In terms of progression.
My first base is Meadows boss spawn
I make this my first farm as well.

My second base is a processing facility for Bronze surrounded by 5 or so copper nodes near water for tin.
My first base becomes farm and storage for old/unused stuff.. money storage if I have not found trader yet.

My third base will be on a copper node near multiple iron crypts.
By this time I have a bunch of portals strewn about and need a way to organize them so I make that base a portal hub.

Now I will either make the portal hub my home for cooking / sleeping etc ... but if I find a Maypole in the meadows I will set up a resting/sleeping place around it with max comfort and portal to that to sleep.

After that it comes down to whim. I may set up a proper home in the plains with a farm or I might just have a portal to the plains farm. Mountain I will set up processing on a copper node at the base of a silver mountain but I see that more of an outpost. I have made mountain homes as well but really it comes down to finding a location that says "I want to live here" and roll with it.

Of course the ideal thing I look for is ways to combine things. Still have not found a single base location for iron and silver and be able to run to a copper node from each easily. Or even better on the edge of a meadows with a Maypole ha ha. Maybe one day I'll find that spot.

Depends on your map and how far away some stuff like silver or iron is from your main base.

Personally I have 2 main bases - one on the coastal meadows at the starting point by the Stonehenge trophy thing. I did Copper, Bronze, Tin and some Iron here - but a mountain was like 15 mins sailing away so decided to make a mountain base (in one of those round stone towers) there and did Iron, Silver and black metal smelting there too as plains and swamp was nearby there too. It basically cut a lot of hauling and now I have one of all top level items I'm really glad I did it that way.

I also have a bunch of other bases mostly for fun and storage - like a pillar top base with sea diving board and a flax garden below, but most other bases are small functional things just for protecting a portal.

Two portals in your main base is all you need by the way - one Called 'Home' that never changes name and the other 'outbound' you rename to where you want to go. New bases you put a Home portal in, portal home, rename 'outbound' to whatever, portal back from home, and change the new location from home to whatever you want it to be long term - and call it that on the map marker. Its a great mechanic and I'm personally really glad they don't make it too easy and allow you to enter portals with metal/ore as you'd only ever need one base that way and that devalues the 'exploration' aspect.

Hope this helps!

Originally posted by caroraim:

One massive main near spawn, 7 permanent bases close to the 5 bosses and one each at the north pole and south pole. Before I started wold hopping near the end of the game, each of these bases had smelting stations for the various ores in those biomes and the plains base has a farm. Beyond that, I keep 4 temporary outposts (north/south/east/west) for further exploration and resource exploitation. Permanent bases are a bit more elaborate while the temp bases are rudimentary shacks with portals and wooden fences. When I push on, I just take the portal materials from the temp base with me to the new site...I have "abandoned" bases everywhere.

Oh, and 1 permanent base near the trader, so 8 permanent bases outside of my main.

I'm a base hog, so I bring most of my metals back to main base. But I usually have smelters or furnaces at "ferry harbours" so I only have to pack processed metal on the boat.

As for swamps, they lend themselves to building tree houses, which can spice up base building quite a lot. The hoe is also a useful tool, even if it's just to put poles in the ground for a slightly elevated base. Just keep an eye out for leeches damaging your structures if you build in water.

You can't win :)
A new base with all the junk to set up a proper forge, smelter, etc requires... a fair chunk of metal bars hauled over to rebuild all the forge stuff. Or hauling the ore back home ... either way, you can't really portal it.
That leaves you options, all of which have pros and cons.

- make a new base, full or partial, with a full forge and bench setup.
pros: proper repair station, handy while working ore nearby, access point to a region, etc
cons: can be raided when you are working, splits your metal supply, extra materials to build the needed stuff, etc

- haul the ore to your main base:
pros: a lot less setup and rebuilding. Can be very fast if you can find mining spots near shore and not that far from your home.
cons: even as a one-way trip (portal over, collect ore, boat back) its annoying and possibly risky at sea.

- find a new mining site that is easier to get to:
pros: much less hassle all around
cons: maybe none exist, some maps are awful esp for iron, and exploring takes time.

- relocate entirely:
pros: if your new site has access to all biomes, its mighty handy to get what you need efficiently. If you were going to rebuild anyway (stonework, etc?) may as well do it now.
cons: its a lot of work and you 'lose' the home you probably sank a lot of time into(?)

side note: iron is critical for the whole game esp if you build a lot. Handy access to it is therefore also critical.
Personally, having played several maps ... I would explore first, see if you missed a better mining spot. It is rare for bonemass's place to not have some crypts. While looking for a better spot, consider alternate main base locations I guess?

You "nromaly" need a couple of bases but can have one main base. If you dont develop bases in extern areas fully than you obviously have to do a lot of resource transports by boat.

One massive main near spawn, 7 permanent bases close to the 5 bosses and one each at the north pole and south pole. Before I started wold hopping near the end of the game, each of these bases had smelting stations for the various ores in those biomes and the plains base has a farm. Beyond that, I keep 4 temporary outposts (north/south/east/west) for further exploration and resource exploitation. Permanent bases are a bit more elaborate while the temp bases are rudimentary shacks with portals and wooden fences. When I push on, I just take the portal materials from the temp base with me to the new site...I have "abandoned" bases everywhere.

Maybe portal back and bring your kiln and smelter over to process the ore. Find some copper for a forge and turn 10 iron into 100 iron nails so you can make the longboat which has more inventory space, then keep journeying to other places and fill your longoat up so your trip back home is bountiful

build a longboat, and build a portal on top of a crypt in the swamps

I've built a second home away from home (which I happen to like almost more then my first base) at the first swamp site I found. It's connected to the main base with a portal. It has all the necessary workbenches, kiln and a smelter. I have Black Forest right behind me, so I can get tin and copper as well.

I can work the ore right there in my cozy little hut and don't need to bother shipping it elsewhere.

Bonemass itself was quite far away from this location (even much further away from my original base), so I built a third base there as well. Not as elaborate as the second one, but it does the job. Once I'd beaten Bonemass, I just used it to process iron, and then ferry it to my second base.

Luckily, Moder is just a small hop over a sea strait away from the second base. So now I'm building a fourth, much bigger base (actually a tavern) at the foot of the mountain.

It really depends on if you like building. Build at least a small hut that can house your bed and some workbenches, so you can process the ore right where you harvested it. Oh yeah, and connect all of them with portals. You know you want to.

I have 1 main base that straddles meadows and plains so I can grow every type of food. Also has everything else you could possibly need.

Beyond that, I have a portal room that goes to various outposts I set up throughout the world.

This consist of a portal, chest, maybe a bed depending on where it is. All set up in ruins at strategic locations (i.e. base of a large mountain for caves. Silver, near tar pits. Etc). But almost all setup in black forests as close to these locations as possible.

Just set up a portal at your base, name it and remember the name, take a set of portal materials with you to setup the connecting portal.

If you took a ship to the location, either leave the ship there to explore further out, or break it down and take the materials through the portal and back to your main base.

First time through I made full bases everywhere. Like my new way better.

This is really something impossible for others to answer for you.

Even if you provided your map to look at we just don't know the actual terrain you might be dealing with.

Personally I lean toward making multiple bases around resources to limit travel. But any thinking on that comes down to what the map RNG presents itself to be. I have to make decisions based on the reality at the time and I don't always find good locations for things.

Typically for iron I want five or more crypts near a black forest copper node. But I have had maps where I just could not find that and had to grab stuff here and there and transport it.

Thanks guys, great advice all around. I suppose it depends on the individual. Im not a fan so much of multi bases so to speak, past maps/ play throughs, Ive moved when I felt like it did suit me anymore. And I was curious as to how others set things up and if it was worth having more than one.

Modding is the only answer i accept.
turning off the "no metals through portal" restriction is the way to go for me. i still have some 30+ bases across the maps usually. but thats because everytime i see a spot thats "just right" for a Base, i build it.
might never go to that base again after i build it, but its build.

That's hard to answer. It depends mainly on the world that was generated for you. Sometimes it is better to transport a full ship of iron to the main base, but sometimes it is better to take the material and build a temporary smithy directly at the source of the iron and connect it with the portal to the main base ... The same is for the silver and dragon eggs. Depends at current situation. When you mark all portals on the map with correct names, there is no problem with multiple bases.
I am building the first smithy (copper, tin, bronze) usualy in the Black Forest using the terrain advantage (ruins, crypt or troll cave). Just 2-3 copper deposits around are enough, but I found that tin is more important, so take them into mind too. Another forge (iron) I'm already considering according current situation ...