Incubator defense

[LoZOoT]

Since the only way to gather reputation is doing events or incubating eggs.. anyone know an efficient way to defend the incubator? cause de structures defenses are pretty bad and when the attacking monster get near the house they and my own pet do dmg to the house...

[Drudackus]

Based on my experience I suggest the following,
- build a 2x2, (minimum) enclosure for the incubator, in the centre of the Great Tree building space, using the toughest building material you have available
- place the incubator in the centre of the enclosure, away from the walls
- incubate only one egg at a time, unless you want to enjoy a general melee
- start with low level creatures and build up a number of defenders before incubating mid-range and harder creatures, even if they only distract one attacker, it gives you time to finish the ones going after the incubator and its enclosure
- trap and recruit at least one scorpion before trying to incubate any scorpion or tarantula eggs

[Donovan]

So what Drudackus recommended in regards to keeping the incubator away from the nearby walls is spot-on, some enemies have AoE attacks that'll go straight through them.

What we did was build the incubators almost a full foundation distance away from any walls, and then we actually used the cube blocks, not walls, to construct it, fully enclosed with a door at the back. Made it look like a pyramid with just the blocks, and on each level put X-shaped spike defenses with some regular spikes up on the roof.

What I noticed is that for the tree we were in (Not sure if it's the same for every tree, we never moved the base), the attackers always came from the same direction/branch. So we put a ton of X-shaped spike defenses between that branch and the incubator, most enemies literally walked into the spikes and died.

Flying enemies were another story, but most of them killed themselves on the spikes on the building.

It's a resource-intensive initial setup, but once you've gotten it going, it can really hold its own. We'd often have four or six eggs incubating at once, though never more than one scorpion/beetle at a time.

Mosquitoes, lubbers, mantis, ants, grey flies, bees, didn't matter. Thing could handle multiple waves of any/all of those at a time.

As a note, I DID have a scorpion I personally used for combat, so I wouldn't recommend diving straight into the deep end if you don't have one.

[william_es]

In all the incubator denfenses I've done, the attackers all come along the same branch. Everytime. So donovan's experience matches mine.

I have had VERY little success with the spikes. They can't be placed on tree branches where they begin to curve downwards on the sides. They must be on relatively flat ground. But that same slope is passable by insects. They just went around either end of the spikes.

For amusement value I have built a metal wall that blocks the whole tree branch from side to side. It goes down on either side to the point where insects can't walk anymore. It's kind of pointless, I just had a ton of resources around in chests where I could make it. I can park my scorpion on the outer side of the wall, and just slaughter whole waves. Then just repair the wall later on.

Flying insects just fly right over it though.

[Donovan]

Well, ants for sure will bypass the spikes, but they're weak things that you can easily tackle on foot, even a stag beetle is overkill, let alone a scorpion. Most success I've found is waiting on that same branch where the enemies are coming from, pop off a few arrows to aggro them if needed, and then use the scorpion to really mop up.

Praying mantises, scorpions, beetles, etc, all tended to walk into, and then onto (Which doesn't seem to actively damage them), the X-shaped spikes. I was able to find spots where I could line them pretty much left to right almost entirely across that branch in the building area of the treetop itself.

Most enemies practically insta-die walking into them, and they do a number for slowing down larger enemies. But for best results, I've found a scorpion mount to be the best go-to, especially if it's levelled and has points absolutely stacked into damage and stamina, hits like a truck and can attack for days.

But yeah, flying enemies just go right over the defenses, which is where the X-shaped spikes come into play for my build. Funny watching them go to try and attack and just... die.