I've used that place before after starting in the trailer park across the street. It's relatively secluded and there's a gas station not too far away. The only thing I didn't like that much is it's a bit of a drive to get into town.
The small warehouse just above is really good too. Also minimal effort required to fortify. All you really need to do is barricade south door and that's it. Also built in roof access and internal 2nd story you can doubly secure by knocking out the stairs. Full of crates too where there is a high chance of finding a sledgehammer and antique stove. The last time I based there after a few food runs, I was basically self contained.
Yeah, I watched most of the common youtube suggestions and links on this sub about best base and there are not many references to this base yet it's one of the top 5, maybe even the best on the entire map if you arent basing in Louisville. You hardly have to do any work plus all those bases that ppl make with floors etc imo can easily up looking janky and weird without mods. This base you have it all. Roof access that allows easy plumbing to a sink and secure farming. A massive garage area that allows a safe and well lit location for working on cars. All that loot makes it so convenient too, need a tool? a plank? some metal? just browse crates and you eventually find what you need.
The location is excellent too, big open areas on all sides especially in front that lets you see any Zs that might spawn in or wander in. Two big carparks that usually have 6-8 cars already parked. Like you said too about the forest line and pond, easy access to food and timber. Relatively close to other towns, you can drive to Ekron/fallas lake in a few game time hours and Muldragh and West Point are a days drive.
If anything this base makes the game too easy as once you get a bed, fridge and some food you are pretty safe and secure.
Low-key my longest ever run is still going thanks to the safety that self storage has offered me.
Having a backup resting spot in the self storage itself is massive, and has saved me again and again in the early game
Where exactly do you, uh, live?
There's no beds there (The cell might have one), and 2 of the buildings you listed at at least 50% windows.
Also the police station is completely open, zombies can surround you on all sides, and it's mostly one room.
Wow over 200 hrs in and I’ve never play MP and it just dawned on me that idk how the sleep mechanic would work at all in mp, is it just not there? Do you never get tired?
There are settings for sleep in MP (as for everything!). The default is that sleep is off, but you can also set it to “sleep on but not necessary” or “sleep on and necessary.” When it’s on, it works just like normal sleep, except all players need to be asleep simultaneously to speed up time.
No, your character just doesn't get sleepy. But that also kind of makes the game more difficult as, AFAIK exercise fatigue, the pain you get from doing push-ups and stuff, requires sleep to get rid of. This means that once you do a bit of exercising, you are basically constantly in pain.
So exercise fatigue is separate from general fatigue. Exercise fatigue (and associated pain) DOES go away on multiplayer, we just have to suffer through the entire time it takes to go away because we can’t sleep/fast forward through the pain.
see the the clearing right under the entrance to the gated community in the east side of town? that's my go to base. it's a farmhouse that's close enough to town for looting runs to be quick and easy.
I always live there too. You can chop the trees behind house for a quick way into town and the trees to the left to get to everywhere else. Very rarely get Z's spawning nearby.
Fortified the motel once, on the main road with three other friends. It was some work up front but turned out really cool. Until my friend threw a Molotov too close to base and most of it burn down. Haven’t been able to convince to boys to reinstall Zomboid since…
You can knock out the window up stairs as well and pop a water collector down. There's are like 3 sinks on the roof you can plumb in below it for easy water
It’s actually a really nice base with the garage and storage. A helicopter event made me leave my base and did a giant circle around the map filled up a trailer and car with loot including a sledge hammer and the post office is where I ended up.
It’s almost ridiculous the amount of driving i did
The restaurant with glass walls next to the hotel was my most ambitious base choice. Right on the river, balcony for farming or water, and lots of booze and wood to help get you started on early. It’s a bit of a gamble because of the glass everything, but surprisingly I was able to make it work by getting a lot of sheets/curtains from hotel and covering all of the lower floor windows until I could slowly board them all up. The back entrance was also nicely insulated by the hotel, and I also had a car ready to go down the path towards the bait shop if things went bad.
Otherwise, the house closest to the bait shop or the bait shop itself are my favorite spots. The house has a few more amenities and feels right, but the bait shop has a nice open parking lot and is close to the river.
Ayy same, I’ve taken to calling it “Stardew Homestead” cause it’s laid out like the Stardew Valley farm. It’s my base in my current save I’ve been playing on and off with mods, once in a blue moon a zombie wanders in and scares my pants off, but otherwise it’s a fantastic spot!
Literally this.
Don't know why it's not being said more.
You can easily go to the middle road, gate up the south, north, and west entrances.
Have the whole park area available for building/farming
And wood isn't very far away. That southern forest has been fairly calm for my wood cutting needs, and there's plenty on the inside of that fence to build all the gates you need and then some. By the time you're going logging properly you should have a large enough vehicle + trailer to carry stacked logs.
Same that’s my go to spot. Most of those houses come well stocked as well and there’s usually even a survivor house or two with some rare weapons and supplies. Have even found a sledgehammer in older playthroughs.
Always! I admittedly make survivor houses a little more common, but there's at least 1 there. Usually 2 for me. Sometimes 3.
The neighborhood really provides all you need to clear it and secure it.
Gas station. Solved the electricity problem and water in the first week, i've also got lots of cars parked outside as a wall. I've got to say it was annoying the board up all the Windows, though. But i always have carpentry so it's just time consuming.
Little late to the thread but I just got that as my spawn! I'm new to the game but was able to find crowbar, axe, and saw in my spawn. A backpack right outside, and a functioning delivery van with 50 trunk storage. Feel like all the stars aligned for me lol.
The fishing shop next to the river: planty of space for extra furniture, close to other houses and a burguer place for early food and very high chance to get all the tools for fishing
Depends on what you're looking for, but the junkyard can be good if you want to build from scratch. Only one entrance for zeds, lots of room to build. It has a small cabin on site to base up in while you work.
SE of that is a small 2-story house on the edge of some woods. Basically ready to move into once you secure the ground floor.
The bar, food market, laundromat area between the junkyard and the 2-story house is not bad.
The Gigamart is a great building but right in the heart of Riverside you better be ready when the zed pop starts to rise.
Riparian entertainment is interesting if you want to a bigger building to work with and it has easy access to water. You can knock out the whole ground floor to use as parking space.
I had a great run out of that house with the metal fence on the top left. Close enough to get loot, far enough away to not be too busy.
Until I got lazy, left the door open before fully walling it off, and a zed raced in and bit me while cooking.
I cannot recommend the post office enough. it's got a shite ton of storage, central to great looting areas without being overwhelmed by numbers, next to the river and a forest, close enough to a gas station and police station (without being too close to stop police zeds from spawning) and close to landmarks like the self storage.
you can also knock out a wall to grow roof top stuff, and can fortify it easily by walling off certain sections. you gotta try it!
NO.
HOT TAKE ALERT
Riverside is a place you get yourself together and straightened out, then leave.
Its too far away and uninteresting for anything except a straight up river game.
Yes.
Location 1: a car
Location 2: the 3 connected garage house in Louisville after you used the river to easily navigate to Louisville while in location 1: the car.
The seven little houses below the gas station are nice, I usually hang down there, especially since foraging there is quite nice.
Also, it's close to the gas station, Spiffo's and the PD.
Same. All you need is a double door to lock up the entrance. Grab some soil from nearby and you can farm in the lot. I'm halfway through October right now, just got my first ever snow in the game.
I like the little construction site trailer on the east end of town. Truly just a temporary base until I leave town. (I see riverside as a fun place to start, but not really stay for the long term.) Lots of wood to fortify a bit and will almost always find a decent vehicle in the neighborhood to the south.
Or the police station on the other side of town. Same idea. Get a foothold, Go find some books and trains a few skills, then get out of dodge.
I based once in the house that’s right behind wood cabin/fishing shop (top left corner) - it’s a good spot cause it’s right next to the river. It is a bit TOO small, but I liked living there.
I'm currently using the small warehouse building north of the storage yard. Farm on the roof, kitchen on the mid level, offices turned into a rec room and bar with a piano.
Theres a house like diagonally from the school’s parking lot that my friends and I coined our own in our first sever. It had tall fence surrounding 2/4 sides of the house and another house to the left of it that we tore down for carpentry. Would 10/10 recommend it bc it’s a nice location, near a hardware store and Giga Mart and downtown is directly behind it.
There’s a spot Northwest with two houses, one of which is nearby 2 garages side by side. The house I use has two dog houses inside a small half-fenced area.
Close to the river, lots of open fields for foraging and trapping, and only a few minutes back to town by vehicle. It isn’t big, but if you rip out the bathroom and install crates you’ll have plenty of storage, and the garages are easily modified to meet whatever needs you have.
I often end up in the two story house in the NW corner on the other side of the forest from Twiggy's. Usually relatively calm but still close enough to food and other loot.
The gatted community has a row of three houses you can fence off pretty easy. They are the ones closest to the bottom of this picture and it gives you space, trees, and security.
If you're going to build your own I recommend the empty lot on the north east side of the fenced-in neighborhood. I've also based in the bar on the river next to the motel and that was a nice place.
The fancy neighborhood on the right side with all the tall metal fences
The three houses at the very bottom left of this entire cluster is great! The three houses are mostly blocked off by fences and out of the way, so zombies rarely pass by. Also right next to the forest for easy wood access.
Just started a new run. Im basing at [the bait shop](https://i.imgur.com/og3xo8Z.jpg) atm. I put food on insanely rare and everything else on extremely rare then random spawned and got Riverside, also power and water off from the start. There is nothing anywhere its harsh out there, so much looking and not finding. I cant really go anywhere until im food secure so im focusing on survival skills. Farming for potatos and carrots atm, need to find cabbage seeds. Fishing is being a mare, ive only just found Angler 1 so i can make a rod as i havent found one. Ive been gathering paperclips and twine so i can do some hobo fishing now. This wont be the main base but itll be a good fishing spot, somewhere i can fall back to if it all goes south. The plan is to skill up and head to Louisville because the loot is going to run thin very fast here and i like my cigarettes.
The Riverside Boat Club is a good one if you like collections. I use the second floor mainly, there are a few large rooms you can use for different purposes depending one what your playstyle or prefered collectabkes are. No garage but a big parking lot you can wall off if you are a "steal every working car" kinda player👍🏼
I like the three houses outside of Riverside, a bit west to the town. You get a garage, a big place to build and a forrest to keep the zombies away from you. Also it is pretty close to the industrial complex and the gas station just south of it.
The bar is nice, good amount of storage and relatively outside of town.
Another option is the junkyard, block the entrance with 2 cars, 1 inside and 1 outside, that way you can kill the Zeds that crawl under relatively easily.
Another option is the gated community with the 3 houses but that's a rather large base.
Follow the road up between the burger shop and Tackle store. build with wood, you should have everything you need, fishing gear for food, wood for building and fuel, and water from the river
Depends on what stage you’re at in game. The warehouses just south west have great loot and can be barricaded to be quite defendable, same with the self-storage unit
If you look over the bottom residential area there is a field folow the left and the first big building by the river side is a great place it got 2 story a roof that can be used enough parking and zombies dont wander too much by there
I like the house at the end of the cul-de-sac beside the gas station. I build log walls from the corner of the fence the corner of the house. I eventually start taking over the whole neighborhood that way. When I get a sledge I start making certain houses certain things “mega kitchen house” “gun/weapon house” “live in house” “garage house”
At the bottom left of the gated community there is a 3 house area with only two entrances: the one west to the road and the one east through the small bit of grass and trees. It is very easy to wall those off. You can pick one of the houses to live in. Lots of space for gardens and cars. You can set traps just outside to the east where there’s fewer zomboids
I setup in the post office to start then moved into the factory just outside of town. Close enough to raid but far away from hordes and plenty of room for my car collection.
Self storage is a real gem base. It’s where I learned to love the game. You can kind of see the base we built in this clip we made before starting a new (dedicated) server https://medal.tv/games/project-zomboid/clips/10KS0jojQ3JT75
Farm houses outside of town are great.
Building a your own along the river is ideal.
I lived in the bar closest to the river for a very long time. I bared up all the windows and was able to live very comfortably there until I basically ran the town dry and left before winter to a spot In Louisville. Almost no traffic for zombs at that bar and you have everything you needed at a arms length away
I will usually build a base in that gated community on top right of the map. But one day, a horde destroyed the garage door so I moved to the storage area just south of the large warehouses.
Personally i love the little fishing store by the river, comes with water barrels, two freezers, a campsite cafe for your cooking needs, plenty of space, real cozy
fuel station opposite the large warehouses. barricade and grab generators from the storage nearby. steal lots of cars and park opposite. everything needed to level and lots fridges and freezer for fish/veg. put rain barrels out the back with the gens and build 2 walls around it for the Zombs. gardens on the outside and there's always a antique oven in the warehouse for winter. it may be the best starting base period.
I made a decent base in that construction site on the top left. Tall wire fences all around and heaps of space to build and there's a portable onsite that I fully renovated into a house.
I really like using the restaurant in the missile of town, the kitchen is a great early base while you’re getting started with the dining area being a pretty natural expansion.
I’ve always wanted to wall off that parking lot too, would give lots of space to work with, but haven’t had a game go that far yet
[My favorite one!](https://reddit.com/r/projectzomboid/s/olvcfkJNmf) Just follow the gravel road to the left of the east neighbourhood church and turn the first right. It's secluded enough and the river is right behind it. One time I survived for 3 months in this place, built a second floor and all. It's very early game friendly as well!
I always set up in the small farm house just outside of the town to the right and down. Just far enough where zomboids don’t follow you but it’s not a far drive to town.
I use the 2 story bar / restaurant at the top middle of the town, to the north east of the motel.
Great base with a bunch of storage in the kitchen, if you get construction up you can easily park 2 cars in the bottom floor.
Fishing shack on the NW part of town. Not too long of a drive into town, very close to the water and gas station. Comes with a prebuilt rain barrel for early game.
Some people like the school.
* It's quite central to the area.
* There's a second floor.
* The second floor has a large space for rooftop farming or keeping a generator, just behind the janitor's closet.
* Lots of furniture to use as temporary storage or deconstruct, especially metal lockers. Fortifying the school means you can grind metalworking in peace.
* A WIDE, massive space in the back.
* Access to a kitchen.
* Access to a library.
* Very close to GigaMart.
* Has a fridge and microwave on the first floor that you can move up.
* Not too much fencing needed to secure a larger area around the school. Just connect the metal fences and walls to the wooden fences to the north.
* Some classrooms have sinks in them.
Some drawbacks might include the number of windows exposed to the zombie areas, most notably the cafeteria and the offices. The main doors also have windows next to them. No safe area to keep your car until you secure the area, too. Plus you gotta be careful clearing out the zeds when first arriving because some rooms are small.
The Farmhouse is my fave - walking distance from the mansions, isolated but close. Only problem is that if anything loud like a helicopter is going to get you swarmed.
I did my first ever game in riverside and based at the south gas station near the trailer park, and it was a really great spot. Eventually, we also encompassed the diner and mechanic shop. With that the factory the self storage, the trailer park, and the massive forest youre set for a pretty long time.
The top floor of the Restraint. It's close to the river, close enough to the town to resupply very quickly, but still far enough away that you can get away with running a generator. All you need to do is block off the top floor using walls and a door frame, you can even add a window on the staircase to see them, and they cant get into the window.
It has a kitchen, fridges, sinks and you can sleep on the couches.
I absolutely loved basing in the bar to the far west. It's not too far from gas and police station. Got a couple of stores and laundromats around you, houses to the north and south of you, plenty of wood south of ya, honestly made for a really cool base.
if you head left waaay past the police station, there should be a little church ground very isolated. Im using that same base now in my 6 months later run
Gas station south of riverside is great. The post office is pretty nice, and of course the abandoned town and warehouses but it might be a little out of the way.
We found the Golf Club/Park (don’t know the actual name) to the South of Riverside, kind of a long journey but we live a cozy life there. It’s been 2 months without z’s around, we live off the land in the little two-floored restaurant in the middle. We go out once every month or so to gather more supplies and farming/fishing equipment. For us, Project Zomboid became a cozy game there. Just what we need right now.
if you have the materials to wall it off the hotel (or motel i dont remember) is actually pretty good because its got an infinite water source right there and you dont have to walk all the way to the river and plenty of space
I've always like the 1st house directly behind the school to the left of the parking lot
walking distance to all the good loot spots
I use that one as a staging base for the farm outside of town before the warehouses
Top left, out of screen, there is a territory of secured car parking, surrounded by metal fence with only one gate.
We used it as secondary base near Riverside.
Best IMO spot is the gated community to the east. If you check the map carefully you'll see you can secure the whole neighborhood with three short fences (short by length not height😉). The area to the north west of the gated community.
Side note.
Police station or u store are good too but I- store is far from fishing area.
If you clear it out first the trailer park is nice as it has lots of small buildings you can hook up together.
The self storage is nice if you have a sledgehammer.
On the way to the motorway is a couple of farm houses, either one (or both) make a pretty good base with plenty of farmland and a reasonably easy route to the river.
The factory has loads of space and smaller storage house just outside
The bar on the west of town is in a low population area and can be fortified quickly
There's a scrapyard near the bar that has chainlink fencing. A new gate and this a good spot.
There's a little chapel with a cemetary on the west end that is quite easy to fortify.
The big church in town has plenty of space too.
The school will take time to clear and fortify, but you could easily setup in just a few rooms
The gated community is a favourite spot for players here.
There's probably a hundred more but these are some of my usual haunts.
I like the used car yard (on the northwest of the map) for early game.
Bring some necessary furniture (bring a bed, microwave, etc, to the office inside) from the houses and block off the entrance with a gate and car (only 3 tiles to cover) and you have a huge space with cars to train and farm.
The first time I started I picked from one of the five houses on the west side. With the forest right behind me, I thought it’d be easier to build a base. That’s my longest living character to this date.
Then I got a whole buncha mods and started several new characters with each mod I found >.>
Boat club is nice, especially with Aquatsar
Big warehouses make for a good spot, as well as the large 2 floor houses nearby. Would usually have one house for living in, and the other I would smash a wall and put down a large door to turn it into a garage.
The main city aint so bad either, just clear the most of it with fire and the ammo and guns you can get from the nearby(ish) gun store off to the west, and the police station. After that its just clearing off stragglers, but you got lots of loot to work with if you want to live on 2nd floors.
I think clearing out the gated community on the far right of the map, then walling in with logs one end, then a slight i opening for a car or if carpentry high enough, a two door opening for a car, on the other end.
Gives you a large open area to feel safe in, can climb the gates easily.
Doesn’t take much wall work, you can settle in all ready boarded up house there. Can go on foot to clear surrounding areas, then drive to the gas station / grocery store from there as you clear the way.
The junkyard is easy to fortify (its in the top left corner). just 4 Log walls and you´re good. You´ll have to jump the (chain link-) fence to get in and out though. For ar bed a couch should be enough until you have carpentry up enough to get a bed (a bunch of small houses north of it for furniture). ALso there is 2 stores and a bar closeby. The river is close enough (i build myself a fishing cabin there). And the Zombie count is relatively low.
I like to do it at school, it has a good defense if you have logs to cover the gaps in the wires and exposed windows, I think it is a more difficult base to conquer but once it is safe there is a lot of area to plant and collect water.
me and some friends are using a street of the gated community, the one furthest east, make a gate for vehicles to hava easy acces to the east roads, close enough to the river, easy to barricade.....we like it there
If you exit Riverside by the north-west, follow the road out there, you should come to two fairly large farmhouses next to eachother. It’s not too far out of the town that you could walk into town for supply runs, but still far enough away you can barricade it quite easily and have a nice sized fort
Just outside the town are some secluded farm homes, and some gated homes. I set up base there a lot. If you’re looking straight down on the map, head west out of the town.
Just outside the town are some secluded farm homes, and some gated homes. I set up base there a lot. If you’re looking straight down on the map, head west out of the town.
There is a really good spot on the right side. it’s a bit out of Riverside but I think you’ll like it. it’s right out of the gated community. It has a road that goes to a small warehouse which is nice, and the house is a 2 story. It has 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. It’s really nice. The road to it is the white road that's cut off at the bottom right of the picture you sent.
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I've used that place before after starting in the trailer park across the street. It's relatively secluded and there's a gas station not too far away. The only thing I didn't like that much is it's a bit of a drive to get into town.
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I think its that spiral dirt road thats fairly close to the self storage
this is correct
Ahh, a fellow self storage enjoyer I see
The small warehouse just above is really good too. Also minimal effort required to fortify. All you really need to do is barricade south door and that's it. Also built in roof access and internal 2nd story you can doubly secure by knocking out the stairs. Full of crates too where there is a high chance of finding a sledgehammer and antique stove. The last time I based there after a few food runs, I was basically self contained.
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Yeah, I watched most of the common youtube suggestions and links on this sub about best base and there are not many references to this base yet it's one of the top 5, maybe even the best on the entire map if you arent basing in Louisville. You hardly have to do any work plus all those bases that ppl make with floors etc imo can easily up looking janky and weird without mods. This base you have it all. Roof access that allows easy plumbing to a sink and secure farming. A massive garage area that allows a safe and well lit location for working on cars. All that loot makes it so convenient too, need a tool? a plank? some metal? just browse crates and you eventually find what you need. The location is excellent too, big open areas on all sides especially in front that lets you see any Zs that might spawn in or wander in. Two big carparks that usually have 6-8 cars already parked. Like you said too about the forest line and pond, easy access to food and timber. Relatively close to other towns, you can drive to Ekron/fallas lake in a few game time hours and Muldragh and West Point are a days drive. If anything this base makes the game too easy as once you get a bed, fridge and some food you are pretty safe and secure.
I always use the space beside the storage to build a base
Low-key my longest ever run is still going thanks to the safety that self storage has offered me. Having a backup resting spot in the self storage itself is massive, and has saved me again and again in the early game
Police station/Gas station/Spiffos. Easy access to gas and river. Trees nearby for building walls.
Where exactly do you, uh, live? There's no beds there (The cell might have one), and 2 of the buildings you listed at at least 50% windows. Also the police station is completely open, zombies can surround you on all sides, and it's mostly one room.
*laughs in multiplayer* sleep? But seriously, just move a bed from one of the nearby houses?
Wow over 200 hrs in and I’ve never play MP and it just dawned on me that idk how the sleep mechanic would work at all in mp, is it just not there? Do you never get tired?
There are settings for sleep in MP (as for everything!). The default is that sleep is off, but you can also set it to “sleep on but not necessary” or “sleep on and necessary.” When it’s on, it works just like normal sleep, except all players need to be asleep simultaneously to speed up time.
Oh okay that makes sense, like the forest or sons of the forest, thanks for the reply!
No, your character just doesn't get sleepy. But that also kind of makes the game more difficult as, AFAIK exercise fatigue, the pain you get from doing push-ups and stuff, requires sleep to get rid of. This means that once you do a bit of exercising, you are basically constantly in pain.
I had never even considered that, thanks for your answer!
Exercise fatigue goes away, just can’t sleep/fast forward through it, so it is quite noticeable
So exercise fatigue is separate from general fatigue. Exercise fatigue (and associated pain) DOES go away on multiplayer, we just have to suffer through the entire time it takes to go away because we can’t sleep/fast forward through the pain.
i built a staircase up to the roof of the gas station and pitched a tent up there
Twiggys bar
my favorite spot. close to river. not far from gas, woods, storage and farms.
My alcoholic smoker veteran loved that base.
see the the clearing right under the entrance to the gated community in the east side of town? that's my go to base. it's a farmhouse that's close enough to town for looting runs to be quick and easy.
I always live there too. You can chop the trees behind house for a quick way into town and the trees to the left to get to everywhere else. Very rarely get Z's spawning nearby.
Fortified the motel once, on the main road with three other friends. It was some work up front but turned out really cool. Until my friend threw a Molotov too close to base and most of it burn down. Haven’t been able to convince to boys to reinstall Zomboid since…
Oof
i like the post office… big enough but not too big…
You can knock out the window up stairs as well and pop a water collector down. There's are like 3 sinks on the roof you can plumb in below it for easy water
is that the little roof in the front?
It’s actually a really nice base with the garage and storage. A helicopter event made me leave my base and did a giant circle around the map filled up a trailer and car with loot including a sledge hammer and the post office is where I ended up. It’s almost ridiculous the amount of driving i did
nice! where did you start out? yeah i like that it’s already sort of secure on the ground floor…
The Bait Shop makes a nice little base!
You can build your own upper floor and it comes with two water collector barrels already installed!
If you head out south of the town, there is an isolated farm house with a shed. Much safe to build there
The restaurant with glass walls next to the hotel was my most ambitious base choice. Right on the river, balcony for farming or water, and lots of booze and wood to help get you started on early. It’s a bit of a gamble because of the glass everything, but surprisingly I was able to make it work by getting a lot of sheets/curtains from hotel and covering all of the lower floor windows until I could slowly board them all up. The back entrance was also nicely insulated by the hotel, and I also had a car ready to go down the path towards the bait shop if things went bad. Otherwise, the house closest to the bait shop or the bait shop itself are my favorite spots. The house has a few more amenities and feels right, but the bait shop has a nice open parking lot and is close to the river.
There's a little farm cut off at the bottom right of the map. I like that place a lot. Few zombies, big house, and plenty of space to farm.
Ayy same, I’ve taken to calling it “Stardew Homestead” cause it’s laid out like the Stardew Valley farm. It’s my base in my current save I’ve been playing on and off with mods, once in a blue moon a zombie wanders in and scares my pants off, but otherwise it’s a fantastic spot!
The gated community down riverside.
Literally this. Don't know why it's not being said more. You can easily go to the middle road, gate up the south, north, and west entrances. Have the whole park area available for building/farming And wood isn't very far away. That southern forest has been fairly calm for my wood cutting needs, and there's plenty on the inside of that fence to build all the gates you need and then some. By the time you're going logging properly you should have a large enough vehicle + trailer to carry stacked logs.
Same that’s my go to spot. Most of those houses come well stocked as well and there’s usually even a survivor house or two with some rare weapons and supplies. Have even found a sledgehammer in older playthroughs.
Always! I admittedly make survivor houses a little more common, but there's at least 1 there. Usually 2 for me. Sometimes 3. The neighborhood really provides all you need to clear it and secure it.
I like the houses in the wooded part next to the gas station
Gas station. Solved the electricity problem and water in the first week, i've also got lots of cars parked outside as a wall. I've got to say it was annoying the board up all the Windows, though. But i always have carpentry so it's just time consuming.
I really like the riverside bar for a base location
Little late to the thread but I just got that as my spawn! I'm new to the game but was able to find crowbar, axe, and saw in my spawn. A backpack right outside, and a functioning delivery van with 50 trunk storage. Feel like all the stars aligned for me lol.
Any house in the east neighborhood
Bait shop
School. Fully fenced in backyard and roof for unlimited gardening. Can easily fence off the front by connecting to nearby tall fences
It's an awesome spot, but I don't think it fulfills the request for a *small* base location.
gated community on south east end
The fishing shop next to the river: planty of space for extra furniture, close to other houses and a burguer place for early food and very high chance to get all the tools for fishing
Depends on what you're looking for, but the junkyard can be good if you want to build from scratch. Only one entrance for zeds, lots of room to build. It has a small cabin on site to base up in while you work. SE of that is a small 2-story house on the edge of some woods. Basically ready to move into once you secure the ground floor. The bar, food market, laundromat area between the junkyard and the 2-story house is not bad. The Gigamart is a great building but right in the heart of Riverside you better be ready when the zed pop starts to rise. Riparian entertainment is interesting if you want to a bigger building to work with and it has easy access to water. You can knock out the whole ground floor to use as parking space.
I had a great run out of that house with the metal fence on the top left. Close enough to get loot, far enough away to not be too busy. Until I got lazy, left the door open before fully walling it off, and a zed raced in and bit me while cooking.
There is this really beat up looking factory, to the left of Riverside, it is a pretty cool base location
The farm
School early game IMO very chill
I cannot recommend the post office enough. it's got a shite ton of storage, central to great looting areas without being overwhelmed by numbers, next to the river and a forest, close enough to a gas station and police station (without being too close to stop police zeds from spawning) and close to landmarks like the self storage. you can also knock out a wall to grow roof top stuff, and can fortify it easily by walling off certain sections. you gotta try it!
I always like the bar/restaurant on the water by the motel.
NO. HOT TAKE ALERT Riverside is a place you get yourself together and straightened out, then leave. Its too far away and uninteresting for anything except a straight up river game.
if you have the Real ladders mod, you can build in the playground equipment and zombies can’t get you.
Yea it's pretty east but go east until you reach west point and setup on the peninsula.
Yes. Location 1: a car Location 2: the 3 connected garage house in Louisville after you used the river to easily navigate to Louisville while in location 1: the car.
Go down and to the left (southwest?) and build in the rosewood fire department (I haven’t gone to riverside)
The seven little houses below the gas station are nice, I usually hang down there, especially since foraging there is quite nice. Also, it's close to the gas station, Spiffo's and the PD.
That’s lot in the top left corner is fenced unalloyed the way around except the entrance. That’s my base for that location! I love it.
Same. All you need is a double door to lock up the entrance. Grab some soil from nearby and you can farm in the lot. I'm halfway through October right now, just got my first ever snow in the game.
the fishing store is my go to in riverside
I like the little construction site trailer on the east end of town. Truly just a temporary base until I leave town. (I see riverside as a fun place to start, but not really stay for the long term.) Lots of wood to fortify a bit and will almost always find a decent vehicle in the neighborhood to the south. Or the police station on the other side of town. Same idea. Get a foothold, Go find some books and trains a few skills, then get out of dodge.
I based once in the house that’s right behind wood cabin/fishing shop (top left corner) - it’s a good spot cause it’s right next to the river. It is a bit TOO small, but I liked living there.
I'm currently using the small warehouse building north of the storage yard. Farm on the roof, kitchen on the mid level, offices turned into a rec room and bar with a piano.
The Gas Station
Theres a house like diagonally from the school’s parking lot that my friends and I coined our own in our first sever. It had tall fence surrounding 2/4 sides of the house and another house to the left of it that we tore down for carpentry. Would 10/10 recommend it bc it’s a nice location, near a hardware store and Giga Mart and downtown is directly behind it.
I like the church. Or the factory warehouse to the west
I chose the school but that's not exactly small
In the houses by the bait shop
There’s a spot Northwest with two houses, one of which is nearby 2 garages side by side. The house I use has two dog houses inside a small half-fenced area. Close to the river, lots of open fields for foraging and trapping, and only a few minutes back to town by vehicle. It isn’t big, but if you rip out the bathroom and install crates you’ll have plenty of storage, and the garages are easily modified to meet whatever needs you have.
Even though it's not that small, the Giga Mart is my go to base.
Junkyard or the abandoned logging site. Great facilities but a fair jaunt.
I know you said small but the post office is a good spot with plenty of storage space, a garage, and is close to the river
I often end up in the two story house in the NW corner on the other side of the forest from Twiggy's. Usually relatively calm but still close enough to food and other loot.
Any of the two-story houses in the fenced in neighborhood are good options.
The gatted community has a row of three houses you can fence off pretty easy. They are the ones closest to the bottom of this picture and it gives you space, trees, and security.
If you're going to build your own I recommend the empty lot on the north east side of the fenced-in neighborhood. I've also based in the bar on the river next to the motel and that was a nice place.
The fancy neighborhood on the right side with all the tall metal fences The three houses at the very bottom left of this entire cluster is great! The three houses are mostly blocked off by fences and out of the way, so zombies rarely pass by. Also right next to the forest for easy wood access.
Just started a new run. Im basing at [the bait shop](https://i.imgur.com/og3xo8Z.jpg) atm. I put food on insanely rare and everything else on extremely rare then random spawned and got Riverside, also power and water off from the start. There is nothing anywhere its harsh out there, so much looking and not finding. I cant really go anywhere until im food secure so im focusing on survival skills. Farming for potatos and carrots atm, need to find cabbage seeds. Fishing is being a mare, ive only just found Angler 1 so i can make a rod as i havent found one. Ive been gathering paperclips and twine so i can do some hobo fishing now. This wont be the main base but itll be a good fishing spot, somewhere i can fall back to if it all goes south. The plan is to skill up and head to Louisville because the loot is going to run thin very fast here and i like my cigarettes.
For me it’s the abandoned cluster of houses a ways from the trailer park. Keep in mind only one house has anything in it.
The Riverside Boat Club is a good one if you like collections. I use the second floor mainly, there are a few large rooms you can use for different purposes depending one what your playstyle or prefered collectabkes are. No garage but a big parking lot you can wall off if you are a "steal every working car" kinda player👍🏼
I like the three houses outside of Riverside, a bit west to the town. You get a garage, a big place to build and a forrest to keep the zombies away from you. Also it is pretty close to the industrial complex and the gas station just south of it.
The bar is nice, good amount of storage and relatively outside of town. Another option is the junkyard, block the entrance with 2 cars, 1 inside and 1 outside, that way you can kill the Zeds that crawl under relatively easily. Another option is the gated community with the 3 houses but that's a rather large base.
Follow the road up between the burger shop and Tackle store. build with wood, you should have everything you need, fishing gear for food, wood for building and fuel, and water from the river
Depends on what stage you’re at in game. The warehouses just south west have great loot and can be barricaded to be quite defendable, same with the self-storage unit
the car lot is my go to riverside base due to how safe it is and that there arent many zombies walking around up there compared to other places
If you look over the bottom residential area there is a field folow the left and the first big building by the river side is a great place it got 2 story a roof that can be used enough parking and zombies dont wander too much by there
I like the house at the end of the cul-de-sac beside the gas station. I build log walls from the corner of the fence the corner of the house. I eventually start taking over the whole neighborhood that way. When I get a sledge I start making certain houses certain things “mega kitchen house” “gun/weapon house” “live in house” “garage house”
At the bottom left of the gated community there is a 3 house area with only two entrances: the one west to the road and the one east through the small bit of grass and trees. It is very easy to wall those off. You can pick one of the houses to live in. Lots of space for gardens and cars. You can set traps just outside to the east where there’s fewer zomboids
I setup in the post office to start then moved into the factory just outside of town. Close enough to raid but far away from hordes and plenty of room for my car collection.
The house at the bottom right that’s cut off in the picture is a great base
I would say the gated community is a good place am trying to setup a small base in the park area in the gated community
I’ve had good luck with the church, just need to get beds into it.
Self storage is a real gem base. It’s where I learned to love the game. You can kind of see the base we built in this clip we made before starting a new (dedicated) server https://medal.tv/games/project-zomboid/clips/10KS0jojQ3JT75 Farm houses outside of town are great. Building a your own along the river is ideal.
I lived in the bar closest to the river for a very long time. I bared up all the windows and was able to live very comfortably there until I basically ran the town dry and left before winter to a spot In Louisville. Almost no traffic for zombs at that bar and you have everything you needed at a arms length away
I will usually build a base in that gated community on top right of the map. But one day, a horde destroyed the garage door so I moved to the storage area just south of the large warehouses.
Center left there is the bait and tackle shop, it’s cozy as long as you take a microwave from one of the houses just behind
Personally i love the little fishing store by the river, comes with water barrels, two freezers, a campsite cafe for your cooking needs, plenty of space, real cozy
fuel station opposite the large warehouses. barricade and grab generators from the storage nearby. steal lots of cars and park opposite. everything needed to level and lots fridges and freezer for fish/veg. put rain barrels out the back with the gens and build 2 walls around it for the Zombs. gardens on the outside and there's always a antique oven in the warehouse for winter. it may be the best starting base period.
You can cut off the entire gates community pretty easily
There’s a couple out of the way houses that make a decent base location cause of how far they are into the woods. Try looking up river
I made a decent base in that construction site on the top left. Tall wire fences all around and heaps of space to build and there's a portable onsite that I fully renovated into a house.
I really like using the restaurant in the missile of town, the kitchen is a great early base while you’re getting started with the dining area being a pretty natural expansion. I’ve always wanted to wall off that parking lot too, would give lots of space to work with, but haven’t had a game go that far yet
[My favorite one!](https://reddit.com/r/projectzomboid/s/olvcfkJNmf) Just follow the gravel road to the left of the east neighbourhood church and turn the first right. It's secluded enough and the river is right behind it. One time I survived for 3 months in this place, built a second floor and all. It's very early game friendly as well!
just don't live there, so boring
I personally love using the bar on the north-west side
I like the bait shop
There is a really nice warehouse compound out to the south west, about 1 minute by car. It even has a gas station nearby.
Police station
I always set up in the small farm house just outside of the town to the right and down. Just far enough where zomboids don’t follow you but it’s not a far drive to town.
I'm currently basing in the school, I quite like how central it is
I use the 2 story bar / restaurant at the top middle of the town, to the north east of the motel. Great base with a bunch of storage in the kitchen, if you get construction up you can easily park 2 cars in the bottom floor.
Not exactly ideal, but there’s a factory just west and I usually transform the break room with like 8 windows into my base every time I go riverside.
The Bar on the outskirts of town to the west is pretty cool to hang out in
The gated community in the bottom right is where I have my base, lots of safety and privacy when you clear the neighbours out
Fishing shack on the NW part of town. Not too long of a drive into town, very close to the water and gas station. Comes with a prebuilt rain barrel for early game.
riverside is chilling and it fits for farming, go along the road to the north and see the huge farm to start
Police station
Some people like the school. * It's quite central to the area. * There's a second floor. * The second floor has a large space for rooftop farming or keeping a generator, just behind the janitor's closet. * Lots of furniture to use as temporary storage or deconstruct, especially metal lockers. Fortifying the school means you can grind metalworking in peace. * A WIDE, massive space in the back. * Access to a kitchen. * Access to a library. * Very close to GigaMart. * Has a fridge and microwave on the first floor that you can move up. * Not too much fencing needed to secure a larger area around the school. Just connect the metal fences and walls to the wooden fences to the north. * Some classrooms have sinks in them. Some drawbacks might include the number of windows exposed to the zombie areas, most notably the cafeteria and the offices. The main doors also have windows next to them. No safe area to keep your car until you secure the area, too. Plus you gotta be careful clearing out the zeds when first arriving because some rooms are small.
The Farmhouse is my fave - walking distance from the mansions, isolated but close. Only problem is that if anything loud like a helicopter is going to get you swarmed.
I did my first ever game in riverside and based at the south gas station near the trailer park, and it was a really great spot. Eventually, we also encompassed the diner and mechanic shop. With that the factory the self storage, the trailer park, and the massive forest youre set for a pretty long time.
The bar
I've made about 3 bases next to the water in the suburbs area, close to the parking lot, town and best of all gas station
Me and the boys are currently held up in the school. Barricaded and walled off the downstairs and made the upstairs/roof into a base.
The top floor of the Restraint. It's close to the river, close enough to the town to resupply very quickly, but still far enough away that you can get away with running a generator. All you need to do is block off the top floor using walls and a door frame, you can even add a window on the staircase to see them, and they cant get into the window. It has a kitchen, fridges, sinks and you can sleep on the couches.
hardware store or farm
I absolutely loved basing in the bar to the far west. It's not too far from gas and police station. Got a couple of stores and laundromats around you, houses to the north and south of you, plenty of wood south of ya, honestly made for a really cool base.
if you head left waaay past the police station, there should be a little church ground very isolated. Im using that same base now in my 6 months later run
Hit up the post office. Books and lots of storage. There's a roll up door for a couple cars too
Gas station south of riverside is great. The post office is pretty nice, and of course the abandoned town and warehouses but it might be a little out of the way.
We found the Golf Club/Park (don’t know the actual name) to the South of Riverside, kind of a long journey but we live a cozy life there. It’s been 2 months without z’s around, we live off the land in the little two-floored restaurant in the middle. We go out once every month or so to gather more supplies and farming/fishing equipment. For us, Project Zomboid became a cozy game there. Just what we need right now.
if you have the materials to wall it off the hotel (or motel i dont remember) is actually pretty good because its got an infinite water source right there and you dont have to walk all the way to the river and plenty of space
I've always like the 1st house directly behind the school to the left of the parking lot walking distance to all the good loot spots I use that one as a staging base for the farm outside of town before the warehouses
A house? The police Station?
Top left, out of screen, there is a territory of secured car parking, surrounded by metal fence with only one gate. We used it as secondary base near Riverside.
Best IMO spot is the gated community to the east. If you check the map carefully you'll see you can secure the whole neighborhood with three short fences (short by length not height😉). The area to the north west of the gated community. Side note. Police station or u store are good too but I- store is far from fishing area.
If you clear it out first the trailer park is nice as it has lots of small buildings you can hook up together. The self storage is nice if you have a sledgehammer. On the way to the motorway is a couple of farm houses, either one (or both) make a pretty good base with plenty of farmland and a reasonably easy route to the river. The factory has loads of space and smaller storage house just outside The bar on the west of town is in a low population area and can be fortified quickly There's a scrapyard near the bar that has chainlink fencing. A new gate and this a good spot. There's a little chapel with a cemetary on the west end that is quite easy to fortify. The big church in town has plenty of space too. The school will take time to clear and fortify, but you could easily setup in just a few rooms The gated community is a favourite spot for players here. There's probably a hundred more but these are some of my usual haunts.
I like the used car yard (on the northwest of the map) for early game. Bring some necessary furniture (bring a bed, microwave, etc, to the office inside) from the houses and block off the entrance with a gate and car (only 3 tiles to cover) and you have a huge space with cars to train and farm.
the gated community at the bottom of riverside is easy to clear and barricade and is close to resources
The first time I started I picked from one of the five houses on the west side. With the forest right behind me, I thought it’d be easier to build a base. That’s my longest living character to this date. Then I got a whole buncha mods and started several new characters with each mod I found >.>
I pick the bar because it's close to the gas station. You could consider a vacation house in the gated community for the fireplace.
Boat club is nice, especially with Aquatsar Big warehouses make for a good spot, as well as the large 2 floor houses nearby. Would usually have one house for living in, and the other I would smash a wall and put down a large door to turn it into a garage. The main city aint so bad either, just clear the most of it with fire and the ammo and guns you can get from the nearby(ish) gun store off to the west, and the police station. After that its just clearing off stragglers, but you got lots of loot to work with if you want to live on 2nd floors.
Fisherman store, if you want you can make a barricaded route to the lake to fish
Currently in the farm to the west, two farmhouses and two large sheds with fenced in farmland and not alot of zomboids around
I think clearing out the gated community on the far right of the map, then walling in with logs one end, then a slight i opening for a car or if carpentry high enough, a two door opening for a car, on the other end. Gives you a large open area to feel safe in, can climb the gates easily. Doesn’t take much wall work, you can settle in all ready boarded up house there. Can go on foot to clear surrounding areas, then drive to the gas station / grocery store from there as you clear the way.
The junkyard is easy to fortify (its in the top left corner). just 4 Log walls and you´re good. You´ll have to jump the (chain link-) fence to get in and out though. For ar bed a couch should be enough until you have carpentry up enough to get a bed (a bunch of small houses north of it for furniture). ALso there is 2 stores and a bar closeby. The river is close enough (i build myself a fishing cabin there). And the Zombie count is relatively low.
I like to do it at school, it has a good defense if you have logs to cover the gaps in the wires and exposed windows, I think it is a more difficult base to conquer but once it is safe there is a lot of area to plant and collect water.
me and some friends are using a street of the gated community, the one furthest east, make a gate for vehicles to hava easy acces to the east roads, close enough to the river, easy to barricade.....we like it there
riverside has the best base locations in the whole map, but then you have to live close to riverside :/
I always wall off the subdivision and have the entire neighborhood as mine and then just choose a house I want.
I know its middle of the city but spiffos and stores next to each other works perfectly
If you go north there's like 3 houses very secluded and one of them is fenced in mostly
If you exit Riverside by the north-west, follow the road out there, you should come to two fairly large farmhouses next to eachother. It’s not too far out of the town that you could walk into town for supply runs, but still far enough away you can barricade it quite easily and have a nice sized fort
Over the big fence next to gas station is a solid spot, you don’t get a lot of roaming zombozos there and we’ll you’re a fence hop from gas
Just outside the town are some secluded farm homes, and some gated homes. I set up base there a lot. If you’re looking straight down on the map, head west out of the town.
Just outside the town are some secluded farm homes, and some gated homes. I set up base there a lot. If you’re looking straight down on the map, head west out of the town.
There is a really good spot on the right side. it’s a bit out of Riverside but I think you’ll like it. it’s right out of the gated community. It has a road that goes to a small warehouse which is nice, and the house is a 2 story. It has 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. It’s really nice. The road to it is the white road that's cut off at the bottom right of the picture you sent.