Originally posted by blprice61:

For purposes of my own, somewhat questionable, sanity I'm dividing scouting into three sub-types using terminology from military articles and wargames. The three sub-types I'm using here are Strategic, Operational, and Tactical.

Let me start with the last one first. Tactical scouting is what you do prior to exploiting a resource or fighting a boss. It is done before enemy suppression and ground preparation. It seems pretty clear and simple, go in and see what is there that might interfere with your intended exploits.

The first one, strategic scouting, is likewise fairly straightforward; more or less just locating and getting a rough idea of the size/characteristics of each biome in the 'nearby' area. Some of this type of scouting gets done automatically when searching for a Trader or exploring the current biome.

The tricksy one, and the one that has tripped me up more than once is operational scouting. I'm defining operational scouting as finding points of interest and exploitable resources within the target area. It isn't as cut and dried as it sounds as it can be divided into two distinct phases; the preliminary scouting and the full in depth scouting.

The preliminary operational scouting phase occurs at a time when you are just barely capable of surviving in the target area. The full in depth scouting comes more towards the end of that phase in the progression where you are generally comfortable operating in the target biome, well on your way to considering the biome 'conquered'.

The preliminary scouting is the point where I have made my biggest mistakes in scouting. Either I'll be too optimistic and forget that even a large swamp, for instance, may have zero crypts; or I'll get too bold and go too far in, too quickly, and die horribly. For me the 'trick' is to be patient, scout out multiple areas instead of just deciding the first one is 'good enough', or not scouting enough to realize that 150 meters from the point where I decide to set up my 'exploitation' camp is the beginnings of a hidden but large chunk of much higher level biome.

So I'm interested in how other players approach this problem. I know about doing the 'suicide run' thing but that's just not my style.

How did you scout out your last biome entry point; what made you decide that was *the* place?

Set up a base in the closest safest place (meadows for example) and then scout the Plains nearby, if no safe biome, then elevate ground or build on trees/rocks to keep base safe.

Scouting, by keeping distance from spawn points (not engage in heavy combat), have the T marker on map selected and full zoomed in, quickly open map-double click- name point with start letter (c for copper for example, usually going with d or dung for any dungeon etc) to keep it short and fast.
Typically, I will scout the general area, measure enemies and safety/risk percentages and then if its risky, approach either stealthy or make a clear-out run, fall back to regen and then venture again to mark spots (dungeons, herbs etc).

Of course, scouting becomes rather obsolete if you are on the max gear of that biome, with full maxed bronze gear, black forest becomes a joke. Swamp with full max iron and a poison res is just fun, mountain drakes are easy as heck to avoid and wolves are only dangerous at night with full silver. Plains however, yeah I have a more strategic scouting tactic before engaging a village (I will either find nearby water/elevations/rocks etc or create elevations/trench) and then engage, while I have also marked/memorised nearby lox/squitos/blobs. Plains, even with my almost max blocking in Vanilla playthrough (85) are still a challenge, 2-star goblins and goblin berserkers are painful, even with Bonemass power...so kiting is important, which makes scouting beforehand even more important.

My most extreme scout-ahead and preparation was with the 1st goblin village where I even marked the rocks I can use to stay safe, I made a few wooden walls to fall back to and a trench to halt their advance if I need to fall back (and I marked the spots), cuz in those 1st encounters, you expect (from experience) that you won't be thinking straight during the fight, so you plan ahead, to counter that *irrationality*.

*Small edit.. Of course as the previous commenters mentioned, the small forward base always has a portal.. in my 1st Vanilla run, I had a tight portal hub (yeah not very spatious, but portals right next to each others) of about 40 or smt... Made portals in base, named them, so I can always have extras and I brought with me mats for 2 portals, 1 for the 1st safe forward base and 1 for a new further in base (for example a mountain or deep in plains). My wife (we played together on that 1st playthrough) can verify that I am THAT cautious lol, while she is like "let's charge in", tho fun.. can be punishing...
I am a strategist by nature, so it does pay off in such games.