New World Hermit Base Building Guide

[DemonEyes]

Since the wipe there have been some changes to how we would want to build our bases, namely the loss of the tree wall, and the nerf to clustered defenses.

I have come up with a suitable strategy to handle the nerf to defenses, however the loss of the tree wall, I think must take some imagination on all our parts to overcome.

For Hermits, the following guide should provide you with a suitable, functional and fairly well defended base.

Too much too soon?
I would not even consider laying a claimstone until;
a) I have found a mine spot not too far away from a lime deposit or water (or well) (at least 2 minimap tiles)
b) I have the materials to build a mine and smelter (lots of silver needed if buying from NPC, players sell much cheaper) or having adequate silver to purchase the items
c) I have as good an idea of the surroundings as possible (purity, local resources, foot fall, nearby bases (preferably none)

There is a lot of good advice on the location of your base within the forums, My preference is to find a suitably located mine and set up shop on it.

Bricking it
Okay you have found a mine spot.. you like the area, it ticks all the boxes.. but wait, you need many stuffs to build your base. Clay is vital to the kick off of this project, if you have a clay deposit in the area, you can count your lucky stars as this will save you 1 nails, needing not to build a clay trough straight away. Build a kiln and craft your self some bricks and clay pots, you can use the clay pots to make milk of lime and make clay on the hoof if the deposit is too far away for regular trips (filling old logs with clay is a good idea, especially with the sled being able to take 2).

You will have to acquire some nails to build the saw buck for the boards. No other way around it. The benfit of this is... Wooden boxes! pretty much the bread and butter of storage containers. Build them as you need them, I have never heard of 'too many boxes'. Ensure your sawbuck is on your claim, nothing is worse than logging in to find it missing when you need just 1 more board!

8 more nails, and you finally have a way to obtain the ore that you have been eyeing since you decided this was it.

Smelting point
Okay we have this ore, that we can remove in boulders from the walls of the mine.. doesnt do much good on its own, we need to smelt them bad boys to obtain the tasty tasty metal bars. Unfortunately at this point you may feel like you are being bent over and shafted by the powers that be. You need a hefty 3 bars of Iron and not so hefty 2 nails, hopefully you have a nice trader that could sell you them, otherwise it is a pretty reaming experience to purchase them off the npc vendor. Collecting the hay may make you chew your keyboard and mouse, but the dividend after completion is worth it.

Whats mine is mine in this mine
At this point you are likely to be pretty short of finances (unless you have had good luck), to save much investment of extending your claim further than necessary, build some containers in the mine within which to store your valuables. If people can't see it, they wont be tempted to come take it. Unfortunately due to the cave in mechanics, this is inadvisable if you decide to mine a significant amount of material before being ready to build mine supports. This will buy you some time to gather some more silver and begin to level the land in which you plan to build your base. and you will inevitably begin to run out of space in the mine anyway.

Clamping down
"I need this black stuff to fire my smelter" you say. Fear not, you can build coal clamps in the mine if you really want to, but popping a few up top on unclaimed land isnt the end of the world. Just make sure you fire them before they decay. You should have been gathering as many old logs as you can, not only do these provide valuable storage space early on, they also provide an easy source of logs to build the clamps with.

Feeling Defenseless
With your smelter belching away your supply of metal and nails secure, you can rest assured that you have made the transition from Mass consumer, to self sufficient supplier. you need to form the outline of your future center of existence.

Currently for a hermit, I would sincerely recommend a base centralised on a single brazier (If you cant build one yet, leave the very center clear until you can) This will ensure that all parts of your base are covered by the brazier. I will list below the footprint to brazier defense plan
0-23x23, Single brazier in center
23x23 - 35x35, 4 braziers 1 in each corner
36x36 - at this point the optimum brazier coverage is attained - 1 in the center, 1 in each corner,
I have not considered more than this, as you can pretty much have a very secure center and allow the extremities of the base to be vulnerable, but contain no valuables.

But wait, each brazier in itself is not covered.. no and it should not be, to put a brazier in the range of another, will halve the damage of both, even if one runs out of fuel or is damaged.

I personally would recommend designing the base on paper before you begin to muck about too much, the best defense for your braziers is surrounding them with plank fence and stone wall (with gates) this will inevitably push the base boundaries to 38/39, but remember you need to build round anyway (for the gate), so a funky design to encapsulate your brazier is possible (I would leave a picture but I am too dumb to do it)

Right, you cant build a plank wall yet, etc.. dont worry, leave the space and fill it in when you can.

Skirting the issue
If you havent got enders client, do so.. It is practically the essence of purgatory to have to try flattening land with the standard client. The levelling tool and camera options make seeing the entirety of your planned construction simple and you can plan in advance.. nothing worse than wasting most your soil into clay when you have dips to fill in.

Flatten the outline of you base first, not only does this leave fairly minimal impact on the minimap, but it will allow you to build your first barrier against dem naughty buglars.

I would recommend a simple makeshift fence, this is usually enough (especially if on your claim) to deter the occasional wanderer who sees easy pickings in your stuff. I also helps in the demarkation of you base for future development. Its incredibly cheap (10 branches to start, 1 branch per section) and pretty easy to destroy once you are building more permanent structures. It was suggested prior to this that rushing to split rail would be better, I think with the new learning system, you will have plenty of other things to focus on than getting simple fences.

When you do get simple fences and wish to erect your stone hedge, build this outside of the makeshift fence, leaving the makeshift fence a template for your ultimate plank fence. ALWAYS plan your walls ahead, stronger walls on the inside, as weaker walls do not splash onto stronger walls (anymore).

Segragation is what you need
There is little more you can do to stop vagrants breaking into your base, you have a couple of walls (even three if you can be bothered to build a split rail fence outside the stone hedge) braziers defending every scrap of exposed wall etc. Now you need to look at the defenses internally, segragating your base into zones will ensure that for a raider to get at all your stuff he will have to break through multiple walls whilst under brazier fire, It is also handy for those of your will a bit of OCD, where you can allocate each zone a use i.e. cooking zone, farming zone, gardening zone, etc. although this will give the raiders a rough idea of where the particular things they are looking for are likely to be stashed.

You will need to install locked gates throughout your base to maintain this particular defensive strategy.

Paving Lunatics
To pave, or not to pave that is the question, The answer is, it doesnt really matter.. some say the speed of the cart makes a difference, I say as a hermit, the speed of the cart is the least of my worries. I would say, refrain from paving until you have the minimum of defenses up and running, at least a stone wall..

Obstructive comments
When designing you base, it is essential to plan to the fine details where your structures and immovable objects will be. A good idea of where the movable items are too is always worthwhile.
The choice is up to you, you can design a base that is a pig to get around, so that raiders will have to weave in and out of tight spaces to get anywhere, but remember this makes it a pig for you to get around too and can get seriously frustrating. Your claimstone should be considered also, you can pass through it, raiders cannot, this can be used as an obstacle, remembering that you cannot pull sleds or carts through it (so right in the main entrance of your base is probably not a great idea), or you can bury it in the middle of your base making it hard for any raiders to extend a town bell over it (which means they can 'buy' it).

I personally keep a clean base, fairly clear of obstructions as I walk around it every day, any raider would be there for at most a few hours.. Plus I would rather they took what they wanted and buggered off leaving my stuff intact, blocking pathways means the raider will definitely break something..

Bell End
If you are found, if you feel threatened, for any reason you wish, you may wish to build a town bell.. this is the ultimate protection, raiders will only be able to attack you with a waste claim.. this is expensive both for you and the raiders... You will need to ensure you keep up the payments on both your personal claim and this silver guzzling machine. When I used this in the old world, I had a dozen fields constantly producing only cotton for which to pay the upkeep.

I hope this guide gives you enough information with which to get started building a base that only the most dedicated raiders will attack.

Please be gentle as this is the first guide I have written (please do not hesitate to suggest improvements)

[Snowpig]

One thing which is completely missing here: don't settle until you have the essential skills to run a Pclaim. Especially the purity of foraged/mined stuff depends on your F&W and M&M. If they are low, you will be missing nice purity spots.

Speaking of cotton: don't settle as long as you don't have the essential farming skills + gardening

[DemonEyes]

I agree, although I tried to focus on just the base building aspect rather than the character development.

[Kandarim]

I must admit I haven't read it through (yet), but something I'd like to note about your start: a lime quarry near you is pointless, as it is always MUCH faster to use a lime alts. Even if you can settle right next to a lime quarry, you'll run out before long and you'll be stuck with a useless piece of land which can't be built on.

[iamah]

lifting old logs used to have a chance of spawning snakes under it

i'd say plan ahead for 3 walls, even an extra tree wall if possible... the order matters, weaker walls outside, stronger inside, to avoid spash damage...

keep the claim stone in the middle of your claim with space for brazier right beside it, then build walls around it... I've seen hermits forgetting to protect their claim stone, which I believe if destroyed would make any brazier useless... this will be the heart of the claim... plan ahead some 3 walls around it, then add claim sections around to add up in the end... modular onion base design...

[Procne]

keep the claim stone in the exact middle of your claim with space for brazier right beside it... I've seen hermits forgetting to protect their claim stone, which I believe if destroyed would make any brazier useless... this will be the heart of the claim... plan ahead some 3 walls around it, then add sections around it to it all adds up in the end...

I can't see any reason for special protection of the claim stone. It can be destroyed only when it runs out of silver, but at that point it's already useless, or after you spawn new character on the claim using HS.
Don't forget that claim stone can be used as an obstacle - Only people with permissions can walk through it. It can't be destroyed by normal means and it's where you teleport to from Boston, if you set it as your homestead.

[DemonEyes]

How long does it take to skill and humour up a lime alt.. I dont actually know as that is not my play style.

I dont recommend building right on top of a lime pit (I have done it, it is worhtless) just within a short walk, maybe 1 or 2 minimap tiles.. water is way more important (as I dont want to alt a million buckets of water) but a couple of minimap tiles is fine. having a fishing/water alt as well as a lime alt seems very beneficial to me.. however.. character progression and alts is not the subject of the guide.

And this is still aimed towards those no where near the purity grind.

[DemonEyes]

lifting old logs used to have a chance of spawning snakes under it

i'd say plan ahead for 3 walls, even an extra tree wall if possible... the order matters, weaker walls outside, stronger inside, to avoid spash damage...

keep the claim stone in the middle of your claim with space for brazier right beside it, then build walls around it... I've seen hermits forgetting to protect their claim stone, which I believe if destroyed would make any brazier useless... this will be the heart of the claim... plan ahead some 3 walls around it, then add claim sections around to add up in the end... modular onion base design...

Good points, I will edit tomorrow (hopefully) to include some of this..

I am with procne, claimstones are only vulnerable if they run out of silver.. I would also avoid multiple claims as they cannot overlap (afaik) and if someone breaks onto 1 claim only that claim's defenses work. limiting your response.
I will edit the claimstone obstacle in procne, its something I constantly forget about.

[k545836]

Don't forget that claim stone can be used as an obstacle - Only people with permissions can walk through it. It can't be destroyed by normal means

Can you place it infront of the mine entrance and make your mine impenetrable? Or use it instead of the gates in your wall? no key no opening/closing

[Procne]

Don't forget that claim stone can be used as an obstacle - Only people with permissions can walk through it. It can't be destroyed by normal means

Can you place it infront of the mine entrance and make your mine impenetrable? Or use it instead of the gates in your wall? no key no opening/closing

Afaik, yes. But you can't pull a sled through it, so you don't want to use claim stone as a wall gate.
Also remember that claim can be removed by placing a village claim on top of it.