MINECRAFT – How to Fortify Your BASE (And Build a Strong Defense)

MineCraft is known as a sandbox or open world type of video game genre. Meaning that the player or players are able to go anywhere and do anything they set their minds on. By being such an awesome game, developed by video game developers who actually care about what they do, MineCraft has become a world renown game both for offline play and online play, which means that players are able to play by themselves or with other players around the world. As long as the player has a connection to the internet, they are able to play online with other players who are playing MineCraft.

In this article, we will briefly highlight some of the methods that could be utilized when it comes time to fortify your base in a game of MineCraft. MineCraft is such an addicting game, with literally players from all over the world playing online together in various PvP (Player vs Player) matches. In the new Xbox One and Playstation 4 versions of MineCraft, the worlds are 36 times larger than their predecessors. If you play on these consoles, and this article is assuming that you are, then it could take quite some time to spot your enemies, then again, they could be just over the next ridge line or hill. Your character needs to be on their guard at all times.

So you’ve found a secluded area to build your base and you have either just finished building it or nearly finished, and are wondering what types of fortification can be applied to the base to make as difficult as possible for your enemies to get to you. Here are a few tips and tricks, briefly highlighting various strategies for building a strong base defense through practical fortifications. Remember, no matter which methods you use, practice makes perfect, so keep practicing and develop some tips and tricks for yourself using the location and resources that are around you.

MOAT (Fire/Water)

When building a moat around your base, you have two options, you can either build the moat out of fire or you could build the moat out of water. There are multiple reasons why you might choose one over the other. Lets say you do not have easy access to any lava but there is a small pond just outside your base in the nearby forest. Well in that case, you are going to want to build the moat out of water. Water is a great resource for using in moats. You wouldn’t have to worry about accidentally falling into it, as you can just swim right back out. Then again, anyone who does fall into it, yourself included, will have a substantial movement decrease, along with a speed deduction for the duration of time the person is in the water. The person that does fall into the water, will not only be limited to slow movement but will also be prone to attack from nearby players or mobs that happen to be in the area, including the Endermen, Skeletons, Zombies, Creepers, Spiders, and Non-Friendly Wolves.

If you were going to build your moat out of lava, you are going to want to exercise extreme caution when your character is nearby a potential area that you can fall into it. Whoever does fall into the lava, will only have seconds to act quickly by getting out of the lava, using water, using potions, and other means to take in order to quickly recover from lava damage. If you decide to go with the lava approach for use in filling up the moat, then you might want to think about having lava falls, similar to waterfalls, that feed into the moat. A good attacker will carry a bucket or two of water with them in their inventory just in case the do happen to come upon any lava that needs to be extinguished. Once they throw that bucket of water onto the lava, out it goes. Though if you have a constant supply of lava that is feeding into the moat, then they are going to have to destroy those lava falls from way above in their starting locations in order to totally use an effective means of destroying the moat. If you do use lava as the choice of resource for your base, then your base and surrounding area will be fully lit at night. Allowing your enemies to quickly spot your location and develop a quick plan to get at you and bring your base crashing down. The longer it takes for your enemies to spot your location the better.

No matter which resource you use to fill the moat, whether it be, lava or water. You are going to want to have some sort of bridge that you can quickly dismantle if you are being chased by your attackers into your base. I would recommend just using dirt or sand, so as to quickly mine those blocks up and let the water or lava flow as it should be doing. And remember to build your bridge “above” the fire or water moat, so the fire or water will constantly be flowing all the way around the perimeter of your base.

TRAP DOORS (Pressure Plates)

Using trap doors that lead to pits dug into the ground can be a great way of base fortification. Not only can you have trap doors outside your base, but this defensive feature you can have inside your base and on any floor of your base as well. The trap doors are sprung whenever the person walks over the pressure plate, and in they would fall to their doom. If you are nice, you can just have them fall into a small dugout cave made out of obsidian. They would still be in the game, it would just take them a great while to escape through the caves obsidian walls. If you are more competitive and want to take your opponents out as quickly as possible then filling the pit with lava is a one way ticket to the main menu for them. That is unless they are prepared for lava, and can quickly use potions and water from buckets while digging, mining, and placing blocks, escaping the fiery inferno. You could also fill the pit up with water. Filling the pit with water is a less lethal way to expunge your opponents from the game, but is an excellent method for slowing their movement down considerably.

If you have trap doors inside your base, you could have them on every level, so as your opponent falls through one, they keep falling through the consecutive levels of the trap doors on lower levels until they reach either solid ground, lava, or water. Once your opponent falls into the designated pit, you could fill the around the pits walls with lava or water, to give your opponent a nice surprise as they mine that first layer of wall around them.

CACTI (Cactus All Around)

Whenever I build any of my bases, I usually include Cacti (the plural usage for multiple plants of a single cactus). Cacti are similar to watch towers with arrows, only they do not fire their arrows, they hope the person walks into them. If you have multiple cacti around your base, not dozens, more like hundreds or thousands, that right their is a huge set back for whoever is trying to invade your fortified base. The attacker might think twice about trying to bring your base down, or will have to come up with a much easier route into your base.

WOLVES (Friendly/Not Friendly)

Having wolves around your base on the outside and even inside can be a great way to help boost your base defense. The wolves would attack any intruder similarly to the perfect MineCraft guard dog. You will also hear the wolves as they are attacking an intruder, signalling you to where the action is taking place and giving you the option of helping the wolves out, or make a break for it in another area of your base, or leave your base altogether.

ARROW DISPENSER (Flaming Arrows)

Using arrow dispensers correctly can be akin to a watch tower or archers shooting arrows from a wall. You could even have a lava fall on the side where the arrows leave the dispenser to catch the arrows on fire, lighting up the night sky and inflicting even more damage onto your opponents. I usually keep arrow dispensers in secluded corners of my base along with deep inside pits that I’ve dug for trap doors, so as the opponent falls through the trap door, and falls through the pit towards the bottom, they get a nice dosage of arrows in the side. Having arrow dispensers across from each other is similar to having an invisible trip line, only this trip line is protected by arrows, possibly flaming arrows.

OBSIDIAN (Construction Materials)

If you can get your hands on obsidian, you will have the opportunity to build a nearly impenetrable base. Only a diamond pick axe can mine the obsidian effectively. Be sure to, use obsidian as often as you can, in as many places as you can. If you do not have much obsidian to spare, then use it up wisely. I would recommend using it for your walls, wherever you would normally have walls up. You could even build your walls in layers, and have some of the layers or at least one of them, be obsidian, greatly reducing the moral of your would be intruders.

LABYRINTHS (Maze of Tunnels)

When constructing the inside of your base, and even the outside of the base, you could build mazes and labyrinths of dead end tunnels, to help confuse the where abouts for your attackers. Make sure to build the walls of the maze as high as you can, at least as high as the viewing angle of someone jumping off the ground. Building the maze walls or polls can help to disorient your attackers even more so if you build them out of resources such as obsidian. I usually have my indoor labyrinths lead to either multiple dead ends, or I have them cross each others path, keeping my opponents wandering around in circles as I am leaving out the back door.

LIGHTS OUT (Just Carry Torches)

Have as few light sources as you can manage inside and outside your base. If you need to see something, you should just use torches that should be in your inventory. I always tend to have a darkened out inside for my base, as since I’m the one that built it, I know where everything is at anyways, and then if I need to see a chest or enchantment table for example, I would just use a torch or two from my inventory to help see what I am doing, and then mine and pick up the torch back into my inventory. Remember if you do decide to go lights out inside your base, if your base is large enough and not lit by torches, then there is a possibility of mobs spawning in random locations, so you would have to tread with caution as you walk into darkened rooms of the fortified base.

PATCHES OF LAVA AND WATER (In the Ground)

A neat idea that I have been using recently is to use just mine one block of ground and dump some lave or water into it. And by doing that multiple times all around the outside of my base, I have managed to greatly hinder the speed of which my attackers have gotten to my actual base. As when they are running most people do not look straight down as to what is directly in front of them, so the surrounding terrain of my base has pleasant, or should I say, not so pleasant surprises. Even having a maze of patches of lava and water can greatly help boost your base defense. Also try to adopt the usage of patches of lava and water for inside your base (make sure to use caution if your base is made using a lot of wood and you are using lave), especially if you have no light sources for inside.

Discussion Topic: Minecraft – Methods of Base Fortification