A 10 min run is much better than 30 min sailing. Also swamps I pick have 10+ crypts. You only ever have to run 10 mins in one direction as well.

Originally posted by vinyblaster:

I don't understand why people want to be at a "10min run" from iron and copper.

These are not renewable resources.

I agree, but even having an up front source is nice for large builds. A medium sized stone castle with stone floors X 3-4 levels can eat several hundred iron bars just in floor support, and even more if you make it tall enough that the walls need support too, and this is before you get into the 30 here, 30 there for furnishings. Yes, you can go find it and haul it over, but having it near is pretty sweet too. 3 crypts, maybe not, but 10+ ... sure!

It depends on how big your main base is going to be, especially how tall and materials you are going to use. If very tall stone, you are going to need a lot of iron, so near to a large swamp. Blackmetal is useful for chests, though it is not the most dense storage system, some tin and copper is useful. More copper is required if decorating with it, strong defences require blackmetal and iron.

Wood, stone and blackmarble are all portable so are no issue.

So decide on a metal you need most of and place closest to that.

Near water? Only if you need a port, which is decorative but a pain if you want to keep base secure.

I found a spot on a small area of plains, that had a hill and a stonehenge, surrounded by masses of iron, and within a couple minutes run of copper. Blackmetal is a 10 minute run and tin is harder to get but that is the compromise. Silver I barely use.

I don't understand why people want to be at a "10min run" from iron and copper.

These are not renewable resources. You built your base not too far from 3 crypts and then what? Once emptied that's it, there is nothing else. Same with copper, but this one is so plentiful it's not even a question.

Just pick a nice spot with an harbor and if you need iron, find a swamp, load 16 stacks on your ship and go home.

Being close to things only matters when you enter the bronze age since you don't have a boat.

Whatever we build we will likely be unprepared for the new event triggered by defeating The Queen. Something like The ashes are falling accompanied by Charred and Fallen Valkyrie dropping in for a cup of mead.

To be fair, I just find the nicest looking place I can (usually in the meadows) and build a base there. Then I set up a small portal hub to areas that I find that I also like and put in little bases there so I can go back and forth to my main. Yes, I do use QoL mods, most notably to move ore through portals. Most recently I've set up on an estuary that's connected to a bigger lake inland and the ocean on the other side so I can boat in and out when I please and my little port isn't affected by the big waves.

I like at the mouth of a river, give me some options.

why on earth are you trying to be near wolf/silver? Neither one is used after you have beaten the plains. I am just curious here, as I don't see any point for it. If you had said for cold arrows or something that is used after mistlands..???

That aside, my ideal end base...
- near coast with good travel. Not all coasts are great: some just have you dodging islands/shallows and taking long, long rides between useless but large islands.
- near as many biomes as possible. Not required, as you can portal, so if you have to pick and choose it needs to be near any ore you use in bulk (iron!) as the critical choice and anything else is scenery and nice to have. Another idea is a mistlands & plains split to build a farm in both of the key terrains, built right on the border, but that is going to be tricky to get near a coast too.
- needs good view/scenery
- defensible with minimal landscaping and aggravation

I think you have the right ideas. Talking unmodded game, the biggest two things are iron access and sea access for practical bases. But thanks to portals, any base with sea access is viable if you just want to go for beauty and don't mind hauling your iron a bit. Iron access is temporary anyway: the nearby supply is going to run out, eventually.

On my seed I am building a fortress on a black forest/Meadows island. It's nearby to all other biomes (except Ashlands) so sailing is quick and easy for any metals, plus it just looks cool

I also dont understand the need to be close to silver.

At this point, considering that you can teleport anywhere to get stuff I would just recommend a coast in the south of the map. There will be new metal in the Ashland so if you're closer you'll have a shorter trip to sailback home. Pretty much it.

I always find a place for a main base as I am playing. I usually look for a nice large flat spot in the meadows that is close to sailable ocean and set up there. I'll expand it as gather resources. When I find meadows locations that have lots of raspberries I'll pin those spots and eventually set up a small cabin and portal in the middle of lots of pins.

I do the same thing in the black forest with blueberries, mushrooms, and thistles.

I build a small cabin and portal at the foot a mountain that contains silver. That cabin gets a taming pit for wolves.

When I find an ore deposit I'm going to mine out I find the closest shore and set up a temporary portal there and park my boat. I then mine the ore and fill up the ship every thing else I portal back to the main base. When the ship is full I sail it home, move the ore to a cart, and cart the ore to the smelter. Then I chop the boat with my axe and portal back to the ore node and rebuild the boat. When the ore is gone I dismantle the portal so I ca set it up at the next place that I sail to.

For tin I just sail along the coast and when I find a deposit I jump out and mine it, stick the ore in the boat and keep sailing until the boat is full.

I build a permanent medium size base in the plains when I find a nice large flat spot because I need to build a Lox pen and have a place to farm barley and flax.

So far for mistlands I just have a temporary portal set up but I'll need a medium base there eventually to farm biome specific items. I'm waiting on that though. I'm visually impaired and the fog is too thick to spend much time there. I'm waiting until the devs finish tweaking things to make the mist more translucent or if they decide not to do that until I can mod the game to do that so I can actually play in that biome.

To answer your question, exploring is the only natural way to encounter the biomes your looking for. But, if you don't care about the thrill of exploration and mystery, load your seed in the online valheim world generator, it will show you everything.

I have also defeated all bosses and am building a base in the plains at a very good location. Mistlands, swamp, mountain, BF are all nearby and there is an ashlands on the same island a bit further as well. I'm not going into now it as that would ruin the generation if an update comes.

I am building my base with devcommands though, and am planning to compensate for it by playing on hard and/or doing a no portal run if I can convince my friends.

When I look for a location for my "retirement home" it's all about the atmosphere. If I need something, I can always portal/sail to it.

This is the site I chose for my last retirement home:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2620660644

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2631060620

I always look for an island or peninsula for defending purposes.
I really don’t care about animals in main base. Animal breeders are always away from the base because of the lag they can produce and bat events that almost always kill wolves/boars. Also if your wolves or loxes are free roaming around the base they will make a lot of mess killing natives… and a lot of drops around the base can also produce lag.

What is more important to me is ambient. I prefer Black Forest or mistlands for great sunrise/sunset colors.