Surface or Underground houses?

[The Withered King]

What is better? Building houses on the Surface for npcs or underground? I heard from someone that they built houses underground and npcs moved into those houses.. So, thinking of advantages or disadvantages each of them have, which should I try?

[Snooze]

I prefer Surface, underground isn't bad until you get to hardmode, then you have enemies that can float through the walls and teleport.

[The Withered King]

Originally posted by Snooze:

I prefer Surface, underground isn't bad until you get to hardmode, then you have enemies that can float through the walls and teleport.

Hmm, yeah, true, but pre-hardmode isn't all bad underground.. What if in the underworld XD?

[Snooze]

Originally posted by witherkingbrony:

Originally posted by Snooze:

I prefer Surface, underground isn't bad until you get to hardmode, then you have enemies that can float through the walls and teleport.

Hmm, yeah, true, but pre-hardmode isn't all bad underground.. What if in the underworld XD?

Can't go that far down, NPC's don't consider housing possible at a certain depth, and its roughly around the point where the underground music starts. You can have them near that point, but once the background stops being sky, and is dirt/stone, then they don't accept the house.

[Carrier Pidgeons]

Build it in the sky; a hundred blocks + up and you can actually afk in your house without fear of dying. Also prevents wraiths or other hardmode enemies from walking through and killing your NPCs

[Bob of Mage]

Originally posted by Snooze:

Originally posted by witherkingbrony:

Hmm, yeah, true, but pre-hardmode isn't all bad underground.. What if in the underworld XD?

Can't go that far down, NPC's don't consider housing possible at a certain depth, and its roughly around the point where the underground music starts. You can have them near that point, but once the background stops being sky, and is dirt/stone, then they don't accept the house.

Untrue. I have had many worlds, past and present, where I've built houses in hell for the Nurse to heal when killing the Wall of Flesh. I think your issue is that you used the pre-gen walls which do not count for housing.

[Ͽ҈҉Ͼ]

Sky is usually safeist, but requires either a medium or large world to have enough space before harpies start being a problem. Sky also has disadvantages when it comes to building as well as getting up and down... Sometimes leaving NPCs vulnerable at the bottom when they first appear. While safe from early invasions, the ones in hardmode can be dangerous unless you lead them far enough away.

Surface is a happy medium since they're easy to build early on and have few space limitations. Wraiths can be dealt with by hollowing out the majority of the area under the house (makes for a good place for planters or storage). They can still be a problem if built too near the middle of the map since this is where invasions are usually focused.

Underground is the easiest to build early on since you can just dig out rooms, wall them up, and move on... Since they're usually off-screen from the surface with a single vertical shaft down, they're mostly safe from invasions.

[Bob of Mage]

I just recalled building a town by the ocean once. This was useful since invasions could be lured away by just going to the center and the ocean mobs stopped most land mobs from appearing (there was an early issue with crabs....). might be a good place to build a town.

If your worried about have to cross most of the map, just build a sky rail. It's really easy in 1.3 (you can lay track while on the rail), and is the fastest way to travel besides teleporting.