Talk:Guides/Self-sustaining Settlement Guide/@comment-168.1.70.36-20141224014353

Ok, this isnt the overhaul but my guide to some aspects of early game survival.

Collects as much grass, twigs and flint you can safely find.

Often overlooked PRIORITY 1 make a friggin torch asap and keep it in your inventory right next to your tool slot ALWAYS. Losing a world because you got distracted, or being attacked at nightfall, arm your torch and run to safety then build a fire or sleep. Its such a simple thing thats claimed many worlds.

If flint is rare use first two flint to make a pickaxe and mine gold boulders (gold for science machines and luxury tools) to get more flint and rocks for fire pit cut stone etc.

Rebind your keys so you can auto move harvest/kill i personally use arrow keys not wasd so i have auto move harvest as right shift and auto move kill as enter. For example trying to hit a spider in a forest by clicking it is near impossible, holding down enter will keep hitting it untill its dead. Again something so simple but recently playing with my friends they never knew about it and were clicking everything saying "I cant pick it up its under a tree".

Harvesting frogs, rabbits or spiders, surround thier nest/areas with traps, i took down a tier 3 spiders nest with 6 health(bad situation) triggering spiders into traps then walked in and broke the nest claiming my rewards. I had 15 traps around that tier 3 nest, better chance to catch a spider than running away and trying again. if you are chased by a persistant spider be far enough away when you attack it or his friends will join your death party esp tier 2/3 warrior spiders.

Spiked clubs from dead tentacles are my fav melee weapon BUT early game maybe steer clear of swamp, use a group of befreinded pigs or other creatures to do your tentacle killing work, join in if you have log armour/football helmet and spear, kiting works, two hits then run, its all in the timing just watch your health.

Im a huge fan of drying racks, crockpots and bee boxes/honey all of which hold your food without spoilage (as of writing this), i still use honey ham (1 big meat 1 monster meat 2 honey) for 1 player, 4 bee boxes, 20 drying racks and 6 crockpots seem to suit my play style.

Also a big fan of sappling farms which i have 2-3 groups of 20 ea, same with grass and trees, all seperated enough to prevent fire spreading.

I prefer to have my firepit/base on a road dirt or paved as im often running home in the twilight with my torch at the ready.

Im currently using two charcoal or logs in my firepit to last my night but from reading someone suggested shaving beefalos i was using rope but moved to charcoal.

Use a backpack and swap for log armour from your inventory before a fight, your backpack from my experience ideally contains 20 bedrolls, 40 grass, 20 rope, 40 charcoal, 20 logs, 40 twigs, 40 rocks and 40 flint, then each day casually refill anything used from that backpack.

If you have chester i personally keep 1 spare log armour, football helmet and spiked club in him at all times, and drop his eyebone safely before a fight or remove him from trouble then drop bone and go back to fighting.

Fighting hell hounds, I normally have a second firepit a screen or two away from my main base allong a road in a clear area to prevent fires. This firepit eventually is heavily surrounded by tooth traps, not only for hellhounds but mass murder of beefalos, befriended pigs and even dropped dearclops with them later in the game. Another sneaky way to deal with hell hounds is to eat a mandrake or use pan flute before being hit and put them to sleep then kill them as fast as possible, 5 hits with spear or 3 hits with spiked club.

Back to bee boxes, honey is god for me, papyrus into paper+honey = honey poultice healing, honey as food heals also, honey ham, and finally bees are defence incase hell hounds make it to your base they can distract the hounds and give you a second deciding what to do.

Might not be best advise but my current way of getting honeycomb from beehives is log armour and football helmet if you have one, stand right next to hive with weapon and hit it until it drops then run, you are likely to be hit twice doing minimal damage, then loop around and collect the comb and honey if you have the time not being hit anymore. Finally capture then plant 10 butterflys near your new bee box.

Use a lightning rod in your base, it covers a pretty big area id say screen and half.

I also like to have a settlement of pigs near my base i can befriend, but far enough away not to werepig my base on full moon or trigger my tooth traps.

Im sure ive missed allot of things but after reading the guide and comments im sure this will assist someone.