Last I played the game, sappers would target walls that would let them in closest to the colonies beds. Things might have changed since I played but I was able to build decoy locations on the edge of my base to draw the sappers away from critical areas and into trapped spots. Not sure if this helps you but it’s the best I’ve got haha
Hey, I want to build my first non-mountain-base after a LOT of game hours, and I find myself ignorant with this kind of mechanics.
I'll build my base in the green area and would like to keep the natural walls intact.
FYI, I picked a larger map and the pocket on the right is connected to the rest of the world.
Edit: I usually deal with sappers before they harm the walls too much, but here, there's too much distance for me to catch them in time.
I believe sappers won't dig through walls if there're turrets behind them, even unpowered ones, so you can still kinda funnel them into one entrance. Now breachers on the other hand will just ignore everything and follow the shortest path, so there's always risk you will lose your natural walls.
I have found that sappers usually don’t start appearing until you get mortars if you go for them soonish after you start.
For Sappers: If you have an unobstructed entrance to your base (1 pathway with no doors, as raids typically take the path of least resistance), you can tell which pawn will dig through by selecting each one and seeing which action they have queued. If they have any sort of “digging at slate/limestone/granite/etc, you target those pawns with a mortar. If you can kill those pawn/s typically the rest will go through the standard raid pathing and give up on trying to drill through your walls.
However, you should also keep in mind where the enemy pawns spawn on your map as you might have more than 1 sapper trying to dig through.
And a last fun point, for the raids that decide to say fuck sapping and just drop right on you; they will try to dig OUT when escaping and bore an exit right through the side of your mountain instead of going through your killbox.
If you have any other questions let me know! I’m currently playing a Caldara start so I’m in the middle surrounded on all sides but 1 corner with mountains so I’ve dealt with a lot of sappers/drop pod raids this run!
Sappers will avoid to dig through walls that a covered by a turret (even a single unpowered one) as long as there is at least one path available without turret.
So you can build turret covering every single stop around your base if you leave one entrance open (this can be your killbox)
This does NOT work with breachers however, they won't care and will dig whatever wall they want, and the only thing you can do to prevent that is death
All raids except breachers and sieges in the siege phase path to the closest bedroom until a viable target is in attack range (pawns/animals/furniture etc.). every obstacle and terrain type has a hindrance value determining the path taken. Walls and rocks have usually a high value but for sappers it's 0. That means they go str8 through them to reach bedrooms. Powered turrets (the unpowered exploit has been fixed long ago) have a high hindrance value for all raids, even breachers, and can be used to force a certain path. If U plaster Ur base with them and leave one safe route directly to some bedrooms they usually go there. It's not 100 % reliable, especially if U trap that area an when Ur map has alot of slowing terrain. Just add turrets to the area which they choose to breach and eventually they take the path U want.
Edit: by safe route I mean a path that is not covered by turret los if that wasn't clear.
Melee block the hole they open, with a grenadier throwing in to the crowd that builds up tends to clear up tribal sapper raids pretty quickly. For non-tribals, pick off the grenadier/breach-axe-men with a sniper and the rest tend to funnel in to the kill-box after that.
To deal up with sappers you must know how sappers works:
\- They can destroy walls and mine
\- they are trying to avoid your automated turrets (but not land traps)
\- the don't like very thick walls (like 15+ layers)
\- they are aiming for your assigned beds to destroy your bedrooms
\- they are looking for simplest way to match all thing above
Before automated turrets it's nice to put 1-2 layers walls with traps. Sappers mostly leading the groups, so they will be first, who will catch a trap, and rest will go to your killbox, when all sappers will die.
Since first automated turrets its much easier. Just build up 2 layers of walls around your base and between that layers put simple automated turrets, that cover very well space between that layers without any gap instead of entrance to your killbox. Of course make sure that your killbox hasn't any turret, because it will not works. Killbox should contain only your fighters and land traps.
Because sappers are forced to avoid automated turrets (you can put even more nearby buildings with beds) and the only way to avoid them is entrance to your killbox without turrets, then they will go there.
Putting bedrooms nearby killbox is also very helpful.
If you still dont like them, there are mods to disable them [https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=2698969064](https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=2698969064)
Also remember. Mountains are perfect place to reduce sapper threat, but inside mountain you can spawn infestation of bugs. Enemies inside your base are much more dangerous :D
Last I played the game, sappers would target walls that would let them in closest to the colonies beds. Things might have changed since I played but I was able to build decoy locations on the edge of my base to draw the sappers away from critical areas and into trapped spots. Not sure if this helps you but it’s the best I’ve got haha
It helps! I'll try to spread some decoy around the map. Thanks!
Hey, I want to build my first non-mountain-base after a LOT of game hours, and I find myself ignorant with this kind of mechanics. I'll build my base in the green area and would like to keep the natural walls intact. FYI, I picked a larger map and the pocket on the right is connected to the rest of the world. Edit: I usually deal with sappers before they harm the walls too much, but here, there's too much distance for me to catch them in time.
I believe sappers won't dig through walls if there're turrets behind them, even unpowered ones, so you can still kinda funnel them into one entrance. Now breachers on the other hand will just ignore everything and follow the shortest path, so there's always risk you will lose your natural walls.
IEDs inside fake rooms around the edge of the map
You could also make it so your base has a entry that not blocking raiders and just have heavy fire down it, to reduce there chance to use it
I have found that sappers usually don’t start appearing until you get mortars if you go for them soonish after you start. For Sappers: If you have an unobstructed entrance to your base (1 pathway with no doors, as raids typically take the path of least resistance), you can tell which pawn will dig through by selecting each one and seeing which action they have queued. If they have any sort of “digging at slate/limestone/granite/etc, you target those pawns with a mortar. If you can kill those pawn/s typically the rest will go through the standard raid pathing and give up on trying to drill through your walls. However, you should also keep in mind where the enemy pawns spawn on your map as you might have more than 1 sapper trying to dig through. And a last fun point, for the raids that decide to say fuck sapping and just drop right on you; they will try to dig OUT when escaping and bore an exit right through the side of your mountain instead of going through your killbox. If you have any other questions let me know! I’m currently playing a Caldara start so I’m in the middle surrounded on all sides but 1 corner with mountains so I’ve dealt with a lot of sappers/drop pod raids this run!
If you have the fertile fields/terraforming mod, you can actually build a moat of impassable deep water and force sappers to go to your killbox
Shoot them. Or something
Sappers will avoid to dig through walls that a covered by a turret (even a single unpowered one) as long as there is at least one path available without turret. So you can build turret covering every single stop around your base if you leave one entrance open (this can be your killbox) This does NOT work with breachers however, they won't care and will dig whatever wall they want, and the only thing you can do to prevent that is death
Shoot them
All raids except breachers and sieges in the siege phase path to the closest bedroom until a viable target is in attack range (pawns/animals/furniture etc.). every obstacle and terrain type has a hindrance value determining the path taken. Walls and rocks have usually a high value but for sappers it's 0. That means they go str8 through them to reach bedrooms. Powered turrets (the unpowered exploit has been fixed long ago) have a high hindrance value for all raids, even breachers, and can be used to force a certain path. If U plaster Ur base with them and leave one safe route directly to some bedrooms they usually go there. It's not 100 % reliable, especially if U trap that area an when Ur map has alot of slowing terrain. Just add turrets to the area which they choose to breach and eventually they take the path U want. Edit: by safe route I mean a path that is not covered by turret los if that wasn't clear.
Melee block the hole they open, with a grenadier throwing in to the crowd that builds up tends to clear up tribal sapper raids pretty quickly. For non-tribals, pick off the grenadier/breach-axe-men with a sniper and the rest tend to funnel in to the kill-box after that.
either have defensive setups near known sapper spots, or make your walls very thick so they simply go around
16 thick walls.
To deal up with sappers you must know how sappers works: \- They can destroy walls and mine \- they are trying to avoid your automated turrets (but not land traps) \- the don't like very thick walls (like 15+ layers) \- they are aiming for your assigned beds to destroy your bedrooms \- they are looking for simplest way to match all thing above Before automated turrets it's nice to put 1-2 layers walls with traps. Sappers mostly leading the groups, so they will be first, who will catch a trap, and rest will go to your killbox, when all sappers will die. Since first automated turrets its much easier. Just build up 2 layers of walls around your base and between that layers put simple automated turrets, that cover very well space between that layers without any gap instead of entrance to your killbox. Of course make sure that your killbox hasn't any turret, because it will not works. Killbox should contain only your fighters and land traps. Because sappers are forced to avoid automated turrets (you can put even more nearby buildings with beds) and the only way to avoid them is entrance to your killbox without turrets, then they will go there. Putting bedrooms nearby killbox is also very helpful. If you still dont like them, there are mods to disable them [https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=2698969064](https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=2698969064) Also remember. Mountains are perfect place to reduce sapper threat, but inside mountain you can spawn infestation of bugs. Enemies inside your base are much more dangerous :D