Single Player non-cheese bases on high game stage?

[SnowBee]

Over the past few years when I play the game I normally create a base and then add a separate horde night/blood moon or cheese base system of some sort.

This time around, after designing and spending nearly a full game week (120 minute cycle), I looked at my base and thought it is a pity I need to create another base for the horde night. My base looks pretty good and felt a bit of regret I would need to now setup another base for the really late hordes.

I am playing on survivalist level, 32 Zombie count, and was wondering for the very tough late game hordes, is the only viable option a cheese-base (for single player)? I guess it is difficult to sometimes determine what is a cheese-base?

For now I have dug a large moat, setup dart traps in the moat, and allowed the zombies to come up to my front door. On the way they also go through blade traps. I also have some turrets overlooking their exit of the moat. This I would not consider a cheese design, but I honestly don't know if it is going to hold up as I have never played beyond game stage 100 without using a cheese-base system.

[BraveMario]

well best one for me making a mine base under a metal ore simple just 1 campfire let it burn close urself with 2 blocks easy

[Seftak]

If the only way you can fight the horde is to make an invincible (using glitches) or levitating base then just turn off blood moon.

Anything else you build is legit and not a cheat. Using the AI to your advantage to keep you alive is not cheating, it's playing smartly.

[Shurenai]

A cheese/exploit base is using an unintended flaw in the AI programming to basically have a free ride.

EG: When zombies could not dig down, building a base underground was an exploit; You'd just have to go a few blocks down and place a block over your head, and you became untouchable by zombie hands. Put iron bars there and you can shoot them as they gather collectively and unthreateningly above your head.

EG2: Previously in A16, A17, A18 zombies would attempt to walk on steep block shapes; But they actually could not walk on them at that time, so instead of walking on it, they'd just slide and fall down. This was exploited to make loop bases in which the zombies THINK they can reach the player, There's a block path there after all; But in actuality the zombies cannot reach the player, ever. They just try, slide down the wedge tip, and then have to walk around to the staircase and try again.

EG3: A few alphas ago, Zombies would blithely walk right off edges. Zombies also were able to take 100% of their health in fall damage. This resulted in people just digging out a bedrock deep trench around their 'base' and watching the zombies tumble to their death without ever being at risk.

These were exploits (That have been patched). They broke the gameplay on the level of "The player has become completely and totally untouchable by the enemy". Finite effort became effectively infinite protection.


If you're just defending your base and using traps as one might expect, It's not cheese, or an exploit. A zombie is going to target and attempt to reach the player- If you set dart traps and turrets between the zombie and you, that's using the tools you were given. Don't be afraid to try new things- You might fail, but so what? Unless you play dead is dead (aka hardcore, aka permadeath, aka die once and delete the world) you'll be able to try again next time and improve on your design in the place(s) that it failed.

[Lexor]

Originally posted by Shurenai:

EG2: Previously in A16, A17, A18 zombies would attempt to walk on steep block shapes; But they actually could not walk on them at that time, so instead of walking on it, they'd just slide and fall down. This was exploited to make loop bases in which the zombies THINK they can reach the player, There's a block path there after all; But in actuality the zombies cannot reach the player, ever. They just try, slide down the wedge tip, and then have to walk around to the staircase and try again.

Last time I played long enough to see some hordes (A19.3 or so) this was still possible.
Zombies didn't fall down as easy as before, but you could guide them to fall down by let them try to reach you through a centered choke point / bottleneck at the end of a wider steep block pathway.
They have tried to run from the outer edges of the steep blocks to the inner edges in order to pass the choke point. If they did so, they fell down. You only had to find a good design for the bottleneck so that dogs and spiders couldn't pass either.

[Kaliten]

My current play through I'm using just a single base. It's a long corridor with rooms on the side dug into a side of a large hill. On horde night I place blade traps, electric fences, turrets, and iron spikes in the corridor. I just stand at the end of the corridor and let them come to me. I'll actually leave the door open for them to come inside so they don't wander around looking for a way in. It's working great so far.
I have three layers of reinforced concrete blocks between me and the horde above and two layers of reinforced concrete on the walls. The corridor is 3x3 so plenty of room to trap it up. Not having a second base also allows me to put 100% of my resources into one spot. My next add on to my bunker is top side firing port to shoot attackers at the doors so I don't have to open the doors to take care of them. I might even just put a SMG turret up there to gun'em down for me. Looking forward to my next blood moon because I more than doubled my corridor length since the last blood moon.

[SnowBee]

Originally posted by Kaliten:

My current play through I'm using just a single base. It's a long corridor with rooms on the side dug into a side of a large hill. On horde night I place blade traps, electric fences, turrets, and iron spikes in the corridor. I just stand at the end of the corridor and let them come to me. I'll actually leave the door open for them to come inside so they don't wander around looking for a way in. It's working great so far.
I have three layers of reinforced concrete blocks between me and the horde above and two layers of reinforced concrete on the walls. The corridor is 3x3 so plenty of room to trap it up. Not having a second base also allows me to put 100% of my resources into one spot. My next add on to my bunker is top side firing port to shoot attackers at the doors so I don't have to open the doors to take care of them. I might even just put a SMG turret up there to gun'em down for me. Looking forward to my next blood moon because I more than doubled my corridor length since the last blood moon. :buzzed:

Thanks for sharing :)

[OH! MY CAR]

Nah, you do not actually need a base at all, even with the game maxed out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF4B70GH0ss

You can also get by with a pretty minimal base for a long time...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ounay0wUl_I

That was pretty much the point of that playthrough, but I am done for now until A20. I recorded from horde night 33 to 62 though, and have it all uploaded, should any of it interest you.

[SnowBee]

Originally posted by OH! MY CAR:

Nah, you do not actually need a base at all, even with the game maxed out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF4B70GH0ss

You can also get by with a pretty minimal base for a long time...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ounay0wUl_I

That was pretty much the point of that playthrough, but I am done for now until A20. I recorded from horde night 33 to 62 though, and have it all uploaded, should any of it interest you.

Well done :)

[Katitoff]

Have 2 bases.

One daily use aesthetically pleasing one.

One, more compact, fully defensive one.

Or just get as much ammo and explosives as humanely possible and take them all head on.

[hallow, dmitri!]

You can have everything in one base if you keep your storage/crafting section separate and sealed off from your horde section. So long as you don't use your storage/crafting as fallback and zombos can't reasonably try to path through it to get to you then you should be fine. For example, put your storage/crafting underground and horde point of contact on ground level or higher. Then create one or more contingency fall-backs where you are climbing up higher (or just back and away) and not going underground anywhere near your crafting/storage.

I also don't recommend using a lot of ammo except if absolutely necessary to keep any one point of contact secure. Finding brass to make ammo late game can be a real chore and is generally once of the rarer resources ultimately speaking. Try and use traps as much as possible, at least mid to late game. I generally find it cheaper to repair these (so long as they don't get totally wrecked by demos) than to replace any brass-based ammo types in my late game.

[OH! MY CAR]

Originally posted by rygarg:

For example, put your storage/crafting underground

Oh yeah, what this guy said, heh.

In the bases I use, usually 1 of the floor tiles is a hatch, and I dig at a 45 degree angle to bedrock, and put all my storage and work stations there.

It does not take that long to hit bedrock, even with a stone axe, and then all your stuff is pretty much safe, even if you use that base for horde nights.

Plus, then you can expand your main base as much as you want, since it is underground and only requires moving rock around.

You can see an example at the start of this video...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WEVwmE15Hk

[fatcatm0rty]

I think you can also make a building underwater and then zombies completely ignore you.

[OH! MY CAR]

Originally posted by fatcatm0rty:

I think you can also make a building underwater and then zombies completely ignore you.

Have not tested it, but they used to just walk in water and there may have been a swim animation.

They should just attack you like normal underwater, unless it is bugged or something.