Colony Building Guide
This guide is the ultimate go-to guide to building your base, for all stages of the game.
Base Types
There are different ways to build your base. In all different designs one can opt to either predefine each room role or make modular rooms which are easier to expand but also less efficient.
Superstructure base
A superstructure base is a base where everything or almost everything is in one large building rather than smaller separate parts.
This is a common method to build bases, and is generally the recommended way to do so.
Pros
- Saves building materials and space.
- Easier to control temperature.
- Easier to defend against raids.
- More resistant against toxic fallout.
Cons
- Rivers, patches of deep water and soft sand can complicate the design.
- Some areas might need to be unroofed to prevent cabin fever.
- Some large hallways might be needed to help defend against raiders dropping on top.
Separate structures base
Build everything in separated buildings, just like building a small town.
It is easier for starting off, but it usually does not scale as well into late game.
Pros
- Easier to avoid areas with building restrictions.
- Naturally gets rid of cabin fever.
- Naturally offer areas in between buildings to fight raiders that drop on top.
Cons
- Requires more space and building materials overall.
- Harder to control temperature.
- Harder to defend against most raids.
- Vulnerable to toxic fallout.
Mountain base
For mountainous maps where you have less space to build, you can opt to dig inside the mountains instead.
Also very easy to start off, used to be the most popular kind of base but now depending on how bad the Infestations are it can be good or impossible late game.
Pros
- Saves a lot of building materials.
- Easier to control temperature.
- Easier to defend against raids.
- More resistant against toxic fallout.
- Free flooring.
- Immune to raiders dropping on top.
- Immune to sieges.
Cons
- Infestations inside can be impossible to deal with.
- Cabin fever can be a real problem.
Base Structures
Different structures suit the different needs of your colony.
Dining room
Dining room is a room with table and chairs.
Its usually a good idea to have a main dining room near the food storage so your colonists will actually use the dining room, instead of eating on the floor of the food storage. Its also a good idea to have a minor dining room right in front of the colonists bedrooms or they might eat their breakfast on the floor since colonists tend to go to bed with food and eat as soon as they wake up.
In big bases dining rooms can be partially unroofed to get rid of cabin fever since colonists do not mind eating on hot or cold rooms.
Good dining rooms give good mood modifiers so they should have plenty of art, light, good flooring and high quality furniture. It does not need to be warmed. Nutrient paste dispensers are very useful on dining rooms to ensure that nobody needs to eat raw food, they are usually placed half in the dining room and half in the freezer.
Dining rooms are usually combined with recreation rooms.
Recreation rooms
Recreation room is a room with sources of joy.
Colonists get bored of using the same joy source repeatedly, so you should have as many joy sources as possible in the recreation room.
In the early game all you need is a horseshoes pin and a chess table. Mid game you should add a poker table, a billiards table and a tube television. Late game you should add a telescope and replace your tube television with a better flatscreen television or even a megascreen television, all of which can be bought from traders.
In big bases recreation rooms can be partially unroofed to get rid of cabin fever since colonists do not mind playing on hot or cold rooms.
Good recreations rooms give good mood modifiers so they should have plenty of art, light, good flooring and high quality furniture. It does not need to be warmed.
Recreation rooms are usually combined with dining rooms.
Barracks
Barracks is a room with multiple beds.
They are usually a good option early game when resources are limited and eventually late game to deal with overflow of people. Overall, its better to have separate bedrooms since barracks give a lower mood modifier and cause a lot of 'Disturbed sleep' penalties.
Good barracks give good mood modifiers so they should have plenty of art, good flooring and high quality furniture. It should be warmed for better moods. Dressers are a very good addition to barracks since they increase the comfort of many beds at once.
Colonists like to eat as soon as they wake up, but do not place table and chairs inside the barracks or colonists will use the tables at night and cause 'Disturbed sleep' penalties, instead barracks should be build close to dinning rooms.
Bedrooms
Bedroom is a room with only one bed.
Only colonists in love like to share a room, and all sleeping colonists will get disturbed by non-lovers walking about in the same room while they sleep, so once you have the resources you should upgrade to individual bedrooms for each colonist or couple. If you have couples they will need double beds so that they can sleep together. Is recommended to have double beds in every single room because couple are not smart enough to assign themselves to bedrooms with double beds, so if you have some bedrooms with normal beds and some bedrooms with double beds you gotta have to re-assign the couples every time they go out on a caravan.
Good bedrooms give good mood modifiers so they should have plenty of art, good flooring and high quality furniture. It should be warmed for better moods. Dressers and end tables are recommended in bedrooms to increase the comfort of the bed. Royal beds are particularly good to have in bedrooms if you can afford it.
Colonists like to eat as soon as they wake up, but do not place table and chairs inside the bedrooms or colonists will use other colonists tables at night and cause 'Disturbed sleep' penalties, instead bedrooms should be build close to dinning rooms.
Storage
Storage is a room with a stockpile. It is not a official room role.
The storage is usually the biggest room in the base. It should be covered by orbital trade beacons so you can sell your stuff to trade ships. The electric crematorium and electric smelter may be placed here or in the workshop.
It does not need to be impressive. It does not need to be warmed.
It should be build close to workshop.
Freezer
Freezers is a room with a stockpile that is kept cold by coolers. It is not a official room role.
The freezer is usually the second biggest room in the base, it is where you put your valuables that would otherwise spoil in the storage like food and corpses. It should be covered by orbital trade beacons so you can sell your food to trade ships.
It is common to have a butcher spot and a crafting spot inside the freezer to butcher corpses, make kibble and make smokeleaf joint. The work to make those is so small that the temperature penalty does not matter, so since the ingredients are in the freezer your colonists might as well do it in the freezer.
Nutrient paste dispensers are usually placed half in the dining room and half in the freezer.
Even though food freezes at 0 °C (32 °F) you should have your freezer at least set at -5 °C (23 °F) since it will constantly lose temperature whenever a colonist comes in. It is common to make airlocks in the entrance of the freezer to reduce that temperature exchange. It is also common to make the freezer with double walls to increase insulation.
To save power it is a good idea to have the coolers set to different temperatures. For example, if two coolers are set to -5 °C (23 °F) then both will always consume power, but if a cooler is set to -5 °C (23 °F) and another is set to -10 °C (14 °F) then the first will only consume power during hotter times when the second is not able to keep the temperature bellow -5 °C (23 °F) alone.
It does not need to be impressive.
It should be build close to dining rooms and kitchen.
Kitchen
Kitchen is a room with a butcher table or a stove.
The kitchen is where your colonists turn raw food into meals. The room should be clean to avoid food poisoning, so often the butcher table is placed inside the freezer instead since it creates a lot of dirt and also for saving travel time.
Besides stoves, the kitchen should include chairs, light and sterile tiles. You might wanna add a little vegetables stockpile inside to save travel time, since plants take a while to spoil, so they should be cooked before it happens.
Since the kitchen is placed near the freezer some crafting stations which include plants ingredients may be also placed in there. The brewery, drug lab and biofuel refinery are good choices and if you do place them there you should also add tool cabinets and little stockpiles for hops, psychoid leaves and neutroamine.
It does not need to be impressive, but it is usually a good idea to add a little art since colonists tend to stay there a long time. It should be warmed for better working speed.
Workshop
Workshop is a room with a crafting station.
The workshop is where your colonists turn raw materials into advanced products.
Early game crafting stations include: stonecutter's table, sculptor's table, hand-tailoring bench and fueled smithy. Mid game crafting stations include: machining table, also include replacing the older bench and smithy for the electric tailoring bench and electric smithy. Late game crafting stations include: fabrication bench.
The brewery, drug lab and biofuel refinery may be placed here or in the kitchen.
The electric crematorium and electric smelter may be placed here or in the storage.
Besides crafting stations, the workshop should include chairs, light and tool cabinets. A lot of different little materials stockpiles may be placed inside to save travel time.
It does not need to be impressive, but it is usually a good idea to add a little art since colonists tend to stay there a long time. It should be warmed for better working speed.
It should be build close to storage.
Hospital
Hospital is a room with a medical bed.
Hospital is a place specialized in healing your colonists, if you do not have one, colonists will heal themselves in their bedroom. The room should be clean to avoid infection.
In the early game all you need is floors, beds and a light source. Mid game you should replace your floor with sterile tiles and replace your beds with hospital beds. Late game you should add vitals monitors. All that will increase treatment quality.
Store medicine in or near your hospital so your doctors can quickly patch them up.
Good hospitals give good mood modifiers so they should have plenty of art and high quality furniture. It should be warmed for better moods. Since colonist will likely spend a lot of time in the hospital it is a good idea to also add televisions which they can watch while on bed, if you do not have televisions other colonists need to go to the hospital to cheer them up to provide joy.
It should be build close to the base entrance for quicker rescue.
Laboratory
Laboratory is a room with a simple research bench or a hi-tech research bench.
Research speed is affected by the cleanliness of the room which is why it might worth making a separate room for it.
Besides the research bench the laboratory should include a chair, light and sterile tiles. After you replace the simple research bench for a hi-tech research bench you can also get a multi-analyzer.
It does not need to be impressive, but it is usually a good idea to add a little art since colonists tend to stay there a long time. It should be warmed for better working speed.
It should be build isolated to avoid people walking around.
Barn
Barn is a room with a animal sleeping box or animal bed.
Barns help ensure that hauling animals will go back to your base at night for safety. They can also be used to ensure that animals products will drop near your base for quicker hauling.
They should include stockpiles of kibble for the animals, if they are placed outside they should be in a shelf to avoid deteriorating. Since animals go back to their boxes or bed for healing it might be a good idea to store medicine near your barn for quicker patching up, again if placed outside they should be in a shelf.
It does not need to be impressive, also does not need to be indoors. Usually it does not need to be warmed, but sometimes it does if your animals can not handle the local temperature.
It should be build close to freezer or stockpile.
Armory
Armory is a room with a stockpile for weapons and armor. It is not a official room role.
Often your colonists need to change their guns and gear to better fight different kinds of raids. Having an armory helps keeping your gun and gear stock under control and puts them in a more accessible position for your colonists to grab them quicker.
It does not need to be impressive. It does not need to be warmed.
It should be build close to the base entrance for quicker reaction to raids, it should also be far away from the prison.
Tomb
Tomb is a room with a sarcophagus.
Not the most important of the rooms, but colonists do go visit sarcophagus filled with colonists corpses to fill joy so you might wanna give a nicer room for them to do that.
It does not need to be impressive. It does not need to be warmed.
Can be build anywhere.
Production
You will also need various buildings to produce or manufacture the stuff that your colonists need.
Crops
See also: Food production
Crop fields
Crop fields are rather simple; just set up a growing zone, designate the desired plant type and growers will automatically go and grow the plants.
You need to check carefully the soil fertility before marking out your areas.
- Gravel looks quite similar to dirt at first glance, but has a greatly reduced fertility meaning plants will grow slower.
- Rich soil, on the other hand, is visibly darker and has improved fertility, making it suitable for long growing time plants such as devilstrand.
You will need to keep animals out, whether or not they are tamed. Exclude these areas out of the allowed areas of animals, and build walls to keep out wild animals.
Greenhouses
Enclosed areas that grow crops with the aid of temperature control, sun lamps and possibly hydroponics basins. They allow you to continue growing crops regardless of soil or weather conditions. Note that greenhouses are subject to power draining events like solar flares, knocking out lamps, heaters and hydroponics.
Mining
In early-midgame you just need to select mineral outcrops and designate them, and miners will proceed to dig out the minerals.
Later on, you can choose to continue mining through several means.
Strip mining
If you have more mountains or rocks which you can mine, you can strip mine them by mining out long tunnels with 2 tiles between each other. This allows you to cover everything in the mines.
Covering up your mine to prevent infestations is a good idea, using cheap materials such as wood it is possible to completely seal up the mines at a low cost. Alternatively, set up defenses at the mine entrance and just farm the insects.
Deep drills
After research you will unlock the deep drill and the ground-penetrating scanner for use.
It is not recommended to start deep drilling without an active scanner as you cannot see the locations of mineral locations this way and deep drills cannot be relocated.
Some deposits will be directly underneath your base. You can deconstruct or relocate buildings to give access to your drills. Be careful when you mine in colonists' bedrooms as they can easily disturb sleep.
Animals
Animals are an extremely useful asset to the colony if you can handle them (both in-game and performance-wise). They provide a variety of products, from raw food materials (meat, eggs or milk) for producing quality foods, to wool, which is an excellent insulator against both heat and cold. Moreover, they can be used in combat, as haulers, or as pack animals in a caravan.
Chemfuel farming
Boomalopes are unique in the fact that they can produce chemfuel. This can be used to power generators, used as transport pod fuel or made into mortar shells.
Due to their explosive nature, they won't be attacked by predators, so you can let them roam freely without much danger. Keeping them confined is dangerous as the death of one boomalope can injure others, and if you don't intervene the other boomalopes will die, exploding and causing a chain reaction.
Prison
Prisons are places where you put your captives of war. Better prisons make it easier to recruit people. Still, prisons are not consistently used, so one should consider how much effort and resources should be invested in it.
Basic features:
- Enclosed by walls, including objects that act as walls, such as the nutrient paste dispenser.
- Beds or sleeping spots.
- Safe temperature.
Good mood features:
- Light source.
- Floors.
- Table and chairs.
- Art.
- Comfortable temperature.
- Dressers and end tables.
- Psychic emanator.
Convenience features:
- Food stock.
- Medicine stock.
- Uniform stock.
- Nutrient paste dispenser.
Medical features:
Safety features:
- Isolated from the rest of the base, but not close to the map edges.
- Isolated from any potential weapons, even wood and beer.
- Doors connected to an empty walled area, possibly guarded by turrets.
Prisons can have the following rooms:
Prison barracks
Barracks are rooms with multiple prisoner beds.
They are cheaper than cells and allow for features that are unreasonable to have in every single cell. The prison barracks mood modifier is only 2 less than the prison cell modifier which is even less the +5 'Spacious interior' modifier so they arguably offer better mood than prison cells since prisoners do not get 'Disturbed sleep' penalties. However, if a prison break happens all prisoners in the barracks will break out together.
Prison cells
Cells are rooms with a single prisoner bed.
Cells offer only slightly better mood modifier than barracks and usually are much more limited in what they can have. The major advantage of cells is that if a prison break happens, not all prisoners in nearby cells will join.
If you are lacking space for prisoners, a colonist bedroom can be temporarily turned into a prison cell.
Prison hospital
The prison hospital is a room with medical prisoner beds.
Prisoners often first enter your prison injured, so having a proper prison hospital can help avoid unnecessary deaths and infections. They are like a regular hospital attached to the rest of your prison, however, you do not need to have televisions in it since prisoners are not affected by joy.
Prison freezer
The prison freezer is a room with a stockpile kept cold by coolers inside the prison. It is not a official room role.
This is for storing stocks of food and herbal medicine to prevent spoilage, should you decide to include them. If you have a Nutrient paste dispenser you can place part of it and all the hoppers inside.
Power
Your colony needs power, so should provide generators and should guard those so riders do not destroy them. Therefore, it is usually a good idea to place them inside your base walls. Your options for power generation are:
Solar power
Solar generators provide power only during the day. It provides 1700W during peak hours near the equatorial line, but less near the poles. They are particularly good to power up sun lamps since those only consume power during the day. They should be used together with batteries so you may still have power during the night. They are vulnerable to eclipses.
Wind power
Wind turbines provide unstable power throughout the day. It can provide up to 3000W, but it usually gives less than that. They should be used together with batteries to make up for the instability.
It requires plenty of open space for maximum efficiency and any obstacles can easily reduce efficiency. To prevent trees from growing and obstructing the turbines, you may put down floors. Another more productive use of the space is to grow crops underneath the turbines or fill in the gaps with solar generators.
Fueled generation
You can get the wood-fired generator which runs on wood, or the chemfuel powered generator which runs on chemfuel. Both provide a constant 1000W of power, so it is a good idea to have some of these as a backup power source, or even as your main source in biomes that are loaded with forests. Since they are stable they do not require batteries.
Chemfuel is significantly more efficient than wood, so once you research the biofuel refinery it is a better to refine wood into chemfuel before using it as fuel.
Boomalope setup
Boomalopes generate enough chemfuel to run 2 generators. It is very easy to run an entire base on that setup since they easily generate more energy than you spend to grow it.
Infinite chemreactor setup
Infinite chemreactors generate enough chemfuel to run a generator, which in turn generates more than enough power to run the chemreactor.
It is overall an amazing setup but infinite chemreactors are hard to come by, so you should not expect to run your whole base on that.
Geothermal power
Geothermal generators constantly gives 3600W of power after being built on a steam geyser.
While overall amazing it has one big issue, you can not choose where the steam geysers will be, so if you do not have one inside your base you either gotta move your base closer to them or leave them exposed.
The good news is that if you wall off your Geothermal generator completely with double walls the raiders will ignore it 99% of the time. They will, however, sometimes randomly attack your walls, but it is extremely unlikely that they will destroy both walls and reach the generator. The bad news is that it means that you gotta make a hole on the wall every time the generator breaks down to fix it and then build it up again.
Another problem is, that the raiders will likely destroy the conduits connecting the generator to your base, so even though they do not need batteries you should build some because it is likely that the generator gonna be disconnected during every raid.
It is important to notice that they generate heat, so they should be unroofed if you wall them off otherwise they will catch on fire.
Watermill generator
The watermill generator constantly provides 1100W of power but has to be placed next to rivers. So you gotta include the river inside your base design. However, that is usually quite simple since rivers tend to cross the whole map edge to edge. It does means you will have to wall off a larger area, but it is well worth it since the watermill is quite reliable and lots of them can be placed in the same river.
Indeed, it is quite easy to run a huge base just on watermills but of course rivers are not available in every map. Since they are stable they do not require batteries.
Vanometric power cell
A vanometric power cell constantly provides 1000W of power and can be placed anywhere. But like the infinite chemreactor they are hard to come by, so you should not expect to run your whole base on that.
They are particularly good to power up a building isolated of your main base, like the prison.
Power storage
You will need batteries to store power if you're using unstable power supplies such as wind or solar power. Batteries need to be kept under a roof to prevent short-circuits during rain and they should be protected from external threats, so ideally placed indoors. Connect them to the grid via switches, so you can shut off unneeded batteries to reduce the impact of short circuits.
Leave a 1-tile gap between adjacent groups of batteries so power does not flow between them and you can independently control connectivity.
Power network
It's not a good idea to have just 1 conduit spanning the entirety of your base. While it saves materials, short circuits or other events can cripple your power supply. Instead, build a network with redundant pathways so that the grid will continue to function even if there is a break somewhere in the network.
It is best to connect geothermal generators to other geothermal generators, so events such as wildfires and raider attacks won't easily disconnect them from your power network, causing severe power shortages.
Emergency power
Some events will cause you to lose power if you are unprepared. Some colonies rely on wind or solar power to power everything, and eventually every colony with electricity will suffer from a fault conduit explosion, also show as 'Zzzt...' Both cases will cause you to lose power, whether it's not enough wind or sun, or an explosion. Raider attacking and destroying power conduits connected to power generators can sever power from the colony, reducing the power available.
- Backup batteries: Always have spare power stores, such as multiple battery systems with switches. Only connect extra when they are about to run out, or are charging.
- Backup generators: Have some fueled generators that you bring online only if there's not enough power in the colony. This can allow your backup batteries to discharge slower, or even recharge. If they are turned off they will not consume fuel.
Defenses
Unless you're playing on Peaceful difficulty, you will eventually encounter major threats, so you will need to prepare defenses for that.
The greatest advantage on your side is cover. While enemies are hiding behind rock chunks, you have sandbags and walls on your side, giving you a significant upper hand. You can even clear the rock chunks to force enemies behind trees which are less optimal a cover choice, widening the advantage.
You can also choose to build turrets if you have unlocked them. They are essential if you don't have enough colonists to defend against raids, most typically the start of the Rich Explorer scenario.
Temperature control
Room should have its temperature regulated by some method or another, so as to keep a comfortable temperature for colonists to live in, and protect them from extreme temperature conditions such as heat waves, cold snaps or simply the outdoors ambient temperature.
Large rooms such as your dining room or rec room should have their own heaters and coolers. If they are interconnected you may want to open doors for faster colonist access and temperature exchange. If you choose to do so, remember to close doors if a fire breaks out in the room.
Smaller rooms such as your bedrooms should be thermally connected to a larger central space through vents. Your heaters and coolers should be all placed outside the bedrooms. This reduces the number of heaters and coolers you need to build while keeping your bedrooms at a comfy temperature at the same time.
Keep in mind that you will also need to be prepared in case of a freak temperature event such as heat waves or cold snaps. Without enough temperature devices rooms can get uncomfortably cold or hot, and in severe cases begin to cause hypothermia or heatstroke.
Cooler gap prevention
As coolers need to be built as part of a wall, the process of building a cooler involves tearing down the original wall, then putting the cooler in place. This short interval allows temperature to go freely through the gap, which isn't something you want.
To fix this, you can plug the gap by building cheap wooden wall in front of or behind the cooler blueprint, then starting work on the cooler. The wooden wall will prevent temperatures from equalizing easily.
Remember to deconstruct the wall after the cooler is done.
Protected coolers
Coolers are very fragile, and a single explosion or dedicated effort from melee attackers can easily break them down. Protecting the coolers helps fortify your base against enemy raids by eliminating the weak points in your walls. This is done by walling the coolers off while giving it unroofed space in front of the hot end to vent away heat.
If your colony is in a cold but not quite freezing biome, consider venting the heat from the coolers for your freezer into your living spaces instead.
Cooler column
Have the hot end facing an unroofed area where the heat vents out into the open. That unroofed area can be placed within an existing structure, such as inside the freezer. For maximum spatial efficiency the strips of unroofed area should be 1 tile wide, surrounded by coolers.
Best used for freezers to keep cool as most cases don't call for that many coolers.
Temporary temperature control
If your regular heaters or coolers aren't doing the trick, there's a temporary power outage or you're a tribe without the ability to harness electricity yet, you can use campfires or passive coolers to heat or cool down your base respectively. Both have the same effect as their powered variants, except they are rather limited in their available temperature range: campfires can't heat above 30°C while passive coolers can't cool below 15°C. Also, their temperature effect is full and cannot be throttled. Depending on what gear your colonists are wearing, it's possible for them in a room being heated with campfires to complain about it being too hot.
These are best used to keep colonists comfortable during heat waves or cold snaps. If you always encounter uncomfortable temperatures during summer or winter then it's time to upgrade your heaters or cooler system.
Miscellaneous
Dirt floors
Until you have enough manpower to spare for cleaning jobs, instead of building any floors, use the terrain as the floors. Dirt trailed on constructed floors makes for a much worse beauty penalty than using dirt floors, so this can actually make your rooms look better.
However for places like hospitals it's better to use sterile tiles and manually clean them instead.
Flooring outside
To reduce the amount of dirt inside your colony buildings, put any kind of flooring covering places where colonists and animals frequently walk. This reduces the amount of dirt formed as well as causes dirt to be left outside where it does not look as bad.
This should obviously be done only if you have enough janitors, otherwise it's better to just not build any floors (see above).
Moisture pumps
Moisture pumps clear out moisture from the ground around them, making dry land suitable for construction and agriculture. They are excellent in swamp biomes for clearing out shallow water, marshy soil and mud in order to build structures. Their effect is permanent, so they can safely be deconstructed once the land you want to use is dry. Note that shallow water will be converted to gravel, which only has 70% fertility. Still, this can be the only way to farm in ground outdoors in biomes like Ice Sheet and Sea Ice.
- Progression
- Quickstart Guides • Basics • Intermediate Midgame Guide • Advanced Endgame Guide • Ending the game
- Scenarios
- Lost Tribe Guide • Rich Explorer Guide • Naked Brutality Guide • The Mechanitor Guide
- Survival
- Extreme Heat Guide • Extreme Cold Guide • Extreme Desert Guide • Ice Sheet Guide • Sea Ice Guide • Events Guide
- Combat
- Defense tactics • Offense tactics • Weapon Guide
- Construction
- Colony Building Guide • Defense structures
- Production
- Food production • Money making guide
- Other
- Skill Training • Permadeath save conversion guide •
Ideology Min-Maxing