PC Base Horde protection ideas, questions

[Apocalyptical Survivor]

I'm getting owned on my 7th nights, and I'm trying to manage how best to protect my base. Got a few questions.

1) What about putting as moat around the base, not necessarily filled with water, but basically a big ditch, will that help? Do zombies get stuck in ditches?

2) I have been avoiding doors and just using a hole in the roof and ladders on the side. But I learned tonight that the zombies can climb ladders, or otherwise somehow climb on top of my base. Is there a way to prevent them from going up on top? Is there a minimum wall height I should aim for?

3) Is it possible to build a tunnel underground that I can use to get in and out from a safe location into the interior of the horde base?

I'd appreciate any additional insights or suggestions. Thanks!

 

[Rotor]

I'm getting owned on my 7th nights, and I'm trying to manage how best to protect my base. Got a few questions.

1) What about putting as moat around the base, not necessarily filled with water, but basically a big ditch, will that help? Do zombies get stuck in ditches?

The ditch would have to be 3 blocks deep min.  And since they cant climb out they will start digging to you.

2) I have been avoiding doors and just using a hole in the roof and ladders on the side. But I learned tonight that the zombies can climb ladders, or otherwise somehow climb on top of my base. Is there a way to prevent them from going up on top? Is there a minimum wall height I should aim for?

Wall min 3 up.  if no holes, are you trying to hide?  You wont be able to, you have to fight.  Also remove the bottom two rungs on any ladder, you can jump to it can climb, but they cant, unless they stack up.  Beware that they will start beating up on your base.

3) Is it possible to build a tunnel underground that I can use to get in and out from a safe location into the interior of the horde base?

Yes.  You can dig to your heart's content.

I'd appreciate any additional insights or suggestions. Thanks!

I used to be build bases, now I just find defensible PoIs.  Something with a tower, that I can fire from above, and with a hard path for zombies.  Furthermore I reduce Zombie block damage because, well I dont care for it and is the more immersion breaking factor for moi.  FYI, there is quite a bit of youtubes on base building.

 

[Lenny Lettuce Lips]

Kill corridor bases have been my go-to for ages. Even a cobblestone one has served me from the first horde all the way to the fifth or even sixth with minimal upgrades. It just works. Added benefit of being super cheap, usually built in a day, but I collect the materials as I do jobs. 

Per horde, you will have to fight it, so trying to make one impregnable base is impossible. They will get in one way or another and you don't want them to smash up your good base with your storage and workbenches so I always either a) make a remote horde base or b) use a POI as a horde base until I'm ready to move on to the next one. 

Moats are more trouble than they're worth. My wife and I have dug massive ones and little ones and they always never work as planned. I don't advise them unless you like the look.

 

[BFT2020]

Best piece of advice I can give is to have a plan B.

My current playthrough, I took over a single story burnt out business and converted it into my base.  Cleared out the inside, upgraded the walls to cobblestone, and installed bars to I can shoot out and throw cocktails to set the Zombies on fire.

However, I also installed ladders that only I can climb up on at two different locations so when they breached the outer wall, I had them to fall back to.  They have breached 3 times now (I believe I am on day 23 now), but each time I was able to climb the ladders and continue fighting against them until the game stopped sending zombies after me.

 

[theFlu]

Best piece of advice I can give is to have a plan B.

This. Redundancy. Instead of a single massive complex, have 2 smaller ones. Or 5. With easy access between, such that the zeds can't follow. And in each case, make sure that breaking "just one block" won't render the whole thing useless. If you've figured out a way to fight at face height (for melee), you can likely double that up by adding suitable partial blocks / bars / whatnot.

The ditch would have to be 3 blocks deep min.  And since they cant climb out they will start digging to you.

That's a bit of a rule of thumb. The zeds don't like digging terrain blocks (anything that meshes with ground, including asphalt). If you don't "fortify" a ditch with blocks, and give them a walkable "ramp" out, they won't generally dig the walls. That makes 2 deep ditches perfectly fine for general pathing control, with the caveat that sometimes the ones running at the bottom will step over a dog or a crawler and may get up that way - not foolproof, but not really a problem either.

I've also done one as a one-deep ditch and added dirt blocks next to it to make a 2-high dirt wall; I was kinda in a hurry and placing the dirt was faster than digging the dirt ... That one worked fine too (the entrance had a few hiccups due to the rushed nature of it, but it was recoverable).

But I learned tonight that the zombies can climb ladders, or otherwise somehow climb on top of my base.

They'll happily climb ladders, and stand on top of one another. For the first, make the ladders such that you can barely jump to them, zeds won't. For the second, a block above their heads will prevent stacking, I usually place bars on the "bottom of the third block" around the base. Some may glitch up there, mostly it's fine.. for massive hordes, you will need a two-wide bar, as the zeds start stacking further away from your walls when there's enough.

 

[Apocalipservice]

"Moats" always work well for two of us but they're filled w/ spikes and there are spikes (hopefully) iron around the sides of the base. We are constantly hitting them w/ whatever missiles and *especially* area weapons like molotovs and things that go boom though.

The spikes in the trench will thin the zombies out a bit but the goal is to slow them down until we can kill them. So, make sure that you can throw molotovs w/o setting yourself on fire. I'd say that you could spike the roof to keep them off of it but you might want to use that so you can see them coming and shoot/firebomb them. Controlling how they get to you is important, i.e. limit their routes to you or build one for them.

If it's to figure out how to build a base, look at the POIs like the stone church w/ the tall belfry, the water tower that you can climb inside (you'll need to build catwalks imo) or on top of a strong trailer (some are very tough). There are actually a bunch of POIs that are designed to be Horde towers but the three that I mentioned are our lazy ones. 

As for a plan B the idea is to get to a nearby building but we've been making sure that we have access to tunnels nearby as we mine a lot anyway. 

 

[Tohskrad]

One thing to keep in mind, is to assume all the zombies have advanced degrees in structural engineering and structural integrity, because they WILL know where to dogpile for the weakest block, the shortest/most efficient path to you and how to undermine your base.  Kind of cheesy, but that's how it is.  They are basically superhuman on horde nights.

1) What about putting as moat around the base, not necessarily filled with water, but basically a big ditch, will that help? Do zombies get stuck in ditches?

As others have mentioned, it's better to just avoid this.  I tried this in A19 about 6 blocks deep and around my base with spikes stacked everywhere in the pit and as mentioned, if they can't get to you, they will just dig under and collapse your structure.  No point in adding water either, they swim like Michael Phelps.

2) I have been avoiding doors and just using a hole in the roof and ladders on the side. But I learned tonight that the zombies can climb ladders, or otherwise somehow climb on top of my base. Is there a way to prevent them from going up on top? Is there a minimum wall height I should aim for?

Usually if the ladder is at least 2 blocks high off the ground and they can't jump to it, they can't reach/climb it and will just start hitting the walls.  That said, depending on the area, zombies can climb up others  (I've seen zombies as much as 3-4 high pile/climb on each other to get over fences like Day Z.)  That said, usually it's pretty safe, but you can always go to 3 high to decrease the chance of that happening.

3) Is it possible to build a tunnel underground that I can use to get in and out from a safe location into the interior of the horde base?

Yes, provided it's far enough away past the spawn radius.  If it's within the radius, there's a strong chance they will determine going through that entrance is the shortest "path" of least resistance and take it to you.  Now that said, if you build it far enough away, it shouldn't be an issue, especially if you add some reinforced steel doors to readjust their pathing calculation.

One thing that can help (and is almost essential) is to build a horde safe spot AWAY from your main base.  Many will recommend kill bases if you want to fight the horde, personally I like to just skip it all together since the cost to fight almost always significantly outweighs the rewards obtained.  So I'll either find a POI with 2 floors, remove any stairwells and just let them attack the house until it falls or it ends.  The silo in the shamway factory is a great spot and will last several hordenights, although many also really like the new grain silo poi, since it has a lot of areas to divert the zombies.

 

[stample]

Here's a tip you might like. Its been my go-to every since we got free rotation of most blocks.  Put ladders 4 off the ground.  On the 2nd block from ground place a metal hatch sideways on the wall, such that opening creates a platform.  Close it when you want nothing to get up. (This assumes one level of +1 jump from parkour, because i never go without that)

Or, my real preference, just stairstep said hatches up the side.  If your wall is 5 high, you can put 3 hatches, and open all of them from the ground.  You just need to remember to close them as you go up before the horde attacks. Lock them and you have the added benefit of keep players off, as well.  No way to lock a ladder

You might be tempted to try this with powered vault hatches late-game.  Don't.  Zombies can stand on closed sideways hatches because of how much they stick out.

 

[Star69]

I have a 5-high wooden bar fence around the base. By day 7 horde, 4 of 5 rows are upgraded to cobblestone. By day 14, 3 are upgraded to concrete and by day 21, at least 1 row is steel. For horde, I carry a hammer and repair material and spare wooden bars, alternating shooting and repairing. Remember, those bars can be shot through. Grenades/pipe bombs are a bonus. When you have limited upgrade material, remember that zombies attack the second row first, followed by row 1 then row 3. Pile ups take row 4 & 5. I get occasional breakthroughs when they attack multiple sides at once then I fall back in the base and I attack from the roof. Very successful perimeter defense and have used this technique since A15.