Question about Mid game, when you reach Iron Age

[Beeb]

I set up in the rainforest and that has been fine for everything up til now. Iron isn't close to this area so it seems I'll either be traveling far away to retrieve it, or building a second base in a new location (desert or volcano adjacent).

Once you hit iron, is there any point where you need to go back to gathering tin/copper and crafting bronze? Should I just be abandoning my jungle home for a more central or new biome adjacent base location?

I unlocked the teleporter but haven't beat the 3rd boss to use it (why can I even craft it this early and not use it?!), but the limitations I've read on that being only hot bar kind of makes that useless for base to base travel.

It feels like the game punishes you for building a main location base that isn't more centralized early. Perhaps I should just move closer to the larger portals and have a smaller FOB?

Would love to know if its just all about Iron now and the rainforest is just a hard pass after early game. I don't mind moving big one time if the earlier ores are useless, just trying to gauge time sink from here though steel age.

[Xerastraza]

My Main Base is central Rainforest aa bit east of the flint barracks.

I have actually got so much stock of bronze that i haven't needed to farm more but i did need some copper to make metal plates for some iron age crafting benches and upgrades.
OR you could just farm them from mechs and not melt them down greedily like i did.

I do however still use a lot of bronze mostly for Big Bronze arrows cuz i have not quite got an income of iron to the point where i feel i can but 600 bars for arrows.

I do however would definitely advise making expansion bases near other resource areas so that shuttling isn't quite as painful of a process.
Ex:
I have a wet lands base along a peninsula below the Barbarian fortress where i raise piranhas and farm tribesmen. ( i use this location for Coal farming as well )
A Red woods base below waste land cuz screw heat and radiation :D ( i use this base for some iron )
I made a nice scenic base below the plains along the ocean just for the lovely view.
I have a base in the volcanic region strictly for farming obsidian and iron and sulfur.

So id definitely say if your at the Iron Age to get your gear up and ready and go slap that ape around and unlick portal usage its quite pivotal IMO.

[ibeaeptree]

We built a huge base in the rainforest near that portal for crops. (thinking about two fires so we can have 44 plots with iron atm) And a large main base 200m from the Hill portal. The hill isnt great for crops unless you can get enough ice for the ice table (I have 6 fridges and 4 iceblocks...its alot of ice....), and without some specific foods/gear/etc you arent getting through the snow well. Rainforest does mass production for the main base in the Hill. We pass things back and forth.

But the rainforest pretty much grows everything, and you can do some things in the hill with the right base setup. Just port back and forth with a llama and transfer materials within a few minutes. They both are lower level stuff, and north of the hill in another zone youll find one of the best barracks for people farming. A short jaunt to the wetlands from the hill portal (bring poison resist) and you can get as much iron as you want.

[~T~D~]

Wetland portal pretty flat and almost center of map, i'm building my new main base there atm, coal and iron, copper near by also a HUGE Barbarian Fortress.

Wetland is cold(er) so I'm using a heater to get 23 celcius.

[ehyder]

Check out your skill tree in detail. At a minimum you will need copper to make copper wire, and bronze for metal plates. Not sure what quantities you need these in for the advanced tech levels.

[~T~D~]

Originally posted by ehyder:

Check out your skill tree in detail. At a minimum you will need copper to make copper wire, and bronze for metal plates. Not sure what quantities you need these in for the advanced tech levels.

You get copper and tin from excavation pit as a static craft. Not a lot but it's there.

[Mastikate]

I moved from the rain forest, to the Wetlands just south of the Portal (about 175m) for easy access. This gave me plentiful access to coal, as well as the dungeon just Northeast which has a good amount of iron (and Plunderers). Have a FOB in the desert close to the Fang Fort, an FOB in snow close to the Claw Fort,and one by the Flint fort also. A trip through the volcano portal with a Llama and tribe member yields plenty of sulfur, iron, and obsidian, but another FOB there would be great eventually. Had plenty of Copper, Tin, and Bronze that I haven't needed to go back for any resources other than some turkeys and capys for new pens.

[Natjur]

Just south of the Wetland portals is the most populate spot to build
-clay, stone, trees and salt and iron
-portal easy to go anywhere. (portal to jungle for copper and tin)
Just need a heater for crops.

Most new servers, its a rush to go build there

[Beeb]

Appreciate all of the insights and info from y'all. On our last server (PVP) we were set up in the Wetlands just south of the Portal, so it sounds like that may still be the best location to continue to set up for the main or secondary base. We rushed there previously as our main base, and maybe just relocating there as the main is the best thing we can do so we're just using one base for sanity.

its just my wife and I playing on hard PVE, so a multi-base setup is far too much work and travel to keep us sane. Seems like the wetland approach would be our best bet to continue processing tin/copper/bronze as needed but add in access to the other resources close by.