton and sell it to other players, but the higher value comes with a proportionally higher work required (getting/keeping influence up, doing trades, actually selling your stuff, not getting scammed, ....)
- Purity does not matter at all, except you try to sell nets for fishtraps to other players, whereas you won't sell much of these nowadays
- Scarecrows are not necessary for various ways and reasons, yet if you are lazy, sure you can use them

If you want to do cotton for making silver, it's ok, you can even do that as a newbie, it will work, but you can just as well run around collecting charms and so on.

Actul relevant info for getting started in cotton farming:
- A decent weaving set matters, but you can do without, a cheap one is better than nothing, and there are many tailors available to get a cheap set done, and even without a set you wont end up at 10 cotton per cloth average
- A scythe, it's expensive but you want one, lowers time spent harvesting and phlegm cost of doing so down to 2/5, think of saving up for one if you want to get your cotton farming to the next level
- A high lvl of SnC, that helps, too, but anyone can get to 300 in reasonable time, and double that lvl does not get double the output.
=> That all means, that as a newbie you are at a disadvantage compared to an established player when it comes to farming cotton, you might get around 1/2 or a little less of the value that an established player gets for the same work, but there's nothing preventing you from doing it, and after all, farming tier 1 cotton for selling to the npcs is a reliable, steady source of income.

Again, you may as well do other things, cotton farming will get you silver, but so do other things you can do in Salem.

Bleuwulf wrote:3)even if the upkeep has expired on a claim,to my knowledge it continues to function as normal with respect to black bile drain,braziers firing and so on,and you have to have the "Waste" skill to demolish it out of the way anyhow,so this is NOT going to be a viable option for you starting out,or even for quite some time...

Yes, the single one difference between a payed and unpayed personal claimstone is, that the unpayed one can be destroyed.

Doing so is very simple, IF you can reach the claimstone, and can be accomplished even by 2-3 weeks old players with moderate to little effort, getting a char up to 40-50 phlegm and black bile, plus learning waste, is not exactly difficult,
depending on how high the char is, you may need to do it in several runs, but that does not really make it any more difficult.
Just make sure to not use your main for crimes, making an alt for that purpose only is easy enough.

That will work for a lone claimstone with either open/unlocked gates or already broken walls, taking over a base where you need to break a stone wall or higher, or have defense (braziers/TPs/...) against you, the level of difficulty is much higher, and an average few weeks old player will likely not be able to do that.

Thank you so much for your advice!

1. I paid 50s to go west and had a much easier time finding Indian feathers and arrowheads. I'm not as worried about starting funds as I was yesterday. I paid another 100s to go further west and I got K.O. - lesson learned (lost the 2 cherished leathers that I was keeping for a woo-woo wand.

2. Thanks for the tips. I've given up on the idea of a secluded base. I'm also going to ignore the established base as I'm liking the idea of starting from scratch and building everything up myself. I'll buy nails from the NPC. Another player was kind enough to sell me leather for a woo-woo wand.

3. I'll keep the footprint small so I get the biggest bang for my defence-buck. I expect it will be a pain to destroy an existing fence in order to upgrade it. Perhaps I'll do concentric circles and simply add rings of higher tier fences as I progress. I read somewhere that a gap between fences is important because of splash damage and that there should be a minimum of 3 fences since the first two crimes don't register for braziers; they will begin firing on the third.

7. Thank you for the warning about cotton farming. I though it was the default option for noobs to make money and that I didn't have much choice (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn5z7o3dUrw). Aside from a few starting nails and a pickaxe it seems pretty easy to be self-sufficient in the game such that I could specialise in anything I'd like.

Thank you once again for all the additional tips. I appreciate it.

casualgamerdave wrote:3. I'll keep the footprint small so I get the biggest bang for my defence-buck. I expect it will be a pain to destroy an existing fence in order to upgrade it. Perhaps I'll do concentric circles and simply add rings of higher tier fences as I progress. I read somewhere that a gap between fences is important because of splash damage and that there should be a minimum of 3 fences since the first two crimes don't register for braziers; they will begin firing on the third.

Your info on defenses seeems to be "a little bit" out of date.

- defenses shoot from the first crime on, even trespassing triggers them
- you want 6-7 tiles of space in between blocks of walls, as they will do splash damage when destroyed
- walls splash onto the same tier and lower wall tiers only, therefore:
- build the weakest walls outside, the strongest inside, for instance, start building with a split rail and leave 3-4 tiles free space behind them, so you can later add a stone hedge right behind it, then a plank fence and so on,
a stone hedge does not splash on plank and brick, but would splash onto a split rail, so having the split rail inside and the stone hedge outside would almost instantly destroy the split rail when breaking the stone hedge,
whereas if you put the split rail outside and the stone hedge inside, then an attacker had to destroy 100% of the the split rails hitpoints, and as it does not splash onto stone hedge, also 100% of the stone hedge.

For safty go far out middle area-ish of the map, find a mine and settle near that with some local lime deposits. Work twords a town bell and then settle a hermit town and build more idealy to how you want. When you make your first base, make it look as un interesting as possible, dont buy anything you cant afford to replace. I would even recomend you building a stone wall only with minor deffenses. Seeing a private homestead with brick walls and no town bell is just waaaaayyyy to tempting to pass up for raiders. Dosnt matter how much defense you have, if you dont have a Town Bell it is super easy to steal everything you own with out leaving a scent.

When i raid, my thought proccess is this, if i feel the homestead is worth more then 8500silver worth of loot, ill raid it, and if somebody has wooden or brick walls in my mind just screams 8500+ silver in loot and thus will take the claim and homestead. If i see a claim with no TB and a ***** load of braziers and torchs, that means they have something they feel very worth protecting and likly to find richs:)

Lazun123 wrote:For safty go far out middle area-ish of the map, find a mine and settle near that with some local lime deposits. Work twords a town bell and then settle a hermit town and build more idealy to how you want. When you make your first base, make it look as un interesting as possible, dont buy anything you cant afford to replace. I would even recomend you building a stone wall only with minor deffenses. Seeing a private homestead with brick walls and no town bell is just waaaaayyyy to tempting to pass up for raiders. Dosnt matter how much defense you have, if you dont have a Town Bell it is super easy to steal everything you own with out leaving a scent.

When i raid, my thought proccess is this, if i feel the homestead is worth more then 8500silver worth of loot, ill raid it, and if somebody has wooden or brick walls in my mind just screams 8500+ silver in loot and thus will take the claim and homestead. If i see a claim with no TB and a ***** load of braziers and torchs, that means they have something they feel very worth protecting and likly to find richs:)

Translation: put your most precious items and your silver stash on an alt in the middle of nowhere so noone can find/steal them

Disregard Bleutard, he has no clue about crime.

The threshold for eminent domain to be economically viable is way higher than 8500 silver.
see wiki: http://salemwiki.info/index.php/Town_Bell
Even assuming ridiculously low prices I found today on Nsu's marketplace today the other materials cost is some 6-7 ks and plus the cost of declaiming which is 2xclaim size (minus initial 25 tiles, IIRC). At the target claim size of 20x20 which is not that big, the declaiming cost is 750 silver and at 30x30 it is 1750s. On to p of that there is a cost of defending the tclaim itself should one plan to use it again.

That makes some 16-17k s cost for declaiming a small newbie claim. Braziers alone would not be a signal to try and declaim, but let's say a shop scarecrow or lots of containers would surely attract interest.

OTOH a base walled with a stone hedge only will be ultimately raided by a semi-advanced crime alt.

In any case your job is to assure the loot is not worth the criminal's effort. Do not hoard items which can be easily taken away and are valuable like silver, gold, rare items. Use your spare metal on your defence. Invest into things which cannot be stolen easily (everything can be destroyed, though), like your char skills, structures. If you do not plan to use an item, sell it and spend the money on something useful or keep in a bank.

Spend a lot of time exploring. Make money selling charms. Learn to make your own map (viewtopic.php?f=11&t=9617). You will quickly find a better place to settle or maybe some ruins with valuable structures or purity fields to take over. That's one many of reasons you will be looking to move away from your first base. You will find other reasons as you progress. That's why it makes limited sense to invest a lot into your first base.