To elaborate on what has been said: Ground walls & trenches are the 101 go-to defense for a reason (two actually), being

- Trenches are for free, all you need is a pickaxe. They cost no building mats! (Actually, the digging yields half the stone you need to raise a wall of same height, so the basic trench & ground wall combo almost pays for itself.)

- Enemies can't damage or destroy ground. (Trolls can melee-swing through it, but at zero damage to the ground wall, so it permanently keeps them at distance.)

Note with the ground walls, it's not so much the height as the **steepness** angle that makes the terrain impassable for enemies. Enemies can walk over a curved hill. That's why people raise a wall and dig next to it, to get that sharp, defined near-vertical angle. You can stop or trap a troll with a ground wall as high as only 2 meters, if it's just steep enough.

Likewise, enemies avoid steep cliffs, so their pathfinding will avoid entering trenches. (Even if they do fall in, they're trapped because steep wall). This means, the trenches keep them away from the wall, which makes it much easier to aim+hit them with bow+arrows. (Shooting the bow downward at near-vertical angle is messy and awkward, the crosshair is way off.)

So you see a lot of synergies there. For all those reasons combined, popular basic defense is: raise a 2 meter ground wall, dig a 2 meter trench around it.
Boom anything too close will be trapped in front of an impassable indestructible 4m incline, while you conveniently pick away at the dummies confused by your trench.

Combine that with two ramps (one to jump from, one to land on) so you can jump over the trench in both directions (in and out of your base) - enemies can't jump, so you basically have a bridge with a gap.

Personally, I like to still put palisades on top (look & feel, spare wood, and protection from ranged attacks later), and thatch roofs in wall corners, so I have rainproof archery platforms to shoot over the palisades.

EDIT: The troll swing attack has a range of ~6 meters, so if he gets inside your trench or to your wall... keep a safety padding of 6 meters behind your palisades, and don't build your piece-of-art home inside the "danger zone" ;) I just put stuff like my wood storage or crop cultivation strip there, easy to rebuild and no harm done should a troll smash a few carrots planted.

Ah right, I forgot about the bone piles: just smash them with an axe or club! The fire arrows are great against Greys (and even skeletons), but not neccessarily all other enemies or structures.

Upgrade your club! It's worth it. It's your best & only attack and defense weapon early on. Also, your best early loadout against skeletons is the club + wooden shield. Learn to parry-stagger and then easily one/two-punch them.

Upgrade your club + shield as soon as you can. (For that, upgrade your workbench as soon as you can.) Same goes for your leather/troll armor. For this, you'll want a lot of bones early. That's why one reply suggested farming the evil stone pile, and why it's important to being able to quickly melee-kill them.

Originally posted by Rodos:

The actual troll raid event won't start happening until after you've defeated the Elder though, so for now you can use the local ones to get used to how to how to handle them.

Make sure to leave enough space between your palisades and structure walls (roughly 6-8m) so that the few attacks that do manage to clip through them (the log swinging troll in particular) do minimal damage to the inside structures until they can actually break through the outer defence.

This is not true. The actual trigger for the Troll raid event is "a troll has been killed in your game world". I've had many ground-shaking events before killing the Elder in my playthroughs. The only decent defense against trolls is an earth wall or being on an island that is covered with "player base" items (like workbenches) that prevent monster spawning. As most people don't have these early on, I suggest a Palisade wall to keep most things out and then just eat up and go outside when a troll raid happens. Run the trolls around (away from your base) and shoot them with arrows (but don't kill them) until the raid timer is done, then finish them off after the timer is over.

If trolls are hard for you to kill, practice with the regular single trolls. Let them get close enough to start their attack, then sprint away and get a couple of shots off while backing up. Rinse. Repeat. This was my wife's first real PC game. Even she learned how to do it after a while. (She's awesome now, btw.)

Turns out the little grey bastards can swim................. so much for my watery moat. Time to erect a second palisade.

Speaking of trolls, another one chased me home and I got up to my firing platform on the roof and murdered him with fire arrows. Was a proud moment lol.

Originally posted by Tom:

To get rid of bone piles, I usually just rush them holding a shield to block arrows and using a club or mace. Get that thing upgraded and it 1-2 shots most skeletons. Clear the area then smash the bone pile. Stagbreaker can also break them through doors depending on spacing. Arrows and fire arrows are pretty useless against skeles and their spawners.

Edit. Its not a bad idea to take your time when dealing with spawners, good way to level combat skills.

All I have access to right now in terms of melee weapons is a flint axe. I'd love to have a mace for use against the skeletons.

Originally posted by MF:

Originally posted by Tom:

To get rid of bone piles, I usually just rush them holding a shield to block arrows and using a club or mace. Get that thing upgraded and it 1-2 shots most skeletons. Clear the area then smash the bone pile. Stagbreaker can also break them through doors depending on spacing. Arrows and fire arrows are pretty useless against skeles and their spawners.

Edit. Its not a bad idea to take your time when dealing with spawners, good way to level combat skills.

All I have access to right now in terms of melee weapons is a flint axe. I'd love to have a mace for use against the skeletons.

Use the basic wooden club. Skeles are weak to blunt damage.

Originally posted by MF:

All I have access to right now in terms of melee weapons is a flint axe. I'd love to have a mace for use against the skeletons.

6 pieces of wood makes a club, which is the first "mace". It is highly effective against the undead.

To get rid of bone piles, I usually just rush them holding a shield to block arrows and using a club or mace. Get that thing upgraded and it 1-2 shots most skeletons. Clear the area then smash the bone pile. Stagbreaker can also break them through doors depending on spacing. Arrows and fire arrows are pretty useless against skeles and their spawners.

Edit. Its not a bad idea to take your time when dealing with spawners, good way to level combat skills.

Normally I would tell people to dig a trench around their base for defense, but since you're near the water, you might not be able to dig deep enough. So instead, use your hoe and a whole lot of rocks and build an earth wall around your base. That will keep even trolls out.

For the bridge I usually use a single wood beam. Another option is to leave a small gap in your bridge that you can jump across. Trolls like to smash my balance beam, but it's easy to put back. For going over a wall or to a base that's on top of a rock, you can use a ladder or stairs that don't quite reach the ground so that you jump to get to it.

I have also been known to trench around a square area even if it's not my base for a troll trap. Just make sure the center area is big enough that the logs can't reach and you have room to dodge rocks.

For the crypts, bring a stagbreaker and smash it outside the closed door. Most of those bone piles are close enough to the door to get that way. Even if they're not close enough, you can get the skeletons cleared out and then run in and get the bone pile before too many more of them spawn. I always like to have at least ten points of armor before going into a crypt.

Palisades will keep most monsters out, but it will only act as a minor inconvenience to trolls. Regardless, it's ideal to surround your entire base with them to keep unwanted visitors out. As for troll raids, there's not much you can do besides maybe dig a moat or build an earthen wall with the hoe. Still, dealing with trolls is pretty easy if you have a bow and a functioning S key.

Bone piles are just enemy spawners. Attack them until they break. You have to be aggressive and break them quickly or you'll find yourself in a 1 vs infinity situation.

The actual troll raid event won't start happening until after you've defeated the Elder though, so for now you can use the local ones to get used to how to how to handle them.

Make sure to leave enough space between your palisades and structure walls (roughly 6-8m) so that the few attacks that do manage to clip through them (the log swinging troll in particular) do minimal damage to the inside structures until they can actually break through the outer defence.

Originally posted by Suzaku:

Palisades will keep most monsters out, but it will only act as a minor inconvenience to trolls. Regardless, it's ideal to surround your entire base with them to keep unwanted visitors out. As for troll raids, there's not much you can do besides maybe dig a moat or build an earthen wall with the hoe. Still, dealing with trolls is pretty easy if you have a bow and a functioning S key.

Bone piles are just enemy spawners. Attack them until they break. You have to be aggressive and break them quickly or you'll find yourself in a 1 vs infinity situation.

Thank you sir.

Originally posted by Rodos:

The actual troll raid event won't start happening until after you've defeated the Elder though, so for now you can use the local ones to get used to how to how to handle them.

Make sure to leave enough space between your palisades and structure walls (roughly 6-8m) so that the few attacks that do manage to clip through them (the log swinging troll in particular) do minimal damage to the inside structures until they can actually break through the outer defence.

Can you put a gate in the palisade itself ? Right now I have space on 3 sides, but it sorta flares out of the front of my 'house'. Looks cool, but...... as I said, I had to replace the front of my domicile after the last attack.

If we're talking the same piece as the pallisade (the big spiked log wall), then heck yeah they have snap points that accept doors (or you can freely place them if the gap is still awkward when you do). Keep in mind though, the mobs seem to know it's the weakest spot and it's often the first part to break in a siege, so use it to your advantage and keep it where you want most the combat to be.

Originally posted by Rodos:

If we're talking the same piece as the pallisade (the big spiked log wall), then heck yeah they have snap points that accept doors (or you can freely place them if the gap is still awkward when you do). Keep in mind though, the mobs seem to know it's the weakest spot and it's often the first part to break in a siege, so use it to your advantage and keep it where you want most the combat to be.

I put a hella deep moat full of water all the way around (4th side is the ocean). The only way to my crib is over a narrow little walkway, where you then hit the palisade. I put a man-door in it. I've given thought to just blocking it up with a palisade at night lol. Keep a stack of lumber nearby - only takes a jiffy.

Gawd this game makes you paranoid. I can hear the little b*stards out there at night.........