PC Builds
- Thread starter myrkana
- Start date
Character builds or base builds?
I am going to assume base, this is probably one of the easiest noob friendly builds and it is highly effective, although might be a little cramped for more than 1 person. Unless 1 of you sits on the roof and shoots. So this base has evolved over a few alphas. The build is very well documented and most important for me, it can be built and upgraded in discreet stages.
I am going to assume base, this is probably one of the easiest noob friendly builds and it is highly effective, although might be a little cramped for more than 1 person. Unless 1 of you sits on the roof and shoots. So this base has evolved over a few alphas. The build is very well documented and most important for me, it can be built and upgraded in discreet stages.
That's a horrible design. There are so many things wrong with it, I wouldn't even have used it in A20 (when it was released). It might work for a few early hordes, but even this https://7daystodieguide.com/guide/base-construction/above-ground/ bunker design is better.
In general though, it is better to be above ground, it gives you more control over the zeds routes.
To add, your character build should also influence your base design. If you're a strength or intellect build, have a fighting position that supports close-range weapons and is easy to melee through is a plus. If you're more of a ranged weapon character, having the zombies approach the fighting position down a long, straight path will assist with target penetration (assuming you're running with the right perks and ammo).
In general, elevated bases are a common go to. Being off the ground is always more secure and helps the player control zombie pathing. Another added benefit is that if you can build it high enough (more than 12 meters), it will help avoid the zombie's "destroy everything" mode if they fall. There are several content creators that have base builds which perform extremely well with mid to late game hordes. Guns Nerds and Steel on Youtube (probably one of the best builders I've seen), Hells Janitor on Twitch, as well as Wayward Eko mentioned above. All build excellent bases.
In general, elevated bases are a common go to. Being off the ground is always more secure and helps the player control zombie pathing. Another added benefit is that if you can build it high enough (more than 12 meters), it will help avoid the zombie's "destroy everything" mode if they fall. There are several content creators that have base builds which perform extremely well with mid to late game hordes. Guns Nerds and Steel on Youtube (probably one of the best builders I've seen), Hells Janitor on Twitch, as well as Wayward Eko mentioned above. All build excellent bases.
stample
New member
First question you need to answer is guns, melee, or both? Both tends to be more dangerous and less efficient than picking one or the other, but it can certainly be done.
For gun only bases, its beneficial to have a long-ish straight path level with the player, that lets you just sit and pop headshot after headshot as they run straight to you. I like poles for this, not a full width block. Ideally you have a way to push them off a ledge or whatever when they get close to you, forcing them to start over and keeping you basically 100% safe. Sledges work pretty well, sitting off to the side facing the end of the pole. Not perfect but good. No other traps are really necessary though an electric fence to slow them down at points along the path is nice, too.
For a melee base, electric fences are practically necessary. Keep in mind, zombies only get zapped by the fence as they enter the space the fence line occupies, and never again unless they leave. You can use the activation delay blocks with a camera to force the fence to cycle on and off every 1s or so, creating continuous shocking. Run that against a 2-thick barrier made of differing height edge poles back-to-back. This gives you a 2 block barrier they must break through, even though the physical distance is less than 1 meter.
Nearly every "amazing" horde base incorporates one or both of two important block types to exploit the zombie AI.
First, are blocks that zombies see as a path, but are not actually capable of being crossed. This causes them to run off the edge like Wile E Coyote chasing the roadrunner, before plummeting to the ground and starting over. A good example of this are half wedge tips facing downward, and then covered by half blocks. Put this at the end of your path for about 3 blocks before where you stand and zeds will repeatedly run off.
Second, are blocks that zombies don't see as a path, but are possible for the player to cross. This lets you force the AI to not go places you don't want them to, and redirect them to your preferred choke point. There are tons of these, but my favorite one is a doorway placed on its side. You can make a 2-block gap, fill it with a sideways door and, even while shut, the zombies will ignore it as not a valid path. This lets you create simple fallback positions when things go sideways. For a melee base, behind your wall of poles, the player can stand on a door. if the block breaks, simply back up a few steps and they'll start looking for a new path to you. If you have a long wall, several doors side-by-side give you several standing points you can switch between as blocks break. Start at the left or right, and work horizontally through horde night as blocks break.
Keep in mind zombies do their best to get to you first through a valid path, and second as close as they can get w/o a valid path. In v1.0 I believe they changed the weighting to prefer horizontal closeness over vertical. Meaning given a choice between getting 2 blocks under you vs 2 blocks sideways to you, they'll go under you first and try to break blocks to create the path. I haven't done any testing on this, though, its anecdotal. What this means it, build higher and let them get horizontally closer. If you're only 3 blocks off the ground, they're more likely to break out your supports than come up your ladder to a disconnected platform.
Edit: Spellings
For gun only bases, its beneficial to have a long-ish straight path level with the player, that lets you just sit and pop headshot after headshot as they run straight to you. I like poles for this, not a full width block. Ideally you have a way to push them off a ledge or whatever when they get close to you, forcing them to start over and keeping you basically 100% safe. Sledges work pretty well, sitting off to the side facing the end of the pole. Not perfect but good. No other traps are really necessary though an electric fence to slow them down at points along the path is nice, too.
For a melee base, electric fences are practically necessary. Keep in mind, zombies only get zapped by the fence as they enter the space the fence line occupies, and never again unless they leave. You can use the activation delay blocks with a camera to force the fence to cycle on and off every 1s or so, creating continuous shocking. Run that against a 2-thick barrier made of differing height edge poles back-to-back. This gives you a 2 block barrier they must break through, even though the physical distance is less than 1 meter.
Nearly every "amazing" horde base incorporates one or both of two important block types to exploit the zombie AI.
First, are blocks that zombies see as a path, but are not actually capable of being crossed. This causes them to run off the edge like Wile E Coyote chasing the roadrunner, before plummeting to the ground and starting over. A good example of this are half wedge tips facing downward, and then covered by half blocks. Put this at the end of your path for about 3 blocks before where you stand and zeds will repeatedly run off.
Second, are blocks that zombies don't see as a path, but are possible for the player to cross. This lets you force the AI to not go places you don't want them to, and redirect them to your preferred choke point. There are tons of these, but my favorite one is a doorway placed on its side. You can make a 2-block gap, fill it with a sideways door and, even while shut, the zombies will ignore it as not a valid path. This lets you create simple fallback positions when things go sideways. For a melee base, behind your wall of poles, the player can stand on a door. if the block breaks, simply back up a few steps and they'll start looking for a new path to you. If you have a long wall, several doors side-by-side give you several standing points you can switch between as blocks break. Start at the left or right, and work horizontally through horde night as blocks break.
Keep in mind zombies do their best to get to you first through a valid path, and second as close as they can get w/o a valid path. In v1.0 I believe they changed the weighting to prefer horizontal closeness over vertical. Meaning given a choice between getting 2 blocks under you vs 2 blocks sideways to you, they'll go under you first and try to break blocks to create the path. I haven't done any testing on this, though, its anecdotal. What this means it, build higher and let them get horizontally closer. If you're only 3 blocks off the ground, they're more likely to break out your supports than come up your ladder to a disconnected platform.
Edit: Spellings
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Yeah, that is 1 of the things Echo's base addresses. Also the height to keep out of rage mode. It can be a tad cramped even for SP late game, but the reason it is my go to is it is very quick and easy to get up and running. Even if I am going to do something larger and more elaborate for a main base, I like to have 1 of these by each trader. Especially with the screamers being so easily drawn. Like Syphon583 said, Guns Nerds and Steel and Hells Janitor are also great builders.
stample
New member
Also, I know this is just unsolicited advice, and I know nothing of your playstyle or goals, but I recommend not just copying someone else's horde base. If your first hordebase trivializes the horde, you've removed the challenge of the main gameplay loop. The 7-day horde is this game's schtick. And while, yes, its trivial to sit on a large concrete POI and wait it out, getting capable of fighting back and overcoming that horde is the reason your character progresses. Just my 2 cents. I always design my own bases, and never look at YouTube designs because that's the fun in this game, for me.
Perhaps, you only watched the first episode. By the end episode (the evolution) its a perfectly robust horde base for firearms, melee, explosives, and fighting in the open. I have used it successfully in both SP and MP in A21. It's also easy to incorporate a crafting base as well. YMMV
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Streamer Ditch has a build that ends in a ladder capped by a half block. See https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2215576770 c. the 2 hour mark.
Thanks for the info guys 
Ill watch some of these and piece together what we want to do.
Me and my partner are approaching 1000 hours each in 7days, weve done a ton of builds but this time we just used the tops of buildings until now. The fire station we used last horde night got torn to shreds, we figure its time to buckle down and pump out the concrete, time to be a diggy diggy dwarf
Im str/int, partner is fort/per. We're high enough to be seeing demos in the streets sometimes now. Just havent made many builds in recent alphas and want to try something besides the floating platform we were using at one point. Our house is located in the wasteland and we've both got level 6 armor, and weapons. Tools are for the most part 6 with a few we're waiting for legendary parts for. Im the crafter and Ive finished more of the magazine sets than not, and have most of the book sets at at least 3 books with a few finished sets now.
My favorite old base thats not fully usable anymore without some fixes was a drop base where the zombies dropped into the pit above our base and motion sensors activated all the blade traps to kill whatever fell in. We could repair the traps from below, but that was pre digging.
Ill watch some of these and piece together what we want to do.Me and my partner are approaching 1000 hours each in 7days, weve done a ton of builds but this time we just used the tops of buildings until now. The fire station we used last horde night got torn to shreds, we figure its time to buckle down and pump out the concrete, time to be a diggy diggy dwarf
Im str/int, partner is fort/per. We're high enough to be seeing demos in the streets sometimes now. Just havent made many builds in recent alphas and want to try something besides the floating platform we were using at one point. Our house is located in the wasteland and we've both got level 6 armor, and weapons. Tools are for the most part 6 with a few we're waiting for legendary parts for. Im the crafter and Ive finished more of the magazine sets than not, and have most of the book sets at at least 3 books with a few finished sets now.
My favorite old base thats not fully usable anymore without some fixes was a drop base where the zombies dropped into the pit above our base and motion sensors activated all the blade traps to kill whatever fell in. We could repair the traps from below, but that was pre digging.
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In terms of being active, its more about footwork. Then you don't even need a base...
Ive got the perfect active base which should work for day 42. Im on day 32. Heres a failed mini sub base I made. Still gives enough time to patch up, but the zombies stand around a bit. Ill do the 2 platform next horde. Then show the perfect active base on day 42... but the design might get me banned from youtube lol. Not because it works so well, but because it looks like a swastika from the top down. Same principles as the 2 platform but with 4 branching platforms off the middle main platform
But for now, heres the mini version... For 2 people you will have to coordinate and jump at the same time
Ive got the perfect active base which should work for day 42. Im on day 32. Heres a failed mini sub base I made. Still gives enough time to patch up, but the zombies stand around a bit. Ill do the 2 platform next horde. Then show the perfect active base on day 42... but the design might get me banned from youtube lol. Not because it works so well, but because it looks like a swastika from the top down. Same principles as the 2 platform but with 4 branching platforms off the middle main platform
But for now, heres the mini version... For 2 people you will have to coordinate and jump at the same time
WOW, I did not think too many people would remember my base design. But I have redesigned it with only one minor change. I did this in the last Alpha but haven't tested it in 1.0 yet. Due to real life, I never posted or did a video on the change. Instead of using all full blocks for the ceiling with a one block clearance between ceiling and runway use a half block on the bottom of the ceiling making an open of 1 1/2. Less damage from cops and gives enough room for turrets.
Max Headroom
New member
Demos have turned out to be our main problem. Starting at the day 21 horde the AI sends demos in the first wave and they break our base approach rendering the killing zone inoperative. Our next base will feature an approach designed to absorb the early demos and a second approach that will be path-disabled until the demos are done.
OneManStanding
Active member
I used to build variations of the typical thing -- the stairway up to a gauntlet with me and my friends at the end of it picking off the survivors, generally exploiting the zombie pathfinding. But I really wanted to build something the zombies could chew on and would be epic to defend. So I built this...
Obviously this is an older picture, but once my friend become available again I'm going to rebuild this in a tougher biome. I found doubled up concrete bars, rotated so they're back to back, to slow them up better than the walls actually do with the added benefit you can shoot through them. Each floor had bars we put in place as we fell back. The concrete is also easier to fix than metal.
When we got four of the big exploders in one night, this place had the guts ripped out of it. It was awesome.
Obviously this is an older picture, but once my friend become available again I'm going to rebuild this in a tougher biome. I found doubled up concrete bars, rotated so they're back to back, to slow them up better than the walls actually do with the added benefit you can shoot through them. Each floor had bars we put in place as we fell back. The concrete is also easier to fix than metal.
When we got four of the big exploders in one night, this place had the guts ripped out of it. It was awesome.
Dead Smarty
Active member
Seems like a very good base design to me and fairly easy to adjust for multiplayer over time.Krougal said:
Keep the melee service desk as is, add an extra floor and extend catwalk for a sniper from high position, extend workshop to the back, build garden on top... Many options!
Max Headroom
New member
I have created a test world to experiment with various base designs. That way I can test them under more severe horde conditions.
Max
Max