How To Keep Your Base Safe

How To Keep Your Base Safe - Valheim

One of the most important things that you need to do with your base in Valheim is secure it from enemy attackers. In order to secure an area in Valheim and prevent enemies from spawning you'll need to make Workbenches in the surrounding area. The game's tutorial says campfires work too but I prefer Workbenches as they are easier to hide and (I believe) they work better.

In order to properly secure a base and prevent any enemies from spawning you'll need to make sure that every part of your base is covered by the radius of a Workbench. Normally what I like to do is run around my base with my hammer out and look for a place that I can't build - then I know it needs a Workbench there. You'll be able to narrow down locations like this in your own base when you have enemies spawn there. Often times this is how I know I missed a location in my own base, if enemies keep spawning inside of it I will pay attention to where they spawned and run around looking for the exact location that there's no Workbench.

Now that you know how to secure the inside of your base - the real challenge is securing the outside of it from base raids and enemy attacks! Mistlands introduces weapons that you can install for base protection but we need a secure base long before we get to Mistlands so instead of those weapons what most people use is moats and raised ground.

Moats and raised ground are kind of the same thing since both of them require you to edit the ground height... However, each of these two ideas go in opposite directions; with moats you will lower the ground around your base and with the raised ground method you'll raise the ground of your base. You can combine these two ideas as well into an extremely secure base!

The downside of these ideas is that it will annoy some people because they consider it "cheating" and it also looks ugly depending on how you do it. Another downside is raising or lowering the ground permanently increases the instances in your surrounding radius and gives the game more to load. You can check the current instances in your area by pressing F2. If you get over 10,000 you'll notice lower FPS and once you get to 15-20,000 you'll have like 5 - 10 FPS in your base. This is the #1 thing holding people back from building gigantic bases.

There is an alternative idea that works too, you could find an island that you can raise the ground of a little and use that as your base instead! When doing an island you don't need to raise the ground all the way, just a little bit will be enough to stop water from getting in during bad storms. If you don't already know, I would actually recommend you check how far the water rises during a storm before deciding on the height for your base.

For some of you the most important question you need answered is "what is the safest base location?" and the answer to that is an island base. With an island you can raise the ground and secure the entire thing with Workbenches so that you'll never get a single enemy spawn - even during base raids. Enemies won't spawn in the Ocean biome or in the water, so if you build Workbenches over every inch of land you'll never see an enemy. I've used many island bases over my time in Valheim since they're useful for both protection and ease of access via boat.

Below is some additional information (and pictures) about each of the three base types to help you decide on what you'd like to do.

Island Base

An Island Base is exactly as it sounds, a base made on an island - typically by raising the ground to give yourself more room and make it safer. Making an island base is extremely easy but it will cost you a ton of stone because you have to raise a lot of ground and typically almost to the max height, depending on the island. The type of island you're looking for is something small and something that isn't connected to a giant land mass.

Something kinda close to a land mass is ok but keep in mind that enemies will spawn on the land mass nearby and come over to attack you during base raids. For this reason I prefer to find an island with an Ocean biome on all four sides; something that is truly isolated from the world around it.

Island bases serve as good main bases and they make excellent secondary bases too. On basically every playthrough I will make my Plains Farm on an island. I hate making a farm in a regular Plains because you'll have to deal with Deathsquitos that way. Making a farm on an island means no Deathsquitos and no goblins, just Flax and Barley.

Moat Base

Moat bases are something that you can make anywhere in the game by sectioning off a piece of land you want to build on and digging a moat around it. Alternatively, if you've already built a base and you'd like to make it more secure a popular option to do that is to dig a moat around it.

The biggest upside to using a moat is that the majority of enemies will not be able to hit you; the only mobs that can hit you are those that use ranged attacks. Early in the game Trolls and Draugrs that use ranged weapons are the main enemies that will shoot/throw across your moat. Later in the game you'll have Goblins, Drakes and whatever other ranged creatures they add.

As for the biggest downside, having a moat means you'll have to clear it out after base raids and you'll also have a harder time getting in and out of your base from the outside. Each time you get a base raid enemies will be pushed into your moat (or fall) which will result in them getting stuck in there and being unable to despawn. You could leave them there and let enemies fight other enemies when you get future base raids but you'll have to deal with them in the mean time which may not be something you want to do.

Tip: Try putting wolves in your moat for some of the best base defense! Come back after a long afk and you'll find tons of loot in your moat to collect and turn into food/gear!

Raised Ground Base

Another idea that works really well is to raise the ground and make your base ontop of that raised ground. You can take this one step further and carve out a giant moat around your base to make it even more secure, as shown in the picture above. A moat isn't really neccessary though, the raised ground is enough to stop all ground enemies from entering your base. The only raids that will still be an issue are the bats and wraiths.

I repurposed the moat for wolves and boars, the wolves make a nice defensive barrier around my pillar which prevents any enemies from getting close. Also the wolf pit does a good job of generating items that I may need for crafting purposes. Below is an example of what this base would look like without a moat, just normal raised ground.

Ashlands Safe Base Ideas

Let me start with saying there is no guaranteed safe base in the Ashlands, this biome has two flying enemies and a Lava Blob which is the biggest threat of all. Unlike in the previous biomes where you could use raised ground to protect yourself, Ashlands changes things with the Lava Blob. This annoying creature can destroy raised ground when it explodes which makes it much harder to protect our base in this biome.

Most people use a Charred Fortress as a base in this biome. These forts are 98% safe because the Lava Blobs can't destroy the walls when they explode. Also, the walls will knock back/damage all attacks because of the spikes. The only real downside of the charred fortress is you're very limited in what you can build there since it's a specific shape and size.