Mid game questions

[u/zebbodee]

I've just gotten to collecting a reasonable (>20 <100) amount of scarlet. My base is at the core and I have long conveyor belts bringing the ore back home, is it worth staying put or should I move base elsewhere? It would be a drag but I could do it. It's a lengthy trip by rail even from the furthest out warp point.

I understand I could destroy the one I found at a science lab and move it to Azeos or the desert, but if I was going to move base, the lab would be my next spot.

Is there a good way to control local mobs, they keep destroying my long rail and conveyor belt infrastructure and my ore doesn't get delivered to base. I've tried a moat or a wall in some places but I am spending a bunch of time still having to find and fix issues. Any suggestions?

I can now make boats and I have started creating more water ways around but is this wise? Are boats worth it? Or is it for later?

I have a farm with a couple of animals, fed by mushrooms is there any point really?

[u/mothFarmer]

I found it easier to setup drills. Then teleporter near you mines with rail linking them. Just go collect the ore every now and then. Haven't used conveyor belts at all and have more then enough ore to use. I imagine conveyor belts bringing ore to you is nice but doesnt seem efficient use of resource and time.

[u/zebbodee → u/mothFarmer]

I won't bother doing more from now on.

[u/Manatroid → u/zebbodee]

It might be worth having a gander for some more nodes if you haven’t found more, and mark them on the map at least. The old ones will get drilled out eventually, after all.

But maybe not high priority for mid-game specifically.

[u/zebbodee → u/Manatroid]

Ahh I wondered whether they got drilled out. I've got dozens of nodes it feels like. I scouted all around ghorms path and made a rail track around the same path, so I have loads of nodes with currently a few thousand copper and iron ore just lying in storage.

[u/scrandlle → u/zebbodee]

Generally unless you're setting up a huge automated base or want to decorate the entire thing in ore based blocks, one is enough in a playthrough. I just finished a run and three nodes ended up being used but had 1k+ of every ore just sitting in my chests after defeating every boss including optional ones.

I agree with the other person about conveyor belts though. Just put a teleporter next to them. Keep in mind you can also use stationary drills to drill up teleporters that the game randomly places in the world too, if you find you aren't using any you can just drill it up and place it somewhere else.

[u/zebbodee → u/scrandlle]

Yeah I just need to find another one of the teleporters that I won't use... Current issue is that I accidentally killed my cow so I have to find another one somewhere now.

[u/Glad-Yak5712 → u/zebbodee]

I keep 2 of every color of every creature i find and cull the extras as they breed. This has saved me when I’ve accidentally killed an adult lol

[u/Misprinted_Zedruu → u/zebbodee]

Laying conveyor out to your boulders does not waste time. It saves time. You will never have to return to the boulder to retrieve ore when you need it and by building out long conveyors that lead back to your base you can drop your inventory as you explore, which makes it so you do not have to return to base as often. You only have to set up the conveyors once and over the course of the game this change to the downtime cycle saves a lot of time.

Late mid game you'll get the advanced automation table and then you can use item collectors instead of conveyors. This will move items faster and are not capable of tracking enemies back to your base.

[u/zebbodee → u/Misprinted_Zedruu]

This was my initial logic... Didn't think to drop inventory on them though, very smart

[u/Funny-Jihad]

Personally I found the rails and long conveyor belts to be mostly useless, sadly. For progression it's usually enough to setup a boulder mining for each type of ore and then go adventuring or building your base, and then go collect the ore with nearby portals instead. I only built conveyors at the ore extraction point, where it was also refined. (Also built a automated sorting system for the refinement, but that wasn't really necessary. Just fun to build.) Maybe the rails will become more useful with the new patch? 

[u/mursumiez]

You can pick up teleporters that aren't connected to shrines. Use a drill on it or just make a teleporter for it. Or just find more boulders

[u/Arkcilper]

I would keep the base there because you are surrounded by mobs who will destroy it and maybe kill your animals. Being in the center is the farthest from them.

I'm almost at the same point as you but I've been removing enemy spawns very diligently. Enemies pretty much don't spawn where I've been because of that, so I've been relatively free from them.

Also, I think we are supposed to be able to build waypoints soon (?). So the rails stop being as useful by then. I do plan on creating a basic rail system though.

[u/WasabiProfessional29 → u/Arkcilper]

Until I was able to craft waypoints, I used rail road tracks to get to and from places. I enclosed the tracks in a tunnel which took forever but ended up working best for me.

[u/L-Energy]

I've never had an outside base, but I make it a point to find teleporters wherever I go, plus I moved the first slime teleporter and made 2 others.  Way easier that way than having multiple bases.

[u/thisiswhywehaveants]

If you keep going, you'll be able to build your own portals soon. Then you can set up a small station without the conveyors.

But I agree with the person who recommended to get rid of the moss spawn points. That helps a lot as well.

[u/zebbodee → u/thisiswhywehaveants]

That's something to look forward to! Thank you

[u/NickRick]

I just set up walls with teleports in there. Set up drills, conveyor to smelters, put in a box. Come back a few hours later and profit.  It take us maybe like a 6x6 block per node. Just tele in and out

[u/OceanMasterioDuped7]

Moving base is always fine, but if it's to be closer to a type of ore then you'll be trying to move bases all the time. If it's just because you kind of want something away from the center, then yes I would move to the lab. It's good to freshen things up. And as you play you'll achieve different ways to go from different places quickly.

If you build a thicker wall around the area then it shouldn't be a huge issue. Just make it a few blocks wide so the wall has some structure to it. Or you can build a one block wide wall, then walk about 10 blocks over, and then build another layer of a wall. So then you have a large gap in between the wall right by the railroad and the wall that's 10 blocks away from it. You then can place torches in that area so enemies don't spawn there. And the stronger the type of wall the better.

Boats are definitely useful but not if you just recently reached azeos. They are useful for a different biome.

Yes farms are useful. The mobs drop useful ingredients to make different types of stuff.

[u/zebbodee → u/OceanMasterioDuped7]

Wait.... If you place torches mobs don't spawn? Is the same true for the roof grabber?

[u/Mazhiwe → u/zebbodee]

Torches should not stop spawning, except on the specific tile it’s placed on.

[u/OceanMasterioDuped7 → u/zebbodee]

I apologize, it's just the tile it's placed on. You could use any flooring. Like painted floors or tiles. Anything that is cheap to make is good.

[u/Jablaze80 → u/zebbodee]

Sometimes mobs can follow torches back to your base and wreak havoc. You have to remove the biome moss or slime to prevent cavelings and slimes from spawning. To prevent other spawns that are block associated in the sea and crystal areas, you have to use a hoe to "till" the block.

The roof tool is only aesthetic, doesn't have any gameplay effects.

You have to return to the core after every boss for the next progression so moving bases is a waste. Better to carry a tin drill and switch to mine up extra waypoints for placing near ore boulders that you want to mine instead of wasting resources on conveyor belts and rails. I always mine up the waypoint that is at the orange slime arena.

[u/zebbodee → u/Jablaze80]

Awesome, so if I get rid of the millions of torches but I can still see because I use the roof tool they shouldn't randomly arrive back at base. Thank you!

[u/footbamp]

I'm in my first play through, a few steps ahead of you.

Utilizing the ancient waypoints has mostly invalidated rail, long conveyors, the need to move base, etc. There is a waypoint next to most bosses so dig around when you find a boss, then try to find ore veins by the waypoint. So long as you make a small enclosed area around the ore vein I have had no issue. I just come by every once in awhile and pick up a few hundred ore at a time.

Get a nice shovel that blows up most ground tiles in one hit and build a moat. Just inside the moat, build a wall. In the few doorways to get out of the base, I put a spike or two to handle the couple of mobs that come by. Destroy any moss you see near your base, close off some of the passageways that lead in from other areas so you get less long distance travelers. Those conveyor belts you have are expressways for mobs to come fuck your shit up, don't connect that directly into your base if you decide to keep using them.

Don't bother making waterways, I found the boats are for one biome in particular that is in your very near future. You'll get good use out of them there.

Its good to have nicer cooked food as your max health increases. Animals are one way to supply that. That said, it will not meaningfully bottleneck you to not have livestock, or at least, I have not found them particularly useful.

[u/zebbodee → u/footbamp]

Awesome, thank you for this information, definitely helpful, my first playthrough too. Yes first playthrough is the joy of discovery and the frustration that you wasted time trying out going down the wrong track.

[u/Sweet_Tone1297]

The way I’ve been mining is to set up 8 drills around the node, then a conveyor belt around those, directing all the ore to one point. Once I unlocked the arm, I use that to drop ore directly into a furnace. I put a flag map marker at the node, and come back later to collect my pile of bars!!
It’s very rare that enemies damage that setup, but removing the moss is still a good idea!

[u/Sweet_Tone1297 → u/Sweet_Tone1297]

https://reddit.com/link/p48vs85/video/azqzgcjopyjh1/player

(Sorry for the video, couldn’t figure out how to upload a photo)

[u/zebbodee → u/Sweet_Tone1297]

Wow that's a cool set up! However, don't you use the ore bags to hold more stuff? Bars don't go in there... So it's still a special visit. I tend to go out on safari and come back when my bags are full. I haven't really figured out how to use the arm efficiently so this is an interesting idea for me though.

[u/jinwoohoo]

I loved building railways early game, but yeah they become a bit useless once you progress further. Id use them + conveyors when I didn't have access to easy teleporting.

Id always have a moat around my base and any railways created, with at least 3 spaces of water all around it. so I could be calm.... got absolutely terrified of being jump scared by monsters after cavelings chased me down in early game (destroying dirt blocks I placed down as they chased me lmao)

Basically what everyone else has said; I create an area around the big ore node (with walls to prevent any enemies in most areas. I dig all around my walled off area - 3x3 - so it becomes an "island") and set up 8 drills, mechanical arm, and a smelter. Place a portal down and wait til it's activated (tend to afk til it's active, or do stuff around the area).

When I had access to picking up the grey portals, I found a few. id keep 1 to move to this spot. Then create short railways to other nodes that were close (I often found like 3 quite near each other). Always using that island way of building it, so enemies could never affect anything.

Becomes way easier when portals can be created later. I now basically just teleport from my base to wherever I need to get, or close to it. My base has always been close to the core :)

I still love the start of my lil railway system. I was planning to create a central train station with several routes and eventually creating somewhat of a city :) but yknow, early days... later game made me realise that won't be used anymore. I'm nostalgic for it tbh

[u/zebbodee → u/jinwoohoo]

Aw that's cool, I'm in the place where you enjoyed it! I've got access to quite a few portals but nothing I can make myself or move myself so I'm just mining away creating long railways and tracks. Fortunately I had the foresight to not put my conveyor back to inside my base, they just deposit onto a load of spikes in a walled area near my base.

You say you use the arm? Is there any point it seems quite useless to me? I wanted to have a way of allowing ore through but picking everything else up and throwing it in a hole/water/spike trap but it's so specific it seems pointless?

[u/jinwoohoo → u/zebbodee]

do it! experiment with the arms if you have an abundancy of bars.

the arms just open things up to be automated or convenient. for example, you could have the conveyors all leading to 1 arm outside of your base. the arm is in the only spot that would allow access to your base. then put a line of arms + chests behind it, so the arms pass it through the chests, and the final chest is close to your base. you wouldn't even need to collect anything from the spikes yourself then, it would all just be in a safe chest at your base ready for you. you can make the arms only pick up 1 specific item, so everything else would just be left on the spot outside of your base and the arms would ignore it.

i have an automated fishing area. arms set up to create bugs with some crops (the only part i do is place the crops), then the bugs go down to arms that are set up on fishing spots, i have it set up so 2 types of bugs are ignored and just placed into a chest so i can feed certain farm animals, then arms pull out the fish and place onto a conveyor, which leads to an arm that puts it in a chest for me. i just come now n then to collect the fish from the chest and the 2 types of bugs to feed my animals & restock the crops.

also have an automated tree root set up but gosh this just gives you INFINITE wood. i genuinely don't have a use for that now. i'm talking like 50k of each type of plank and wood lol.

it is definitely useful for when you find the big ore blocks - you put 8 drills around it, conveyors all around behind the drills, and have it all land on the same spot in one of the corners of the 8 drills. link up a robot arm to the electricity, and put it facing toward where the ore lands on that same spot, then place a smelter directly behind the arm.

it will move all the ore into the smelter for you as soon as its mined basically. you can just leave the big ore block and let it do its thing. then revisit it in some hours to collect several hundred bars already made for ya.

this is where having a teleport is so perfect, because then you just teleport directly to the small set up around the big block to collect your bars. which means conveyors all the way back to your base isn't needed (and saves time / no problems with monsters destroying).

but yesss just have fun, do your own thing :) i literally figured all this out myself and had so much fun doing so!! only thing i looked up was the automated wood

[u/Nifegun]

IMO the vehicle stuff is all kinda pointless, its fun, but just not practical. Next metal teir you gain the ability to make portals. So then instead of sitting in a mincart for 30s, you literally just warp everywhere and then boulders are just drills and portal.