Setting up your Base!

[Lacost]

Hey folks!

Since the beginning of the Early Acces from SW I have always stumbled across a certain problem in every new world I have started so far:

 

Where do I set up my base?

 

Now I have done some debug-map-revealing recently and tried to figure out what my optimal island composition is and where I do want to settle and where I certainly don't want to. On this point I thought it would be great to ask around the community WHERE they build their main base. Of course there is the nomadic lifestyle in SW but considering super late game you will always want to build a nice base somewhere.

 

So now my questions on you:

What is your prefered biome to settle in?

Are there certain non-removeable resources (Limpet rock) that simply have to be next to your base?

How important are removeable resources for your decision?

Do you prefer strange/unique islands (mushroom jungle) or setpieces (skull-bases \o/) over boring islands with more resources?

How important are close sea resources for you?

How do you feel about settling next to Yaarctopus, Slot Machine, Water Beefalo?

 

I guess there are many, many more factors that will help you finding your perfect base spot. Feel free to answer my questions or simply write anything off your soul that comes into your mind.

In the following spoiler are my prefered base spots listed:

Biome: This is an easy one for me: jungle. Not because it's the most common one but because pirate parrots are landing there and drop dubloons. No other biome can compete with that.

Non-Removeable: Limpet rocks rock!!!! (sorry for that pun...) But seriously those things are so overpowered that you never want to miss them in your diet. I also prefer crab holes. Not for the meat which is underpowerd but because of easy bone shards you can get from spoiled fish. Because we are already talking about beach biomes: Sand is always nice too.

I also kind of like Krissures because they give you light that's not effected by wind. So chopping down trees at night next to them is pretty awesome.

Poisonous holes in nearby marshes are always nice. You may ask why? They kill butterflies for you and you can simply pick up delicious butter from the ground.

And if you manage to find fisher merms you already have won Shipwrecked.

 

Removeable: Personally I don't look after them that much. They are rather a nice to have than a must have on my island. And I need something to spend my time on in the late game anyways.

 

Unique Islands: The mushroom island is a wet dream for every DS-Player. If you find one early enough you just have to build your base nearby. Ininite health and sanity next to your base --- just --- sweeeet! Other than that I don't really care for the shape of my island. A normal more or less round blob will do it for me.

Set Piece: The skull is awseome because of the many Krissures in it's eyes. However they become dangerous in Hurricane season because the wind could blow burning things into your base (I haven't tested that though). Also Krissures will overheat your base in summer if you are too close.

Sea resources: I don't care for them. Boats are fast anyways and most of them aren't needed on a daily basis.

 

Special Thingys: Yaarctopus: Nope   Slot Machine: Nope    Water Beefalo: Nope

 

 

So to wrap this up: I prefer my base on jungle turf, surrounded by a rich beach biome. I don't look for sea resources and mostly ignore island shape or biome diversity. Non-removeable resources are more important for me and I will try to get as many of them next to my base as I can. If there are special things nearby (Yaarctopus) I will take them but don't base my decision solely on them.

[Meneervis]

I have only played shipwrecked twice, died around day 10 pm both of them. And I just couldn't find a base for myself. I was having a hard time to see where I could settle in. Probably because I'm still used to the normal don't starve. Also beefalos were hard to find for me, since I explored alot.

[grekon]

Its all about where the resources you need are. After many hours of playing I think the most important are beach and jungle biomes. That way you have access to all the resources - seashells, grass, twigs, palm trees, bamboo, vine, jungle trees, snakes.

I believe those are a must, the rest is just an addition. The limpet rocks are too random so if you have a lot on the island you think is good then you are lucky. They always have some so no worries.

You should consider the starting Island as long as its not too small. It always has those 2 biomes.

[Lacost]

19 minutes ago, sirscrubbingtont said:

I have only played shipwrecked twice, died around day 10 pm both of them. And I just couldn't find a base for myself. I was having a hard time to see where I could settle in. Probably because I'm still used to the normal don't starve. Also beefalos were hard to find for me, since I explored alot.

That's definitely true. SW bases are considerably weaker than RoG ones. Basically in RoG your base decision is not that critical because you can get everywhere you want in a short time.

But in SW? You better stare at your map for several minutes to figure out where a good enough place is to carry you through the seasons. Especially if you are new to SW.

 

However even for me there are sometimes resource shortages you could never plan beforehand. I'm currently in the weird position to be not able to get silk because I can't find tier 3 spider dens to transplant them on my island. SW truly is the resource-struggle.

[rezecib]

By far the best base location I've discovered so far is settling as near as possible to the Yaarctopus. The utility you get out of a daily stream of dubloons, sails, boat lanterns, and trawl nets is pretty amazing.

Discussion of other points of interest:

• Slot machine: better suited to trips. I've definitely gambled over 60 dubloons at once on a long trip and had enough space to bring back everything I really wanted.
• Water beefalo: Are these really a point of interest? They don't do anything right now.
• Sharkitten den: Only needs one trip in monsoon season, so it doesn't matter where it is.
• Cranium: (the skull on the map) this is actually a decent location because you can get a lot of krissures close together, which ensures near-constant lighting. However lighting isn't that difficult to set up normally so I think the Yaarctopus is better.
• Mangroves: They're good early-game, but later it's faster to use other strategies for twigs and logs.
• Limpets: These are a bonus if you can get them near your base, as they make the new recipes really easy. However, you can substitute tropical fish or mussels for every recipe except bisque, or just go with old-school recipes.
• Sea shells: nice early on, but I get more than enough just sailing around to other islands.
• Snakes: These can be a bonus, but I don't stick with snakeskin sails. If you're by the Yaarctopus then you have constant cloth sails, which are faster. Monster meat can be obtained from spiders instead, which can be relocated.
• Fishermerms: These are a really nice bonus on par with a lot of nearby limpets. One thing this might make easy is keeping a fat packim, as you have a constant supply of fish. I've never managed to settle near them because they're usually too far from other useful things, though.

Pretty much everything else can be relocated (grass, twigs, bamboo, vines if you actually want them, trees, turf).

Edit: The problem with settling near the Yaarctopus is that you have virtually no control over when you find him. Even the most focused exploration attempts sometimes don't discover him until 40+ days in (if he's hiding right next to the edge of the map far from any shallow water or something). So far what I've been doing is just trying to find him, and restarting if it takes longer than the first mild season.

[grekon]

8 minutes ago, rezecib said:

The problem with settling near the Yaarctopus is that you have virtually no control over when you find him. Even the most focused exploration attempts sometimes don't discover him until 40+ days in (if he's hiding right next to the edge of the map far from any shallow water or something). So far what I've been doing is just trying to find him, and restarting if it takes longer than the first mild season.

I found him past 200 days... His location is so random that in my opinion it's not even worth to consider him when trying to pick a base location. Once you discover him you can always make some kind of outpost on the nearest island.

[rezecib]

@grekon If you're not opposed to restarting until you can find him in a reasonable amount of time, then it is an amazing base location, though. But I would like to see a way to make it slightly more deterministic, like perhaps the 5th message in a bottle pointing to him or something.

[dthorn88]

Always on a big beach. Preferably a two biome island, on my 124 day playthrough had a big tropical beach biome and then a small flowers+sweet potato patch and a decent sized jungle habitat with no monkeys or spider dens where I planted bamboo and jungle trees. As long as I can reach spiders without wasting much time I'm okay. Also need at least two coral reefs near by and to add to the spiders being close I also need a marsh biome within distance. I've decided personally fishing in shoals is way to slow and dangerous with the chance to spawn Tiger Shark or regular sharx and with 4 tidal pools I can easily get 12 fish and be gone without any threat to my survival. I've got a pretty simple but effective strategy...now if only I could find the second dodo ahahaha WHERE ARE YOU I MUST BRING LOVE TO THIS COLD LONELY WORLD

[dthorn88]

Oh man finding that Sharkitten den is pretty high on my priority list, easiest way to kill the Tiger Shark since she fights to the death there (I can't tell you how many times I've got her on land for her to only jet out when she's low on health and waste a weapon) and plus those little kittens give 2-3 fish and gills! Took me a little bit to be able to kill them conscious free though after murdering their parent XD

[TheRebelFlesh]

I usually begin base building a little earlier than midway through calm season.  By then I've explored a bit of the map (and hopefully found gold), so I have a few islands to chose from.  

I almost always choose to settle on an island that has both jungle and beach biomes.  These islands are usually pretty common and provide the most in movable resources (saplings, grass, roots, bamboo) and immovable resources (limpet rocks and seaweed).  I always settle on the most conveniently located island that has the most limpet rocks, as I find them to be an invaluable resource for crock pot recipes (my favorites being meatballs and seafood gumbo). 

I always settle on the jungle turf.  I don't know, it just doesn't feel right to settle on beach terrain.  I was the same way in RoG too, I would always settle near beefalo and rabbits, but never actually touching savannah terrain.  Odd, but settling on the edge of the jungle allows me constant access to monster meat from the snakes that spawn every night.  A bit OP in my opinion, actually.  I think maybe they should just drop a monster meat morsel.  

I usually try to avoid monkeys, or make my base far enough away that they we don't have a chance to interact.  Spiders are a plus, and I usually let their dens grow a bit before getting rid of them.  

But there's always the flaw that I'll be really far away from things like the Sharkitten Den and Yarrctopus.  It's really just a luck based thing, and so far (on the VERY few occasions that I've even found the Yarrctopus), it usually works out.  

[Guest]

My favourite biome is the jungle island with a small swamp. It usually has berries (for piggy poop) spiders and snakes. The small swamp has green mushrooms and ponds, and sometimes a merm hut. Wipe out the monkeys and it's perfect for me.

I usually prefer something central so i can plan trips better. Other than that it's mostly about what you find those first 7 days. Once I have enough gold for an alchemy machine I usually build a functional starter base regardless of where I am and knock it down when I find some place perfect a season or two later.

[LordChicken]

When i'm choosing a island i have  5 requisites:

• There is both beach and jungle biome? Yes
• There are snake dens on the island? Yes
• There are spider dens on the island? Yes
• There are monkey dens on the island? No
• Does the island have at least a little bit of every basic resource(trees,sticks, grass ecc.)? Yes

 

All the other stuff like pig houses, bee hives, swamp if it's far away from my base location makes me happy if they are there, but i don't really need them.

Snakes vs Spiders all the night is that what i want, when i come at the morning to get resources it's the paradise of silk, spider glande and snakeskin!

[alexeiwc3gosu]

On my first world i was lucky to live on a volcanic island with the swamp nearby.

I put my base in the middle of fire geysers surrounded them with sand bags so nothing gets on fire in hurricane season.

And i basicly had natural light all night long, while the swamp provided me with unlimited amount of fish from fishermerms.

With this kind of base you are basicly immortal, since you cant die starving and cant be killed by charlie

 

When i hopped into the second world i was looking for the swamp with fishermerms for 19 days, basicly explored the whole map  the fish can be dried and cooked, another bonus is that second part of the island is jungle, and i get lots of doublons now, but i wouldnt suggest placing the base right on the swamp, because those sounds are hurting my ears when u stay on the swamp for to long

[AnonymousKoala]

My best run so far(Webber) has a base on a jungle turf and sand island(with quite a lot of spiders, and the added benefit of snake dens near some spider dens which allowed me to farm both from an early point).

Without Webber, I really think one should have at least a temporary base at some point near Fishermerms. They provide you with fish constantly, and the marsh biome also has the easiest source of poison glands, meaning that you can prepare with anti venoms quite easily by living near Fishermerms.

 

Also, if your island has monkeys, RUN AWAY. Or commit mass murder the moment you can.

[AnteSocial]

I have too many bases. I prefer a more nomadic lifestyle in Shipwrecked so I have many small bases. The contents of which depend on the island. My first two play-throughs (day 67, day 126) I set up a base and found myself quite bored, quite quickly. So for subsequent games I've been moving around more. I just intentionally ended a nomadic 160+ play-through purely because I wanted to unlock the new charcters and try them out instead. I think Warly is quite suited to how I'm currently playing.

I tend to go back to the starting island to set up a small base with a Science Machine and Alchemy engine, plus some storage. I use that as a sort of hub from where I can leave non essentials behind and go exploring from. For most resources, I prefer having to travel to get them.

I have a base on a Tallbird island that consists of 8 Drying Racks, 2 chests for the eggs, a Crockpot and a Shelter, plus a Spider-base. There are two Pig/Boar Houses there already I intend to add to as well. As much as I enjoy it, it's not easy fighting 10 or so Tallbirds by yourself!

I have another base for the volcano season on an hour-glass shaped island with lots of Seaweed surrounding it. This allows me to have a Siesta Lean-to, Ice Maker 3000, Crockpot and and endo-pit on one half, whilst still having another (completely barren) half to run around on during eruptions. I can survive on the Seaweed and Ice (Ratatouie) long enough between Hound attacks to not really need any other source of food (they need to fix Meatballs recipes though. 3 Ice + one Monster Meat is ridiculous!).

My Flood season base is on a Jungle/Beach island with A LOT of Primeapes as well as Bamboo and Sandpiles. The apes are to help deal with the Mosquitos that the puddles spawn. Granted they're not a big issue (the Mosquitos), but it's nice to not have to deal with them so frequently since the apes tend to get their attention more than I do. From here I just wait out the season and place Sandbags as and when I need to.

[Lacost]

It seems that a lot of people here avoid monkeys like a pest ... which is justified I think. When I explore I don't mind merms, spider, poisonous snakes etc. but as soon as I see the primeape hut icon on the map or the "huh, huh, huh" starts, I'm out of there.

This however changes when I settle and I actually prefer monkeys on my island. Hammering their huts is extremely benifical if you scare them off first by starting a fight. With the recent poop changes they might even don't be able to drive you insane.

If you are a little bit cheesy you can exploit them for the easiest food source in the game:

 

Keep a silly monkey ball inside a chest and they will just sit around it until you attack them. If you wall yourself and the chest in you can kill a whole bunch of monkeys in no time. Even though the loot is now one poop shorter they still drop more morsels and bananas than you can eat.

This will probably be changed so exploit it now or never^^

[SenhorLevi00]

A perfect island for a base for me is only with 3 biomes:

-Jungle: with some vines and bamboos (WITHOUT MONKEYS)

-Magma Biome: with gold/rock/flint source, some tall birds nests and maybe a spyder den.

-Beach Biome: with some sand, limpets rock and a Bee Hive

 

I never found a island like that but aproximated versions of it, and I set my base there.

 

[AnteSocial]

7 hours ago, Lacost said:

It seems that a lot of people here avoid monkeys like a pest ... which is justified I think. When I explore I don't mind merms, spider, poisonous snakes etc. but as soon as I see the primeape hut icon on the map or the "huh, huh, huh" starts, I'm out of there.

This however changes when I settle and I actually prefer monkeys on my island. Hammering their huts is extremely benifical if you scare them off first by starting a fight. With the recent poop changes they might even don't be able to drive you insane.

If you are a little bit cheesy you can exploit them for the easiest food source in the game:

As long as they're a screen or two away I think it's safe to be near a few monkeys. They help against mobs and with clearing up unwanted items you drop, such as rot.

Spoiler

If you're playing as Wendy, Abigail is amazing against 3/4 Primeapes at once. Easy, and extremely plentiful meat (the respawn time on those Primeape Huts is so short). Just hit one monkey once and stand back.

 

[AlexGLeon]

There is a berry bush island with tidal pools. I tend to set up this island every time for base. There should be around 20-30 berry bushes on the island and some spider dens and a few annoying monkey. Try to build up a pig house for infinite manure. Move some grass and twigs from other island and things would go very smoothly.

A better choice which does not always spawn is the pig island. If it spawns on map the island has 6+ boar(pig) houses and around 20 berries on jungle biome. 

[Lysh]

I haven't played in a while, but I started playing again today for the first time after the latest update and rock biomes are still my go-to. Krissures provide light and usually keep their surrounding areas dry. I usually like to start a base on days 2-5, but I just found that skull area on day 7 and decided to start there. Unfortunately there's monkeys nearby, but civil wars can provide a lot of food. I like being by limpet rocks, too. I usually build a summer base on a beach that I don't care if it gets destroyed. 

I happen to be by water beefalo as well, but I haven't really cared about them in the game yet. Normally I like to build my base near beefalo in the vanilla game. 

[justjasper]

I've had a fantastic run this game, at 100+ days and a couple of near-misses where life jackets save my hide, and was lucky that the second island I explored and settled on for a base ended up being almost slap bang in the middle of my map. It's jungle/beach and had a couple of wildbore huts on, and I've been exploring and moving resources around ever since.

I'm now even comfortable enough to waste time building a dock instead of preparing for the volcano season, since that almost killed me last time:

I have a couple of smaller bases on outlying islands, and I try and put down a firepit on every big island I find so I have a light source in a pinch.

[Rellimarual]

Right now, I mostly look for an island with a internal body of water. It's only moderately useful (I keep jellyfish and wobsters from trawl nets in mine), but what I really love is how cool they look. Put a raft in the middle and some bioluminesence and you even have a light source. 

But practically, jungle base for the doubloons, a fish source (limpets or tidal pools) and spiders are ally ou really need. Jungle and spiders can be transplanted, so it's really just the fish source. Tidal pools, if you have four or so, are an underrated food source.

[Rellimarual]

Here's my pond base, btw:

 

[ImDaMisterL]

37 minutes ago, Rellimarual said:

Here's my pond base, btw:

-awesome base pic-

That looks... beautiful! o:

[rouxdoux]

13 hours ago, Rellimarual said:

Here's my pond base, btw:

That looks gorgeous! I found an island like that after the last update. Whoever designed this is a genius and should definitely design more set pieces and islands for the game!