User:Spinfx/Base Guide

Bases generally serve as focal points for NPC Houses and player activities. They can be as simple as a bounding rectangle composed of early game blocks, to elaborate structures designed to look great while also providing Mechanism-driven features such as automated doors, Teleporters, and Traps.

Common base features
Regardless of design most bases contain most, if not all, of the following.

NPC housing

 * See also House.

Player bedroom

 * See also Bed.

Selecting a bed will toggle it as the current player Spawn, which is a specialized teleport target (of Magic/Ice Mirrors and Recall Potions). However, only 1 bed can be the active spawn at a time - if no beds are active, the player's spawn defaults to the original world spawn point.

Bedrooms are optional since the player doesn't actually need to be assigned any particular room; teleporters are favored over beds since they offer two-way functionality. Still, it is common for bedrooms to be included in many base designs.

Storage area

 * See also Storage items.

The sheer volume of items a player can amass means the player inventory will require periodic offloading into longer term storage. Simply putting down a row of Chests and indiscriminate use of the "Deposit All" function will quickly devolve into anarchy in the long run as the chests fill up, so it is highly recommended to allocate plenty of room and use different containers, decorative items, statues, signage, and even rename the containers to keep things organized. The "Quick Stack" function is especially handy in reducing time spent micromanaging storage.

Certain categories of storage can display the item being stored, such as Mannequins (and the female counterpart, Womannequins), Weapon Racks, and Item Frames. Although they take up more space than simply cramming items into a chest would, these types of storage help enhance the look of the base.

Crafting area

 * ''See also Crafting stations, examples of compact crafting areas

Creating new items from raw materials is a primary player activity, making crafting areas one of the most visited in a base. Similar with storage, it is advantageous to have the various crafting stations arranged in orderly fashion. Generally the two areas are situated close by or linked via teleporter to save time when retrieving items for crafting.

Transit hub
A lot of the player's time is spent travelling. To this end, it is useful to have a staging area which serves as the arrival/departure point from the base, or even travel within the base itself if it is very large.

Ladder shafts
In pre-hardmode without access to teleporters travel can still be streamlined by introducing time-saving features such as tall vertical corridors bisecting the base from top to bottom with Rope or Chain installed along the full height, as seen in the screenshot to the right.

Note in this sample screenshot how the storage area is located right above the crafting area, with the NPC rooms below. All of them are within easy reach of the rope ladder, requiring no accessories that boost jump height.

Additionally, one advantage of cramming NPCs into such small rooms as seen here means the player can click to interact with the NPCs closest to the shaft without leaving it. In this particular case we can see the Angler NPC is housed immediately to the right, making it easy for this player to deal with the frequent trips to the Angler required when doing the various Fishing quests.

Teleporter hub
Players with multiple commonly visited destinations will find it useful to install an array of teleporters. Each individual teleporter can be wired up to 6 different circuits, allowing for plenty of destinations.

One example of a particularly massive bank of teleporters is explained in this thread.

Buff station
In addition to speeding up travel, it is also useful to have a buff station near the vicinity of the transit hub, or at least within close distance of a commonly traversed corridor or teleporter. In this context the buffs being referred to are those granted by Activated Furniture: The advantage of these buffs are that they cost nothing once the items are installed, merely requiring a click on each item to activate. For this reason, the buff station should ideally be located close to the player spawn or the base exit teleporter. This allows the player to quickly recast the buffs right before leaving the base to maximize use time.

Plant farms

 * See also Guide:Gardening.

Bases often incorporate areas dedicated to growing plants from various Seeds (useful for crafting Potions). Using Planter Boxes allows them to perform double duty as platforms, as well as saves space since they can be walked through.

Larger farms e.g. for Trees are often located nearby and not in the actual base itself since they require plenty of room.

Outposts
Outposts are smaller subsidiary bases set up along often-traveled routes, and with the advent of teleporters and world-spanning minecart tracks can function as transit stations.

Unlike the main base outposts generally do not feature any of the amenities found in the main base, acting more as a staging point before heading further or falling back to regroup. One chest may be placed here to offload spare potions, and as a bonus act as a safeguard against meteorite crashes as explained in the Defense section. For example outposts can be set up on Floating Islands, on the beaches of an Ocean, or near The Corruption/The Crimson.

It is a good idea to lay down a Campfire and maybe even hang up a Heart Lantern and a Star in a Bottle - besides adding to the ambiance these items provide actual functional relief to nearby players seeking shelter at the outpost. Before the advent of teleporters it was also common to add a bedroom at important outposts, useful for cutting down travel time from the main base for extended periods of exploration.

These resting places are also valuable as rallying points for dealing with Boss arenas, for example in The Corruption for fighting the Eater of Worlds, or near the Ocean for fighting Duke Fishron or Pirate Invasions. Triggering the pirate invasion in the ocean biome allows Pirate Maps to be stockpiled, for later use in causing yet more pirate invasions. For the invasion to happen at that location, it's convenient to build an outpost there where a bed can be placed so that the player spawn can be set.

Defense

 * See also Guide:Base defense, and Guide:Defending against invasion events

Hazards
There are a couple of potential dangers facing the NPCs living in the base, or even the base itself.
 * Meteor crash
 * Easily prevented by voiding any of the trigger conditions, such as the presence of NPC homes or chests close to the base roof, forcing the crash site to be generated elsewhere.


 * Monsters
 * The base defense guide goes into detail on how to handle monster incursions. Later on teleporters can be rigged up to provide automatic player-only entrance via the use of specific types of Pressure Plates such as the blue or gray ones. This means bases can even be sealed off entirely from the surroundings, leaving no possible openings for monsters to attempt to break through, as well as preventing NPCs from accidentally wandering outside the premises or inadvertently leaving doors open (which happens more often than most realize).


 * One of the more drastic solutions would be to ensure the base's lower floor is not touching the ground. The base can either be constructed raised up from the beginning, or in case of existing bases the ground and walls beneath can be dug out and removed, giving the base the appearance of having been built in the air.

Traps
Other than simply ignoring monsters, various traps can be built for them.
 * Pit
 * The classic hole in the ground. Most walking monsters that fall into a pit are not generally smart enough to jump back out if there is a lip overhanging the edges of the pit.


 * Lava pits
 * Another old favorite, lava can be placed deep enough to destroy items. This can be useful during events because lava is only able to destroy items of a lower Rarity than blue, leaving more valuable items intact.


 * Actual Traps
 * Traps can be set up to provide active defenses against monsters via pressure plate triggers. Be aware if deploying traps that NPCs can't accidentally wander into the kill zone. These work best in areas that NPCs can't reach - use walls to contain the NPC section and player-only activated teleporters for access. This will ensure NPCs are unable to go wandering off.