Originally posted by Rhapsody:

Turn them into "black meadows", that will let you see any trolls and other things from further away.

So long as your base doesn't dip into the forest itself, you should be safe from the seeker invasions when they become possible.

You're doing just fine there. Happy hunting. :Hire:

seeker invasions? Had a feeling the chumps from the black forest couldn't be the only ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ attacking my hold.

hehe ...takes me back to my first playrthru......my second taught me to build a defensible base as a draugr made it into my bed chamber and killed me every time i re spawned , i could hear him smashing the house as i died and re spawned - he looked at me them one hit me everytime in a loop ....solo players have it rough i tell ya
i highly recommend starting over after you learn a little whats in store ....once you get a longboat you can fully appreciate the world here is huge . i had no clue it was so big when i first started the game

Originally posted by Capt. Slappy:

seeker invasions? Had a feeling the chumps from the black forest couldn't be the only ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ attacking my hold.

They only begin after taking down the Plains boss, and there's a bunch of other invasions that can occur at that point as well, so they are still rare. I never had a chance to witness fuling or seeker invasion on my own base since I'm usually away and managed to progress through the respective biomes in about 100 days.

Seeker event used to be possible *everywhere* (if you think seekers are bad in Mistlands, care to try them in the Mountains?) but they limited it to forest, plains and the three final land biomes in the first balance patch, so most players won't ever get to face them. :/

I am not sure I would say that you suck at exploring since you did find what you were looking for. I would however say that you are definitely an awesome adventurer!! SKAL!!!

The very nice aspect of this game is that if you change your mind, deconstruction returns 100% of resources, as long as you are careful.

I'd say the biggest tip for atarting out, don't think about anything as "permanent" too early. IMO for a central base you want to be near/on a coast with easy access to the ocean, and by the time you beat the Elder, you'll want to have a nearby defensive position to welcome raids. (rather than trying to defend a base until you have materials to layout something effective) I use the hoe and stone to raise and level a modest plateau with a trench around it, then build a sheltered defensive fort on top with ladders up. When I get a raid alert, I be-line for the fort which is equipped with extra stacks of arrows. My outpost bases are similar structures with a bigger moated area for smelters. I keep a bench at one end to construct/destruct a drawbridge floor when I need cart access for ores.

Dunno, most people get a craving to build big elaborate bases that serve no function. Building for what you need is far easier to move/adapt. Same goes for "farming" materials. Better to uave and not need than need and not have, but it's easy to get caught up investing a lot of effort and getting "stuck" somewhere not ideal because of commitments like farms/stores. Much like R/L. :)

Originally posted by Tangoblue:

Ha! I've done the same thing. Found a spot in the meadows right by the ocean (I thought). Turns out I built a good base in an inland sea with no river access to the rest of the ocean.

Been there, done that... I've played through the game over a dozen times and made these same mistakes.
-Build a base that turns out to be on a lake/sea ... yup.
-Build a base too far from copper and try to use the pesky cart ... yup.
-Build an entire new base next to a swamp to find out later it has ZERO crypts ... yup.

Each new playthrough I now grab a nearby structure to operate from temporarily. I choose my base location very carefully (ocean access ... not lake/sea), near forest (but not too near) and have at least 3 copper nodes in very close proximity.

Makes for a slower start, but I end up having a better time. By the time I settle on my ideal base location and am ready to defeat Eikthyr and build my base I'm usually rocking good leather or even troll leather armor,

The swamp is another big one for me. Thinner strips of swamp backed up to mountains tend to gave few (or no) crypts. I generally end up needing 6 or 7 for enough iron for the entire game. When I go scouting for swamp, it I don't see 2 or 3 crypts from my boat, I just keep sailing and looking for another swamp. If I see 2-3 crypts and a fire geyser or two ... there's a really good chance there's more than enough crypts in there.

I tend to love the exploration, so i often end up exploring my entire starting continent on foot (unless it's absolutely massive, i have gotten some big enough to start bumping into biomes no newbie in rags still should even be seeing in the distance). I stock up on fire arrows early (wooden arrows are great for shooting birds for the feathers) and spend most of my starting exploration in black forest because I adore the troll armor and tend to keep that into swamps, just skip leather and bronze entirely. As I go i mark crypts and copper nodes for later, and take over some towers and troll caves (the trolls inside wont respawn and you can toss a fire down inside for a nice safe rest area on your journeys, dungeons can do it to but not all dungeons have safe first chambers and sometimes they smoke you out to. The entrances of both also provide shelter, and can have crafting benches, but also may see enemies).

If i do have to leave the starting continent for something early on, i do try to at least wait until i can make the karve. Even if i dont have the pick, i already love pestering trolls and they aren't opposed to helping you mine (especially the log troll, but the regular one can still do it)....or chop fine wood for that matter, so all i really need is preferably 9 cores, but as little as 5. 5 are needed for kiln/smelter but you can also switch between those two as you need, the other 4 in order to make 2 portals for exploration outpost purposes. Portals can be amazing if exploring places you aren't sure about, since you can always pop home where most of your gear is to switch things out as needed or grab stuff you forgot. Just remember to put the portal in a safe place, and not directly next to your bed either. You don't need both of your methods of getting back easily to get wrecked in one unfortunate event.

ALWAYS try to land in meadows if possible, and preferably larger ones. If a meadows isn't possible, do not ever under any circumstances land in a swamp if you actually want to keep your boat. Plains are also generally a horrible idea thanks to deathsquitos, you want to stay away from those shores until ready for that or just get one shot by a giant bug. If you have to mine somewhere farther out, try to find a black forest near a decent sized swamp (can be hard to safely verify the swamps size while in that early gear, but try your best without risking your life, bonus points if you can already see crypts or geysers in the swamp from afar) that way the base you end up making out there can be useful for more than just the bronze age everyone seems to hate and rush through anyway. Make a storage for the ores you gather. You wont be able to use the portal to transport them, but you can save them up so that it's actually worth it to make the trip in the boat to (remember, the karve has 4 storage slots of its own, that's potentially 120 ore on its own, plus whatever you can carry and possibly more if you dont mind some tricks).

Turn them into "black meadows", that will let you see any trolls and other things from further away.

So long as your base doesn't dip into the forest itself, you should be safe from the seeker invasions when they become possible.

You're doing just fine there. Happy hunting.

Don't forget to mark useful resources on your map as you go

You can only explore biomes once, and they have finite resources so its better to explore multiple incase your closest biome runs out of ores and dungeons. :)

Only food can be reproduced endlessly.

Ha! I've done the same thing. Found a spot in the meadows right by the ocean (I thought). Turns out I built a good base in an inland sea with no river access to the rest of the ocean.

Now, I tend to build a small base when I start then build a bigger, more complete base in the Plains (my preferred base building biome).