For those reading in the distant future, this guide is after the major changes to both combat & the original purges (currently purges are summoned based on wealth), right after the introduction of taverns.
Things You Should to Know
Сrеdit gоеs to Booneblaster
Okay here are the things I wish I knew before getting into and exploring this whole system. and building. and grinding (MODs: i use only 1. that is Better Thralls which allows me to place many thralls near each other, so bare this in mind).
Your purge base (the one with treasure coffer) can be built with t1 materials like sandstone. Pathing of the battering ram carriers & all other mobs only goes through doorways and doors. Otherwise, the purge is canceled. This means that nothing other your doors to close off your treasure room are attacked. The door frames can also take damage during this attack, so building your doors + frames with t3 pieces is useful. The rest of your base serves only to create a path and will not be attacked. That being said, pieces can take splash damage from nearby fighting, so if it’s prolonged close quarters, t1 walls may come down.
Just make it simple and linear. I made mine in a u shape, but left large spaces as ‘kill boxes’. Waist of time. Just have several doors in a row. The 1st one is your primary door, the rest are backups. But make sure the backups can be reached by thralls easily in case your front door goes down.
Single players, don’t bother keeping treasure on the floor. You can, but get’s framey??? Also the coffer man will forget all about them very soon and he will need to be dismantled & placed down again. Can’t use hammer, so you will lose some mats when dismantling.
Have only one entry point to your whole base. This may seem matter-of-fact to some, but I had two, opposite each other, to make pathing easier for the system when camp spawns in different places. Helps, sure. But as your purges get higher in level, you’ll need more thralls to hold them off. This needs space. Your entry gates will grow further apart over time and less and less thralls will be able to cover than large ground. Unless you have huge numbers, but this gets framey. You may fail the pathing test on occasion, but keep it simple, just use 1 main gate.
Your entry way. You will probably want to use the cauldrons. Useful things, especially the burning ones. But keep these away from your fighter thralls. You can limit their attack range, but this does just that & it may put stress on too few of them, or you will get npc clogs from everything too close. Clogs can fail your pathing test.
Make your entry gate long (like a channel) with your cauldrons out of range. Protect cauldron thralls from arrows/fire orbs by walling them in enough. Mobs should come through your entry, take any dot damage from fire or your poison vapor arrows before entering your big killbox with your fighters.
Cauldrons. Placed in a row, side by side is fine. Back to back is fine, but if they are angled in any way towards each other, one will cancel out the other unless several foundations apart. This includes 90 degree angles and triangle angles. Even when the cauldrons are facing the same general direction, the triangle angles will cause cancellation.
Thrall behavior. Make your disengage (chase) range smaller than your attack range. I use 15 attack and 10 chase. If not, you risk one thrall getting pulled out on his own.
Killbox walls. If you are stationing thralls around the inside of your killbox, some of them can exit out your gate and be over-mobbed. They change targets and run further out, taking on the entire stygian army alone. Rescuing them can be quite challenging.
This is because thralls aggro onto mobs outside your walls when the attack distance is within range to incoming stygians. The targeted mob will then approach the gate, but not come in immediately. Your thrall is following them around the wall and finally reaches your gate and exists to face the entire army. So. Keep don’t place them too close to the wall unless…
You make your wall very thick. I like thick walls, 3+ foundations. Fun to stand on it during purge, it’s useful. Or, you can simply extend “arms” from your wall so that the mob path is forced to take a wider route around to your gate, thus avoiding the attack range of your fighters (within your walls) until finally, they enter your killbox as intended.
Don’t place fighter guards at the green guard posts flanking your doors. They will move, stand and block the door, sometimes failing the pathing system. Place them about 1 human height away to the sides.
Base entryways, congestion and cauldrons. Cauldrons cause huge congestion. Damaged mobs will stand under the cauldron and swarm, eventually blocking the way for ram carriers and then failing path. You can make this entry way wide, like 3 foundations wide to prevent this, especially if you only use 1 or two cauldrons. Another way is to create stairways up to the cauldrons. Preferrably in front but one foundation to the side. Mobs will then run up the stairs, clearing the way. They will gather round the sides of your protected cauldron+thrall and keep taking fire damage by the dot radius. They will not be able to attack your protected thrall so they either continue on their way into your base or stay there and die.
My entry has 2 channels. 1 Foundation wide, it merges in the middle for a few foundations then splits again into 2 channels. Along the way, there are 2 staircases on each side, funneling cauldron aggro mobs up and out of the way. They can die up there or go back down stairs after the final fire cauldron and then enter the arena when they are done staring at sultry cauldron girls.
Entries and stygian archers. The reason my entry has 90 degree corners with an island centered at each end (path channels go to each side of island) is so that archers who refuse to enter the killbox have no shot at my fighters inside. They are forced to come closer and closer, taking burn damage and finally meeting their end on the inside. Also, my fighters are lined up on the left and right between my entry and my first door. Mobs who path right show up near those fighters and the left ones likewise. It’s generally how it goes with mixing in the middle.
Placing thralls close together. Mine are close-ish, but in a row. Placed in rough groups, your fighters may not path correctly to their return position because other stationed thralls are in the way. They can’t figure out how to go round mid-fight and this causes more lag and makes your fighters less responsive to incoming stygians. A bit of law & order among the ranks helps.
(Sp/ dedicated server) Do not trust the stated purge level your coffer man tells you if you have been taking and adding value. Especially when you are restarting the game. He is always re-checking the books because he really has no clue how much is there unless you re-build him (refresh his mind). After that, you can safely add value and he will be accurate until you go away for a while or turn off the game. Same goes for the purge level, I’ve made mistakes thinking I was getting the claimed purge when I got a very different level, both lows and highs.
Thrall pot. Seems thralls take food depending on how much you stuff the pot. Stuff it full and they horde, spoiling many meats in inventory. Keep the pot filled with less than 12 stacks.
When the commander challenges you, bring a group or go way round and cautiously lure him to you by getting close or with an arrow. If the camp is close enough, an arrow or running near him will allow you to bring him into your killbox. If you fight him near his camp alone, you’ll be overrun with his spawning minions. Take him somewhere quiet if you need 1-on-1 private time. A quiet arrow sends the message pretty good.
Be the first to comment