Strategic Guide on Hideout Defense - Chapter 1

[RoiDesCastors]

Hello to all!

After a good 37+ hours of playing, reading up on material, watching youtubers play (and quite often fail much amusingly), I have decided to offer my thoughts on the strategies I have found most appropriate for defending Hideouts 1, 2 and 3.

GENERAL TIPS

- The workbench has its own storage. It's large, and linked to the workbench, which means you should store most of your stuff here.

- Use the morning time freeze to your advantage. You have a trader and limitless time to buy and sell what you need, barricade and repair, clean up used traps or worms. Consider doing a patrol around the house to check on traps and barricades. Dismantle barricades that are almost broken and rebuild them if you can. Use this moment for the very time-consuming task of moving furniture.

- Keep your generator filled in advance. Refill it in the morning, and don't hesitate to buy gasoline from the Trader or Wolfman if you're running low (but best explore the world, it's very easy to find). Sometimes you might come back home late, and you do not need the extra stress of refilling the generator last minute. Always try to keep some gasoline in stock, in case you need to refill the generator or sawmill, or if you need to craft something. It can also be poured on the ground for fire traps or fuses for exploding barrels (light them by throwing matches or molotovs or swinging a torch).

- Stock up early on boards, nails, scrap metal and bottles. Keep looting these whenever you can. Use them to barricade and trap efficiently. Bottles are easy and cheap traps that can considerably weaken enemies. Bear traps are great to hurt and stop them. Chain traps are rather useless, since they deal no damage and allow movement.

- Keep boards and nails on you during the night. You might need to quickly repair a barricade.

- Always have a source of light or two on you. Lanterns are great because they last long and aren't too expensive, also you only need them in your hotbar, so you can equip a weapon and still see. Torches can be very useful to burn worms. Flares can be used in case of light failure due to events or gasoline lack and will stop ghosts from eating your butt.

- Furniture is your friend. Use it wisely. If you can jam it against a door, window or hole from the outside in a way that wont let it be pushed (use corners to your advantage), it will be much more useful than inside, where anything can easily push it once the door is down. A well placed sofa jamming you into a corner can save you from a banshee.

HIDEOUT 1
http://darkwood.wikia.com/wiki/Hideout_1

What we are facing:
- Dogs
- Rock and Fist Savages
- Lights going out, doors opening and closing, some other random events

This hideout is very easy to survive in and needs minimal defense. Stay here only long enough to loot the Dry Meadow and move on.

What I recommend :

PREPARATIONS

Use the bedroom as your stronghold.

Put one lamp in there, try putting it in a place where its light wont shine outside. Leave the other lamp in the central room with the oven, for visibility.

Barricade all the windows. Wood and nails are plentiful. Leave the doors un-barricaded for access. You can use the stool as an alarm by putting it in front of a door.

Drag the large wardrobe into the corner with the door to the bedroom. Pull it against the door from the inside at night so that enemies can't access the door without breaking. It It will be wedged in the corner so they can't push it away, and they do not have the brainpower to drag it. They rarely, if ever, attack it.

Don't bother with lots of traps. If you want, place one in the middle of the oven room or the hole in the wall, but keep your scrap metal.

THE NIGHT

Stay inside the bedroom, in the corner next to the bed. Use the cracks in the wall to watch the other room. Nothing can take you by surprise that way.

If the windows are attacked (which is quite rare in my experience), you have time to prepare. Put down a bear trap in front of it, or just ready your weapon.

If you feel confident, rush any enemy entering the oven room. Just open the door and push your wardrobe out of the way. Those savages don't stand a chance. Dogs you can leave be, the meat they drop is easy to come by and you don't need too much of it. Loot them for profit!


As soon as you are done looting the Dry Meadow and gearing up, head on through to the Silent Forest. Take ALL YOUR BOOZE, some polish gasoline, wood, nails, scrap metal, bottles, your equipment and whatever else seems useful for securing hideout 2. Consider clearing out the "Entrance to the Silent Forest" before heading on to Hideout 2, so you have enough time to secure it.

HIDEOUT 2
http://darkwood.wikia.com/wiki/Hideout_2
https://pre00.deviantart.net/f99e/th/pre/f/2017/231/3/4/darkwood_hideout__2_by_victorskullzl-dbkmk9i.jpg

Welcome to the Silent Forest. If you looted the Sleeper outside the "Entrance to the Silent Forest" location, you have the location of the hideout on your map. It's usually very close to the Entrance. Head there at once, loot what you can on your way and once there, call the Bike Man to bring the rest of your things, store your stuff and let's secure the place.

The main dangers you will face are:
- Huge Dogs
- Stick Savages
- Banshees
- Shadows
- Bugs, leading to Worm infestations if you do not kill them
- Poltergeists throwing your furniture and some more events

PREPARATIONS

I found the best place to hold up in to be the very large room. Yes, it has lots of windows and doors, but bear with me.

You have three doors leading in there. One that goes to the oven/workbench room, one that leads to the destroyed rooms, and the "main" door of the house.

Drag both lamps in there, put one in the little corner next to the "main" door. It should cast no light outside. Place the other one in the middle of the large room, in a place where it is visible from as few windows as possible.

Barricade all the windows and doors, except the door to the kitchen/workbench. Barricade the kitchen window, too.

You will want to use the furniture to your advantage. Build a barricade outside the door leading to the destroyed room by placing a small furniture item in the corner and a large wardrobe next to it. Drag the sofa from the generator building to the small central room between your room and the kitchen. You will drag it against the door from inside at night so nothing can get in. Use a chair or something similar in size in the corner next to the sofa so the door is totally covered and nothing can be pushed.
Also, consider dragging another large wardrobe in from somewhere, like the Entrance to the Silent Forest (mind you, the woods are dense there, it's not easy to navigate it through, but it's not that far and there aren't many enemies around).

Place traps in front of the windows, the "main" door, in front of the barricade in the destroyed room, maybe one in the small space between house and generator building, and why not in the middle of the large room.

Place the rest of the furniture where you see fit. Prop up doors so that potential intruders are funneled in where you want them to should the door break down. You can then put traps there if need be. You can also use large wardrobes to block windows so light won't shine outside.

Throw some bottles in front of doors, around corners and inside your room. Anywhere enemies will probably end up walking if they get in.

Consider keeping a torch in the large room. In case of a worm infestation in the kitchen, you might need it to access the workbench and your stuff in the morning.

THE NIGHT

Be proactive. None of the enemies are particularly strong. You can deal with it.

As usual, you might want to keep wood and nails, a light, and some traps on you in case of emergencies. Consider keeping more than one weapon, in case yours breaks.

You want to murder whatever dares to disturb your peace. Hear a trap going off? Equip your trusted lantern, rush outside and beat the interloper to a bloody pulp while he struggles to get free. Someone attacking a door or window? Flank the enemy and save yourself the hassle of replacing barricades or repairing furniture. Enjoy the delicious loot and bathe in your enemies blood!

If you are confident, you can even patrol outside, but mind the Floor Gore (red mist) that will start following you if you stay outside the protected area for too long.

Make sure to get a shovel very soon. It's a great weapon. You could also use pitchforks or sticks, but I'm a shovel man.

Keep some molotovs on you. You never know when it comes in handy... like if a banshee appears and screams at you. A well placed Cocktail, and those banshee babies will be charred husks, testimony to your glorious survival.

THE BANSHEE CONUNDRUM

Banshees are a pain to deal with. You can't attack them or look at them and they will try to hunt you down. Sure, they're slow, but if they get you, they'll spawn banshee babies, which can be very annoying and give you no loot whatsoever. Also, a banshee can spawn inside the hideout. Eugh...

My tip: Did it spawn outside your large room? Let it waste its time. It can't attack barricades, and it wont be able to get past your sofa barrier.
Only if some other enemy breaks a door or window are you in any danger. But you might even have time to murder the intruder and repair the hole before the banshee comes through.

But what to do if it spawns in the room with you?

Try staying close to the doors during the night. If you notice a banshee in the other room, storm out the kitchen door, close it, and quickly maneuver the sofa into the corner opposite the door. Pull it against the corner if you can. You need to be in the corner, with the sofa cutting you off from the room. Face the corner like a naughty child. When the banshee comes in, with any luck you will have had the time to do this, and it will uselessly try to get to you by pushing the sofa, wedging it in even more.

Youtuber GaLm had this happen to him by pure luck in his playthrough, which allowed me to create this cunning plan. You can see it happen below.
https://youtu.be/Psnp_YSIkZo?t=13m11s

HIDEOUT 3
http://darkwood.wikia.com/wiki/Hideout_3
https://orig00.deviantart.net/6268/f/2017/231/8/e/8e6e392d9a737ddb71ee8c542b54e25d-dbkmknn.jpg

Well, you made it this far, Meat. Let's see how long you survive in the Old Woods, where chompers lie in wait to nibble on your giblets.

Again, make sure you have the necessary stuff for early barricading and consider exploring a bit before making your way to Hideout 3.

Challengers approaching :
- More or less every kind of horror Chapter 1 had to offer so far, except maybe dogs and weaker savages. Banshees and huge dogs are common-sight here.
- Red Chompers. I recommend (strongly) using molotovs which can kill a chomper in one well placed throw, shotguns (one-shot if well aimed), handguns, strong melee weapons, traps, and lots of prayers to a divinity of your choice and/or your mother.
- Glare. A red light emitting some sound, forcing you to move around. Say goodbye to huddling in fear in the same corner all night
- All kind of unpleasant night events. Earthquakes and poltergeists will mess up your furniture, lights may go out, and so on.

PREPARATIONS

This hideout is big, full of holes and hard to defend. It gets attacked incessantly by every kind of monstrosity because of wall-mounted lights outside and inside the building which you can neither move nor switch off and that will attract enemies like moths drawn. What's more, it has lots of rooms and corridors making it hard to decide where to spend the night.

I recommend using the workbench room and the adjacent hallway. It gives you enough room to move around, dodge and fight if need be. The kitchen, where the oven is, should be kept as a secondary room. But because of its outside facing window, it's not a good stronghold.

Place the moveable light in the workshop room. The corridor next to it has its own light, so your area will be well lit.

Barricade all the doors and windows, add traps outside all of them. Keep only the door leading from the large corridor to the kitchen open, as well as the one between kitchen and workbench room. Place a trap inside the doorway closest to the door in the kitchen. Monsters will usually take the shortest route to get to you and step in it.

Add some traps in front of the "main" entrance, where a hole leads to the large central corridor. Place them outside, in an arc, leaving a way to go around them by hugging the wall. You can also place traps in the other rooms and hallways.

Furniture. Place the large metal wardrobe in front of the hole in the wall, outside. It will be wedged between two corners and impossible to move, except if something pushes out from inside, which never happened to me. Leave a chair in that same hallway, as an alarm. Build a large barricade in the central hallway, using wardrobes and such, to make the door to the kitchen hard to get to.

Scatter some broken glass around by throwing empty bottles. Again, prioritize doorways and other places enemies have to walk through.

Now, any enemy trying to get to you has at least two or three obstacles to break down, and depending on where the attack comes from, you can choose what room to wait in. You can as usual place traps in the room, maybe even an exploding barrel or gas tank, or gasoline trails and puddles to use as fire traps and/or fuses for lighting barrels.

THE NIGHT

This hideout is dangerous. Don't play hero. Don't go for the loot. It's not worth it. The trader reputation IS. Keep still, quiet and attentive. Use the cracks in the walls, the sound of monsters, footsteps and attacks to identify what is attacking and where. Ready your interior defenses in advance, depending on where the enemy comes from.

Barricade the kitchen door. If need be, do the same for the door between the kitchen and workshop. By this time, even if you start running out of materials, you should have enough reputation with the Trader to buy what you need, be it wood, nails, scrap, gasoline, ammo, you name it!

Plan at least two or three lines of defense in those two rooms. I have a trap in the doorway closest to the door leading from the oven to the destroyed generator and workshop door that can save you if something breaks in. Lots of glass on the floor, both sides of the doors. Have traps ready in your inventory in case of an emergency. An explosive barrel by the door between kitchen and workshop can turn a chomper attack into a barbecue. If you have to retreat to one of those rooms, wait till the door gets destroyed, then shoot the barrel or light the gasoline fuse you spread beforehand. BOOM!


Keep calm, have a shotgun or pistol ready, as well as ammo. Shoot whatever breaks through all the defenses. Keep a trusted and upgraded melee weapon in case everything else fails. In my case, I almost never had to, as my fortress would stop most intruders.

___________

With these strategies and some limited combat skills, you should survive most nights, given you find enough material and have the time to secure your hideouts.

Good luck, survivor. Keep your head on your shoulders, stay calm, and react decisively.

For the Woods are Dark, and full of terror...

[savaro321]

Awesome! Thank you so much. I had a hard time in hideout 3. In my opinion, it is harder than 4. Btw do you plan on doing chapter 2?

[RoiDesCastors]

I've just started Chapter 2 and survived the first night in the new hideout. I'll see about making a guide for it when I have enough intel. For now I find it very challenging, due to the fact that you have no interior rooms, and all those thrice-accursed holes in the walls... also, centipedes that just attack from below, and strong enemies that tend to quickly break down barricades.
I'm going to try some ideas I have, and we'll see.

I'm happy my humble guide was a help to you. :)

Also, don't hesitate if you have questions, ideas or suggestions on how to improve on it.

[RoiDesCastors]

Also, I am considering maybe adding this to the guides for Darkwood. Thoughts?

[savaro321]

Hey, yeah in my opinion it is a great guide. If it helped me considering I have experience in the game (not really) I guess it would help others. Btw how are you doing in chapter 2?

[Jackal Red]

This is great stuff. Should probably make it clearer how important Bike Man is to saving you time, but that he'll also drink any alcohol he moves (including the one bottle you give him in advance). If you're planning to move, move all the alcohol with you to your next spot.

[Stirling]

You do realize you can make guides on steam? Put this into a guide and it'll get a lot more attention.

[Barraka Frite]

Nice guide, and nice drawings.
Funny how the strategies can differ. My places of choice :
In hideout 1, I usually stay in the workbench room.
Hideout 2 : Generator room or kitchen.
Hideout 3 : L-shaped room or workbench room.

I sometimes use puddle of gasoline as trap behind a barricaded door, to ignite all the unwanted guests.

[RoiDesCastors]

The drawings aren't by me, they're taken from google. Didn't find any other "maps" or usable screenshots, but these ones were pretty nice.

Workshop room in hideout 1 works too, but I tend to prefer the bedroom because it has more space and the big advantage of the holes in the wall. Also the door can easily be blocked from outside with the wardrobe without having to spend ressources on barricaded doors.

I had heard some people like the generator room in hideout 2 but I personally don't see the point. The second room can't really be used because of the broken wall that can't be blocked correctly. Kitchen works too, it has less windows and doors, but I find it a bit small to manoeuver, knowing that you'll mostly get to fight huge dogs and stick savages, so I like the larger room for movement. Also, I usually like rooms that have corners and such, because you can use them to avoid attacks and such, or hide behind a corner to get a surprise hit on an enemy.

Hideout 3, isn't the L-shaped room the corridor next to the workshop room? Those two are actually more or less the same since there's no door. And yes, that's actually the center of my "fortress" strategy. Except I don't barricade the door to the kitchen, so I can retret there if need be. Always nice to have another room to retreat to if you need to.

The idea of the puddle of gasolin is pretty nice, but I've always avoided it because I thought it damaged the door. But you're actually right, if the door is attacked, there's no point in not damaging it yourself, if you can kill the attacker. And doors are kinda strong. I'll have to try it.

[RoiDesCastors]

I also found a very amusing weapon of mass destruction in Hideout 4. The gas bottles.

I wanted to try it, so when my window was broken down, I threw it. And it did me well, because there were 3 human spiders. One quick shotgun shot and the big cloud of poison gas ignited in a glorious explosion. The fact I had a gas tank just next to said window made the explosion even prettier. No idea if the gas bottle + ignition (a match would be enough I believe) would have been enough, but I think it probably would.

Also, at this point in the game, mushrooms to craft it are expendable, because people will probably be maxed out on upgrades already.

I'll probably update the guide in the next few days, once I've experienced a few more nights in Hideout 4. I want more input and try some more stuff. I'll use the opportunity to update the rest too, with some of the things you guys said.

Thanks for your feedback! :)

[hegarium]

me sinto pronto para enfrentar os perigos noturnos agora