Base defense. Ditch, Palisade, Spiked walls. Good primary defense or waste of time?

[Accel Lex]

I haven't been invaded in a long time. The first time since I stopped playing was tough because it caught me by surprise and I was running around small base. Second time was easy since I just focused fire on closest rather than running around seeing what's happening. Last time easiest since I had better gear and just shot the trolls.

I looked up and saw that the more bosses you kill, the more enemies spawn. So I wanted to see good defenses to weed out the weak so I can focus on the bigger threats or manage the threats.
I saw that in historic warfare, a ditch and palisade were an amazing defense considering how effective they were relative to the cost.
In this game, I heard enemies don't attack up or down (can't remember which) often if at all so it'd be a good obstacle for most enemies. The bigger trolls would be less effective, and I heard bats exist that will mess with livestock.

[Horemvore]

Enemies can attack up and down, all depends what their attack is set at, Horz or Vert.... (Most are Horz)

[Accel Lex]

Originally posted by Horemvore:

Enemies can attack up and down, all depends what their attack is set at, Horz or Vert.... (Most are Horz)

Thanks for clearing that up. I saw a video where someone had an underground base and they said most enemies can't attack like that so it'd slow them down or something. Wasn't sure if that was updated, inaccurate, I misunderstood something, or whatever.

[Maelstrom]

The barebones base defense is:

Ditch (or raised ground) to prevent enemies from reaching your base
Palisade to break LOS
Workbench coverage to prevent spawns in your base

Optionally, you should also make an entryway that you can easily get a cart through and you can also easily and quickly remove during a raid. I prefer to use 2 wooden gates facing a bridge or a staircase with a workbench nearby. Iron gate is much stronger but you can't easily fit a cart through them and it only takes a moment to remove a bridge or stairway that's been designed to be easily removable so it doesn't matter.

If I have a base in a particularly dangerous location I'll leave a gap in my entryway that's easy for me to jump over but impassible for the mobs. When I need to move a cart in or out I put down the final couple of pieces, move my cart, and then pick them back up.

Stone is good (as a means of defense and not purely aesthetic) for bases you can't fully enclose and/or need to be built while under attack but keep in mind that it's not invulnerable (and particularly weak to stone golems). Stone is also good later on as it takes a lot less collateral damage during drake/bat attacks and the occasional deathsquito swatting.

[retsam1]

Originally posted by Accel Lex:

I haven't been invaded in a long time. The first time since I stopped playing was tough because it caught me by surprise and I was running around small base. Second time was easy since I just focused fire on closest rather than running around seeing what's happening. Last time easiest since I had better gear and just shot the trolls.

I looked up and saw that the more bosses you kill, the more enemies spawn. So I wanted to see good defenses to weed out the weak so I can focus on the bigger threats or manage the threats.
I saw that in historic warfare, a ditch and palisade were an amazing defense considering how effective they were relative to the cost.
In this game, I heard enemies don't attack up or down (can't remember which) often if at all so it'd be a good obstacle for most enemies. The bigger trolls would be less effective, and I heard bats exist that will mess with livestock.

Most mobs in the game are vertically challenged but not all. This is why high earth walls and trenches are effective methods of dealing with many.

Each time you kill a boss -on the same map seed-, you progress in the types of events that you can encounter randomly. Eventually there are two events that involve flying creatures and those will not be able to be turned away by high walls or trenches and bats, as you mention, is one of them(stir the cauldron). The bats are bad for tames but not much else in fear of structural damage etc to a base really. However the drakes you'll also need to be mindful of.

https://valheim.fandom.com/wiki/Events

All other events though(so far) can be countered with the high earth walls or trenches. You just need to also make sure that you have something like workbenches carefully spaced in and around your base to also prevent any other sorts of random spawns from happening in your base not event related.


There are also 2 other alternative ways to avoid most/many events.


1. The multiple map seed method-- Having your main base on 1 map(where you hand the trophies of bosses for example BUT not killing any bosses on that map, and then having separate maps for -each- boss kill means that you'll never encounter any event other than the boar/neck event. This means you can make bases a little easier though the biome location for your base may require you to build still wall/trenches too mind you.

Think on each map seed as a "portal" world if you will. This method also allows you the ability to go around the restrictions with transporting metal ore/ingots.

2. Build your main base on a small island very very far from any other land mass. The events have a radius and spawning in/over the ocean(again has to be far) can prevent many events. Downside is finding such a small island to build on and the issues of transporting things to and from the island.

[Happy]

*Ahem*

Tame some 2 star Wolves, set them loose around your house, and they will efficiently kill everything except other Wolves. And your other tames, ofc.

[electricdawn]

You don't need a moat, you don't need to raise earthen walls. Even the palisades are only good to protect your lifestock. The spikes are good to thin the attackers, but not much more.

The only thing you really NEED is a good thick wooden or stone wall between you and the attackers.

Repair costs will not be reimbursed.*

*Laws and regulations in your country may apply.


This is of course only against "normal" raids. Trolls, you need to get out and spank them. Should be less of a problem once you reach a certain level.

[Cooperal]

Here's my opinion that you totally asked for.

Ditch is good. Way too good. So I don't use them. So I'm mostly going to talk like ditches aren't a thing you can do, mostly.

Palisades. Only worth the investment if your base is built around geography that forces raids to walk through a bottleneck. Otherwise you would lose more time building hundreds of them in all directions than you would by skipping that step entirely and taking out raids by hand instead. They can pair with ditches, but simply catching them in a ditch is enough on its own to render enemies harmless.

Fences and stake walls are excellent. They are not there to protect you, they are there to protect your stuff. They are time buyers. And as long as a wall has more than 1hp and forces those stronger enemies to stop and hit it, it will buy you the time you need to get outside and round everything away from where you don't want them.
Stake walls are good for delaying pest-tier creatures up until the Plains. The weaker fences are an equally good, more cost effective way of slowing down enemies who will one-shot stake walls all the same.

Stone outer walls are overkill defence at an overkill price. They look good in an overcompensating kind of way. I wouldn't bother unless there were a bunch of hands collaborating. It would be more simple to double up or triple up on the wood options. That is more than enough time to gather up any troll or fuling raids that might ravage the place unattended. Not even the strongest of attacks can one shot its way into your base if you have more than one ring of barriers that are given sufficient spacing, unless you find a way to bring Moder or Yagluth home.

The best defence after ditches of course is YOU not being a fool who either fights inside their base or only pulls one enemy away from the group at a time. Freedom of movement will protect you better than any gear or built structure can and it takes zero maintenance.

tl;dr As long as you aren't dawdling at the start of the raid, stake walls and fences are all you need.

[Eightball]

I thought raids, once started, have a timer that runs down to zero after which it they 'end'.

As long as this timer is going new mobs will replace any you kill.

Is this not the case? Can you actually kill off the raid or kill a 'leader' and the raid will then falter? Or do you need to let the timer run down regardless?

[Lucidess]

For how enemies spawn, building defences is actually a waste of time. They only spawn within your range, so if you occupy enough land with buildings that kick enemies out, you won't need any defences at all. Invasion's won't spawn enemies either. Also you are better off fighting literally anything that comes at you vs hiding in a building and letting them destroy it, it's not like we have any good defence tech (except maybe the bear trap things i just saw in the update).

Devs pls fix.

[Jitatha]

The post above does not reflect what I have seen in the game, raid mobs spawn way outside the red circle then track towards it.

[electricdawn]

What @Cooperal said. This is the truth, kids. Heed what they say.

[>< V ><]

Originally posted by Jitatha:

The post above does not reflect what I have seen in the game, raid mobs spawn way outside the red circle then track towards it.

Covering the red circle with spawn preventing structures is the best defense in the game, because nothing will spawn.

[Viking2121]

I haven't had much of a problem with digging a trench all the way around my base, they either fall in or they just sit there and wait for me to attack most of the time. Accept for the Drakes or bats, they do get in but are not terrible to deal with.

[Derrant]

I 2nd what Cooperal said, though I do sometimes build stone outer walls since you can end up with a lot of extra stone after awhile. Plus it looks awesome

But the regular wood walls are more than enough since the best defense is you on offense.

I actually wish I got more raids/events, I like building defenses just for fun but they rarely get tested. Some people come talking about multiple raids at bases or during a boss fight, I want that kind of 'unluckyness'! haha