99 Nights in the Forest Base Building Guide & Best Base Ideas

Your base is just as important as your own well-being in 99 Nights in the Forest, and a poorly-built one will lead to a lot of frustration and possibly even an early loss. To help you build some better defenses, I've got a few tips that you can follow!

Why Base Building Matters

Although the Deer and the other large monsters can't actually touch you within your camp's boundaries (as long as the fire's alive), cultists will try to raid it every few days.

They don't break or steal anything, nor do they kidnap any rescued children. However, their presence at base will speed up the rate in which your campfire depletes, leading to a lot of nasty debuffs that can quickly get you killed.

With a well-built base, you can keep the campfire running forever while also keeping the cultists at bay. Eventually, you can build it up to the point where you don't have to do anything except occasionally feed yourself or the fire.

Building the Best Base

While there isn't a singular "best" layout, there are definitely some universal ideas that can help you turn the camp into an impenetrable (or at least barely penetrable) fort. Let's start off with a simple tip:

Tip #1. Log Walls, Not Shelves

To this day, you'll see players still surrounding the camp with shelves. Not only is this a huge waste of scrap, but it won't protect you against ranged enemies. Melee enemies also have a much easier time climbing over them compared to actual walls.

Instead, start gathering a lot of wood and build several log walls around your camp's border. Make sure to build at least one gate or leave a pathway open, as you'll be using this chokepoint to go in and out of the camp.

This will not let you AFK completely, as cultists will eventually start clumping up and jumping over each other (and consequently, the wall) if raids are ignored for too long.

Tip #2. Take Advantage of Farm Plots

Farm plots are essential if you want to create the best possible base in the game. These will keep both you and the campfire fed, and you can set them up in ways that will semi-automate food and fuel production.

Quick Stew Cooking

Building a crock pot on top of a farm plot (or more) will allow you to quickly and sometimes passively generate stews at your base. The setup involves carefully positioning the crock pot above a spot where crops will appear, like so:

It's a bit janky, but the worst thing that can happen is that you'll have to manually touch the crops for a split second to insert them into the pot.

By stacking lots of farm plots under the pot, you can eventually make 2-3 stews from just the crops that spawn under it every few days. Just don't forget to take the finished stew out of the pot every time, as it won't start cooking again until you do.

Build a Biofuel Processor

The Biofuel Processor is an essential component of your base. A single one of these pointed at your campfire will be more than enough to sustain you for hundreds of days.

With tons of farm plots nearby, or even directly under it, you can dump your crops into the processor to feed the flame. Build it like this so that you no longer have to manually move the biofuel:

Tip #3. Spikes and Barbed Wire as Backups

Those defensive blueprints that you can loot in the world, including the laser fences from aliens, should be treated as a last resort.

You may not be aware, but these things are too flimsy to act as permanent defenses, especially if you're pushing for hundreds of days.

Cultists become stronger the longer the game goes, and their increased health will just let them walk through and eventually break any spikes/wires you put down.

Instead of using them in your outer perimeter, use them to block your entire entrance. Not only will this slow down any enemies trickling in, but a long stack of spikes/wires will deal enough damage to kill them.

Again, these will eventually break at some point, but it'll at least give you enough of a buffer to just kick back and relax at the campfire for a few raids.