Stranded: Alien Dawn Building and Defense Guide

Our Stranded: Alien Dawn Building will tell you how to build a base and, more importantly, how to defend it from deadly alien threats.

How Stranded: Alien Dawn Building Works

Stranded: Alien Dawn Building requires someone with the Construction Skill to erect structures. As you might expect, you'll need to deliver materials to the work site and then spend time actually constructing the Building.

There are many different classes of Buildings and structures:

• Camp - Basic structures to give you shelter in the early game.
• Storages - Shelves, containers, and the like for storing items.
• Buildings - Actual structures that your Survivors can live in.
• Furniture - Tables, Chairs, and Furniture used for relaxation such as the Punching Pole and Dartboard.
• Light & Heat - A collection of Lights to provide illumination and devices which can raise or lower the temperature of rooms.
• Production - Crafting Stations that produce various goods.
• Power - Electrical devices that generate, store, and transport Power.
• Science - Specialized workstations for Research.
• Defense - Walls, Traps, Towers, and automated defensive devices.

Do note, some of these buttons will not appear until you've unlocked a structure in the category. For example, the "Power" button will not appear until you've Researched "Electric Grids."

Most of these Buildings have the following attributes, although some attributes are not applicable to all Buildings.

• Integrity - The Health of a structure. If this is reduced to 0, the structure will be destroyed and will have to be rebuilt.
• Thermal Insulation - How well a Building stays warm or cool inside.
• Support - How much weight a Building can support. Strong Support is required for Landing Pads.
• Capacity - How much a Storage unit can hold.
• Placement - Indoors/Outdoors. Some structures are only able to be built Outdoors.
• Produces - What resources a structure produces, if any.
• Consumes - What resources a structure consumes, if any.

How to Unlock Stranded: Alien Dawn Building

You can unlock Stranded: Alien Dawn Building by Researching "Construction Basics." That said, you can build some basic Shelters in the "Camp" menu right at the beginning of the game.

You can also unlock stronger structures (such as Brick, Concrete, and Carbon) by doing additional Research as you progress through the game.

Can You Build a Second Floor in Stranded: Alien Dawn?

As far as I can tell, you can't build a second floor in Stranded: Alien Dawn. While you can raise and lower the level of floors with Z and X, it does not yet appear to be possible to build several floors on top of one another.

Stranded: Alien Dawn Building Tips

• Providing Survivors with private rooms gives them a Happiness bonus. A minimum size of 4x3 gives a +9 Happiness bonus every morning. Larger rooms can give a bonus as high as +18. I recommend a minimum of 4x5 for bedrooms.
• Survivors can become lovers and gain a Happiness buff from sleeping next to one another. Having 4x5 bedrooms will ensure that you can comfortably fit two beds in one room if two Survivors decide to get together.
• Leave room for expansion. You can find more Survivors through Exploration or Events and you'll get good Happiness bonuses by providing them with their own rooms.
• It may be easier to build a new base and move everything rather than trying to retrofit everything.

How to Defend Your Base in Stranded: Alien Dawn

At first, you can defend your base in Stranded: Alien Dawn by surrounding it with a fence. This will keep herbivores and lesser creatures out in the early parts of the game.

Eventually, however, you will start facing tougher enemies that can reduce those little fences to splinters. You'll want to invest in Fortifications and Towers as soon as you can, if only to protect your Survivors from unnecessary harm. Once you get Power, you can start building turrets to add a little extra firepower to your defense.

Stranded: Alien Dawn Base Defense Tips

• Don't rely on a single layer of defense. Have multiple turrets and multiple walls where possible.
• Make sure to have enough Towers for all of your Survivors. Each Tower can only fit one Survivor.
• Turrets can be placed on top of raised floors to shoot over walls with relative safety (as seen above).
• Traps can catch wild, harmless animals who are simply wandering by. Building too many Traps may cause a lot of problems -- your Survivors might be frequently occupied with resetting Traps.

Thanks for reading our Stranded: Alien Dawn Building and Defense Guide. Make sure to check out some of our other guides, too!