For funsies... what has been your worst base decision?

[Broccoli Clock]

I abandoned a playthrough recently (and thankfully I did, as the new map is just lovely!) and it was all down to one bad decision, what was that decision? Well, it was to build a base at the foot of a valley. Don't get me wrong, visually the area looked lovely, but where I built was overlooked on 3 sides by hills at least 30 blocks higher than my base. Why did I abandon it, because it became a shooting gallery for the bowtorns. Almost every time I'd step out of my house I'd be targetted by the spear chucking weirdos, even with several layers of fencing put up to block their line of sight. In the end it was a choice of flattening all the ground around me (early game, no pickaxe, so not possible) adding endless fencing and making my base feel like a prison, or moving my base. In the end, and due to 1.21.6 update, I bit the bullet and rolled a new world and abandoned it with the only positive being a lesson learned. Now, whenever I build a base, I always do it on flat open land or a hill, never in the dip of a valley.

Anyone else make similarly stupid decisions that have totally trolled their base?

 

 

[Vexxvididu]

my first real survival world I made rooms way too big and that made it a lot harder to spawn proof them... couldn't figure out why I kept getting drifters for a while.  Now I use a light level mod and build smaller rooms so that problem is easier to manage.

My current base is mostly a very practical design but part of it is on slightly unstable land which is just a bit annoying.  More specifically, my bees, pit kilns, and cellar are all slightly unstable.  It's only a minor issue, but still... wish I had paid slightly more attention early on.

[LadyWYT]

Not exactly a base, but I started a new world last night in the tropics. Fairly standard settings, turned landcover down to 80% so I would have most land but a few oceans to actually find and use. 

The game stuck me on a small collection of islands in the middle of an ocean...with maybe one or two trees, and one of them had no leaves. 

One thing on my Vintage to-do list though, is deliberately build my base in an unstable area and then try to beat the game.

[InternetDragon]

First playthrough, set my base down at spawn next to the trader's hut, couldn't figure out why I kept going crazy every fifteen minutes becuase i was a dumdum who didn't understand the gear spinning counterclockwise was bad thing.

 

Apparently, world spawn can be in a temporally unstable surface area. 

[Big Bad]

My first world with friends had us settle in this barren granite desert on the edge of a pine forest. Not only were we having to import all our dirt for farming, but we constantly had to fend off brown bears. When winter set in, I also thought it would be a neat idea to have a spiral staircase into hard rock for a cellar. This made our basement a drifter spawnpoint and borderline unusable. 

[Maelstrom]

My worst base decision?   Hmmm...  In 1.15 (then updating to 1.16) I found a wondefully rustic site.  It was on the top of a cliffside that was about 10-15 blocks high.   A nice view to the south over the lowlands.   It was on the edge of a forest and a cavern at the base of the cliff would routinely spawn drifters at all hours of day who would then wander up to pester me.  Wolves would howl constantly (until I deforested the area to make finding the numerous resin bearing trees easy to find) and lastly 1.16 brought bears.   Bears that would spawn amongst my buildings and murderize my livestock despite fencing 2 blocks tall.   Learned that bears could kill through fences and had to build barns for the protection of my meat factories.

On a positive note there were 2 iron deposits stacked ontop of each other only about 200 blocks from my front door, soooo  I didn't move.  But when 1.18 and warnings about jarring chunk borders I moved on to a new world.

[Thorfinn]

In my first playthrough that I made it beyond the first couple days, I set up my homestead maybe 50 blocks into the forest.

In retrospect, it wasn't that bad of a thing. I became very proficient in throwing spears and evading wolves.

[vhsn]

My starter base was easily the worst one I've ever made. I unknowingly settled dangerously close to an unstable zone maybe 30 blocks away (something I didn't know about back then). Since I settled in the forest biome, it meant that each time I left the base I had to fight with tree leaves obscuring my vision and bears/wolves coming out of seemingly nowhere. And a cherry on top to make it useless - I built too far north so the frost wiped out my crops before they had any chance to sprout.

[Maelstrom]

OH!   Forgot about this one.   In 1.17 I had a home that I planted my reed garden smack dab under a dogone cotton pickin' RIFT! before it repeatedly materialized on said reed garden  Do you know how much fun it is to harvest those cattails watching the stability drop like a rock attached to a lead anchor?   -1 out of 10 - do NOT recommend!

[Bumber]

On 2/1/2026 at 2:06 AM, Broccoli Clock said:

where I built was overlooked on 3 sides by hills at least 30 blocks higher than my base. Why did I abandon it, because it became a shooting gallery for the bowtorns.

I've built one base, and it's inside a mountain with a valley as the entrance. I'm probably in for a rude awakening once I start playing again.

(At least it's only fruit trees and berry bushes outside. Livestock were moved into the mountain as soon as all the rooms were carved out.)

I guess my one regret is that I didn't just put my farms near the top of the mountain. Creating the skylights took quite a few pick axes...

Spoiler

 

[marmarmar34]

Trying to make a windmill house entirely out of Brown Bricks.

[Zane Mordien]

My very first playthrough, I picked a spot right next to a trader and an open field next to a hill with no trees or bushes withing 400 blocks. I had seen a few videos before I bought the game, so I knew bears were an issue around forests and bushy areas. I sealed myself inside my dirt shack and the next day I wake up to not one but three bears that all decided to come hang out around my shack. I then moved to the middle of a lake on an island, no stupid bears there!

Edited Thursday at 01:17 AM by Zane Mordien

[marmarmar34]

14 hours ago, Zane Mordien said:

My very first playthrough, I picked a spot right next to a trader and an open field next to a hill with no trees or bushes withing 400 blocks. I had seen a few videos before I bought the game, so I knew bears were an issue around forests and bushy areas. I sealed myself inside my dirt shack and the next day I wake up to not one but three bears that all decided to come hang out around my shack. I then moved to the middle of a lake on an island, no stupid bears there!

Lol that's how my playthrough started too! I'd have to pillar up and scare them off with some rocks. After I made bronze brigandine armor, it quickly became a different story.

[Forceous]

Since this is my first world, the worst decision was to setup shop on a place where it rains pretty much the whole damn time. At first I didn’t realize it but now it’s just always rains to the point I had to lower the volume of weather all the way down to 10% lol

Some people will probably say I can just move but I’m too deep now, just gotta deal with it.

[Valsalan]

Well I decided to make a basement alcohol storage and color coat each type of alcohol by clay color, only to not find a Blue Clay deposit for the first 256 hours and 40 minutes. So I spent hours and hours panning gravel to get the blue clay to make all the pretty jugs I wanted. But hey, now I got a basement that looks like this: 

 

 

[Dilan Rona]

On 2/1/2026 at 12:06 PM, Broccoli Clock said:

build a base at the foot of a valley

Funny, I tend to do just that. If I don't dig out an existing hill, for the initial room, before digging down for the rest of the base, having a natural valley means less digging down, and i build upward. The valley makes the perfect area for me as I just place a roof over that point, place walls, and doors, and my rooms are done a lot faster.

Did have an occasional map with a base at a point that LOVES to spawn wolves (heavily forested area), and the more than occasional bear. One map in particular I had to deal with the odd 20 to 30 wolves per in game week. I just took that scenario, placed pit traps galore, and harvested the meat. No need to move the base unless the temporal stability is too bad.

[Dilan Rona]

My friend on the other hand (same map on the server) had the unfortunate bad luck of dealing with 1-2 arctic bears on a daily in game basis at his base. He went so far up north, it was practically permanent glacier ice everywhere.

[Maelstrom]

18 hours ago, Forceous said:

Since this is my first world, the worst decision was to setup shop on a place where it rains pretty much the whole damn time. At first I didn’t realize it but now it’s just always rains to the point I had to lower the volume of weather all the way down to 10% lol

Some people will probably say I can just move but I’m too deep now, just gotta deal with it.

Silver lining - your crops grow quicker from being constantly moisturized.

[Forceous]

Just now, Maelstrom said:

Silver lining - your crops grow quicker from being constantly moisturized.

Yep I noticed that, but the only good thing tbh.

[Maelstrom]

Agreed.   The rainful is wonderful if it isn't constant.   There comes a point where it becomes annoying.

[Forceous]

13 minutes ago, Maelstrom said:

Agreed.   The rainful is wonderful if it isn't constant.   There comes a point where it becomes annoying.

I just have to be patient with it, it isn't really THAT annoying but sometimes I'm just like "my god it's raining again". This annoyance really does come from real life, considering I've lived in a rainy tropical country for quite some time I was always annoyed by the rain lol.

[Vratislav]

From the longer playthroughs, in the first successful, I started to build the base in nice, forest-free area... that was densely covered by shrubs. I did not know that shrubs count as wolf- and bear- spawn too. I had to move my base in mid-July, to much nicer spot, that was however about 1000 blocks far, so I spent most of summer by moving stuff and traveling fort- and back to maintain field I have established by the old base. Still, I overcame winter in the new base succesfully and got a lesson that the winter preparation may be started later as I though.

 

For second unsuccessful base I have tried to play with Plains and Valleys mod without increased world height. I have found nice looking location of a tower guarding a scenic pass in the hills. It did not look as mountains, but the pass itself was 30 blocks above sea level and my fort was established further 30 blocks above. Everything went smoothly, until winter come. Not only it was severe like I moved 5000 blocks to the north, but the main trouble was a dense fog that was staying indoors for weeks and weeks. The fog in the rooms was so depressing that I have abandoned my castle unfinished. Then I and got sure that for PaV gameplay I will always increase the world height to make temperature gradient weaker.

 

Edited Saturday at 10:01 AM by Vratislav

[Vratislav]

15 hours ago, Maelstrom said:

There comes a point where it becomes annoying.

Especially in early game, where the rooms are not yet closed and the sound of the rain is not muted indoors.

[Dilan Rona]

@VratislavAssuming you have that map, or seed still. You can locate the spawn points for the wolves, and set pit traps there. Endless supply of meat. The bears will be a little bit harder. But nothing a pit trap cant solve either. And since you need not just meat, but the fat and pelts as well, that map is a win win in my eyes.

[Vratislav]

22 minutes ago, Dilan Rona said:

You can locate the spawn points for the wolves, and set pit traps there. Endless supply of meat.

Yes, yes, the 2x3 and 3x3 traps became my food and domestic animal resource in this gameplay later. I wanted to catch some boars into the pit and instead of it, I got pit full of volves  as they run after me and I lured them to the pit. I was learning in this first gameplay by trial-and-error method and it was big fun.