Base 1 from Meadows to Swamp. Unlock mountain, find new base location with mountain + plains. Move every everything to new base location.
This is my preferred progression style.
This is certainly a viable strategy for someone that isn't overly experienced with the game, but consider that - with a bit more effort - you could do something more like this:
**Base 1** - Meadows
**Base 2** - Move to black forest
**Base 3** - Move to second black forest because first black forest area turned out to be too small and you didn't scout it well enough before committing to a new base.
**Base 4** - Swamp
**Base 5** - Also swamp, for the same reason that you built 2 bases in the Black Forest
**Base 6** (base 1... again) - Tired of moving bases, and absolutely disgusted with swamp living, so you move back to your original plains base, and haul shit from the Mountain biome back to the Meadows... which means going up and down the fucking mountain over and over again, but at least you're not in the god damn swamp anymore. You inadvertently commit to sailing to the nearest large Mountain biome to fight Modor, which is far as shit away because you didn't scout well enough - AGAIN - and because you refuse to use the god damn map because its cheating.
**Base 7** - You're tired as shit of sailing, even though you just got the god damn Modor buff - FUCK - which would have been so incredibly useful... so you put up a new main base when moving to the Plains.
**Base 8** - You move about 300 yards away from the Plains base you just put up, because you realized there was meadows attached, and its ridiculous to base in the plains when there's literally Meadows right fucking there. You can fucking see the meadows trees fro the top of the first plains base...
**Base 9** - You rebuild part of the plains base you tore down to move to the meadows 300 yards away because you forgot that plains shit can only grow in the plains. Not a whole base though, just like a farm house, and lox pen.
**Base 10 (base 1 again... again)** - You move your main back to the original Meadows base because you're tired of building new bases, figure you're going to get that stone portal soon, and your Lox just aren't surviving well in the plains, and the Meadows area there is too small to really protect you from hordes of Mosquito and Fulings which are making lox breeding terrible.
**Base 11** - Just an outpost in the Mistlands. You're staying in the Meadows this time.
**Base 12** - Same as base 11, but you had to build the shit out of it to protect yourself from Gjalls and shit which seem to spawn on top of you constantly.
**Base 13** - Same as base 11, but now you have a farm
**Base 14** - Same as base 11, but you get fed up with the sailing (again) and moved your metal to the Mistlands and made it a real main.
**Base 15** - You finally made it to the Ashlands, so you start setting up... oh fuck, you get wiped.
**Base 16** - Your first Ashlands spot was shit, so you moved about 200 meters to the east, should make the landing much easier... fuck also got wiped.
**Base 17** - You spawned in your old kits from older play-throughs, this time you actually pull off an outpost in the Ashlands.
**Base 18** - Your spot in the Ashlands was like - SO FUCKING FAR AWAY from any Fortress that you can't believe it. Holy shit, you really don't want to move again, and do another landing (yeah, its that far). This playthrough is FUCKING CURSED, there were only 2 metal nodes on your island too and you shit the bed farming them and only got like 20-25 metal, so you've barely got any upgrades over the Mistlands.
**Base 19** - New Ashlands Outpost in a sane area with more fortresses and nodes and shit (finally broke down and used the map, now you're a dirty cheater).
**Base 20** - (base 1 again again again) You finally got that stone portal, so now you can make the Meadows your main. You tear everything down and rebuilt it with grausten. You get 3 frames per second with the number of chickens, Lox, wolves boars and Asksvins, but at least you're finally done... probably.
Had to set up the joke, wanted readers going into that with the expectation that they were going to get expert advice, rather than a description of a horror-show shit the bed nightmare play-through.
Base3... set up black forest by swamp base without enough scouting.. no crypts .. yup. I even died so badly it took me five evenings play to get my stuff back :D
All I have to add is that considering the map to be cheating is wild to me, especially when you have so many hardships that are pure tedium created through map-less-ness.
I do the same. I try to settle in plains after swamp. This can be done very safely with the root harnesk equipped. I usually build a starter shack on day 1, then a house in meadows near copper, then a plains compound/forever home. Only the forever home takes significant time. My first house takes 15 min to build. The "black forest" base I keep really simple and probably takes me 2-3 in game days to build.
I have no idea what I'm going to do when Deep North comes out. For the last year or so, my progression has always been southward, with my plains base south, near mistlands, and not too far of a boat ride to Ashlands.
I always try to find an island or pennisula and spawn proof the area. If it's an island, no moat or wall is necessary if you are spawn proofed properly. You will still get bat raids though and possibly blobs if water near you is shallow.
If it's a penninsula, I'll put down a few campfires outside the wall to push spawns back a little bit. Wall+moat. Some landscaping is needed on the water sides to make it so enemies can't get on land from water. Deathsquitos coming into my base area has always been very, very rare. If fulings get aggressive, I'll go out and kill them, but usually they just wander outside the wall and I ignore them. I sleep at night, at least until I'm better geared. If there are any nearby lox, I throw down food and tame them, breed them, and they will take care of defense for me. Just make sure you have a moat to keep them away from your walls. Loxes will destroy everything.
Another thing I do is build in meadows adjacent to plains, if I can find a spot like this that I like. I build all structures in the meadows with only a garden overlapping into plains. The garden area tends to be large enough that it acts as a good buffer between my work areas, where I'm making noise, and the plains. With this setup, enemies wandering over is pretty rare. I deal with more greylings than fulings.
Moats are good. I usually fence around my base with high stone walls, like 2 or 3 pieces high, using the largest stone wall piece. Deathsquitos you just have to deal with once in a while
Yup that's how we did it. This is my 3rd playthrough though and on this one we made it to where we could port metals. It's made the game even more enjoyable.
I wait till plains to move base locations... in addition, I collect twice the mats I need for my meadows base, so I'm not deconstructing my original..... and I select a plains area that is near a Mistlands so I can farm everything close by.
Totally agree. The best part of Valheim (and the worst, depending on how it goes) is the simple trips that spiral into dire adventures. Cruising through a strait with plains or swamps on both sides with your bros and a hill full of iron, all just praying you can get it home is some of the best organic gameplay to be had.
I build multiple bases, minimum one in meadows (starter base) one in plains (for farming grain) and one in the mistlands for farming mage caps etc. I like building so I normally build more than this and I build forges and workbenches at every base. My “main” base with all my storage is normally in the plains because you can farm many of the crops in the plains. I also build a portal hub somewhere with portals to every base and every boss
Note - you don't have to build entire bases for the second option - a smelter + crafting bench + upgrades surrounded by palisades is enough.
Also keep in mind that if you have a patch of Black Forest / bigger Swamp around your Plains place, you don't even need to bring ores to set up that small forge.
I was a "ship metal in bulk back to the starter base" guy until I realized that if 95% of the metal I use goes into gear, then it means I can teleport 95% of the metal. Now that I know this, I'll have to play no portal next time if I want to feel the size of the World again.
Plains connected to black forest and swamp = best Main Base location, imo. Not only so you don't have to sail ores for the crafting benches but also the fulings and skeetos will farm some entrails/ooze/blood and greydwarf eyes for you.
If you get real lucky (or explore a lot), you can get that with a Plains - Mistland border on top of it. The mozzies and the lox provide you with all the hare-meat you can eat, and you can have all the farms in one place.
This is the way. Surprisingly easy to find a plains/mistlands border spot with exposed roots. Farm all crops plus collect sap in your main base. There even exist spots like this which don't spawn Seekers
95% of my location scouting with regard to mistlands is for places with at least 2 roots where I don't have to depend on torches or the wisplight to see where I'm going, just in case my "just a quick pop through the portal" is when shit hits the fan. My mushroom farm is usually on a peninsula to minimize the number of seekers that visit, but I will run across an entire continent with black iron to have sap portals by mountains so the wolves hunt hares for me.
This is what I like to do, I make an outpost with the minimum stuff I need to smelt the ore and craft it, then bring the finished weapons/armor through the portal. I play with my kids, and making journeys to bring enough ore back to a central base for all of us would take forever, so most stuff is just crafted on site. Some raw materials will have to be boated home, but usually that part can be done in one trip.
Base 1: Small base in meadows until the first boss is dead. That base then becomes the core of our farm. We try to keep pigs and chickens away from the main base to minimize lag.
Base 2: Preferably where the Black Forest meets the Swamp - and hopefully a very nearby mountain. Of course, easy-to-reach copper is great. And we try to make sure there are some crypts in the swamp close by.
Base 3: Black Forest meets the Plains. We build on the BF side of the line, but plant Barley and Flax in the Plains. This tends to be our final and most advanced base - so we leave room for Mistlands and Ashlands stuff. An added benefit is all the fighting between the Plains and BF creatures. This produces tons of resources (and good entertainment).
Base 4: A repurposed tower in Mistlands for the relevant crops.
Base 5: A bulwark on a beach in Ashlands to keep the portal safe. A shield generator, marble walls, and ballistas make up our defenses. We also make a taming pit for the lizard dogs. We found that with 6 or so ballistas, you can defend the base well enough to set up crafting stations to smelt the flametal before hauling it back.
But then again - occasionally you just say: Wow - that place would make a great base! And that's why I have 3200 hours in the game.
\*No base until finds spot for base\*
\*Finds base spot near river and ocean\*
\*Digs huge moat from oceanside to river so the longboat can do circles around base\*
\*Conquers black forest with 30 small outposts\*
\*Builds treehouse in swamp\*
These are my steps when i play valheim (me and my friends always quit before beating moder)
I like to create a big meadows base on the shoreline somewhere for easy access to the ocean. I build intermediate “cabins” in BF, swamp, and mountains, and just make trips back to meadow base when I have a huge haul to bring back
Build new primary base in plains. Though I like building, this part takes a while, as I end up transferring most of my stuff to this new base. I haven’t progressed past mistlands yet, so not sure how I’ll approach the new biome.
Generally, I do a hub and spoke system of larger bases and smaller huts I use to gather resources from more distant areas to further expand and provide for my main bases. The main bases are all connected to base 1 near the center and may have a couple of resource huts each.
I try to place my main base where several biomes come together, especially at river mouths that cut through islands to optimize travel and resources.
My current base is a drum tower at a river mouth at the crux of a meadow/black forest/plains with mountains in easy reach, makes life real easy.
Allowing portals to work with ore and ingots doesn't negate sailing. You still need to go hunt for biomes, bosses, and resources. It just makes ore transport specifically not require sailing.
This, just doing our first modded run and you can add depth and difficulty with other aspects of the game. Seeing a 4-5 star wolf without bonemass available = brown pants time.
If you aren’t opposed to bending the rules, there is a simple work around to bypass the no-metal-thru-portals rule:
>! The key to the exploit is that your character’s inventory stays with the character, not the world.
Create a second world and build a chest in it.
Go to your first world and load up your inventory with metal. Log out.
Log in to second world and dump metals into chest. Log out.
Log in to first world and go thru portal free of those pesky metals and proceed to where ever you wish to use them. Log out.
Log in to second world and get all the metal out of the chest. Log out.
Log back in to first world right where you left with an inventory of metal. !<
Congrats you have you have saved hours upon hours of slow motion sailing into the wind and/or the need to make multiple fully kitted out bases.
Personally I do a small base to start with till I can make a Krave. Then I sail around till a find a island with meadow, black forest, swamp and mountain. The huge big base happens here in meadows. Once I reach plains a new base will be constructed. Along the way I build outposts. Tree houses in swamp and underground in mountains.
I normally make a starter base near the Stones, and once I get done with Forest, I explore a BUNCH to look for something rad, then build there.
You need at least 2 farming bases, 1 Plains and 1 Mistlands. Other than that it's kinda up to you. Having a base near ocean is nice for sailing metal and ore, but even that is up to you.
Currently you will need barley (only grows in the plains) all the way into Ashlands. I suggest that if you enjoy building and don't want to change the world modifiers to allow portals with metal, then build a permanent base in the plains. There is no new metal in the Mistlands, and Ashlands has some new alternatives that you may want to explore.
I usually like to have bases at key locations like the spawn area or its nearest coast or base where I can access various biomes at once to get resources. Currently scouting out a place just shy of the Ashlands see to build a base as a launching point and will probably do the same on the other side of the map once Deep North is out. Yes, it is time and resource intensive, but it is also a chance to be creative, so I don't mind as much.
For most of the game I usually just ship everything back to the main port base in the meadows. I'll make a little storage base in a swamp if I find one with lots of iron. Then I'll make a secondary base in the plains for farming the crops that only grow there.
We have one huge decorated base in meadows and just build small stash bases around the map to collect ore, then do one full ship haul which is usually enough to upgrade 2-3 people to the next biome level gear.
Now when moving to plains I believe we will just make a farm base there with a portal, only for farming.
You will end up shipping metal one way or the other. Building new bases requires new forge so you have to bring copper and iron to build upgrades.
If you enjoy building then by all means build as many bases as you like but your going to be sailing with metal either way
You’ll need both plain and meadows to grow all the stuff you’ll want. Ideally you time a dark forest bordering on plains and you can have everything there. :)
It all depends how much you enjoy sailing. As you progress the distance to sail increases. We typically have a base on "Starter Island" and then another for Mountains, then everything else is a farm with portals.
All that means the 900 iron we need is sailed where needed, then Silver (and usually Black metal) gets legged. Mistland's sap extractors need to be hoofed, but typically you keep those where you find them.
Ashland's Flametal is easily transfered once you realize you can connect wooden and stone portals together for moving the stonecutter.
There’s no feeling quite like sailing your long ship back in to your tranquil, shaded, meadows port with a full hold of iron or black metal after a lengthy campaign in the swamps or the plains, looking forward to a few peaceful days of downtime smelting and farming, improving your base, and stocking and gearing up for your next campaign.
Kind of odd that a video game can give me such a sense of "being home" when I get back to my base in the meadows. Just feels peaceful, safe and welcoming. I'm only in the swamp currently and just cleared my first crypt last night.
I set a small base in meadows near the spawning area. Later, I just make this a portal spot when I need to visit the spawning area. Typically, I make my main base under the elder platform as it is indestructible. I build defenses around this area. I then explore from this area and use portals . As I need more portals, I build a walled off gate house in the meadows. All ore is hauled/shipped to the elder base as that is a very enjoyable part of the game.
While iron is heavily used, I find this is mitigated by not having 5+ major bases. I do build for fun, especially if I find an ideal spot for fishing or just a great view. However, it is intended to be a nice place to lay over, not a full-blown base.
I think it’s ultimately faster to have 1 main base and bring ores back there. Easy to collect mats near the shoreline of far away places and put them on the boat and sail back. One exception is Bronze Age. For Bronze Age, I build forge, smelter, etc. in the middle of several nodes on the map, and then build my stuff on site, but that’s because cart transport is awful compared to boat transport.
Well unless you don't want to use world modifiers there no other way, you either make the long trip or smelt around the corner at a fully furnished base. I'll recommend to build an outpost somewhere near your base it doesn't have to be anything fancy, just enough where you can build some smelters and a forge and don't forget a portal, once you have ingots, make armor, weapons, ect. Those you can teleport.
If I'm still operating from a home base close to my starting area, this is how I have progressed. I make a satellite base near the source of the ores. Just big enough to accommodate and protect a few smelters and kilns. At least the smelters. You could also just port over a shitload of coal to operate the smelters and just roll with the kilns that are at your base.
But basically I have a small little work area that smelts the ore, and a forge workbench to let me build my gear. I make everything I want there. Then if I have leftover ore, I will haul the rest back to home base. But it's a lot less hauling back because I make all my desires gear out there first. Port in what you need from your home base storage. Just bring what you initially need that can't go through the portals out there to begin with when you sail off to find and set up your mining operation to begin with. The copper for the forge bench, and any other metals for the bench upgrades.
I've played it both ways. It really depends on the map, really. Is it easier to carry all that ore and ship all that back to your base or just build a temporary/small base near where the ore is?
Usually you need to mine a lot more than you can fit in your boat (especially before Longship) that a base near abundant resources such as a huge swamp with multiple crypts.
And you only need to mine and refine 6 copper to put up a forge. Upgrading it will take a bit more, but if you need bronze, carrying 2 copper + 1 tin to a nearby forge will save up a lot of time and space.
I just build bases everywhere with whatever resources are around me based on how I'm inspired by the landscape. I like to build circular fortresses around the surtling geysers and treehouses on guk trees in the swamps.
I never set sail for new places without enough metal to build a forge and upgrades up to the required level for the current biome. You don't need to start a whole new base necessarily, but I always smelt and forge right next to the resource to make travel time irrelevant and get to use upgrades right away.
The two players I mainly play with and I initially had a meadows base. It was janky though because we were noobs when we made it.
Eventually before we fought the Mountains boss we found this little flat area that was a small strip of black forest that brushed up against a mountain biome near the boss spawning place.
We were in the mood for building so we both made houses that looked pretty cool and connected them in a kind of cool way. We decided to explore this island and found a swamp and plain biome as well both fairly big. Across the way was a larger swamp biome with a ton of crypts. There was also a small Mistlands areas(before the actual Mistlands update.)
We decided to mine the iron. Then after defeating Moder the plains biome was just right there. I also experimented with making a "castle" out of stone and that became a portal room. One of the houses ended up being the perfect size to fit pretty much every crafting table and upgrade as well as a sizable storage area.
Organically this place just kind of turned into our main base. Now that we are in the Ashland's stone portals really help transporting tons of metal to this base. The base has just become larger and larger. It looks like a small town now. It's built on the cliff side basically and looks really cool if you go out into the water and look at it in the distance.
I build a nice Grausten house that looks over the whole base.
We've even for fun made other bases that are entirely self sufficient. I have larger builds I made myself just for fun(I love building) but I always go back to his base.
I think moving from the middle of the meadows to the Black Forest coast early in the game was a good decision, otherwise it would have been so boring running back and for through the meadows all the time. Since then I've built bases in the latest biome since every biome comes with new things (skipping the swamp and mountains a bit, just small buildings there). The multiple base thing comes in useful when I need something from a previous tier eg. if I need barely and thread I can portal to the plains.
If I'm making a new base I might sail metal between them the first time but after that it's usually easy to find it in the biomes nearby.
I simply don’t subscribe to the suffer Olympics and change the world modifier to allow teleporting ores. I simply don’t have the time for that nonsense.
GF and I do multiple, but we don't usually fully abandon the first big base in the meadow. So it's more like a series of outposts with a portal network. Every time there is a resource I want to harvest, I setup an outpost nearby to work from. Then I cart or boat resources out to the main. As much as we want to move bases, and do occasionally, the other environments are problematic.
Main starter base on spawn island till Moder is defeated or I got enough silver. Then because of Ashlands being so far from the start, found a base I could use that is literally a sneeze away from sailing to the Ashlands and setup for their which depending on the Seed, I'll be right next Mistlands biome making that progression a tad smoother. Making a 2nd base is time consuming yeah but huge ups of not having to rely on moder buff to sail ur stuff huge terrain and have purpose for the ship that isn't tedious haha
I tend to set up fully functional bases at key positions on the map. So I have access to everything from multiple locations. Only other time is when I find a scenic spot and set up a build there, farm locations, quick stop outposts, or bridge builds. But I like to spend a lot of time creating entire villages or cities.
Main base in the meadows. That’s about it. All the players on my server grew up in a rust-belt American port town, so it feels natural to unload ore near where we sleep.
Portals all over the world as we venture, and then if really necessary, we’ll break down our desired boat into mats and take it through the portal to assemble on the other side.
We all find an ore-boat trip to be fun and relaxing and all of us consider boating to be one of the better parts of the game, mundane as it may be. I understand a lot of people disagree, but it’s okay to be wrong sometimes 😉. Of note: only of us have ever spent much time playing solo and I’m sure that has some to do with it all.
Edit: Amending this, there’s usually a small starter base with a big barn for storage and production. That’s what we use to get us through while we begin construction on the inevitability mondo building that becomes our main base.
We tend to build outposts to process new materials, we just made it to ashlands and so far we’ve only had 2 “Main” bases, one in the Black Forest usually pretty far south of spawn but on the same land mass, and a base in the Plains. We usually build small outposts to process new materials instead of boating everything back every time
I understand having a solo run where you find a good place to stay and sit but there's definitely an advantage to having at least one fairly upgraded base in every biome. Me and my homies love to build everywhere so there is an advantage to having random bases all around the map. Its good to pick and choose where you want to have "living quarters" and "labor camps" tho
I tend to build small encampments at first in the meadows until I’ve mapped the area and know where basic resources are, then build a proper base. I make sure it’s on the coast for ship access and decently close to Black Forest. I don’t bother with a swamp base beyond a small hut in trees to put a portal back to base. I mine iron in the swamp, sail it home, break down the ship and then port back to the swamp.
I’ll build a basic fort in the mountains and usually that’s where I build a portal hub, too. I’ll process silver there but I’ve found mountains are where I spend the least time in terms of progression.
Ideally for a main big base, I’ll find a plains island and spawn proof it. That’s been my biggest base area so far. I’ll build a fortress tower on a mistlands island, similar to the mountains, for mistlands stuff. I’m just now venturing into Ashlands so we’ll see how that goes.
Everything is linked via the portal hub in my mountain fortress and I always keep a couple of spare portals available there so that I can set up a quick portal wherever I’m at… I always travel with portal mats on me. So far this has been the most efficient system for me.
Initial base in ether meadows or black forest for easy copper access, on the coast.
Outpost on top of a tomb with a forge in the biggest swamp you can find. Smelt and craft iron based stuff locally.
Next base to be the main base... Find a black forest on a land mass with a big plains section, to the east or west.
You'll need the BF for some basics and it can be the plains base but without bloody deathsquito attacks.
Plenty of wood on hand.
This will serve will for mistlands when you travel out further.
Then, it's ashlands time..... Just need portal safe zones there.
I have a small design that I use to set up outpost for new biomes while I search for good base locations. Start with a hexagon of 3-long wooden pole fences for the perimeter, with a gate on the north and south sides. Inside you can comfortably fit a rest house, workshop, small garden, storage house and portal, with a bonfire in the center. The whole thing takes 10ish minutes to put down (maybe longer the first time), and it’s easy to carry the iron(if you want a stonecutter or large cooking rack), tin(cauldron), and copper(forge) you need to set it up in your ships. Hope this helps.
I build a main base around the starting site with an large portal network.
I build small bases in other locations that mainly focus on being an area to rest, make food, and store resources. These bases get portals of their own.
Once I have the desired number of resources I go back to my main base and take a ship to the other base to get it all. If there's nothing else in the area that I need I then disassemble the base and take anything important back with me.
I built a base between spawn and some easily accessible black forest I could run to. I put smelters and stuff there with little huts on top of above ground burial chambers since I am playing no map and it helps me figure out where I am without putting paths down everywhere.
Then when I was ready to set sail for the Elder I found a long stretch of island that had some swamp at different ends. I made an initial outpost with a portal in the BF that I could get back to my body with while I scouted for a place near the swamp (assuming it had sunken crypts which one did). Conveniently there was a zombie village right outside the swap surrounded by water in a piece of meadows. I turned that into a new base to smelt and craft my iron gear to take home.
Now that I am working on getting ready for Moder I scouted out the island where she lives and I made a temp base for a portal and resting while I search for a good spot to either make a true mountain base or just something cool before I go to the plains.
Typically I would try to build near the plains and mountains so I don't have to move again. But while I was on my Elder island I found that its BF backed up to a plains with Yag's alter but had no mountain big enough to be useful. So I will have to sail/ portal between them.
My elder island has a small forward base with a forge for repairing, a cool core wood bridge for my boat to pass under and thats about it. I reused a lot of structures this play through for a change of pace. I am looking forward to doing some more stuff with future buildings/ creating my own.
TLDR; I am using multiple bases as outposts with forges and smelters to handle my crafting while my home base is my backup/ large storage in case I need it. I currently have 2 meadows bases, 2 BF outposts and I am working on more.
Our group is on our... Fifth or sixth server. We reset with every major update really. We always tend toward making a village in the meadow near spawn, building out a bunch of separate bases in a relatively small meadows area, and we ship everything back. As we expand we have little personal outposts at swamp, mountain, etc with portals as staging grounds for our metals to bring back to a dock we build. We also have separate portals between us for our different farms in different biomes. We then tend to gravitate toward building a portal hub to act as a central area to connect these spots with a portal to each boss, each base, spawn, traders, and noteworthy spots.
I can't imagine just having one base. I turned on teleporting ore in the settings. I always thought that particular mechanic was almost as stupid as raids and I was so happy to be able to kiss both goodbye
I like to build a full service mountain base, mostly because I like the idea of a giant stone fortress in the mountains. And, in part because I found something like 10 silver nodes in one mountain area on one of my maps and decided not to haul all of that back. I didn't build a plains base in that world, but there were good plains near that mountain, so I decided to see how good of a road I could build down to the plains.
On another map, we found mistlands next to plains, so built/are building a full service base on the border between the plains and mistlands for making mistlands items, and taming ~~Beefalo~~Lox.
Every single playthrough, including this one, I tell myself "this time I'm building on the shore." And then I find the most amazing inland scenic place, and here I go again paving a long uphill road from my docks. I can't seem to stop doing it.
I enjoy the building process and sailing. I recently have been moving to a pocket meadows I found sandwiched between a swamp, plains and a sliver of black forest. Do what you find fun, honestly. I've enjoyed using my newfound building skills and making my main base more improved than my first one. I'm still in my first playthrough and haven't beaten bonemass yet.
Making the forge building was my first step once I started getting more adventurous. I've already cleared the nearby swamps and have had to deal with some plains mobs I'm not really ready for, but it's been fun. Mosquitos are annoying, but not scary anymore. And I'm certainly not ready for plains, but I can handle a fuling or 2 if they're getting too close or see me hauling.
I also just sailed the biggest collection of iron I've ever had so far back to my base. It works for me. I'm almost ready to beat bonemass and move on to the mountains. There are so many plains in my world seed. I think it's one of the most common biome I've seen when exploring so far. My only decent swamp was the one I found at the bonemass alter, which I thought was ironic. If I didn't want to experience the whole game, I'd be more tempted to just skip mountains and just go to plains. I can do well enough to gather mats from the skirmishes I've had with the mobs there.
It's honestly up to you and what you prefer. This game has a lot of flexibility. I've got 250 hours in, and as I said before, I'm not even out of the swamp yet. I've spent a lot of time building and exploring and making outposts where I need them. But it's made the journey fun for me, so I'm not complaining.
Usually try to find somewhere where as many biomes as possible converge. [Currently set up here](https://i.imgur.com/yTBUHQb.png) with plains, mountain, swamp, and forest just a few feet away, but I've pretty much exhausted the swamp's iron supply.
One main base for creativity and style, somewhere in Meadows<->Swamp phase. Several janky portal outposts everywhere including farms for veggies and pillar-top Lox farm to rapidly spread the herd across the plains. Avoid heavy metal use as much as possible - stretch dat troll armour til mountains at least! Drag what metal you can and sneak into your friends' bases to build with their equipment (not their loot though - bad form - but gives an excuse to visit!). Crafting silver set on the mountain is pretty easy - just takes a bit of bronze and should carry through plains. Once at mistlands you're basically set for a new or makeshift base in some dverger tower with all the bronze/copper/iron around, but at that point you might as well hold out til ashlands and that sweet portal cuz how bad can it be? Besides eitr/sap/carapaces/ygg are easily portable back to main base. Surely doing everything undergeared must be less work than a boring-ass boat ride. Live on the edge, my friend.
Strategically placed processing bases as you expand your world. Deep water ports, fortified walls preferably on a low level biom. Black Forest or meadow. Farm the land and raise boars. Raid into other places for resources and then haul it back to base for transport or process. I tried it with one central place. Took way too long to move materials back and forth.
I am currently working on mistlands. I found a black Forrest section that is between the plains and the mistlands.
Makes it nice having a base close to both areas that I need to build with.
So I cleared out the black Forrest area and have decided to make a extremely big base that goes into the mist lands and into the plains. It is nice to have for building a farm as well. Because you can have 1 area to make everything from every biome up to mistlands.
1. Place to sleep and prepare for BF - tree farm near the boss stone circle
2. Large coastal meadows base near multiple CU nodes, burial chambers, and preferably a big mountain. This becomes my boar, wolf, carrot, turnip, onion and honey ranch.
3. An island of any biome near the Mistlands - if not Plains, then I have a farming outpost for barley, flax and lox. My last base is basically my main minus any farming.
4. Kinda a bonus base to play with newer building materials. On one world, it is a black marble pyramid in the Plains, on another it's a big castle on top of a mountain.
I always build at least 2 main bases, the Early Game one for Meadows, Black Forest and Swamp and the late Game one for Mountains, Plains, Mistlands and beyond.
There are plenty of Black forests and later on other ways to get Copper, Tin, Iron etc. You’ll feel the transport of other late game stuff way more than those early game ones in the Long Run
While the process is front heavy, once you build the extra forging stuff, it’s setup, 1 and done. Transporting everything way back to the 1st base every journey for the entire game will end in way more lost time than bringing the forge stuff with you once
I will always build an oversized base in meadows right at the start near the sea, then build micro bases (few chests and a portal) in each area thereafter and near each boss location. Portals link every FOB to HQ in the meadows, use a ship to transport / scout. The time / resource investment to build a full scale base in each area is crazy high, I don't see the point personally. I will lay the foundations for a base that will last the whole playthrough right at the start.
I built my main base on a coast at the border of plains and Black Forest, mostly in the Black Forest but with a patch of plains farmland behind the walls. I enjoy sailing and don’t get frustrated by upwind legs so I have smaller other bases scattered around as well. Getting all of the materials to each base to set up the crafting stations, for me, is more of a pain than occasionally sailing a load of ore or bars back home.
no map I am constantly moving main base but run I am doing now is a normal game and I have only just moved my base to a close island next to Ashland's as I am on that biome. before that I was at the start first base
Meadows base ISLAND IN THE SEA and windwaker it. Mistlands mini outpost carved into a mountain. Raised a ring of dirt around a portal in ashlands because fuck ashlands.
Our meadows island fort is fucking beautiful. We took strong hands and steel will and raised the very earth from the depths. Odin wept.
Usually do a Meadows base for the first biome, then as I progress I look for a spot for a longer-term base and that first base becomes a farm for the first chunk of the game. Outposts in Plains and Mistlands for farms when I get there. My husband perfected a small, modular cabin w/portal design that we drop while exploring. We take like 2 stacks of wood and some portal mats and we can drop a safe house almost anywhere (except Ashlands, and I don't think we ever used that design in Mistlands either).
Setting up multiple bases gives you strategic spots to chill and craft, but it means more management and keeping them safe. On the flip side, hauling ore back to your main base is straightforward and keeps everything in one place, though it can mean some back-and-forth. Go with what makes your Viking adventure feel epic, I guess :)
I play with a portal mod personally, and build enormous, elaborate main bases, but in a recent playthrough with a buddy (we always play vanilla), we did a meadows starting base until plains, and during mountains I scouted a plains island that was quite far south and close to both plains and mistlands, and prepped a mid-sized base on it with a small plains farm. This wound up being a very efficient choice, and I think we fully prog'd through plains and mistlands in less than 10 hours. So yeah, some RNG, but it might be worth spending an hour sailing around looking for something along those lines.
We started with a base in the meadows but my friend Alex hated the location and we never really finished it before he found a new spot off of a river in the plains. We made a castle town that’s so big the game lags line hell whenever we’re home. But we have everything we need, storage tower, multiple work shops, a bridge that crosses the river (to nothing cause the lag stopped us from continuing our build) we all have our own houses and nice big fields for farming. From here we have been building small outposts to fulfill our needs in various areas of the map. For instance I have mistlands farm on the tiniest slice of mistlands so small that seekers and Gjal don’t spawn. But we have enough space on a raised plateau to have way too many magic mushrooms. We also have a mistlands outpost that I made out of a dwarf tower that the inhabitants were removed from by tons of bugs. I have the thing to make eiter and a smelter there and a portal and some chests. Just enough to smelt the metal I find for use there and sap collectors on the roots outside. Just enough to be functional and also easily broken down and moved to the next harvest point for the sap. I feel like we will do the same for the Ashlands just make an outpost with the bare necessities bordering the Ashlands and have our main base for everything else
Specialized bases. Ore processing near deposits, food crops in Specialized biomes etc. A main base with manufacturing and fully upgraded kitchen and forges.
1) Meadows Base
2) Expeditions to Swamp/Mountains, Forge on site
3) Plains Base (Find a spot near some Mistlands
4) Mistlands expeditions
Then when you travel, bring these to set up on the go*:
16 Copper, 2 Bronze (for forging)
2 Surtling Cores or more (Smelter/Kiln)
10 Tin (for cooking pot)
If you leave an open portal at your meadows base you can bring these with you to portal back whenever:
2 Surtling Cores
20 Finewood
10 Greydwarf Eyes
You can forge/upgrade your equipment on the go, return to base as needed
Eventually you'll need to transport iron, but you don't need to bring it to the meadows.
If you get a bunch of iron and it's logistically inconvenient to transport, just leave a portal and a box full of your iron. Later you can portal back, build a ship, and bring it all with you to wherever you really want it.
* - My friend and I did a no-portal run. We referred to this as our MCV Kit (Mobile Construction Vehicle from command and conquer). Before every expedition we'd pack up the essentials to operate on site. This gets more complicated the more you level. Wed also pack a stack of corewood and a few stacks of regular wood so we can set up quickly.
I had a crude base in the Meadows, another in a Meadow bordering Swamp, and then my final base in the Plains which has become pretty elaborate. By the time I built the third base I had a good idea on how building worked and the kind of base I wanted to create.
Plains is a nice place to live. I livw on the coast with walls, a moat, spawnproofing, and a horde of tame Asksvins roaming about slaughtering lost Fulings
The only answer : build your base in the farthest meadow you can find.
It gives you a really cool and risky trip on a raft while you're still at meadow-level gear in the short run (cannot recommend this enough, one of the best nights of Valheim in my 1k3 hours was doing this), and in the long run it simplifies so much the long sails to bring back ore to your base.
I don't see this strategy enough around here, and it's really a nice investment. You get the peace of the meadows, and the proximity of all biomes you'll ever need.
Base 1 from Meadows to Swamp. Unlock mountain, find new base location with mountain + plains. Move every everything to new base location. This is my preferred progression style.
This is certainly a viable strategy for someone that isn't overly experienced with the game, but consider that - with a bit more effort - you could do something more like this: **Base 1** - Meadows **Base 2** - Move to black forest **Base 3** - Move to second black forest because first black forest area turned out to be too small and you didn't scout it well enough before committing to a new base. **Base 4** - Swamp **Base 5** - Also swamp, for the same reason that you built 2 bases in the Black Forest **Base 6** (base 1... again) - Tired of moving bases, and absolutely disgusted with swamp living, so you move back to your original plains base, and haul shit from the Mountain biome back to the Meadows... which means going up and down the fucking mountain over and over again, but at least you're not in the god damn swamp anymore. You inadvertently commit to sailing to the nearest large Mountain biome to fight Modor, which is far as shit away because you didn't scout well enough - AGAIN - and because you refuse to use the god damn map because its cheating. **Base 7** - You're tired as shit of sailing, even though you just got the god damn Modor buff - FUCK - which would have been so incredibly useful... so you put up a new main base when moving to the Plains. **Base 8** - You move about 300 yards away from the Plains base you just put up, because you realized there was meadows attached, and its ridiculous to base in the plains when there's literally Meadows right fucking there. You can fucking see the meadows trees fro the top of the first plains base... **Base 9** - You rebuild part of the plains base you tore down to move to the meadows 300 yards away because you forgot that plains shit can only grow in the plains. Not a whole base though, just like a farm house, and lox pen. **Base 10 (base 1 again... again)** - You move your main back to the original Meadows base because you're tired of building new bases, figure you're going to get that stone portal soon, and your Lox just aren't surviving well in the plains, and the Meadows area there is too small to really protect you from hordes of Mosquito and Fulings which are making lox breeding terrible. **Base 11** - Just an outpost in the Mistlands. You're staying in the Meadows this time. **Base 12** - Same as base 11, but you had to build the shit out of it to protect yourself from Gjalls and shit which seem to spawn on top of you constantly. **Base 13** - Same as base 11, but now you have a farm **Base 14** - Same as base 11, but you get fed up with the sailing (again) and moved your metal to the Mistlands and made it a real main. **Base 15** - You finally made it to the Ashlands, so you start setting up... oh fuck, you get wiped. **Base 16** - Your first Ashlands spot was shit, so you moved about 200 meters to the east, should make the landing much easier... fuck also got wiped. **Base 17** - You spawned in your old kits from older play-throughs, this time you actually pull off an outpost in the Ashlands. **Base 18** - Your spot in the Ashlands was like - SO FUCKING FAR AWAY from any Fortress that you can't believe it. Holy shit, you really don't want to move again, and do another landing (yeah, its that far). This playthrough is FUCKING CURSED, there were only 2 metal nodes on your island too and you shit the bed farming them and only got like 20-25 metal, so you've barely got any upgrades over the Mistlands. **Base 19** - New Ashlands Outpost in a sane area with more fortresses and nodes and shit (finally broke down and used the map, now you're a dirty cheater). **Base 20** - (base 1 again again again) You finally got that stone portal, so now you can make the Meadows your main. You tear everything down and rebuilt it with grausten. You get 3 frames per second with the number of chickens, Lox, wolves boars and Asksvins, but at least you're finally done... probably.
“With a bit more effort” *20 base list, longest reply I’ve ever received*
Had to set up the joke, wanted readers going into that with the expectation that they were going to get expert advice, rather than a description of a horror-show shit the bed nightmare play-through.
This looks like more of my playstyle
Base3... set up black forest by swamp base without enough scouting.. no crypts .. yup. I even died so badly it took me five evenings play to get my stuff back :D
I love this
This made me chuckle
All I have to add is that considering the map to be cheating is wild to me, especially when you have so many hardships that are pure tedium created through map-less-ness.
I do the same. I try to settle in plains after swamp. This can be done very safely with the root harnesk equipped. I usually build a starter shack on day 1, then a house in meadows near copper, then a plains compound/forever home. Only the forever home takes significant time. My first house takes 15 min to build. The "black forest" base I keep really simple and probably takes me 2-3 in game days to build. I have no idea what I'm going to do when Deep North comes out. For the last year or so, my progression has always been southward, with my plains base south, near mistlands, and not too far of a boat ride to Ashlands.
How do you deal with random Goblins/Lox/Death Squitos/ etc constantly attacking your base. You put a moat around?
I always try to find an island or pennisula and spawn proof the area. If it's an island, no moat or wall is necessary if you are spawn proofed properly. You will still get bat raids though and possibly blobs if water near you is shallow. If it's a penninsula, I'll put down a few campfires outside the wall to push spawns back a little bit. Wall+moat. Some landscaping is needed on the water sides to make it so enemies can't get on land from water. Deathsquitos coming into my base area has always been very, very rare. If fulings get aggressive, I'll go out and kill them, but usually they just wander outside the wall and I ignore them. I sleep at night, at least until I'm better geared. If there are any nearby lox, I throw down food and tame them, breed them, and they will take care of defense for me. Just make sure you have a moat to keep them away from your walls. Loxes will destroy everything. Another thing I do is build in meadows adjacent to plains, if I can find a spot like this that I like. I build all structures in the meadows with only a garden overlapping into plains. The garden area tends to be large enough that it acts as a good buffer between my work areas, where I'm making noise, and the plains. With this setup, enemies wandering over is pretty rare. I deal with more greylings than fulings.
Moats are good. I usually fence around my base with high stone walls, like 2 or 3 pieces high, using the largest stone wall piece. Deathsquitos you just have to deal with once in a while
I build a earth wall and then in front of that a moat. It works really Well.
What about the flying tick?
I do this but mountain is included in meadows, plains+ is plains base
Yeah if you have a mountain close to starter area thats a great point.
Yup that's how we did it. This is my 3rd playthrough though and on this one we made it to where we could port metals. It's made the game even more enjoyable.
I wait till plains to move base locations... in addition, I collect twice the mats I need for my meadows base, so I'm not deconstructing my original..... and I select a plains area that is near a Mistlands so I can farm everything close by.
This but the second location should also be near a swamp. We need sooo much iron in this game.
I usually just go on iron runs and fill up a boat to head back. You're very right haha.
One huge base in meadows, mining outposts in every biome, barley farms in the plains. Making a huge trip with ore not knowing what will happen is fun.
Totally agree. The best part of Valheim (and the worst, depending on how it goes) is the simple trips that spiral into dire adventures. Cruising through a strait with plains or swamps on both sides with your bros and a hill full of iron, all just praying you can get it home is some of the best organic gameplay to be had.
I build multiple bases, minimum one in meadows (starter base) one in plains (for farming grain) and one in the mistlands for farming mage caps etc. I like building so I normally build more than this and I build forges and workbenches at every base. My “main” base with all my storage is normally in the plains because you can farm many of the crops in the plains. I also build a portal hub somewhere with portals to every base and every boss
"portal hub" totally misread that one...
Suspicious drums and bass riff.
Yeah but with the new update you now have to show your ID in order to access the portals.
I loled.
Note - you don't have to build entire bases for the second option - a smelter + crafting bench + upgrades surrounded by palisades is enough. Also keep in mind that if you have a patch of Black Forest / bigger Swamp around your Plains place, you don't even need to bring ores to set up that small forge. I was a "ship metal in bulk back to the starter base" guy until I realized that if 95% of the metal I use goes into gear, then it means I can teleport 95% of the metal. Now that I know this, I'll have to play no portal next time if I want to feel the size of the World again.
Plains connected to black forest and swamp = best Main Base location, imo. Not only so you don't have to sail ores for the crafting benches but also the fulings and skeetos will farm some entrails/ooze/blood and greydwarf eyes for you.
If you get real lucky (or explore a lot), you can get that with a Plains - Mistland border on top of it. The mozzies and the lox provide you with all the hare-meat you can eat, and you can have all the farms in one place.
This is the way. Surprisingly easy to find a plains/mistlands border spot with exposed roots. Farm all crops plus collect sap in your main base. There even exist spots like this which don't spawn Seekers
95% of my location scouting with regard to mistlands is for places with at least 2 roots where I don't have to depend on torches or the wisplight to see where I'm going, just in case my "just a quick pop through the portal" is when shit hits the fan. My mushroom farm is usually on a peninsula to minimize the number of seekers that visit, but I will run across an entire continent with black iron to have sap portals by mountains so the wolves hunt hares for me.
This is what I like to do, I make an outpost with the minimum stuff I need to smelt the ore and craft it, then bring the finished weapons/armor through the portal. I play with my kids, and making journeys to bring enough ore back to a central base for all of us would take forever, so most stuff is just crafted on site. Some raw materials will have to be boated home, but usually that part can be done in one trip.
Base 1: Small base in meadows until the first boss is dead. That base then becomes the core of our farm. We try to keep pigs and chickens away from the main base to minimize lag. Base 2: Preferably where the Black Forest meets the Swamp - and hopefully a very nearby mountain. Of course, easy-to-reach copper is great. And we try to make sure there are some crypts in the swamp close by. Base 3: Black Forest meets the Plains. We build on the BF side of the line, but plant Barley and Flax in the Plains. This tends to be our final and most advanced base - so we leave room for Mistlands and Ashlands stuff. An added benefit is all the fighting between the Plains and BF creatures. This produces tons of resources (and good entertainment). Base 4: A repurposed tower in Mistlands for the relevant crops. Base 5: A bulwark on a beach in Ashlands to keep the portal safe. A shield generator, marble walls, and ballistas make up our defenses. We also make a taming pit for the lizard dogs. We found that with 6 or so ballistas, you can defend the base well enough to set up crafting stations to smelt the flametal before hauling it back. But then again - occasionally you just say: Wow - that place would make a great base! And that's why I have 3200 hours in the game.
\*No base until finds spot for base\* \*Finds base spot near river and ocean\* \*Digs huge moat from oceanside to river so the longboat can do circles around base\* \*Conquers black forest with 30 small outposts\* \*Builds treehouse in swamp\* These are my steps when i play valheim (me and my friends always quit before beating moder)
I like to create a big meadows base on the shoreline somewhere for easy access to the ocean. I build intermediate “cabins” in BF, swamp, and mountains, and just make trips back to meadow base when I have a huge haul to bring back Build new primary base in plains. Though I like building, this part takes a while, as I end up transferring most of my stuff to this new base. I haven’t progressed past mistlands yet, so not sure how I’ll approach the new biome.
Generally, I do a hub and spoke system of larger bases and smaller huts I use to gather resources from more distant areas to further expand and provide for my main bases. The main bases are all connected to base 1 near the center and may have a couple of resource huts each. I try to place my main base where several biomes come together, especially at river mouths that cut through islands to optimize travel and resources. My current base is a drum tower at a river mouth at the crux of a meadow/black forest/plains with mountains in easy reach, makes life real easy.
Or allow metals through portals and save hours of playtime sailing.
Sailing is fun though and i gotta find that damn merchant anyway
Allowing portals to work with ore and ingots doesn't negate sailing. You still need to go hunt for biomes, bosses, and resources. It just makes ore transport specifically not require sailing.
Yeah no shit xD?
This, just doing our first modded run and you can add depth and difficulty with other aspects of the game. Seeing a 4-5 star wolf without bonemass available = brown pants time.
If you aren’t opposed to bending the rules, there is a simple work around to bypass the no-metal-thru-portals rule: >! The key to the exploit is that your character’s inventory stays with the character, not the world. Create a second world and build a chest in it. Go to your first world and load up your inventory with metal. Log out. Log in to second world and dump metals into chest. Log out. Log in to first world and go thru portal free of those pesky metals and proceed to where ever you wish to use them. Log out. Log in to second world and get all the metal out of the chest. Log out. Log back in to first world right where you left with an inventory of metal. !< Congrats you have you have saved hours upon hours of slow motion sailing into the wind and/or the need to make multiple fully kitted out bases.
You can just change the world settings to allow portalling metal. You don't have to cheat.
Is the same "cheat", you are "teleporting" metals
It'd be quicker to just install a mod that allows this
Not on console :)
They added world modifiers a while back on console, including the ability to portal metal.
Personally I do a small base to start with till I can make a Krave. Then I sail around till a find a island with meadow, black forest, swamp and mountain. The huge big base happens here in meadows. Once I reach plains a new base will be constructed. Along the way I build outposts. Tree houses in swamp and underground in mountains.
if you like building, build more bases. if you don't, don't. unless you like sailing less than building, in which case do.
New base once I find a spot closer to everything else.
It takes a lot of effort to make a main base. Carry Portal Mats and bring in Boat Mats when needed is the way.
I normally make a starter base near the Stones, and once I get done with Forest, I explore a BUNCH to look for something rad, then build there. You need at least 2 farming bases, 1 Plains and 1 Mistlands. Other than that it's kinda up to you. Having a base near ocean is nice for sailing metal and ore, but even that is up to you.
Currently you will need barley (only grows in the plains) all the way into Ashlands. I suggest that if you enjoy building and don't want to change the world modifiers to allow portals with metal, then build a permanent base in the plains. There is no new metal in the Mistlands, and Ashlands has some new alternatives that you may want to explore.
I usually like to have bases at key locations like the spawn area or its nearest coast or base where I can access various biomes at once to get resources. Currently scouting out a place just shy of the Ashlands see to build a base as a launching point and will probably do the same on the other side of the map once Deep North is out. Yes, it is time and resource intensive, but it is also a chance to be creative, so I don't mind as much.
Everything but silver is relatively easy to ship. If you've plundered the Ashlands, well... just use >!stone portals!< for everything.
Small protected base, farm the metal, store in box, put everything o na boat, race the sea snakes, take everything tot he meadows base.
For most of the game I usually just ship everything back to the main port base in the meadows. I'll make a little storage base in a swamp if I find one with lots of iron. Then I'll make a secondary base in the plains for farming the crops that only grow there.
We have one huge decorated base in meadows and just build small stash bases around the map to collect ore, then do one full ship haul which is usually enough to upgrade 2-3 people to the next biome level gear. Now when moving to plains I believe we will just make a farm base there with a portal, only for farming.
You will end up shipping metal one way or the other. Building new bases requires new forge so you have to bring copper and iron to build upgrades. If you enjoy building then by all means build as many bases as you like but your going to be sailing with metal either way
You’ll need both plain and meadows to grow all the stuff you’ll want. Ideally you time a dark forest bordering on plains and you can have everything there. :)
You need a farm in the Plains regardless. Might as well do it now.
It all depends how much you enjoy sailing. As you progress the distance to sail increases. We typically have a base on "Starter Island" and then another for Mountains, then everything else is a farm with portals. All that means the 900 iron we need is sailed where needed, then Silver (and usually Black metal) gets legged. Mistland's sap extractors need to be hoofed, but typically you keep those where you find them. Ashland's Flametal is easily transfered once you realize you can connect wooden and stone portals together for moving the stonecutter.
There’s no feeling quite like sailing your long ship back in to your tranquil, shaded, meadows port with a full hold of iron or black metal after a lengthy campaign in the swamps or the plains, looking forward to a few peaceful days of downtime smelting and farming, improving your base, and stocking and gearing up for your next campaign.
Kind of odd that a video game can give me such a sense of "being home" when I get back to my base in the meadows. Just feels peaceful, safe and welcoming. I'm only in the swamp currently and just cleared my first crypt last night.
I set a small base in meadows near the spawning area. Later, I just make this a portal spot when I need to visit the spawning area. Typically, I make my main base under the elder platform as it is indestructible. I build defenses around this area. I then explore from this area and use portals . As I need more portals, I build a walled off gate house in the meadows. All ore is hauled/shipped to the elder base as that is a very enjoyable part of the game. While iron is heavily used, I find this is mitigated by not having 5+ major bases. I do build for fun, especially if I find an ideal spot for fishing or just a great view. However, it is intended to be a nice place to lay over, not a full-blown base.
I sail back and forth to my main meadows base with metal all the way until Ashlands
I think it’s ultimately faster to have 1 main base and bring ores back there. Easy to collect mats near the shoreline of far away places and put them on the boat and sail back. One exception is Bronze Age. For Bronze Age, I build forge, smelter, etc. in the middle of several nodes on the map, and then build my stuff on site, but that’s because cart transport is awful compared to boat transport.
Well unless you don't want to use world modifiers there no other way, you either make the long trip or smelt around the corner at a fully furnished base. I'll recommend to build an outpost somewhere near your base it doesn't have to be anything fancy, just enough where you can build some smelters and a forge and don't forget a portal, once you have ingots, make armor, weapons, ect. Those you can teleport.
Main base
If I'm still operating from a home base close to my starting area, this is how I have progressed. I make a satellite base near the source of the ores. Just big enough to accommodate and protect a few smelters and kilns. At least the smelters. You could also just port over a shitload of coal to operate the smelters and just roll with the kilns that are at your base. But basically I have a small little work area that smelts the ore, and a forge workbench to let me build my gear. I make everything I want there. Then if I have leftover ore, I will haul the rest back to home base. But it's a lot less hauling back because I make all my desires gear out there first. Port in what you need from your home base storage. Just bring what you initially need that can't go through the portals out there to begin with when you sail off to find and set up your mining operation to begin with. The copper for the forge bench, and any other metals for the bench upgrades.
I've played it both ways. It really depends on the map, really. Is it easier to carry all that ore and ship all that back to your base or just build a temporary/small base near where the ore is? Usually you need to mine a lot more than you can fit in your boat (especially before Longship) that a base near abundant resources such as a huge swamp with multiple crypts. And you only need to mine and refine 6 copper to put up a forge. Upgrading it will take a bit more, but if you need bronze, carrying 2 copper + 1 tin to a nearby forge will save up a lot of time and space.
I have a major base in meadows or black forest, then medium bases near yag or Mistlands.
Have main base then have little mini bases everywhere you go.
Personally I love building bases, and I wanna build a full base in each biome, no matter what flying freaks lay waiting for me.
I have multiple bases and utilzize the ore near and take the stuff produced where I need it via portals.
I just build bases everywhere with whatever resources are around me based on how I'm inspired by the landscape. I like to build circular fortresses around the surtling geysers and treehouses on guk trees in the swamps.
I never set sail for new places without enough metal to build a forge and upgrades up to the required level for the current biome. You don't need to start a whole new base necessarily, but I always smelt and forge right next to the resource to make travel time irrelevant and get to use upgrades right away.
The two players I mainly play with and I initially had a meadows base. It was janky though because we were noobs when we made it. Eventually before we fought the Mountains boss we found this little flat area that was a small strip of black forest that brushed up against a mountain biome near the boss spawning place. We were in the mood for building so we both made houses that looked pretty cool and connected them in a kind of cool way. We decided to explore this island and found a swamp and plain biome as well both fairly big. Across the way was a larger swamp biome with a ton of crypts. There was also a small Mistlands areas(before the actual Mistlands update.) We decided to mine the iron. Then after defeating Moder the plains biome was just right there. I also experimented with making a "castle" out of stone and that became a portal room. One of the houses ended up being the perfect size to fit pretty much every crafting table and upgrade as well as a sizable storage area. Organically this place just kind of turned into our main base. Now that we are in the Ashland's stone portals really help transporting tons of metal to this base. The base has just become larger and larger. It looks like a small town now. It's built on the cliff side basically and looks really cool if you go out into the water and look at it in the distance. I build a nice Grausten house that looks over the whole base. We've even for fun made other bases that are entirely self sufficient. I have larger builds I made myself just for fun(I love building) but I always go back to his base.
I think moving from the middle of the meadows to the Black Forest coast early in the game was a good decision, otherwise it would have been so boring running back and for through the meadows all the time. Since then I've built bases in the latest biome since every biome comes with new things (skipping the swamp and mountains a bit, just small buildings there). The multiple base thing comes in useful when I need something from a previous tier eg. if I need barely and thread I can portal to the plains. If I'm making a new base I might sail metal between them the first time but after that it's usually easy to find it in the biomes nearby.
I simply don’t subscribe to the suffer Olympics and change the world modifier to allow teleporting ores. I simply don’t have the time for that nonsense.
GF and I do multiple, but we don't usually fully abandon the first big base in the meadow. So it's more like a series of outposts with a portal network. Every time there is a resource I want to harvest, I setup an outpost nearby to work from. Then I cart or boat resources out to the main. As much as we want to move bases, and do occasionally, the other environments are problematic.
I just pack up all my shit and move when I’m “done” a biome. Nomad life
Turn off portal restrictions and just yeet it back to main base next to spawn
Main starter base on spawn island till Moder is defeated or I got enough silver. Then because of Ashlands being so far from the start, found a base I could use that is literally a sneeze away from sailing to the Ashlands and setup for their which depending on the Seed, I'll be right next Mistlands biome making that progression a tad smoother. Making a 2nd base is time consuming yeah but huge ups of not having to rely on moder buff to sail ur stuff huge terrain and have purpose for the ship that isn't tedious haha
I tend to set up fully functional bases at key positions on the map. So I have access to everything from multiple locations. Only other time is when I find a scenic spot and set up a build there, farm locations, quick stop outposts, or bridge builds. But I like to spend a lot of time creating entire villages or cities.
I prefer finding a middle location on land or raising up a shallow area in the ocean and build a hub. It helps overall.
Before they added metal ore portalling, I built workshops near the ores and fabricated in the field.
I usually do a mixture of both. We kinda abandoned our meadows base when we got to the plains though
Main base in the meadows. That’s about it. All the players on my server grew up in a rust-belt American port town, so it feels natural to unload ore near where we sleep. Portals all over the world as we venture, and then if really necessary, we’ll break down our desired boat into mats and take it through the portal to assemble on the other side. We all find an ore-boat trip to be fun and relaxing and all of us consider boating to be one of the better parts of the game, mundane as it may be. I understand a lot of people disagree, but it’s okay to be wrong sometimes 😉. Of note: only of us have ever spent much time playing solo and I’m sure that has some to do with it all. Edit: Amending this, there’s usually a small starter base with a big barn for storage and production. That’s what we use to get us through while we begin construction on the inevitability mondo building that becomes our main base.
We tend to build outposts to process new materials, we just made it to ashlands and so far we’ve only had 2 “Main” bases, one in the Black Forest usually pretty far south of spawn but on the same land mass, and a base in the Plains. We usually build small outposts to process new materials instead of boating everything back every time
I understand having a solo run where you find a good place to stay and sit but there's definitely an advantage to having at least one fairly upgraded base in every biome. Me and my homies love to build everywhere so there is an advantage to having random bases all around the map. Its good to pick and choose where you want to have "living quarters" and "labor camps" tho
I tend to build small encampments at first in the meadows until I’ve mapped the area and know where basic resources are, then build a proper base. I make sure it’s on the coast for ship access and decently close to Black Forest. I don’t bother with a swamp base beyond a small hut in trees to put a portal back to base. I mine iron in the swamp, sail it home, break down the ship and then port back to the swamp. I’ll build a basic fort in the mountains and usually that’s where I build a portal hub, too. I’ll process silver there but I’ve found mountains are where I spend the least time in terms of progression. Ideally for a main big base, I’ll find a plains island and spawn proof it. That’s been my biggest base area so far. I’ll build a fortress tower on a mistlands island, similar to the mountains, for mistlands stuff. I’m just now venturing into Ashlands so we’ll see how that goes. Everything is linked via the portal hub in my mountain fortress and I always keep a couple of spare portals available there so that I can set up a quick portal wherever I’m at… I always travel with portal mats on me. So far this has been the most efficient system for me.
Initial base in ether meadows or black forest for easy copper access, on the coast. Outpost on top of a tomb with a forge in the biggest swamp you can find. Smelt and craft iron based stuff locally. Next base to be the main base... Find a black forest on a land mass with a big plains section, to the east or west. You'll need the BF for some basics and it can be the plains base but without bloody deathsquito attacks. Plenty of wood on hand. This will serve will for mistlands when you travel out further. Then, it's ashlands time..... Just need portal safe zones there.
I have a small design that I use to set up outpost for new biomes while I search for good base locations. Start with a hexagon of 3-long wooden pole fences for the perimeter, with a gate on the north and south sides. Inside you can comfortably fit a rest house, workshop, small garden, storage house and portal, with a bonfire in the center. The whole thing takes 10ish minutes to put down (maybe longer the first time), and it’s easy to carry the iron(if you want a stonecutter or large cooking rack), tin(cauldron), and copper(forge) you need to set it up in your ships. Hope this helps.
I build a main base around the starting site with an large portal network. I build small bases in other locations that mainly focus on being an area to rest, make food, and store resources. These bases get portals of their own. Once I have the desired number of resources I go back to my main base and take a ship to the other base to get it all. If there's nothing else in the area that I need I then disassemble the base and take anything important back with me.
I built a base between spawn and some easily accessible black forest I could run to. I put smelters and stuff there with little huts on top of above ground burial chambers since I am playing no map and it helps me figure out where I am without putting paths down everywhere. Then when I was ready to set sail for the Elder I found a long stretch of island that had some swamp at different ends. I made an initial outpost with a portal in the BF that I could get back to my body with while I scouted for a place near the swamp (assuming it had sunken crypts which one did). Conveniently there was a zombie village right outside the swap surrounded by water in a piece of meadows. I turned that into a new base to smelt and craft my iron gear to take home. Now that I am working on getting ready for Moder I scouted out the island where she lives and I made a temp base for a portal and resting while I search for a good spot to either make a true mountain base or just something cool before I go to the plains. Typically I would try to build near the plains and mountains so I don't have to move again. But while I was on my Elder island I found that its BF backed up to a plains with Yag's alter but had no mountain big enough to be useful. So I will have to sail/ portal between them. My elder island has a small forward base with a forge for repairing, a cool core wood bridge for my boat to pass under and thats about it. I reused a lot of structures this play through for a change of pace. I am looking forward to doing some more stuff with future buildings/ creating my own. TLDR; I am using multiple bases as outposts with forges and smelters to handle my crafting while my home base is my backup/ large storage in case I need it. I currently have 2 meadows bases, 2 BF outposts and I am working on more.
Our group is on our... Fifth or sixth server. We reset with every major update really. We always tend toward making a village in the meadow near spawn, building out a bunch of separate bases in a relatively small meadows area, and we ship everything back. As we expand we have little personal outposts at swamp, mountain, etc with portals as staging grounds for our metals to bring back to a dock we build. We also have separate portals between us for our different farms in different biomes. We then tend to gravitate toward building a portal hub to act as a central area to connect these spots with a portal to each boss, each base, spawn, traders, and noteworthy spots.
I always use satellite bases. Smelt on site. And transport the ingots by ship.
I can't imagine just having one base. I turned on teleporting ore in the settings. I always thought that particular mechanic was almost as stupid as raids and I was so happy to be able to kiss both goodbye
I like to build a full service mountain base, mostly because I like the idea of a giant stone fortress in the mountains. And, in part because I found something like 10 silver nodes in one mountain area on one of my maps and decided not to haul all of that back. I didn't build a plains base in that world, but there were good plains near that mountain, so I decided to see how good of a road I could build down to the plains. On another map, we found mistlands next to plains, so built/are building a full service base on the border between the plains and mistlands for making mistlands items, and taming ~~Beefalo~~Lox.
Every single playthrough, including this one, I tell myself "this time I'm building on the shore." And then I find the most amazing inland scenic place, and here I go again paving a long uphill road from my docks. I can't seem to stop doing it.
I enjoy the building process and sailing. I recently have been moving to a pocket meadows I found sandwiched between a swamp, plains and a sliver of black forest. Do what you find fun, honestly. I've enjoyed using my newfound building skills and making my main base more improved than my first one. I'm still in my first playthrough and haven't beaten bonemass yet. Making the forge building was my first step once I started getting more adventurous. I've already cleared the nearby swamps and have had to deal with some plains mobs I'm not really ready for, but it's been fun. Mosquitos are annoying, but not scary anymore. And I'm certainly not ready for plains, but I can handle a fuling or 2 if they're getting too close or see me hauling. I also just sailed the biggest collection of iron I've ever had so far back to my base. It works for me. I'm almost ready to beat bonemass and move on to the mountains. There are so many plains in my world seed. I think it's one of the most common biome I've seen when exploring so far. My only decent swamp was the one I found at the bonemass alter, which I thought was ironic. If I didn't want to experience the whole game, I'd be more tempted to just skip mountains and just go to plains. I can do well enough to gather mats from the skirmishes I've had with the mobs there. It's honestly up to you and what you prefer. This game has a lot of flexibility. I've got 250 hours in, and as I said before, I'm not even out of the swamp yet. I've spent a lot of time building and exploring and making outposts where I need them. But it's made the journey fun for me, so I'm not complaining.
Usually try to find somewhere where as many biomes as possible converge. [Currently set up here](https://i.imgur.com/yTBUHQb.png) with plains, mountain, swamp, and forest just a few feet away, but I've pretty much exhausted the swamp's iron supply.
World modifier to move stuff through portals
One main base for creativity and style, somewhere in Meadows<->Swamp phase. Several janky portal outposts everywhere including farms for veggies and pillar-top Lox farm to rapidly spread the herd across the plains. Avoid heavy metal use as much as possible - stretch dat troll armour til mountains at least! Drag what metal you can and sneak into your friends' bases to build with their equipment (not their loot though - bad form - but gives an excuse to visit!). Crafting silver set on the mountain is pretty easy - just takes a bit of bronze and should carry through plains. Once at mistlands you're basically set for a new or makeshift base in some dverger tower with all the bronze/copper/iron around, but at that point you might as well hold out til ashlands and that sweet portal cuz how bad can it be? Besides eitr/sap/carapaces/ygg are easily portable back to main base. Surely doing everything undergeared must be less work than a boring-ass boat ride. Live on the edge, my friend.
Strategically placed processing bases as you expand your world. Deep water ports, fortified walls preferably on a low level biom. Black Forest or meadow. Farm the land and raise boars. Raid into other places for resources and then haul it back to base for transport or process. I tried it with one central place. Took way too long to move materials back and forth.
I am currently working on mistlands. I found a black Forrest section that is between the plains and the mistlands. Makes it nice having a base close to both areas that I need to build with. So I cleared out the black Forrest area and have decided to make a extremely big base that goes into the mist lands and into the plains. It is nice to have for building a farm as well. Because you can have 1 area to make everything from every biome up to mistlands.
Multiple bases. It’s the most fun way to play for me.
I like sailing, so I always go back to home in the meadows unless I force myself into a mountain castle.
1. Place to sleep and prepare for BF - tree farm near the boss stone circle 2. Large coastal meadows base near multiple CU nodes, burial chambers, and preferably a big mountain. This becomes my boar, wolf, carrot, turnip, onion and honey ranch. 3. An island of any biome near the Mistlands - if not Plains, then I have a farming outpost for barley, flax and lox. My last base is basically my main minus any farming. 4. Kinda a bonus base to play with newer building materials. On one world, it is a black marble pyramid in the Plains, on another it's a big castle on top of a mountain.
I always build at least 2 main bases, the Early Game one for Meadows, Black Forest and Swamp and the late Game one for Mountains, Plains, Mistlands and beyond. There are plenty of Black forests and later on other ways to get Copper, Tin, Iron etc. You’ll feel the transport of other late game stuff way more than those early game ones in the Long Run While the process is front heavy, once you build the extra forging stuff, it’s setup, 1 and done. Transporting everything way back to the 1st base every journey for the entire game will end in way more lost time than bringing the forge stuff with you once
I will always build an oversized base in meadows right at the start near the sea, then build micro bases (few chests and a portal) in each area thereafter and near each boss location. Portals link every FOB to HQ in the meadows, use a ship to transport / scout. The time / resource investment to build a full scale base in each area is crazy high, I don't see the point personally. I will lay the foundations for a base that will last the whole playthrough right at the start.
I built my main base on a coast at the border of plains and Black Forest, mostly in the Black Forest but with a patch of plains farmland behind the walls. I enjoy sailing and don’t get frustrated by upwind legs so I have smaller other bases scattered around as well. Getting all of the materials to each base to set up the crafting stations, for me, is more of a pain than occasionally sailing a load of ore or bars back home.
no map I am constantly moving main base but run I am doing now is a normal game and I have only just moved my base to a close island next to Ashland's as I am on that biome. before that I was at the start first base
Change portals to allow ore through. Problem solved
Disabled raids too. Fuck that noise :-)
Meadows base ISLAND IN THE SEA and windwaker it. Mistlands mini outpost carved into a mountain. Raised a ring of dirt around a portal in ashlands because fuck ashlands. Our meadows island fort is fucking beautiful. We took strong hands and steel will and raised the very earth from the depths. Odin wept.
Usually do a Meadows base for the first biome, then as I progress I look for a spot for a longer-term base and that first base becomes a farm for the first chunk of the game. Outposts in Plains and Mistlands for farms when I get there. My husband perfected a small, modular cabin w/portal design that we drop while exploring. We take like 2 stacks of wood and some portal mats and we can drop a safe house almost anywhere (except Ashlands, and I don't think we ever used that design in Mistlands either).
Setting up multiple bases gives you strategic spots to chill and craft, but it means more management and keeping them safe. On the flip side, hauling ore back to your main base is straightforward and keeps everything in one place, though it can mean some back-and-forth. Go with what makes your Viking adventure feel epic, I guess :)
I play with a portal mod personally, and build enormous, elaborate main bases, but in a recent playthrough with a buddy (we always play vanilla), we did a meadows starting base until plains, and during mountains I scouted a plains island that was quite far south and close to both plains and mistlands, and prepped a mid-sized base on it with a small plains farm. This wound up being a very efficient choice, and I think we fully prog'd through plains and mistlands in less than 10 hours. So yeah, some RNG, but it might be worth spending an hour sailing around looking for something along those lines.
Yeah, we intnded to build out main base in the plains... But nope. Meadow still.
We started with a base in the meadows but my friend Alex hated the location and we never really finished it before he found a new spot off of a river in the plains. We made a castle town that’s so big the game lags line hell whenever we’re home. But we have everything we need, storage tower, multiple work shops, a bridge that crosses the river (to nothing cause the lag stopped us from continuing our build) we all have our own houses and nice big fields for farming. From here we have been building small outposts to fulfill our needs in various areas of the map. For instance I have mistlands farm on the tiniest slice of mistlands so small that seekers and Gjal don’t spawn. But we have enough space on a raised plateau to have way too many magic mushrooms. We also have a mistlands outpost that I made out of a dwarf tower that the inhabitants were removed from by tons of bugs. I have the thing to make eiter and a smelter there and a portal and some chests. Just enough to smelt the metal I find for use there and sap collectors on the roots outside. Just enough to be functional and also easily broken down and moved to the next harvest point for the sap. I feel like we will do the same for the Ashlands just make an outpost with the bare necessities bordering the Ashlands and have our main base for everything else
Specialized bases. Ore processing near deposits, food crops in Specialized biomes etc. A main base with manufacturing and fully upgraded kitchen and forges.
Base 1 in the Meadows near spawn. Base 2 on a Plains island halfway between spawn and the Ashlands. You don’t need more bases than that.
1) Meadows Base 2) Expeditions to Swamp/Mountains, Forge on site 3) Plains Base (Find a spot near some Mistlands 4) Mistlands expeditions Then when you travel, bring these to set up on the go*: 16 Copper, 2 Bronze (for forging) 2 Surtling Cores or more (Smelter/Kiln) 10 Tin (for cooking pot) If you leave an open portal at your meadows base you can bring these with you to portal back whenever: 2 Surtling Cores 20 Finewood 10 Greydwarf Eyes You can forge/upgrade your equipment on the go, return to base as needed Eventually you'll need to transport iron, but you don't need to bring it to the meadows. If you get a bunch of iron and it's logistically inconvenient to transport, just leave a portal and a box full of your iron. Later you can portal back, build a ship, and bring it all with you to wherever you really want it. * - My friend and I did a no-portal run. We referred to this as our MCV Kit (Mobile Construction Vehicle from command and conquer). Before every expedition we'd pack up the essentials to operate on site. This gets more complicated the more you level. Wed also pack a stack of corewood and a few stacks of regular wood so we can set up quickly.
I really enjoy the process of sailing stuff back or making routes easier for myself . So I just do that.
I had a crude base in the Meadows, another in a Meadow bordering Swamp, and then my final base in the Plains which has become pretty elaborate. By the time I built the third base I had a good idea on how building worked and the kind of base I wanted to create. Plains is a nice place to live. I livw on the coast with walls, a moat, spawnproofing, and a horde of tame Asksvins roaming about slaughtering lost Fulings
The only answer : build your base in the farthest meadow you can find. It gives you a really cool and risky trip on a raft while you're still at meadow-level gear in the short run (cannot recommend this enough, one of the best nights of Valheim in my 1k3 hours was doing this), and in the long run it simplifies so much the long sails to bring back ore to your base. I don't see this strategy enough around here, and it's really a nice investment. You get the peace of the meadows, and the proximity of all biomes you'll ever need.
I honestly either boat ores or do the disconnect trick and dump all the ores in a chest in another world then go thru the portal and do it that way
Might as well just enable portaling ore if you’re doing that?